Tuesday 31st July 2007: -

• Korey Rowe Could Be Sent Back To Iraq: Loose Change producer 'sent back to unit' - Korey Rowe, one of the producers of the huge 9/11 truth film Loose Change, may be sent back into the heart of battle in Iraq within a month if he is officially returned to his unit according to a story run by the New York Daily Star today. The Star reports that Rowe has been returned to his unit, the 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, which is gearing up for its third deployment to Iraq sometime this summer, according to announcements made by the Pentagon back in May.

• ID Chip Implants in Humans - With surveillance cameras and increased security just about everywhere you go, there's high tech equipment used just about everywhere. Some recent reports surfaced about a surveillence equipment company implanting microchips in two of its employees. This brings up some serious issues about personal privacy. A lot of pet owners rely on tiny microchips implanted in their animals to help find them if they get lost or stolen. "I thought better safe than sorry," said Jennifer Kellis. "I didn't want to invest a lot of money, and it's a good way to find them if they run away." Putting the tracking device in animals is one thing, but what about implanting the chips in your body?

• Couple Terrorized, Assaulted and Arrested For Flying an Upside Down U.S. Flag: Police officer recently returned from Iraq smashed into Kuhn's home, choked husband and then claimed they assaulted him - A North Carolina couple who were terrorized by a police officer who had recently returned from Iraq are now fighting back, after sheriff's deputy Brian Scarborough broke into their house, assaulted them and then arrested the Kuhns for the crime of flying an upside down U.S. flag. Mark and Deborah Kuhn of Asheville, North Carolina made headlines last week when they were arrested for flying an upside down U.S. flag, a commonly recognized sign of distress, in their backyard, after police claimed they were violating a statute for "desecration of the flag".

• White House pushes wider surveillance authority - Congress and President Bush's aides worked Monday to expand the government's surveillance authority without jeopardizing citizens' rights, aides to lawmakers and the White House said. As it pressed for congressional approval, the Bush administration sought to soothe a sore spot in its relationship with lawmakers over a related matter — whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales misled a Senate panel about internal dissent concerning the program, which nearly prompted mass resignations at the Justice Department. The White House relented on several fronts in its drive to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this week.

• Forced education will cause 'mass truancy' - Forcing teenagers to stay in education until 18 will cause "mass truancy" and criminalise thousands of young people, a teachers' leader has warned. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plan to raise the leaving age for the first time in 35 years will "prolong the agony" of school for many teenagers already bored by the classroom, said Geraldine Everett, chairman of the Professional Association of Teachers. It is the latest in a series of attacks aimed at the Government's proposals to fine 16 to 18-year-olds if they skip school, college or on-the-job training. Under plans being considered by ministers, persistent truants will be given £50 fixed penalty notices and a possible criminal record when the change is introduced in 2013.

• Special 'fingerprint' lamps to boost crime fighting in Kensington - Scenes of crime officers in Kensington and Chelsea will have more state-of-the-art equipment to help track down criminals thanks to council funding. The forensic team, based at Kensington Police Station, is buying new drug testing kits, special lamps to view fingerprints, electrostatic footprint lifting kits, a cabinet to dry exhibits recovered from crime scenes and new digital cameras. The equipment is being bought thanks to nearly £30,000 of Council funds via the Community Safety Team - a joint Council and police team working with other agencies to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.

• Secret evidence keeps terror suspects in UK - Two suspected Algerian terrorists cannot be deported for reasons that are too secret to disclose, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. Evidence heard behind closed doors suggests that the human rights of at least one of them would be breached if he were returned to Algeria. In the case of a third man, acquitted two years ago in the so-called "ricin trial", the appeal judges said more consideration should have been given to the risk that he might be tortured in Algeria.

• Warning: a salad may be saltier than a hamburger - salads and prepacked pasta meals contain more salt than a hamburger and chips and should carry health warnings, a campaign group said today. One noodle salad was found to have 4.4g of salt in a single portion – 73 per cent of an adult’s recommended daily intake. A survey by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) found that one in five of 156 meals analysed contained more than a third of the 6g recommended maximum daily salt intake for adults.

• Stronger warnings for diabetes drug - A DIABETES drug used by 30,000 Australians will carry stronger warnings in light of new research linking it to heart attacks and deaths. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has ordered that product information for Avandia be boosted and that doctors and patients be informed of the risks of using the medication. It comes as a US expert advisory board overwhelmingly recommended to allow Avandia to remain on the market there. The US committee voted 20 to three that the product did raise the risks of heart attacks and said warnings should be strengthened.

• Parents of Diana driver 'were told he wasn't drunk' - The parents of Henri Paul, the chauffeur driving Princess Diana on the night she died, have spoken for the first time about fresh claims over whether he had been drunk. They said Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner who investigated the 1997 Paris crash which killed Diana, Dodi Al Fayed and Mr Paul, had assured them he had not been drunk. But a month later in his official report into the tragedy Lord Stevens said Mr Paul had been three times over the French drink-drive limit when his Mercedes crashed.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive for more info.)

Monday 30th July 2007: -

• Prison Planet.com Hit By Major Hack Attack - Prison Planet.com suffered a major attack last night after it was hacked. The perpetrators could be trolls acting in response to our article about Wikipedia censorship yesterday or they could be acting on behalf of all manner of government agencies that we have clashed with over the years. We have the command prompt information for the hack and are now in the process of identifying the culprit, with a view to pursuing criminal charges.

• Shots Fired At Browns Probable Attempt at Provocation: Numerous incidents last night around New Hampshire couple's property had frantic observers worried siege was underway - 30 to 40 shots were fired outside Ed and Elaine Brown's house last night in what was a probable attempt at provocation to goad the Browns and their supporters into a violent response. Alex Jones spoke to Elaine Brown at around 11:30pm last night and confirmed that what sounded like automatic weapon fire was heard coming from a wooded area behind the house. Another supporter of the Browns who was staying on the property in a trailer was also startled when his mobile home was violently pounded on in the middle of the night, but the perpetrator escaped.

Sunday 29th July 2007: -

• A secret agent's story: 'I helped MI5. My reward: brutality and prison' - When Bisher al-Rawi agreed to work for the British government, he thought he was doing the right thing. He spent four gruelling years at Guantanamo Bay for his efforts. In this remarkable interview he breaks his silence and tells his extraordinary story to David Rose.

• MI5 'is keeping bomber alive' - SEVERELY burned Glasgow Airport attack suspect Kafeel Ahmed is being kept alive on the orders of MI5, senior police sources have told Scotland on Sunday. Ahmed has third degree burns to 90% of his body and virtually no chance of surviving but insiders claim the security services are keeping him alive to avoid a backlash from radical Muslims.

• Fingerprints to speed up lunch lines - Using fingerprints, voice tones and eye-movement patterns has long been the stuff of spy movies, but the use of biometrics is now coming to the Lancaster School District. The district plans this fall to use a fingerprint scanner at El Dorado School to help speed up the lunch line. Officials say it backs up when youths enter their ID numbers on a keypad to buy lunch. "With kindergartners and first-graders, even students who go away for summer or for break, there are issues of remembering their number," said Connie Conrad, director of child nutrition. "It's a lot easier not to have a crying child, trying to get their name from them."

• THAILAND: Police to fingerprint anti-coup protesters - Police said yesterday they were planning to set up operations to take the fingerprints of protesters turning up at anti-coup protests at Sanam Luang. Police said the move was an attempt to prevent suspected ''foreigners'' from trying to stir up trouble at the future gatherings of the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). Metropolitan police chief Adisorn Nonsi said the move to tighten security was prompted after police received intelligence reports from the military and Special Branch police that some ''alien elements'' might try to infiltrate the protests.

• Should parents really be pill-pushers? - Parents today are, rightly, tormented by the worry of someone offering illegal drugs to their children: there are few more loathed figures in the popular imagination than the school-gate pusher. In contrast, they seem increasingly sanguine about the notion of their children being handed powerful psychiatric drugs by their GPs. It emerged last week that in the last decade the number of school children prescribed anti-depressants such as Prozac has risen fourfold, while the prescription of "behaviour-altering" drugs has risen tenfold.

Friday 27th July 2007: -

• Wesley Clark On MSNBC: "Possible" Tillman Death Was Murder, Cover Up Came From Very Top - Gen. Wesley Clark joined Olbermann on MSNBC's Countdown show last night to discuss the shocking new details concerning the death of Pat Tillman. Olbermann and Clark speculate that the suppressed Army medical report that stated Tillman was shot three times in the head from just 10 yards indicates that a greater cover-up than "friendly fire" has been at work, that it came from the very top, and that Tillman was likely murdered.

• France to "triple" CCTV surveillance across the country - French interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced Thursday the government is planning to " triple" the existing CCTV surveillance capacities across the country, with a view to curbing the risks of terrorism and acts of violence. After chairing a meeting over the issue, the minister told the press she intended to develop CCTV surveillance "as a priority within the framework of an upcoming law on interior security orientation and programming (LOPSI)" which is expected to be submitted to the council of ministers in autumn. In order to "cover as much territory as possible," she said, there is a need for "enhanced networking with all those" who are already using this technology, notably citing "local authorities, Paris transport authorities (RATP), French national railway company (SNCF), and large shopping complexes."

• US astronauts sloshed in space: Houston, we have a (drink) problem - Accusations that two Nasa astronauts were drunk in charge of space vehicles, and revelations of sabotage, have overshadowed the next mission which is due to lift off on 7 August. Officially Nasa maintains a 12-hour 'bottle-to-throttle' rule. But, according to a report in Aviation Week, on at least two occasions astronauts who broke the rule were still allowed to fly. This was despite warnings from flight surgeons and fellow crew members that they were too drunk.

• Some Who Covered 9/11 Now Experiencing Health Woes, Group Says - The New York Press Photographers Association is asking members of the media to come forward if they are suffering from long-term health effects of covering the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. David Handschuh, the NYPPA intergovernmental affairs chair and a photographer for the New York Daily News, says he has heard from about a dozen 9/11 media workers who are experiencing health problems. Handschuh, who was hit by debris and suffered a broken leg while covering the attack, said he is among those now experiencing breathing problems.

• Defiant Korey Rowe: "I'm Not Going Anywhere": Loose Change producer released, heads to Fort Campbell to clear his name - A defiant Korey Rowe promised his detractors "I'm not going anywhere" in a brief You Tube video last night after he was released from Fort Drum and headed to Fort Campbell to clear his name for good. Rowe, an Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran, is one of the producers of Loose Change, a wildly popular documentary that alleges U.S. government involvement in the 9/11 attack. He was arrested on Monday night on charges of desertion even though he had been out of the Army for two years and had made numerous public appearances since at which authorities could have apprehended him.

• Rescue dog who made a name after 9/11 dead - A black Labrador who became a canine hero after burrowing through white-hot, smoking debris in search of survivors at the World Trade Center site after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks has died after a battle with cancer. Owner Mary Flood had Jake put to sleep on Wednesday after a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. He was in too much pain at the end, shaking with a 105-degree-Fahrenheit (40-degree-Celsius) fever as he lay on the lawn. No one can say whether the dog would have gotten sick if he had not been exposed to the smoky air at ground zero, but cancer in dogs Jake's age - he was 12 - is quite common.

• Family businesses to lose out in tax review - Hundreds of thousands of small businesses and family partnerships will be forced to pay more tax under reforms proposed by the Government today. The crackdown on "income-splitting" arrangements will target husband-and-wife companies where one spouse performs the main service and the other has a lower paid, support role. The changes follow a victory by husband-and-wife team Geoff and Diana Jones, who won their four-year battle against the taxman at the House of Lords yesterday.

• FBI Wants Its Own Stasi: Proposes building network of US informants - In a move startlingly similar to that of the East German government during the Cold war, the FBI wants to recruit thousands of covert informants in the US and work with the CIA to train them in an effort to expand and adopt more aggressive intelligence capabilities. ABC's The Blotter reports that according to a recent unclassified report to Congress, the FBI, driven by a 2004 directive from President Bush, wants to recruit more than 15,000 informants in the US, entailing a complete overhaul of its database systems at a cost of around $22 million.

• Bloggers are terrorists, government claims: Lock them up without trail - IF YOU post about religion or politics in Malaysia you could end up being prosecuted using the same laws designed to stop terrorists. The Malaysian government says it has had a gutsful of boggers who insult them, the King, or Islam and it will treat them like terrorists if they are not careful. Already one of Malaysia's leading online commentators Raja Petra Kamarudin has had a visit from the local plod after the main governing party didn't like what he said in his blog.

• Thousands of jobs to go as councils are scrapped - Ministers face a string of legal challenges after announcing that 35 councils are to be scrapped in a move to streamline services and save £150 million a year. John Healey, the Local Government Minister, announced yesterday that ten new larger unitary authorities would be created by abolishing 35 councils and merging their services. But the reorganisation, planned for 2009, is likely to involve thousands of redundancies and has been widely opposed by those councils duem to disappear. Although there is no right of appeal, several town halls are expected to seek a judicial review.

