Thursday 31st May 2007: -

• Teachers given weapons search powers - Pupils can now be searched for weapons by their teachers - even if they don't want to be checked. The move is part of Government plans to stop knives and guns being taken into lessons. Schools are getting guidance on how to use the new measures which came into force this morning. It says staff can only carry out searches with the authorisation of the head teacher.   (COMMENTARY: Just see the quote from Education Secretary Alan Johnson: "Every child has the right to learn in a secure and safe environment". Isn't it amazing how these people think?! Now its a 'right' to be searched and treated like a criminal!)

• Wolfowitz, Kissinger to attend the Bilderberg meeting: The Bilderberg Group, which brings together people of influence from around the world, will begin its 2007 meeting in Turkey today - Bilderberg is an annual conference of the global elite, the location of which changes every year. Power brokers from industry, oil companies, politics, banking, business, academia, royalty and the media get together to privately discuss the course of the world with no outside press coverage whatsoever. The secrecy of the group has attracted criticism and given rise to much conspiracy theory about possible covert plans of the global elite to rule the world. Many treat the meeting as a significant event during which participants also determine the following year’s agenda. However, the group claims it does not set policy. The elite group will be meeting today at the Klassis Hotel in the town of Silivri, 40 miles from İstanbul.

• Calls to release Venezuelan protesters - A top opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has demanded the release of jailed protesters as university students poured into the streets for a third day to protest the removal of a leading opposition TV station from the air. Former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales said protests over the government's move to halt the broadcasts of Radio Caracas Television show that "freedom cannot be negotiated nor bargained".

• 9/11 activist slams 'absurdity' of Fox report - William Rodriguez, a former World Trade Center maintenance worker who became a 9/11 activist after helping rescue fifteen of his co-workers, penned a letter which attacks Fox News for rumormongering about O'Donnell's firing. "Fox news came out today with the rumor that Rosie O'Donnell was fired because she mentioned my story to a live audience of The View that was recorded by a spectator and posted on the Internet," Rodriguez wrote in a letter obtained by RAW STORY. "The absurdity of their comments and their lack of investigative skills to even research that what she was talking about, makes Fox look like always, a far right demagogic network with no desire to look on the real evidence of 9/11. They finished by attacking the messenger like always."

• WNBC catches Giuliani getting 'tripped up' by 9/11 activist - It appears that Giuliani has been caught in a lie about 9/11. If he was warned about the WTC coming down that morning when he was not able to use the bunker in WTC 7, then why weren't others warned as well and why didn't the NYPD and the NYFD have interoperable radios that worked. The nation must think again about the image presented of "America's Mayor" and review this man's real record on, before and after 9/11. This man is no 9/11 hero. I pray the the families of 9/11 and courageous members of the NYPD and NYFD will stand up and challenge this faux hero and set the record straight.

• Some scientists make link to cell phones, cancer - I urge any parent who is considering giving their child a cell phone or has already given them one to do some research on the cell phone-brain cancer link. The first place you may want to try is www.fda.gov (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.) Anyone who tells you that cell phones do not cause brain cancer is irresponsible. Studies conducted around the world conflict with one another. But most researchers will admit that there has not been enough studies done to be able to say definitively either way. Many cancers take 10 to 20 years to develop, and widespread cell phone use is a recent event.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

Wednesday 30th May 2007: -

• Secretive Bilderberg meeting set for Turkey: Kissinger, Rockefeller, media moguls among those scheduled to attend - The super-secret Bilderberg Group, an organization of powerful international elites, is set to meet this week somewhere in Turkey – but even the precise location is a mystery. The meeting begins Thursday and continues through Sunday. Those expected to attend include Donald Graham, chairman and chief executive officer of the Washington Post, Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, John Vinocur, senior correspondent of the International Herald Tribune, Paul Gigot, editor of the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, Nicholas Beytout, editor-in-chief of Le Figaro, George David, chairman of Coca-Cola, Martin Feldstein, president and chief executive officer of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Timothy F. Geithner, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Vernon Jordan, senior managing director of Lazard Freres & Co., Anatole Kaletsky, editor at large of the Times of London and General William Luti, the new "war czar."   (RELATED EXTERNAL WEBSITE: bilderberg.org)

• What part of "Rosie was not fired" don't you understand? - I'm not going to detail one more Faux debate over Rosie O'Donnell, but this snippet exemplifies a FOX tactic so beautifully I just have to share. As I noted this morning, Barbara Walters stated in no uncertain terms that Rosie O'Donnell's departure from The View was solely O'Donnell's decision, The View is sad to see her go and wishes she could have/would have stayed on, appreciates all she's done in her year there, and welcomes her back to visit as often as she wants. John Gibson showed clips from her announcement at the top of The Big Story today 5/29/07.

• New Evidence Exposes Lethal Consequence of Rudy Giuliani's Poor 9/11 Decisions - After Rudy Giuliani boasted yesterday that he took "a city that was a health hazard and turned it into one of America's safest big cities," new evidence reported today shows that Giuliani's poor decisions in the aftermath of 9/11, in fact, led to a severe health hazard. According to The New York Times, the dust from the destruction of the World Trade Center for the first time has been definitively linked to a death, a finding which supports federal lawsuits filed against the city by firefighters and other Ground Zero recovery workers.

• CCTV is talking to you! - GREATER Manchester's first `talking' CCTV cameras were going live today. Speakers have been rigged to 11 cameras along Liverpool Road, Eccles, allowing operators to bark commands at anyone dropping litter or involved in anti-social behaviour. The government has given Salford £25,000 for the scheme, which will be extended to the Brookhouse estate in Eccles, Ordsall and Winton later this year. Twenty-one areas throughout the country are sharing £500,000 for identical devices. Critics have slammed the idea as `Big Brother gone mad'. But Coun David Lancaster, Salford council's spokesman for community safety, who this month had his car stolen from outside the town hall, has welcomed the move.

