Civil liberties organisations expressed outrage yesterday after it was reported that the database of terrorist suspects kept by the US authorities now holds 325,000 names, a fourfold increase in two and a half years.The list, maintained by the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC), includes different spellings of the same person's names as well as aliases, but the Washington Post quoted NCTC officials as saying that at least 200,000 individuals are on it. They said that "only a very, very small fraction" of that number were US citizens, but that insistence did little to defuse the reaction. Timothy Sparapani, an expert on privacy rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU's response was one of incredulity, and alarm that many people are likely to be on the list by mistake, with serious impact on their lives and few, if any, means of getting themselves off it. "The numbers continue to grow by leaps and bounds," Mr Sparapani said. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk
censor News |
Editor - 19:53:00 02-15-06
|
 Germany confirms bird flu cases |
Germany has confirmed that two swans found dead in the north of the country had the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. The birds were found on the island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea, off Germany. Austria has also confirmed its first cases of bird flu, in two dead swans. Sweden and Denmark have ordered poultry to be kept indoors as a precaution. The United Nations food agency has urged governments in Western Europe not to panic, but warned the virus could spread further when birds migrate. The H5N1 strain of the virus, which can kill humans through contact with infected animals, has recently been found in Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. A spokeswoman for the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told the BBC News website it was probable the birds had shifted further westwards than normal in search for food following particularly cold weather in countries like Ukraine. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4714574.stm
full News |
Editor - 13:31:00 02-15-06
|
| Moscow's Mideast Challenge to America |
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia seemed to cede much of its influence in the Middle East to the United States. No longer. Now, Moscow appears eager to present itself as a counterbalance to Washington in the region -- with major geopolitical consequences. News from the Middle East can be confusing. And that has been especially true recently. One day, we read that Iran is halting all talks concerning its controversial nuclear program. The next day, the Iranians have changed their mind. One week we read that Hamas has won democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority. The next week, the US, Europe and Israel are refusing to speak with the terrorist group.But their has been one constant: Russia. And Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt to increase his country's influence in the Middle East....
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,401078,00.html
full News |
Editor - 13:03:00 02-15-06
|
| Army Accepting More Recruits With Criminal, Drug Histories |
Struggling to boost it ranks in wartime, the Army has sharply increased the number of recruits who would normally be barred because of criminal misconduct or alcohol and illegal drug problems, again raising concerns that the Army is lowering its standards to make recruiting goals. Last year, almost 1 in 6 Army recruits had a problem in their background that would have disqualified them from military service. In order to accept them, the Army granted special exceptions, known as recruiting waivers. Recruits with medical problems made up the largest category of those given waivers. But the largest increase was among recruits with a history of either criminal conduct or drug and alcohol problems, according to data provided by the Army. In all, the Army granted waivers to 11,018 recruits in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2005, or 15% of those accepted into the service that year. Those figures are up from 2004, when 9,300 waivers were granted, or 12% of those joining the Army....
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fuj/latimes2.htm
full News |
Editor - 12:21:00 02-15-06
|
| US 'let slip 9/11 hijacker 13 times' |
A secret Pentagon unit had Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 ringleader, in its crosshairs 13 times before the 2001 attacks, a US congressman has claimed citing the unit's records.Curt Weldon, a Republican representative, said on Tuesday data produced by the US military intelligence unit code-named Able Danger showed Atta's name 13 times.The unit used data mining to investigate the al-Qaida network.Weldon said: "Thirteen times we have hits in the data that's still available, that we were told was destroyed."Weldon cited recent analyses of data gathered by Able Danger before the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington."They knew he was up to no good and that he was planning something."...
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D41E328A-DCF7-4227-96F1-DF888EE39601.htm
full News |
Editor - 12:12:00 02-15-06
|
| Tiny island that's ready to stop Europe in its tracks |
In the decade since they voted to join the European Union the islanders of the Aland archipelago in the Baltic Sea have been outvoted and overruled by Brussels, time and again. Now Aland, a unique, autonomous region of Finland, is about to teach Brussels a lesson in democracy it may never forget. Thanks to a quirk of early 20th-century history, Aland's 26,000 people are essentially sovereign co-rulers of their home nation of Finland. As such, they can veto any international treaty that Finland wants to enter, including EU treaties. And the islanders are threatening to do just that when the European Commission attempts to revive the moribund EU constitution later this year. But last week the archipelago's head of EU affairs, Britt Lundberg, travelled to Brussels - a day-long trek - to deliver a warning that dismally low public opinion on Europe could mean Alanders prevent Finland from ratifying the constitution....
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/15/waland15.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/15/ixnewstop.html
full News |
Editor - 11:55:00 02-15-06
|
|
| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
|
|