• Bank charges: customer accounts 'threatened' - Thousands of people who have complained to their bank about unfair charges have been threatened with having their accounts closed, a survey claimed yesterday. More than one person in eight who has tried to reclaim penalty fees for going overdrawn or breaching an overdraft limit has been told they could have their account and overdraft facilities closed. The financial website thisismoney.co.uk said many of these people were in debt, and some had incurred fees of hundreds of pounds for going only slightly overdrawn. But it said threats to close accounts ran against principles laid down in the Banking Code, under which banks must treat customers fairly when they are in financial difficulties.

Thursday 26th July 2007: -

• Political Prisoner: Loose Change Producer Korey Rowe Arrested: Iraq, Afghanistan veteran handed over to military officials by police under charges of "deserting the Army" - Loose Change producer and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Korey Rowe has been arrested and handed over to military officials without bail for allegedly "deserting the Army". According to a report in the New York Daily Star, Rowe was arrested on Monday night at a county Route 47 residence in Oneonta.

• Neo-Cons Cheer Arrest Of Korey Rowe - Neo-Con website Newsbusters and Michele "put every Muslim in a concentration camp" Malkin's Hot Air are both lauding the arrest of Loose Change producer Korey Rowe, advocating the internment of American citizizens for their political opinions. Hot Air laments the fact that Rowe wasn't apprehended earlier at his previous public appearances while Newsbusters columnist Noel Sheppard goes further - identifying Rowe's 9/11 activism as a legitimate reason for his arrest on behalf the Army. Under this logic, Michele Malkin herself should have been incarcerated for questioning the official story of 9/11 in a column she wrote in March 2002. Frothing comments on the Digg page of our earlier article also triumph the fact that the military are now kidnapping American citizens as political prisoners.

• MPs warn over air security checks - Heightened security checks at airports could create a potential new target for terrorists, MPs have warned. A report by the Commons transport select committee said queues of hundreds of passengers in cramped spaces could become a security hazard. The committee recommended that reducing queues at security and speeding up check-in times should be a priority.

• 9/11 Victim's Family Member Demands News Coverage - During a rally cry for more groups within the anti-war movement to help expose 9/11 truth, Manny Badillo, whose uncle, Thomas J. Sgroi, died in the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, took time out to bullhorn a local news van in attempt to persuade greater news coverage of 9/11 truth. Badillo, along with other truthers, give a spirited effort, particularly as it was undertaken spontaneously.

• Student guilty of terrorism charge for altered 9/11 poster - A FIFTH student was found guilty yesterday of a terrorism offence. Awaab Iqbal, 20, of Bradford, had swapped his face and those of friends for the faces of the 9/11 terrorists on a poster. He was found guilty under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act of having articles for terrorism. The charge related to material found on his computer and in his room after an investigation was launched when 17-year-old Mohammed Irfan Raja ran away from home to be a martyr. Iqbal had admitted editing the 9/11 picture to include himself, two other defendants and friends.

(Whooops!, how did that get there?)

• Brown warned on terror detention - Shadow home secretary David Davis has said the Government should look at other options before introducing longer time limits on holding terror suspects without charge. Mr Davis told GMTV there was "no evidence" that it was necessary to increase the present 28-day limit amid reports the Prime Minister is considering doubling it to 56 days. Gordon Brown is to make a major statement on security to the House of Commons, when he is expected to reaffirm his backing for the controversial ID card project championed by his predecessor Tony Blair.

• House Intelligence Chairman: Bush administration withholds key information on surveillance - As House Republicans and officials in the administration of President George W. Bush aggressively promoted reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said the executive branch had refused for almost two months to turn over key information on spying activities to Congress. "It has been 54 days since Ranking Member [Pete] Hoekstra and I sent a bipartisan letter requesting information from the Administration about its surveillance activities," said the Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Intelligence Committee Chairman, in a statement released to RAW STORY late on Tuesday. "Specifically, we asked for copies of the Presidential Authorizations and legal opinions for surveillance outside of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

• Surveillance cameras watch kissing Beijing couples - Beijing couples who steal a kiss in public are being warned they could be caught on closed-circuit television — and suspected of committing a crime. China’s Xinhua News Agency reports “intimate acts of lovers may be initially categorized as ’kidnapping’ or ’robbery’ by the computers, which are programmed to be sensitive to violations of safe distances.” Police officers monitoring the cameras will decide if the situation really is dangerous. Signs will go up next month in areas covered by the cameras, saying in Chinese and English “you are entering a camera-monitored zone.”

• Putting Surveillance in Remote, Outdoor Locations: New technology allows battery-powered surveillance in harsh environments - Video surveillance has long been an outstanding tool for security and law enforcement, but there were places where you just couldn't put cameras and recorders. Mainly that was outdoor surveillance, where lack of power, and weather conditions played havoc with surveillance systems. Special enclosures were designed by companies like Pelco to overcome the issues, and heaters and fans were added to keep sensitive equipment working. But the one thing that remained was that all such systems required power. Additionally, spinning discs and gears, like those in traditional DVRs and VCRs respectfully, don't fare well to temperature changes and issues of moisture.

• Diana inquest: Fayed lawyers to question driver's blood sample - Lawyers are expected to argue about the authenticity of blood samples from princess Diana's driver when an inquest into her death resumes, a spokesman for her late partner's father said Wednesday. Michael Cole, who represents Dodi Fayed's father Mohammed, told AFP their legal team and those for driver Henri Paul's family would submit that the blood tested after the fatal crash in Paris in 1997 was not his.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive for more info.)

• VA turns away cardiac victim: The man was not a vet. Paramedics were told to take him to a more distant emergency room. He did not survive - The man had suffered a heart attack in a building about 200 feet from the bustling emergency room at Bay Pines VA Medical Center. But when Bay Pines worker Mark A. Surette collapsed on June 26, Pinellas paramedics weren't sure where to take him. Surette wasn't a veteran. So the county asked Bay Pines if its emergency room would treat him. The response: Go to St. Petersburg General Hospital, 3 miles away. Listen to 911 call. Surette, 51, of St. Petersburg died.

• Norcross man dies after Taser shock - A Norcross man died Wednesday after a fight with Gwinnett sheriff's deputies at an apartment complex, authorities said. Deputies had to use a Taser to subdue Carlos Rodriguez, 27, said Stacey Bourbonnais, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office. The man appeared to be heavily intoxicated when deputies arrived at the complex on Lia Hills Drive, she said. Apartment management alerted deputies about Rodriguez. Deputies had been at the complex for an unrelated eviction. The man started fighting with deputies when they approached him, she said. One of the man's friends tried to keep him from fighting by placing him in a chokehold. The man was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center, where he later died.

• The EU constitution is back and more dangerous than ever! - Do you remember the European Constitution? Yes, the one rejected by the French and Dutch? That same European Constitution on which the Labour Government promised the British people a referendum before the last General Election? Well, it's back with a vengeance. Like some old Hammer horror movie, the constitution has returned from the dead, now repackaged as a 'treaty'. But the so-called 'new' EU Treaty has all the same ingredients as the old constitution. In fact, it was revealed yesterday that it is 96 per cent identical to the old constitution.

Wednesday 25th July 2007: -

• Detention limit changes - GORDON Brown will today tell MPs he wants to raise the 28-day limit on pre-charge detention for terrorist suspects in light of recent plots. The Prime Minister will also unveil "hearts and minds" measures aimed at British Muslims. Speaking to MPs yesterday, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said MI5 is now aware of 2,000 terrorist suspects in the UK, up from a figure of 1,600 revealed last November. "The time is right to reconsider whether we should allow longer than 28 days for pre-charge detention," she added.

• Astronauts chuck fridge off space station: Fatal fridge-frag meteor space dump shocker - Litterbug astronauts have hurled almost a ton of junk off the International Space Station, including an old refrigeration system weighing 1400lb, risking a fiery meteoric death for innocent Earth-dwellers. In sharp contrast to green consumers worldwide, NASA has brazenly revealed that the fly tipping spacemen hadn't even used the fridge before throwing it overboard. Outrage is expected from the sandal-wearing, lentil-friendly elements of society.

• 9/11 Health Programs Faulted - Federal efforts to coordinate health care programs for sick ground zero workers have been hampered by shaky cost estimates and unsteady spending to keep the programs running, a new report has found. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, on Tuesday released the results of its fifth study of 9/11 health programs, concluding that five years after the attacks the government still doesn't have a consistent set of programs _ or a good sense of what ground zero illnesses will cost.

• Biometric data in schools: New guidance on data protection published by Becta - Guidance on how the Data Protection Act 1998 applies to the use of biometric data in schools has been published by Becta, the Government's schools ICT agency. It advises schools to fully involve parents in any decision to introduce biometric or fingerprint technology to run cashless lunch queues, school libraries and attendance systems. It restates schools' freedom to run their own affairs - including introducing new technology to free up teacher time and making day-to-day administration easier.

Tuesday 24th July 2007: -

• Baring your backpack to bolster school safety: Wissahickon High will join other institutions this fall in permitting only clear or mesh bags in the hallways - It has come to this in the quest for safe schools: Cloth backpacks, for decades a fixture in the lives of most high school students, will be banned from the hallways of Montgomery County's Wissahickon High School starting this fall. If students walking between classes want to use a backpack, it must be made of clear plastic or mesh so its contents can be seen at a glance. Cloth backpacks can be carried into the school in the morning but must be stored in lockers. Wissahickon is the most recent district to mandate see-through backpacks, joining several other area suburban districts and private schools as they look to avert tragedies like the 1999 gun killings at Columbine and last December's gunshot suicide by a student inside Montgomery County's Springfield Township High School.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• Students to use mobile phone for secure campus payments - Heartland Payment Systems has been selected by Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania to deliver the convenience and security of contactless payments by cell phone to students and faculty. This first-of-its-kind college campus solution in the United States – developed by Heartland's new micro-payments division – capitalizes on two well-established trends: the ubiquity of the mobile phone among college students; and the popularity of new contactless, or tap-and-go, payments among American consumers. Beginning in July, Slippery Rock University's 8,500 students, faculty and staff will receive a new official campus ID card and a separate contactless token designed for use with their mobile phones.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive.)

• Australian University sticks to letter of privacy law - THE University of Wollongong would not release student information to police unless they produced a subpoena or it was a next-of-kin request, an official has confirmed. This adherence to privacy laws contrasts with the University of Sydney and the University of Technology, Sydney, who have given information to police after little more than an email request. Two weeks ago the president of the University of Technology's Students Association, Darren Loasby, said it was part of a wider trend of police targeting student activists before the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. The vice-principal of administration at Wollongong University, Chris Grange, said local police knew not to try to obtain information without a subpoena. "I can't think of a recent request for information without a warrant," he said. "And the last time one came in several years ago we said: 'You can't do that. You have to get a warrant first."'

• Man recalls false detention after 9/11 - Soon after the September 11 terror attack in 2001, faces of two youth from Hyderabad were flashed across the world. Mohd Ayub and Javed Azmath were branded terrorists and were detained in the US. Eighteen months later, they returned home because there was no evidence to prove they had any terror links. Javed Azmath and his wife Tasleem say they can understand what Mohd Haneef's family in neighbouring Karnataka is living through. ''My case and Haneef's case are similar. The government framed but could not prove anything in court. It is the same here as well. They have framed but the court has not approved. So they are trying to prolong the case,'' said Javed Azmath, 9/11 accused.

Monday 23rd July 2007: -

• 9/11 Truth is Truth 101 (An Apple is an Apple) - It is hard to believe, as we watch the actions of the criminals in the government day after ominous day, there are still those who haven’t wrapped their minds around the lie of 9/11. We are watching the end of liberty and the destruction of everything that we have built and believed in and hoped to leave behind for our children and grandchildren. We are watching as the GOP acts and even accelerates their actions, in spite of the will of the people and the very real threat (even with the rigged electronic voting machines) of being, not only driven from power, but being destroyed as a party. And yet, as if immune from the laws, immune from the will of the people, immune from the Congress, immune from world opinion and immune from journalistic oversight; the Cheney/Bush regime expands the disaster in Iraq and is planning to attack Iran.

• 9/11 – Fool me once... - As George Bush tried to say some time ago “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. With a great deal of evidence suggesting that the American people were fooled over the 9/11 attack in 2001, and indications that a new attack (equally horrific) might be on the way, these words should be imprinted on our minds. Many leading figures in the government (and military) have been hinting at such an event, and if we are to believe the signs, this could happen in just a matter of weeks. If it does take place, when and where will it occur? In April of this year Dick Cheney said a 9/11 with terrorists using “a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities” was the greatest threat. But could this be an attempt to distract us from the real location, a carrier in the Persian Gulf, or a chance for him to say “I told you so” later? There are numerous articles on the internet that suggest Bush and Cheney are planning a “staged” attack, so that they can introduce martial law. One story even goes so far as to say that there will be no election in 2008!

