Web / Press / Offsite Media Updates: July 19th - July 25th

by DD Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:17

BNP advertising on popular irish website...


'BNP to admit non-white members! Irish included.'
not worth copying such shite.
read and reply/contact website owners.

http://www.daft.ie/discussions.daft?discussion_id=35913

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:13

Three Americans accused of detaining and abusing Afghans on an independent hunt for terrorists appeared in court Sunday, insisting they had contacts with the U.S. Defense Department, a senior judge said.

The group's leader, a former U.S. soldier called Jonathan K. Idema, acknowledged operating a private jail outside of Afghan law, presiding judge Abdul Baset Bakhtyari said.

[....]

U.S. and Afghan authorities deny any links to the self-styled task force, describing them as vigilantes on a personal quest to fight terrorism. The men wore military gear and fooled both Afghan police and NATO peacekeepers into thinking they were legitimate.

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:16

He told Britain's ITV network that Bush and Blair ''should have been able to tell before the war that the evidence did not exist for drawing the conclusion that Iraq presented a clear, present and imminent threat on the basis of existing weapons of mass destruction.''

''That was not something that required a war,'' he said.

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:22

''Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.

Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reporting on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.''

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=541472


Download:
http://www.sadlyno.com/uploads/sadlynoseymour.rm
(RealMedia 10, 8.3MB.)

more info....

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:29

Will Turkey Make It?
By Stephen Kinzer
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17240

Nine centuries after Pope Urban II sent the first Crusaders off to fight "the Turk," 321 years after the Ottoman army besieged Vienna, Turkey and Europe are approaching a historic encounter. In December, leaders of European Union countries will vote on whether to begin negotiations that would lead to Turkey's joining the EU. Every day it seems more likely that they will say yes.

If they do, it will be for two rea-sons. The first is that under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pronounced AIR-doe-an), Turkey has entered a period of astonishingly far-reaching change. Since taking office in March of last year, Erdogan has pulled Turkey further toward democracy than it had moved in the previous quarter-century. In fundamental ways, today's Turkey is almost unrecognizably different from the country I lived in until just four years ago. European leaders are beginning to admit that Turkey has become democratic enough to join their club.

The second reason why these European leaders may give Turkey a "yes" vote when they assemble in the Netherlands at the end of this year is that saying no could be dangerous. Islamic fundamentalists preach that Muslims must turn inward because the rest of the world wishes them ill. This argument has been immeasurably strengthened by the American invasion of Iraq, and European leaders are eager to counter it. The EU is concerned above all with stabilizing a large region of the world, and it cannot risk setting off the destabilization that would follow from rejecting Turkey after all Turkey has done to qualify for membership.

by pat c Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:33

NEW YORK -- A watchdog group has removed documents from its website that detail military research into knockout gases similar to the one used in the deadly 2002 Moscow theater siege after the Marine Corps warned they could pose a threat to Defense Department employees.

The group, the Sunshine Project, claims the documents indicate that early 1990s Army research into knockout gases, which was canceled because of the Chemical Weapons Convention, was revived by the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate in the early 2000s.

The Sunshine Project posted an e-mail on its site Thursday from Zachary J. Stewart, a lawyer with the Marine Corps Systems Command, saying the three documents were inadvertently sent to the group after it requested them through the Freedom of Information Act

by pat c Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:39

Canada sacks three scientists

Whistleblowers fighting terminations that a lobby group calls an 'ominous signal'

| By Doug Payne



Three senior scientists who worked in the veterinary drugs directorate of Health Canada, where they were involved in drug approvals, have been fired. The three were well known for repeatedly criticizing the department's policies, claiming they felt pressured to approve certain drugs despite concerns they could present a danger to consumers.

Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert received letters of termination on Wednesday (July 14). None has spoken publicly about the dismissals; Haydon said any comments on the matter would come from their lawyers.

Steve Hindle, the president of the scientists' union, the Professional Institute of the Public Service (PIPSC), told the CTV television network that the three would “file grievances [and make their case] to the Public Service Staff Relations Board” and might also then “go on to federal court from there.”

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:57

The Philippines said Monday that it has completed the withdrawal of its peacekeeping contingent from Iraq, meeting a demand by Iraqi insurgents threatening to behead a Filipino hostage but defying opposition from Washington.

The last members of the 51-strong force made an "exit call" on the new Polish commander at their base in Hillah, south of Baghdad, then waved as they left in six cars.

Foreign Secretary Delia Albert said they would travel by road to Kuwait, a several-hour trip, then take a commercial flight home. They had been scheduled to leave Iraq on Aug. 20.

"Before the end of this day, all members of the Philippine humanitarian contingent will be out of Iraq," she said in a nationally televised statement.

USAToday:

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 13:59

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi ordered the reopening Sunday of a radical Shiite newspaper whose closing four months ago by U.S. soldiers became a catalyst for some of the worst anti-U.S. mayhem of the occupation.

Allawi's decree concerning the newspaper, Al Hawza, was a pointedly conciliatory gesture to Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose associates run the newspaper. The decree came on the same day that Allawi authorized a U.S. air strike aimed at insurgent fighters in the city of Fallujah, a center for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 14:07

The Corporation (****)
By Roger Ebert

It begins with the unsettling information that, under the law, a corporation is not a thing but a person. The U.S. Supreme Court so ruled, in a decision based, bizarrely, on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. That was the one that guaranteed former slaves equal rights. The court ruling meant corporations were given the rights of individuals in our society. They are free at last.

If Monsanto and WorldCom and Enron are indeed people, what kind of people are they?

[....]

If corporations are maximizing profits by feeding strangelovian chemicals to unsuspecting animals, what are we to make of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that living organisms can be patented? Yes, strains of laboratory mice, cultures of bacteria, even bits of DNA, can now be privately owned.

Fascinated as I am by the labyrinthine reasoning by which stem cell research somehow violates the Right to Life, I have been waiting for opponents of stem cell research to attack the private ownership and patenting of actual living organisms, but I wait in vain. If there is one thing more sacred than the Right to Life, it is the corporation's Right to Patent, Market and Exploit Life.

Official Web Site: http://www.thecorporation.com/

Film Review:

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 14:30

Mindful of the election problems in Florida four years ago, aides to Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, say his campaign is putting together a far more intricate set of legal safeguards than any presidential candidate before him to monitor the election.

