Wednesday 31st May 2006: -

• Tax on e-mails, SMS mulled - European Union lawmakers are investigating a proposed tax on e-mails and mobile phone text messages as a way to fund the bloc. A European Parliament working group is reviewing the idea, tabled by Alain Lamassoure, a prominent French MEP and member of the centre-right European People’s Party, the assembly’s largest group. Lamassoure, a member of Jacques Chirac’s UMP party, is proposing to add a tax of around 1.5 cents on text or SMS messages and a 0.00001 cent levy on every e-mail sent.

Tuesday 30th May 2006: -

• 'New evidence' found in Diana probe - The man leading the investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, has said that fresh witnesses and forensic evidence has been gathered. Sir John Stevens made the disclosure during an interview, but refused to elaborate on the nature of the new material, admitting that he had revealed more than he intended to. The former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police was speaking at the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye on a range of subjects that included the controversial proposed police mergers and how to combat the increased threat of terrorism in the United Kingdom after 9/11. When asked by the festival's director, Peter Florence, about his inquiry into the events leading to Diana and Dodi Al Fayed's deaths in August 1997, Sir John said: "We've got new witnesses and new forensic evidence."   (COMMENTARY: Be aware, there is a real possibly that this is a set up... i.e. to lead nowhere, 'steam-valving' the publics interest... get them worked up about 'something that is coming' (but don't tell them what it is)... then when it comes and turns out to be sketchy at best, the anti-climax turns people off. Rather like the recent Pentagon video) (RELATED: See our popular 'Diana Assassination' archive)

A book of particular interest to listeners of today's 'Deadline Live' radio show (with host Jack Blood): -

• Babies aborted for not being perfect - The ethical storm over abortions has been renewed as it emerged that terminations are being carried out for minor, treatable birth defects. Late terminations have been performed in recent years because the babies had club feet, official figures show. Other babies were destroyed because they had webbed fingers or extra digits.

• Parliament peace protest continues until July - Peace protestor Brian Haw will be allowed to continue his demonstration outside Parliament until July 11. Mr Haw, 57, appeared at Bow Street magistrates court this morning accused of breaching the conditions of his protest on May 16 because his makeshift peace camp on Parliament Square had stretched to more than 120ft. Bail conditions previously imposed demanded that the peace camp does not exceed three metres in width, two metres in height and one metre in depth. The charge was brought under the new SOCPA (Serious Organised Crime and Police Act) regulations which are designed to prevent protests within one kilometre of Parliament.

• Witness: Saddam 'victims' alive - A witness in the trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has said at least 23 of the 148 Shia villagers said to have been executed are in fact alive. Saddam and seven co-defendants are on trial over the deaths of 148 men and teenagers after a failed attempt on Saddam's life in Dujail in 1982. "The prosecutor said they were executed but I am telling you I ate with them some time ago," said the witness. The defendants have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

• Anti-War Protesters Hit With Pepper Spray - Police fired pepper spray as about 150 anti-war protesters tried to enter the Port of Olympia as part of ongoing demonstrations against the shipment of Army equipment to Iraq. Protesters chanted "Out of Olympia, Out of Iraq" as they rocked a chain-link gate to the port late Monday, and at least three tried to use wooden boards to pry the gate open, The Olympian newspaper reported. A 50-ton piece of equipment was moved to reinforce the gate on the other side.

Monday 29th May 2006: -

• Radio chip tracking raises privacy concerns - Major corporations in Canada have quietly started using implanted radio chips to track the movement of products and their secretive behaviour and potential for using the technology to invade the private lives of Canadians has raised serious alarm with the federal privacy commissioner. The technology, called radio frequency identification (RFID) is poised to radically expand the ability of corporations to spy on customers' shopping habits, track items in homes and allow the government to monitor the movement of immigrants.

• Scientists fear MMR link to autism - New American research shows that there could be a link between the controversial MMR triple vaccine and autism and bowel disease in children. The study appears to confirm the findings of British doctor Andrew Wakefield, who caused a storm in 1998 by suggesting a possible link. Now a team from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina are examining 275 children with regressive autism and bowel disease - and of the 82 tested so far, 70 prove positive for the measles virus. Last night the team's leader, Dr Stephen Walker, said: 'Of the handful of results we have in so far, all are vaccine strain and none are wild measles. 'This research proves that in the gastrointestinal tract of a number of children who have been diagnosed with regressive autism, there is evidence of measles virus.

• Music 'can reduce chronic pain' - Research has confirmed listening to music can have a significant positive impact on perception of chronic pain. US researchers tested the effect of music on 60 patients who had endured years of chronic pain. Those who listened to music reported a cut in pain levels of up to 21%, and in associated depression of up to 25%, compared to those who did not listen.

• Children Make Fingerprint IDs - On Saturday, Henderson police provided fingerprint processing for children at the grand opening of a Fast Payday Loans store. The prints will be put on file to help authorities and parents be better prepared in the event of an Amber Alert. Organizers say they appreciate the opportunity to highlight this important program. Parents received a copy of their child's fingerprints for verification in case of an emergency.

