| Staring down governments that want to monopolize information in the Arab world is hardly new to Al Jazeera, but in the U.S.? A reporter wonders whether this is what has also happened to Al Jazeera English in America, where they are almost completely shut out, too. |
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Three days of torture, it seems, is not a serious human rights violation in Indonesia. read more
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| Among the U.S. Marine units participating in Thailand are: Okinawa's 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment acting as its ground combat element; Marine Wing Support Squadron 172; Marine Aircraft Group 36; and Combat Logistics Regiments 35 and Combat Logistics Regiment 3, it said. |
| French PM Francois Fillon says Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lent him a plane and paid for lodgings during a family holiday at new year. |
| Sales of Gulf of Mexico seafood are getting a boost from the military after being hammered by last year's BP oil spill, which left consumers fearing that the water's bounty had been tainted. |
| Scientists have discovered that a prolonged lack of sleep increases the chance of heart disease by 48 per cent and strokes by 15 per cent. |
| A plan that would have seen the House of Representatives extend controversial provisions of the Patriot Act with little debate failed Tuesday night, as a group of Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in voting no. |
| Leaders of indigenous Amazon tribes hand a petition to Brazil's government opposing construction of a massive hydro-electric dam. |
| Cannabis advocates can agree that the plant should be decriminalized and its users, producers, and sellers should be able to do all of the above in peace. Anything beyond that, though, is subject to debate - and can turn into long-lasting feuds. This is evident to attendees at the monthly meetings of San Francisco's Medical Cannabis Task Force. |
| The House failed to extend three key expiring provisions of the Patriot Act on Tuesday, elements granting the government broad and nearly unchecked surveillance power on its own public. |
| Two civil liberties groups representing a former WikiLeaks associate have filed a motion challenging the government's attempt to obtain her Twitter records, as well as the records of two others associated with the secret spilling website. The groups filed a separate motion to unseal records the government filed in the case. |
| The Middle East peace process could become a "casualty" of the calls for change sweeping across the Arab world, the foreign secretary warns. |
"In a free society you have to be very careful as to taking away the civil liberties of the American people" Rokita said. "Even if the bill is well intentioned and the law is well intentioned it can be used against innocent people. So that was my concern."
Republicans will bring the extensions back to the floor under simple majority rules, where if tonight's vote is replicated, it would pass easily.
| The US House of Representatives blocks a bill to extend surveillance powers granted by the Patriot Act, passed after the 9/11 attacks. |
| Michelle Obama says her daughters aren't on Facebook, and that's the way she likes it. |
| "Senator McConnell asked if the United States had made it easier for Iran by removing Saddam," the cable reported. "'Yes, removing Saddam from power was the biggest mistake ever committed,'" Mr. Mubarak replied. The Egyptian leader said the Iraqi people "are are tough and bloody, and they need a very tough leader. They will not be submissive to a democratic leader." |
Stephen Johnson, the EPA administrator under President Bush, was planning an aggressive effort to combat global warming until the White House shut him down, according to documents released by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA). Johnson outlined his three-phase plan to Bush in early 2008, but Bush overruled him after hearing counter-arguments from the office of Vice President Cheney and Exxon Mobil Corp.
Most Americans think the Obama administration is handling the political crisis in Egypt well, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 60 percent approve of Obama's response. Meanwhile, a Gallup poll shows 82 percent of Americans are sympathetic to the protesters.
The UN's food agency warned yesterday that a severe drought was threatening the wheat crop in China - the world's largest producer - and is resulting in drinking water shortages. "China's grain situation is critical to the rest of the world - if they are forced" to import grain, "it could send huge shock waves through the world's grain markets," said one industry expert.
| LONDON - Foreign Secretary William Hague warned "belligerent" Israel to tame its rhetoric and said unrest in Arab countries may hinder the peace process, in comments published on Wednesday. Hague told the London Times that recent popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan could undermine the search for a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict [...] |
| BEIJING - Police in southwest China have barred activists from distributing leaflets about anti-government protests in Egypt and Tunisia, deeming the news too sensitive, one dissident said Wednesday. Activists in Guizhou province tried to hand out information about the demonstrations over the weekend, but police told them this was an "unusual period" and gave them [...] |
| In der Agentenschmiede Fort Bragg ausgebildet - In den 1980-er Jahren war Suleiman in einer US-Agentenschmiede auf dem Stützpunkt Fort Bragg im Bundesstaat North Carolina in Geheimdienstarbeit und «besonderer Kriegsführung» ausgebildet worden. Der Mann für die Folter Die enge Zusammenarbeit der Sicherheitsapparate Ägyptens und der USA hat eine dunkle Seite. Suleiman soll dabei nach Recherchen von US-Journalisten eine Schlüsselrolle gespielt haben. |
| Representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt said the opposition group would work to promote democracy and does not intend to field a candidate for the presidency, CNN reported Wednesday. "The Muslim Brotherhood are not seeking power," a member of the group's media office, Mohammed Morsi, said at a news conference. "We want to participate, [...] |
| Potential oil reserves are often treated as a state secret. This is especially true in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer. But soon, the cheap energy bonanza could be on the downturn, according to US State Department documents released by British newspaper The Guardian. The documents, dated between 2007 and 2009, point to a [...] |
| The government will spend £2.1bn on flooding defences in England over the next four years - a cut of 8%, Environment minister Richard Benyon tells MPs. |
| Vice President Omar Suleiman says the protests cannot go on. read more |
| As shopkeepers feel pinch of stagnant economy, some want an end to protests.
