Tsunami Tragedy Takes Fizz Out of New Year's Eve

December 31, 2004 by element115
...prayers substituted for parties.
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The America I Wish We'd Been This Week

December 31, 2004 by element115
Alex Steffen ---> Here's the speech I wish I'd heard from a U.S. president standing on Indonesia's shores:
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Peace in Sudan

December 31, 2004 by element115
Sudan's government and southern rebels have signed a permanent cease-fire as part of a peace deal to end one of Africa's longest-running civil wars.

...way2go

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Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004

December 31, 2004 by element115
You know it's bad when Halliburton is #7
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Tsunami darkens world's New Year

December 31, 2004 by element115
Sydney led the world in a global minute of silence before its own New Year celebration. Trees on Paris's grand Champs Elysees were shrouded in black cloth. In Indonesia, official celebrations were simply cancelled.

On Thailand's tsunami-hit Phuket island, people holding candles and white roses embraced tearfully in a poignant symbol of the mood.

At the stroke of midnight, party-goers stopped and lit incense sticks. The mournful Elton John song "Candle in the Wind" echoed through the resort.

Sweden, Norway, Finland and Germany planned to fly flags at half mast to start 2005 in respect for the dead and missing.
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Tsunami Disaster Highlights Corporate Media Hypocrisy

December 31, 2004 by element115
The Iraqi word for disaster is museeba. Surly the lose of life from war in Iraq is as significant a meseeba as the Indian Ocean tsunami, yet where is the US corporate media coverage of thousands of dead and homeless? Where are the live aerial TV shots of the disaster zones and the up-close photos of the victims? Where are the survivor stories - the miracle child who lived thought a building collapsed by U.S. bombs and rescued by neighbors? Where are the government official's press releases of regret and sorrow? Where is the international coalition for relief of civilians in Iraq and the upsurge in donations for Red Cross intervention? Would not Americans, if they knew, be just as caring about Iraqi deaths as they are for the victims of the tsunami?

It seems U.S. media concerns are for victims of natural disasters, while the man-made disasters, such as the deliberate invasion of another country by the U.S., are better left unreported.

by Peter Phillips - a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored a media research organization.
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Tsunami must be fault of the US

December 31, 2004 by element115
Gerard Baker ---> ...confronted with a tragedy of unimaginable scale, the human mind looks for someone to blame. In the Dark Ages, disasters were ascribed to the wrath of God. Now, in an odd inversion that we like to think of as progress, they are adduced as evidence of no God.
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Single government ID moves closer to reality

December 31, 2004 by element115
The effort, known as the Personal Identity Verification Project, stems from a homeland security-related presidential directive and is being managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a Commerce Department agency.
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Ukraine's PM throws in towel

December 31, 2004 by element115
His resignation means he has ended up with both post.
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It is so horrible that it hurts

December 31, 2004 by element115
Very,very graphic tsunami aftermath---> That picture is just unbelievable
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US Forces Use Refugees As Human Shields

December 31, 2004 by element115
In a dispatch posted at 6:40pm Wednesday evening, Mecca time (7:40pm local time), Mafkarat al-Islam reported that US forces at 4pm Wednesday had launched an attack attempting to break into the an-Nazal neighborhood in the southern, Resistance-held part of Fallujah. The Americans attempted to make use of the return of refugees to the city as cover for their assault, driving a number of refugee families ahead of them into the neighborhood as human shields.
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Bush Admin. Redefines 'Torture'

December 31, 2004 by element115
The Justice Department is issuing a rewritten legal memo on the definition of torture, backing away from its own assertions prior to the Iraqi prison abuse scandal that torture had to involve "excruciating and agonizing pain."
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Latest Bin Laden Tapes Outright Fakes

December 31, 2004 by element115
Over the past three years, we have translated literally hundreds of pages of Bin Laden's material, with some texts even dating back ten years that we felt were important for readers to understand Bin Laden?s motivations, such as his 1994 letter of King Fahd. In others words, we are very familiar with his writing style, his diction, his voice, his viewpoints and his Aqeedah --->
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Insanity

December 31, 2004 by element115
55 Years In Prison For Selling Marijuana
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Bush regime have proved by their actions, they're no "Christians"

December 31, 2004 by element115
Many in the Bush regime claim they are "Christians", but true "Christians" would not authorise torture and abuse, true "Christians" would not authorise "rendition", true "Christians" would not stand idly by while millions are deprived of their livelihoods, their homes, their families, food, water and sanitation.
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QuickBird Images of Tsunami Sites

December 31, 2004 by element115
DigitalGlobe
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Unbecoming Conduct

December 31, 2004 by element115
Forget Torture; It's the Sex That Matters
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Did FBI Use Pentagon Analyst to 'Sting' AIPAC?

December 31, 2004 by element115
Washington was aghast when news broke accusing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israeli lobby, of passing on top-secret US information to the Israeli government. Now Jewish newspapers are reporting the FBI used the Pentagon's top Iran analyst in a "sting operation" to pass "foreign policy strategic information to two AIPAC officials."
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UN asks Israel to stop violating Lebanese airspace

December 31, 2004 by element115
Israeli warplanes flew over large parts of Lebanon on Thursday, the Lebanese Army said, prompting the United Nations to again urge the Jewish state to stop sending its military aircraft over this Arab country in breach of the UN-drawn Lebanese-Israeli border.
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Not a good way to start a democracy

December 31, 2004 by element115
Serious questions must be asked about US influence in Ukraine
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'Civilization' vs. 'Barbarism'

December 31, 2004 by element115
An Interview with Noam Chomsky
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More Tsunami Satellite pictures

December 31, 2004 by element115
...from India's satellites
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U.S. Boosts Tsunami Aid Tenfold to $350M

December 31, 2004 by element115
The United States is pledging $350 million to help tsunami victims, a tenfold increase over its first wave of aid, President Bush announced Friday.
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Westboro Baptist Tsunami Statement

December 31, 2004 by element115
Westboro Baptist Church leaders known for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the young college student brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998, have released the following statement regarding the tsunamis which hit Southeast Asia earlier in the week.
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Bush to Send Delegation to Asian Tsunami Region

December 30, 2004 by element115
President Bush will send a delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to the tsunami-affected region on Sunday to assess the need for assistance, the White House said.
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Massive Public Response to Tsunami Aid Appeals

December 30, 2004 by element115
Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said it had collected the equivalent of $39 million, less than a day after launching an appeal on behalf of 12 top British charities.

The American Red Cross said that as of noon Wednesday it had collected $18 million.

Finns lined up in the cold in Helsinki to contribute. The country of just 5 million people quickly raised $4 million.

Italians raised $17 million by sending special text messages on their mobile phones.
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Disaster-Secure Design

December 30, 2004 by element115
Make no mistake: one of the results of the tragedy in the Indian Ocean will be new systems for public safety and disaster warnings. Most of these will be poorly-designed, with significant flaws, openness to abuse, and ultimately fatal failings. We all should have a voice in the selection and implementation of systems to protect us; that voice should be well-informed and confident. Principles for good system design exist, and we should not be afraid to demand them.
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Swedish Boy, Dad Reunited After Tsunami

December 30, 2004 by element115
A Swedish toddler was reunited with his father Wednesday, days after being found alone in the aftermath of the deadly tsunami that swept Asia.

...yes...Good News...keep'em coming!

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Bush 'Undermining UN with Aid Coalition'

December 30, 2004 by element115
United States President George Bush was tonight accused of trying to undermine the United Nations by setting up a rival coalition to coordinate relief following the Asian tsunami disaster.
"I think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to coordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up."
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Tsunami account

December 30, 2004 by element115
Pearl, a gate manager for Burning Man, was in Thailand when the tsunami hit -- here is his account.
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US earthquake monitors tried in vain to warn of tsunami

December 30, 2004 by element115
The desperate attempts of three US earthquake monitors to warn nations situated on the Indian Ocean of the approaching tsunami emerged last night.
The geophysicists, members of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu, part of the US Government?s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were on duty on Christmas Day when the massive subterranean earthquake struck Sumatra.
They knew for hours of the impending catastrophe.
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U.S. Will Join EU in Tsunami Aid Conference, Official Says

December 30, 2004 by element115
The U.S. will join the European Union at a proposed conference to gather international aid for victims of the tsunamis in Asia and Africa, the State Department said.
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US: Lack of phone numbers, staff stymied alert to tsunami-hit nations

December 30, 2004 by element115
Some scientists had urged both the Clinton and Bush administrations to create a tsunami warning system in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, but they say nothing much happened.