Aides to Mr. Kerry say the campaign is taking the unusual step of setting up a nationwide legal network under its own umbrella, rather than relying, as in the past, on lawyers associated with state Democratic parties. The aides said they were recruiting people based on their skills as litigators and election lawyers, rather than rewarding political connections or big donors.

Lawyers for the campaign are gathering intelligence and preparing litigation over the ballot machines being used and the rules concerning how voters will be registered or their votes disqualified. In some cases, the lawyers are compiling dossiers on the people involved and their track records on enforcing voting rights

Username/Password: freenyt/freenyt

by pat c Mon Jul 19, 2004 14:41

Plutonium may be many times more dangerous than previously thought. The cancer risk from exposure inside the body could be 10 times higher than is allowed for in calculating international safety limits.

The danger is highlighted in a report written by radiation experts for the UK government, which has been leaked to New Scientist. The experts are unanimous in saying that low-level radiation emitted by plutonium may cause more damage to human cells than previously believed. Their opinion could provoke a rethink of the guidelines on exposure to radiation.

Several tonnes of plutonium have been released into the environment over the last 60 years by nuclear weapons tests and nuclear plants.

Concern over the harmfulness of plutonium is growing because of discoveries about the subtle effects of low-level radiation. Researchers in Europe and North America have shown that the descendants of cells that seem to survive radiation unharmed can suffer delayed damage, a phenomenon called "genomic instability" (New Scientist print edition, 20 January 2001).

by redjade Mon Jul 19, 2004 18:05

Israel has completed military rehearsals for a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear power facility at Bushehr, Israeli officials told the London-based Sunday Times.

Such a strike is likely if Russia supplies Iran with fuel rods for enriching uranium. The rods, currently stored at a Russian port, are expected to be delivered late next year after a dispute over financial terms is resolved.

by iosaf. - ok ok gardaí are misunderstood. can we talk about their impunity/accountability now? Tue Jul 20, 2004 00:10

Mostly in France, including the rightwing Digaro stable of titles and accounting for 30% of regional sales in France.
[Contrast this with the Telegraph sale]

This caps a recent high profile story in
France which has seen Raffirin support a law 3 june, which loosened restrictions on such conglomeration of media interests especially those which had discouraged monopoly in regional TV and radio broadcasting by single corporative or private interests.

It's an important issue not only on continental Europe where media is concentrated in either the hands of primarily defense corps or rightwing politicians (including Berlusconi).

more info on this issue and the campaign to ensure continued liberty of expression in French and European media from-

Observatoire français des médias
3, avenue Stephen Pichon
75013 Paris
Tél: (+33) 01.53.94.96.69
Fax: (+33) 01.53.94.96.76
renaud.lambert (at) observatoire-medias.info
www.observatoire-medias.info
and -
http://www.nodo50.org/railesverdes21/ver_noticia.php?id=284&inicio=0&verSec=0

by pat c Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:21

The death of a detainee at Harmondsworth immigration detention centre sparked a "serious disturbance" on Monday night, said the Home Office. The trouble, which included fires being lit, was believed to have started after a body was found hanging at the centre in west London at 2000 BST on Monday.

The Home Office said the death was not thought to have been suspicious.

Some staff had to leave "for their own safety" but the centre was now being brought under control, they said.

BBC correspondent Philippa Young said there were dozens of police vans and a fire engine outside the centre, and a police helicopter flying overhead.

by redjade Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:48

Moscow and Washington are quietly negotiating a request by the Bush administration to send Russian troops to Iraq or Afghanistan this fall, Russian government sources tell Stratfor. The talks are intense, our contacts close to the U.S. State Department say, and the timing is not insignificant. A Russian troop lift to either country before the U.S. presidential election would give U.S. President George W. Bush a powerful boost in the campaign.

by redjade Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:52

PM admits graves claim 'untrue'
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1263901,00.html

Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered.

The claims by Blair in November and December of last year, were given widespread credence, quoted by MPs and widely published, including in the introduction to a US government pamphlet on Iraq's mass graves.

In that publication - Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves produced by USAID, the US government aid distribution agency, Blair is quoted from 20 November last year: 'We've already discovered, just so far, the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves.'

On 14 December Blair repeated the claim in a statement issued by Downing Street in response to the arrest of Saddam Hussein and posted on the Labour party website that: 'The remains of 400,000 human beings [have] already [been] found in mass graves.'

------

'Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves'
http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/legacyofterror.html
Download it:
http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/pdf/iraq_mass_graves.pdf

by redjade Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:02

Free "Guerrilla Video Primers" to Radical Groups

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/07/19/5570665

Members of the Cascadia Media Collective have spent the last 6 years honing media skills to support the growing movements of resistance here in the U.$. and around the world.

In the last year we have been fortunate enough to secure the resources to take our goal of a decentralized, autonomous, radical media one step further. Now, we are able to send out 250 FREE copies of our most recent full-length film, Guerrilla Video Primer.

WOULD YOU LIKE ONE OF THOSE FREE VIDEOS? IF SO, LET US KNOW BY E.MAILING cmcdistro@lycos.com WITH YOUR GROUP'S NAME AND AN ADDRESS TO SEND IT TO.

Below is some information about what the movie is and a bit about how we look at media as well as our contact information if you have any questions.

What is Guerrilla Video Primer?

It is a 60 minute action-packed, training video providing detailed instruction on skills from basic camera techniques to Copwatch to distributing YOUR guerrilla media and much more.

So, what is "guerrilla media"?

Here at the CMC, we see it as a combination of two things. -it is produced by the people directly involved in a given movement and does not pretend to approach reporting from an "unbiased" perspective; -its content intentionally combats the dominant paradigm and advocates radical change

By distributing free copies, we hope to encourage activists and organizers, rabble-rousers and educators; we hope to encourge YOU to utilize guerrilla media if not make it yourself.

