News of the alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi woman by US soldiers and the killing of her family "reveals the real, ugly face of America," Iraq's main organization of Sunni Muslim clerics said on Sunday. The Muslim Scholars Association, a fierce critic of the US occupation, was a rare voice raised in anger, however, with few Iraqi media willing to broach the taboo topic of rape since US commanders revealed their investigation on Friday. "(We) condemn this grotesque crime and say to the entire world it reveals the real ugly face of America," the Association said in a statement on its Web site. "This act committed by the occupying soldiers, from raping the girl to mutilating her body and killing her family, should make all humanity feel ashamed." Coming after announcements of US investigations into other suspected murders and killings, including that of 24 people in the western town of Haditha, the added element of rape may cause particular outrage in Iraq's conservative Muslim society...
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 14:52:00 07-02-06
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 Woman Fights For Breast-Feeding Rights Wis. Mother Protests Victoria's Secret For Asking Her To Nurse In Restroom |
woman offended when Victoria's Secret staff gave her only the option of an employee restroom in which to nurse her baby organized a nursing protest in front of the store. About 20 women and children came out in support of Rebecca Cook in front of the Victoria's Secret store at the Regency Mall in Racine on Saturday. Cook said she was shopping at the store with a friend last week when she asked to use a dressing room where she could nurse her daughter. When she was told no room was available, she offered to sit in the rear of the dressing room hallway but was told that was unacceptable, she said. "They opened up their employee restroom, which is disgusting," she said. "I said, `No, I don't eat in the bathroom and my daughter doesn't eat in the bathroom."' ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/02/national/main1773867.shtml?source=RSS&attr=U.S._1773867
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Editor - 14:46:00 07-02-06
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| Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm |
Even though Donald R. Matthews put his sprawling new residence in the heart of rice country, he is no farmer. He is a 67-year-old asphalt contractor who wanted to build a dream house for his wife of 40 years. Yet under a federal agriculture program approved by Congress, his 18-acre suburban lot receives about $1,300 in annual "direct payments," because years ago the land was used to grow rice. Matthews is not alone. Nationwide, the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice & other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Wash Post. Some of them collect hundreds of thousands of dollars without planting a seed. Mary Anna Hudson, 87, from the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston, has received $191,000 over the past decade. For Houston surgeon Jimmy Frank Howell, the total was $490,709. "I don't agree with the government's policy," said Matthews, who wanted to give the money back but was told...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/AR2006070100962.html
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Editor - 14:28:00 07-02-06
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| Congo's jungle terrorists disband |
One of Africa's most-feared militias has crumbled and now faces the wrath of the population it terrorised. The mayi-mayi, warrior-mystics who have ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo for 10 years, are surrendering in droves. Exhausted and hungry, in recent weeks entire units have emerged from the jungles of one of their last redoubts, Katanga province, to lay down weapons and plead forgiveness. For hunters who used spears and arrows as well as guns to slaughter thousands, it is now their turn to be hunted. There is pressure for the leaders to be tried for war crimes and a backlash against the soldiers and their families. Other armed groups still prowl volatile eastern provinces, but the end of the mayi-mayi in Katanga is a significant boost to stability and should open the countryside to aid agencies tackling one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. 'One can no longer speak of the mayi-mayi as a political force. Their influence and visibility have greatly diminished,'...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1810725,00.html
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Editor - 14:13:00 07-02-06
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| At Guantanamo, Dying Is Not Permitted |
The prisoners at Guantanamo won a major victory this week when the Supreme Court struck down the Bush admin planned military tribunals. But for many prisoners at the detention facility, the protests haven't stopped. Hunger strikes persist, in what Guantanamo commander Rear Adm. Harry Harris, Jr. has called "asymmetric warfare" a means to attract attention to their increasingly controversial detention. As a result, the camp's administrators have sought to keep prisoners alive at all cost because a prisoner's death (as the US found out 3 weeks ago, when 3 Gitmo inmates committed suicide) can be a major embarrassment for the US & add fuel to widespread demands for the facility to be shut down. Civil-liberties advocates point out that Guantanamo's 460 inmates have few other means to make their voices heard, given that most have been detained for more than 4 years without even being charged with a crime. Indeed, though the US has condemned the hunger strikers at Gitmo, just last year the White House hailed a hunger-striking Iranian dissident for showing "that he is willing to die for his right to express his opinion." ...
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1209530,00.html
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Editor - 13:46:00 07-02-06
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| Government set to discuss provision of electricity to Gaza. United States officials said Saturday that U.S. funds would be used to pay for the damage caused by the strike |
In the wake of international pressure, the government was to vote Sunday on a plan to supply electricity from Israel to the Gaza Strip, in order to resume the power supply, which was halted following an Israel Air Force strike on a major Palestinian power station there. If approved, the Israel Electric Corporation will erect special electrical lines stretching from Israel into Gaza. Government sources said that Israel had been forced to provide power to Gaza through the Electric Corporation due to American and British pressure. Nevertheless, the move requires special government approval so that work can begin immediately. The Gaza Strip requires 200 megawatts of electricity, half of which is provided by the power station, and half which is supplied by the Israel Electric Corporation. After the IAF strike, the power station's capacity was cut by half. United States officials said Saturday that U.S. funds would be used to pay for the damage caused by the strike. ...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733394.html
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Editor - 13:23:00 07-02-06
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