• A Construction Drill Provides A Martial Law Drill: Capitol shutdown highlights manic panic of post-9/11 mentality - The over hyped false alarm of a construction drill that caused a mass panic over rumors of gunshots in the Rayburn Building on Friday and the way in which it was reported by the servile media was a means of indoctrinating Americans to the procedure of martial law lock down of a major city. Following reports of gunfire in the Rayburn Building, House members were ordered to stay inside and shut all the doors. Parts of the Capitol complex, including the Capitol itself, were locked down during the height of the search.

Sunday 28th May 2006: -

• Murtha: New scandal worse than Abu Ghraib - The fallout from the killing of as many as two dozen Iraqi civilians by Marines could undermine U.S. efforts in Iraq more than the Abu Ghraib prison scandal did, a lawmaker who is a prominent war critic said Sunday. The shootings last November at Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents, were covered up, said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. "Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" Murtha said on "This Week" on ABC. "We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command."

• High-tech tags may track kids in TUSD (USA): Radio devices show when pupils get on, off buses - Millions of consumers pay extra to put tracking devices in their cars in case of theft. But would parents want to shell out more money for something similar for their children? And would schools go for it? The answer seems to be yes. School districts around the nation are starting to hold themselves more accountable for the students they're paid to teach and protect. As part of the growing trend, officials in the Tucson Unified School District already are testing new technology that helps keep track of elementary students during the school day.

• Mayor to launch CCTV camera boost: Increased security is promised with five new CCTV cameras due to go live in a Birmingham suburb - The move comes after the community and Birmingham City Council worked together to help combat crime and reduce the fear of criminal activity locally. The £77,000 cameras, funded by the Sparkbrook Town Centre management budget, join the existing CCTV network.

• At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert - More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted the armed forces since the start of the 2003 Iraq war, the BBC has discovered. It comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country. During 2005 alone, 377 people deserted and are still missing. So far this year another 189 are on the run.

Saturday 27th May 2006: -

• Call for database to track vulnerable children - The Government should set up a database to track the vulnerable children who drop out before secondary school, it was claimed today. There are up to 1,000 children, mainly from disadvantaged areas and the travelling community, who leave school before the age of 12. Sinn Féin TD Sean Crowe said a primary school pupils database would allow the Government to track these children.

• The secret NSA Diana tapes: Spy chiefs face revelations over deaths of princess, lover – Gen. Michael Hayden, the new head of the CIA and the former chief of the National Security Agency who is due in London at the end of the month for a meet-and-greet visit with Britain's intelligence chiefs, will face some tough questions from Lord Stevens, the former head of Scotland Yard. Known as "The Grand Inquisitor," Stevens is leading the long-running investigation into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover, Dodi al-Fayed. Stevens already has conducted lengthy interviews with Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5; Sir John Scarlett, director-general of MI6; and his predecessor, Sir Richard Dearlove. They have all handed over secret files on the deaths. But intelligence sources in London and Washington have confirmed it is the potentially explosive evidence that NSA holds which could send the Stevens inquiry deep into what one source called "where Royal glitz met the underbelly of intelligence."   (RELATED: See our popular 'Diana Assassination' archive)

• Metal detectors in UK schools plea after latest stabbing - Campaigners renewed their calls for metal detectors in schools today following the stabbing of a teenager in Birmingham. The issue was already in the spotlight after 15-year-old Kiyan Prince was stabbed to death outside the gates of his north London school eight days ago. After the tragedy schools minister Jim Knight appeared to rule out their introduction as being a "reaction too fast at the moment". But Dee Edwards, of campaign group Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA), said today's incident was further evidence of a growing knife crime culture.

• HERDING THE ANIMALS: Security Scores Big at World Cup Tournament - FIFA's soccer spectacle will use lots of technology to keep the games safe - Germany is anxious--in both senses of the word--about next month's World Cup soccer tournament. The country is thrilled to host one of the most coveted sports events on the planet. Yet it's also worried that something could go wrong, terribly wrong, as it did in 1972 when Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. More than three decades later, Germany is once again a global showplace. And, sadly, the potential for something to go wrong is as great--if not greater--than it was then.

• Scientists conjure true 'cloaking' device - A way to vanish matter before your eyes has become a serious possibility thanks to theoretical research announced today by British and American scientists. When built, the device theorised by the research could achieve a similar magical effect to that seen in Harry Potter movies, where the trainee wizard dons a special cape and becomes invisible. The research suggests a way to build a 'cloaking' or shielding device that renders whatever is placed inside it invisible. It would also nullify the effects of other electromagnetic radiation - meaning that objects sitting within the cloak would be impervious to radar detection.

• British Rapper MIA Denied Entry Into U.S. - British rapper MIA was reportedly refused a visa by American immigration officials due to the political content of her lyrics. MIA's lyrics are said to support the Sri Lankan political group Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan armed forces. The rapper, born Maya Arulpragasa, was planning to visit the United States to work on her new album with various Hip-Hop producers.

• CANADA: Police state looms as Vancouver engages in the War on Terror - Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham last week breezily invoked the American-invented War on Terror to justify his proposal to install police video cameras around the city’s public spaces. In an interview May 19 with Bill Good on CKNW radio, he said public cameras would help in the Vancouver Police Department’s contribution to the War on Terror, before he went on to dismiss critics warning of privacy invasions with the usual corker, “If you’re doing nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to hide.”

• Attack victim denied payout because he swore at yobs - A father who was struck on the head with a nail-studded post has been refused compensation because he swore at his attacker. Jonathan Wright, 33, suffered a three-inch gash to his head and still suffers from pain in his ear almost two years after the assault. He had gone to remonstrate with three teenagers who were swearing and causing a nuisance outside his home as his two young children played in the garden.