"One option we explored as recently as a few months ago was to ask for money to have the seismic network at the university here become a 24-hour operation. ... But again there is no money," University of Puerto Rico oceanographer Aurelio Mercado-Irizarry said Thursday from Mayaguez.
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Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning Plan Ignored for 15 Years, UN Says

December 30, 2004 by element115
An early warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean that might have saved thousands of lives after an earthquake struck Dec. 26 in Indonesia could be active within a year, according to a United Nations official who has pressed Asian nations to implement the plan for 15 years.
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Tsunami toll jumps over 125,000

December 30, 2004 by element115
Asia's tsunami death toll has soared above 125,000 and aid agencies warn many more people -- particularly children -- could die in epidemics, ushering in a sombre New Year's Eve for the world.
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Person of the Year

December 30, 2004 by element115
ABC News ---> Bloggers
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Austin's Blog

December 30, 2004 by element115
...tsunami videos
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Linkin Park Donates $100,000 to Tsunami Relief

December 30, 2004 by element115
The Los Angeles-based rock act has set up an organization called Music for Relief (http://www.musicforrelief.org) with an initial donation of $100,000. It will directly support American Red Cross.
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Tsunami Aftermath Photos

December 30, 2004 by element115
WARNING:GRAPHIC!
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Paradise Tossed

December 30, 2004 by element115
Kevin Sites Blog...yes, Kevin's there now.
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Recording Industry deploys infected music on P2P

December 30, 2004 by element115
...files that contain trojans that attack your computer when you play them, and moreover, the music industry has hired a company called Overpeer to flood the P2P networks with infected fake music files.
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Donate Air-Mileage

December 30, 2004 by element115
Feeling a little cash strapped and still want to help? Got airline miles kicking around? You can donate airline mileage to The Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, OxFam, Unicef and others
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States of Mind

December 30, 2004 by element115
America talks ---> Only fools would send money to "tsunami victims".
This money WILL get into the hands of terroists and will be used to kill Americans.
Think "Oil for Food".
Besides, your tax dollars are being given to these nations anyway. When America announces it is giving cash to these nations, it is your tax dollars already being given.
If you love America, do not give one penny to these charities.
......So much hate...Your lack of compassion will consume you. Find relief now.

or

Many nations in this area are run by Muslim extremists. Sending money to these "victims" would be like sending money to Sunni Triangle insurgent leaders. There is a good chance a lare portion of charity to these nations will go to by weapons to kill Americans.
......You can help in three ways: Pray, give or go.
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What Can We Do About Terrorism?

December 30, 2004 by element115
"Mr. President, you did not tell the American people the truth about why we are the targets of terrorism. You said that we are the target because we stand for democracy, freedom, and human rights in the world. Baloney! We are the target of terrorists because we stand for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation in the world. We are the target of terrorists because we are hated. And we are hated because our government has done hateful things.

"People in Canada enjoy better democracy, more freedom, and greater human rights than we do. So do the people of Norway and Sweden. Have you heard of Canadian embassies being bombed? Or Norwegian embassies? Or Swedish embassies. No.

"In short, we do good instead of evil. We become the good guys, once again. The threat of terrorism would vanish. That is the truth, Mr. President. That is what the American people need to hear. We are good people. We only need to be told the truth and given the vision. You can do it, Mr. President. Stop the killing. Stop the justifying. Stop the retaliating. Put people first."

...a must read!
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Too Angry...For What?

December 30, 2004 by element115
Too angry to sit silently by while my government commits what constructively amounts to international war crimes?
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India's last active volcano erupts on Andamans

December 30, 2004 by element115
India's last active volcano, in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, has erupted in the aftermath of the huge earthquake that set off tsunamis killing thousands of people, official sources said on Thursday.
People have been evacuated from Barren Island since the eruption began on Tuesday night and there were no reports of injury.
Lava was flowing out of the rim of the crater which towers above the Indian Ocean some 500 metres (yards) away, the sources said.
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The Generosity of the People

December 30, 2004 by element115
Britons moved by the plight of a million children left orphaned or homeless by the Asian tsunami have donated £23 million in 24 hours
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Five million without food and water

December 30, 2004 by element115
Up to five million people in the Indian Ocean region are unable to get the basic requirements they need to stay alive, the World Health Organisation said.
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Blair asked to call emergency G-8 meeting

December 30, 2004 by element115
Tony Blair was being asked today to call an emergency meeting of the G-8 industrial nations to discuss their response to Asia's tsunami disaster.
Britain takes over the group's presidency on New Year's Day.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, is on an Egyptian holiday, today.
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World bank pledges 184m for disaster relief

December 30, 2004 by element115
The World Bank has pledged 184m for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia.

The announcement was made after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan met with heads of UN agencies and leaders of Non-Governmental Organisations.
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Stench of rotting flesh leads to island's bodies

December 30, 2004 by element115
Rescuers today followed the stench of death to find rotting bodies in jungles on the remote territory comprised of more than 500 islands. About 350,000 people live on about 30 of the islands.

Survivors from the islands said they had not eaten for two days and people had to contend with crocodiles that were washed ashore.

"There's not a single hut which is standing," said Mohammad Yusef, a 60-year-old fisherman from Tea Top village on Car Nicobar.
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Marines to Take Over Downtown Toledo for War Games

December 30, 2004 by element115
The Marines will take over parts of downtown Toledo as sounds of gunfire will echo off buildings when training exercises are conducted next weekend.
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Spray paint becomes a weapon in Iraq

December 30, 2004 by element115
...anti-U.S. and anti-interim government graffiti.
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We Must Leave Iraq

December 30, 2004 by element115
Justin Raimondo ---> The answer to those who claim we can't leave Iraq a "failed state" is that Iraq will continue to be a "failed state" as long as we remain.
Our presence is the cause of this failure.
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Some Readers Want to Lock Up Al Neuharth

December 30, 2004 by element115
Apparently, it is now an act of treason to offer an editorial opinion on the Iraq war that goes against the conventional wisdom.
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Relief Disaster

December 30, 2004 by element115
So humanity suffers while the president runs his chainsaw for the benefit of bored reporters. The government spends a billion dollars a week making war, yet pledges the equivalent of a half-year's salary for Congress (benefits not included) for a region that will require an unspeakable amount of aid in the immediate future. But then, this was never a president who had his priorities straight. $480 billion a year in defense spending, for instance, doesn't make a lot of sense when you're running an annual budget deficit of roughly the same amount. Something's got to give, but it won't be us.
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The Role of U.S. Criminal Negligence on a Global Scale

December 30, 2004 by element115
While earthquakes and tsunamis are natural disasters, the decision to spend billions of dollars on wars of conquest while ignoring simple measures that can save human lives is not.
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Fun with hate radio

December 30, 2004 by element115
A fun and easy way to get your message out to thousands, even millions of people, is through the medium of talk radio.
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Museums Advised to Check Bible-Era Relics

December 30, 2004 by element115
"We discovered only the tip of the iceberg. This spans the globe. It generated millions of dollars," Dorfman said. The forgers "were trying to change history."
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Neo-cons can't escape responsibility for their Iraq miscalculations

December 30, 2004 by element115
The most curious turn of the worm this season is the attack by the neo-conservatives on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for the failures in Iraq.

It should be noted that until now Rumsfeld was the darling of that same bunch. He hired a batch of them as his most trusted aides and assistants in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Paul Wolfowitz as his undersecretary. Douglas Feith as his chief of planning. He installed the dean of the pack, Richard Perle, as chairman of the Defense Policy Board for a time.
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A state of chaos

December 30, 2004 by element115
George Bush has purged the last of his father's senior advisers, handing over control to his neocon allies
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FBI Probes Laser Beam Directed at Cockpit

December 30, 2004 by element115
Authorities are investigating a mysterious laser beam that was directed into the cockpit of a commercial jet traveling at more than 8,500 feet.
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Foreknowledge of A Natural Disaster

December 30, 2004 by element115
The US Military and the State Department were given advanced warning. America's Navy base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean was notified.
Why did the US State Department remain mum on the existence of an impending catastrophe?
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Tracking the tsunami donations

December 30, 2004 by element115
Billions of dollars will be donated to the Asian tsunami relief effort but keeping track of who is giving what will be a big and interesting exercise.
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??????

December 30, 2004 by element115
U.S. Aid For Victims Of Tsunami $35 Million
Cost Of Bush Inauguration $30 Million
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Tsunami's Devastation

December 30, 2004 by element115
Photos and Video
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Tsunami Death Toll Jumps Over 120,000

December 30, 2004 by element115
The death toll in the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster soared above 120,000 on Thursday as millions scrambled for food and fresh water and thousands more fled in panic to high ground on rumors of new waves.
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Thai tsunami killed at least 2,230 foreigners

December 30, 2004 by element115
The Indian Ocean tsunami killed at least 2,230 foreigners in the southern Thai province whose beaches include devastated Khao Lak, the provincial government said on Thursday.
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Nations' leaders wake up to the scale of disaster

December 30, 2004 by element115
The Queen is to make a substantial donation to the relief effort, Buckingham Palace said last night. The money would probably be given to agencies of which she is patron, it said. The charities chosen will be announced later. No figure was put on the sum but it was described as "substantial".
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Millions hunt for food after tsunami

December 30, 2004 by element115
Millions of people on Indian Ocean shores are scrambling for food and clean water, with disease and hunger now the main threats stalking survivors of the most devastating tsunami on record.
"This isn't just a situation of giving out food and water. Entire towns and villages need to be rebuilt from the ground up."
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Blogs Provide Raw Details From Scene of the Disaster

December 30, 2004 by element115
New York Times ---> For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs.
"...using blogs to muster support for aid was a natural next step. "If you can smartmob a political demonstration, an election or urban performance art, you can smartmob disaster relief."