• Science chief: cut birthrate to save Earth: New museum head says lower population would cut CO2 at a fraction of renewable energy cost - The new head of the Science Museum has an uncompromising view about how global warming should be dealt with: get rid of a few billion people. Chris Rapley, who takes up his post on September 1, is not afraid of offending. 'I am not advocating genocide,' said Rapley. 'What I am saying is that if we invest in ways to reduce the birthrate - by improving contraception, education and healthcare - we will stop the world's population reaching its current estimated limit of between eight and 10 billion.

• 'We'll continue fight for justice' - The family of Jean Charles de Menezes vowed to continue their fight for justice as they marked the second anniversary of their loved one's death. The Brazilian's cousins and supporters held a minute's silence at Stockwell Tube Station where the 27-year-old electrician was shot by counter terrorist police exactly two-years ago. Mr de Menezes' four cousins have campaigned for someone to be held accountable for the shooting. They stood in front of a makeshift shrine at the station, erected soon after the Brazilian was shot seven times at point-blank range on the underground on July 22 2005.

• Bush's anti-torture Executive Order authorizes torture - President Bush's Executive Order prohibiting torture does exactly the opposite as White House and Pentagon have a very narrow definition of "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment", human rights groups alleged yesterday. They also point out that because the order interprets for the United States "Common Article 3" of the Geneva Conventions, only as authorized in the Military Commissions Act, and under the Act detainees can be held incommunicado forever, US authorities can carry on violating the Geneva Conventions with any restrictions.

Sunday 22nd July 2007: -

• AUSTRALIA: Moroney's Big Brother laws - POLICE will need a host of invasive forensic powers such as iris-scanning technology and a DNA database - which could include innocent people - not only to fight terrorism but also lesser crimes such as car theft, the NSW Police Commissioner has warned. Ken Moroney yesterday dismissed civil liberties concerns as he repeated a call for enhanced identification checks when people buy mobile phone SIM cards and confirmed police might soon have expanded powers to collect DNA. "I hear oppositions that these are breaches or potential breaches of civil liberties," Mr Moroney said. "Let me say this, every police officer … [has] to be concerned about the civil liberties of everybody - not just a small few. We have to be concerned about the civil liberty of being able to leave your car on the street without it being stolen.

Saturday 21st July 2007: -

• Heathrow to check fingerprints: Terminal 5 passengers will have fingers and faces scanned, says Jeremy Skidmore - Fingerprinting of passengers, a process that has irritated many visitors to the United States, will soon be happening on some domestic flights within Britain. Domestic passengers departing from Heathrow's Terminal 5, which opens in March, will have to give a fingerprint and have their faces scanned as part of a security check before take-off. The checks are being brought in because both domestic and international passengers will share a common departure lounge and there are fears that those arriving on international flights may be able to bypass immigration control by booking an onward domestic flight to a regional airport.

• Microchips implanted in humans: High-tech helpers, or Big Brother surveillance tools? - CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself - until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms. The "chipping" of two workers with RFIDs - radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick - was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said. "To protect high-end secure data, you use more sophisticated techniques," Sean Darks, chief executive of the Cincinnati-based company, said. He compared chip implants to retina scans or fingerprinting. "There's a reader outside the door; you walk up to the reader, put your arm under it, and it opens the door."

• Duel over Tasers in Colorado schools: State senator, ACLU raise fears about stun guns - A Democratic state senator and the American Civil Liberties Union are concerned about the use of Tasers by people assigned to keep order in public schools. Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, said Thursday he's confident that police officers who patrol schools have the training to use Tasers properly. But he's concerned that the weapons, which deliver a shock, will be issued to school district security personnel, who have less training. "We know a Taser can indeed kill an adult, and . . . a child is not a full-grown adult," Hagedorn said.

• GOP lawmaker urges probe into possible CIA leak on secret prisons - A top Republican legislator Friday called for an investigation into whether CIA agents leaked classified information to Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty about secret prisons for detaining suspected terrorists. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, requested the probe in a letter to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. In the letter, Hoekstra said that every intelligence official swears an oath to protect the people and national secrets of this great land. To willingly discuss the details of any classified government program with an agent of a foreign power without authorization is absolutely unconscionable. This would represent an egregious violation of the public's trust.

• More Sydney bus routes to become cashless - More of Sydney's major bus routes will be made cashless, with the New South Wales Government announcing an additional 13 pre-pay services for the city. The next pre-pay only services will be the 891 and the 895 express routes to the University of New South Wales. Transport Minister John Watkins says he expects commuters will welcome the introduction of more cashless routes.

• Obesity pill 'could lead to suicide' - A weight-loss pill heightens the risk of suicide among those taking anti-depressants, a watchdog has warned. Patients with severe depression should not be prescribed Acomplia, said the European Medicines Agency. More than 40,000 Britons have been treated with the pill, also known as rimonabant, since it was unveiled last June. It was hailed as a wonder drug after trials showed it could help dieters lose up to 10 per cent of their body weight - as well as helping smokers quit cigarettes.

Friday 20th July 2007: -

• Cash for honours: No charges brought - The Metropolitan Police is likely to face a furious political backlash today with an expected announcement by the Crown Prosecution Service that no-one will be charged following the 16-month "cash for honours" inquiry. The decision - predicted by the BBC and ITV last night - will come as a huge relief to Tony Blair and former members of his inner circle following claims that criminal charges could be brought. The ex-Prime Minister's final year in Downing Street was blighted by the allegations that some of his closest allies conspired to "sell" seats in the House of Lords in return for donations totalling £14 million to the Labour Party before the 2005 general election.   (COMMENTARY: Unbelievable... and yet believable!)

• Three UK Iraq servicemen killed - Three RAF servicemen have been killed after encountering an "indirect fire attack" in Basra, southern Iraq, according to the Ministry of Defence. Two of the men were from 1 Squadron RAF Regiment, while the other served with 504 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force. Next of kin have already been informed, the spokeswoman added. Following the latest fatalities, the total number of UK service personnel killed during operations in Iraq now stands at 162.

• Pupil history knowledge 'patchy' - Pupils in primary and secondary schools across England lack an overview of world history and have little sense of chronology, Ofsted inspectors warn. The watchdog said the curriculum was too England-focused, ignoring the rest of the UK and Europe. They also complained that after the age of 13, only one in three children study history at all.

Thursday 19th July 2007: -

• Comic Relief among shows that deceived BBC viewers - The BBC was plunged into its biggest crisis since the Hutton inquiry yesterday after uncovering a "hornet's nest of deception" involving some of its biggest programmes, including the Comic Relief and Children in Need appeals. After discovering at least six more incidents of viewers being seriously misled, the BBC immediately suspended all its competitions across its television, radio and web operations. Some "editorial leaders" at the heart of the problems have been suspended.

• Terrorist no-fly list includes name of 8-year-old boy - Bryan Moore doesn’t fit the profile you would expect for a suspected terrorist — he’s 8 years old. But the youngster was prevented from flying on a plane in an airport in Cortez, Colo., last week after his name popped up on a terrorist no-fly list. “Poor Bryan was just looking at me and saying, ‘What?’” said his sister, Tammy Wallace, who took him to the airport for his flight to Kansas City. But a spokesman for Great Lakes Airlines said there would have not been a problem if the boy had not arrived late to the airport. The late arrival, the airline said, did not allow enough time to clear up the problem.

• McCain Loses It and Flees After 9/11 Truth Questions: Senator Refuses Demands for a New Investigation, Claims "Additional Information" About 9/11 and Leaves Event Irritated and Angry - Republican presidential candidate John McCain was literally overwhelmed by reporters from WeAreChange.org and Infowars.com seeking 9/11 truth during a campaign stop. McCain, who wrote the forward to Popular Mechanics' Debunking 9/11 Myths, repeatedly told reporters, "I do not support a new investigation" and stated that he believes the "9/11 Commission did a good job."

• Bush Administration Official Thought WTC Towers Were "Charged": Cheney was "surprised" that buildings collapsed, his counsel David Addington thought they were imploded, according to official biography - A senior Bush administration official's first reaction to seeing the twin towers collapse on 9/11 was that the buildings had been deliberately imploded with explosive charges according to an account in Dick Cheney's new official biography, which also reveals that Cheney thought Flight 93 had been shot down after hearing of its demise in Pennsylvania.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Attorney For New Black Panther Party: Bush Had 9/11 Foreknowledge: Defends Muslim Congressman's comparison of Bush to Hitler - Appearing on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes yesterday, Malik Shabazz, the attorney for the New Black Panther Party, reiterated that many 9/11 families are taking action against the government and the FAA for at the very least having foreknowledge of the attacks.

• Explosion rocks Manhattan, reviving 9/11 memories - An 83-year-old steam pipe exploded underground in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, shaking buildings, creating a towering geyser of debris and sending people fleeing in scenes reminiscent of the Sept. 11 attacks. Officials in New York and Washington promptly ruled out terrorism. One person died of cardiac arrest and about 20 others were injured, some seriously, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference.

• Police 'to access road cameras' - Road pricing cameras could be used by police to track drivers' movements in England and Wales under new proposals. A Home Office document accidentally released suggests police should be given instant access to cameras which monitor congestion and road charging. It comes after anti-terror officers were given real time access to congestion charge cameras in London. The Lib Dems accused the government of using that announcement as a "Trojan Horse" for more wide-ranging proposals.

Wednesday 18th July 2007: -

• Confessions Of The Neo-Cons: Pray for Fox news, want war dissenters in gas chambers - A recent exposé in the London Independent, when stripped of its heavily lefty leaning bias, has provided a stark picture of neocon worshippers in America today as a bunch of bigoted wannabe elites who have swallowed whole the mantra of the Bush cabal and now believe that real conservatism consists of invading every oil producing country in the world and killing American citizens who protest. Johann Hari's recent article, while being laced with overly liberal padding, contains at its heart a detailed picture of the fallout of the neoconservative hijacking of America in the 21st century. Hari, reporting from the annual cruise organised by the staunchly neocon publication the 'National Review', details casual comments made by attendees that highlight how the self made reality of right wing lobbyists and elites has filtered through to a bandwagon of greasy ladder climbing yuppies who consider total servitude and worship of the globalist run government to be the key to a strong and healthy American society.

• Police Report: Face Recognition CCTV Unreliable - New tests conducted by police yet again prove an increasing number of surveillance systems are unreliable. 200 people were enrolled to test CCTV face recognition software on three systems which failed to recognise 8 out of 10 people, even when the system was fed images of people standing still - one of the easiest settings often used to suggest the software is reliable. The tests were conducted on software produced by Cognitec, Bosch and Cross Match. The federal police in Germany who conducted the test are citing “bad lighting” as the reason for the failure and required the test subjects to be fitted with RFID tags to help with the identification process.

• AMA Issues Ethics Code for RFID Chip Implants: The American Medical Association recommends that physicians disclose uncertainties about the risks of implants, add extra layers of security to protect patient privacy and support ongoing research regarding the implantation of RFID devices in human beings - The American Medical Association (AMA) has officially established a code of ethics designed to protect patients receiving RFID implants. The recommendations focus on safeguarding a patient's privacy and health, and are the result of an evaluation by the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) regarding the medical and ethical implications of RFID chips in humans, as well as a follow-up report recently released. The latter discusses the possible advantages and specific privacy and ethical issues of using RFID-enabled implantations for clinical purposes.

• Trouble in Bohemian Grove Paradise - It’s high summer and little boys everywhere are planning to take over the world from treetop forts. Little Johnny’s home from school swing easily into Long John Silver mode on dreamy summer afternoons. That’s California dreamin’ for the lovable Kool-Aid set. In Monte Rio, California, toupee-wearing, cigar chomping little boys grown tall are beginning to arrive for this year’s secret Bohemian Club male-bonding session, where a today-the-pond-tomorrow-the-world agenda gets underway.

Tuesday 17th July 2007: -

• Ailing 9/11 workers to sue WTC - Ailing ground zero workers went to court on Tuesday to demand that the company overseeing a $1-billion (about R7-billion) September 11 insurance fund uses it to pay for their health care. Attorneys for the workers argue that federal officials meant for the money in the WTC Captive Insurance Company to be used as compensation for sick workers. The workers have already filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the toxic dust from the World Trade Center site gave them serious, possibly fatal diseases. On Tuesday they sought compensation from the company in charge of money appropriated by Congress to deal with September 11 health-related claims.