Friday 26th May 2006: -

• SCHOOL ROLL CALL WITH A FINGERPRINT: A fingerprint recognition system will replace the traditional morning and afternoon roll-call at King's School, Grantham, from September - Paper registers will be redundant when the school becomes the first in the area to use biometric technology to register students and monitor absences. Work began last week to install 16 electronic terminals students will use to scan their fingerprints before morning and afternoon lessons.

• 9/11 Commission report is a lie, says top Seattle newspaper: Writing about a speech by one of the members of the 9/11 Commission, P-I columnist Joel Connelly claimed: "Each of us needs to understand why we are doing what we are doing." ("Sept. 11 show the flaws with protocol," May 8).  Indeed! The problem is that the "why" we have been told appears to be a complete fiction. Connelly seems to assume that because the 9/11 Commission was bipartisan that we should accept its conclusions and recommendations. But is that true? Is the commission's story credible?

• Axcess Enhances RFID Method for Vehicle Tracking - Axcess International Inc. unveiled today an enhanced method for providing positioning and directional capabilities for RFID applications. The Dual Activator product is based on the company's ActiveTag platform that enables automatic tracking of personnel, assets and vehicles in multiple industries that use this capability for security, logistics and operations effectiveness.

• Is business the real Big Brother?: Monitoring and surveillance of employees and customers by big business is now commonplace - It's increasingly a feature of our daily lives, because businesses have found that it makes good business sense. But is corporate snooping out of control? In Britain, we are all familiar with the CCTV cameras that have sprung up across our city centres and transport networks. We generally accept that they are there to counter crime and help monitor traffic flows on our busy roads. But how many of us realise that when we travel about, each of us is captured, on average, 300 times a day on CCTV, and should we be concerned?

Thursday 25th May 2006: -

• DHS Subcommittee Advises Against RFID: A draft report from a DHS advisory group argues that the benefits from using RFID-enabled documents to verify an individual's identity are overshadowed by the risks to personal privacy - RFID might be a great technology for identifying and tracking goods, but according to a draft report from a subcommittee of the Privacy Office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it's not a panacea for long lines and forged IDs at border crossings and airports. Furthermore, the report claims, its use could weaken the privacy of individuals whose government-issued identity documents might carry RFID tags. The report urges the DHS to consider "other technologies that may serve the same [identification] goals with less risk to privacy."

• FCC Refuses to Investigate Telephone Carriers for Illegal Call Monitoring - The Federal Communications Commission has decided not to investigate claims that three major American telephone providers broke the law by helping the National Security Agency compile a massive database of customer call records. FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin, said in a letter to Massachusetts congressman, Edward Markey, that the Commission could not investigate this issue because of its “classified nature.” Markey is now calling for a congressional inquiry into the telephone companies’ involvement, saying that this investigation is too important to simply abandon.

• Research Shows Tasers Can Kill Pigs and Humans - Madison: New research shows it is possible for a Taser to kill a pig. Therefore, in rare cases a taser could kill a human. John Webster is a UW Professor of Biomedical Engineering. His research on pigs and tasers is not welcome among Taser manufacturers. "I think they'd prefer that I go away." That's because research funded by Taser International says tasers can't kill, but Professor Webster says otherwise. His study measured how close a taser needle needed to get to a pig heart to send it into shock. "We could take a normal taser dart and start it some distance away and gradually move it in towards the heart until the heart went into ventricular fibrillation."

• School blogs censored - A US school district has created a new rule that will punish students for web postings that depict underage drinking, smoking or other "illegal or inappropriate behaviour". The move caused some parents to complain that the Illinois school district is invading the privacy of students and overstepping its bounds, The Chicago Tribune reported. As parents, "we have to watch what they're doing," said Mary Greenberg, who has a son at Libertyville High school north of Chicago. "I don't think they need to police what students are doing online. That's my job."

• Web inventor warns of 'dark' net - The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said. Recent attempts in the US to try to charge for different levels of online access web were not "part of the internet model," he said in Edinburgh. He warned that if the US decided to go ahead with a two-tier internet, the network would enter "a dark period".

• Secret FEMA Plan To Use Pastors as Pacifiers in Preparation For Martial Law: Nationwide initiative trains volunteers to teach congregations to "obey the government" during seizure of guns, property, forced inoculations and forced relocation - A Pastor has come forward to blow the whistle on a nationwide FEMA program which is training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to "obey the government" in preparation for a declaration of martial law, property and firearm seizures, and forced relocation. In March of this year the Pastor, who we shall refer to as Pastor Revere, was invited to attend a meeting of his local FEMA chapter which circulated around preparedness for a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural disaster or a nationally declared emergency.

Wednesday 24th May 2006: -

• NHS Should Stop Funding Alternative Therapies, Say UK Top Doctors - Some eminent British doctors are urging the National Health Service (NHS) to stop paying for alternative therapies. They argue that these ‘bogus' therapies are not proven according to ‘solid evidence'. While UK patients are being denied such drugs as Herceptin, the NHS, which is strapped for cash, should not be paying for ‘unproven or disproved treatments', such as homeopathy.

