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.

• "Metro Officers Up Security, Sweeps Schools" - Parents in Davidson County are applauding officials’ random searches for drugs, weapon and other contraband at Metro schools. Friday morning, officials conducted three random searches at three Metro Schools . From West Meade to east Nashville, school officials have stepped up security at the end of the school year, a time when students are more restless and educators are concerned about what extra contraband that they may have. At 7 a.m., students arriving at were Hillwood High School caught by surprise. Officials were randomly searching vehicles, including junior Sarah Roberson's car.

• Wakulla County School Distict Supports National Child Identification Program - Wakulla County School District is participating in the National Child Identification Program to help protect Wakulla’s children. Superintendent Miller cites FBI stats, “With over 800,000 children missing every year, our children’s safety is a key concern to all parents.” The National Child Identification Program is the largest child identification effort conducted helping protect more than 14 million children in the past five years. The I.D. Kit includes an inkless fingerprint kit, wallet card, ID card and DNA collection swab.

• "Alzheimer's Chip Could Help Find Wandering Patients" - Families of Alzheimer’s patients live in constant fear that they will wander off and get lost like Viella Estes, the 86-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer who was last seen in Cannon County Tuesday morning. She has yet to be found. Now, new technology offers a way to help protect patients like Estes. The technology, however, is coming with a lot of controversy. It involves a tiny chip that is injected into the skin, just like some of the "tracking devices" that are now commonly implanted in pets.

• MPs' freedom of information cover-up is a dark day for democracy: Freedom of Information vote 'places MPs above law' - MPs provoked outrage yesterday after they voted to exclude themselves from freedom of information laws. Critics called the move a "squalid" bid to shroud Parliamentary expenses and allowances in secrecy, saying that it was "a dark day for democracy". Nearly 100 MPs – including at least 20 Labour ministers – backed the "shameful" plans to torpedo right-to-know rules, with only 25 opposing them.

• Couple won't fight verdict of tax evasion – Tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown said in a radio interview yesterday they do not intend to appeal their convictions on federal tax evasion charges. The Browns, for whom a judge filed a notice of appeal with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, said they have abandoned "man's law" and now follow only the rules and laws put forth in the Bible. "We know there's a possibility that this will end badly and they will end up killing us," Elaine Brown told Terri Dudley, host of "Your Turn" on Hanover's WTSL AM 1400. "Maybe some of us will die, but that happens in every revolution."

• NY Times Attempts To Debunk 9/11 Truth; Fails Miserably: More mainstream coverage, more ignorance of the facts - In a report detailing Rosie O'Donnell's confirmed plans to have 9/11 truthers debate the attacks on The View before she leaves in June, The New York Times has responded by penning an extremely poor attack piece which cites previous shoddy debunking efforts while completely ignoring key evidence often referred to by the many scientific experts, ex government officials, whistleblowers and truthers in general that have declared the event an inside job. Skipping over the fact that some guys in a cave in Afghanistan were able to coordinate a total stand down of US air defenses, and completely ignoring the mountains of evidence of prior knowledge, the Times makes four main points in an effort to debunk solely the controlled demolition aspect of the 9/11 truth movement's assertions.

• Whitman Will Testify About 9/11 Air If Congress Insists - Former NJ Governor and onetime EPA head in the Bush administration, Christine Todd Whitman, initially refused to appear before Congress to testify about the agency's post-9/11 assurances that air quality was safe in downtown Manhattan. A day later, she changed her mind and now says that she'll testify before a committee if its members insist upon it. "I am extremely proud of the EPA's work in response to the terrorist attacks on our nation on Sept. 11, 2001. The men and women of the EPA were -- and are -- dedicated to protecting the health of the American public and I will be pleased to answer any questions the subcommittee might have about their efforts during my tenure as director of the agency," Whitman wrote Nadler.

• States crack down on soldier T-shirts - Incensed by the sale of anti-war T-shirts and other paraphernalia emblazoned with the names and pictures of America's military dead, some states are outlawing the commercial use of the fallen without the permission of their families. Despite serious questions of constitutionality, Oklahoma and Louisiana enacted such laws last year, and the governors of Texas and Florida have legislation waiting on their desks. Arizona lawmakers are on the verge of approving a similar measure.

• More police given power to use Taser stun guns - Taser electronic stun guns are to be issued to more police officers under plans revealed by John Reid, the Home Secretary, yesterday. The use of the weapons will be extended to officers such as the tactical support units, used by Scotland Yard and other forces to back large operations and raids, who may face violent and dangerous suspects. The Home Office is also changing the rules for the use of Tasers. At the moment they can be used only in situations where officers would be authorised to use their guns, that is, where the suspect is armed and the officer believes that he or other people are in danger. The change would mean that a Taser could be used to face violent attackers even if they were not armed.

• Aspartame can be harmful to children - Think that when you hand your child a diet drink, you're doing something positive for his or her health? You might want to think twice before drinking diet soda, and three times before handing it to your child. New science suggests that drinking diet soda may actually be linked to weight gain and obesity, and there are ongoing concerns about aspartame (brand name: NutraSweet) causing cancer and brain damage. Peer-reviewed studies by aspartame researcher Dr. Ralph Walton suggest that aspartame is also a factor in the alarming rise of juvenile diabetes, obesity and behavior problems in children.

Thursday 17th May 2007: -

• Loose Change Creators on The View May 24th - According to a release from ABC, Korey Rowe and Dylan Avery, creators of the 9/11 conspiracy documentary Loose Change will appear on the May 24th show. Also listed is William Rodriguez, who was a janitor at the North Tower of the World Trade Center, who has since become part of the 9/11 truth movement. The only other guests listed for that date are the winners of Dancing With the Stars, so it appears that the show will not have representatives from both sides of the topic. Rosie O’Donnell has said before that we have been hearing the other side for years, so maybe the show will only cover the topic from one angle. However, since the show line-up often goes through changes before the show is taped, it is possible that they might be adding additional guests. It is also possible that they might have the other side in another segment on a different day.   (RELATED: You can view Loose Change - 2nd Edition at our sister site, 911truthskipton.com in the online film room)

• FOX hides their own poll results - Viewers of last night's Republican presidential "debate" on FOX were invited to text in votes for their favorite candidates in an unscientific poll. But let them just try and find those results: good luck! Clicking on FOX News Polls brings one to a page (dated May 2, 2007, but in tiny gray notation at the top of the page, not obvious in the text of the article) that trumpets "Rudy Giuliani gets highest rating."

• Rudy Giuliani v. Ron Paul, and Reality - Rudy Giuliani made clear in Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate that he is not ready to let the facts get in the way of his approach to foreign policy. The most heated moment in the debate, which aired live on the conservative Fox News network, came when the former New York mayor and current GOP front-runner angrily refused to entertain a serious discussion about the role that actions taken by the United States prior to the September 11, 2OO1, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon may have played in inspiring or encouraging those attacks.

• Ron Paul correctly labels 9/11 a blow-back - In the Republican debates that were broadcasted by Fox News, the clear winner as far as I am concerned is none other than Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. You may ask why. It is when he used the term ‘blow-back’ as the reason we were attacked on 9/11. What that shows me is that he has been paying attention unlike Rudy Giuliani who has no foreign policy experience to speak of. Instead of brushing up on foreign policy he has been busy making speeches in which last year he made $9 million dollars. It was only after digging into this blow-back affect that it changed my mind in relation to terrorist attacks that befell us on 9/11. Yes, I did once believe in these conspiracy theories, but chose to educate myself instead of following the pack.

• Rep. Ron Paul Tells FOX News/Republicans the Truth: They Don't Like Hearing It - Yesterday (5-15-07), on Your World, in a preliminary to last night's Republican debate on FOX News, host Neil Cavuto interviewed several of the "second-tier" candidates, including Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). As everyone knows who watched last night's debate, Rep. Paul stole the show because he was straightforward, honest and didn't let himself be intimidated by Rudy Giuliani.

• Homeland Security Accused of Breaking Law With Screening Information of Travelers - The Homeland Security Department is being accused of breaking the law by not telling the public exactly how personal information is used to screen international travelers, including Americans. The Government Accountability Office makes the assessment about the computer-based system called the Automated Targeting System. It's used by the Customs and Border Protection agency to rate the risk posed by travelers coming to and from the United States. In its report, the GAO says the department is not in full compliance with privacy laws that require agencies to tell the public how the government uses their personal information.

• Toddler fined £89 for dropping two crisps - A woman was handed an £80 litter fine after her toddler grandchild dropped some crisps on the pavement. Barbara Jubb had picked up the packet of Quavers when it fell from the hand of 20-month- old Emily. But she failed to pick up two stray crisps that spilled from the bag. Within seconds two council litter wardens swooped and issued her with an £80 fine. "This is diabolical," said Mrs Jubb, 57. "£80 is a lot of money, especially if it's just because a baby dropped two Quavers.