• Giuliani, Thompson trail “None of the Above” in AP Poll - Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson top the list of named candidates in the latest Associated Press poll on GOP presidential preferences, but they’ve both fallen behind “none of the above.” The AP story on the poll says that “23 percent [of Republicans] can’t or won’t say which candidate they would back, a jump from the 14 percent who took a pass in June.” Giuliani comes in at 21%, down from 27% in June and 35% in March, while Thompson garnered 19%. John McCain, whose campaign is nearly broke and hemorrhaging staffers, still pulls 15%, while champion fundraiser and all-around handsome guy Mitt Romney managed 11% despite the recent Fred Thompson-orchestrated attacks on his humanity.

• High Court backing for school ban on 'purity' jewellery - A TEENAGER spoke of her "disappointment" after the High Court in London ruled yesterday that she had no legal right to wear a "purity ring" to school as an expression of her Christian values. Lydia Playfoot, 16, said wearing the ring, which is engraved with a Biblical verse, was a demonstration of her commitment to refrain from sex before marriage. But the Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, banned rings as contrary to its "no jewellery" policy. Lydia, who recently left the school after completing her GCSE examinations, said the stance was "anti-Christian" as the school allowed Muslim and Sikh students to wear headscarves and religious bracelets.

• Fluoride Damages Teeth, New Warning by Dentists - Fluoride supplements put children six and under at significant risk of permanently discolored teeth, according to a review of studies recently posted on the American Dental Association's (ADA) website in their new section, "evidence-based dentistry," for dentists and their patients. Fluoride supplements, in graduating amounts up to 1 mg daily, are often prescribed to children who don't drink fluoridated water, ostensibly to reduce tooth decay. "This review confirmed that in non-fluoridated communities the use of fluoride supplements during the first 6 years of life is associated with a significant increase in the risk of developing dental fluorosis, write researchers Ismail & Bandekar and first published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, February 1999,  but posted to the ADA's website July 2007. Fluoride ingestion, once thought to reduce cavities, can lead to dental fluorosis -- white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted tooth enamel.

• Q&A: What is 'reasonable force'? - A survey has suggested that almost a third of householders in the UK keep items such as golf clubs, cricket bats and heavy torches at hand ready to tackle intruders. But where do victims stand when confronted with an unwanted presence in their home?

Monday 16th July 2007: -

• Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq: Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq; 'Reaper' Packs Bombs, Missiles - The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles. The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada. The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.   (RELATED: See our Cybernetic Dawn archive)

• Cheques may soon stop checking out - ONE of the most well-worn excuses for the late payment of a bill is: "The cheque is in the post." But it could be curtains for that excuse and indeed for the cheque itself as its use appears to be in terminal decline. Cheques have edged closer to possible extinction as Sainsbury's announced it will ban them from its tills from August 1. A spokesman said: "The use of cheques has been in steady decline. As a result, cheques account for a lower percentage of our takings, and we have taken the decision we will no longer accept them at our tills."   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive.)

• Biometric access system benefits from smoking ban - The smoking ban which came into force on the 1st of July is providing a boost for Newcastle upon Tyne based ‘fingerprint entry’ specialist UK Biometrics Ltd, as nightclubs seek a secure way to allow customers out of their venue for a cigarette. The city centre location of many nightclubs means installing an outdoor smoking area is not an option. Current ticket, swipe card or hand-stamp identification methods are open to abuse since they can be swapped outside the venue, putting owners at risk of allowing under age drinkers or known trouble makers entrance. With the UK Biometrics Membership System, developed on Tyneside, nightclub management know that the person re-entering the club after a cigarette break is the person who originally paid to enter.

• Bomb hits British embassy in Chile - A small package has been detonated outside the British Embassy in Santiago, Chile, causing limited damage to some of the buildings. There are no reports of casualties. The blast struck the British Embassy and the neighbouring Israeli Embassy around at around 10pm local time. Police believe a quantity of gunpowder was detonated. Windows were broken and doors dented, a police spokesman told CNN. The Foreign Office website says 50,000 British tourists visit Chile annually and the threat from terrorism is low.

• TVs and computers breeding generation of 'screen kids': Generation losing out on family life, says report / Affluent children less likely to have bedroom TV - TVs and computers are the "electronic babysitters" for a generation of children who are losing out on family life and becoming more materialistic, a report says today. The study paints a picture of a breed of "screen kids" who are spending more and more time watching TV and surfing the net in their bedrooms, unsupervised by adults. The Watching, Wanting and Wellbeing report from the National Consumer Council found nearly half the children from better-off families surveyed had televisions in their bedrooms, compared with 97% of the nine- to 13-year-olds from less well-off areas.

• "Bin tax" plan likely to fail, say MPs - Government plans to introduce a "bin tax" to encourage recycling are likely to fail, a cross-party committee of MPs said on Monday. The Communities and Local Government select committee said the government's proposed waste strategy -- including moves to allow councils to levy "pay-as-you-throw" rubbish taxes, in which people would be charged according to the amount of rubbish they produce -- are too complicated and unlikely to work. The scheme could lead to public protest, more fly-tipping of household waste and non-payment, iT said.

• ST911 Scientist to Sue BBC for Public Deception - A British scientist and member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, John A. Blacker MSc IMI (Physical Systems), is planning to sue the BBC for mass public deception via their “9/11: The Conspiracy Files” program, RINF Alternative News can reveal. The program program which aired on 18 February, 2007, promised to offer a thorough examination of the events of 9/11 and answer many of the questions posed by the 9/11 Truth Movement. However, the hour long program failed to investigate the tough questions and ignored hard evidence that points towards a deeper conspiracy, while presenting an unfair and unbalanced view of 9/11 research. Scientist and member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, John A. Blacker, is taking action against this portrayal on the grounds of ‘Total Public Deception’.

Sunday 15th July 2007: -

• 'New' al Qaeda tape may contain old clip of bin Laden - Osama bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes in a videotape that purportedly contains a 50-second message from the al Qaeda leader. The 40-minute videotape, whose audio was being translated from Arabic by CNN, was intercepted before it was to appear on several Islamist Web sites known for carrying statements from al Qaeda and other radical groups. The videotape, titled "A Special Surprise from As-Sahab. Heaven's Breeze Part I," was made in the last four weeks, but the clips appear to be old, said Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs. There is no indication of where it was shot, and CNN cannot verify its authenticity.

• Fixer for 21/7 plot free in London - A SUSPECTED Al-Qaeda operative who is believed by MI5 to have played a key role in the events leading up to the July 21 failed bombings is at liberty and living in east London. Mohammed al-Ghabra, a 27-year-old Syrian who has been given British citizenship, is said by security sources to have arranged for the leader of the failed 21/7 London suicide attacks to travel to Pakistan for terrorist training. The sources said al-Ghabra instructed a second terrorist suspect to facilitate a four-month trip to Pakistan by Muktar Said Ibrahim, the leader of the July 21 gang.

• Brat Nav... the GPS that can tag your teenager (or errant husband) absolutely anywhere in Britain - It could be the perfect answer for parents anxious about their children's whereabouts. A device the size of a large matchbox is being launched that exactly pinpoints a carrier's location through a global positioning system accessed by computer or mobile phone. The gadget, called buddi, can be clipped to children's clothing or carried in their pockets. Parents then log on to see their child's position on a detailed map via satellite tracking.

• Firefighters still paying price for 9/11 - A lung specialist from Israel who went to examine firefighters who had been at the World Trade Center on 9/11 found that as many as eight in 10 had some respiratory disorder. Dr. Izbicki Gabriel, a senior physician at the pulmonary institute of Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was with a team that examined firefighters and found widespread "sarcoid-like" granulomatous pulmonary disease. Their study, which appeared in the prestigious journal Chest, revealed a high incidence - five times more among the same population, compared to the 15 years before the terror attack - of the lung disease sarcoidosis. "Maybe the most important message is that most of the lung damage could have been avoided if the firefighters had worn masks. This is of course also important for Israeli firefighters, policemen, soldiers and others."

• BBC boss tells staff to root out inaccuracies - BBC boss Mark Thompson has ordered staff to root out inaccuracies after the public broadcaster was hit by two embarrassing blunders and had to apologise to the Queen. The BBC was fined 50,000 pounds this week after the results of a competition in the popular children's programme Blue Peter were found to have been faked.   (RELATED: 9/11 and the British Broadcasting Conspiracy)

• BBC in row over doctored TV footage with Gordon Brown - The BBC was at the centre of a new row over doctored TV footage after it admitted that its flagship Newsnight programme changed the sequence of events in a film highly critical of Gordon Brown. Mr Brown's officials have complained to the Corporation about an 'unfair, unbalanced, unnecessarily personal, and disingenuous' film which they claim was altered in an attempt to make him look like a thug. Newsnight editor Peter Barron has admitted that a sequence of events had been reversed in the film, but refused to apologise. BBC chiefs have defended the film as 'a cross between Louis Theroux and gonzo journalism'.

• Class Action Lawsuit Filed in Strip Search Case - A lawsuit filed in federal court, was granted class action status yesterday by a US District Court Judge. The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $3 million dollars in a strip-search case. The lawsuit was filed by a 47-year old woman of Ellenburg in northern New York. The lawsuit alleges she was illegally strip-searched in a county jail on March 2003 after being arrested on misdemeanor charges for the mistreatment of animals. In filing the lawsuit, her attorney said, people charged with minor crimes shouldn't be subjected to strip searches unless the jail officials have a reason to believe they are hiding something.

• Call for immigrant amnesty in UK - Half a million illegal immigrants should be given the right to stay in Britain, a think tank has said. The Institute of Public Policy Research says such an amnesty would bring in £1bn in extra taxes, and save costs of £4.7bn needed to deport people. It is urging Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to adopt the move, saying a large scale deportation would never happen. The Home Office said an amnesty was unnecessary and would create "a strong pull for waves of illegal migration". It is not known how many illegal immigrants are in the UK, with estimates varying widely from 300,000 to 900,000. The Home Office has estimated it would take more than 30 years to deport them all.

Saturday 14th July 2007: -

• Protester raid cost police £111k - Police spent £111,000 last year on a crackdown on an anti-war protest outside Westminster. Brian Haw, 57, has held vigil in Parliament Square for six years, using a megaphone to attack the government policy on Iraq. Seventy-eight officer shifts were devoted to the overnight raid to scale back Mr Haw's encampment on 23 May 2006, Scotland Yard figures show. Mr Haw, of Redditch, Worcs, has blocked several attempts to have him removed.

• Rapist attended Gordon Brown fundraiser - Gordon Brown was left embarrassed last night after his first major fundraising event was overshadowed by the revelation that a convicted rapist was among the high-profile guests. The Prime Minister invited 60 of the country’s leading sports personalities to the event at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday, which was billed as a celebration of 10 years of Labour-sanctioned sport. The night’s goal was to raise £500,000 for the party ahead of the next general election. Tickets cost £1,000 each. But in a blow to Mr Brown’s efforts to distance himself from the rows over funding which dogged Tony Blair’s Government, it has emerged that among the 600 guests at the exclusive event was Owen Oyston, a multi-millionaire businessman who was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for the rape of a 16-year-old in 1996.   (COMMENTARY: A scumbag at a Labour Party fundraiser... who would have thought?)

• Secret Society Wants To Log N. Bay Redwood Grove - Members of the Bohemian Club have begun arriving for the secret society's annual male-bonding session next to the Russian River. But the club's directors are facing a public battle with environmentalists, who want to block a plan to log the surrounding redwood forest in Sonoma County. The club wants a special logging permit to cut more than 1 million board feet per year in perpetuity in the Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, about 70 miles north of San Francisco.   (RELATED: See our Bohemian Grove archive)

• Cinemas lose audiences to the internet - British moviegoers may be broadening their tastes and enjoying lower budget, independent films in smaller, traditional cinemas. The number of non-multiplex cinemas - those with four or fewer screens - rose for the first time in a decade last year, according to the UK Film Council's latest statistical report. But overall audience numbers across the country fell for the second year running in 2006 as film battled for the population's attention with internet activities such as social networking sites and downloading music. Among the top 20 films in the UK only three were British - Casino Royale in the top spot, The Da Vinci Code and Flushed Away. They took 19% of the box office. Yet despite the fact that the most-watched movies in Britain were Hollywood blockbusters, there was evidence here of growing success for smaller films.

Friday 13th July 2007: -

• Conrad Black convicted of fraud - Media tycoon Conrad Black has been convicted of three charges of fraud, and one of obstructing justice. But Black was found not guilty by the Chicago jury of other racketeering, wire fraud and tax evasion charges. The British peer, 62, was impassive as the verdicts were read out. His lawyers later said that he would appeal. He had faced 13 charges associated with claims he and three colleagues stole $60m (£29.5m) from investors in the newspaper firm Hollinger International. The guilty verdicts cap a remarkable fall from grace for Black, once one of the UK's wealthiest and most influential media figures.

• Barbara Boxer: "This Is As Close As We've Ever Come To A Dictatorship" - Here's Barbara Boxer on the Ed Schultz Show yesterday. Though she wimped out a bit at the end, she was mostly strong on the necessity of considering impeachment.