• Police begin knife amnesty in the UK - A nationwide knife amnesty begins across the country today - the first of its kind for 10 years. For the next five weeks - until June 30 - people will be able to hand in all bladed instruments without fear of reprisal. The initiative is being backed by police forces throughout England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Scotland is running its own amnesty concurrently. Secure bins will be placed in the public reception areas of most police stations to encourage people to hand in their weapons.

• Euan Blair 'Wins' Scholarship To Skull and Bones Yale - DOWNING Street was under pressure last night to explain how Euan Blair has secured a Pounds 50,000 scholarship at a leading American university. Yale, the Ivy League institution where President George W Bush and Bill Clinton studied, has offered the Prime Minister's son a two- year postgraduate place. Insiders said it was highly unusual for anyone to land a scholarship with fees paid. Students generally pay their own way.

• Heavy marijuana use not linked to lung cancer - Despite popular belief, a new study shows that people who smoke marijuana do not appear to be at increased risk of developing lung cancer. It seems even heavy, long-term marijuana users do not appear to increase the risk of head and neck cancers, such as cancer of the tongue, mouth, throat, or esophagus. Senior researcher, Donald Tashkin, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles says the findings were a surprise as they expected to find that a history of heavy marijuana use would increase the risk of cancer from several years to decades after exposure to marijuana.

Tuesday 23rd May 2006: -

• SYMBOL OF FREE SPEECH AND DISSENT AGAINST TERROR DESTROYED: Anti-war protest placards seized - Police have removed placards belonging to anti-war protester Brian Haw at his long-running demonstration outside Parliament. Mr Haw said he had been left with just one placard after officers took the action over alleged breaches of his demonstration conditions. Earlier this month, Court of Appeal judges overturned a ruling that allowed him to carry out his round-the-clock vigil which he began in June 2001. Mr Haw, who was not evicted from Parliament Square, said his large display of anti-war banners, placards and flags had been "completely destroyed". He said: "They have left me with just (one) placard. All of my personal belongings have been taken and dumped in a container along with nearly all the displays. "They have completely destroyed all the expressions of people who opposed the war in Iraq. What gives them the legal right to remove 40m of evidence of genocide and reduce it to just 3m?" The legal size of the protest - 3m - was imposed by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (Socpa) 2005.    (RELATED: See our section 'Brian Haw's Parliament Square Protest' for more info)

• West's 'terror deceptions' rapped - Governments have sacrificed principles and ignored human rights in the name of the "war on terror", says a leading rights group in its annual report. But Amnesty International celebrates what it calls a "wake-up call" issued to governments over the last year. It says their "doublespeak and deception have been exposed by the media, challenged by activists and rejected by the courts". The report highlights crises which it says have been ignored in this climate.

• German Court Rules Against Random Searches for Terror Suspects - Germany's highest court has ruled that random data profiling for terror suspects is legal only when the country faces a specific threat to security or lives. Germany's Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that the general threat of terror since September 11, 2001, does not warrant random profiling. Analysts say the ruling could force many German states to revise laws on random searches.

• Tom Cruise Stands Firm on Anti-depressants Issue: Cruise says that antidepressants are harmful drugs as part of a machine - Tom Cruise will not let this anti-depressant issue go, and is refusing to back down from his stand against psychiatry and anti-depressants. For the most part, Cruise says the antidepressant drugs harm people. Mr Cruise, who is a devout Scientologist, wants to make people aware of the harm they are in for even though he knows that his opinions are unpopular.

• Summer crackdown for city police: Police in Bristol have launched a new initiative against street robbery during the summer months - Additional high-visibility patrols and greater use of plain clothes officers will be used in some of the city's robbery hotspots. Operation Beet would run until the end of June, a police spokesman said. Young people are also to be encouraged to register high-value equipment on the national Immobilise database which helps to identify stolen property.

Monday 22nd May 2006: -

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Bilderberg to Meet in Canada - The secretive group known as Bilderberg will hold its annual secret meeting at the posh Brook Street Resort a few miles from Ottawa, Canada, June 8-11. The location and part of the agenda was disclosed to American Free Press by a source inside Bilderberg’s inner circle. High on the Bilderberg’s secret agenda this year are oil prices and the political upheaval in Latin America. When meeting last year in Rottach-Egern, Germany, Bilderberg called for dramatic increases in the price of oil. Oil prices started climbing immediately from $40 a barrel to $70. Whether Bilderberg will call for still higher prices is unclear, but Henry Kissinger and others had gleefully anticipated ultimate prices at $150 a barrel a year ago. Bilderberg is certainly concerned about supply, which is related to the “Latin American problem,” as one insider said.

• Obesity tests: The fat police: Every four-year-old in the country to be officially screened - Primary schoolchildren are to be routinely weighed and their parents told if they are obese in a controversial initiative to tackle the worsening health crisis, The Independent on Sunday can today reveal. Ministers have decided to overrule the Children's Commissioner and their own child health officials, who fear that telling parents the test results will stigmatise some children.

• Apology to woman listed as thief - The head of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has apologised to a woman rejected for teaching jobs after she was wrongly said to have convictions. Emma Budd, from Maesteg, was shown to have theft convictions on a CRB check made by potential employers. She is one of an estimated 2,700 people across the UK wrongly listed as criminals by the CRB.