If that sounds like something that your group would like to receive FREE in order to support your work and/or provide for your community, just let us know and we'll send one to you this summer. You can contact the CMC to request a Guerrilla Video Primer or with any questions via the following information:

cmcdistro@lycos.com

po box 10791 eugene, or 97440 541.915.6208

by redjade Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:09

Enforced Democracy: the Bolivian referendum
http://bolivia.indymedia.org/en/2004/07/10498.shtml

After a long day of tension, rumors, and ocasional provocations, Bolivian polling stations have closed and the counting of votes is underway. But the results are already known. Regardless of whether the “yes” vote or the “no” vote wins, Bolivia’s most valuable natural resource – natural gas – will remain in the hands of the transnationals.

After a long day of tension, rumors, and ocasional provocations, Bolivian polling stations have closed and the counting of votes is underway. But the results are already known. Regardless of whether the “yes” vote or the “no” vote wins, Bolivia’s most valuable natural resource – natural gas – will remain in the hands of the transnationals.

Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, has long had its wealth plundered by foreigners. First, it was the realization by the Spanish in the sixteenth century that a small hill in the southeast of the country was comprised almost entirely of silver. For two centuries, the wealth extracted from Cerro Rico in Potosí was, according to Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, “the primary nourishment of the capitalist development of Europe.” Next it was saltpeter, desperately needed as fertilizer for exhausted European soil, and plundered by the English. Then during the second world war, Bolivia’s tin was mined and sold at approximately ten times less the market price, leading to massive strikes, and massacres of the workers, who were only demanding to be paid a living wage. Now, the world wants Bolivia’s gas – the second largest reserves in Latin America. But Bolivians are sick of watching the wealth of their nation stolen from underneath their feet.

found at:
http://detritus.net/steev/mt/archives/000092.html

by iosaf Tue Jul 20, 2004 13:36

Jorge Dezcállar de Mazarredo is an author of a book exploring the links between xenophobia and racism, and oversaw the creation of the CNI which between 2001 and 2004 amalgamated many other former intelligence services to become the only secret service of Spain.
He has since June4th been ambassador for Spain to the Vatican. Yesterday he returned to Madrid to give evidence to the M11 enquiry, and declared in his submission that until M16, the Government had no clear idea what had occured, that ETA were never a serious consideration, and most damning of all, has called on Aznar to return a portfolio of CNI documents which Aznar has claimed to have in his posession, and many have thought Aznar systematically leaked.

previous newswire mention of Dezcáller-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=65299&condense_comments=false#comment77430
commercial link today -
"the Government were out of play till M16"
http://www.lavanguardia.es/web/20040720/51158256755.html

by iosaf Tue Jul 20, 2004 13:40

It has only been two weeks since 46year-old Angelo dela Cruz, a Philipine national was kidnapped in Iraq and his government threatened with his murder by beheading if they did not pull out their troops.
He has now been released, and the Filipino defence forces are now leaving Iraq.

by :-) Tue Jul 20, 2004 14:42

In a report which will naturally be of interest to Leninists and Syphylists everywhere, today's Irish Independent reports Israeli scientists as suggesting that Lenin died of (or to be technical "with") syphylis (where death would have been due to other disease functions in the Leninist body and not directly a consequence of inflitration of the Syphylist virus).

by pat c Tue Jul 20, 2004 16:39

Extremists scupper another UK animal lab

Crucial medical research may be under threat in the UK, scientists have warned, after blaming the halt in building of an £18 million animal experimentation laboratory in Oxford on action by animal rights extremists.

Oxford University revealed on Monday that by "mutual consent" it had agreed with the construction firm Montpellier Plc to end their contract to build the biomedical research facility.

Montpellier pulled out following an intimidation campaign by animal rights extremists, which targeted shareholders. A company that supplied concrete to the site is also reported to have come under attack.

The lab was being built to house research into diseases like Alzheimer's disease. About 98% of the animals housed at the new lab would be rodents, but some primates would be kept too. The new lab would consolidate and replace existing labs at the university.

It is the second time in 2004 that a major animal research lab has been scuppered by animal activists. In January, plans for a primate research centre at Cambridge University, backed by prime minister Tony Blair, were axed as the security costs of protecting the lab from extremists were deemed too high.

by Michael Hennigan - Finfacts Wed Jul 21, 2004 01:36 finfacts at finfacts dot ie 087 2474328

1. In a cabinet of mediocrities, there is no shortage of candidates for the booby prize. Mary Harney has been singled out because of the wide chasm between the rhetoric and reality.

http://www.finfacts.ie/comment/maryharneycabinetcomment19.htm

2. Article on Aer Lingus MBO which argues that the Government can secure the future of Aer Lingus without making a management team very wealthy.

Clearly the current management have done a good job. However, we should be careful about the trap of falling for the cult of the company hero which characterised the business media in the US and Europe during the 1990's boom.

http://www.finfacts.com/comment/comment17AerLingus.htm

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:23

The Russian Defence Ministry has categorically dismissed the possibility of sending a Russian military contingent to Iraq at the request of the U.S. administration.

“Our stance on that issue, stated earlier, remains invariable: Russian military won’t be sent either to Iraq or to Afghanistan,” the press secretary of the Russian defence minister, Vyacheslav Sedov, told Tass on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has repeatedly stated that Moscow will under no circumstances put at risk the lives of its soldiers and officers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has also dismissed U.S. media reports, maintaining that Moscow and Washington are engaged in negotiations on the dispatch of Russian military to Iraq in exchange for economic concessions.

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:44

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind."

- President Bush, 2/8/04

VERSUS

"I want to be the peace president."

- President Bush, 7/20/04
 
---
Bonus: Colin Powell last week actually claimed "Sometimes we extend the peace by using war."

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:49

[redjade note: this has been known since before the 2000 election and was once even bragged about on the Haliburton website. So, why the investigation now? That's the question!]

Halliburton Co., the world's largest oilfield services company, said federal prosecutors subpoenaed documents related to the company's operations in Iran.

Houston-based Halliburton disclosed the grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said it is cooperating with the probe.

[....]

Shares of Halliburton closed 24 cents lower at $31.26 on the New York Stock Exchange. They have risen 40 percent in the past year.

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:55

House Republicans view a recent move by 11 Democrats to have United Nations observers monitor U.S. elections as a politically motivated stunt, and last week they moved to nip the idea in the bud.

But after an unusually rancorous skirmish that brought proceedings on the House floor to a standstill late Thursday, the issue may have received more publicity than even Democrats hoped for.