• Gov. resists ID card scrutiny: Will Brown sign up to Blair's baby? - The Office of Government Commerce has appealed against an order by the Information Tribunal that it must publish official documents that assess the justification for the government's identity card scheme. Meanwhile, speculation over Prime-Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown's support for the programme has been see-sawing for lack of any real substance. The clerk of Mr Robin Tam QC, the OGC's legal representative, ran round to the high court this morning to file the office's appeal against an order given by the Information Tribunal on 3 May that it should publish the Gateway Reviews it had performed on the identity card scheme in 2003 before the project was given official approval. The OGC refuses to publish Gateway Reviews on the grounds that their disclosure would discourage their contributors from making truthful submissions to the process. Aside from giving a traffic-light indication of a project's health, early Gateways give an indication of whether a project is likely to succeed, what it would cost and so on.

• Put your feet on a train seat and get a criminal record - A commuter who put his feet on a seat during his train journey home has been prosecuted in a clampdown on antisocial behaviour. Babiker Fadol was spotted by a security patrol after stretching out his legs and dozing off. He was ordered to attend court under a 120-year-old bye-law which makes it a criminal offence "to interfere with the comfort or convenience" of fellow passengers. He pleaded guilty and was given a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £50 costs. This means he now has a criminal record.

• Parents of babies to be given 'learning diaries' so experts can monitor children - Parents of babies and toddlers will be expected to record their child's progress in new 'learning diaries' under a £9million Government scheme. They will be encouraged to log details of every activity attempted by their children, ranging from stacking play bricks to singing nursery rhymes. The diaries will be scrutinised by childcare experts to check that parents are doing all they can to prevent their offspring falling behind. The scheme will be trialled by a sample of councils serving disadvantaged areas and could eventually be extended more widely. But the initiative, the latest in a series of interventions in the lives of the youngest children, is certain to provoke renewed claims of 'Nanny State' interference.

• Pesticides 'up Parkinson's risk' - Exposure to pesticides could lead to an increased risk of contracting Parkinson's disease, a study has found. Researchers discovered that high levels of exposure increased the risk by 39%, while even low levels raised it by 9%. However, the Aberdeen University researchers stressed that the overall risk of developing the disease remained small. In the UK, one person in 500 develops the incurable degenerative brain disease, or a similar illness.

• Kristol and Kagan: ‘Put Everything’ Behind Escalation So We Can Bomb Iran and Syria - Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and fellow neoconservative Frederick Kagan have consistently been wrong in their predictions about Iraq. Last year, Kristol claimed an escalation would “improve our chances of winning.” Kagan proclaimed at the end of April, “We are turning a corner in Iraq.” But May was the deadliest month this year for U.S. soldiers.

• Mossad Agent Pearlman Releases Phony "Al-Qaeda Tape": While President Bush authorizes the CIA to bankroll and arm the real Al-Qaeda in Iran - Adam Pearlman, the Jewish Mossad agent who once wrote stinging essays condemning Muslims as "bloodthirsty terrorists", has once again popped up as an "Al-Qaeda spokesman" to frighten the dwindling number of Americans who still believe Al-Qaeda exists outside of U.S. intelligence circles.

• Review for BBC phone-in contests - The BBC Trust has ordered a review of how the BBC uses premium rate phone lines after problems on two of its television shows. The BBC apologised after the results of a competition on Blue Peter were faked and Saturday Kitchen was criticised for not being clear a show was not live. The Trust accepted action was taken by the BBC but felt an independent review would help restore public confidence. An internal review has recommended tighter rules.

• Donald Rumsfeld on 9/11: An enemy within - What was Rumsfeld doing on 9/11? He deserted his post. He disappeared. The country was under attack. Where was the guy who controls America’s defense? Out of touch! --A senior White House official

• Half of all black men in Britain will be on DNA database by 2010: No justification for retaining records of innocent people - except racial profiling - Serious concerns have again been raised about the number of black men on the national DNA database, with new estimates suggesting that within three years half of all black men living in Britain will be have their information on the national register. As Black Britain reported on May 8, people from black and minority ethnic communities in the UK are three times more likely to have their DNA samples put on the national database. However, new information highlights the extent to which black men in particular, are being targeted.

Tuesday 29th May 2007: -

• EXCLUSIVE: Mike Ruppert & Peak Oil - I have learned recently that Mike Ruppert was taken seriously ill in Venezuela and is now recuperating in Canada. It's very sad to hear of Mike’s predicament and wish him a full and speedy recovery. I suspect that Mike has for some time now realised that he is caught up in a web of intrigue which goes far beyond anything he ever dreamed of when he 'signed up' to popularie the myth of Peak Oil. 'Crossing the Rubicon' is a critical part of the official mythology.

• Fury as 90,000 police officers caught speeding are 'let off' - Only 354 of 90,000 police caught on camera speeding or jumping red lights last year were punished. Last night forces were accused of double standards after it emerged that only one in 200 officers was fined or given points, compared with 84 per cent of ordinary drivers. In a quarter of the cases the police cars had their blue lights flashing, suggesting officers were attending an emergency. However, nearly all of the rest had the slate wiped clean by senior police, saving them from three points on their licence and a £60 fine.

• Brown to push ahead with ID card scheme - Gordon Brown will stick with the identity cards scheme when he takes over at No10, it was claimed today. He appears to be warming to the £5billion project but will focus on its advantages to business and individuals rather than its value in combating terrorism. There are now signs that the Chancellor and the Treasury - both of whom were initially highly sceptical - have come to support a version of the cards. He is understood to be concerned about the rising cost of identity fraud and believes biometric cards should go ahead if they can within budget.

• ‘I took a picture of Tower Bridge and was arrested for terrorism’: A chilling glimpse of ‘stop and search’ Britain - Government ministers and police chiefs are demanding new powers to allow the police to stop and search people in the streets if they suspect them of terrorism. These powers echo the notorious “sus laws” of the 1970s. Then the laws created an atmosphere of fear as police targeted young black men. Those laws were abandoned after widespread rioting in the early 1980s.