• Ransoms paid to Iraq kidnappers - FRANCE, Italy and Germany sanctioned the payment of $US45million in deals to free nine hostages abducted in Iraq, according to documents seen by British newspaper The Times. All three governments have publicly denied paying ransom money. But according to the documents, held by security officials in Baghdad who have played a crucial role in hostage negotiations, sums ranging from $US2.5million to $US10million a person have been paid over the past 21 months.

• HOW TO SPOT AN RFID PASSPORT - Now that the U.S. has begun issuing RFID-tagged passports, how can you tell if your new passport has an unwanted spy on board? Edward Hasbrouck, the Practical Nomad (author of numerous guidebook and a tireless defender of travel privacy), has come to the rescue. He has posted a helpful page on his blog showing how to spot whether your new passport contains a spychip.

Sunday 21st May 2006: -

• THE MARK OF THE BEAST TECHNOLOGY IS JUST SOOOO COOOOOL!: RFID Hand Implant to Open Your Front Door - Automating your front door lock is pretty cool. Automating your access with RFID is even better. But embedding RFID chips in your own hand so you just need to wave it in front of the door tops the lot! The latest episode of the free IPTV Tech show - Systm.org, includes some very interesting footage for all home automators...

• City Council measure calls for `safety zone' - In a move to crack down on school violence, Chicago aldermen have advanced a measure that calls for stiff fines and possibly jail time for anyone involved in violence at or near a city school. Ald. Michael Zalewski (23rd Ward) said Saturday that he supports the effort as a way to "strengthen a safety zone around schools where we see a spike in violence. We want to make it safer for students, faculty and residents of the community." The measure, expected to come before the City Council on Wednesday, calls for fines of $500 to $1,000 and/or jail time of up to 6 months for anyone convicted of battery within 1,000 feet of a Chicago school--including private schools.

• Cannes director urges CCTV debate - The British director of CCTV movie Red Road has said the future of 24-hour surveillance of society needs to be debated. Andrea Arnold is in Cannes with her first feature film, which is in competition for the Palme d'Or. The film focuses on a Glasgow council official who monitors the city's CCTV network helping to crack down on crime. Arnold said: "You can see why it is there but we should consider what it means for our future."

• 'Sex for passport' man suspended - An immigration officer has been suspended following allegations that he offered to help a teenage asylum seeker in return for sex. According to a report in a newspaper, the man offered to coach the 18-year-old Zimbabwean woman on her asylum interview so that she could give the correct answers. In return, he made clear that he wanted to have sex with her, the paper said.

• Frequent Taser Gun Use At School Under Speculation - ...Newark patrol officers have had Taser guns in their arsenal for about two years. Officials said they have used the weapon 18 times in that time span. Three of those incidents have involved students at Newark High School, causing some people to wonder if the weapons, which sometimes carry dangerous side effects, should be used on teenagers. Newark police leaders said Taser guns are the best way to get a dangerous job done. "The Taser (gun) saved having to go in and physically wrestle with the student or resort to striking him with a club or resort to using chemical sprays," said Newark police Capt. Craig Riley.

Saturday 20th May 2006: -

• FDA finds cancer-causing benzene in soda drinks - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reported that it found a high level of cancer-causing benzene in five of the 100 soft drinks and beverages that it tested. The levels of benzene were more than the recommended 5 parts per billion limit for drinking water. The FDA said that it had alerted the companies that make the soft drinks in which benzene was over the prescribed limit. All companies had agreed to reformulate their drinks or have already done so, the FDA revealed on Friday. It maintained that there was no cause for concern although some environmental groups have expressed dismay at these findings.

• Child protection scheme trialled - Computer files are to be created for children in the Highlands in a pilot scheme designed to tighten Scotland's child protection system. Every newborn child in the region and about 500 Inverness schoolchildren will be logged during the trial. From 3 September teachers, police and social workers will be able to access the files on the children, which will be kept "live" until they turn 16. Ministers said the Highlands pilot would help other local authorities.  (COMMENTARY: Not satisfied with collecting and storing DNA samples for children we will now be tracking them from the moment of birth. How long before the records are setup as soon as the mother is identified as being pregnant.)

• Pope sacks Church leader over sex abuse - Pope Benedict took disciplinary action against the Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ yesterday, ordering him to renounce every public duty after a nine-year investigation into claims of sexual abuse. The 86-year-old Fr Marcial Maciel, a close friend of the late Pope John Paul II, is the most prominent figure in the Catholic Church ever to be disciplined by the Vatican on grounds of sexual abuse. He will not face a full Church trial on account of his age, but he is now forbidden to celebrate Mass, speak in public or to the press.

• Government enlists public service 'spies': Council staff may be given police intelligence to monitor local criminals - Neighbourhood wardens, community support officers, park keepers, housing officers and other frontline council staff should be given regular access to local police intelligence in an attempt to clamp down on antisocial behaviour and other low-level crime, under plans being examined by Downing Street. The plan, seen as part of a strategy to develop more effective neighbourhood policing teams throughout England by 2008, has been supported by Hazel Blears in her role as home office minister responsible for crime before switching to the post of Labour party chairman.

• Soldiers to get life in jail for refusing to act as occupiers - SOLDIERS who object to taking part in a military occupation of a foreign country will face life in prison under measures due to be rubber-stamped in the House of Commons on Monday. The little-noticed Armed Forces Bill will have its third reading in the Commons on Monday and left-leaning MPs are alarmed that it will legitimise pre-emptive military strikes. It will change the definition of desertion to include soldiers who go absent without leave and intend to refuse to take part in a "military occupation of a foreign country or territory".