• Ron Paul: U.S. In "Great Danger" Of Staged Terror: Congressman & presidential candidate warns of economic collapse precipitated by bombing of Iran - Presidential candidate Ron Paul says the U.S. is in "great danger" of a staged terror attack or a Gulf of Tonkin style provocation while also warning that a major collapse of the American economy is on the horizon and could be precipitated by the bombing of Iran and the closure of the Persian Gulf. Speaking to The Alex Jones Show, the Texas Congressman was asked his opinion on Cindy Sheehan's recent comments that the U.S. is in danger of a staged terror attack or a Gulf of Tonkin style provocation that will validate the Neo-Con agenda and lead to the implementation of the infrastructure of martial law that Bush recently signed into law via executive order, as well as public pronouncements from prominent officials that the West needs terrorism to save a doomed foreign policy.

• VIDEO: Nickelback 'If Everyone Cared' - "Never doubt that a small group of committed people can CHANGE THE WORLD.  Indeed it is the only thing that ever has" Margaret Mead: -

• Thumbs-up for school scheme - LUNCH money is a thing of the past for pupils at one school who will now pay for dinner just with their thumbs. Hi-tech equipment at Casterton Business and Enterprise College will scan youngsters' thumb prints and deduct what they have spent in the canteen off their pre-arranged account. Victoria Crosher, principal at the school in Ryhall Road, says the system will crack down on bullying and even promote healthy eating. She said: "There are lots of advantages to having the fingerprint system and I believe it will alleviate problems connected with cash in school. "It means schoolchildren won't have to walk around carrying money, which will help prevent bullying. It will also discourage pupils from spending money they may be given on other things. Instead they will be buying healthy food from the canteen."  (COMMENTARY: Note here how the 'payment by thumb print' scheme is reported as being a mechanism of control (albeit over a society of silly children who cannot be trusted to carry cash).  This is the very real danger of the Cashless Society Control Grid.  A long term goal of the New World Order is to tell us what we can and can't spend.  In doing so they fundamentally control our lives, our destinies as we are plugged into the monetary system that they control.  The answer? Just say NO!.  Stop using credit cards, 'Chip and Pin', 'Wave and Pay' etc.  If you have kids at these schools that do not allow an option for 'cash for dinner' payments, do not accept this.)

• Bush links Al Qaeda in Iraq to 9/11; critics reject connection - In rebuffing calls to bring troops home from Iraq, President George W. Bush employed a stark and ominous defense. "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq," he said, "were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th, and that's why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home." It is an argument that Bush has been making with heavy frequency in the past few months, as the challenges to the continuation of the war have grown. On Thursday alone, he referred at least 30 times to Al Qaeda or its presence in Iraq. But his references to Al Qaeda in Iraq, and his assertions that it is the same group that attacked the United States in 2001, have greatly oversimplified the nature of the insurgency in Iraq and its relationship with the Qaeda leadership. Bush's critics say that he has overstated the Qaeda connection in an attempt to exploit the same kinds of post-Sept. 11 emotions that helped him win support for the invasion in the first place.

• More entering Army with criminal records - Nearly 12 percent of Army recruits who entered basic training this year needed a special waiver for those with criminal records, a dramatic increase over last year and 2 1/2 times the percentage four years ago, according to new Army statistics obtained by the Globe. With less than three months left in the fiscal year, 11.6 percent of new active-duty and Army Reserve troops in 2007 have received a so-called "moral waiver," up from 7.9 percent in fiscal year 2006, according to figures from the US Army Recruiting Command. In fiscal 2003 and 2004, soldiers granted waivers accounted for 4.6 percent of new recruits; in 2005, it was 6.2 percent. Army officials acknowledge privately that the increase in moral waivers reflects the difficulty of signing up sufficient numbers of recruits to sustain an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq; the Army fell short of its monthly recruiting goals in May and June. Since Oct. 1, 2006, when the fiscal year began, more than 8,000 of the roughly 69,000 recruits have been granted waivers for offenses ranging in seriousness from misdemeanors such as vandalism to felonies such as burglary and aggravated assault.

• FBI lied to get ISPs to turn over data - THE FBI'S counter terrorism unit sent a large number of fake emergency letters to phone companies, asking them to turn over phone records immediately. According to Wired, the letters are part of a legitimate procedure which is supposed to be used so that the spooks can get access while the Feds are getting a warrant. But it seems that the letters, signed by Larry Mefford,the Executive Assistant Director, in charge of the Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence Division, were faked and the department had no intention of getting a warrant.

• Europe Wants Probe of Germany's Role in Secret Detentions - A report by the EU human rights commissioner called on Germany to investigate its role in secret CIA detentions of suspected terrorists. Germany has denied it helped with secret renditions. A new report by the EU's human rights watchdog accuses Germany of assisting in CIA kidnappings of suspected terrorists for interrogation in third countries. Germany has consistently denied its involvement in this practice, called "extraordinary rendition." The Council of Europe report said Germany has a responsibility to investigate past cases and make sure similar human rights violations don't happen in the future.

• U.S. is building database on Iraqis - The U.S. military is taking fingerprints and eye scans from thousands of Iraqi men and building an unprecedented database that helps track suspected militants. U.S. troops are stopping Iraqis at checkpoints, workplaces and sites where attacks have recently occurred, and inputting their personal data using handheld scanners or specially equipped laptops. In several neighborhoods in and around Baghdad, troops have gone door to door collecting data. The rapidly expanding program has raised privacy concerns at the Pentagon, although it has met little resistance from Iraqis. U.S. commanders say the data help to keep suspected militants out of neighborhoods and to identify suspects in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. Iraq has no other reliable ID system.

• Heathrow to introduce fingerprint checks - BA passengers are to become the first in Britain to have their fingerprint taken as a matter of routine. From next year all passengers travelling on domestic BA flights from Heathrow will have to give their fingerprint and have their face scanned as part of the security check prior to take off. The new biometric techniques, which will be introduced at Terminal 5 when it opens in March, were being implemented as a result of "recent security threats," airports operator BAA said. Similar procedures are already in force in other countries, such as the US. BAA said the checks, which will take place at the normal security point and then again immediately prior to boarding, had become necessary because Terminal 5 had a common departure lounge for international and domestic passengers.

• Student Group Urges 'Execution' for Offending China - A Chinese student group at Columbia University posted a statement on its Web site on Wednesday that calls for the "execution" of "anyone who offends China." The statement makes clear that "anyone" refers to those who practice Falun Gong. The publishing of this statement is the latest and most extreme instance of attacks by the Columbia University Chinese Student and Scholars Association (CUCSSA) on Falun Gong, dating back to a panel discussion sponsored by the Columbia University Falun Dafa Club on April 20.

• Former prisoner sues hospital over taser incident - A former prisoner is suing an Orlando hospital where he was zapped twice with a Taser while strapped to a gurney. Antonio Wheeler is suing Florida Hospital Orlando, two security officers, a nurse and nurse technician. The lawsuit claims the staff involuntarily catheterized him, while he had the right to refuse the procedure. Wheeler was taken to the hospital after he was arrested on a cocaine charge in 2005. He refused to give a urine sample and struggled with the medical staff. The police report says that during the scuffle, an officer used a Taser on Wheeler — who was cuffed and strapped down. Tests later showed he had no cocaine in his system.

• Toxic chemical found in fake tubes of toothpaste - Traces of a toxic chemical have been found in contaminated counterfeit toothpaste. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued an alert yesterday concerning tubes tainted with diethylene glycol. It said that the tubes may have been sold by unauthorised suppliers such as markets, discount shops and car boot sales, but were not linked to super-markets and high street retailers. Counterfeit toothpaste containing diethylene glycol — which is used in antifreeze — has also been found in the United States, South America and Spain in recent months.

• DIANA DRAMA ATTACKED - A U.K. TV drama that re-enacts DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES' final days has been attacked by critics. Diana: Last Days of a Princess includes eyewitness accounts and interviews with the princess' bodyguard and Mohammed al Fayed, whose son Dodi was killed in the same Paris crash that claimed Diana's life. Channel 5 has been accused of airing Diana: Last Days of a Princess in July (07) to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of the princess' death in August 1997. Royal expert Lord St John of Fawsley described the show as "appalling", adding, "It is most offensive and damaging both to the relatives, particularly the Princes, and to the public in general who still hold her in the highest esteem. All they are doing is trying to make money out of someone else's personal tragedy. "They have trawled through it as though they were Sherlock Holmes. No one is interested in what they are doing." A spokesperson for the network has defended the show, saying, "Princess Diana remains a person who holds an abiding fascination for the British public. This programme simply reflects that ongoing interest in her."  (COMMENTARY: See how this TV drama is going to be used to add to the aura of animosity which is aimed at those who publicly highlight the glaring truth that Diana's death was anything other than an accident.  We already constantly face the argument: 'Let her rest in peace for god's sake... and think of the Princes... how much this conspiracy talk upsets them'.  Indeed my own heart bleeds, their mother was MURDERED, and you do not honour her death by allowing the killers to go free.  With this in mind we will continue to promote skepticism in the 'accident theory' both on an off the website.  See our Diana Assassination archive for more info.)

Thursday 12th July 2007: -

• Sheehan: Distinct Chance Of Staged Attack, Martial Law: Peace Mom warns of false flag terror as she prepares to take on sell-out Pelosi - Cindy Sheehan, the famous Peace Mom who recently expressed her intention to run against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, says there's a "distinct possibility" that America will be hit with another staged terror attack that will allow Bush to enact the martial law provisions he recently signed into law. Sheehan spoke to The Alex Jones Show as she prepares to embark on a two week trek towards Washington to confront Pelosi. Asked what she thought of numerous recent comments on behalf of politicians, military analysts and GOP kingpins that the Bush administration needs more terror to save a doomed foreign policy, along with recent legislation that establishes the framework for martial law in the event of an emergency, Sheehan was open to the plausibility that another false flag attack could be visited upon the American people.

• Firefighters Rip Giuliani, Call Him 'Urban Legend': New DVD Criticizes Former NYC Mayor, Giuliani's Campaign Calls Video 'Mockumentary' - The International Association of Firefighters has gone on the offensive against "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani, releasing a 13-minute video that viciously rips into the former New York mayor, who has been using his leadership demonstrated on September 11th to urge people around the country to support him in his quest to become President of the United States. The video, released early Wednesday evening, is titled "Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend," and offers testimonials from various members of the organization and family members of firefighters lost in the terror attacks.

• Soldier Killed In Afghanistan Operation - A British soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry Of Defence has announced. Troops in action in HelmandHe was shot by enemy forces during an operation near Gereshk in Helmand Province. The soldier was evacuated by helicopter - but was pronounced dead on arrival at a field hospital. The victim served in 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards. His next of kin have been told. Two other troops were injured in the same operation - they are being treated for their wounds.

• Double soldier death "completely avoidable" - The death of two British soldiers in a friendly fire incident at the start of the Iraq war was today described as a "completely avoidable tragedy". Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner Andrew Walker ruled that the death of two soldiers from the Queen's Royal Lancers on March 25th 2003 represented a "serious failing" on the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) part.

• UK regional casino in jeopardy - As forecast in yesterday’s InterGame Online, the new British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has caused uproar in the UK casino industry by killing off plans for the country's first regional ‘super-casino.’ In a reply during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons yesterday, Brown said the regeneration of inner city areas would be a “better way” to help deprived areas than opening Las Vegas-style casinos. Under Tony Blair's leadership, Manchester had won the campaign for the only super-casino licence after a £150,000 campaign. The proposed £200m investment was to have created nearly 3,000 jobs, with Kerzner International building and running the complex. The other 16 medium and large casinos that were also in the policy will remain on schedule, although both Manchester and its main rival for the super-casino, Blackpool, will have to be introduced into that process now, and fresh competition will get under way.

• 'Clear Signs of Water' on Distant Planet - Scientists have found the spectral imprints of water vapor in starlight filtered through the atmosphere of a giant gas planet outside our solar system. Combined with a study announced earlier this year, the new finding provides strong evidence that extrasolar planets are as rich in water as the worlds in our solar system, scientists say.

• Leibovitz gets dressing down as Queen refuses to take off her crown - Annie Leibovitz, the American photographer famous for her celebrity portraits, was left stranded by the Queen when she asked her to take her crown off during a photoshoot. Leibovitz, who has worked for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, had gone to Buckingham Palace to take a series of official pictures of the Queen to mark her official visit to Washington in May. The monarch was wearing her Order of the Garter robes, and things went wrong when the photographer suggested: "I think it will look better without the crown - less dressy, because the garter robe is so extraordinary." "Less dressy? What do you think this is?" replied the Queen, pointing at her outfit. "I'm not changing anything. I've had enough of dressing like this, thank you very much."