It pitted Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), author of an amendment to the 2005 foreign aid bill aimed at blocking U.N. involvement in U.S. elections, against Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.), who had harsh words for Buyer.

Buyer had been describing a July 1 letter from Democrats to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, requesting that he send observers to "monitor" this fall's elections, as "rather foolish, nonsense and silly."

"Imagine on Election Day you get up, you have your breakfast, you grab your coffee and your Danish, and you are going to go to the voting booth," Buyer said. "When you show up, you are curious because you see a white van out there that says the U.N. beside it and little blue helmets. The United Nations has arrived; we are going to ensure the integrity of the American electoral process. . . . I don't think so."

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 13:03

Rolling Stone: You're focusing a lot on the war in Iraq. I've noticed that your military characters, like B.D. and Ray, sound like real soldiers. Have you been talking to the troops for research?

Garry Trudeau: Yeah. During the first Gulf War, I'd meet them because they contacted me. This war is a lot easier, because it's an e-mail war. I hear from soldiers who are actually in the field. That changes all the rules of the game. They can't censor soldiers with laptops -- it's literally impossible. It's a way for somebody like me, sitting in this office, to get a view of what soldiers are experiencing.

Rolling Stone: What did you do to prepare for B.D. losing his leg in combat?

Garry Trudeau: In the case of B.D. suffering this grievous wound, I went down to Walter Reed hospital, in Washington, D.C., to talk to some of the amputees. It's important to me to get the details of his recovery right. There's a great deal of pain on Ward 57, where the amputees are sent. Most of the soldiers will admit to having bad days when they feel overwhelmed -- either by their physical pain or by the hard work of looking at themselves in a new way. But it's not as depressing as you might think. In fact, it's uplifting and inspirational. Part of it has to do with the fact that these guys are wrapped in a culture that is very positive, very can-do. Their whole mind-set is: This is a problem I can overcome. Almost all of them want to return to their units, which is a fascinating response to the crisis they're undergoing.

[....]

Rolling Stone: You were two years behind Bush at Yale?

Garry Trudeau: And four years behind Kerry. Joe Lieberman was also at Yale, and Howard Dean was in my class. My feeling is, there should have been a cap this year on Yale graduates running for president [laughs]. Howard Dean I knew quite well from boyhood. We'd gone to a summer camp together. When Howard became governor, he told some reporter that he'd gotten his sense of humor from me. I wrote him and said, "That's utter bullshit. When you knew me as a teenager, I didn't have a sense of humor. Life was much too grim."

http://www.doonesbury.com/

this interview....

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 13:12

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's son, Mark, could be dragged into the trial of alleged mercenaries accused of plotting to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government.

Sources close to Simon Mann, the former Special Air Services (SAS) officer named as the coup's ringleader, say he might use his appearance in a Zimbabwe court on Wednesday to appeal to his friend Thatcher for help.

Mann was arrested earlier this year in Zimbabwe, allegedly with a plane full of mercenaries, many of them South African, on their way to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.

by pat c Wed Jul 21, 2004 13:40

Global study declares suggested culls are unnecessary.

Whales and other marine mammals do not exploit fisheries to satisfy the bulk of their 600-million-tonne annual appetite, scientists told the International Whaling Commission yesterday.

The research is creating conflict in an already fractious environment, at a time when Japan and Norway have announced their intentions to increase whale captures. One of Japan's arguments for increasing 'scientific' whaling is to help determine how many fish the whales are consuming, while Norway is proposing to triple its annual minke whale catch, in part because of the animals' supposed effects on fisheries.

The study, carried out by Daniel Pauly and Kristin Kaschner of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, is the first to map the overlap between marine mammals and fisheries across the world's oceans. The study used computer models to divide the oceans into 180,000 cells, overlaying what is known about the species found in each cell with fisheries' catch data.

Full story at:

by pat c Wed Jul 21, 2004 13:48

Report raises alarm over destruction of grasslands.

Brazil's savannah is vanishing faster than its rainforests, according to a report from the environmental group Conservation International. Without drastic cuts in the amount of land cleared for agriculture, the report's authors say, the grasslands will be entirely wiped out by 2030.

Every year, some 20,000 square kilometres of savannah is destroyed to make room for crops such as soy, wheat and cotton. The savannah region, also called the cerrado, is said to be the world's largest continuous area of land suitable for agriculture.

But the wilderness is also home to a huge range of biological diversity - around 5% of the world's animal and plant species are thought to live there. This biodiversity is being placed in danger by a lack of proper planning, say Ricardo Machado.

Full story at:

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 13:56

According to a new study by the union of university lecturers in Iraq, "Some 250 university professors have been killed since the fall of Baghdad in April, 2003," and "more than 1,000 professors have left the country in the same period"

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 14:19

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder paid tribute to Nazi officer Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators who came closest to killing Hitler 60 years ago to the day.

Schroeder was speaking at a ceremony of commemoration in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, the former Nazi war ministry where the aristocratic Stauffenberg was executed hours after he planted a bomb on July 20, 1944, that was intended to kill Hitler.

It exploded but an officer had moved the briefcase containing the explosives behind a leg of the solid oak table at which Hitler was studying maps in his headquarters in East Prussia, which is now Poland.

[....]

"On July 20, 1944, another Germany showed its face," Schroeder said. "It is therefore one of the most important days in the history of the new Germany. It is an enormous legacy."

by Michael Hennigan - Finfacts Wed Jul 21, 2004 14:22 finfacts at finfacts dot ie 087 2474328

An AP wire report on Ireland's second worst ranking in the Poverty Index of Rich countries, in the recently published UN Human Development Report 2004, has got wide circulation around the world.

'DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - From millionaire-row mansions to heroin-hit welfare projects, Ireland has become one of the most prosperous but unequal societies on Earth, the United Nations suggested this week......'

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=7/20/2004&Cat=4&Num=003

For access to the UN Human Development report and analysis on Ireland, click here:

http://www.finfacts.ie/comment/unhumandevelopmentreportirelandcomment18.htm

by redjade Wed Jul 21, 2004 14:26

HERE'S the deal Washington DC has offered Hungary. The terms are take it or leave it. Hungary took it.