• Guantanamo detainee claims MI5 misinformation led to arrest and torture - JAMIL el-Banna has been locked up by the United States for nearly five years without being charged - arrested in Africa, allegedly tortured at a CIA "black site" in Afghanistan, then held at Guantanamo Bay - all because of faulty British intelligence, his lawyers claimed yesterday. Now, the UK government has said that el-Banna had been cleared by the US for transfer to his native Jordan, where he says he was tortured before becoming a political refugee in Britain in 1997. His lawyers have decried the move, saying that sending him back amounted to the US outsourcing torture.

• Giuliani Confronted By 9/11 Truthers, Lies About WTC Collapse: Former New York Mayor flip-flops for third time on foreknowledge of tower's implosion - 9/11 truthers are making headlines again today after confronting Rudy Giuliani in New York on his foreknowledge of the collapse of the twin towers. Amazingly, just weeks after saying the opposite, Giuliani now claims he had no idea the towers were going to fall.

• Google super-brain to harvest human behaviour - Internet search giant Google is planning to build the world’s most powerful human database computer that will one day not only be able to log but also it will predict our every move. The worlds most powerful search database has announced plans to build the database with full backing from the US government. It is the biggest Orwellian style threat to civil liberty and a threat to human privacy ever conceived and many are saying that this sort of system should not be allowed.

Monday 28th May 2007: -

• New draconian anti terror laws condemned - Prime Minister Tony Blair is proposing new anti-terror legislation to stop and question anyone before he leaves his office. However, the new draconian measures have been condemned by MPs, human right groups and Muslims. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland where these war time powers are already being used, Peter Hain, criticized the new legislation saying this could become “the domestic equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.”

• Gay activists beaten and arrested in Russia: Police watch as neo-Nazis attack protesters, MEPs among 30 detained as aggressors go free - Riot police used violence to break up a gay rights demonstration in Moscow yesterday and arrested several European parliamentarians in what critics say is the latest violation of human rights in Russia. A group of gay rights activists came under attack from neo-Nazi thugs when they tried to present a petition asking Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, to lift a ban on a Gay Pride parade. He has previously dubbed gay rallies "satanic". Witnesses said riot police watched as far-right skinheads chanting "death to homosexuals" beat up several activists.

• Germany: Wall of steel for G8 summit: Police in Germany are braced for the worst riots since the war when the world's leaders gather - Germany is hurtling towards its biggest face-off since the fall of the Berlin Wall, between anti-globalisation protesters and police at next month's G8 summit. The streets of Berlin and Hamburg - historical heartlands of the left-wing protest movement - have been witnessing scenes reminiscent of the violent urban battles of the 1980s, with a series of car burnings, vandalism attacks and a sharp rise in graffiti. German police are preparing for their biggest deployment since the Second World War and already the property and cars of prominent business executives - and of the editor of the right-wing tabloid Bild - have been targeted by more radical protesters.

• BILDERBERG MEETING 2007: Town of Silivri, 40 Miles from Istanbul, Looks to Be 2007 Globalist Meeting Site - Bilderberg chasers think they have identified the site of this year’s meeting but, as they say in the trade, “it is not 100%.” The site is the Klassis Hotel in the tiny town of Silivri, about 40 miles from Istanbul. It fits the Bilderberg pattern: posh resort outside the urban area, easily guarded and with a golf course. It was first suggested by Emre Tekin, a tour guide who lives in Istanbul and volunteered his services at no fee to help pin down Bilderberg. But the hotel said it could make reservations June 1, although Bilderberg meets May 31 to June 4. However, an international financial consultant who has done business with Bilderberg luminaries for decades, and who has helped American Free Press smoke out the secret meetings for many years, finally got a breakthrough. He called the Klassis, inquiring at the executive level about reservations for 20 people and was told that the facility was crowded for those dates.

• Is federal Real ID Act for your own good? Not really: "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." -- Revelation, 13:16-17 - We are now less than a year away from the deadline for states to comply with the federal Real ID Act. By next May 12, all state-issued driver's licenses and ID cards must include your personal information, signature and a machine readable zone to contain all the data. That may be either a credit card type swipe strip or a Radio Frequency Identification tag, called an RFID chip, like those used to track products and identify lost pets via low-power radio waves. Though maintained by the individual states, the information will be mutually available among them, as well as to the federal government, effectively creating a national database accessible from tens of thousands of locations throughout the country.

• 9/11 fireman’s Scottsdale killing mystery - Firefighter Salvatore Princiotta worked around the clock at the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks: Family members say he helped put out fires, led injured people out of the area, and spent a week digging through the smoking rubble for his uncle, a deputy fire chief. Princiotta eventually got sick with lung problems, retired from the fire department and recently moved to Arizona, hoping the abundance of sun and fresh air would be just what his ailing body needed. But on May 14 — five years to the day after the remains of his uncle, Chief Raymond Downey, were found at ground zero — Princiotta was found dead in his Scottsdale apartment. Police said there were bullet wounds in his decomposing body. Police are saying little about the suspect and nothing about why Princiotta was slain, only adding to the mystery surrounding the former firefighter’s final days.

• Rosie Speaks To The View Audience Members About 9/11 - Rosie O'Donnell educates the audience members of The View between tapings about the basement bombs that exploded in the WTC before the first plane hit, as well as what happened to WTC 7: -

• Venezuelan TV station shut down - VENEZUELA'S oldest private television station has gone off the air as thousands banged on pots and pans in protest against a decision by President Hugo Chavez that did away with a popular opposition-aligned channel. Fireworks exploded across Caracas as crowds of Chavez's supporters celebrated his decision not to renew Radio Caracas Television's license and instead to award it to a new public service station. The studios of RCTV - the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach - were filled with teary-eyed actors who embraced and shouted “freedom!” in the final minutes before going off the air at midnight yesterday.