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Der französische Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy hielt seinem Kabinett ein Standpauke: Ferien nur noch in Frankreich! Premierminister und Außenministerin hatten sich von Autokraten aushalten lassen, bleiben aber im Amt |
| WWF: Von 1985 bis 2008 hat die massive Entwaldung 7,5 Milliarden Tonnen Kohlendioxidemissionen verursacht |
| ACS:Law, the UK law firm that sent thousands of legal threats to alleged illegal downloaders on behalf of pornographers, has been told that it can't simply drop its suits against its victims and avoid having its methods scrutinized by the courts. The judge has clearly got ACS's number, characterising its strategy thus: "Why take cases to court and test the assertions when one can just write more letters and collect payments from a portion of the recipients?" Mr Crossley, who was not present in court, had said that he fully intended to |
| CAIRO - Galvanised by the biggest day of protest since their campaign to oust Hosni Mubarak's regime began, Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners attempted to blockade parliament Wednesday. As speakers blared "Do not be tired. Do not be tired. Freedom isn't free," thousands of protesters remained camped under plastic sheets and the tracks of tanks, clinging to [...] |
| The threat of terrorism in the US is in some ways "at its most heightened state" since the 9/11 attacks, the US homeland security secretary says. |
| An inquiry into the IMF says that the agency downplayed the economic risks ahead of the financial crisis. |
| Tunisia's senate passes legislation giving the interim president powers to rule by decree and sidestep the parliament dominated by the ousted leader's associates. |
| In an exclusive interview Tuesday, a Salvadoran man told The Associated Press that a former CIA operative gave him powerful explosives and cash to carry out a 1997 hotel bombing in Cuba. Otto Rene Rodriguez said that he was given C-4 explosives and $2,000 by Luis Posada Carriles to enable the bombing at Havana's Melia [...] |
Seventy-four House Democrats are asking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any health care reform cases, citing reports that his wife financially benefited from efforts to repeal the legislation. [link]
| GameboyRMH writes "If you were impressed at the remote-controlled ornithopters released in recent years, then this will really knock your socks off: In the 1970s, the CIA developed and tested a remote-controlled ornithopter that was disguised as a dragonfly - and at roughly the size of a dragonfly. It was intended to be used as a platform for listening devices. This 'insectothopter' was laser-guided and powered by a tiny gasoline engine built by a watchmaker. While its performance was impressive, difficulty controlling the tiny craft in crosswinds made it impractical, and the idea was scrapped. The article also mentions a robo-squid, and has information on a remote-controlled fish (video) that is also very impressive."Read more of this story |
| Three data intelligence firms concocted a plan to attack WikiLeaks on behalf of Bank of America, according to a published report. The three firms, Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal and Berico Technologies, planned to "disrupt" Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald's support of WikiLeaks, create a disinformation campaign to discredit the secrets outlet, sow discord among WikiLeaks volunteers, [...] |
The politicians listed on "People OK with murdering Assange" should be publicly shamed on a daily basis. Calling for murder-censorship is inexcusable, and we should not tolerate those who condone it. [link]
| WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke fended off criticism that he is ignoring the risk of rising prices Wednesday, as he faced a skeptical Republican-controlled panel in Congress. "We remain unwaveringly committed to price stability," Bernanke told the House of Representatives budget committee, rejecting claims that rising prices for food and oil heralded dangerously [...] |
| Der damalige Chefredakteur des zum Konzern von Rupert Murdoch gehörenden Blattes, Andy Coulson, trat zurück, obwohl er stets betonte, nichts von der Abhöraffäre gewusst zu haben. Coulson heuerte später als Kommunikationschef bei Premierminister David Cameron an. |
| According to leaked diplomatic cables, the head of the Egyptian state security and investigative service (SSIS) thanked the US for "training opportunities" at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia. The SSIS has been repeatedly accused of using violence and brutality to help prop up the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. In April, 2009, the US ambassador in Cairo stated that "Egypt's police and domestic security services continue to be dogged by persistent, credible allegations of abuse of detainees. |
| Anti-government protests in Egypt continue for a 16th day, with demonstrators blocking the entrance to parliament and reports of unrest outside Cairo. |
| Omar Suleiman etabliert sich in Ägypten als neuer starker Mann. Seit Suleiman als Anwärter für die Präsidentschaft gilt, fällt Licht auf seine Verbindungen zu den in Ägypten unbeliebten Amerikanern. Wertschätzung als enger Partner geniesst Suleiman auch in Israel. |
| WASHINGTON - The United States is facing "heightened" threats of attacks from extremists, possibly the highest since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the head of US homeland security told lawmakers Wednesday. "There is no question that we have made many important strides in securing our country from terrorism since 9/11, but the threat continues [...] |
| Laut dem jüngsten verfügbaren Vierteljahresbericht des Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in den USA halten US-Banken Derivative im Nennwert von 223 Billionen Dollar. Satte 84,3% dieser Papiere hängen direkt von den Zinsen ab. Bei einer solch horrenden Konzentration von Risiko ist es daher nicht verwunderlich, wenn die Fed so lange wie möglich die Zinsen wie ein Sumo-Ringer auf die Matte drückt. |
| "The plan was to start with as many nucleus points as possible and in different areas from the back streets of Cairo. Then we moved from those back streets, chanting for others to join the rally, and the march grew bigger. What started with 20 or 30 activists turned into tens of thousands. It brought tears to my eyes. We were trying to make it the beginning of something, not actually the revolution itself." |
| 'Thousands' of protesters may have been tortured: report Egypt's secret police, long accused of torturing suspects and intimidating political opponents of President Hosni Mubarak, received training at the FBI's facility in Quantico, Virginia, even as US diplomats compiled allegations of brutality against them, according to US State Department cables released by WikiLeaks. One cable, dated [...] |
