The FBI has been covertly monitoring mosques and Muslim homes and businesses in U.S. cities for abnormal radiation levels since 2002, several government officials confirmed Friday.One government official said the authorities don't obtain warrants because the testing is conducted from outside the buildings on what they consider public property. An official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that none of the FBI's programs target gathering places of any specific segment of the population and that non-Muslim sites were also monitored for radiation.A Muslim advocacy group has said that the program is "misguided" and targets "the wrong people.""It is a waste of time, it is a waste of resources and it is causing us to be concerned about our citizenship, our constitutional rights," Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told CNN....
http://www.cnn.com
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Editor - 19:28:00 12-23-05
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 Russian lawmakers pave way for strict curbs on activists |
Russian lawmakers opened the way Friday for a law to control activist groups and other non-governmental organizations, a measure that opponents say threatens the survival of human rights workers and others considered disloyal by the Kremlin. The State Duma, parliament's lower house, voted 357-20 to pass the bill on the third of three required readings. The upper house is expected to approve the legislation early next week before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law. Putin ordered lawmakers to water down the measure after strong protests from Russian and foreign NGOs as well as from Western governments. The changes included dropping a requirement for foreign groups to re-register their Russia branches as local entities, which will be subject to stricter controls. But the country's leading human rights body, Memorial, and other groups warned that the bill remained draconian and could force them to close. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-12-23-russia-activists_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 18:36:00 12-23-05
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| One Year Later, Slow Progress in Tsunami Recovery Scale of Disaster Means Many Still Are Without Homes |
It tore through Aceh, Indonesia, with the force of an atomic bomb, obliterated hundreds of coastal villages in Sri Lanka and India, and smashed through luxury hotels in the beach resorts of Thailand. The amount of death and destruction was almost unimaginable, and it spawned an unprecedented outpouring of humanitarian aid and record donations for relief and reconstruction. But one year later, recovery in the Southeast Asia tsunami zone has fallen far short of expectations. A frustrated Umi Kaosum — who lost family, friends, her home, her entire village in Aceh — knows about all the money that was donated. So why doesn't she have a home yet? ...
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Tsunami/story?id=1437670&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
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Editor - 17:45:00 12-23-05
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| Azerbaijani plane crashes, 23 aboard believed killed |
An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane with 23 people aboard crashed on the Caspian Sea coast and all aboard were believed killed, a police official said early Saturday. The police duty officer in the Sabunchi region north of the capital, Baku, said the wreckage was found along the shore. He declined to give his name because he was not authorized to act as a spokesman. The plane was identified as an An-140, a twin-engine turboprop. It did not hit near any buildings, an official from the Baku transport police was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-12-23-azerbaijan-plane-crash_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 17:30:00 12-23-05
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| Bin Laden niece poses for sexy photo shoot |
Her uncle may be the world's most elusive fugitive, but Osama bin Laden's niece is about as conspicuous as she can be in a sexy photo shoot in the January edition of the men's fashion magazine GQ. Wafah Dufour is an aspiring New York-based musician who told the magazine that her family ties to the al Qaeda leader suspected of masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks have prompted death threats and sent her into a bout of depression.As part of an effort to distance herself from her massive Saudi family, Dufour appears in a sultry GQ photo spread, reclining on satin sheets wrapped in feathers in one picture and posing in a bubble bath wearing nothing but jewelry in a second."I was born in the States and I want people to know I'm American, and I want people here to understand that I'm like anyone in New York. For me, it's home," said Dufour, who took her mother's name after the suicide hijacking attacks that destroyed Manhattan's World Trade Center....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051223/ts_nm/binladen_dc
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Editor - 17:29:00 12-23-05
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| Developers Squeeze Out Mobile Homes |
Wading nearly knee-deep in the mattresses, sooted clothing and discarded tires dumped outside his trailer, Rubin Reams wants visitors to know he hasn't always lived this way. The 51-year-old poker dealer never had much of a financial cushion. But he worked full time and steadily, and owned a 40-foot double tip-out trailer he happily called home. Then the mobile home park he lived in was sold to a developer, and the rug like the land was pulled out from under him. "I've always been able to survive. But sometimes I can't believe I got into this spot," he said, surveying his departed neighbors' abandoned belongings. "I feel like I've been slowly backed into a corner." Reams is caught in a trend sweeping real estate markets where land prices and development are booming. Park owners are increasingly selling out for massive profits to developers who covet the land for posh condominiums, strip malls and office parks. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1437098
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Editor - 10:05:00 12-23-05
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