The so-called blogosphere, with its personal journals published on the Web, has become best known as a forum for bruising political discussion and media criticism. But the technology proved a ready medium for instant news of the tsunami disaster and for collaboration over ways to help.
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Scenes from a disaster

December 30, 2004 by element115
n the days since the Asian earthquake and tsunami, many of those affected have turned to the internet to share their very personal stories of survival, helplessness and loss. Here is a selection of accounts from the worst-hit areas.
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Amerika's Obscene "Humanity"

December 30, 2004 by element115
US aide to victims of the recent South Asian Earthquake & Tsunami = $35M (1X, begrudgingly)

US cost of Imperial war of Genocide against the Iraqi People = $300M+, DAILY!!!
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Indymedia on Tsunami

December 30, 2004 by element115
Territory Independant Media Collective.
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Tsunami: Summary and Info

December 30, 2004 by element115
---> @Wikipedia
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Moderate quakes in Nicobar, Sumatra

December 30, 2004 by element115
The east coast of little Nicobar and Northern Sumatra experienced two moderate intensity earthquakes early today, Indian Meteorological Department said.

...measuring 5.2 on richter scale, hit near east coast of Little Nicobar at around 4.26 am with the epicentre at 7.4 degree north latitude and 93.9 degree east longitude, it said.

Another quake was experienced in northern Sumatra with its epicentre at 5.9 degree north latitude and 94.6 degree east longitude, measuring 5.8, at around 2.43 am.
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Centre warns of second tsunami strike

December 30, 2004 by element115
People living within two kms of the coastline in Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar, Kerala, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Lakshadweephave been asked to move to safer places in the interiors.

The Central alert said a number of foreign experts were suggesting that another Tsunami may hit the Indian Ocean today afternoon in the event of an earthquake of high intensity which may occur near Australian region.
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Fresh tsunami warning

December 30, 2004 by element115
Panic gripped the coastal belt of Nagapattinam with the Met office informing of yet another tsunami striking the district today.

Officials evacuated people from coastal belts and asked them not to go anywhere near the sea.
-------------------------------
Kerala government has asked the people along the coast to remain alert as there were possibilities of high waves striking again.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the Government had information from the Central agencies that the sea could turn turbulent by noon.

District administrations had been asked not to allow people to remain within two km from the sea, Chandy said.

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American Red Cross Disaster Relief

December 30, 2004 by element115
Total Collected:
$3,745,613.19
# of Payments: 63597

as of Dec.30 3:30am EST
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Bloggers at Front Line of Relief Efforts

December 30, 2004 by element115
SPEIGEL ---> "Blogs are at the forefront of the tsunami recovery effort. While traditional media drags awaiting publication, and government hotlines jam or go unanswered, bloggers have hopped into the fray, providing needed information to relatives desperate to find loved ones and those hoping to join the rescue efforts."
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Army surgeon: U.S. knew Mosul attack suicide

December 30, 2004 by element115
The U.S. Army was immediately aware the explosion that killed 22 people in a military mess hall in northern Iraq last week likely was caused by a suicide bomber and not a rocket attack.
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G8 crackdown for eight-year-olds

December 30, 2004 by element115
Police will issue ID cards to eight-year-olds as part of security measures at next year's Gleneagles G8 summit.
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Large python saves woman and twins

December 30, 2004 by element115
As she struggled for her own life and that of the twins, she said a large snake as long as a telephone pole approached her. She and the nine-year-olds rested on the reptile, which was drifting along with the current.
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Iran, Russia to study UFOs

December 30, 2004 by element115
With a rash of recent sightings of unidentified flying objects in the Eastern Hemisphere, Russia and Iran have agreed to jointly study the UFO phenomenon.
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al-Qaida Surveillance Techniques Detailed

December 30, 2004 by element115
A new government intelligence bulletin describes in the greatest detail yet al-Qaida's techniques for assessing potential targets, extolling the lethal power of flying, shattered building glass and advising that kerosene and tires are effective for a deadly arson attack.
Produced by the FBI and Homeland Security Department, the bulletin was circulated Tuesday to law enforcement, government and industry officials nationwide and obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

"Current intelligence provides no indications that al-Qaida has operatives to conduct an attack based upon the information in these reports,'' the eight-page bulletin said.
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U.S. Businesses Overseas Threatened by Rising Anti-Americanism

December 30, 2004 by element115
The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.
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Tsunamis and Nuclear Power Plants

December 30, 2004 by element115
The ocean in San Diego, 1/2 a world away, rose 10 inches. It IS a small world, after all.
The "sea wall" at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station ("SONGS") in Southern California is 35 feet tall, and about 35 years old. It could not have withstood Sunday's worst.
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Two scenarios if the big one hits here: bad and worse

December 30, 2004 by element115
Geologist Bill Chadwick of the Hatfield Marine Science Visitors Center says an earthquake far at sea could give coastal residents and visitors an hour or two to get to higher ground.
But if it happens in the Cascadian Subduction Zone, which varies from 32 to 70 miles off the coast between Vancouver Island, Canada, and Crescent City, Calif., the time could be only 10 to 20 minutes. In either case property damage alone would be horrendous.
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China spying on Canada: CSIS

December 30, 2004 by element115
China's intelligence services have systematically targeted Canada's science and technology sectors and use Chinese students and visiting scientists to steal technology for military use and to enhance the country's global economic competitiveness, a senior intelligence source says.
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Bush 'presumes' U.S. warning system is adequate

December 30, 2004 by element115
President Bush said he presumes the U.S. warning system for tsunamis and other natural disasters is in working order, but he stopped short of definitively backing the infrastructure currently in place.
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Israeli International Anti-Terror Financing Law Approved

December 30, 2004 by element115
Israel will now be able to take part in the international war on terror financing, in addition to combating local terror funding under a law approved by the Knesset.
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Tsunami: Why America's Coast Would Be Toast

December 30, 2004 by element115
The effect would be to generate a huge wave with the energy equivalent to the combined output of America's power stations working flat out for six months.
After travelling across 4,000 miles of the Atlantic for about nine hours the tsunami would hit the Caribbean islands and the east coasts of Canada and the US with devastating effect. It would stretch for many miles and sweep into the estuaries and harbours for up to 20 miles inland, destroying everything in its path.
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Earthquake Made Earth Days Shorter: Russian Scientists

December 30, 2004 by element115
...and Italian geological centers have concluded, meanwhile, that the Earth?s axis has shifted 6 centimeters eastwards.
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Israeli missiles kill Palestinians

December 30, 2004 by element115
At least three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air raid on the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunus.
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Exporting Unhappiness

December 30, 2004 by element115
Iraq is giving new meaning to the word nationalism. It's become a running sore for the US.
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Tsunami Death Toll Could Top 100,000

December 30, 2004 by element115
The Red Cross is warning the death toll from Sunday's earthquake-triggered tsunami across the Indian Ocean could surpass 100,000. The bodies of those pulled out to sea by the initial wall of water are now washing up on Asia's shorelines as rescue crews from around the world try to care for those who survived and contain the threat of disease.
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Miracles in midst of disaster

December 30, 2004 by element115
Amid the chaos and grief surrounding the tsunami horror wrought on Asia have emerged some remarkable tales of survival, acts of courage and heartwarming generosity.
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More on bloggers and tsunami aid efforts

December 30, 2004 by element115
...the apple.com site - not one product ad on their front page - just links to aid and donation sites,
...and Microsoft had not one mention of the disaster."
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Navy SEALs Sue AP Over Iraq Prison Photos

December 29, 2004 by element115
Six members of a Navy special forces unit and two Navy wives sued The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying the news agency endangered the servicemen's lives and invaded their privacy by publishing photos showing the men interacting with Iraqi prisoners.
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Ukraine PM Yanukovich Files Complaints

December 29, 2004 by element115
Ukraine?s Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich has filed a complaint with the Central Election Commission detailing violations during the repeat presidential elections which he lost to rival Viktor Yushchenko.
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Dozens killed, wounded in Mosul fighting

December 29, 2004 by element115
US troops backed by warplanes have clashed with fighters in the Iraqi city of Mosul, after being attacked by bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.
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Israel shells Palestinian refugee camp

December 29, 2004 by element115
Israeli occupation forces have fired tank shells into the heavily populated Khan Yunus refugee camp in southern Gaza, wounding at least 13 Palestinians.
The shelling was carried out by troops manning a post near the illegal Neve Dekalim colony and came several hours after a failed Israeli air strike on a car carrying two Palestinian resistance fighters in the same area.
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Top analyst is latest victim of cull by CIA's new regime

December 29, 2004 by element115
The head of the CIA's analysis branch has become the latest victim of a purge of the intelligence agency following the appointment of its new director, Porter Goss.
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10 Die As Militants, Saudi Police Clash

December 29, 2004 by element115
A car bomb was detonated by remote control near the Interior Ministry in central Riyadh ? killing a bystander, according to Saudi TV ? followed soon after by an explosion when two suicide attackers tried to bomb a troop recruitment center.
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Ode To The Rainbow's End

December 29, 2004 by element115
At this precise point of time, happiness seems a myth, a chimera, a bedtime story for children, a poor urban legend.
When were you happy last? Yesterday? The day before?
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Swallowed up by the savage sea

December 29, 2004 by element115
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living", says the writing on the wall in Vailankanni, a well-known town on the sea in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Another, on the soggy sea-washed wall of a house says, "Lord is with us, Do not fear".
That was before the fearsome tsunami hit this merry pilgrim town.
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Grief, relief, and the stingy West

December 29, 2004 by element115
The horrific aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami has revealed what many in the world have known for a long time: Western nations are eager to exploit the under privileged, but slow to lend a helping hand in times of crisis.
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A Glimpse of the Ghost of Vietnam in Iraq Lies and Atrocities

December 29, 2004 by element115
Who said this and when? "The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient that the public knows... We are today not far from a disaster." Answer: TE Lawrence (of Arabia fame) in The Sunday Times in August,1920 .
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A Devil's Island for Our Times

December 29, 2004 by element115
It is time to invade Cuba and put an end to what has become another Devil's Island in the annals of government-sanctioned torture. The barbaric treatment of political prisoners on the island is made no more palatable by being conducted in the name of an ideology that claims to be liberating the world from its shackles.
...we have erected a massive torture chamber any deranged dictator would envy.
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Venezuela's Chavez predicts $3 billion in trade with China next year

December 29, 2004 by element115
Chinese companies intend to invest $350 million in 15 oil fields in eastern Venezuela, and $60 million in natural gas projects.. Venezuela will receive $250 million next year from China for fuel oil exports, Chavez said.
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Homeland Insecurity

December 29, 2004 by element115
The American empire goes for broke
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US attorney-general joins Saddam

December 29, 2004 by element115
FORMER US attorney general Ramsey Clark is to join the defence team of Saddam Hussein, a spokesman for the toppled Iraqi president's lawyers said today.
The former top US justice official who arrived in Jordan where the defence team is based, has become known as a left-wing lawyer and firm critic of US foreign policy since leaving office.
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Marines at work in Fallujah

December 29, 2004 by element115
Raw Video ---> ...contains images depicting the reality and horror of war and should be viewed by a mature audience.
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How Can We Give So Little to Help, But Spend More to Hurt?