• Lazy children 'are storing up problems in later life' - Children face years of ill-health because they are not active enough, researchers say. Scientists claim there is an epidemic of 'mini-couch potatoes' at risk of chronic health problems in later life. Half of children do not get regular exercise, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation. It investigated activity levels among more than 3,500 pupils from five inner-city secondary schools in Leicester. Only half the children walked to school and the same number spent four hours or more a day watching television or playing computer games. Junk food, sedentary lifestyles and the 'electronic babysitters' of TV and computers are blamed for creating these couch potato children.

Sunday 27th May 2007: -

• Moves to give UK police new 'stop-and-question' powers - UK POLICE could, for the first time, be given powers to stop and question anyone under new anti-terror laws being prepared by the Home Office, officials said last night. The measure - so far used only in Northern Ireland - is set to be part of a new package being prepared by Home Secretary John Reid as he prepares to quit the cabinet next month. Anyone who refuses to co-operate could be charged with obstructing the police and fined up to £5,000. A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We are considering a range of measures for the Bill and 'stop and question' is one of them."

• Suspect 'spoke to Litvinenko on his death bed': Ex-KGB man insists he is innocent as surprise Cannes film reveals dead man's fears - The man accused of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko insisted again that he was innocent yesterday as he revealed that he spoke to the former KGB agent on his deathbed. Speaking on Russian television, Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard, said he spoke to Mr Litvinenko by telephone when he was already in the London hospital where he died.

Saturday 26th May 2007: -

• Manchester to charge drivers for travelling at peak times - Motorists will be charged for travelling during peak times on the busiest roads under a new scheme in Manchester, which was unveiled yesterday. Rush hour drivers face charges of between £2 and £5 per day, with those travelling furthest paying most. An electronic tag will monitor journeys on 15 of the most congested routes into the city centre.

• BBC admits it breached standards in business coverage - The BBC’s coverage of business repeatedly breaches the Corporation’s own standards on impartiality, according to an internal report. Its interviews can be “sycophantic” or overly aggressive, while presenters are guilty of appearing to plug products. The independent review, chaired by Sir Alan Budd, found no evidence of systematic bias against business and concluded that most of the BBC’s business output meets the required standards of impartiality.

• City must do more to probe 9/11 dust deaths, say pols - Several lawmakers are demanding City Hall conduct a massive review to determine whether toxic dust at Ground Zero that killed lawyer Felicia Dunn-Jones felled other people who fled the terrorist attack. They made their demand yesterday in the wake of the medical examiner's decision to declare Dunn-Jones, a civil rights attorney from Staten Island who died five months after 9/11, the 2,750th victim of the attack. The decision - the first time the city has tied a death to the toxic dust - led the families of others who died after contact with the dust to demand they be included on the official list of victims and the memorial.

• School buses fitted with CCTV - THREE Welsh schoolchildren have been suspended from school bus services following the introduction of CCTV cameras. A report before Anglesey County Council’s policy overview committee yesterday said cameras were introduced on three vehicles last November at a cost of £9,000 as part of a drive to improve safety. The pupils were suspended from bus services to Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern, Anglesey.

Friday 25th May 2007: -

• Man Treated As Terror Suspect For Taking Photo Of French Fries - This was going to be a happy story about how two of my nephews love the french fries on the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry. “Ferry fries,” they call them. But that story went out the window Sunday night, when I took the photograph below and was threatened with arrest by the Ferry Fascists for doing so. I was heading back to Connecticut after a weekend with the family when I took the photo. I'd eaten the fries on the way over, but couldn't stomach another round, so I snapped two photos at the food counter, and as I was putting the camera away, two guys behind the counter started lobbing hostile, accusatory questions in my direction. “Why are you taking pictures of the food?” “I'm writing a review,” I responded, and walked away.

• Common chemicals pose danger for fetuses, scientists warm: Exposure to toxic materials in the womb can cause health problems later in life, an international panel declares - In a strongly worded declaration, many of the world's leading environmental scientists warned Thursday that exposure to common chemicals makes babies more likely to develop an array of health problems later in life, including diabetes, attention deficit disorders, prostate cancer, fertility problems, thyroid disorders and even obesity. The declaration by about 200 scientists from five continents amounts to a vote of confidence in a growing body of evidence that humans are vulnerable to long-term harm from toxic exposures in the womb and during their first years.

• Police: 9/11 firefighter was murdered - Like hundreds of his fellow firefighters, Sal Princiotta ran to the rescue when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on 9/11. Months later, he was one of five men who rode bikes from New York to Pasadena, Calif., in a salute to those who lost their lives that day. Among the dead was his uncle, legendary New York City firefighter and rescue expert Dep. Chief Ray Downey. His family, still aching from Downey's death, is reeling again, with the loss of Princiotta, 43, who was found dead in his Scottsdale, Ariz., home on May 14. His family initially believed he died from respiratory problems that had plagued him since 9/11, but officials later ruled his death a homicide. The cause of death has not been released.

• Google Video Caught Censoring Loose Change?: Online version of 9/11 film not featured in top 100 despite still having huge viewing figures - Google video appears to be censoring the online version of Loose Change as it is not appearing in the top 100 despite having many more views than most other videos in the top 10.

• New Database Debunks Terrorism Myths - The majority of terrorist attacks result in no fatalities, with just 1 percent of such attacks causing the deaths of 25 or more people. And terror incidents began rising some in 1998, and that level remained relatively constant through 2004. These and other myth-busting facts about global terrorism are now available on a new online database open to the public. The database identifies more than 30,000 bombings, 13,400 assassinations and 3,200 kidnappings. Also, it details more than 1,200 terrorist attacks within the United States.

• Public could get cash rewards for grassing on tax-dodging neighbours - Members of the public could be handed huge cash rewards for grassing on people or companies defrauding the Government, under proposals published by the Home Office today. Informants would win a share of assets confiscated by the courts if they turned whistleblower against a fraudster such as someone cheating on benefits, a cigarette smuggler or a company dodging VAT.