• Theaters Warned Trailer For 9/11 Movie May Be Too Intense - A controversial trailer for Oliver Stone's World Trade Center will unspool for the first time preceding screenings of The Da Vinci code this weekend. Producers reportedly sent theater owners a warning that some members of their audiences might find the images upsetting. Co-producer Stacey Sher told CBS News, "They wanted the theatre owners to know that people might inquire at the box office whether or not the trailer would be shown and then it would be their decision whether they wanted to see it or not." Michael Shamberg, another producer of the film, said, "I think it's an intense recreation of what happened that day and that might be disturbing for people." The trailer has also been posted on the Internet at http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/wtc.

• NEW PENTAGON FOOTAGE REVEALS ANOTHER COVER-UP CNN’S JAMIE MCINTIRE CONTRADICTS ORIGINAL REPORT - The release of new video footage of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon has spurred yet another controversy. In anticipation of the release, CNN’s Kyra Phillips was interviewing Jamie McIntyre Tuesday afternoon, and asked him what happened at the Pentagon on 9/11, as he was reporting live from the scene that day. Referring to the idea that something other than a 757 hit the Pentagon, McIntyre stated, “Having been there on September 11th, having seen the plane wreckage and photographed it myself personally, I can tell you that’s nonsense…Click here for sound clip I had a camera with me, I took pictures of some of the wreckage, some of the parts of the fuselage of …a part of the cockpit, until they told us we had to move back away from the scene…” However, McIntyre’s comments are in direct contradiction to his original report on 9/11...

Friday 19th May 2006: -

• GOOD GOP, BAD COP: UN panel tells America to end torture and close Guantanamo - A United Nations panel today made the strongest call yet on the United States to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to disclose the locations of all of its rumoured secret prisons abroad. The committee said it was "deeply concerned" that detainees were being held at the prison camp in Cuba for protracted periods without proper legal safeguards or reliable judicial justification. The ten members of the UN Committee Against Torture also called upon President Bush to end the use of torture and cruel treatment in interrogation of detainees, citing sexual humiliation, mock drownings and the use of dogs to induce fear.

• DHS privacy office bashes RFID technology to track people - The Department of Homeland Security's Privacy Office has issued a draft report that strongly criticizes privacy and security risks of using radio frequency identification devices for human identification. The privacy office says the technology offers little performance benefit for identification purposes compared with other methods and could turn the government's identification system into a surveillance system. Several government agencies, including the Department of Defense, have had success in managing inventory, tracking blankets, food, and other essentials through the supply chain. RFID tags communicate information by radio waves through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects. A reader identifies the number on the tag, which in turn categories the object.

• Sopranos Star Says Bush Should Reinstate Draft - The boss of North Jersey would no doubt have a different view on how to prosecute the war in Iraq. So too, it turns out, does the man who plays him on “The Sopranos.” Speaking Monday night from the National Museum of American History for the Washington premiere of the HBO documentary “Baghdad ER,” James Gandolfini said President Bush should “reinstate the draft, send 500,000 troops and finish it.” “I’d go,” he told a Hill source. “I’m too old and fat, but I’d drive a truck.” “The American people haven’t had to sacrifice anything,” he added.

• IBM researcher slams UK ID card scheme - IBM researcher Michael Osborne, whose job is research into secure ID cards, slated the UK government's ID cards scheme on the grounds of cost, over-centralisation, and being the wrong tool for the job. Based in Big Blue's Zurich research labs, where the scanning tunnelling microscope was invented and won its inventors a Nobel Prize, Osborne said that the problem is neither the cards nor the fact that the scheme is intended to use biometric technology. The big issue is that the UK government, plans to set up a central database containing volumes of data about its citizens. Unlike other European governments, most of whom already use some form of ID card, the central database will allow connections between different identity contexts - such as driver, taxpayer, or healthcare recipient - which compromises security. Centrally-stored biometric data would be attractive to hackers, he said, adding that such data could be made anonymous but that the UK Government's plans do not include such an implementation.

• When Osama Bin Ladin Was Tim Osman - The two men headed to the Hilton Hotel in Sherman Oaks, California in the late Spring of 1986 were on their way to meet representatives of the mujahadeen, the Afghan fighters resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. One of the two, Ted Gunderson, had had a distinguished career in the FBI, serving as some sort of supervisor over Special Agents in the early 60s, as head of the Dallas field office from 1973-75, and as head of the Los Angeles field office from 1977-1979. He retired to become an investigator for, among others, well-known attorney F. Lee Bailey. And all along the way, Gunderson, whether or not actually a CIA contract agent, had been around to provide services to various CIA and National Security Council operations, as he was doing now.

• Couple Arrested For Asking For Directions - Baltimore City police arrested a Virginia couple over the weekend after they asked an officer for directions. WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Joshua Kelly and Llara Brook, of Chantilly, Va., got lost leaving an Orioles game on Saturday. Collins reported a city officer arrested them for trespassing on a public street while they were asking for directions. "In jail for eight hours -- sleeping on a concrete floor next to a toilet," Kelly said. "It was a nightmare," Brook said. "I was in there thinking I was just dreaming and waiting to wake up."