• Sir Sean Connery goes on the attack against Tony Blair - Sir Sean Connery has given his most incendiary ever interview on politics, branding Tony Blair an "a***hole" making his legacy from graves in Iraq and suggesting that First Minister Jack McConnell is frustrating democracy in Scotland - reports The Scotsman. In his first interview since the Holyrood election, Connery also calls on Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander to resign over the voting fiasco, which saw almost 150,000 ballot papers spoiled.

• Police may get power to evict bad neighbours: Campaigners criticise Reid move on 'yob behaviour' / More officers to be armed with Taser stun guns - Civil liberties and homelessness campaigners last night sharply criticised plans to give the police powers to "shut and seal" all premises, including flats, pubs and clubs, generating yobbish behaviour. The home secretary, John Reid, announced at the Police Federation conference in Blackpool yesterday that the powers would form part of a criminal justice bill to be introduced in the next few weeks, before Tony Blair leaves Downing Street.

• Secret papers detail NYC intelligence gathering on RNC protesters - They were among the more colorful protesters at the 2004 Republican National Convention _ a tuxedo-wearing performance art troupe called Billionaires for Bush. The New York Police Department, however, wasn't amused. Once-confidential documents prepared as the NYPD readied for the convention cautioned the group was "forged as a mockery of the current presidency and political policies," and they noted that "preliminary intelligence indicates that this group is raising funds for expansion and support of anti-RNC organizations."

Wednesday 16th May 2007: -

• Unborn babies targeted in crackdown on criminality: Blair launches policy imported from US to intervene during pregnancy to head off antisocial behaviour - Unborn babies judged to be at most risk of social exclusion and turning to criminality are to be targeted in a controversial new scheme to be promoted by Downing Street today. In an effort to intervene as early as possible in troubled families, first-time mothers identified just 16 weeks after conception will be given intensive weekly support from midwives and health visitors until the unborn child reaches two years old. Unveiling the findings of a Downing Street review, Tony Blair will make clear the government is prepared to single out babies still in the womb to break cycles of deprivation and behaviour.

• Use Your Driver's License As A Debit Card: A Startup Promises To Save Both Drivers And Gas Station Owners A Bundle At The Pump By Cutting Credit Cards Out Of The Payment Process - Aurora Bisig is a big believer in retailer discount cards. At her last count, she had a dozen--from Sam's Club (WMT) to nearly every grocery store in Central Texas. So this March, when the Austin [Tex.] insurance agent pulled into a gas station for a fill-up and saw a sign promising an additional 10 off per gallon for signing up with a new e-payment program, she was interested. She was also pleased to learn that the "RollbackPrice" program wouldn't require her to add another piece of plastic to her overstuffed wallet. Instead, after entering her driver's license number and bank account information online with a two-year-old company called National Payment Card [NPC], she'd be able to pay for gas just by swiping her driver's license [linked directly, via the existing magnetic stripe, to her bank account], and entering a personal identification number.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Biometric deadbolt is latest assault on keys - The era of the key seems, inevitably, to be heading toward its end. The proliferation of remote openers and starters is spawning legions of drivers who smugly zip around with their keys safely in their pockets. And now the good-old front door is following the path to keyless bliss with the introduction of the BioLock Deadbolt. This new device is a logical alternative to the keyless butler or the somewhat clunky biometric door-handle lock.

• British government introduces biometric data collection - British government introduces biometric data collection process for all visa applicants. The British Government is introducing biometric data collection (fingerscans and digital photographs) as part of a world-wide biometric identification process, designed to protect an individual's identity, facilitate future entry to the UK, combat visa fraud and abuse of the UK's immigration and asylum systems. From Thursday 31st May 2007 there will be two major changes to the application process.

• Widow of 7/7 leader Khan is released without charge after anti-terror raids - The widow of the July 7 leader Mohammad Sidique Khan has been released without charge after being held on suspicion of involvement in the terror attacks. Hasina Patel, 29, whose husband was the mastermind behind the London atrocities, was freed after being arrested in Yorkshire last week. Her brother Arshad, 30, also arrested in connection with the attacks, was released, as was Imran Motala, 22. The three had been questioned at Paddington Green police station in London.

• 9/11 Toxic Dust: Official Who Knowingly Lied Refuses To Testify: Whitman in the frame to take the fall for Guiliani, Rice and The White House - The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who knowingly lied and signed off on falsified scientific research on the toxicity of the air in the aftermath of 9/11, has refused a request by Rep. Jerrold Nadler that she testify before a congressional hearing on the federal government's response to be tabled later this month. The New York Sun today reported: Christine Todd Whitman, the EPA administrator at the time, has declined an invitation to appear before a House subcommittee that Mr. Nadler chairs, an aide to the congressman said yesterday. Mr. Nadler, whose district includes ground zero, is expected to ask Ms. Whitman again before considering whether to seek to compel her testimony with a subpoena, the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

• Dedicated - I Luke Rudkowski never made a film in my life, I sat in front of a computer at my local public access station BCAT with no knowledge of film making. Through countless hours of trial and error I was able to make this film. This film is not perfect but I did my best and that is what matters. Half-way through making this film on 1/29/07 I lost one of my best friends Dan Wallace to whom this film is dedicated to, I could not stop crying making this film. I spent whatever money I had in my pockets to make this film and for a 20 year old unemployed college student that’s not much. It also does not help that all funding for NY911Truth was confiscated by one individual. If you like what you see and want to support these actions donate $12.00 or more at www.WeAreChange.org and you’ll receive a high quality DVD version of the film.

• Gonzales Hospital Episode Detailed: Ailing Ashcroft Pressured on Spy Program, Former Deputy Says - On the night of March 10, 2004, as Attorney General John D. Ashcroft lay ill in an intensive-care unit, his deputy, James B. Comey, received an urgent call. White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., were on their way to the hospital to persuade Ashcroft to reauthorize Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice Department had just determined was illegal.

• 'Soviets engineered Six Day War' - In a new book that "totally contradicts everything that has been accepted to this day" about the Six Day War, two Israeli authors claim that the conflict was deliberately engineered by the Soviet Union to create the conditions in which Israel's nuclear program could be destroyed. Having received information about Israel's progress towards nuclear arms, the Soviets aimed to draw Israel into a confrontation in which their counterstrike would include a joint Egyptian-Soviet bombing of the reactor at Dimona. They had also geared up for a naval landing on Israel's beaches.

• UNDERSTANDING THE THREAT TO DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: PART 1 - Your right to have free access to safe and highly effective dietary supplements is under an intense multi-pronged FDA attack. On May 14, 2007 the Supreme Court sided with the FDA by deciding not to hear the case of Nutraceutical v FDA, letting stand a federal appeals court ruling that permits the FDA to use drug-related risk/benefit analysis to determine if a nutrient is safe. This is the exact same point the FDA is trying to get put into law through Senate bill S.1082 and HR.1561, which consumers have flooded the Senate on over the past few weeks. And it is the same point the FDA is seeking to help implement on an international basis through Codex. The Supreme Court denial to hear this case is a dramatic turn of events that means there is very little time left to act to preserve free access to dietary supplements. The first part of this article explains this issue in depth so that Americans can understand what is taking place. The second part explains the steps Americans need to take to preserve their health freedom.

• Labour’s ID card sums are 'laughable' - The cost of a biometric United Kingdom to support the national identity card scheme has risen by £400m since October, in addition to an extra £200m needed to process foreign nationals. In real terms, the Home Office estimates the ten-year project will cost taxpayers a total of £5.55billion, according to a six-month audit of the scheme released last week. In its analysis, Identity Cards Scheme Cost Report, officials said that a “greater understanding of the work required” explains why costs to the taxpayer will increase £60m a year until 2014.

• Privacy boss remains wary of no-fly list - Despite months of consultations with Transport Canada, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart still has serious concerns about the threat to privacy posed by Canada's new no-fly list. The no-fly list is part of a program known as Passenger Protect that will screen everyone who flies in Canada against a list of "specified persons" deemed to pose an immediate risk to airline safety. If passengers' names and birth dates match those of specified persons, Transport Canada can bar them from boarding.

• Toilet spycam photographs kids - A CLEANER at a primary school who drilled holes in the ceiling of a toilet and took pictures of girls and female teachers, leaving some children traumatised, was jailed for just four months today. Adrian Alan Mayne, 31, of Hobart, used the school's own camera to take 36 pictures of the breast and groin areas of girls and female members of staff at the Tasmanian school. He also drilled a large hole in the kindergarten floor to take pictures "upwards from the legs of female teachers". Mayne superimposed the snaps on to photographs of adults engaging in sexual activity to make a collection of 90 images, the Supreme Court of Tasmania was told.  (RELEVANT FLASHBACKS: School toilets 'to be observed' to tackle bullying) & School puts CCTV in toliets to beat bullies)

Tuesday 15th May 2007: -

• Confirmed: 9/11 Truthers To Appear On The View: Yesterday's report validated by Rosie's blog entry - Confirming our report yesterday, Rosie O'Donnell has validated via her blog that prominent 9/11 truthers are set to appear on The View and educate an audience of around 30 million on the controlled demolition of the twin towers and WTC 7. We reported weeks ago that 9/11 film makers as well as experts on the controlled demolition hypothesis would feature on the ABC show and those tapings are now imminent.