• Bush's sarcastic response sends a girl into tears - Although his biting sarcasm in response to unfriendly questions can make members of the White House press corps grumble under their breath, President Bush got a different reaction from a 13-year-old girl who asked him about immigration during a forum in Ohio. The Washington Times reports Jessica Hackerd was left in tears after Bush gave her a wry "yeah, thanks" in response to her query, drawing laughter from the crowd of 400 in Brecksville, Ohio Tuesday. Bush immediately began to backpedal when he saw the reaction from Hackerd, who told the Times she was crying because she is very shy and was nervous questioning the president. "No, it's a great question. No, I appreciate that," Bush said, before giving a more-than-1,100-word answer about the death of his immigration bill.

• Plastic bottles do not cause global warming - The bottled water industry has hit back at claims that discarded plastic water bottles are contributing to global warming. A statement was issued by the Bottled Water Information Office to say it is an environmentally friendly industry following the news that the City of New York is running a campaign to encourage people to ditch bottled water and drink tap water instead to protect the environment. The BWIO said: “The very foundation of the industry is the protection of a precious natural resource and its use in a sustainable manner, and that ethos is applied in every aspect of the work of the industry. “Bottled water is most commonly packaged in either plastic (PET) or glass, which is totally safe and conforms to strict regulations on health and safety. By far the majority of bottled water (93 per cent) comes in plastic bottles which is totally recyclable. Bottles also carry messages urging the purchaser to recycle after use. The rest (around 7 per cent) comes in glass bottles, which can also be placed for recycling.”

• Government rejects call for 21 July inquiry - The Government has brushed aside opposition demands for an inquiry into intelligence failings that allowed four failed suicide bombers to slip through the net. The statement came as the jury in the 21 July terrorist trial was discharged after failing to reach verdicts on the last two defendants. Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Adel Yahya remained in custody pending a decision by the prosecution today on whether to press for a retrial.Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussain Osman, all convicted of conspiracy to murder at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday, will be sentenced today. Police and the security services have been accused of missing several opportunities to trap the gang. Ibrahim, the ringleader, was allowed to leave Britain to attend a terrorist training camp in Pakistan while facing charges over extremist behaviour.

• Big Mother is watching you - WHOEVER said childhood was the best time of your life must have been hit so hard by the playground bully that his memory never recovered. Of course, it is a time of wonder - but it's a time of jungle warfare, too. A time of vendettas, ambushes, alliances and betrayals; a time of being judged on appearances, of being terrified to walk home from school, of being afraid of ghosts. In short, it is part of life. It's only natural parents should want to protect their kids from life's knocks, and in a land crammed with more CCTV cameras than any other in the developed world, it's not surprising that technological ways are being developed to put their minds at test. Things can, however, be taken to extremes. Today's kids are part of the most over-protected generation Britain has ever seen.

Tuesday 10th July 2007: -

• US has spent over $600 billion on wars since 9/11 - The US has spent $610 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and on protecting its bases worldwide since the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a report released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said. The Bush administration spends on an average $12 billion a month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the report by the CRS, an independent research agency that provides research and analysis to lawmakers. Ten of the 12 billion dollars was spent for Iraq and nearly two billion for Afghanistan, plus other minor costs. So far Iraq has accounted for $450 billion, and in fiscal year 2007 alone, about $165.8 billion have been spent on Iraq, a rise of 40 percent from last year.

• Real 9/11 Heroes Speak Out Against Rudy: New York City firefighters are out to set the record straight on Rudy Giuliani's 9/11 legacy - It's been nearly six years since the 9/11 attacks and six months since former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided to grace the race for the Republican presidential nomination with his presence. Now unions representing New York's Bravest are popping a tough question. What on Earth did this man do on 9/11 and in its aftermath that was so breathtakingly heroic? More accurately, they are campaigning to expose how Giuliani short-changed and endangered the city's 11,000 firefighters over the course of two terms, and then went on to exploit their heroism during and after the 9/11 attacks for his own political advantage.

• Queen spared grilling over Diana's death - The Queen and Prince Philip will not have to answer questions from Mohamed Fayed about Diana, Princess of Wales, "at this stage", a coroner decided yesterday. Lord Justice Scott Baker, who will be holding the inquests later this year into the deaths of the princess and her companion Dodi Fayed, was responding to a request from a lawyer representing the Harrods owner. Michael Mansfield, QC, for Mr Fayed, wanted the Queen to be asked about a conversation she allegedly had with the former royal butler Paul Burrell, in which she was said to have mentioned "other forces, powers at work within the state".   (COMMENTARY: To be fair, what does it matter?... I mean it's not as if she's just going to admit "Oh yes, it was our Royal minions in the shadows of the intelligence network that did it!".)

• Green future demands a radical shift in lifestyles for British - MEAT-FREE menus, battery- operated cars and an end to affordable flights. These are among the radical visions outlined in a report which says Britain could be carbon neutral within 20 years - but only if major steps are taken to change our lifestyles. Tumble-dryers would disappear and an "armada" of wind turbines would need to be built around the coast to achieve the goal, says the research by scientists from the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). But there is scepticism as to whether any of the scenarios suggested in the report are achievable.

• Diana ratings dwarf Live Earth - The British TV audience for the Live Earth concerts was less than a third of that for last week's Concert for Diana. BBC One's average ratings between 2000 and 2200 BST on Saturday were 3.1 million, compared with 11.4 million for the Diana gig on the previous Sunday. Bad language by stars attracted more than 130 complaints to the BBC - but more than 400 complained about rock band Metallica's set being cut short.

• Windows Mobile phones boast fingerprint authentication - Toshiba Europe says it is now shipping two new phones featuring built-in fingerprint authentication. The Portege G500 and G900 are also claimed to be among the first shipping Windows Mobile 6.0. The G500 is a vertical slider device with a 2.3-inch display and a numeric keypad that slides out from the bottom. The G900 is a horizontal slider device with a 3 inch-wide display and a QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the side. Also featured on the G900 is a substantial display resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. Other than that, the two phones are basically the same device, complete with fingerprint recognition pads on their backs.   (HOW THIS WORKS: Get them used to finger scanning with trendy gadgets... make it the norm, then they wont resist fingerprint collecting by the government - i.e. to enter buildings, collect their kids from school, to pay for food etc.  Bollocks to the implications to freedom, I want my new phone!  It has one of those cool finger scanners... my mate Dave's got one.)

• 'Use children as medicine guinea pigs' - Children should be used as guinea pigs in clinical research to speed up medical breakthroughs and improve treatment for them, a leading expert says. About 40 per cent of medicines prescribed to children have never been tested on them. For newborn babies, the figure rises to 90 per cent. But scientists will only make real breakthroughs in children's medicine if they include children in research programmes as well as adults, Prof John Warner, a consultant paediatrician, says today at the opening of the Paediatric Research Unit in central London, Britain's first unit solely devoted to paediatric clinical research.

Monday 09th July 2007: -

• UK MORNING TV SHOW 'GMTV' SHILLING FOR HUMAN TAGGING: Click here to see the 'Tag Your Tots' infopage at the GMTV website - It is quite scary really, how this dangerous precedent with fundamental implications for human freedom is being promoted with a 'Free Wristbands' giveaway.  What's next... free lie detector kits?

• DIANA: FIAT DRIVER 'SHOT IN THE HEAD' - THE paparazzi photographer at the centre of investigations into Princess Diana’s death died with two bullet holes in his head, it is claimed. James Andanson, who followed the Princess’s every move in the week before her death, was thought to have committed suicide when his burnt corpse was found in the wreckage of a car in the French countryside. But now the fireman who discovered the body, Christophe Pelat, has said: “I saw him at close range and I’m absolutely convinced that he had been shot in the head, twice.”   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive)

• BBC fined over kids' show phone-in scam - Britain's BBC was ordered to pay an unprecedented 50,000 pound ($100,000) fine on Monday over a faked phone-in contest on its flagship children's TV show. The BBC was guilty of serious breaches of the broadcasting code by allowing a young studio guest to pose as a fake competition winner on the programme "Blue Peter", the regulator Ofcom ruled. It was the first time Ofcom had imposed a financial penalty on the public service broadcaster.

• Top Global Warming Advocate: Jupiter & Saturn Closer To Sun Than Earth: Live Earth kingpin dismantles his own credibility on national radio as propaganda bandwagon is massive flop - Live Earth's half empty stadiums and lackluster TV viewing figures were preceded by another embarrassment after one of the propaganda bandwagon's kingpins and a top global warming advocate responded to a question about solar-system wide climate change by claiming that Jupiter, Mars and Saturn were closer to the sun than Earth. David Mayer de Rothschild is the youngest child (born 1978) of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, of the British wing of the Rothschild banking family. Rothschild's recent book, 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate Changes, calls for ordinary people to limit outward behavior and even work at home and was used as part of the PR blitz to accompany the Live Earth project.

• Blair resolved to take out Saddam just HOURS after 9-11 atrocities - TONY Blair decided Saddam Hussein should be toppled within hours of the 9/11 attacks, Alastair Campbell's sensational diaries reveal today. He scrapped a planned speech to the TUC in Brighton as soon as he heard of the assaults on the World Trade Center, and boarded a train back to London. By the end of the journey he had made up his mind it was time to tackle rogue states - including Iraq.

• Minister has to deny linking Bush to 9/11 attack - A French Cabinet minister sought yesterday to play down remarks in which she appeared to say that President Bush may have been behind the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Christine Boutin, 63, Minister for Housing and Town Planning in President Sarkozy’s Government, said that her comments had been distorted in a video that was circulated on the internet. During an interview with a small French television channel in November, Ms Boutin was asked if the Bush Administration might have been involved in the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York, and the attack on the Pentagon. “I think it is possible,” she said. Ms Boutin, who is known for her conservative Catholic views, said in the interview that she had been impressed by the strength of opinion on the internet that favoured the notion of a US conspiracy in the 9/11 attacks. “I know that the websites that speak of this problem are websites that have the highest number of visits . . . And I tell myself that this expression of the masses and of the people cannot be without any truth,” she said.

• Reservist fighting his fifth war call-up: After serving in Afghanistan and three times in Iraq, an Army Reserve sergeant from Port St. Lucie recoiled at still another deployment - Erik Botta believes he's done right by his country. Days after 9/11, as a young Army reservist, he volunteered to go to war. He was soon in Afghanistan. The next year, he was sent out again, this time to Iraq, part of a Special Operations team. In the next two years, he was sent to Iraq again. And again. He thought he was done. But now, the Army wants Sgt. Botta one more time.

• Every child who enters Britain ‘must be tracked to thwart the slave trade’ - Every child entering the UK should have their biometrics taken in an attempt to stop the trafficking of children for sex, domestic slavery, street crime and drug smuggling. The plan to track children after they enter the UK comes in a Home Office-sponsored study, which admits that human trafficking is now a “real and significant threat” to the country. Children were being forced to work in cannabis factories, beg on the streets, turned into domestic “slaves” and drawn into the sex trade and benefit fraud, the report says. “The exercise has shown that child trafficking is a nationwide concern as it affects almost all parts of the United Kingdom.”

• In China, 2,000 officials flout 1-child policy - Over 2,000 politicians, legislators and 1,968 officials in central China’s Hunan Province have breached the nation’s one-child family planning policy between 2000 and 2005, the state media reported on Sunday. The Hunan Provincial Family Planning Commission said that 21 national and local legislators, 24 political advisors, 112 entrepreneurs and six senior intellectuals have also violated the mandatory norm. A total of 1,968 officials in Hunan have violated the one child family norm, the commission said.

• INDIA: Now, fingerprint test before you get your share of kerosene - It’s one initiative where technology has been effectively used to cut down the usual chaos in the public distribution system. Beginning the pilot project of selling kerosene oil only through matching of fingerprints of the ration card holder at Ramneek Sales Corp, Sector 15 C, the Food and Supplies department of UT says that the system would be replicated in the remaining eight depots soon. Reasons for going ahead with the new system are quite logical. The first step is to monitor the drop by drop sale of kerosene in the city to check pilferage or adulteration, and the subsequent aim will be to cut down the long queues by eliminating a number of ghost customers holding fake ration cards.

Sunday 08th July 2007: -

• Teachers question CCTV classrooms - TEACHERS are alarmed that surveillance cameras are being fitted in NSW classrooms, citing privacy concerns and fears of misuse. Some schools already have closed-circuit television cameras in outdoor areas, including playgrounds, but more are eager to install them inside classrooms and corridors. NSW Teachers Federation senior vice-president Bob Lipscombe said a growing number of teachers had spoken out in recent months, worried that the footage could be used inappropriately and that they would be filmed throughout their working day.

• Biometric worries at Abbey are ‘hullabaloo’ - One of the founders of a new Irish biometrics organisation has accused workers of ‘‘hysteria’’ for refusing to cooperate with a new biometric system. John Beckett, a founder of the Irish Biometrics Organisation (www.ibo.ie), said the ‘‘hullabaloo’’ about the system was unjustified. Members of the Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU) are still refusing to cooperate with a biometric system which was introduced by the Abbey Theatre last summer. The Labour Court had recommended that the workers cooperate with the system, and talks are continuing between theatre management and the union.