Please send us 300 military personnel, to be stationed at Al-Hillah, south of Baghdad. We will put them in mortal danger, as they help us to liberate Iraq. (Or secure control of the world's second-biggest oil reserves, depending on your point of view.)

The Hungarian troops can travel freely around Iraq. But that doesn't guarantee that they can go to Chicago to see their aunt and uncle. Or anywhere else in the United States.

In short: Hungarians are good enough to risk their lives for American foreign policy interests. But they are not good enough to enter the United States without a visa.

by pat c Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:15

No Thanksgiving Dinner here - the pouch serves up chicken and rice

The US military has devised a way to ensure its troops in battle need never go hungry - with dried food that can by rehydrated using dirty water or urine.
The meal comes in a pouch that filters out 99.9% of bacteria and most toxic chemicals, says New Scientist magazine.

The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry.

The firm behind it says soldiers should only use urine as last resort - as the membrane can not filter out urea, which in the long term causes kidney damage.

"The pouch - containing chicken and rice - relies on osmosis to filter the water or urine," the New Scientist Magazine reported.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 12:36

On the morning of September 15, 1997, five hundred American paratroopers from the army's 82nd Airborne Division jumped into an arid battle zone near the Tien Shan mountains in southern Kazakhstan. Their assigned mission: to link up with friendly forces from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and engage in simulated combat against "renegade forces" opposed to a regional peace agreement. Heading the American contingent—and the first to make the jump—was General John Sheehan, a highly decorated marine officer and the commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command. The parachute drop was undertaken, Sheehan told reporters at the scene, to reassure local leaders that the United States "is ready to stand beside them and participate" if American help is needed in a future regional crisis.

[....]

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Caspian Sea basin (comprising Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, along with parts of Russia and Iran) harbors as much as 270 billion barrels of oil, or about one-fifth of the world's total proven reserves of petroleum. (Only the Persian Gulf, with 675 billion barrels in proven reserves, holds a larger supply.) The Department of Energy also estimates that the Caspian region houses some 665 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, representing one-eighth of the world's gas reserves. Until 1992, these oil and gas deposits (except for those held by Iran) were the exclusive property of the Soviet state; with the breakup of the USSR, however, much of that supply came under the control of the new nations of the Caspian—all of which now seek to export their energy resources to the West.


    For Western oil companies, the opening of the Caspian basin to foreign investment has proved an extraordinary bonanza.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 12:39

"Kill and go": this is the nickname that has been given to Nigeria’s mobile police unit. Its members have an alleged propensity to gun down people at the slightest provocation, then walk away unconcerned.

The reputation of other police units is scarcely better. Almost on a daily basis, Nigerians hear reports of people shot dead either by the mobile or regular police.

Damian Ugwu, head of the Law Enforcement Project at the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Nigeria’s largest human rights group, says death in detention also appears to be a problem. "We have cases of people that were arrested alive, and then the next thing we hear is that some of them have been killed," he notes.

Although Nigeria made the transition from military to civilian rule in 1999, allegations of extra-judicial killings by officials continue to plague the country.

"We have estimated (that there are) an average of five extra-judicial killings per day in Nigeria...That includes people killed by vigilante groups and cult groups, especially in the Niger Delta (in southern Nigeria). But most of these killings are carried out by security agents like the police, soldiers, the navy and the state security service," says Ugwu.

by pat c Thu Jul 22, 2004 12:46

A small California newspaper has undertaken a first-of-its-kind experiment in participatory journalism in which nearly all the content published in a regularly updated online edition and a weekly print edition is submitted by community members. It's all free.

Following in the footsteps of past community journalism projects that sought to give individuals a voice in local news, as well as the growing trend in news-like blogs, The Northwest Voice is giving residents of Bakersfield's northwest neighborhoods near-total control of content. An editor is on hand largely to ensure that articles, letters and photographs submitted through the publication's Web-based content-management system adhere to a minimal set of standards, and to choose the best submissions for inclusion in the print edition.

"What's different about the Northwest Voice is that we're taking the explicit approach of asking people in the community to be the writers and photographers," said the Voice's publisher, Mary Lou Fulton. The people say what's important to them "rather than having a handful of journalists make those judgments on behalf of the community."

Fulton explained that any submission that meets the Voice's standards -- which effectively require that work be original, non-libelous, accurate and suitable for a family publication -- goes up immediately on its website. Then, a small editorial team decides what content the 22,000 households in the area will receive in the newspaper version each week.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 12:56

Just when the U.S. military needs them most, senior Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other elite forces are leaving for higher-paying jobs.

After getting years of training and experience in the military, they leave for other government jobs or for what defense officials said Tuesday has been an explosion in outside contractor work.

[....]

Better salaries, retirement benefits and educational opportunities are among incentives that might help stem the problem, defense officials said as they met with lawmakers to discuss ways to keep forces who have become so crucial to the war on terror.

A soldier, sailor or airman gets $60,000 per year at 18 years of service -- a figure that includes housing allowance and some types of special duty pay. Troops who go to work for civilian contractors can make up to $200,000 a year, one official has said.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 14:06

Long taken for granted, but an unusual aspect of the relationship between the Republic and the UK is the ambigious concept of the Common Travel Area. The lastest Sunday Indo was outraged at the presence of British immigration officials working alongside Gardai at Dublin Airport, apparently there under the auspices of the CAT.

by pat c Thu Jul 22, 2004 14:37

Quarrel brews over evidence for soldiers' sickness.

Over a quarter of Gulf veterans have experienced some form of illness. Britain's Ministry of Defence has asked scientists studying Gulf War veterans' illnesses to withhold some of their findings from an ongoing investigation into the mysterious affliction.

The independent inquiry, which started on 12 July, aims to pinpoint the cause of the ailments reported by veterans of the 1990-91 conflict, which are often dubbed Gulf War syndrome. The inquiry is funded by anonymous donations and is the first such investigation to take place without the official involvement of the government.

Last week the Ministry of Defence sent a letter to over 40 scientists who carry out government-sponsored research, asking them not to discuss unpublished results at the inquiry because such results would not have been scrutinized by other scientists yet. The memo also says that it would not be "appropriate" for government ministers or members of the armed forces to attend the investigation.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 15:40

The U.S. Army has long lured recruits with the slogan "Be All You Can Be," but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers' dime.