• US government fans homeland terrorism fear: Washington consensus plans for martial law, nuclear terror holocaust, behind closed doors - The US government and Washington elites are aggressively ramping up their "war on terrorism" rhetoric and propaganda, stoking fear and paranoia in order to bolster its war agenda, and reinvigorate the mass public perception of new and growing "homegrown terrorism" threats to the US homeland.

• Targets 'force UK police to make ludicrous arrests' - Frontline police called on the Government today to reverse the target-driven culture that has forced them to make "ludicrous" decisions such as arresting a child for throwing cream buns. The Police Federation annual conference in Blackpool will debate today whether judging officers purely on how many arrests, cautions or on-the-spot fines they can deliver is making a mockery of the criminal justice system. The federation said the drive to meet Whitehall performance targets was compelling officers to criminalise middle England. The organisation published a dossier of ridiculous cases they claimed resulted from Home Office targets placed on beat bobbies.

• Wolfowitz 'broke World Bank laws' - A panel of executives at the World Bank says its President Paul Wolfowitz broke bank rules in awarding a substantial pay rise to his girlfriend. The directors said the full board of the World Bank should consider whether Mr Wolfowitz was still able to provide effective leadership. He is due to appear before the full 24-member board in Washington. The board has the power to dismiss Mr Wolfowitz, reprimand him or report a lack of confidence in his leadership.

• Secret IDF anthrax experiment participants develop illnesses - Israeli investigative program "Uvda" (fact) reported Tuesday that dozens of soldiers belonging to elite Israel Defense Forces units have been suffering from various illnesses over the last few years after participating in a secret IDF experiment meant to aid in the development of an anthrax vaccine. The experiment was sponsored by the Defense Ministry, and included 800 test subjects since 1999, the report said. Channel 2's Uvda maintains that the soldiers participating in the experiment were prohibited from disclosing information regarding the experiment, event to their families. They were not allowed to talk about the experiment even after they began developing illnesses, some of them incurable.

• People without bank accounts exist on cash basis - Prognosticators have spoken of a cashless society, one in which the traditional greenback takes the road of the dinosaur and all transactions are made in plastic. Some would welcome the day, others deplore it as another method of having the government control people and keep track of every dime they spend. Today most businesses welcome the dollar bill, or a handful of change, depending on the size of the purchase. But for people who don’t have bank or checking accounts, or who have bad credit, that isn’t an option. They cash their paychecks or government checks, and go around to various places taking care of their monthly bills in cash or with money orders. “The Economist” estimates 12 million American families have no bank accounts.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Surveillance state can't monitor itself, says US: Chertoff questions legal traditions - It would be impractical for the US to monitor how its border guards use the massive databases it is building on European citizens, US Homeland Security Security secretary Michael Chertoff told the European Parliament yesterday. Answering questions before an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Chertoff defended the Automated Targeting System - a US database that creates profiles of people who cross America's borders.

• Military puts MySpace, other sites off limits - Lt. Daniel Zimmerman, an infantry platoon leader in Iraq, puts a blog on the Internet every now and then "to basically keep my friends and family up to date" back home. It just got tougher to do that for Zimmerman and a lot of other U.S. soldiers. No more using the military's computer system to socialize and trade videos on MySpace, YouTube and nine other Web sites, the Pentagon says.

• BIG MEDIA, POST OFFICE MAKE SECRET DEAL DESIGNED TO CRUSH INDEPENDENT MEDIA: Independent Newspapers, Magazines Hit With Rate Hike; Big Boys Exempt - Abroad coalition of small and independent publishers are fighting a plan by major media to kill them with huge postal increases that would exempt the big boys. Time Warner Inc., the nation’s largest publisher, hatched the plan in a secret deal with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). The little guys kicked up such a fuss Congress is investigating the conspiracy. “It is outrageous that Time Warner, obviously on behalf of the large publications, made such an unfair deal in secret plotting with the postal commission,” said Vince Ryan, editor emeritus of American Free Press and chairman of AFP’s READERSHIP COUNCIL. “This evil act will not stand.”

• JFK Conspirator Wanted Every Kennedy Dead: E. Howard Hunt wanted to "finish the job" by killing Senator Ted Kennedy, greeted news of RFK's assassination with satisfaction - JFK assassination conspirator E. Howard Hunt wanted to "finish the job" by killing Senator Ted Kennedy and greeted news of Robert Kennedy's murder with satisfaction , according to his son Saint John Hunt. E. Howard Hunt was a former veteran CIA agent and one of the infamous Watergate plumbers, he died in January 2007.

Monday 14th May 2007: -

• US teachers stage mock gun attack - Teachers at a US school have been criticised after staging a fake gun attack during a class trip, telling children it was not a drill. Many of the 69 pupils, aged about 11, were reduced to tears when they were told to hide under tables and keep quiet as a gunman was on the loose. Parents of the children, who attended Scales Elementary school in Tennessee, were said to be furious at the "stunt".

• Pakistan Officials Try to Stem Violence - Pakistani troops have been told to "shoot on sight" if need be to control political violence in the southern city of Karachi. Pakistani authorities have banned political rallies in the city, where at least 38 people were killed in two days of street battles between government and opposition supporters. VOA correspondent Benjamin Sand reports from Islamabad.

• Claim: Silverstein Warned Not To Come To Work On 9/11: 9/11 truth activist says security guards spilled beans, while one gets fired for calling in a false bomb threat to frame demonstrators - New York 9/11 truth activist Luke Rudkowski claims WTC complex owner Larry Silverstein and his daughter got a warning on the morning of 9/11 not to come to work that day - his source? - Silverstein's own security guards. Rudkowski and his protest group We Are Change protested Silverstein outside the new WTC 7 building last month and were confronted by Silverstein's security entourage who proceeded to harass the group before calling in a fake bomb threat to the NYPD in an attempt to have the demonstrators arrested.

• New Footage Re-Ignites BBC Building 7 Controversy: Reporter's audio feed interrupted again as she discusses WTC 7, earlier window shot proves footage not "blue screen" as ludicrous debunkers maintained despite BBC admission - More 9/11 archive footage has been unearthed of BBC correspondent Jane Standley, this time from the evening of September 11, in which her audio cuts out again - for the second time that day - when she begins to discuss Building 7. View the clip from You Tube below - as soon as the discussion moves to the collapse of other buildings besides the twin towers, Standley's audio feed is interrupted. A mere technical glitch or a suspicious interruption considering that the feed had cut out completely earlier in the day moments before the Solomon Brothers Building fell?

• Giuliani parlayed 9/11 fame into riches: newspaper - Just months after the terrorist attacks on New York City in September of 2001, "America's mayor" Rudolph Giuliani "took the first official step toward making himself rich," writes the Washington Post. It was on December 7, 2001, three weeks before leaving office as mayor of New York City, that Giuliani sent a letter to the city's Conflicts of Interest Board asking permission to form a consulting firm. The broadly defined company, Giuliani Parters, would bring in more than $100 million providing "management consulting service to governments and business" over the next 5 years, according to a Washington Post source.

• Schools to 'ban' pupils wearing crosses - but jewellery of other faiths allowed - Schools could be forced to ban their pupils from wearing crosses - while allowing them to display symbols of non-Christian religions. The rules being considered by one education authority would see jewellery forbidden from PE lessons, apart from in "exceptional circumstances". The sensitivity apparently only extends to symbols from the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim faiths. A draft document from Croydon Council in South London apparently says exceptions would include the rakhi cotton bracelet worn by Hindus and the kara metal bracelet put on the arms of Sikh children, which cannot be removed.

• Iran will 'retaliate strongly' to US attack - IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned today that his country would retaliate strongly to any possible attack by the US over Tehran's controversial nuclear program. "They realise that if they make such a mistake the retaliation of Iran would be severe and they will repent," Mr Ahmadinejad said in the United Arab Emirates. Using stronger language than yesterday when he called for US troops to leave the region, Mr Ahmadinejad said through an interpreter that Gulf countries should "get rid of" foreign forces, which he blamed for regional insecurity.

• Hookers, spies, cases full of dollars...how BP spent £45m to win 'Wild East' oil rights - BP executives working for Lord Browne spent millions of pounds on champagne-fuelled sex parties to help secure lucrative international oil contracts. The company also worked with MI6 to help bring about changes in foreign governments, according to an astonishing account of life inside the oil giant. Les Abrahams, who led BP's successful bid for a multi-million-pound deal with one of the former Soviet republics, today claims that Browne - who was forced to resign as chief executive last month after the collapse of legal proceedings against The Mail on Sunday - presided over an "anything goes" regime of sexual licence, spying and financial sweeteners.