• Fingerprints for school dinner - Dinner money is set to become a thing of the past at a Shropshire school due to fingerprint technology which will help pupils pay for their meals. The biometric system which would possibly be more at home in the latest James Bond movie or Mission Impossible blockbuster is being set up at the Lakelands School, Sports and Language College in Ellesmere. Pupils will be able to scan in their fingerprints to access their dinner accounts and their meals will be debited straight out after their picture and details pop up on the tills. School bursar Judy Bailey said it would reduce time spent handling cash, speed up service and encourage more pupils to take school meals and healthy options on offer. The biometric cashless catering system will go live on June 6.

Thursday 24th May 2007: -

• 'Loose Change 9/11' heading for UK cinemas - Revolver have acquired the rights to the hugely successful online film about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Online film phenomenon 'Loose Change 9/11' has been picked up for theatrical release in the UK. The controversial documentary, which centres on the September 11 terrorist attacks and the failure of both the US government and the media to answer the questions surrounding the tragedy, is one of the most downloaded films in internet history. It was also the subject of BBC documentary '9/11: The Conspiracy Files' and was screened in London as part of Time Out's 'My Favourite Film' season last year. Revolver has picked up the rights to 'Loose Change (Final Cut)' and will release the film on the anniversary of 9/11.    (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• UK EVENT: Separating Facts from Fiction: Why the Official Account of 9/11 is contradicted by genuine Scientific Research: with Gordon Ross and Calum Douglas - At 7.00pm on Friday 8th June at The Mahatma Gandhi Hall, Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, London W1 (nearest tube Warren St or Great Portland St). Admission Free.

• Google is watching you: 'Big Brother' row over plans for personal database - Google, the world's biggest search engine, is setting out to create the most comprehensive database of personal information ever assembled, one with the ability to tell people how to run their lives. In a mission statement that raises the spectre of an internet Big Brother to rival Orwellian visions of the state, Google has revealed details of how it intends to organise and control the world's information. The company's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said during a visit to Britain this week: "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'." Speaking at a conference organised by Google, he said : "We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms [software] will get better and we will get better at personalisation."

• Device holds key to medical history - Sgt. Mike Tranchant would have preferred no needles. "Afraid," he said. "Always have been." With little but a slight wince, Tranchant on Wednesday became the first in Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office to be implanted with a computer chip that gives doctors access to his medical history. The short procedure at Wellington Regional Medical Center was a no-brainer for him because his work could easily land him in a hospital. All it required was a few seated minutes, and some trust in his friend Dr. David Soria. "There we go," Soria said, inserting a narrow needle of anesthesia into Tranchant's right tricep. The sergeant tightened his lips and twisted them to the side. "The quicker, the better," Tranchant said. A fatter syringe went in, and the chip slid under the skin. Just a little pinch.

• U.S. military aid to foreign countries up 50 percent since 9/11 - U.S. military aid to foreign countries has increased by 50 percent since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, a new study released Wednesday showed. The study, released by the Center for Public Integrity, said the top beneficiary is Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the Afghan war and the campaign against al-Qaida. Pakistan rocketed from receiving 9 million U.S. dollars in military aid in the three years prior to Sept. 11 to receiving 4.2 billion dollars in the three years after the terrorist attacks, going from 56th on the list of U.S. military aid receivers to No. 3. Israel and Egypt retained their positions on the list at first and second. Jordan retained its fourth place on the list and Afghanistan moved from 64th place to fifth.

• Deadline approaches for 9/11 workers to claim workers compensation benefits - First responders and rescue workers who helped with the recovery, demolition and cleanup in New York City after the 9/11 attacks are covered under a special workers' compensation statute. But there's an important catch. The deadline to register for workers' compensation benefits is approaching, as this fact sheet from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health explains. Many people who were injured while working at the Word Trade Center towers and other sites in New York City already are receiving workers compensation' benefits for their injuries.

• In reversal, New York adds 9/11 death from WTC dust to death toll - The family of a woman who died of lung disease five months after Sept. 11 had asked that the city's medical examiner add her name to the death toll last year. Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch wrote back at the time that his office could not link her death to the exposure "with certainty beyond a reasonable doubt." That changed on Wednesday, when Felicia Dunn-Jones was added to the medical examiner's list of attack victims, marking the first time the city has officially linked a death to the toxic dust caused by the World Trade Center's collapse. The 42-year-old attorney was caught in the dust cloud while fleeing the collapsing towers on Sept. 11, 2001, and died of sarcoidosis, a disease that causes inflammation and scarring in the lungs, on Feb. 10, 2002.

• Magnetic field found to stimulate brain cells - A magnetic field can stimulate the brain and promote the growth of new nerve cells, scientists have found, raising the possibility of treating conditions linked to neuron death such as Alzheimer's disease, and perhaps one day of enhancing humans' memory capacity. Experiments on mice used a technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, which has become a standard tool for investigating the brain. Avoiding the use of surgery to open the skull, rapidly changing magnetic fields induce weak electrical signals in brain neurons. TMS has been used experimentally to treat disorders such as depression, Parkinson's and schizophrenia; it is also useful for temporarily shutting down some brain regions while enhancing others in experiments to find how the brain works.

• Firm makes 'healing super-water' - US scientists have developed "super-oxidised" water which they say speeds up wound healing. Oculus, the Californian firm which developed the water - made by filtering it through a salt membrane - says it kills viruses, bacteria and fungi. It is also effective against MRSA and UK trials are being carried out on patients with diabetic foot ulcers, New Scientist magazine reported.

• Asda fined for selling rotten food - Asda has been fined £80,000 after selling out of date food including a pack of lamb chops more than a month past its use-by-date. As well as the lamb chops, trading standards officers who visited Asda stores in Newport and Cwmbran found 38 items that were one day past their use-by date, 17 items were two to five days over, and three items were seven days over. Asda pleaded guilty to all 59 charges and was fined £78,750 and ordered to pay the case leaders, Torfaen Council, £10,000 legal costs.