• A New Tack for Airport Screening: Behave Yourself: Airport screeners plan to shift tactics, focusing less on scissors and more on passenger behavior - 'Here's how it works: Select TSA employees will be trained to identify suspicious individuals who raise red flags by exhibiting unusual or anxious behavior, which can be as simple as changes in mannerisms, excessive sweating on a cool day, or changes in the pitch of a person's voice. Racial or ethnic factors are not a criterion for singling out people, TSA officials say. Those who are identified as suspicious will be examined more thoroughly; for some, the agency will bring in local police to conduct face-to-face interviews and perhaps run the person's name against national criminal databases and determine whether any threat exists.'

Thursday 18th May 2006: -

• Biometric scans for nightclub access - In Touch, a British company, is testing its first install of a customer database system which will voluntarily register nightclub patrons as they're admitted. A fingerprint scan and a mugshot, along with all the necessary personal information, guarantee that partygoers in the Somerset town of Yeovil won't have to carry identification while they're clubbing. Any nightclub can make the initial registration as all Yeovil late night clubs are wired to access the same database. Walk from one club to the next, scan the index finger, and seeing no black marks on your record the doormen will gladly wave you in.

• Principal locks down high school: Some students send worried text messages during "drill" at Central High - When Central High School Principal Everett Isaacs announced a lockdown without explanation Wednesday morning, some concerned students began calling and text-messaging their parents to find out what was going on. What exactly happened at the school was hard to determine throughout the day as police, fire and school officials all offered sketchy — and sometimes contradictory — accounts of a bomb threat that was later determined to be unsubstantiated and a drug sweep authorities say turned up no narcotics.

• COLORADO WOMEN SUES LOCAL NEWSPAPER FOR AIDING IN THE 911 COVER-UP: by Jack Blood - Is it possible that for the last four plus years that we have been going about this thing all wrong? We have complained tirelessly about the establishment media cover-up of the facts, ALL the facts about September 11th 2001. We have waited for them to “see the light’ and come over to our side, or hoped that the right information, delivered by the right pen, or profile might open the door to long awaited coverage to debunk the Bush administration’s conspiracy theory about 19 Arab high-jackers armed with box cutters, took down four of the most highly defended buildings in the world. Now thanks to one brave woman in Durango Colorado we might be witnessing a full on epiphany cum reality, the stage is set.

• Egypt Cracks Down on Dissent - Egyptian human rights groups say about 360 people have been arrested over the past three weeks in what many are calling the biggest crackdown on political dissent in recent memory. Most of the arrests have taken place at protests in support of two fraud-busting judges who have become symbols of judicial independence and the push for political reform. Hundreds of demonstrators chanting slogans faced off last week against thousands of riot police and plainclothes State Security officers responding with fists and batons.

• 911 REVISITED: At 40 minutes, this free video presentation is a MUST SEE for all who might believe the "official Story" - The video contains technical analysis from: Prof. David Ray Griffin, Prof. Steven Jones, Engineer Jeff King, and many eyewitnesses from the MSM Media, Firefighters, WTC survivors etc... Also duplicitous statements from Larry Silverstein (lease holder of the WTC complex for just several weeks before 911, Lee Hamilton (911 cOMMISSION co chair) The more people that see this presentation, the more people will be calling for the heads of our "neo-con" coup affected U.S. Government!!! "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent" - Thomas Jefferson

• DNA database has 50,000 children - Fifty-thousand children in England and Wales have had their DNA added to a police database without being convicted, it has emerged. Earlier this year, the Home Office revealed the database contained DNA profiles of 27,000 under-18s arrested but released without charge or caution. It has now admitted DNA from a further 20,000 youngsters who have since turned 18 was taken in the same way. The Home Office says there is a "clear public benefit" to keeping samples.

Wednesday 17th May 2006: -

• BBC ATTACKS 9/11 TRUTH MOVEMENT WITH HYPERBOLE AND TEXTBOOK CYNICISM: Conspiracy theorists down but not out - The release of new video pictures of the Pentagon being attacked on 9/11 will not quell the endless claims in the world of conspiracy theorists that a missile or military aircraft hit the building instead. The theorists do not believe eyewitnesses, physical evidence, engineering studies or even the claims of Osama Bin Laden, so it is unlikely that they will be convinced by grainy video frames. The latest pictures are the missing frames from a series taken from two cameras at a filling station.   (COMMENTARY: Notice how the BBC article sticks to the weaker arguments such as Barbara Olson (being still alive), how they fail to explain what happened to the wings of Flight 77 after they failed to penetrate the 'strengthened' exterior of the Pentagon and how they refer to the 'independent' (yeah right) 9/11 'Kean' Commission for definitive answers.  Paul Reynolds at the BBC obviously doesn't think that you will check out the facts behind government sponsored terrorism, how there was a plan in the 60's to stage terror attacks on the American people, or how Boy-George Bush contemplated staging an attack on a fake UN plane as pretext to invade Saddam in 2003 .  No, you'll have a laugh over those stupid 'conspiracy theorists' and go back to watching Eastenders.  Don't fall for it... if you haven't done already, make a start checking out the backgrounds and visit out our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' archive.)