• Police fingerprint drivers - Police have used handheld computers to fingerprint volunteers on the streets of New Zealand, but say they would need a law change before making this part of everyday policing. Police have tested PDAs that can digitally capture thumbprints and compare these to a database of wanted or known criminals. The idea is that fingerprinting could be used to check that drivers weren't lying about their identities to hide convictions or outstanding warrants when stopped. Spokeswoman Phillipa Sargent says the trial was "an experiment" and that police aren't yet planning to ask the public for their fingerprints, which it could only do on a voluntary basis under existing legislation.

• Tagging offenders 'not working' - Seven crimes are committed every day by electronically tagged offenders, according to a report. The Government has been accused of wrongly using the scheme to ease prison overcrowding. Just one in 40 tagged individuals committed a crime when the project started in 1999 but by last year the figure had jumped to one in nine, according to Tory MP Grant Shapps.

• Google may use games to analyse net users: Players' behaviour could be used by advertisers / Tracking idea disturbs privacy campaigners - Internet giant Google has drawn up plans to compile psychological profiles of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online games. The company thinks it can glean information about an individual's preferences and personality type by tracking their online behaviour, which could then be sold to advertisers. Details such as whether a person is more likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored for future use, it says.

• "OPEN AND FREE SOCIETY MY ARSE!" (We had to do it!): HOW MI5 STITCHED UP ACTOR RICKY - SECRET files on Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson suggest he was the victim of an MI5 dirty tricks campaign, a former minister claimed last night. Ricky, who plays loveable slob Jim Royle in the hit comedy, was jailed in the Seventies for organising flying pickets during the first national building industry strike. But he has long believed he was the victim of an establishment set-up. Now the Labour MP and former Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle is calling on the Government to own up over the affair, which has remained shrouded in secrecy for 35 years.

• Stop shooting the mentally ill, police told - POLICE need better skills to handle violent mentally ill people than just shooting them with guns and Tasers, an inquest was told today. A coronial inquest into the deaths of four mentally ill men shot dead by police in separate incidents between October 2003 and February 2006 resumed in Queensland today. Thomas Dion Waite, 30, Mieng Huynh, 40, James Henry Jacobs, 29, and James Michael Gear, 23, were killed in violent incidents in the state's southeast. The inquest, headed by state coroner Michael Barnes, is seeking to determine whether the police responses in each incident were justified and if other alternatives could have been pursued.

• Ritalin abuse is on the rise among teens - College is hard enough. But throw in end-of-semester exams, term papers and standardized tests, and there just aren't enough hours in the day. Enter Ritalin, the latest drug of choice among sleep-deprived students struggling to make the grade. Undergraduates, as well as high school SAT-takers, are increasingly turning to prescription stimulants to boost concentration during long study sessions and all-nighters, according to drug abuse experts at the University of Florida, who cite a rise in the number of teen patients they see who openly admit to having conned unnecessary prescriptions from doctors.

• Country walks 'can help reduce depression' - Country walks can help reduce depression and raise self-esteem according to research published today, leading to calls for "ecotherapy" to become a recognised treatment for people with mental health problems. Ecotherapy: the green agenda for mental health is the first study looking at how "green" exercise specifically affects those suffering from depression. According to Mind, England and Wales's leading mental health charity, it produced "startling" results proving the need for ecotherapy to be considered a proper treatment option.

• 9/11, acted as a 'benevolent dictator' - A story in tomorrow's New York Times (reg. req.) is highly criticial of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's handling of the recovery operation in New York City following 9/11, claiming that his desire to downplay problems and return the city to a semblance of normality as quickly as possible has led to serious health problems for many of those who worked at ground zero. The Times also charges that Giuliani sidelined experienced federal officials from FEMA, OSHA and the Army Corps of Engineers, placing the cleanup instead in the hands of "a largely unknown city agency" that offered "a generally slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental concerns." According to the Times, "one Army Corps official said Giuliani acted like a 'benevolent dictator.'"

• THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED THE LEEDS TRUTH FESTIVAL THIS PAST WEEKEND.  IT WAS A GREAT SUCCESS! FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SEE THE SHORT FILM BY SAREETA WEBRA WHICH WE WERE UNABLE TO SHOW (DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS) YOU CAN DO SO BY CLICKING HERE.

Sunday 13th May 2007: -

• THANK YOU FOR BEARING WITH US OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS AS WE HAVE BEEN WORKING HARD IN ASSOCIATION WITH BOTH THE 911 TRUTH CAMPAIGN (BRITAIN AND IRELAND) (BORING BUT VERY NECESSARY A.G.M. BUSINESS!) AND ALSO THE LEEDS TRUTH FESTIVAL WHICH CONCLUDES LATER TODAY - UPDATES TO OUR HEADLINES MAY BE LESS FREQUENT OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS, AFTER WHICH TIME WE EXPECT THIS SERVICE TO RESUME AS NORMAL.

Saturday 12th May 2007: -

• ID CARD TRICK: Government 'try to bury' shock news of scheme's spiralling costs - THE Home Office was yesterday accused of trying to bury bad news about the spiralling costs of ID cards by sneaking it out on the day Tony Blair announced his resignation. The compulsory twice-yearly update about the project was a month late and showed the estimated cost had risen by at least £400million since the last report. Tory and Lib Dem opponents of ID cards said that meant the total cost of running the controversial scheme for 10 years would be a staggering £5.5billion.

• Exam papers tagged to beat cheats - Exam papers have been tagged and other new technology has been used for the first time to try to combat cheating. Exam board Edexcel is trying new ways to tighten security to deter cheats and detect fraudulent activity in its GCSE and A-level papers. A joint exams body already polices the system, with schools following strict procedures to maintain security.

Friday 11th May 2007: -

• PLEASE BEAR WITH US THIS WEEK AS WE ARE CURRENTLY WORKING HARD IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE UP-COMING LEEDS TRUTH FESTIVAL - UPDATES TO OUR HEADLINES MAY BE LESS FREQUENT OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

Thursday 10th May 2007: -

• Blair will stand down on 27 June - Tony Blair has announced he will stand down as prime minister on 27 June. He made the announcement in a speech to party activists in his Sedgefield constituency, after earlier briefing the Cabinet on his plans. He acknowledged his government had not always lived up to high expectations but said he had been "very blessed" to lead "the greatest nation on earth". He will stay on in Downing Street until the Labour Party elects a new leader - widely expected to be Gordon Brown.

• Only Ron Paul Can Defeat Hillary Clinton: Which is why the corporate elite that have already selected the New York senator are doing their best to blackball the Texas Congressman - including Yahoo! who lied by claiming Paul had not filed papers to officially run, and omitted him from their website coverage - There is only one Republican candidate that can prevent Hillary Clinton from walking into the Oval Office after the next election and that's Ron Paul - which is why the corporate interests that have already selected Hillary are busy trying to stem the tide of a populist onslaught to bring the Texas Congressman to the attention of the American people.

• Illegals Cheer As Police Beat Amnesty Protester - A driver chooses to voice his disagreement with the thousands of mainly illegal immigrants marching to demand amnesty for criminals who have already broken the law by unlawfully entering the U.S. without permission. He opens his sunroof and sticks his middle finger up at the throngs of demonstrators, countering their free speech with the right to his own under the first amendment.

• Official: Inmates Forced To Lick Toilets Clean: 8 Former Prison Employees Accused Of Abuse - Prosecutors issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for eight former prison employees accused of abusing inmates, including forcing some to clean toilets with their tongues. The eight were among 13 prison employees who had already been fired from the 605-inmate medium and minimum security at the Hendry Correctional Institution in the Everglades. The previous warden and an assistant warden resigned, and three others were reassigned after an inmates was beaten and choked by guards in March.

• Marine says urinated on dead Iraqi at Haditha - Angered that a beloved member of his squad had been killed in an explosion, a U.S. Marine urinated on one of the 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit in Haditha, the Marine testified on Wednesday. Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who has immunity from prosecution after murder charges against him were dismissed, also said he watched his squad leader shoot down five Iraqi civilians who were trying to surrender.

• Rumsfeld Keeps Ghastly 9/11 Souvenirs - The Justice Department investigation that criticized FBI agents for taking souvenirs from the World Trade Center site also found that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a high-ranking FBI official kept items from the Sept. 11 attack scenes. Excuse me? What the hell is Rumsfeld doing taking souvenirs from 9/11. First off, I must question the legality of this. Wouldn’t a piece of the airplane be considered a part of the crime scene? The whole 9/11 report and documentation is gnarled to death with inconsistency but hell, let’s take some evidence for the road.

• The proof food additives ARE as bad as we feared - Parents have been warned to avoid artificial additives used in drinks, sweets and processed foods amid a link to behaviour problems in children. A study funded by the government's Food Standards Agency(FSA) is understood to have drawn a link with temper tantrums and poor concentration.