The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills.

"Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible," Dr. Bob Lyons, chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told the magazine, which said soldiers needed the approval of their commanding officers to get the time off.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 16:08

What does the US have to hide about radioactive materials flown out of Iraq? Why has the international community not been allowed to monitor the secret airlift which the US has just confirmed? Where is the inventory accounting for nuclear materials that have been found to date?

The US has removed "roughly 1000 highly radioactive sources" and enriched uranium from Iraq in a secret airlift, according to a statement by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. "It just ain't good enough to say 'roughly 1000' when talking about highly radioactive sources" said Greenpeace activist Mike Townsley. "The IAEA has been trying for over a year to get access to these materials and been denied."

Initial reports suggest that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was "informed," though it appears that the strict regulations requiring inspectors to be present and a full inventory of items be provided, have been ignored by the US. One of the reasons that the US went to war in the first place was the allegation that Saddam Hussein's was refusing to cooperate with IAEA inspectors or comply with international regulations regarding nuclear materials.

Greenpeace entered and inspected the main storage facility for these materials in Tuwaitha one year ago, and revealed that while US forces had immediately secured oil production facilities, Tuwaitha remained unguarded for more than six weeks. Local residents looted radioactive barrels and building materials for use in their homes. Greenpeace inspectors found one source kicking out 10,000 times background radiation in the home of one Tuwaitha resident, and a source of 3,000 times background outside a school where children were playing.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 16:12

There were whispers in the Kremlin and salons of Europe for decades but it was never more than idle gossip until a team of Israeli doctors announced that they had solved an 80-year-old medical mystery.

The posthumous diagnosis by two psychiatrists and a neurologist recently published in the European Journal of Neurology was that the great Russian revolutionary and Soviet icon Vladimir Lenin died an agonizing death from syphilis.

"It's an amazing story, the degeneration of Lenin's mental and neurological state," said psychiatrist Dr Eliezer Witztum.

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 17:06

Congressional Reports: Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Assessments on Iraq is intended to provide the Senate and the American public with a substantial record of the facts underlying the conclusions of the Committee regarding the intelligence community's prewar assessments of Iraq's programs for weapons of mass destruction and its ties to terrorism.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence oversees and makes continuing studies of the intelligence activities and programs of the United States Government, and reports to the Senate about those activities. Pursuant to this duty, for the past year the Committee has undertaken an in-depth examination of the matters described in the report.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html

The Full Report (30 MB, 524 pages) is available as a single ZIP file. Documents within the ZIP file are available in PDF format.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/pdf/s108-301/s108-301.zip

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 17:58

Roma MEP to campaign at EU level

The European Parliament is the forum through which “real progress” can be
achieved on issues affecting the EU's minorities, Livia Jaroka Europe's only
Roma MEP has said.

The centre-right Hungarian MEP pledged that with her mandate she hopes to
improve rights in education, housing and to achieve non-segregation in public
health for her people.

“We cannot solve all of our problems here…but we can draw attention to them.”

With ten million people of Roma origin living in Europe, they constitute the
largest minority in the EU.

Jozsef Szajer a fellow Hungarian MEP and leader of the FIDESZ party also spoke
on minority issues. Flanked by Slovakian MEP Edit Bauer who is a native
Hungarian speaker, Szajer commented that he will be creating a working group to
promote the rights of minorities throughout the EU.

The group will not just be open to those of Hungarian origin, but is seeking
membership from ethnic minorities throughout the EU, he said.

His colleague, Hungarian MEP Kinga Gal, told journalists, “minorities do not
cross borders, borders cross them”.

by indivisible Thu Jul 22, 2004 18:09

http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/97892/index.php

by @nonymous - DISSENT! Thu Jul 22, 2004 18:54

RESISTANCE TO THE OLYMPIC GAMES IS PART OF THE STRUGGLE AGAINST GLOBAL CAPITAL
An article produced at the last dissent! gathering in Bradford. Dissent! is a network of groups and individuals taking action against the G8 in Britain in 2005. Our struggle against the globalisation of exploitation and capital means that we are in solidarity with the struggles of all the common people around the globe. In the coming month the focus of the global bosses is the Olympic Games in Athens (Greece)

by redjade Thu Jul 22, 2004 18:57

Toma Sik 1939-2004

Today we heard that Toma Sik is dead - overrun by a tractor during a
nightly walk home through the fields to his newly-bought old farm
somewhere in a forgotten part of Hungary which should have fulfilled his
dream of establishing a commune of organic-humanist (and vegan) "new
peasants".

He was a pioneer of the Israeli-Palestinian search for peace, a
forerunner of the present day pacifist-refusniks and actively involved in
many struggles. For decades his friendly bearded face was to be seen at
any demonstration. Arriving on his bicycle he would take down bundles of
leaflets, written in his inimitable style and which he produced on his
old stencil machine.
Nobody could fulfill all the criteria which he set, not even himself - as
he would gladly admit with a sense of humour rare among heavily
principled people. His being anarchist, vegan, pacifist, world-citizen
and the rest of it didn't prevent him from giving his all to
organizations with less universal goals such as Gush Shalom, where he
played a central role until he left Israel in the late 1990s and
ultimately settled down again in his country of birth.

For those who remember him and for those who don't we decided to publish
what he himself wrote some years ago.

Toma Sik 1939-2004

by pat c Fri Jul 23, 2004 11:22

A controlled explosion has been carried out on a hoax device which police say was designed to cause alarm to the Jewish community. Bomb disposal teams were called in after the device was discovered in a street in Salford, Greater Manchester, at about 2330 BST on Thursday.

The package had been placed at the corner of Northumberland Street and Cheltenham Crescent, Higher Broughton. A man was later arrested on suspicion of making hoax telephone calls.

Supt Paul Brookes, Salford police
Greater Manchester Police said that although the device turned out not to be real, it was designed to look genuine.