Wednesday 23rd May 2007: -

• Body ID'd as 9/11 firefighter; foul play suspected - A 43-year-old man found dead in a Scottsdale apartment last week was a New York City firefighter who survived 9/11. Salvatore J. Princiotta, 43, was found dead May 14 in his condominium near Raintree Drive and Thompson Peak Parkway. A death notice published in Newsday on May 18 said Princiotta died "as a result of post 9/11 lung complications." But Scottsdale police on Tuesday said they are investigating the death as a homicide. Clark told 12 News that investigators were aware of Princiotta's health condition.

• Microsoft develops 'big brother' software - BACKROOM BOFFINS at Microsoft have had a breakthrough in developing software which can accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location, by analysing patterns in your web browsing history. The big idea is to prevent people from protecting their online identity by telling porkies about their personal details. According to New Scientist, Volish software engineer Jian Hu from Microsoft's research lab in Beijing said that there are strong correlations between the sites that people visit and their personal characteristics.

• Rethink on threats to UK security - A high-level commission on national security will be launched today with the goal of rethinking the way the most serious threats facing Britain should be met. The commission will be run by the Institute of Public Policy Research thinktank and chaired jointly by Lord Robertson, a former Nato secretary general, and Lord Ashdown, former Liberal Democrat leader and UN high representative in Bosnia. It is being set up amid a growing belief, not yet reflected in Whitehall, that Britain's security will have as much to do with such issues such as climate change and global poverty, as with threats from international terrorists or weapons of mass destruction in other countries. Hilary Benn, the international development secretary, will tell today's launch: "This century will be shaped by the choice between a world that looks outwards, which embraces multilateralism and which seeks to shape globalisation in the interests of social justice or a world in which isolationism, protectionism and narrow nationalism hold sway.

• Dodge says single currency 'possible' - Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge says North America could one day embrace a euro-style single currency. But to get there, Canada, the United States and Mexico must first tear down barriers to the free flow of labour, which he pointed out Monday have “gotten a bit thicker” in recent years. Answering questions from the audience after a speech in Chicago, Mr. Dodge said a single currency was “possible.”

Tuesday 22nd May 2007: -

• German authorities use scent tracking to keep tabs on G-8 protesters - German authorities are using scent tracking to keep tabs on possibly violent protesters against next month's Group of Eight summit - a tactic that is drawing comparisons with the methods of former East Germany's secret police. Scent samples have been taken from an undisclosed number of people believed to be a possible danger to the upcoming summit so that police dogs can pick out the perpetrators if there is violence, the Hamburger Morgenpost reported Tuesday. Andreas Christeleit, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, confirmed the report but would give no further details. "This has happened to several suspects," he said.

• Smith - the name that set off FBI alarm bells - ELIZABETH SMITH is hardly a menacing moniker, and not the most unusual name - but it appears that was the problem for a 20-year-old student from the northern beaches who has been denied a visa to travel to the US. In the latest in a series of glitches with the FBI's travel watch list, Ms Smith's dream of working as a rock-climbing instructor at a US summer camp appears to have been dashed. "I couldn't believe it. I was devastated. I had been looking forward to it for so long," Ms Smith told the Herald. "I had been saving for this since the end of last year, working full-time. I've pretty much taken the whole year off to do it." Ms Smith - who does not have a criminal record - faces being substantially out of pocket because her plane ticket can't be refunded. And her high school friend, Caitlan Statos, will now be travelling alone to the camp.

• Keep a finger on students' spending, eating habits - Rossville parent Lisa Miller has had to replace more than one lunch card for her two children, a seventh-grader and a 10th-grader. "Kids tend to lose them or leave their cards in lockers or jeans pockets," Miller said. "They go through the wash and break in a million pieces. You can tape them up the first time, but after a couple times you have to replace them." Students in Rossville no longer have to worry about losing, breaking or forgetting their lunch cards. And soon, parents can breathe a little easier, too, knowing what their kids eat and how much they spend on lunch.

• Food additive impact tests urged - More tests are needed to monitor the long-term impact of food additives on behaviour, a campaign group says. The Hyperactive Children's Support Group (HACSG) welcomed moves by major retailers to remove additives in their own-brand products. M&S and Asda last week plans to phase out E-numbers and aspartame from their own-label goods. But HACSG said the trend towards substituting aspartame with sucralose was: "... continuing a pattern of replacing one sweetener with another."   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• THIS COUNTRY IS GOING TO THE DOGS!: The Queen is voted Greatest Living Briton - Dame Helen Mirren scooped a clutch of awards for portraying her on screen, but now the Queen has won a gong of her own. The public voted her Greatest Living Briton 2007, beating Sir Paul McCartney, Dame Julie Andrews, Baroness Thatcher and Robbie Williams. The Queen was not present at the ceremony to collect her award, voted for by ITV1 viewers, but Prince Edward paid tribute to his mother via a video transmission.

• Ex-KGB agent accused in Litvinenko death - Prosecutors accused a former KGB agent Tuesday of murder in the radioactive poisoning of fellow ex-operative Alexander Litvinenko and sought his extradition from Russia. The case is sure to challenge already-tense relations between London and Moscow. Andrei Lugovoi had met with Litvinenko at a London hotel hours before the former agent turned Kremlin critic fell ill with polonium-210 poisoning. Lugovoi has repeatedly denied any involvement in interviews with the police and media, and he reiterated that position Tuesday.

• Announcement due in Litvinenko case - An announcement is due to be made by prosecutors investigating the case of poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, the Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed. But a CPS spokesman would not give any guidance on speculation surrounding the case. The statement will be made by Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald and CPS Head of Counter-Terrorism Susan Hemming.

• Ron Paul Beats Digg Bury Brigade: Exposure on social networking giant continues viral online trend of Congressman's message - Ron Paul beat the notorious Digg bury brigade to feature on the main page of the social networking giant this afternoon, with the story about his appearance in Austin receiving over a thousand Diggs within hours of its release. Digg.com is a news ranking website that is many times bigger than most major newspaper websites and the Drudge Report. Users vote to Digg up stories to the main page or bury them. Digg's ranking system is subject to the whim of a notorious "Bury Brigade" that obsessively votes down anti-establishment political content, leading many like Wired News to attack the concept that Digg is some kind of online democracy.