Wednesday 09th May 2007: -

• One in 5 Canadians sees 9/11 as U.S. plot - One in five Canadians believes the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, had nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden and were actually a plot by influential Americans, according to a poll released that had been released by Ipsos-Reid. The cited poll found that 22 percent of Canadians, and 26 percent of young Canadians, agree with the theory that 9/11 was "an inside job". The number was the highest, at 32 percent, in Quebec, which has shown the least support for the U.S. war on terror. The poll asked if the events of September 11, "including the thousands of American citizens who lost their lives on that day, were actually orchestrated by a group of highly influential Americans and others as part of a wider global conspiracy to profit from and gain power and who are actually protecting Osama Bin Laden from being captured."

• Lung Disease, 9/11 Link Seen In Rescuers - A study has confirmed New York City rescue workers at the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks suffered a spike in an uncommon lung disease. Nine doctors from the city fire department and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found 86 cases per 100,000 workers developed sarcoidosis in the first year after the terror attack. The potentially fatal disease causes scarring in the lungs and other organs, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

• Two found guilty over Bush-Blair memo leak - A civil servant and an MP's researcher were today found guilty of leaking a secret memo detailing talks between George Bush and Tony Blair on the Iraq war. David Keogh, a 50-year-old communications officer, passed the "extremely sensitive" memo to Leo O'Connor, 44, a researcher for the anti-war Labour MP, Anthony Clarke. He hoped the document would find its way into the public domain and expose the US president as a "madman". The four-page memo recorded April 2004 Oval Office talks between the two leaders on events in the city of Falluja. Its contents were so secret that much of the trial was held behind closed doors with the press excluded.

• Specialist stroke care 'lottery' - A third of stroke patients are still not treated in a specialist unit despite improvements in access, a national audit has shown. And fewer than half of patients receive brain imaging within 24 hours, a figure experts said was "unacceptably low". Welsh patients fare the worst with only nine specialist units in the country, the Royal College of Physicians found.

• State finds 2 more mistaken print IDs: The botched work by a Seminole sheriff's examiner includes a double-murder case - A state review has found two more botched identifications by a Seminole County sheriff's fingerprint examiner, one of them in a sensational double-murder case that sent a man to death row. The news Monday makes four cases so far in which the fingerprint expert made matches that state analysts now say were inconclusive or wrong.

• Dutch airline KLM to probe flights for fleeing Nazis - Dutch airline KLM will probably seek an independent investigation into whether it flew Nazi fugitives to Argentina after the Second World War, the national airline said on Tuesday. Questions over KLM's past surfaced last week after a Dutch television documentary claimed to have discovered archive documents showing the airline played an active role in helping suspected war criminals flee Germany.

Tuesday 08th May 2007: -

• From Unlikely Quarters, Bruce Willis Ends The JFK Debate: The Kennedy assassination furore is over and the "conspiracy theorists" won, 9/11 is soon to follow - Bruce Willis' insightful and definitive comments to Vanity Fair about the assassination of JFK, in which he boldly states that Kennedy's killers were never caught and are still in power today, are a benchmark as to how far the truth movement has progressed since 9/11. "They still haven't caught the guy that killed [President] Kennedy," Willis told Vanity Fair's June issue. "I'll get killed for saying this, but I'm pretty sure those guys are still in power, in some form. The entire government of the United States was co-opted," adds the Die Hard star.

• CANCER CLAIMS 9/11 COP - A detective on Mayor Bloomberg's security detail died yesterday of cancer - an illness his family and union officials believe can be traced to his work in the toxic debris at Ground Zero after 9/11. Detective Kevin Hawkins, 42, died at 2 a.m. at the hospice unit of Calvary Hospital in The Bronx, said Vic Cipulla, vice president of the Detectives Endowment Association. He'd been diagnosed with kidney cancer in September. Cipulla said Hawkins and his family had filed a claim that would seek verification that his illness was in the line of duty, making him eligible for a disability pension. "Members have come down with various forms of cancer and there are many still to come," he said.

• UN under fire for turning a blind eye to peacekeepers' misconduct - TEENAGE Timorese prostitutes gather just before dusk opposite a hotel on Dili's waterfront where drivers in United Nations vehicles can be seen picking them up and driving away. "It's disgusting … these people who have supposedly come here to help the Timorese are abusing these poor girls," says an Australian mechanic drinking in the hotel's second-floor bar, who observes the scene every night. Some of the 2000 UN police and civilian staff from more than 40 countries are openly violating what the UN promised would be a "zero tolerance" policy towards sexual abuse and misconduct in the deeply religious country, sources say.

• One year for police officer who assisted 2 brothels: He was paid in cash and sex for warning of raids, other help - A former Sunnyvale police officer was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in federal prison for helping two brothels avoid police raids, find fleeing prostitutes and collect tens of thousands of dollars in bogus immigration fees from employees who were illegal immigrants. David Lee Miller Jr., 43, a former crime scene investigator, defensive tactics instructor and longtime SWAT team member with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, pleaded guilty in January 2005 to two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion.

• Father of soldier killed in Iraq says: 'I could strangle Tony Blair' - The latest British soldier to be killed in Iraq died in a ‘ pointless war’ for which Tony Blair must answer, his grief-stricken father said last night. Private Kevin Thompson, 21, was hit by a roadside bomb as he drove in a supply convoy through Basra on Thursday. He was flown back to Britain for treatment but died on Sunday morning with his family at his bedside. His death brought the number of British fatalities in Iraq to 148.

• China and Russia defy Sudan arms embargo - Russia and China have broken a United Nations arms embargo by supplying Sudan with attack helicopters, bombers and other weapons for use against civilians in Darfur, Amnesty International has said. Chinese strike aircraft and Russian helicopter gunships have been photographed at three airports in Darfur. Their presence violates UN Resolution 1591, which banned Sudan from transferring any weaponry to Darfur without the Security Council's official permission.

• Additives ARE to blame for children's tantrums - Parents have been warned to avoid artificial additives used in drinks, sweets and processed foods amid a link to behaviour problems in children. A study funded by the government's Food Standards Agency(FSA) is understood to have drawn a link with temper tantrums and poor concentration. There are also concerns about allergic reactions such as asthma and rashes. The findings are potentially explosive for the entire food industry, which faces the need to reformulate a vast array of children's products.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• TV toddlers 'become aggressive' - Toddlers who watch too much television can become aggressive and suffer from poor attention span, a survey claims. The report discovered that an increasing number of children are watching television at a younger age and that nearly half of children in the study were regular viewers of television, video or DVDs by the age of three months. The figure jumps to 90 per cent of two year olds, according to researchers who say parents are ignoring the health warnings.

• Lyndhurst plans to fingerprint, check vendors - The friendly chimes of the neighborhood ice cream truck will come under more scrutiny. Township officials will implement background checks and fingerprinting on vendors who operate ice cream trucks or sell other food on wheels. The Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing tonight on the ordinance, a measure intended to ensure that children are safe when they approach these vendors. "Most of the people who come to an ice cream truck are kids," Mayor Richard DiLascio said. "They are selling to kids. ... A parent might not always be around. It's a health and safety issue."

• Good riddance to Reid, an utterly bogus bully - Not many people will be weeping tears at the news that John Reid is proposing to step down as Home Secretary when his master, Tony Blair, finally leaves office in July. Gordon Brown, for one, is not. He and Dr Reid hate each other for obscure reasons which are lost in the Scottish mists, and which even the two protagonists may have forgotten. Mr Brown would probably have kept him on as Home Secretary - he is supposedly too big and angry a beast to be heaved out - but will be relieved that he has gone.

• DIANA IS STILL LOVED... BUT HER PALACE POSTCARDS ARE BANNED - POSTCARDS of Princess Diana have been banned from shops at royal palaces despite a predicted bonanza in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of her death. Shops at Buckingham Palace and other royal residences have been told not to stock Diana cards because of a rule that they should only sell images of current members of the Royal Family. However, critics say the ban shows that the Royal Family and their advisers are still uncomfortable with Diana’s legacy amid fears that her image would outsell those of the Queen and every other member of the family.

• NEW CARD TO KILL OFF OUR CASH - NEW bank cards being introduced from September will sound the death knell for cash. The swipe-and-go Paypass cards will mean bills of less than £10 can be paid by tapping your plastic against a special pad. There will be no need to give a signature or enter a PIN. There are 20billion payments of less than a tenner made in the UK every year. The new cards will look like existing credit and debit cards but have the Paypass logo on the front.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Smartcard heralds cashfree era - The days of struggling to find the right change were declared over today as Britain's banks announced the next generation of cash smartcards. "Contactless credit and debit cards" will be launched in London this autumn, with a nationwide rollout to follow in 2008. The "tap and go" cards will allow users to make minor purchases without having to swipe their cards or enter a Pin number. Announcing the new technology, the UK payments association, Apacs, said: "Contactless technology will be available for transactions of £10 or under. Customers will simply hold their upgraded card up to a secure reader to make their payment in participating retailers, outlets and vending machines."