Officers also said it was left there as a means of causing alarm to the Jewish community in the area.

by redjade Fri Jul 23, 2004 11:26

The week before the early surprise "transition of power" in Iraq, the New Yorker magazine published a disturbing piece by Seymour Hersh that contained news probably far more dangerous than any coming out of Baghdad. His report, Plan B, revealed how top Israeli officials reached the conclusion by last August that "the Bush Administration would not be able to bring stability or democracy to Iraq." Fearing the consequences, Ariel Sharon's government began freelancing a new divide-and-conquer strategy meant, among other things, to help ensure the fragmentation of the Iraqi state and potentially destabilize further an already destabilized region. They decided "to minimize the damage that the war was causing to Israel's strategic position by expanding its long-standing relationship with Iraq's Kurds and establishing a significant presence on the ground in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan… Israeli intelligence and military operatives are now quietly at work in Kurdistan, providing training for Kurdish commando units and, most important in Israel's view, running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria."

This (in Hersh's phrase) "politically reckless" move -- an example of tactically brilliant short-term thinking almost guaranteed to prove a long-term strategic blunder and sure to blowback on the Israelis -- is likely to be especially harmful to the Kurds themselves. Now, like the Americans, they will be ever more closely identified in the region with the defense of Sharon's Israel. The training of Kurdish militiamen may, in the short run, aid Israel's policies in the region and bolster Kurdish dreams of an independent state, but it will, in the end, likely prove yet another disaster for the Kurds.

more at...

by pat c Fri Jul 23, 2004 11:38

Racial attack handling criticised


Mohammad Hossain: Does not understand why family attacked. The police have rejected claims that they are failing to take attacks on ethnic minorities seriously in Northern Ireland. The Anti-Racism Network questioned the commitment of the police to tackling racist crime and also criticised the Housing Executive.

The row followed a petrol bomb attack in south Belfast on the home of a Bangladeshi family as they slept early on Thursday. Mohammad Hossain, his wife and their five-year-old daughter escaped injury when two petrol bombs were thrown at their house in Fane Street, off the Lisburn Road. Mr Hossain says he has been attacked about 20 times before.

Barbara Muldoon of the Anti-Racism Network said Mr Hossain had told the authorities that the attacks were getting worse

by pat c Fri Jul 23, 2004 11:47

Pre-punk Strummer tape is found

A college friend of the late Clash frontman Joe Strummer has re-discovered a recording made by the punk legend before he was famous. Richard Frame and Strummer were art student pals when the future rock star - who died at 50 in 2002 - called himself Woody in tribute to his folk hero, Woody Guthrie.

They shared a house in Newport, south Wales, where amateur bands had the use of a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Frame has salvaged two tracks Strummer wrote for his then folk band. The first, thought to be the earliest known recording of Strummer, is called Bumble Bee Blues. It is clearly influenced by Strummer's musical hero at the time, the American Woody Guthrie.


" The last bit of music that he made before he died sounded very like the kind of music he liked when he was here ".

Richard Frame

by redjade Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:05

The military commanders charged with protecting the nation get off scot-free. Ditto the FAA, which, it turns out, has been sitting on photos of the hijackers taken as they walked through the lame security apparatus at Dulles airport in Washington, set off alarms, and then were permitted to proceed. The Justice Department and the FBI continued to cover up their parts in the mess, most notably by refusing to permit public testimony by whistle-blower translator Sibel Edmonds, along with a second person who translated an interview with a top FBI "asset"—a former high-level Iranian intelligence officer under the Shah—who gave U.S. agents news from Afghanistan, where the officer's own operatives remained in place. This knowledgeable man told the FBI in April 2001 that Osama bin Laden was planning to use planes to attack one or another of five American cities—including New York. What happened to that report?

As for Edmonds, we are still in the dark—because the government won't let her talk. What did she mean when she was quoted as saying, "My translations of the 9-11 intercepts included [terrorist] money laundering, detailed and date-specific information. . . . If they were to do real investigations, we would see several significant high-level criminal prosecutions in this country [the U.S.] . . . and believe me, they will do everything to cover this up."

by pat c Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:29

Science Panel questions Bush administration about politicizing scientific advisory committees

Members of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel yesterday (July 21) challenged senior Bush administration officials over the propriety of asking the political affiliations and policy positions of scientists being considered for federal government advisory committees.

"Is it inappropriate to ask their party affiliation?" John E. Porter, NAS committee chairman, questioned government witnesses yesterday. "There is no specific prohibition against asking it," replied Robert Flaak, senior policy adviser in the General Service Administration, which oversees laws regarding federal advisory committees. "I see no reason why that would be important. [But] there are cases, in a policy-related committee advising the president, where perhaps it could be of interest."

Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Environment, Technology, and Standards, told the NAS panel that political viewpoint questions are indeed appropriate because scientific advisory committees represent "the nexus between politics and science."

"Scientists should not consider themselves to be a privileged class that is somehow above politics," said Ehlers, who is also a research physicist. "Scientists must be in touch, even in tune, with the political realities around them. Only by understanding the political process can scientists fully integrate science into decision-making."

But Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee who has issued his own allegations of Bush administration interference with government science, disagreed. "When it comes to scientific advisory committees, I don't think that the politics of the president or the administration should play any role in the selection. It ought to be solely on the basis of the competence of the scientists."

Full story at:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040722/03/

by redjade Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:30

At least 13 relatives of Osama bin Laden, accompanied by bodyguards and associates, were allowed to leave the United States on a chartered flight eight days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a passenger manifest released yesterday. One passenger, Omar Awad bin Laden, a nephew of the al Qaeda leader, had been investigated by the FBI because he had lived with Abdullah bin Laden, a leader of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, which the FBI suspected of being a terrorist organization.

[....]

the plane, a 727 owned by DB Air and operated by Ryan International, began its flight in Los Angeles and made stops in Orlando, Dulles International Airport and Boston before continuing to Gander, Newfoundland; Paris; Geneva; and Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. The aircraft, tail number N521DB, has been chartered frequently by the White House for the press corps traveling with President Bush. (...)

"The Saudi Embassy offered to pay more money if our crew had a concern," [Ron Ryan of Ryan International] said. But he said all were reassured because "the FBI and Secret Service were heavily involved. They were in abundance every place we were."

