Two British special forces marines were killed yesterday after an attack on a night-time patrol in southern Afghanistan. The deaths came after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the patrol in the Sangin Valley, part of Helmand province.The killings were the first to claim the lives of special forces personnel since 2003, when Cpl Ian Plank died in Iraq.They occurred in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan, where Western forces are engaged in vicious fighting with a resurgent Taliban.The deaths came during a firefight in which British troops had to call up artillery, Apache helicopter gunships and Harrier aircraft in support. Air strikes during the battle are said to have led to the deaths of 12 Taliban fighters. The rapidly worsening security situation in Afghanistan led yesterday to the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, announcing she would make an urgent visit to Kabul ...
http://news.independent.co.uk
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Editor - 12:37:00 06-28-06
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 US Marine exonerated for song about killing Iraqis |
The U.S. military will not punish a Marine who performed an obscenity-laced song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis, the Marine Corps said on Tuesday.The Marines two weeks ago launched a preliminary inquiry into whether Cpl. Joshua Belile, who returned home from Iraq in March, violated military law or rules in singing the song, a four-minute video of which was posted on the Internet.In the song, titled "hadji girl," Belile sang to fellow troops at a base in Iraq about encountering an Iraqi woman and her family."I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally," he sang. Laughing, clapping and cheers can be heard in the background....
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27397428.htm
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Editor - 12:33:00 06-28-06
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| Out of left field - and into the Bush backyard |
Andrés Manuel López Obrador rails against "the privileged" in a staccato voice which softens as he turns to the virtues of "the poor" and a cheeky grin accompanies the thumbs up to go with his slogan: "Smile, we are going to win." Depending on who you talk to, the presidential candidate, who holds a narrow lead in the opinion polls ahead of Sun Mexican elections, is the great hope of the downtrodden, a messianic danger to stability or a crafty pragmatist. This son of a shopkeeper from the marshy backwaters of south-eastern Mexico is striking a chord and inciting discord in a country where half the population is poor and the richest 10% own 45% of the wealth. As the election approaches, opinion polls give the candidate of the Party of Democratic Revolution a slight lead over Felipe Calderón of the governing centre-right National Action party. If Mr López Obrador wins, Latin America's much talked about leftward march through Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile will ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1807355,00.html
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Editor - 12:22:00 06-28-06
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| Awkward Moments Abound in Penis Pump Trial |
Serving on the jury in an indecent-exposure trial unfolding in this conservative Oklahoma town has been a giggle-inducing experience. Former Judge Donald D. Thompson, a veteran of 23 years on the bench, is on trial on charges he used a penis pump on himself in the courtroom while sitting in judgment of others. Over the past few days, the jurors have watched a defense attorney and a prosecutor pantomime masturbation. A doctor has lectured on the lengths the defendant was willing to go to enhance his sexual performance. The white-handled sexual device sits before the jury box for hours at a time. Occasionally an attorney picks it up and squeezes the handle, demonstrating the ``sh-sh'' sound of air rushing through the contraption's plastic tubing. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5917606,00.html
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Editor - 12:17:00 06-28-06
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| Justices Back Pa. on Prison Newspapers |
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Pennsylvania officials did not violate the free-speech rights of troublesome inmates by keeping secular newspapers and magazines away from them. Justices, by a 6-2 vote, said the state could use newspapers as incentives to get inmates in a high-security unit to behave themselves. But Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that Pennsylvania's win could be short-lived, depending on whether there is another constitutional challenge to the high-security unit's rules. The case began in October 2001 when Ronald Banks filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of himself and other inmates in the disciplinary unit, then located in Pittsburgh, after prison officials barred him from receiving The Christian Science Monitor, ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5917265,00.html
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Editor - 11:57:00 06-28-06
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| Ohio changing lethal injection process |
The state will change its lethal injection process to help prevent problems like last month's struggle to find a vein in a condemned man's arm, leading the man to ask that officials find another way to kill him, according to a report issued Wednesday. Execution teams will make every effort to find 2 injection sites and will use a new method to make sure the veins stay open once entryways are inserted. The review was prompted by the execution of Joseph Clark that was delayed about 90 minutes when staff had problems finding a viable vein and one vein they did use collapsed. The execution drew criticism from death penalty opponents who said the problems illustrated why the method of capital punishment is cruel, and it came amid a growing national debate over lethal injection. Clark, 57, who killed a gas station attendant during a robbery, continued to move during the initial injection attempt and then finally pushed himself up and said, "It don't work."...
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/14921792.htm
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Editor - 11:46:00 06-28-06
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