Monday 07th May 2007: -

• Corporate Media Censor Ron Paul's Debate Success: Establishment press ignore massive popular approval for Texas Congressman in every poll, ABC only add Paul to poll list after furious complaints - Ron Paul won the debate hands down - all the polls show it - but the establishment media are loathe to report it, because if a tree falls in the forest and the corporate press choose not to report on it then it doesn't make a sound. After several days of voting, the online MSNBC poll has Ron Paul leading in every single positive category, proving that the vast majority think he won the debate. In an ABC News poll, well over 7,000 voted for the Congressman with Giuliani and Romney receiving a paltry 100 votes each. In a CSPAN poll, 69% voted for Ron Paul, with his nearest contender garnering just 9% of the vote.

• Pupils banned in truancy blitz - Bilston will become the first truant-free zone in the Midlands with a complete ban on schoolchildren walking the streets during classroom hours. Police will patrol the town centre looking for youngsters aged between five and 16 to escort back to school. Shopkeepers and market traders are able to report any cases of loitering pupils via hand held radios amid concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime. Warning notices will be put up in the streets and 10 CCTV cameras will be scanned for school slackers.

• Falling US dollar and surging stocks, like in 1987! - Remember the Wall Street crash of October 1987 when stocks had their worst single day in history? Older market professionals certainly do. They also recall that the 1987 crash came after a sharp weakening of the US dollar and a rally in stocks. Is that not what we are seeing again now? There is an argument for foreign investors to buy US equities at the moment as the US dollar is weak and so they get more stocks for their money. Hence foreign money is fuelling a rally in the US stock market at a time when GDP growth has slowed to 1.4 per cent.

• Bruce Willis Says JFK Killers Still In Power: Actor tells Vanity Fair he's skeptical of lone shooter theory - In a new magazine interview, Bruce Willis spills the beans on his skepticism that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of JFK, and suggests that the some of the same criminals who killed Kennedy are still in power today. "They still haven't caught the guy that killed [President] Kennedy," Willis told Vanity Fair's June issue, according to the New York Post. "I'll get killed for saying this, but I'm pretty sure those guys are still in power, in some form. The entire government of the United States was co-opted," adds the Die Hard star.

• Having large families ‘is an eco-crime’ - HAVING large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a 4x4 car and failing to reuse plastic bags, according to a report to be published tomorrow by a green think tank. The paper by the Optimum Population Trust (OPT) will say that if couples had two children instead of three they could cut their family’s carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York.

• China Warns of Population Rebound - China's top family planning body has warned that the world's most populous country could face a "population rebound" because the newly rich are ignoring population control laws and because of early marriages in rural areas, state media said Monday. China's family planning policy _ implemented in the late 1970s _ limits most urban couples to one child and rural families to two to control population growth and conserve natural resources.

• More airlines go cashless - The cumbersome dash for cash by flight attendants and passengers short of change is disappearing on some airlines as technology makes it easier to accept credit and debit cards in flight. Frontier Airlines went cashless last month, joining such carriers as AirTran Airways and Allegiant Air. Hawaiian Airlines stopped accepting cash on its trans-Pacific flights two summers ago. In January, Hawaiian expanded the policy to its inter-island shuttles. None of the country’s largest carriers has gone that route, but some appear headed that way. A year ago, American Airlines began accepting credit and debit cards in a partnership with American Express after testing the program on select flights. The airline said passengers liked the ability to conserve cash while still being able to buy things on board. Delta Air Lines is testing a cashless system and expects to roll it out companywide over the next year.

• Traumas Like 9/11 Make Brains More Reactive to Fear - According to a new brain study, even people who seemed resilient but were close to the World Trade Center when the twin towers toppled on Sept. 11, 2001, have brains that are more reactive to emotional stimuli than those who were more than 200 miles away. That is the finding of a new Cornell study that excluded people who did not have such mental disorders as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression. One of the first studies to look at the effects of trauma on the brains of healthy people, it is published in the May issue of the journal Emotion.

• 911Truth.org Has Been Hacked - Just an FYI... 911Truth.org has been hacked for the last two days. They are trying to deal with it now.

• Unbelievable: College Students Don't Know What Year 9/11 Happened - Mark Dice and friends visit San Diego State University's job fair and find out that some students have forgot what year 9/11 happened: -

• Doolittle: FBI Search Meant to "Intimidate" – Rep. John Doolittle accused the government Sunday of leaking word of an FBI search on his home to coincide with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' Senate testimony on the fired U.S. attorneys controversy. Doolittle, who's under scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff influence peddling scandal, made the allegation in an op-ed published in the Auburn Journal. FBI agents executed a search warrant on Doolittle's home in Virginia on Friday April 13. News of the search became public on Wednesday April 18, and Gonzales appeared before a Senate committee on April 19. “I do not believe it was a coincidence that the leak came the day before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before Congress on charges that his office was overly partisan in its firing of eight U.S. Attorneys,” wrote Doolittle, “especially considering Gonzales specifically cited his recent prosecution of Republican members of Congress as evidence to the contrary.”

• Ritalin overdiagnosed, expert - AN ADHD and Ritalin expert believes that Australian kids are overdiagnosed and drugged, but the syndrome is very real and sufferers need help to properly function at school and later in life. Hundreds of Daily Telegraph Online readers flocked to our live blog with ADHD and Ritalin expert Glynis Howard today. Ms Howard is National Medical Services Manager with Dore Australia, which offer alternative treatment to medication for ADHD sufferers.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Taiwan church accused of causing cancer - A Taiwan Christian church has been accused by environmental groups for housing a mobile phone base station (MPBS) that they claim had caused some local residents to develop cancer. A spokeswoman on Sunday insisted that mobile phone antennae are harmless. When we rented out rooftop for installing the MPBS, we registered with authorities and conducted safety inspections. So the allegations are baseless, said a member of the Lutheran Chia Nan Church, in Chiayi, central Taiwan. We have been trying to communicate with the locals for three years, but a small group of them are determined to make an issue out of it and get the antenna removed, she said, identifying herself only as Chang.

Sunday 06th May 2007: -

• Putin wants control of Russian scientists - Russia's ageing but revered scientific geniuses are on a collision course with Vladimir Putin after the 1,200-member Academy of Sciences rejected Kremlin proposals to end its unique independence from state control. Since it was founded by Tsar Peter I in 1724, the Academy has enjoyed immunity from government interference. Freedom to think and work unfettered has enabled 17 of its alumni since 1904 to win science's highest plaudit, the Nobel prize. Of those, 14 have been within the past 50 years and the most recent, Vitaly Ginzburg and Alexei Abrikosov, shared the prize for physics in 2003.

• MI5 'asked police force to investigate 7/7 bomber' - West Yorkshire Police failed to investigate the ringleader behind the 7/7 bombings despite being asked to by MI5, according to new evidence that the security service will present to parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. The ISC was asked to reopen their investigation into the 2005 bombings after it emerged last week that bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, had been on the periphery of the fertiliser bomb plot which saw five men receive life sentences for planning a terrorist campaign.   (RELATED: Learn how 7/7 was a false flag terror attack, see our 7/7 London bombings archive for more info)

• From: http://www.911blogger.com :
  
  ***Loose Change Final Cut Teaser Released***
  
  below is the original posting from Dylan.
  
  http://z10.invisionfree.com/Loose_Change_Forum/index.php?showtopic=8646
  
  Streaming: http://stage6.divx.com/user/loosechange911...al-Cut---Teaser
  Direct Download: http://video.stage6.com/1216026/.divx (yes, that is the working link)
  
  Take it for what you will, folks. It's called a teaser for a reason. :lol:

Saturday 05th May 2007: -

• Hutton hoodwinked: Evidence released by the information commissioner shows the government gave false testimony to the Hutton Inquiry. When we will get the truth? - Yesterday, I finally got the information commissioner's decision on the suppressed draft of the Iraq dossier, produced by former Foreign Office spin doctor John Williams. The commissioner has concluded that the Foreign Office was wrong to refuse my Freedom of Information Act request for the document and ordered it to release it, on the grounds of "the significant public interest in disclosure of the requested information". But more significantly, the decision has placed the Williams draft firmly in the process of producing the dossier. The Foreign Office's own evidence to the commissioner has blown apart the government's story to the Hutton Inquiry that Williams was not involved in the drafting and that his offer to carry out a "media-friendly editorial job" was unwanted, unhelpful and rejected. The Foreign Office told the commissioner that the draft: was requested by the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee to provide an expert's view of how the information in the draft might be presented in a published document.

COMING SOON TO A CASHLESS SOCIETY CONTROL GRID NEAR YOU!...

AND NO PERSON WILL BE ABLE TO BUY OR SELL UNLESS THEY HAVE THE IMPLANT

(Hang on... I've heard that totalitarian 'wet-dream' somewhere before haven't I?)

• Zimbabwe: Big Brother Gone Mad - THE government of Zimbabwe has published a 58-paged report titled Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: A Trail of Violence. The report is available on the Ministry of Home Affairs website. It is a chillingly detailed report, with colourful pictures, and is full of minute details from all over the country. Big Brother has been furiously at work mounting constant surveillance of citizens. The report is deliberately titled "opposition forces" and attempts to build an arbitrary case claiming that the "Broad Alliance" civil society and political formations are engaged in illegal activities. The introduction easily betrays the objective of the report which is to prove the theory of an all powerful "Western-funded and unconstitutional force" being mobilised to "topple a legitimate government".