December 29, 2004 by element115
As we all know, hundreds of billions of dollars have gone into the destruction of mankind over in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, but only a fraction goes towards helping these people who have suffered such a tragedy that you and I cannot even comprehend.
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Myanmar's govt suppressing tsunami news?

December 29, 2004 by element115
...there is almost no news about the effect of the tsunami on Myanmar (formerly Burma), which was surely in the disaster's path. It appears that news of the tsunami's effect has been supressed by Myanmar's military dictators.
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Tsunami Leaves Up to 5 Mln Needing Urgent Help

December 29, 2004 by element115
Up to five million people have been left without basic essentials by the Indian Ocean tsunami, lacking either water or food or basic sanitation, a senior U.N. official said.
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Disease could double tsunami death toll to over 100,000: experts

December 29, 2004 by element115
It is feared that rotting corpses, smashed sewers and contaminated water combined with a lack of food and shelter, along with mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria, could wipe out weakened survivors in their tens of thousands.
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Quake's economic costs emerging

December 29, 2004 by element115
World Bank president James Wolfensohn has said his agency is "only beginning to grasp the magnitude of the disaster" and its economic impact.
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Wave kills granddaughter of Attenborough

December 29, 2004 by element115
...his 14-year-old granddaughter had been killed in Thailand.
In a statement last night the 81-year-old actor-director and Lady Attenborough said that Lucy had "died at the scene" as a wall of water engulfed the resort of Phuket.
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Lack of tsunami data left U.S. unable to issue alerts

December 29, 2004 by element115
"Our business is not to guess, so we did not guess there would be tsunamis.
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Tsunami toll hits 68,000

December 29, 2004 by element115
Thousands of corpses are rotting in Indonesia's tropical sun as rescuers scour isolated coasts across the Indian Ocean for survivors of Sunday's giant waves that killed more than 68,000.
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Where are all the dead animals? Sri Lanka asks

December 29, 2004 by element115
"The strange thing is we haven't recorded any dead animals," H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of the national Wildlife Department, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit," he added.
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Tsunami warning halted out of concern for tourist industry

December 29, 2004 by element115
Just minutes after the earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Sunday morning, Thailand's foremost meteorological experts were sitting together in a crisis meeting. But they decided not to warn about the tsunami 'out of courtesy to the tourist industry,' writes the Thailand daily newspaper The Nation.
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U.S. Adds $20 Million to Earthquake Relief

December 29, 2004 by element115
The U.S. Agency for International Development is adding $20 million to an initial $15 million contribution for Asian earthquake relief as Secretary of State Colin Powell bristled at a United Nations official's suggestion the United States has been "stingy."
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Russian volcano erupts in Kamchatka

December 29, 2004 by element115
Russian seismologists said the Shiveluch volcano in the eastern Kamchatka peninsula began erupting Tuesday, sending hot ash up to 6,500 feet.
Seismic stations near the volcano registered underground tremors from a depth of up to 16,000 feet with spasmodic volcanic vibration, the Novosti news agency reported.
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Before and after hi-res satellite images of tsunami zone

December 28, 2004 by element115
DigitalGlobe Imagery
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Disasters Natural and Unnatural

December 28, 2004 by element115
Before there was an earthquake and tsunami, there was Wolfowitz
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'Ghost' jet used for terror suspects

December 28, 2004 by element115
A US jet registered to a ghost company whisks terror suspects to countries that use torture, according to the Washington Post.
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Disappearing Act

December 28, 2004 by element115
War crimes in Falluja and the Media
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The Power of Nightmares

December 28, 2004 by element115
In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.
The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

This is a must watch BBC documentary
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Shopping for War

December 28, 2004 by element115
The New York Times ---> That is utter madness. The geniuses in Washington have already launched one bogus war, which has cost tens of thousands of lives and provoked levels of suffering that are impossible to quantify. We don't need to be contemplating new forms of warfare waged for the sole purpose of gathering intelligence.

General Boykin, who once had the job of directing the hunt for Osama bin Laden, is an evangelical Christian who believes God put President Bush in the White House. He has described the fight against Islamic militants as a struggle against Satan and declared that it can be won only "if we come at them in the name of Jesus."

As The Times noted in a recent editorial, "The last time Mr. Rumsfeld tried to force himself into the intelligence collection and analysis business, he created a boutique C.I.A. in the bowels of the Pentagon under the command of Douglas Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy. The office essentially fabricated a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden - a link used to justify the Iraq invasion, and one that Mr. Rumsfeld was not getting from the C.I.A."
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EU to begin trade talks with Iran

December 28, 2004 by element115
Trade talks between Iran and the European Union are set to begin on January 12 as the EU drive to improve ties with Tehran gathers pace.
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Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence

December 28, 2004 by element115
...an attorney representing the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign filed two important motions to preserve and augment evidence of alleged election fraud in the November election. The motions were filed in the matter titled Yost et al. v. Delaware County Board of Elections and J. Kenneth Blackwell (Civil Action No. C2-04-1139) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The document is titled "Motion Of Intervenor-Defendant Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. For A Preservation Order And For A Leave To Take Limited Expedited Discovery."
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Sri Lanka said refusing IDF aid team

December 28, 2004 by element115
A 150-member Israeli aid delegation canceled its mission to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, after the country - one of the hardest hit in the Asian tsunami disaster - apparently refused to accept the Israeli team, Israel Defense Forces officials said.
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Main Sunni party pulls out of Iraqi election

December 28, 2004 by element115
Iraq's largest mainstream Sunni Muslim party pulled out of the election race yesterday, saying the violence plaguing areas north and west of Baghdad made a "free and fair vote" on January 30 impossible.
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Attacks in Iraq kill 42

December 28, 2004 by element115
42 people were killed in a string of attacks on Iraqi security forces and other targets.
In one of a series of apparently coordinated strikes in Sunni Muslim strongholds north of Baghdad, insurgents stormed a police station in Dijla between Tikrit and Samarra and gunned down 12 policemen, police said.
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US, Britain holding 10,000 prisoners in Iraq

December 28, 2004 by element115
Over 350 foreigners are among about 10,000 detainees being held in US-run prisons in Iraq, Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin Over says.
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Analysis: Iraq edges towards civil war

December 28, 2004 by element115
Iraq faces the prospect of civil war as Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government loses credibility and violence against U.S. forces increases, according to almost a half dozen former and serving administration officials.
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CIA resists request for abuse data

December 28, 2004 by element115
The CIA is refusing to disclose any information about abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, invoking a legal precedent that involved a secret project by billionaire Howard Hughes to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine in the 1970s.
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The U.S. knew about the tsunami

December 28, 2004 by element115
International ocean monitors predicted that a tsunami would likely follow the deadly earthquake that hit the Indian Ocean on Sunday. But they didn?t know who to inform.
"We put out a bulletin within 20 minutes, technically as fast as we could do it," said Jeff LaDouce, an official in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Baghdad commander of Iraqi security forces assassinated

December 28, 2004 by element115
The commander of the Iraqi National Guard in the capital city was assassinated on Tuesday by a suicide bomber who drove a car bomb into the convoy transporting the official, witnesses said.
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Toll at 59,000

December 28, 2004 by element115
The sea and wreckage of coastal towns around the Indian Ocean yielded up tens of thousands of bodies on Tuesday, pushing the toll from Sunday's tsunami close to 60,000.
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Susan Sontag, Writer and Social Critic, Dies at 71

December 28, 2004 by element115
One of the most powerful thinkers of her generation and a leading voice of intellectual opposition to U.S. policy after the Sept. 11 attacks, died on Tuesday at a New York cancer hospital. She was 71.
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Biggest relief effort ever

December 28, 2004 by element115
Biggest relief effort everThe biggest humanitarian relief operation ever mounted was underway along Asia's devastated shores as the death toll from a massive earthquake and the tidal waves it unleashed was predicted to hit 45,000.
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Floating mattress saves 20-day-old baby from drowning