Saturday 07th July 2007: -

• Blair 'held secret talks with Diana' - Diana, Princess of Wales, secretly met Tony Blair to discuss her becoming a global ambassador for Britain, it was claimed last night. Details of the meetings, which are said to have begun before Mr Blair became prime minister in 1997 and continued when he took office, are due to be revealed in a new book by Alastair Campbell. The former Labour spin doctor, whose book The Blair Years is to be published on Monday, is said to give details of how the encounters were kept secret to avoid accusations that the princess was interfering in party politics.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive)

• In France, a senior pol dares to question the 9/11 tale - Today, nearly six years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, does anyone doubt the Bush administration and the mass media's grand narrative about just who was responsible for those shocking, sudden, well-coordinated and super-destructive events? Well, yes. For starters, on the strength of irrefutable evidence, the whole world has rejected George W. Bush, Jr. and Dick Cheney's repeated insinuations - which they used as a excuse to start the U.S.-led Iraq war - that the government of former dictator Saddam Hussein was somehow behind the attacks. That claim didn't square with the evidence that Al-Qaeda was responsible, since the terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden was not operating in Iraq at the time. In any case, today, still, there are some observers who doubt the established, now-familiar media story about the historic attacks that Team Bush seized upon to launch an aimless "war on terror." Apparently, one of them has landed a high-ranking government job in the cabinet of France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy.  That Doubting Thomas is Christine Boutin, France's new minister of housing and urban affairs.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Twin Towers hero speaks in East Lancs - William Rodriguez had been a janitor at the World Trade Center for 20 years when planes flew into the twin towers on September 11 2001 and killed almost 3,000 people. The 46-year-old from New Jersey is now travelling the world fighting for an international inquiry into the atrocities. Reporter Sam Shale met him when he arrived in Burnley last night. William Rodriguez was in the basement of the North Tower when the first attack came and led 15 people from the office to safety.   (COMMENTARY: As there are several 'trolls' roaming the internet and posting replies to news articles such as this, with a view to attacking 9/11 heroes such as William Rodriguez, we urge you to even the balance by adding your own views.  We aren't telling you what to say, merely speak your conscience.)

VIDEO CLIP FROM LAST NIGHTS EVENT IN BURNLEY: -

• Wichita Mother and Daughter Launch DIGIKIDS® Franchise, Making Advanced Child Safety ID Kits Available to Local Parents – The mother-daughter team of Marcia Duncan and Shandee Johnson have opened the newest office of DIGIKIDS®, the fast-growing business dedicated to putting parents in full control of their child's safety in the event the child is missing or abducted. Their business, based in Wichita and serving all of Sedgwick County, is the first DIGIKIDS franchise in Kansas and the 28th nationally. DIGIKIDS creates child safety ID kits that allow parents to quickly provide law enforcement officials, the media, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and other agencies with key information about the child to speed recovery.

• Use of British-Style Security Cameras Debated in U.S. - The average Londoner is caught on camera 300 times a day. That's because Britain has an estimated 5 million closed-circuit security cameras in operation nationwide -- one camera for every 12 people as of October 2006, according to The New Statesman. The cameras were thrust back into the news this week after the thwarted terrorist attacks in the country. Closed-circuit TVs captured the attempted Glasgow bombing. Officials have extensive video of the area of London where two car bombs were left. And a camera system that allows police to track license plates helped them find and stop two suspects on a major highway. Now, All Things Considered reports that calls are increasing for a similar style of camera network in the U.S.

• Blair's legacy is a nation engulfed by debt - Watching many British consumers en route to a debt crisis has been like observing drivers of cars with faulty brakes, heading confidently towards the edge of a cliff. When alerted to looming disaster, these debtors and motorists kept giving the same reply: "Relax, everything's in control." Then, whooosh! Over the past five or six years, cautious voices have warned eager borrowers that they were taking on far too much debt. Just because they could afford their monthly repayments (for now), it did not mean that "maxing out" on credit cards, overdrafts and mortgages was a smart move.

• Oldest DNA ever recovered shows warmer planet: report - Scientists who probed two kilometers (1.2 miles) through a Greenland glacier to recover the oldest plant DNA on record said Thursday the planet was far warmer hundreds of thousands of years ago than is generally believed. DNA of trees, plants and insects including butterflies and spiders from beneath the southern Greenland glacier was estimated to date to 450,000 to 900,000 years ago, according to the remnants retrieved from this long-vanished boreal forest. That contrasts sharply with the prevailing view that a lush forest of this kind could only have existed in Greenland as recently as 2.4 million years ago, according to a summary of the study, which is published Thursday in the journal Science. The samples suggest the temperature probably reached 10 degrees C (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and -17 C (1 F) in the winter.

Friday 06th July 2007: -

• Second UK Hotel Bans 9/11 Hero William Rodriguez - For the second time in less than a month, five times honoured 9/11 hero and last man out of the Twin Towers, William Rodriguez, has been banned from a British hotel. A hotel in Cumbria, the Graythwaite Manor, told William Rodriguez to stay away because of his “political views”. William Rodriguez is currently touring the UK on a mission to expose the truth about the events of 9/11 - but his presentation does not point the finger or make any accusations towards who might have been responsible for the horrific attacks in New York. (See the remaining tour dates here http://www.nineeleven.co.uk) He does however provide a startling first hand account of what happened which differs greatly from the official account, raising many unanswered questions. The banning is a very strange occurrence as William Rodriguez had previously been made very welcome at the hotel, in February of this year he planted a tree at the hotel’s grounds in remembrance of the 9/11 victims.

• Universities face security crackdown post 9/11 - The ever-tightening grip of post-9/11 security has extended beyond the airport and passport office to the university laboratory and construction site. Academic administrators and company safety officers are being pressured to meet stricter guidelines for handling and transporting radioactive materials, which could readily be used in dirty bombs designed to spread terror. It raises the question of how much is too much and whether more regulations will prevent dangerous items from going astray or falling into the wrong hands.

• Random student drug tests put in doubt: Opinion may affect Midstate schools - A new state attorney general's opinion could jeopardize random drug-testing programs at several Midstate high schools, including those in Wilson County. The opinion, issued this week, states that Tennessee school districts cannot randomly test students for drugs just because they participate in extracurricular activities. Despite two decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that random drug testing does not violate a student's rights, state law provides more protection than the U.S. Constitution against search and seizure.

• More kids to be tested – After reviewing this year’s random drug testing at Milford High School, administrators have decided to test more students next school year. The recently concluded school year was the first for the program, which randomly tested students involved in extracurricular activities and students who requested parking permits.

• Record fine for "Richard and Judy" phone-in - Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has launched an investigation into Channel 4 after the company responsible for the "You Say, We Pay" phone-in competition on the Richard and Judy show was fined a record 150,000 pounds. It was the biggest fine ever imposed by premium rate regulator ICSTIS which also ordered the phone service provider, Eckoh UK (ECK.L: Quote, Profile , Research), to provide refunds to all affected viewers. According to ICSTIS, viewers were asked to ring into a one pound-a-time quiz on the Richard and Judy show, even though winners had already been chosen.

• Prototype robot targets military, police needs: IRobot adds Taser stun gun to Pentium-based PackBot Explorer - IRobot Corp. plans next week to debut a prototype remote-controlled robot armed with a Taser electroshock weapon that it said can help the military on the battlefield or law enforcement agencies in dangerous situations. The small hybrid machine is based on Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot's Pentium-based PackBot Explorer robot. The hybrid, which adds a Taser X26 stun gun, stun gun to the robot, was developed jointly by iRobot and Taser International Inc. The hybrid will be unveiled during the annual Taser user conference that begins on Monday.   (RELATED: See our Cybernetic Dawn archive)

• Mothers in court for not sending their children to school - EDUCATION chiefs were slammed as "insensitive" by a mother taken to court for keeping her "suicidal" daughter off school. Julie Johnson refused to send 14-year-old Suzanne to Haling Manor after she slit her wrists, having allegedly been bullied there. The mother-of-four pleaded guilty at Croydon Magistrates' Court on Friday to failing to ensure her daughter attended lessons between October 30 last year and March 26. But the 44-year-old claims the council should have helped her rather than drag her before magistrates. She said: "The council seemed more interested in getting me up in court than listening to my concerns, which was so insensitive.

• Believe it or not: 60 years after incident, Roswell remains UFO hotbed - Sixty years ago, 75 miles northwest of Roswell, N.M., a weather balloon crashed onto a farmer's ranch. Or so says the official report. Thousands of alien experts and enthusiasts across the world believe the balloon was actually a flying saucer and that the event was evidence of life on other planets. This week, the 1947 Roswell incident celebrates its 60th anniversary. Today thousands of fans will flock to the desert town to celebrate the annual UFO festival, a weekend filled with alien-themed lectures, food and entertainment.   (PERSPECTIVE: 'Aliens' or not, see how the mindset of the public has been manipulated into favouring a one world government by the potential threat of an 'Extra Terrestrial Hypothesis' (ETH), see our related archive)

Thursday 05th July 2007: -

• School scans children's prints - A Bristol academy is to scan students' fingerprints to allow them to get their lunch. The £20,000 scheme will be launched at the City Academy - the first to be built in the city - from September. The school said the biometric system did not keep a photographic record, could not be used for police evidence and did not infringe civil liberties. It also plans to introduce biometric controls to get into the school from next term and to control printing. But Clare Stephenson, 43, who has a daughter in year 10 at the school, said she was outraged by the lack of discussion. "I am staggered that no consultation has been made with parents about this and it is being pushed through in time for the new school term," she said.

• Taxman may seize unpaid bills from bank accounts - People who fail to pay their tax bills could see the money taken directly from their bank account without a court order under new government plans. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said the new powers would let it recover unpaid tax more quickly to stop evaders hiding their money and assets. "In some cases, the time that the process takes allows the determined late payer to put assets out of reach before the order is made," it said. Taking money from accounts may be less disruptive than seeking county court judgements against people and taking items from their homes, it said in a report.

• Giuliani watchers wonder if he will overplay 9/11 card - Rudy Giuliani was just six seconds into his speech when he played his campaign trump card: the memory of the Sept. 11 attacks. "I'll tell you the reason I wear this flag," the former New York City mayor told supporters at a recent rally here, pointing to the American flag pin on his lapel. "Before September 11, I only wore this flag rarely. But I started wearing it right after September 11. I wear it every day now. Each time I wear it, it reminds me of September 11." For Giuliani, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and his response to them have become his strongest campaign pitch, as the GOP presidential candidate reminds voters again and again of the role he played when terrorists crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center towers, killing nearly 3,000 people.

• 'We've all been forgotten' say 30,000 UK flood victims - Anger was growing today among the "forgotten" victims of Britain's floods. Many of the estimated 30,000 people who are still homeless have been shocked by the slowness of the Government's response. Some have been told it could be a year or more before their homes are made fit to live in again.

• Sandwiches 'rival crisps on salt' - Pre-packed sandwiches may contain as much salt as several bags of crisps, a study carried out for the BBC suggests. The health lobby group Cash looked at 140 sandwiches on sale and found over 40% had 2g or more of salt - or a third of an adult's recommended daily intake. The "All Day Breakfast" variety were the worst offenders, but cheese and ham as well as chicken salad also featured. The British Sandwich Association said it had been working hard to reduce salt levels and the study was misleading.

• Turkish citizens to be issued electronic ID cards - Identification information will soon be stored in a single electronic card, according to a circular on the Citizenship Card Project, saying that an electronic card with biometric elements will be used for ID verification in the future. The new cards are expected to facilitate the ID verification process and minimize the number of misidentification incidents. The new IDs will first be used in the fields of health and social security. The pilot program was launched with a joint protocol agreed by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and Social Security Board (SGK). Within the three-stage pilot project, the citizenship card and card readers will be developed by the UEKAE, which will also create the operating system and run the tests of the applications.

• Doctors Weigh In on Human RFID Implants - The American Medical Association (AMA) has just released a report on the use of RFID implants to track medical patients (see Report of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs: Radio Frequency ID Devices in Humans). On the positive side, the report says that RFID tags could promote "the timely identification of patients and expedite access to their medical information," adding that the technology could also "improve the continuity and coordination of care, with resulting reduction in adverse drug events and other medical errors." Finally, the document notes, RFID could make medical processes more efficient, enabling caregivers to quickly access diagnostic tests and other patient information. The powerful AMA, however, did not give the technology a blanket endorsement. Rather, the report indicated: "These devices may present physical risks to the patient. Though they are removable, their small size allows them to migrate under the skin, making them potentially difficult to extract."

• Britons Drowning in Personal Debt - Due to frivolous spending, expanding school costs and burgeoning fuel prices over the past several years, Britain now ranks as one of the most debt-ridden nations, surpassing the United States and all other European countries. A report issued by Credit Action, a British financial education organization, found that Britain’s personal debt is increasing by one million pounds every four minutes.