• Personal insolvency rates at record as ‘debt crisis’ deepens - A new surge in personal insolvencies to a record high and a leap in the number of people facing repossession of their homes fuelled anxieties yesterday over the plight of Britain’s overextended borrowers. The number of people going bust climbed to a record 30,075 in the first quarter of 2007, official data revealed. Analysts said that the trend in insolvencies was slowing. However, they gave warning that borrowers’ distress was set to deepen later this year, as the Bank of England now looks certain to drive interest rates still higher, with the next rise expected as soon as next week. Baker Tilly, the accountancy and advisory firm, gave warning that the number of personal insolvencies could rise as high as 130,000 by the end of the year.

• I AM A MUSLIM AND I'M SPYING FOR MI5 - LYING awake in a cold sweat after another night tossing and turning over the July 7 London bombings, Mohammed decided he had to talk to somebody. Next morning, the young Muslim from a deeply religious family, walked into a police station in his Midlands town. Mohammed, whose name the Mirror has changed to protect his identity, said: "I couldn't sleep because of it, I was turning all night, waking up in sweats and having nightmares. I kept thinking what if it was somebody in my family on a train or a bus.

• Bush Told Of First Attack On 9/11 Before He Left Florida Hotel - More archive video footage has been unearthed that re-emphasizes the fact that President Bush lied about how he first came to know about the events of September 11, 2001. Watch the clip from 7 minutes in. ABC News reporter John Cochran told ABC's Peter Jennings, "He got out of his hotel suite this morning, was about to leave, reporters saw the White House chief of staff Andy Card whisper into his ear, then reporters said to the President 'do you know what's going on in New York'? - he said he did and would have something to say about it later."

• Some Still Fantasize Iraq Was Responsible for 9/11 - On Monday, April 30 an online letter to the Seattle Times by Gerald D. Cline contained the following: "I ... know the difference between a military action in a country known to harbor a specific terrorist force responsible for specific terrorist acts (Afghanistan) and a war predicated on fraudulent statements by the highest offices in our government (Iraq) that anyone could still be holding to the disproved claim that we can fight terrorism by invading Iraq is amazing." This erroneous conclusion in the face of evidence thoroughly disproving the bases for it is amazing indeed, as Cline so aptly put it. But there are still some people who believe that every word in the Bible contains inspired truth and therefore cannot be challenged by what churchgoers of my boyhood referred to scoffingly as "worldly knowledge."   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Climate change 'can be tackled' - The growth in greenhouse gas emissions can be curbed at reasonable cost, experts at a major UN climate change conference in Bangkok have agreed. Boosting renewable energy, reducing deforestation and improving energy efficiency can all help, they said. This is the third report this year from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and aims to set out the costs and benefits of various policies. IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said the report was "stunning".

Friday 04th May 2007: -

• Virgin Airlines drops in-flight 9/11 conspiracy movie: Airline's mind already made up - Virgin Airlines has pulled a controversial internet documentary on 9/11 from its in-flight entertainment system after complaints from bloggers and radio shows. Virgin was going to show this month Loose Change, an 81 minute long documentary which alleges that the 9/11 attacks were not the result of terrorism, but a series of cleverly executed events carried out by the Bush administration. It suggests that American Airlines Flight 77 could not have crashed into the Pentagon, that the actual collapses of WTC 1, 2 and 7 were triggered by explosions, and originally that UA Flight 93 did not terminate in rural Pennsylvania, but landed safely at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

• 9/11: Major Italian TV network: conclusive evidence that WTC Building 7 was demolished with explosives: "Seven is exploding" - Welcome to all foreign readers. Luogocomune is a news commentary site (all in Italian, thus far) featuring a large, separate section on 9/11. In a way, the whole website revolves around the idea that unless that paramount, unacceptable lie called "the 9/11 terrorist attacks" is removed and put into right perspective, the downward spiral towards this new "dark age" of humanity will never stop.

• Supermarkets sold farmed fish as wild: New testing regime shows products wrongly labelled / Sainsbury's and Harrods among stores criticised - Leading supermarkets and a top London store were among retailers yesterday identified as misleading consumers after selling "wild" fish that in reality was farmed, while others were criticised for failing to provide accurate labels on how and where their fish was produced. Scientific tests by the Food Standards Agency on premium-priced fish sold by Sainsbury's, Asda and Harrods revealed that some of the animals were from farms and had not been wild. The snapshot survey in 15 local authority areas across Britain found that 15% of supposedly wild salmon, 11% of sea bream and 10% of sea bass were farmed.

Thursday 03rd May 2007: -

• The exclusive story of Robert F. Kennedy's secret search for the truth about John F. Kennedy's assassination: From the new book by Salon's founder and former editor in chief - One of the most intriguing mysteries about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that darkest of American labyrinths, is why his brother Robert F. Kennedy apparently did nothing to investigate the crime. Bobby Kennedy was, after all, not just the attorney general of the United States at the time of the assassination -- he was his brother's devoted partner, the man who took on the administration's most grueling assignments, from civil rights to organized crime to Cuba, the hottest Cold War flashpoint of its day. But after the burst of gunfire in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, ended this unique partnership, Bobby Kennedy seemed lost in a fog of grief, refusing to discuss the assassination with the Warren Commission, and telling friends he had no heart for an aggressive investigation. "What difference does it make?" he would say. "It won't bring him back."

• Son Of JFK Conspirator Drops New Bombshell Revelations: Costner was set to make documentary on Hunt's confession, before Miami mafia stepped in, E. Howard believed government had sabotaged his wife's plane - As the explosive revelation of E. Howard Hunt's deathbed confession, in which the former CIA agent and Watergate conspirator admits that he was part of a CIA conspiracy to assassinate JFK, continues to rage across the Internet, the establishment media remains almost mute on what is undoubtedly one of the biggest stories of the decade. Saint John Hunt, E. Howard Hunt's oldest son, joined Alex Jones yesterday to drop new bombshells about his father's story.

• Priest jailed for sexually abusing boys - A parish priest was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail on Thursday after being found guilty of sexually abusing boys over a 30-year period. Reverend David Smith, 52, was convicted at Bristol Crown Court of 10 counts of indecent assault, one of sexual assault and one of sexual activity with a child. Some of the incidents took place during sleep-overs at St John the Evangelist vicarage in Clevedon, Somerset, where Smith was vicar.

• After 10 years of silence... McKie fingerprint expert tells her story - It became the thorn in the side of the Scottish establishment. A single thumbprint labelled MarkY7 which has, for the past 10 years, rarely been out of the media spotlight - Shirley McKie, from Troon, Ayrshire, was accused of leaving the print at the Kilmarnock home of murder victim Marion Ross when she was serving as a police officer 10 years ago. But she challenged the findings of the fingerprint experts working for the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) and was later cleared of perjury. In February last year she received a £750,000 out-of-court settlement from the Scottish Executive.

• Is Big Brother in your car? - When you hear about "black boxes" you probably picture airplanes that have been in horrible accidents. The black box is the first thing investigators look for. The boxes record cockpit communications and airplane information, and can often tell investigators what lead to the disaster. But few people know that black boxes aren't just in airplanes. They're in cars too. And chances are good there's one in your car, but you can't lift the hood to see it. But if you get in an accident the information could be used against you.

• Big brother is making your information public - The government has decided to take away our rights in an effort to put a stop to debt. This can make the most pragmatic economist shake their head. Less than five months ago the Bank of England was publishing reports that claimed there was no debt mountain. They claimed that half the population could clear their debts, except their mortgage, before the end of 2007. Then, reports were being published that made claims that the average UK consumers was using their debt to build wealth. Now we are expected to swallow the new Big Brother position the government is taking on debt. Several changes have taken place that will make it more difficult to borrow, and reduce the chances of running from your debt. The government’s Big Brother program is simple, ‘none of your financial information is private any more.’ The banks will be allowed to share your bill paying information, current loans, bank balances, and a host of other information with the Credit Reference companies. It wouldn’t be so bad, if this is where the information stopped.

Wednesday 02nd May 2007: -

• CFR Warns Of False Flag Attack To Ignite Iran War: Echoing Brzezinski's veiled threat, but absurdly pins potential blame on "Al-Qaeda" - The CFR has echoed the warning of Zbigniew Brzezinski in claiming that a possible false flag terror attack blamed on Iran could be used to ignite a war, but absurdly pins the potential blame on "Al-Qaeda" and not the most likely perpetrators - the military-industrial complex that owns and controls the United States government. The CFR along with the Trilateral Commission hold the real strings of power in the United States and act on policy decided upon by the big brother of multinational semi-secret steering societies, the Bilderberg Group.

• New toilet design to tackle bullying - UNISEX wash basin areas could be built in schools to help tackle bullying. The move is part of recommendations covering schools in England being rebuilt or refurbished as part of the Government's £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. BSF aims to rebuild or renew every one of England's 3,500 state secondary schools during the 15-year lifetime of the initiative. The new guidelines were issued by the Government agency responsible for delivering the programme, Partnerships for Schools.