December 28, 2004 by element115
While thousands of people lost their lives when a tsunami hit the region, a 20-day-old baby survived, thanks to a floating mattress.
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U.N. official slams U.S. as 'stingy' over aid

December 28, 2004 by element115
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds.
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Vigil at Kerry's house

December 28, 2004 by element115
There will be a daily vigil from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at Senator John Kerry's house at Louisburg Square on Beacon Hill in Boston, starting Tuesday, December 28 - Wednesday, January 5.
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Israelis Arrest Palestinian Candidate in Jerusalem

December 28, 2004 by element115
Israeli police Monday briefly arrested a Palestinian presidential candidate as he campaigned in disputed Jerusalem, in the latest incident to mar the run-up to elections for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
"The police told him, 'We have an arrest warrant for you', and dragged him away," Ihad al-Jariri, campaign manager for the independent candidate, told Reuters. After interrogation by police, Barghouthi was taken to the West Bank and released.
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Asia Officials Failed to Issue Warnings

December 28, 2004 by element115
Asian officials conceded Monday that they failed to issue broad public warnings immediately after a massive undersea earthquake in Indonesia, which could have saved countless lives from the subsequent giant waves that smashed into nine countries as far away as Africa.
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Ukraine transport minister found shot dead

December 28, 2004 by element115
"An investigating group from the police are working at the scene. He was found dead with gunshot wounds at his dacha just at the outskirts of Kiev," the source said on Monday.
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Asia Buries Tsunami Dead

December 28, 2004 by element115
Death Toll Climbs
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Animation

December 28, 2004 by element115

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Some Asian Blogs' Accounts

December 28, 2004 by element115
A first hand accounts
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SMSes from Sri Lanka

December 28, 2004 by element115
I'm standing on the Galle road in Aluthgama and looking at 5 ton trawlers tossed onto the road. Scary shit.
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Found 5 of my friends, 2 dead. Of the 5, 4 are back in Colombo. The last one is stranded because of a broken bridge. Broken his leg. But he's alive. Made...
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..contact. He got swept away but swam ashore. Said he's been burying people all day. Just dragging them off the beach and digging holes with his hands. Go..
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..ing with gear to get him tommorrow morning. He sounded disturbed. Guess grave digging does that to you.
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...more than 40.000

December 28, 2004 by element115










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Epidemics threaten devastated south Asia

December 28, 2004 by element115
id agencies and governments scrambled on Monday to mount an emergency operation aimed at averting epidemics of typhoid, hepatitis, diarrhoea and cholera across southern Asia, as the death toll from the Indian Ocean earthquake rose above 23,000.
The UN launched an appeal for funds and rushed emergency teams to what it called an "unprecedented" disaster
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Quake rattled Earth orbit, changed map of Asia

December 28, 2004 by element115
...so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said.
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Unfortunately, this qualifies as a "mind-blowing" event

December 27, 2004 by element115
24,000 people dead.

Just let that figure sink in for a minute.

A 9/11 attack -- six times over.

Links for those who would like to help
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The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

December 27, 2004 by element115
News blog
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Ukraine's Yushchenko Wins Presidency

December 27, 2004 by element115
Yushchenko 53 percent of the vote...Yanukovych 44 percent.
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Dissent is not disloyal

December 27, 2004 by element115
Dissent in wartime can be the highest form of patriotism. If citizens believe that our military or political leaders have blundered or our reasons for fighting are unjust, they must voice these concerns if they are to meet their responsibilities in a self-governing society. Dissent is not disloyal.
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Iraq rejects vote rigging talk

December 27, 2004 by element115
Iraq's election body has rejected a suggestion in Washington it adjust the results of next month's vote to benefit the Sunni minority if low turnout in Sunni areas means Shi'ites have an exaggerated majority in the new assembly.
Speaking of "unacceptable" interference, Electoral Commission spokesman Farid Ayar said: "Who wins, wins. That is the
way it is. That is the way it will be in the election."
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U.S. to Take Bigger Bite of Iraq's Economic Pie

December 27, 2004 by element115
The United States is helping the interim Iraqi government continue to make major economic changes, including cuts to social subsidies, full access for U.S. companies to the nation's oil reserves and reconsideration of oil deals that the previous regime signed with France and Russia.
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Neo-fascism in America

December 27, 2004 by element115
Perhaps the only one way to understand fascism in America today is to trace its historical development there over the last century.
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The Right's Assault on Kofi Annan

December 27, 2004 by element115
"It's a bit like lynching, actually."
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Yes, you must pull out - but also pay for the damage

December 27, 2004 by element115
Naomi Klein ---> The US isn't protecting or feeding Iraqis, it's stoking violence and hardship.
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Video of Mosul suicide bombing

December 27, 2004 by element115
"Let Bush, Blair and Allawi know that we are coming and that we will chase them all away."
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Atrocities in american airports

December 27, 2004 by element115
London Daily ---> I was aware of the increased airport security for US trips, due to Sep 11 attacks, and in Rio International Airport one can already notice the routine change, but I could have never imagined what would happen next.
From now on I describe, step by step, the horrendous and unimaginable nightmare that I went through :
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Israel Plans Turning Separation Wall into De Facto Borders

December 27, 2004 by element115
The Israeli security establishment revealed plans to hand crossings between Palestinian Territories and Israel, as marked by the separation wall, to civil authorities; a strategic move that creates de facto borders along the separation wall.
According to the revealed plan, three to five large terminals will be built between Israel and the West Bank equipped with new technologies for inspecting people and goods. In addition, 40 to 60 smaller checkpoints will be built along the wall.
The army will only keep control over few West bank military checkpoints, such as at the entrance to the West Bank city of Nablus.
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An increasing trend: From middle class to food stamps

December 27, 2004 by element115
In Arizona, food stamp rolls have increased 104 percent, in Nevada, 97 percent; Oregon, 79 percent; South Carolina, 68 percent; Missouri, 65 percent.
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30 million cars now record drivers' behavior

December 27, 2004 by element115
"The problem is most people don't realize these devices are in their vehicle," says Eric Skrum, spokesman for the National Motorists Association in Madison, Wis.
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Israelis arrested in Jordan confess supplying arms to Sudan rebels

December 27, 2004 by element115
Sources involved in preliminary investigations in Jordan have revealed that the Israelis arrested by the Jordanian security forces have confessed their involvement in supplying weapons to the Darfur Region.
...sources said the security agents last week arrested two Israeli arms smugglers, including an individual working directly with Dan Yatom, youngest son to a former director of Israeli intelligence, who also served as one of the advisers in Ehud Baraq's government.
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Rumsfeld says Flight 93 was 'shot down'

December 27, 2004 by element115
In either a gargantuan slip of the tongue or a momentous gaffe departing from the Bush Administration-approved timeline, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told troops in Iraq that the Sept. 11 flight over Pennsylvania was "shot down."
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Tsunami Kills 21,000 in Nine Countries

December 27, 2004 by element115
Rescuers piled up bodies along coastlines devastated by a tsunami that obliterated seaside towns in Asia and Africa, killing 21,000 people in nine countries. Hundreds of children were buried in mass graves in India, and morgues and hospitals struggled Monday to cope with the catastrophe.
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Earthquake moves island of Sumatra

December 27, 2004 by element115
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia moved the island of Sumatra about 100 feet to the southwest.
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Asian quake disaster

December 26, 2004 by element115
In pictures
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Earthquake News

December 26, 2004 by element115
...for specific towns and cities
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Yushchenko claims triumph in Ukraine

December 26, 2004 by element115
"Now we are free," he declares
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An earthquake of epic power

December 26, 2004 by element115
9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years and fourth-largest in a century.
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Tidal waves and tremors hit Asia

December 26, 2004 by element115
Significant casualties are being reported following tidal waves and earth tremors in countries across southern and eastern Asia.
The US Geological Survey measured the quake at 8.5 magnitude.
Electricity and telephone networks in the area have stopped working, making it difficult to confirm the extent of the damage.

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Happy Holidays Everyone and...

December 25, 2004 by element115
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Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.?

December 24, 2004 by element115
All Four Parts
Video ---> Published: 12/12/01 FOX News.
These items have since been removed from the FOX News web site
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Explosion Rips Baghdad As Rumsfeld Leaves

December 24, 2004 by element115
A gas tanker truck wired with explosives blew up in a west Baghdad neighborhood Friday, killing one person, wounding 19 and lighting up the night sky with a fireball, just hours after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld left the capital.
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How healthy is our president?

