 A Swiss investigator probing claims of secret CIA prisons in Europe said his committee has evidence that supports allegations that prisoners were transferred between countries and temporarily held "without any judicial involvement.""Legal proceedings in progress in certain countries seemed to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for any legal standards," lawmaker Dick Marty said in a written report summarizing his investigations so far.Marty told a news conference he believed the United States was no longer holding prisoners clandestinely in Europe and believes they were moved to North Africa in early November, when reports about secret U.S. prisons first emerged in The Washington Post. He did not provide any other details....
http://www.cnn.com
censor News |
Editor - 08:30:00 12-13-05
|
 Supreme Court agrees to reconsider gerrymandering |
The Supreme Court is injecting itself into the question of how much politics is acceptable in drawing legislative boundaries, revisiting a subject that has divided current court members. The outcome of the new case, involving a hotly contested congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, could be affected by the court's turnover, which is still in progress. The justices said yesterday that they would review challenges filed by Democrats and minority groups. The announcement came as a surprise. Texas had declined to present any arguments to the court, and it took the justices an unusual six weeks of private discussions to decide what to do with the case. In addition, lawyers have been told that the appeal is being put on a fast track, meaning candidates for Texas congressional seats in 2006 will be campaigning as the court deals with the issue. The Supreme Court is already looking at two campaign finance cases. That guarantees that 2006 will reveal ...
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051212-110501-3238r.htm
full News |
Editor - 23:02:00 12-12-05
|
| Deadlocked WTO shifts focus to poorest nations |
Bitterly divided over cutting subsidies and import tariffs, ministers from around the world shifted their focus on Tuesday to delivering trade aid to poor nations as they gathered for a week of talks in Hong Kong. There was no sign that the talks would break a deadlock in negotiations for a global free trade pact, and anti-globalisation protesters turned out in force hoping that they would fail.Thousands were due to march through the heavily policed streets of the former British colony, which ironically owes much of its prosperity to international commerce.More than 1,000 South Korean protesters converged in Hong Kong island's Victoria Park holding banners that decried the World Trade Organization (WTO) and carrying a mock coffin to signify the death of the Geneva-based trade body....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051213/ts_nm/trade_wto_dc
full News |
Editor - 22:47:00 12-12-05
|
| War's trauma wears on the children left behind |
A squirming audience of pigtails and freckles strains to watch puppets wearing goofy expressions at Bill Hefner Elementary School. At any other school, this might be a holiday pageant or a Thanksgiving play. But not here, in the shadow of the Army's Fort Bragg, during a war that keeps whisking away the moms and the dads of these kids for what seems like forever.The puppet show, wishfully titled Nothing to Worry About, is an Army-sponsored program intended to make children of soldiers more resilient by gently reassuring them that their absent parents still love and remember them.Moderator Breta Sandifer reminds the 60 kids that other children share their fears and that talking about them is good. "It's absolutely OK just to cry," she says....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-12-war-kids-cover_x.htm?csp=34
full News |
Editor - 22:42:00 12-12-05
|
| Two Powerful Earthquakes Strike Under Sea Near Fiji; Officials Issue Tsunami Alert |
Two powerful undersea earthquakes struck within seconds near Fiji on Tuesday, and officials issued a tsunami alert for the local area. No damage or injuries were immediately reported. The first quake, with a magnitude of 6.3, occurred at 3:16 p.m. about 150 miles northeast of Vanua Levu, the main tourist spot in Fiji's chain of islands, at a depth of 18 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Seconds later, a magnitude 6.8 aftershock struck nearby, about 470 miles west of Apia, the capital of neighboring Samoa, the survey said. The second quake was much deeper, at 102 miles beneath the ocean floor....
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1399939
full News |
Editor - 22:36:00 12-12-05
|
| Cellphone rulings could mean billions in tax refunds |
Phone customers are due $9 billion in tax refunds and a 3% cut in wireless phone and long-distance bills, according to a series of federal court decisions. But the federal government continues to collect the tax and requires so much paperwork for refunds that only big corporations are likely to benefit. On Friday, a court in Washington, D.C., became the third federal appeals court since May to void the tax. Two other federal appeals courts, covering seven states, have ruled the tax unlawful, and cases are pending elsewhere in the nation's 13 appeals courts. In all, nine federal courts have ruled that a 3% federal tax doesn't apply to phone calls that are priced only by how long a person talks — not by how far the call travels. That means cellular phones, Internet phone service and about one-third of long distance calls would be exempt from the tax. The wireless industry estimates that consumers would save about $4.5 billion a year. Taxpayers also would...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-12-cellphone-bills_x.htm?csp=34
full News |
Editor - 22:32:00 12-12-05
|
|
| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
|
|