• More teens abusing prescription drugs - Teens have long been experimenting with drug use, sometimes alcohol, sometimes marijuana or cocaine. But there's something else out there that's the talk among teens that parents may know little about. It's about using prescription drugs to get high. Teens call it "pharming." They use drugs found right in your home. And they're drugs that one in five teens now admits abusing with a full 40 percent believing they are much safer to experiment with than illegal drugs. Seventeen-year-old "Sam" of Maplewood knows what it's like to abuse prescription drugs. While she and her friends also abused alcohol, marijuana and meth, Sam says they felt less guilty using prescription drugs like Vicoden, Ritalin and Adderall. She says, "It felt like I wasn't doing anything wrong because it was ok. Like, the doctors prescribe it, so you think its ok. and it won't harm you. But it does."

• EU accused of complicity in CIA flights - CIA officials insist EU governments knew extraordinary renditions were being carried out in Europe. Reporting back on its fact finding mission to Washington, the European parliament’s CIA committee said US officials provided them with patchy and inconsistent information - but said they did agree on one thing. “The only point in common from the officials we spoke to was that it was not possible to organise extraordinary rendition such as this without the active complicity of European governments,” said Carlos Coelho MEP, chair of the temporary committee. “That is what we took away from Washington and this will guide us in our future work.” Last month the committee concluded that more than 1,000 CIA flights had transited the EU.

• Odd things about the UK government narrative of the 7/7 London Bombs - De Menezes, who was shot on a London tube train, was a dangerous terrorist? Eventually some brave journalists revealed that the UK government officials had lied. De Menezes was an innocent Brazilian. The UK government story about the 7/7 London bombs has kept on changing and still does not make sense. The UK government has produced a brief 'narrative' of the 7/7 London Bomb attacks. Originally we were led to believe that Shehzad Tanweer had met senior Islamic militants in Pakistan prior to 7/7, and that Mohammad Siddique Khan had visited Malaysia to meet al-Qaeda operatives. Now, the UK government 'narrative' states that 'there is no reliable intelligence or corroborative information to support (these claims)'

• Fayed claims Prince Philip is 'racist who orchestrated Diana's murder' - MOHAMED al-Fayed yesterday used a BBC radio interview to launch an extraordinary attack on the Duke of Edinburgh, branding him a racist who "grew up with Nazis" and who organised the murder of his son and Princess Diana because he could not tolerate the thought of their marriage. The Harrods owner also claimed a forthcoming official report into the 1997 Paris accident would confirm that Diana, 36 at the time of her death, was carrying Dodi Fayed's child. The outburst is the latest chapter in a nine-year battle waged by Mr Fayed against what he claims is a conspiracy organised by Britain's security services at the behest of the Royal Family.   (COMMENTARY: Fayed's job as 'conspiracy theorist' is to make as much noise about the assassination as possible, come across as an idiot and a liar... and via 'guilt by association' make the notion of a murdered Princess Diana a 'no-go' area. Al Fayed... the classic straw man. See our 'Diana Assassination' archive for more info).

• Reform Bill could spark the 'abolition of Parliament', says MP - The Government was accused of planning the "abolition of Parliament" with legislation giving Ministers sweeping powers to change the law. MPs and the media "took their eye off the ball" and failed to spot the threat to democracy, according to Midland MP Mark Fisher (Lab Stoke Central). He was speaking in a debate on the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, which has passed through Parliament with little fanfare. The Government says it will give Ministers new powers to tackle red tape. But opposition parties and critics on the Labour benches have warned it will give Ministers sweeping powers to amend legislation without proper Parliamentary scrutiny.

Tuesday 16th May 2006: -

• School puts CCTV cameras in loos - Queen's School in Wisbech has installed CCTV cameras in the toilets to keep an eye on pupils. The idea is to discourage them from skipping lessons by hiding out in the loos and to stop younger pupils feeling threatened by older children. The cameras can only see what's going on outside the cubicles, but just outside the loos there's an attendant watching out for any problems. And if there's any sign of trouble they go straight in to sort it out.

• Surveillance and its snowball effect: Imagine cars having secretly installed GPS devices to track drivers. It's not that far-fetched - Bush administration officials struggled today to defend themselves in the wake of new reports of government surveillance of ordinary Americans, while congressional leaders of both parties called for increased scrutiny of White House access to individuals' personal data. An article in today's edition of USA Today revealed that all domestic vehicles sold in this country in the last four years have been secretly equipped with electronic devices that enable their locations to be precisely and constantly monitored by the National Security Agency. The newspaper reported that the Big Three automakers - General Motors, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler - were approached by government officials shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks*, and agreed to install the GPS devices on all their vehicles.   (*Problem > Reaction > Solution...)

• FLASHBACK TO FOUR YEARS AGO: BBC In pictures: Pentagon crash - "A sequence of five newly-released pictures shows the moment a hijacked American Airlines plane slammed into the Pentagon on 11 September, 2001. The photos, taken by a surveillance camera, show the date of 12 September and the time of 1737, even though the crash took place the day before at 0937 local time".

• People urged to renew passports to stall ID - Campaingers against identity cards will today urge people to renew their passports this month, to avoid the deadline for having their details entered in the government database. Green MSPs are among those who will lodge applications this morning, even though their renewal dates are years off. ID cards are not to be compulsory, at least until 2013, but anyone applying for a passport after May 31 will automatically get one, with personal details entered in the national identity register. According to Geraint Bevan of the NO2ID campaign, they are "calling on people to renew their passports this month to avoid compulsory registration and buy 10 more years of freedom from invasion of privacy".