Wednesday 04th July 2007: -

• 9-11 attacks continue to haunt US health - Almost six years after the terrorist attacks on America, the medical fall-out continues. Thousands of rescue workers, volunteers and residents have experienced a range of illnesses thought to be related to the toxic mix of air at the site of ground zero. Meanwhile a series of congressional hearings are investigating the way New York authorities handled the clean-up.

• Academic claims contactless payments pose data security risk - With the number of trials of contactless payment cards groing, a leading academic security researcher has raised concerns over the level of data security in place to safeguard sensitive information during the transaction. The rise of contactless payment systems, which use RFID technology to transmit customer credit card information to a retailer's reading device, is posing a substantial risk of fraud and the theft of personal data, experts have warned. Visa, MasterCard and other card companies are claiming that systems used by retailers will generally be secure enough to make contactless payment work safely. They have begun trialling a number of uses of the technology in the UK and around the world.

• D.C. Boosts Security For Holiday Festivities: Officials Increase Patrols, Tighten Parking Rules - Authorities in Washington and other U.S. cities announced increased security measures yesterday to thwart the possibility of a car bomb targeted at Fourth of July celebrations, after three terrorism attempts in London and Glasgow last week. D.C. police officers announced extra restrictions on parking, urged local companies to report unusual sales of propane and said they are even enlisting parking enforcement workers to report cars that appear to be sagging or emitting an acrid odor.

Tuesday 03rd July 2007: -

• MI5 'knew of plot in advance' - The internet was buzzing with claims yesterday that MI5 had prior intelligence on the London car bomb attack. The suggestion was fuelled by the fact that nightclubs were warned a few weeks ago by police that they were potential targets for car bombers. An advice booklet for bars, pubs and nightclubs was produced by the security services and included a section on "vehicle borne improvised explosive devices".  But a Whitehall source said that the booklet's distribution to clubs just a few weeks ago was long-planned and "purely coincidental''. MI5 said it had no advance intelligence of the Haymarket bombs, though the threat level had been at ''severe''. However, MI5 may have been monitoring those involved in a cell at some stage - which, if true, could provoke claims that they were allowed to slip through the net.

• Website That Predicted London Bombs an Intelligence Agency Front: Fellow jihadist forums claim Al Hesbah infiltrated and controlled by ISI, CIA - An Islamic website that carried a doomsday message that "London shall be bombed" before the discovery of two crude car bombs in London last week was notorious for having long been infiltrated and controlled by intelligence agencies and spooks who were trying to entrap suspected terrorists. Hours before London explosives technicians dismantled a large car bomb in the heart of the British capital's tourist-rich theater district, a message appeared on one of the most widely used jihadist Internet forums, saying: "Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed," reported CBS News on Friday.

• PROBLEM > REACTION > SOLUTION: UK forced to confront wider threat - Two years ago, the perception about what constituted the greatest terrorist threat to Britain shifted dramatically. The July 7 2005 suicide bomb attacks on the London transport system suggested the main threat came not from abroad but from home-grown groups, people born and brought up in the UK. Though the 7/7 bombers are now known to have received training or indoctrination from al-Qaeda groups on the Pakistan-Afghan border, they were radicalised in England. The British government reacted by boosting the budget of MI5, the domestic security service, the police and other security agencies, in part to get closer to the communities from which the extremists sprung.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• 'Scepticism' over climate claims - The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested. The Ipsos Mori poll of 2,032 adults - interviewed between 14 and 20 June - found 56% believed scientists were still questioning climate change. There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found. The Royal Society said most climate scientists believed humans were having an "unprecedented" effect on climate.

• Giuliani Camp Hits Back At NYC Firefighters For 9-11 Criticism - Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign yesterday slammed the city's fire-union head for vowing to derail his candidacy, saying the former mayor respects firefighters and showed it when he was in City Hall. "Rudy Giuliani has tremendous respect for firefighters and has proven that time and time again, including reopening firehouses that had been closed by previous mayors and allocating millions of dollars for life-saving equipment," said Giuliani senior adviser Anthony Carbonetti.

Monday 02nd July 2007: -

• Fidel Castro: CIA is a 'killing machine' - Ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro in new article published by Cuban press on Sunday accused the United States of having turned the CIA into a worldwide "killing machine." US President George W Bush "has implemented powerful and expensive intelligence and security superstructures and has turned all his air, sea and land forces into instruments of world power that bring war, injustice, hunger and death in every part of the globe", said Castro. The article is the first official reaction by Castro, who temporarily left power almost a year ago to recover from a number of surgeries, to the release last Tuesday of CIA documents outlining a range of activities that included plans to kill him by enlisting the help of the mafia in the early 1960s.

• Glasgow terror suspect "is no extremist": Jordanian family - A Jordanian arrested as a suspect in the weekend's string of terror attacks in Glasgow and London is a 'brilliant' doctor and has never been recruited in extremist organisations, family members and university professors insisted in Jordan Monday. They said Mohammad Jamil Abdul Qader al-Asha, a 26-year post- graduate of Palestinian origin, planned to visit Jordan on July 12. 'He called me three days ago to check the body sizes of his six brothers and two sisters,' said his father, Jamil. 'My son wanted to buy them gifts from Britain before his departure.'

• Mugabe to be invited to EU summit - Portugal is planning to invite Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to a European Union summit in December - but is hoping that he will not attend. Mr Mugabe and other Zimbabwean leaders are banned from the EU, but plans to hold an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon could collapse unless he is asked. The plan to send an invitation has been branded a "disgrace" by a British MEP.

• Bank charges 'cripple most vulnerable' - Bank charges "cripple" Britain's most vulnerable customers, the National Consumer Council (NCC) said yesterday. Amid a mass revolt against penalty fees, the consumer group asked regulators to ensure that low-income groups were not unfairly punished by them. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating the operation of current accounts before deciding what to do about fees for unauthorised borrowing. Charges for overdrafts or bounced cheques can be more than £30 despite estimates that they cost banks only a few pounds. In its submission to the OFT inquiry, the NCC urged the organisation to insist on higher standards of transparency from the banking system. The NCC said in a statement: "As unfair banking charges cripple Britain's most vulnerable current account holders, the National Consumer Council is calling on banks to be transparent and provide better, clearer and more upfront information to their customers."

• EU pours £3.8bn into 'brainwashing campaign' - The European Union is spending £3.8 billion a year on "propaganda" to win over its sceptical citizens, it is claimed. As well as publishing a plethora of pamphlets and employing an army of public relations staff, the EU has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on teaching aids, school trips and even cartoons. According to Lee Rotherham, the author of a new book which examines the EU's spending on its image, such initiatives are an "outrageous and cynical attempt to brainwash the young". The Europa Diary, a gift from the EU to schoolchildren, is one example cited by Mr Rotherham in Hearts & Minds: the Tax-funded PR Campaign to Make us Love Brussels.

• How Cheney abused his power in war on terror - Vice-President Dick Cheney was personally responsible for American policies that subjected terrorist suspects to cruelty and denied them the right to a fair trial, according to revelations from senior US government officials. The details have laid bare more than ever before the remarkable influence of Mr Cheney in shaping the prosecution of the war on terror which led to the scandals at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. The claims that Mr Cheney manoeuvred to circumvent both American and international law came as the vice-president last week faced three new congressional demands that he release information on his activities.

• The toxic fallout of the Sept. 11 attacks - It is clear that Christie Whitman and other officials didn’t do nearly enough to warn people of the pollution danger after the collapse of the World Trade Center. And the government still isn’t doing enough to protect people in Lower Manhattan from 9/11’s toxic legacy. Those conclusions are not new. But their truth was poignantly highlighted at a lengthy congressional hearing on the toxic fallout of the Sept. 11 attacks. At one point, Rep. Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, told Whitman, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator at the time of the attacks, that she should read the reports from Mt. Sinai Medical Center and elsewhere on the health fallout from the collapse of the Twin Towers.

• Two judges quit Project Censored to protest 9/11 story - Chances are, the resignation of two judges from Project Censored won’t be included in the organization’s next list of overlooked news stories. But rest assured — there’s no conspiracy afoot. Judges Robert Jensen, a journalism professor, and Norman Solomon, a syndicated columnist, severed their ties with the national media watchdog group over its decision last year to highlight the controversial theories of physics professor Steven Jones, a critic of the 9/11 Commission findings. Jones hypothesizes that the Sept. 11, 2001, collapse of the World Trade Center towers was the result of controlled detonation of military-grade explosives rather than fires caused by two passenger jets that slammed into the buildings. His views, which are available online at Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice (stj911.org), have been largely passed over or dismissed by mainstream news outlets.

• Bosses face new privacy laws in toilets - Victorian bosses who put surveillance devices in workplace toilets and change rooms will face two years' jail and a $26,000 fine under new laws beginning on Sunday. The workplace privacy laws are a response to a Victorian Law Reform Commission inquiry, which found workplaces were not covered enough by laws on privacy issues. Advances in technology have created an unprecedented capacity for bosses to watch their workers, Victoria's acting Industrial Relations Minister Daniel Andrews said. "Employers legitimately have a need to use surveillance in some work areas, but there are limits," Mr Andrews said.

• Europe set to lift ban on GM crops - The European commission is about to give the go-ahead to the first commercially grown genetically modified crops since a public outcry nine years ago halted their cultivation, writes Jonathan Leake. The commission has begun the final approval stages for at least four applications by biotech companies to let farmers grow GM potatoes and maize in British and European fields. The first crop is expected to be given the go-ahead by the end of this month. “We hope that it will have been approved . . . so that it will be ready for planting next year,” said a spokesman for BASF, the German company that created the potato. Such a move could reignite the pan-European backlash against GM crops of the late 1990s, which forced the European Union to impose an effective moratorium on the crops in 1998.

Sunday 01st July 2007: -

• Ex-CIA Man Exposes Hysteria Of Car "Bomb" Terror: London car bombs would not have killed anyone, government using terrorist tactics by hyping fear to morph society - Countering the frothing rabid hysteria that is being whipped up by a fervent media in response to three failed car "bomb" attacks in the last few days in the UK, ex-CIA agent Larry Johnson joined Keith Olbermann to underscore the truth behind the madness - that the so-called bombs were primitive at best and would not have killed anybody.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• Brown warns of 'sustained' threat - Prime Minister Gordon Brown today warned that the terror threat to Britain was "long-term and sustained" as the country remained on its highest state of alert after three failed car bombings in London and Glasgow. Mr Brown said Britain`s message to the terrorists must be: "We will not yield, we will not be intimidated and we will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life."   (COMMENTARY: 'Sustained threat'?... yeah you, you bugger!)

• England goes smoke free - A ban on smoking in public places came into effect in England today at 6am, spelling an end to drinkers having a cigarette with their pint in pubs, bars and clubs. England is the final part of the UK to introduce a ban, after Wales and Northern Ireland in April and Scotland last March. The Republic of Ireland made the move three years ago. Newly-appointed Health Secretary Alan Johnson hailed the ban as a big step towards a healthier population.   (RELATED EXTERNAL ARTICLE: Smoking Is Healthier Than Fascism)

• Schools Biometric Company Linked To Gitmo - VeriCool, one of the companies responsible for fingerprinting thousands of British school children, has been linked to inhumane detention centres, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. A startling development as the British government seemingly knows no limits when it comes to - not only the risks of mass surveillance - but is also willing to support immoral and unethical corporations using their technology on our children. VeriCool has installed fingerprinting systems including registration and cashless lunch systems in at least 22 British schools. Anteon, parent company of VeriCool, was recently bought by General Dynamics Information Technology, a defence who also trained Guantanamo Bay interrogators.

• Unpicking the Lockerbie truth - It is more than 18 years since the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 killed 270 people in Lockerbie. Yet serious questions remain over who was behind the worst mass murder in British history. The credibility of one of the most complex international terrorism investigations conducted by British police may hinge on the simple question of who bought a handful of clothes in a shop in Malta in December 1988 and whether the Christmas lights in the street outside were switched on at the time. Last week a Scottish judicial body ruled that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was sentenced to 27 years in a Scottish prison for his role in the attack, might have been wrongly convicted.

• Two thirds of Americans don't know in what year US invaded Iraq - Nearly two thirds of all Americans do not know in what year US invaded Iraq, and less than half have an idea about the US casualty figures in Iraq, latest Pew Research poll shows. Only 38% of a nationally representative sample of 1,017 American adults were able to correctly state that US invaded Iraq in 2003, while more than a third of the respondents incorrectly picked the year of the invasion was 2002, while 9% and 4% picked 2004 and 2005 respectively. Less than half of the respondents knew that approximately 3,500 American soldiers were killed since the beginning of the war, with 40% either underestimating the figure, or being ignorant of the number of US casualties in Iraq.

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