• Edwards charges $55,000 to speak to UC Davis students about poverty - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who recently proposed an educational policy that urged "every financial barrier" be removed for American kids who want to go to college, has been going to college himself -- as a high paid speaker, his financial records show. The candidate charged a whopping $55,000 to speak at to a crowd of 1,787 the taxpayer-funded University of California at Davis on Jan. 9, 2006 last year, Joe Martin, the public relations officer for the campus' Mondavi Center confirmed Monday.

• Health fear over new airport scanners - New X-Ray scanners at British airports could be exposing passengers to potentially dangerous levels of radiation, according to one senior radiologist. The machines are designed to "strip search" passengers by using low-level X-Rays, which produce an image of their bodies, revealing whether they are secretly carrying weapons, explosives or illegal drugs. But the scanners may not be safe for certain people, particularly children and women in the early stages of pregnancy, according to Dr Sarah Burnett, who works as an independent radiologist in London.

• Glaxo's Avandia May Raise Heart-Attack, Death Risks - GlaxoSmithKline Plc's drug Avandia, the world's top-selling oral diabetes treatment, may raise a patient's chance of having a heart attack, researchers said. Glaxo shares fell the most in five years. Patients getting Avandia were 43 percent more likely to have a heart attack, according to an analysis released today of previous studies. Researchers also found a trend toward high death rates. Glaxo executives said more rigorous research showed no increase in danger, and U.S. regulators said they don't yet have enough information to determine any risks.

• There's a Holocaust Happening in China, Doctors Warn: Organ harvesting in China continues unabated — "This is a Holocaust, no question about it," Toronto-based family doctor Gerry Koffman told an audience gathered in the University of Toronto's Medical Science Building on Thursday. Dr. Koffman is the Canadian co-ordinator for Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, a U.S.-based group of medical doctors that is warning the public and the medical community that there are serious ethical implications in receiving organ transplants in China. Thursday's forum discussed recent reports of widespread forced organ removal from living prisoners of conscience in that country.

Monday 21st May 2007: -

• Civil Servants To Become Police Spies - Leaked Home Office plans show the government wants council staff, charity workers and doctors to become secret informers, tipping police off about people who might commit a violent crime. Danger signs shown by potential criminals could apparently include a violent family background, heavy drinking or mental health problems. Government workers who deal with individuals fitting these criteria would be obliged to report their observations to police. The draft plans, obtained by The Times, have caused concern amongst human rights organisations, who fear large amounts of personal information could be circulated between government agencies.

• Papers Please—and Your Biometric Data: By Kurt Nimmo - According to the New York Times, by way of Raw Story, the immigration bill currently wending its way through Congress “would require employers to re-verify the identity of every single person currently employed in the United States. Not only would it place a considerable burden on both government and business, but the verification system currently being tested has shown a significant rate of error.”

• Internet surveillance grows under expanded 'wiretapping' law - Local companies are ramping up their Internet surveillance to comply with a law requiring them to provide police with an easy way to intercept data. May 14 marked the first day that broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, providers must be in full compliance with the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

• Discrimination fear over ID cards - The decision to bring in ID cards for foreigners before bringing them in for Britons may lead to "de-facto racial profiling", MPs and peers have warned. The Joint Committee on Human Rights says black and other ethnic minorities may "disproportionately" be asked to prove their UK immigration status. From next year biometric immigration documents are being introduced for all non-EU nationals in the UK.

• School bans student from field trips - Scott City school officials have banned a state-award-winning high school student from attending a national Future Business Leaders of America conference this summer or going on any more FBLA field trips. Kevin Phelps, 15, admits to violating curfew at a state FBLA conference while staying at a hotel in Columbia, Mo., in April. He said he doesn't know how he ended up outside his hotel room after falling asleep inside his room.

• Wi-Fi radiation fears in schools - Wireless computer networks in schools can give off greater levels of signal radiation then a typical mobile phone mast, according to a BBC Panorama investigation. Government advice recommends masts are not sited near schools without consultation as children are thought to be more vulnerable to radio frequency radiation emissions than adults, the series states. But when Panorama visited a comprehensive school in Norwich and measured the radiation signal strength from a classroom Wi-Fi-enabled laptop, they found its peak was three times greater then the peak signal strength from a mast.

• 9/11 TRUTH ACTIVISM: Where to go next - Dear 9/11 Activists, You have taken to the streets, you have made the DVDs, you have been to the conferences, you have heard the testimony, you have made the calls, you have borne the brunt of criticism, (some of it deserved, some of it contrived to demoralize you), you have read the books, (the official and alternative theories), and you have decided where to cast your lot. And, you have decided to act! Ok, now what? Now is the time to focus your energy like a laser beam. Now is the time to inject yourself into the political debate in this country, and by proxy, to inject discourse about 9/11 into the living rooms of America.

• UK police ask for tourist photos in hunt for girl - Tourists who stayed at the Portuguese resort where 4-year-old Madeleine McCann was abducted were urged on Monday to hand over any holiday photographs which might contain clues to the British child's kidnapper. British detectives would use advanced facial recognition software to scan the pictures and pass on any useful information to Portuguese police.   (RELATED: See our commentary from Saturday's headlines regarding the manipulation of the public mindset over this heart breaking story.)

• Ron Paul Brings the House Down at Texas History Museum with Explosive Showing of Support - Ron Paul brought the house down last night at the Texas History Museum in Austin, Texas. The huge museum thundered with applause from a thousand people, which lasted for nearly five minutes as he walked through the crowd toward the stage to deliver his speech. Never in my life have I have seen anything like what I witnessed last night. He had a professional photography session for everyone to have individual photos taken with him. His speech was riveting. He committed himself to protecting individual liberties and rights first and foremost and ensuring transparent and limited government. He outlined his fiscal policy very clearly concerning how he would protect the elderly and health care programs while bringing our troops back to protect our borders and even begin to bring the deficit under control all at the same time by simply changing foreign policy. Everything he said made total sense and is the message that America needs.

