POLICE and councils are considering monitoring conversations in the street using high-powered microphones attached to CCTV cameras, write Steven Swinford and Nicola Smith. The microphones can detect conversations 100 yards away and record aggressive exchanges before they become violent. The devices are used at 300 sites in Holland and police, councils and transport officials in London have shown an interest in installing them before the 2012 Olympics.The interest in the equipment comes amid growing concern that Britain is becoming a “surveillance society”. It was recently highlighted that there are more than 4.2m CCTV cameras, with the average person being filmed more than 300 times a day. The addition of microphones would take surveillance into uncharted territory....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
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Editor - 10:09:00 11-26-06
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 Britain told: do peace deal with Taliban |
“Bring 50,000 more troops & fight for 10 to 15 years more & you won’t resolve it. The British with their history in Afghanistan should have known that better than anyone else.” “The Americans say they can see even a goat on a hillside with their electronic surveillance, so why don’t they tell us where crossings are taking place & we will plug those gaps & kill those people? “Either they Nato are trying to hide their own weaknesses by levelling allegations at Pakistan or they are refusing to admit the facts.” “Why did the coalition come to Afghanistan? To find Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, Mullah Omar & the Taliban; for democracy, reconstruction & development, & to leave a stable Afghanistan which wouldn’t be vulnerable to terrorists. “All very noble, but tell me which one of those objectives have been achieved? I went to Kabul in Sept & they are all living in a big bunker with no control over Afghanistan. There’s no law & order. The insurgency has become far worse . . is that a success?”...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2471865,00.html
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Editor - 09:48:00 11-26-06
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| Nicaragua's green lobby is leaving rainforest people 'utterly destitute' |
For centuries the Miskito people have defended their Central American rainforest kingdom. They rebuffed invading of the Spanish settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries with the help of British muskets, from which they derived their name, and remained autonomous even when nominally absorbed into the newly formed state of Nicaragua in 1894. During the 1980s civil war, the Sandinista government accused the Miskitos of siding with Contra rebels, using that as a pretext to herd tens of thousands of the indigenous people into camps and destroy their villages. Those who survived rebuilt their communities after the war. Now this unique community, a mix of indigenous inhabitants and African slave descendants, are facing a new threat: environmentalism. A logging ban introduced earlier this year is devastating the economy and fraying the social fabric of remote communities that relied almost exclusively on forestry to survive. ...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1957220,00.html
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Editor - 08:45:00 11-26-06
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| Top China Aids critic 'is seized' Outspoken health campaigner vanishes after police question him ahead of a key meeting |
A leading Aids campaigner in China has vanished, feared detained by police, after the authorities ordered him to cancel a conference that was to have looked at the state's responsibility for infections and blood safety.Wan Yanhai, head of the Aizhi advocacy group, appears to be the third prominent activist to have been targeted in a crackdown ahead of World Aids Day on Friday that raises questions about the government's commitment to be more open about its handling of the epidemic. Aizhi said in a statement that four public security officers questioned Wan on Friday at the group's offices and ordered him to halt the symposium. He has not been heard from since.Police refused to comment, but Wan has long been under surveillance by the authorities, which treat non-governmental organisations with deep suspicion....
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1957262,00.html
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Editor - 08:37:00 11-26-06
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| Opposition rallies in Venezuela |
The opposition candidate in Venezuela's presidential elections has held a huge rally in the capital, Caracas, a week before the vote. Several hundred thousand turned out to show support for Social Democrat Manuel Rosales, currently governor of oil-rich state of Zulia. However President Hugo Chavez is widely predicted to be heading for victory and a third term in office. On Sunday, his supporters plan to hold their own rally in Caracas. The BBC's Greg Morsbach in Caracas says that Mr Rosales has been gaining in popularity. Addressing the crowds, the challenger predicted that "the real survey, not the ones that have been bought, show that within a few days Venezuela will have a new president". ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6184844.stm
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Editor - 08:35:00 11-26-06
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| Calls for calm as crowd stones Iraqi PM |
Angry fellow Shi'ites stoned Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's motorcade in a Shi'ite stronghold of Baghdad on Sunday in a display of fury over a devastating car bomb that tore through their area.Maliki was visiting the Sadr City slum to pay respects to some of the 202 victims of last week's devastating bombing. "It's all your fault!" one man shouted as, in unprecedented scenes, a hostile crowd began to surge around the premier and then jeered as his armored convoy edged through the throng away from a mourning ceremony. The area is a base for the Mehdi Army militia led by Maliki's fellow Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2679953
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Editor - 08:31:00 11-26-06
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