December 24, 2004 by element115
...let's find out --->
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Ohio Voting Bombshell

December 24, 2004 by element115
After several weeks of utilizing Ohio election laws to demand a recount, Third Party presidential candidates David Cobb of the Green Party and Libertarian Michael Badnarik have achieved their first tangible success. Two stunning affidavits recently filed have made it virtually impossible for GOP Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to tidily sabotage the recount process.
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Military Is Afraid to Tell Bush, Cheney the Truth

December 24, 2004 by element115
"The military are scared of telling Cheney and Bush the truth and that will have to end within the next six months. They cannot deliver in Iraq what the president wants, and we'll have to start getting out." Seymour Hersh, the famed reporter known for breaking stories from My Lai to Abu Ghraib, said in a Washingtonpost.com chat today
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No peace on Earth during unjust war

December 24, 2004 by element115
Those who die are the victims of the big lie. They believe that they are fighting to prevent another terror attack on the United States. They are not the war criminals. The ''Vulcans,'' as the Bush foreign policy team calls itself, are the criminals, and they ought to face indictment as war criminals.
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Poison pen

December 24, 2004 by element115
the FBI papers state repeatedly and unequivocally that Bush himself had authorized the aggressive techniques. They also note that in May 2004, after the scandal at Abu Ghraib, Bush had specified that "certain techniques can only be used if very high-level authority is granted." Thus some of the most disturbing abuses -- actions which the interrogators nonetheless felt comfortable enough to commit in front of FBI agents -- have been carried out with direct White House or Pentagon approval.
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Assailants kill 28 in Honduras bus attack

December 24, 2004 by element115
At least 28 passengers, including six children, were killed when assailants opened fire on a public bus in northern Honduras.
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Top 10 Most Moronic Stories of 2004

December 24, 2004 by element115
This year was so stupid, in fact, that the dial goes to 11.
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World feels bullied by Washington

December 24, 2004 by element115
To the French, he's an uncouth cowboy - a swaggering statesman in a Stetson who shoots from the hip and asks questions later, if he asks them at all.
They're not the only ones who think so. From Berlin to Beijing, President Bush was widely scorned abroad during his first term as a headstrong hombre more interested in action than consultation.
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Putin Lashes Out At U.S. and E.U.

December 24, 2004 by element115
"Do you think that the electoral system in the United States is without flaws?" Putin said. "Need I remind you of how their elections were held in the United States?"
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Falluja returnees angry, "city unfit for animals"

December 24, 2004 by element115
Iraqis have reacted with anger, frustration and resentment after many returned to Falluja to discover their homes in rubble and their livelihoods ruined.
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Israel may seek further U.S. funding for security measures

December 24, 2004 by element115
Israel, which receives about $3 billion a year in U.S. aid, may seek extra funding next year to bolster border security and overhaul checkpoints as part of a plan to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
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Meanwhile, cycle of violence goes on in Gaza

December 23, 2004 by element115
Thirteen-year-old Yehiya Moharab got up at 5am, ate his breakfast of pitta bread with powdered thyme and olive oil, and prepared to go to school.
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Blair's peace talks take back seat

December 23, 2004 by element115
TONY Blair was yesterday forced to tone down his plans for an international Middle East peace summit in London, after Israel and the United States warned him not to "interfere".
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US 'blocking Arab freedom report'

December 23, 2004 by element115
The editor of a UN survey of freedom and governance in Arab societies says the US has impeded its publication.
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Jewish holocaust survivors sue Bush

December 23, 2004 by element115
Jewish Holocaust survivors have sued president Bush for 400 million dollars because his family forture was made by working with the Nazis.
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Rumsfeld makes suprise visit to Iraq

December 23, 2004 by element115
American Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made a surprise visit to the U.S. military base in Mosul, Iraq where 22 people were killed in a suicide bombing on Tuesday.
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Massive quake hits off Tasmania

December 23, 2004 by element115
Geoscience Australia said the quake, measuring 8.1 on the Richter Scale, hit the Macquarie Rise in the Pacific Ocean at 1.59am (AEDT).
The earthquake, which occurred half-way between Australia and Antarctica, was felt throughout Tasmania, seismologist Cvetan Sinadinovski said.
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Putin's poser: Is the US trying to isolate Russia?

December 23, 2004 by element115
Relations between Russia and the West have been strained
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Bush Monkey Picture Shown on Giant Billboard

December 23, 2004 by element115
A portrait of President Bush (news - web sites) using monkeys to form his image that was banished from a New York art show last week amid charges of censorship was projected on a giant billboard in Manhattan.
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Us To Deploy New Missiles In S.Korea To Destroy WMD In N.Korea

December 23, 2004 by element115
"The (U.S. President George W.) Bush administration plans to deploy a new set of missiles to South Korea next year that are designed to destroy the underground installations where the North Koreans are storing their WMDs," the Center for American Progress (CAP) said in a report.
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Battle scars

December 23, 2004 by element115
"When I saw the stumps, I thought, `Damn, both of them?' Then I looked at my leg and I was trying to figure how to put a tourniquet on it because I didn't have any hands."
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The first cloned-to-order pet sold in the United States

December 23, 2004 by element115
The kitten cost its owner $50,000 and was cloned from her beloved cat, named Nicky, that died last year. Nicky's owner banked the cat's DNA, which was used to create the clone.
"He is identical. His personality is the same," the woman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
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Mobile phones 'alter human DNA'

December 23, 2004 by element115
In a four-year study, German researchers exposed human tissue to low-power microwaves, which are emitted by mobile phones, and found that the radiation caused damage to the DNA within the cells, which were kept in a suspension. They also discovered that this effect is increased in areas with a poor signal because the phone uses higher-powered radiation to maintain a connection.
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New study finds rent unaffordable for a third of Americans

December 23, 2004 by element115
The report states that a third of the nation has difficulty affording rent and most often choose between paying rent and other expenses such as food. In 2004, the cost of rent continued to grow faster than wages and there is not a single jurisdiction in the country where a person working full-time at minimum-wage can afford a two bedroom rental home.
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TSA alters airport patdown procedures

December 23, 2004 by element115
In response to numerous complaints from women, the government has ordered airport security personnel to avoid touching female passengers between their breasts when performing patdown searches.
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New Rules Issued for National Forests

December 23, 2004 by element115
The Bush administration issued comprehensive new rules yesterday for managing the national forests, jettisoning some environmental protections that date to Ronald Reagan's administration and putting in place the biggest change in forest-use policies in nearly three decades.
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Rosneft Acquires Key Yukos Unit

December 23, 2004 by element115
Russia's state-owned oil company, Rosneft, is acquiring the mysterious buyer of Yukos' key production unit in the latest twist of the government's pursuit of the Russian oil giant
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Yushchenko: Ukraine Vote May Be Disrupted

December 23, 2004 by element115
Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko told orange-clad supporters that his opponents are preparing to disrupt Sunday's presidential runoff, and appealed to them to be ready to defend their vote now that victory is near.
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Democrats Win Recount, Court Case in Wash. State

December 23, 2004 by element115
Seven weeks after 2.8 million people voted to elect a governor for Washington state, the Democratic candidate took the lead by a 10-vote margin in an unprecedented hand recount, election officials said on Wednesday.
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War Crimes

December 23, 2004 by element115
THANKS TO a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups, thousands of pages of government documents released this month have confirmed some of the painful truths about the abuse of foreign detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA -- truths the Bush administration implacably has refused to acknowledge. Since the publication of photographs of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in the spring the administration's whitewashers -- led by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- have contended that the crimes were carried out by a few low-ranking reservists, that they were limited to the night shift during a few chaotic months at Abu Ghraib in 2003, that they were unrelated to the interrogation of prisoners and that no torture occurred at the Guantanamo Bay prison where hundreds of terrorism suspects are held. The new documents establish beyond any doubt that every part of this cover story is false.

...well...what are we waiting for?
...The nation's capital's daily newspaper, The Washington Post, calls it 'War Crimes'
...it's time to put 'all of them' behind bars
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Beyond torrents

December 22, 2004 by element115
Recently, several large Bittorrent tracker sites were shut down, citing concerns about problems with copyright holders.
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Germany shines a beam on the future of energy

December 22, 2004 by element115
PowerLight's three Bavarian solar parks, consisting of 57,600 silicon-and- aluminum panels, will generate 10 megawatts of electricity -- enough to power 9,000 German homes. The amount of electricity produced is much less than power plants fueled by coal or natural gas, but with very low operating costs, the solar project is expected quickly to turn a profit while emitting zero pollution. Schroeder's left-of-center Social Democrat-Green coalition has turned Germany into the world leader in renewable energy since it took office in 1998. Billions of dollars have been spent on wind and solar projects, and Schroeder, in a politically risky move, has sharply increased taxes on petroleum products in an attempt to reduce consumption of conventional fuels.
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Tear Down the Cross

December 22, 2004 by element115
Why is President Bush supporting a group trying to convince African-American churches to literally throw their crosses in the trash?

...make a quick stop at the web site of the ACLC, and it's clear there's more to it than the "rapidly growing movement of clergy committed to the endeavor of making this nation the best that it can be," as the ACLC described itself in a December 8 Washington Times op-ed. It's actually a vehicle for Sun Myung Moon, the billionaire conservative donor who calls himself the True Father.


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Nicaraguan leftists screened out of entry to U.S.