• Carter says that W. Bush government is the “worst in the history” of the USA - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) affirmed that the current administration is the “worst in history” in terms of international relations, and criticized the White House policy of preemptive wars. “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,” Carter said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.

• White House Release: Bush will become dictator in event of any emergency - See whitehouse.com

• 2003 intelligence reports predicted violence in Iraq - "Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists in the region, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies," reports the Washington Post. In "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq" and "Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq," the National Intelligence Council predicted that Iraq would split apart and there would be a strong possibility of sectarian violence. The reports also predicted that elements of Saddam Hussein's military could join with extremists.

Sunday 20th May 2007: -

• Suspicious death in Pakistan for Daniel Pearl suspect - The Pakistani man who was detained over the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl has died. Saud Memon died of tuberculosis and meningitis only weeks after he was dumped outside his house, having being kidnapped and detained in a foreign country. Mr Memon's family believe he was picked up by American FBI agents while on a trip to South Africa, taken to Guantanamo Bay and later handed to back to Pakistan.

• ID card 'police' to levy £2,000 fines - A team of civil servants will "police" people who refuse to tell the state of any new address, and impose fines of up to £2,000 if they forget. The ID cards unit is to be responsible for checking that people inform the Government if they move house. The Government has admitted that under the ID cards law people will have to notify the ID cards database and the electoral register of address changes. The disclosure, in parliamentary questions tabled by the Tories, makes a mockery of Home Office claims that the ID cards scheme will mean people would only have to notify the state once of any changes. But the Ministry of Justice admitsthe database will not be linked to the electoral register at all.

• Fingerprint project takes kids’ vital information just in case - With her pure 8-year-old logic, Iris Jones had an excellent handle on the importance of her parents having a record of her fingerprints. “So if I get lost, police can use my fingerprints to find out where I am,” Iris said with a confident nod of her head. Jennifer Collins has organized several fingerprinting opportunities over the past year, the most recent May 12 at the Joshua Tree Nursery. Assisting with photographic “mug shots” to accompany the sheet with 10 little ink spots was Sherry Kimmel and Jordan Sullivan of Tumbleweed Photos.

• Owner Murdoch Told NY Post Writers To Not Be Critical Of China - Page Six, The New York Post’s free-swinging showcase for gossip about canoodling celebrities and cheating spouses, ran a tell-all item yesterday about a subject it does not usually cover in eye-popping detail: itself. And it had some pretty juicy details: the editor of the paper patronized a strip club, and the longtime author of the column, Richard Johnson, once took a $1,000 cash gift.

• 25 countries block websites - At least 25 countries block websites for political, social or other reasons as governments seek to assert authority over a network meant to be borderless, according to a study. The actual number may be higher, but the OpenNet Initiative had the time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian territories. Even so, researchers said they found more censorship than they had initially expected, a sign that the internet has matured to the point that governments are taking notice.

• Google new role as big brother - There are rumors floating around that Google is interested in buying Feedburner. Todd Cochrane, from Geek New Central asks, Could you trust Google with your FeedBurner Data? He make some very good points that I strongly encourage all podcasters and anyone who uses Feedburner to consider. I have long believed that your podcast feed should be considered part of your property. Kind of like real estate on someone’s iPod, iTunes or podcatching software. (I think I have posted this somewhere, but cannot find it easily).

• MI5 'staged bank robbery to steal royal photos' - A London bank robbery more than 35 years ago was staged by MI5 to recover compromising pictures of Princess Margaret on the Caribbean island of Mustique, a new film claims. Clips of The Bank Job, which will be released next year, were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Featuring the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Jason Statham, it tells the story of the 1971 Baker Street robbery, in which thieves tunnelled into the vault of a Lloyds bank and looted safe deposit boxes and jewellery worth the equivalent of £5m today. Nobody was ever arrested and none of the money recovered. The film alleges that a well-known criminal called Michael X had put the photographs of the Princess in the vault for safekeeping - and that was the point of the raid.

Saturday 19th May 2007: -

• Fans watch missing Madeleine video - The FA Cup crowd fell silent as haunting images of missing Madeleine McCann were broadcast on a big screen. Dozens of pictures of the little blonde girl, who turned four a week ago, were shown to 90,000 football fans. Her pretty face filled the screens at either end of the pitch - each one the size of 600 domestic TV sets - and dominated the ground.   (COMMENTARY: The propagandisement and manipulation of the British public continues as the establishment strategically hijack a very real tragedy and turn it into the fear mongering hype that will result in more people naturally throwing their hands in the air screaming 'something must be done by the state to protect our children!'... and what will be the result?  ID Cards? implantable microchips (i.e. Personal Locator Devices)?, face scanning cameras?, more cameras in school toilets?, less rights for parents?, tighter control over how children are 'protected' by the state - everything to what they eat, read and experience?.  Yes ladies and gentlemen its all on the menu!  We do indeed see this little girls disappearance as a heart-breaking event, but PLEASE PLEASE, READ BETWEEN THE LINES.  A pretty little girl, every parents pride and joy, snatched by the demons in the shadows... it's a nightmare and it's real.  But it's also a perfect opportunity for the New World Order to promote fear on a very deep level - anyone who cares about children can be manipulated by the fear being promoted here.)

• Iris scan is quick way to ID kids: Law enforcement officials are working to include local data in a national program - The Berkshire County Sheriff's Office is starting a campaign to photograph the eyes of every school-age child in the county for inclusion in a national database meant to help identify recovered children more quickly. With "iris recognition biometric technology," law enforcement officials can access the database on laptop computers wirelessly via a secure Web site to identify a subject in 12 to 15 seconds, said Berkshire County Sheriff Carmen C. Massimiano Jr. At any location with access to a cell tower, the database will be wirelessly accessible.

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