• Blair rejects calls for July 7 inquiry - Tony Blair today rejected demands for an independent inquiry into why the security services failed to prevent the July 7 London bombings. The Conservative leader, David Cameron, said that only a fully independent inquiry would "get to the truth" as to why two of the suicide attackers were not stopped, despite being monitored by the security services. However, Mr Blair claimed that an inquiry would divert resources, attention and energy better used by the police and MI5 in fighting terrorism. "I'm simply not prepared to do that," he said at prime minister's questions today.

RELATED VIDEO: Ludicrous Diversion - 7/7 London Bombings Documentary - On the 7th of July 2005 London was hit by a series of explosions. You probably think you know what happened that day. But you don’t: -

• MI5 'had six photos of 7/7 ringleader' - Pressure on MI5 intensified today as it was claimed that the security service did not reveal the full extent of its surveillance of the ringleader of the July 7 bombers to the official body investigating the outrage. The BBC reported that MI5 had six clear photographs of Mohammed Sidique Khan - as well as his name, address and videos of him meeting terror suspects - a year before the 2005 bombings in London, but informed the Intelligence and Security Committee about only one grainy shot. The report came as Prime Minister Tony Blair asked the ISC to carry out a new review of MI5's handling of intelligence after it emerged that links were missed between the London bombers and the so-called fertiliser plotters, who were jailed for life yesterday. And demands for a public inquiry ratcheted up a gear, with survivors and relatives of those killed in the attacks descending on the Home Office to call for a probe. Shadow home secretary David Davis said that the emergence of the new photos suggested that "someone is being economical with the evidence", as he renewed calls for an independent inquiry.

• There Should Be A 'Digg Riot' Everyday: Hardcore issues censored daily but users raise hell over a trivial story - Users of the popular social network news site Digg are "rioting" over a decision by the site's owners to censor a story and reportedly ban a user for posting the HD-DVD AACS Processing Key number, which would allow someone to crack the copy protection on an HD-DVD. The story that revealed the code got over 15,000 diggs in one day but was pulled from the site overnight sparking some pointed articles discussing the censorship. These legitimate and well thought out stories were then also ruthlessly deleted and their submitters unquestioningly banned. More stories were then submitted discussing Digg censorship. Those stories suffered the same fate.

• BP's 'Sun King' crashes, burns over lies to court - THE career of one of the titans of British industry came to a dramatic end when Lord Browne quit as chief executive of BP after lying to a court about his relationship with another man. Following crisis talks at the company's London headquarters, BP said Lord Browne had resigned after losing his four-month battle to suppress newspaper reports about the relationship. He forfeited a leaving package worth up to £15.5 million ($A37.5 million). Lord Browne went all the way to the House of Lords in his attempts to prevent Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the London Mail on Sunday, from disclosing details of his relationship with Jeff Chevalier, his Canadian partner between 2002 and last year.

• Wal-Mart to Add RFID to 400 More Stores - The world's largest retailer on May 1 reaffirmed its support for RFID, citing one-third fewer out-of-stock items, a reduction in excess supply chain inventory and shorter customer waits. At the RFID Journal Live conference in Orlando, Fla, Wal-Mart CIO Rollin Ford said that the retailer will add radio-frequency identification capability to 400 additional stores by the end of this fiscal year. Ford also said that RFID-supported pallet locators are now being used at Wal-Mart subsidiary Sam's Club stores and are increasing inventory accuracy and reducing member waiting time. He also outlined future benefits in pharmacy accuracy; grocery freshness; software, CD and DVD authentication; and 30-second store checkouts.

Tuesday 01st May 2007: -

• Reid: No new 7/7 bombing inquiry - The British home secretary refused to launch a new investigation into the 2005 London terrorist bombings, despite suggested links to a previous terror plot. Opposition politicians called for an independent inquiry after it was revealed in court that two of the bombers had been tracked by MI5, the British intelligence service, investigating a 2003-04 bomb plot, the Financial Times reported. Home Secretary John Reid rejected claims by David Davis, the shadow home secretary, that MI5 knew the bombers' identities before the attacks.

• Pressure grows for a 7/7 inquiry - Survivors and relatives of victims of the 7 July attacks are stepping up the pressure for a public inquiry into MI5's handling of intelligence. On Monday it emerged at the end of a year-long terror trial that MI5 had two of the 7 July bombers under surveillance a year before the attacks. Ministers are opposed to an inquiry but a parliamentary committee will consider why the bombers were not picked up. Those affected by the 2005 attacks have delivered a letter to the Home Office. The document, requesting an "impartial public inquiry", was handed to an official from the department.   (RELATED: Learn how 7/7 was a false flag terror attack, see our 7/7 London bombings archive for more info)

• MI5 decided to stop watching two suicide bombers: Close links to fertiliser bomb plotters stretch credulity of 'clean skin' claims for London attacks - When the identities of the four July 7 suicide bombers first became known, senior police and government officials were quick to claim that they were so-called "clean skins", men who had never crossed the radar of the security service or Scotland Yard. Charles Clarke, then home secretary, insisted that no intelligence had been missed and that the attacks "came out of the blue". It was a claim reinforced publicly by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, and by countless off-the-record officials briefings for reporters. The implication was clear: nobody could have foreseen the attacks, nobody slipped up. Nobody could possibly bear any blame other than the bombers themselves, and whichever shadowy figures stood behind them.   (COMMENTARY: Ahhh, the old 'accident' excuse.  Rather like when a cheating husband is caught in bed with another woman. "Sorry my love it was an accident!"... time to stop believing the lies and get a ruddy divorce!)

• Blair says he will name resignation day next week - TONY Blair is set to name the day he will stand down next week, he revealed today. On the tenth anniversary of his 1997 landslide UK General Election win, he brushed aside speculation that he would give the date of his resignation either just before or just after Thursday's Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and local council elections. Instead Mr Blair said: "I will make my position clear next week. I will say something definitive then." The Prime Minister also fired the starting gun for Labour's leadership contest as he endorsed Gordon Brown as a future "great Prime Minister".

• Bush Ready To Veto Iraq Bill: Democrats To Send Bill To President On Fourth Anniversary Of "Mission Accomplished" Speech - On the fourth anniversary of President Bush's so-called "Mission Accomplished" speech, in which he declared an end to major combat in Iraq, Congress on Tuesday plans to send him a funding bill that would order troops to begin withdrawing later this year. Mr. Bush is expected to quickly veto the bill, then meet with congressional leaders Wednesday on how to resolve the impasse over funding for the war. Mr. Bush on Monday repeated his intention to veto the $124.2 billion spending measure, citing the withdrawal language as well as funding for nonmilitary projects. Although he said he wanted to work with Democrats, he made clear he was not giving in on the question of setting a timetable for withdrawal.

• Documents Reveal: Cops Planted Pot on 92-Year Old Woman They Killed in Botched Drug Raid: Atlanta resident Kathryn Johnston's death has finally been exposed to be a case of police coverup in clear example of the insanity of the war on drugs - According to federal documents released this week, these are the events that led to Kathryn Johnston's death and the steps the officers took to cover their tracks. Three narcotics agents were trolling the streets near the Bluffs in northwest Atlanta, a known market for drugs, midday on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Eventually they set their sights on some apartments on Lanier Street, usually fertile when narcotics agents are looking for arrests and seizures. Gregg Junnier and another narcotics officer went inside the apartments around 2 p.m. while Jason Smith checked the woods. Smith found dozens of bags of marijuana -- in baggies that were clear, blue or various other colors and packaged to sell. With no one connected to the pot, Smith stashed the bags in the trunk of the patrol car. A use was found for Smith's stash 90 minutes later: A phone tip led the three officers to a man in a "gold-colored jacket" who might be dealing. The man, identified as X in the documents but known as Fabian Sheats, spotted the cops and put something in his mouth. They found no drugs on Sheats, but came up with a use for the pot they found earlier.

• Boy threatened suicide before custody death, inquest told - A troubled teenage boy who became the youngest inmate to die behind bars in Britain wrote a letter to his mother threatening suicide just weeks before he hanged himself with his shoe laces, an inquest heard today. Adam Rickwood, 14, was sent to the Hassockfield secure training centre in County Durham, 150 miles from his home, despite having a history of self-harm and botched suicide bids, a jury inquest heard. He was found hanging in his room in August 2004, weeks after being remanded on charges of wounding. His distraught mother broke down in tears today as she revealed how he had written a number of letters saying he could not cope with life in the unit.

• US heading towards cashless society: Contactless payment cards set to take off - The US is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to contactless payment cards, but this is likely to change rapidly, new research has claimed. A report from Packaged Facts said that only 27 million contactless payment cards were in circulation in the US in 2006, compared with 582 million worldwide. However, the study predicted that the number of contactless credit and debit cards in the US will reach 109 million by 2011.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

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