December 22, 2004 by element115
Santos was detained at Miami International Airport by U.S. immigration officials. Held for 20 hours, he was questioned, his U.S. visa was canceled, and he was deported home.
As head of foreign relations for Nicaragua's principal opposition party, Samuel Santos has frequently visited the United States and met with State Department officials twice in the past three years. He visited Miami in January. His sisters live in California.
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Giving them a sick feeling

December 22, 2004 by element115
America's pharmaceutical industry is putting out an advisory about the latest potential threat to its health: Michael Moore.
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The Exploitation of Soldiers

December 22, 2004 by element115
Those who defend warfare tend to see it only as an abstraction, a game pitting strategists from opposing collectives against one another in furtherance of contrived objectives. The ugly details of orchestrated butchery and torture are to be suppressed, lest persons of humane sensitivities become upset and demand a cessation of the game. But facts have ways of insinuating themselves into the most carefully devised schemes, causing the sordid nature of warfare to move from the abstract to the concrete. When this occurs - as it did in the My Lai massacre or, more recently, at Abu Ghraib - the political establishment is quick to look for scapegoats or explanations that do not implicate war itself. To the state, the professed ends of any given war are both irrelevant and fungible: it is the war system that requires protection.
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Amerikan Terrorists, American Tragedy

December 22, 2004 by element115
Rise of the Amerikan Nazis: Part III of III
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Military Personnel Wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan

December 22, 2004 by element115
A Photo Gallery

Bush, you will burn in hell......just a reminder.
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1st human case of bird flu in Japan

December 22, 2004 by element115
Japan reported its first case of bird flu in a human Wednesday.
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Conyers asks networks to release raw exit poll data

December 22, 2004 by element115
Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich), calls on the five major television networks and the Associated Press to release the raw exit poll data from the 2004 presidential election.
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The Sinister Plan

December 22, 2004 by element115
The chilling reality of what Fallujah has become is only now seeping out, as the American military continues to block almost all access to the city, whether to reporters, its former residents, or aid groups like the Red Crescent Society.
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Saddam Didn't Gas the Kurds

December 22, 2004 by element115
The neo-cons who propagated the story that Saddam "gassed his own people," i.e., the Iraqi Kurds, will still insist he did gas the Kurds, back in 1988 when he gave the order to Chemical Ali, who told the Iraqi army to commit genocide at the town of Halabja. But the news from Mohammed al-Obaidi is that the team prosecuting Saddam for crimes against humanity has dropped the genocide charge "due to insufficient evidence."
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Israeli President Unveils Plan For 'World Knesset'

December 22, 2004 by element115
srael's government took its first public step last week toward the formal creation of an international Jewish "parliament," whose purpose would be to represent Diaspora Jews in the formation of Israeli government policies that have potential impact on Jewish life in other countries.
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Election protest aimed at vote fraud

December 22, 2004 by element115
Demanding integrity and competence in our election processes doesn't make us "bitter-enders." It makes us patriots and keeps us free.
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Bethlehem today is a 'prison'

December 22, 2004 by element115
With a population of 61,000, the Bethlehem area is surrounded by checkpoints and the barrier, which is nearly complete on two sides of the town. As a result, Bethlehem is isolated from the rest of the West Bank and from Jerusalem, the U.N. report said.
"The Israeli authorities resumed the work to complete the wall, which makes Bethlehem a big prison," Sabbah said after delivering his Christmas message.
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Destroyed Fallujah "Uninhabitable"

December 22, 2004 by element115
Iraq?s Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) has ruled out the return of Fallujah evacuees to their homes during the coming days, dismissing statements by the interim government, due to wide scale destruction caused by the US military campaign that rendered the city "uninhabitable".
To add salt to injury, Fallujah's displaced families are currently suffering difficult and catastrophic humanitarian circumstances.
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Mosul in Lockdown After U.S. Base Blasted

December 22, 2004 by element115
U.S. forces sealed off entire districts of the Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday, blocking bridges and raiding homes in a hunt for suspects after an attack that killed 18 Americans and four Iraqis.
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Major U.S. Contractor Pulls Out of Reconstruction Effort in Iraq

December 22, 2004 by element115
For the first time, a major U.S. contractor has dropped out of the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq, raising new worries about the country's growing violence and its effect on reconstruction.
Contrack's is the largest to be canceled to date, U.S. officials said. The move has led to fears that Iraq's mounting violence could prompt other firms to consider pulling out, or discourage them from seeking work in Iraq, further crippling reconstruction.
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Three Palestinians, Israeli Killed in Shootings

December 22, 2004 by element115
Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on a southern Gaza Strip refugee camp. A third Palestinian was shot trying to scale a border fence out of Gaza and an Israeli man was killed by a gunman in the West Bank.
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International peace conference to help revive roadmap

December 22, 2004 by element115
"is the first step towards our joint procession to arrange the basics for peace."
...scheduled in February 2005 in London.
Meanwhile, Abbas called on Israel to stop its military operations against the Palestinian people.
"Israel should stop all constructions of the security wall inthe West Bank, stop settlements expansion and release prisoners,"he said.

Sharon ---> Israel would not attend the Middle East conference in London.
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Recent galactic births surprise astronomers

December 22, 2004 by element115
...just 2 billion to 4 billion light years away.The objects resemble primitive galaxies from the early universe and may shed light on what triggers galaxies to form
"It's almost like looking out the window and seeing a dinosaur walking by," says Tim Heckman, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, US.
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New rules 'closing door' to refugees

December 22, 2004 by element115
Advocates say Canada is turning its back on asylum seekers with tough restrictions.
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French journalists released

December 22, 2004 by element115
Islamic Army in Iraq had released Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Hervé Ladsous later confirmed their release and said they would be back in France on 22 December.
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Israel to boycott Blair's peace conference

December 21, 2004 by element115
Ariel Sharon announced yesterday that Israel would not attend the Middle East conference Mr Blair plans to host in London after next month's Palestinian presidential election.
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Ten more years?

December 21, 2004 by element115
Senior MPs warn British troops will be in Iraq for a decade, as Blair in Baghdad proclaims: 'We are not a nation of quitters'
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Canada to approve UK cannabis drug

December 21, 2004 by element115
"As far as I'm aware, it's the first approval for a prescription cannabis medicine anywhere," a spokesman for the firm told Reuters on Tuesday.
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Moroccan Charged in March 11 Spain Attacks

December 21, 2004 by element115
A judge Tuesday charged a Moroccan with terrorism and mass killings for allegedly helping plan the March 11 Madrid train bombings, court officials said.
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Persian Leaders Seek Mideast Resolution

December 21, 2004 by element115
"The Supreme Council expressed hope that his excellency President George Bush, during his second tenure, considers the Middle East question as a top priority in the U.S. foreign policy, to fulfill the commitments and promises made on establishing a Palestinian state capable of living in peace and security besides the state of Israel,'' the GCC said in a communique.
The Bush administration also should work to "allow all Iraqi factions to exercise their political rights and participate in the upcoming elections,'' a reference to ongoing violence in Sunni Muslim-dominated areas of Iraq that could hamper Sunni turnout.
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N. Korea, 'only country on earth' free of AIDS

December 21, 2004 by element115
North Korea has expelled 27 foreigners it said tested positive for HIV and claimed the country remains free of AIDS.
North Korea is "the only country on the earth that has no AIDS-related patients," South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported quoting North Korea's Pyongyang Time.
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Israeli soldiers batter Palestinian child

December 21, 2004 by element115
During a family visit to his brother in Beer Sheba prison, Rasmi Jihad Oda Al-Khatib, a resident of Fawar refugee camp to the south of Al-Khalil, was severely beaten by the Israeli occupation soldiers.
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Laboratory director fired for questioning official federal Sept. 11 scenario

December 21, 2004 by element115
A former laboratory director of a division of Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in South Bend generated considerable heat in professional circles on Nov. 11 when he fired off a letter via email to a prominent metallurgist, questioning the theory that jet fuel fires set by the 9-11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center were hot enough to soften or melt structural steel.

Sending that email led to Kevin R. Ryan being fired from his job as site manager at the UL-affiliated Environmental Health Laboratories Inc., in South Bend.
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US air strike on Iraqi town kills civilians

December 21, 2004 by element115
US warplanes have launched air strikes on the Iraqi town of Hiyt, west of the capital, killing six Iraqi civilians and wounding nine others.
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Sudan accuses Israel of Darfur involvement

December 21, 2004 by element115
Sudan accused Israel Tuesday of supplying rebels with arms in the war-torn Darfur region.
State Minister Mohammed Haroun said the Sudanese government received intelligence from a friendly country about Israel's part in supplying the rebels.
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India test-fires cruise missile

December 21, 2004 by element115
The event, which was conducted on a range in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, is the first test of a land-to-land supersonic cruise missile in the country. The semi-official Press Trust of India quoted a Defense Ministry spokesman as saying the missile successfully destroyed its test target.
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Syrian legislator denied U.S. entry

December 21, 2004 by element115
A prominent member of Syria's Parliament was denied entry at an airport outside Washington, The New York Times said Monday.

The legislator, Muhammed Habash, who is also the president of the Center of Islamic Studies in Damascus and one of Syria's leading moderate Muslim thinkers, had planned to spend several days in Washington taking part in a conference on interfaith dialogue.
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Why Are You Asking Me?

December 21, 2004 by element115
The president's don't-ask, don't-tell press conference.
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America's war on itself

December 21, 2004 by element115
Bush's wrecking tactics over climate change follow an established pattern of self-destruction
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Who's really abusing the legal system?