Escaping in style...

by merrovinginvanjan Fri Jul 23, 2004 22:25

It was revealed two days ago on Bcn indymedia that Aznar had hired a US company of lawyers to lobby on his behalf for the US congressional medal he was awarded.
He used 2,000,000€ of public Spanish money.
The story has bounced from Imc Bcn to La Vanguardia front page today (23/7/04) and there'll be more tomorrow.
He's denying he did anything wrong, of course, and his henchmen claim there is deliberate campaign to sully his reputation and systematically confine him to the evil leader list.
Of course there is.
It fills a lot of our time.
Some of us saw Thatcher get away with it.
& we learnt.

by redjade Sat Jul 24, 2004 13:24

attempt to hold itself accountable for the abuse of foreign prisoners is off to a terrible start. On Thursday, while the media and political worlds were focused on the report of the Sept. 11 commission, the Army inspector general released a 300-page summary of an investigation of "detainee operations" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though it identified 94 cases of confirmed or possible abuse, including 20 prisoner deaths, the probe concluded by sounding the defense offered up by the Pentagon ever since the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison were published: that the crimes did not result from Army policy and were not the fault of senior commanders but were "unauthorized actions taken by a few individuals."

This conclusion is contradicted by the independent investigations and reports of the International Committee of the Red Cross, by an earlier Army investigation undertaken before the scandal became public, and by testimony given to Congress. Oddly, it doesn't even square with some of the findings buried in the inspector general's own report, which confirm that commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan ordered "high-risk" interrogation procedures to be used on prisoners without adequate safeguards, training or regard for the Geneva Conventions.

by iosaf Sat Jul 24, 2004 18:18

Mainland Europeans are getting their Summer anti-GM campaigns together.
a new French group has been formed and here's a link to an interview between Le Monde and it's spokesperson José Bové.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-373573,0.html

by redjade Sun Jul 25, 2004 12:32

July 24, 2004 — Consumer advocate Ralph Nader's quixotic presidential campaign says it submitted about 5,400 signatures to get on the Michigan ballot, far short of the required number of 30,000. Luckily for him, approximately 43,000 signatures were filed by Michigan Republicans on his behalf, more than meeting the requirement.

by redjade Sun Jul 25, 2004 13:03

Photos
http://parkerpettus.com/fleet/index.html

Why To AVOID The Official "Free Speech Zone" At The DNC and RNC
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/98209/index.php

This is What American Democracy Looks Like
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/07/24/8484518

by cough cough Sun Jul 25, 2004 15:41

not surprising, Ireland has acted as a social control lab, for our British neighbours since at least the foundation of Peel's police force.

by pat c Sun Jul 25, 2004 20:36

Veteran Republican Joe Cahill died in Belfast on Friday at the age of 84. BBC's Ireland correspondent Mark Simpson examines the career of the man who led the IRA during the 1970s before lending his support to the current ceasefire.

Bill Clinton took one look at Joe Cahill, put out his hand and said with a wide grin "this man needs no introduction".

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams had been about to introduce Cahill, but the US President brushed him off. Clinton knew all about this former IRA leader.

He had read the CV - murder, gun-running, hunger-strikes, friendship with Colonel Gaddafi, violence, a death sentence and a last-minute reprieve.

It reads like the script from a Hollywood movie, but this was serious - deadly serious.

The meeting between Cahill and Clinton came at Stormont four years ago when the outgoing US President went to say his farewells, and soak up some appreciation for his part in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement.

One of the reasons why that historic deal was possible was the IRA ceasefire.

Many believe that it may not have happened if it hadn't been for the support of veteran republican Cahill, who was seen as the touchstone of the republican movement.


Full story at:

by pat c Sun Jul 25, 2004 20:56

Controversial study suggests treatment should factor in the patient's ethnic group.
© Photodisc

A heart drug being tested in black patients is on course to become the first medicine approved for use in a specific ethnic group, challenging those scientists who believe that race is a bad basis for prescriptions.

The drug, made by Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company NitroMed, was abandoned after a trial in the 1980s produced unimpressive results. But, because the data hinted at differences between white and black patients' responses, in 2001 NitroMed decided to carry out a further clinical trial using only African Americans.

This week NitroMed announced that the trial, in over 1,000 black heart-failure patients, has been stopped early because it appears so effective when used on top of normal therapy. "I'm so thrilled about it," says study leader Anne Taylor of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. If the drug, called BiDil, receives regulatory approval, the company says it will aim to launch it in early 2005.

But BiDil revives controversy about whether, and how, race should be used to prescribe medicines. In the clinic, for example, doctors will have to work out who is classed as African American in a racially mixed population. "It really becomes problematic," says Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, an anthropologist who studies race in science at Stanford University, California.

by Marijo Gillis - WAG Mon Jul 26, 2004 10:12

"GREECE IN ALL HER GLORY" FILM EXPOS / NEWS RELEASE View below
"GREECE IN ALL HER GLORY" FILM EXPOS / NEWS RELEASE View below

Welfare for Animals in Greece, under the umbrella of Welfare for Animals Global, Inc. (an organization granted charitable status by the state of New York) has produced a dramatic 5 minute documentary video detailing the pervasive problem of animal abuse and neglect in Greece. Approximately 20 hours of film were condensed to 5 minutes to produce a film vehicle accessible through the internet as well as television.

Greek officials and Greek government press officers, worldwide, including the press arm of the 2004 Athens Olympic Organizing Committee are making a last ditch effort to deny allegations of maltreatment of companion animals and the continuing mass poisoning of abandoned dogs especially in light of the upcoming Olympic Games.

Those of us who have lived in Greece and travel there regularly and those animal advocates in Greece who deal with the inhumanity towards both companion and farmed animals on a daily basis should be the gold standard by which the international community judges Greece; not by the Greek governments desperate attempts to conceal reality and the sad truth of the Greek animals tortured existence.

Kindly access the link below which features the short film "Greece In All Her Glory".

http://www.ua4a.org/Greece.mov

[You must have a broadband connection and QuickTime installed on your computer to view the film . Access free download for Mac or Windows at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ ]

Marijo Anne Gillis - Founder
Welfare for Animals Global, Inc.
Welfare for Animals in Greece
1775 York Avenue # 7H
New York, New York 10128
USA
Telephone (212) 427-0587
Fax (212) 427-6381
E-Mail: TwinkiePerkyEbby@msn.com