December 21, 2004 by element115
Within the simplistic Bush administration, lawyers are villains. During last week's infomercial disguised as the president's "economic summit," handpicked participants made lawyers do a sort of public relations perp walk. Lawyers cost the economy $27 billion a year. Lawyers harm innovation. Lawyers suck the life out of small businesses.
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US suffers worst Iraq attack yet

December 21, 2004 by element115
Nineteen US soldiers have been killed in an explosion at a US military base in Mosul, making it the worst single incident for the US military in Iraq.
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Neocon Christmas List

December 21, 2004 by element115
...the leaks coming from unnamed sources close to the North Pole.
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The Myth of National Victimhood - All Wrapped and Delivered for Christmas

December 21, 2004 by element115
Conservatives must constantly attack others (and focus on "morality") to keep hidden their own true agenda, which is no less than a return to the world of Scrooge & Marley, Inc. They're working to bring about a return to Robber Baron feudalism, with a stable, rich, and powerful ruling class, and an impoverished, frightened, and politically impotent working class.
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Selling the BMD and the myth of 'rogue states'

December 21, 2004 by element115
The U.S. government has spent an estimated $130 billion on various versions of BMD since Ronald Reagan first dreamed of a perfect shield against Soviet missiles 20 years ago.
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Axing the International Criminal Court

December 21, 2004 by element115
The latest: An amendment on page 219 that prevents $2.5 billion in US foreign aid from reaching countries who have joined the International Criminal Court (ICC), but refused to specifically exempt US soldiers from the court's jurisdiction.
Jordan loses $250 million in funds for economic growth and governance reform; Northern Ireland and Cyprus lose $12 million and $13.5 million for their respective peace processes; Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela sacrifice $32.5 million to strengthen democracy and the rule of law; four Caribbean states lose $9 million designed to impede the international drug trade; South Africa--which has already forfeited $7.6 million--loses an additional $1 million destined to combat counterfeiting; eight East African democracies, including Niger--the world's poorest Muslim country--lose $11 million in counter-terrorism assistance. The list goes on.
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56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake

December 21, 2004 by element115
President Bush heads into his second term amid deep and growing public skepticism about the Iraq war, with a solid majority saying for the first time that the war was a mistake and most people believing that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should lose his job, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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FBI Claims More Arab Prisoners Abused

December 21, 2004 by element115
FBI agents are increasingly complaining about what they consider abusive physical and mental torture by military officials against prisoners held in Iraq and Cuba, including lighted cigarettes stuck in detainees' ears and Arab captives being humiliated with Israeli flags wrapped around them, according to new documents
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Israelis Compare Pullout Plan to Holocaust

December 21, 2004 by element115
Igniting a public uproar, some Jewish settlers said Tuesday they will soon start wearing orange stars on their shirts in a provocative campaign comparing the government's Gaza withdrawal plan to the Nazi Holocaust.
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Putin Makes Abrupt Reversal on Ukraine

December 21, 2004 by element115
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who openly backed Viktor Yushchenko's rival for president of the Ukraine, said in an abrupt reversal Tuesday that he could work with an administration headed by the pro-Western candidate.
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Border Patrol hails new ID system

December 21, 2004 by element115
Border Patrol agents assigned to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) identified and arrested 23,502 persons with criminal records nationwide through a new biometric integrated fingerprint system during a three-month period beginning in September.
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Disgraced by Silence

December 20, 2004 by element115
When will the president respond to the cascading allegations of prisoner abuse by the military?
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President Bush signed order to allow torture, says ACLU

December 20, 2004 by element115
A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.
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FBI E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques

December 20, 2004 by element115
Newly Obtained FBI Records Call Defense Department's Methods "Torture," Express Concerns Over "Cover-Up" That May Leave FBI "Holding the Bag" for Abuses
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Britain has become a Kafkaesque nightmare

December 20, 2004 by element115
In fact Kafka?s tale of Joseph K, a bank clerk charged with an unspecified crime, arrested and eventually executed without ever knowing the reason why, is one of the most chilling horror stories of the 20th century. But its horror lies not in the simple mocking of opaque, bureaucratic obstinacy, but in the nightmare vision of a society where morality and logic, the keystones that build civilisation, have been replaced by an authority exercising feckless whims and displaying insane, dangerous inconsistencies.
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To torture is to lose the war

December 20, 2004 by element115
We will do these terrible things to demonstrate that nothing will stop us from conquering our enemies. We are indifferent to world opinion! We will stop at nothing! In that respect, it is like the attack on Fallujah last month, which was fundamentally a symbolic operation.
Its real purpose was to deliver a message to all of Iraq that this is what the US can do to you if you continue the resistance. It was shock and awe. The US obsession with this is a result of its misunderstanding of the war it is fighting, which is political and not military. It is dealing with politically-motivated revolutionaries
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Myth of a Divided America

December 20, 2004 by element115
Video ---> See what America really thinks when allowed to speak without censorship.
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Dear Santa Bush

December 20, 2004 by element115
...wish list for next year
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US troops gun down schoolgirl defending her honor

December 20, 2004 by element115
Eyewitnesses told the correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam that at 5:45am Sunday morning American troops stormed into Bushra?s home looking for her brother whom the US accuses of being a member of the Resistance. The brother was not home, but as American troops ransacked their living quarters, Bushra noticed one of the soldiers staring at her and smiling.
Bushra?s mother said the girl shuddered as she was convulsed with fear. The Americans intended to take her with them as a prisoner. Panicked, she ran out into the street where one of the soldiers shot and killed her.
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Protesters fear lack of access to inaugural parade

December 20, 2004 by element115
angry officials from the coalition argued yesterday that permitting the inaugural committee to build bleachers in several open spaces, such as Freedom Plaza, across from the White House, and in front of the FBI headquarters and Justice Department, prohibits the coalition from gathering in such areas to stage their large demonstrations.
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Donald the Reptile Rumsfeld

December 20, 2004 by element115
A war zone is a great filter for the truth and when the United States of America says it is sending in camera crews with the troops to record what is happening, after all the hype and spin and lies, the suspicions arise that there is in fact a cover-up going on, a massive cover-up, especially when one confronts the official version of events with the information circulating on the Internet.
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UK secretly backs removal of nuclear chief

December 20, 2004 by element115
The British government, while publicly supporting the efforts of Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, is secretly backing US plans to remove him.
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Beastly Behavior

December 20, 2004 by element115
It was a largely secret operation, its true intentions masked by pious rhetoric and bogus warnings of imminent danger to the American way of life. Having gained the dazed complicity of a somnolent Congress, U.S. President George W. Bush calmly signed a death warrant for thousands upon thousands of innocent victims: a native population whose land and resources were coveted by a small group of powerful elites seeking to augment their already vast dominance by any means necessary, including mass slaughter.
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Other lawyers 'may quit over anti-terror laws'

December 20, 2004 by element115
More government-appointed lawyers involved in monitoring the cases of terror detainees may resign, after a leading QC quit in disgust at Britain's anti-terror laws, a civil rights group has warned.
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Ukrainian Rivals Face Off in TV Debate

December 20, 2004 by element115
Ukraine's two presidential candidates faced off Monday in a televised debate less than a week before a rerun of their disputed election, with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko accusing his rival of trying to steal the Nov. 21 runoff vote.
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Sharper minds

December 20, 2004 by element115
"It's not a question of 'if' anymore. It's just a matter of time," said geneticist Tim Tully, a researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., and developer of a compound called HT-0712, which has shown promise as a memory enhancer.
Some scientists predict that the development of even more-effective brain-enhancing drugs will usher in an age of "cosmetic neurology."
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Despite urging, Canadians shun flu shots

December 20, 2004 by element115
"Most people have not taken the shot and aren't planning on taking the shot," Bruce Anderson, chief executive officer of Decima Inc., said in a telephone interview from Ottawa yesterday.
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Russia 'not free'

December 20, 2004 by element115
A U.S.-based organization that tracks the progress of political rights and civil liberties across the world said Monday that Russia had fallen to the status of ?not free? ? far behind the democratic nations that Moscow sees as its peers.
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Government hiding behind security, Arar probe says

December 20, 2004 by element115
The lead lawyer for the public inquiry examining the deportation of Maher Arar suggested Monday that the government is using national security as an excuse to stop the release of embarrassing information.
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Mystery shrouds auction of Yukos unit

December 20, 2004 by element115
Russia has witnessed the bizarre auction of Yuganskneftegaz, the most profitable production unit of beleaguered Yukos, in which a faceless company walked away with its majority stake. It will be a while before it's clear just who was backing the mystery bidder - China, India or the Russian government itself.
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A monetary coup d'etat

December 20, 2004 by element115
The nature of money has been a controversial issue since the founding of the United States. The founding fathers recognized that the people's power to issue money was fundamental to the functioning of democracy, while the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton advocated the need of a national bank controlled by the moneyed elite to support the development of the newborn nation's economy. Unlike Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to create a new, revolutionary democratic nation, Hamilton wanted to build a powerful new nation that would rival Britain, its former oppressor. Hamilton turned the American Revolution from a struggle to form a new democratic society as envisaged by Jefferson toward an oligarchic secession from Britain. Yet Hamilton's national bank was partially state-owned, quite unlike the Federal Reserve System, which is wholly owned by private banks that have usurped the people's sovereign power to create money.
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Saddam claims election is US plot

December 20, 2004 by element115
Ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has urged his compatriots to unite against the US occupation and warned that upcoming elections were designed to divide the nation.

Saddam's Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Duleimi met Saddam for more than four hours in his prison cell last week, the first meeting the former dictator has had with legal counsel since he was captured a year ago.
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A Republican hero, but was Abe Lincoln gay?

December 20, 2004 by element115
t is news guaranteed to make many Republicans squirm. Was Abraham Lincoln, founder of the party now seeking a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in America, actually gay himself?

A new book, published next month, certainly thinks so. "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln" by C.A. Tripp produces evidence that one of America's greatest Presidents had a long-term relationship with a youthful friend, Joshua Speed, and shared his bed with David Derickson, captain of his bodyguards.
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Bush expresses confidence in Rumsfeld

December 20, 2004 by element115
US President George W. Bush expressed on Monday confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has been under increasing criticism for his handlingof Iraq from lawmakers.
"I believe he's doing a really fine job," Bush said at a news conference.
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