NORTHUMBRIA Police is one of Britain’s biggest and busiest forces. It employs more than 4,000 officers and has a budget of around £320 million a year. Of that, more than £1 million is spent on its PR department. However, as a freelance journalist based in Northumberland, I am frequently amazed at how peaceful the area is – or at least if you believe the force’s press office. Despite the force ...

Progress Report | "Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation methods for high-level al Qaeda prisoners constituted torture," according to a new book by investigative reporter Jane Mayer. The report found that the Bush administration "may have committed 'grave breaches' of the Geneva Conventions" and that the officials who approved the methods could be "guilty of war crimes." The report, ...

By John Pilger | The military has created a wall of silence around its frequent resort to barbaric practices, including torture, and goes out of its way to avoid legal scrutiny Five photographs together break a silence. The first is of a former Gurkha regimental sergeant major, Tul Bahadur Pun, aged 87. He sits in a wheelchair outside 10 Downing Street. He holds a board full of medals, including ...

Iran Focus | Iran’s judiciary has arrested several executives of a privately-owned oil drilling company over their dealings with the U.S.-based oil giant Halliburton and one of the country’s top nuclear negotiators is facing charges of involvement in an oil scam, a semi-official news agency reported. Fars News Agency said Mehrdad Safdari, chairman of the Board of Directors of Oriental Oil Kish, and several of his collegues are being ...

This September Loughborough University hosts the Anarchist Studies Network conference.  Joining in the debates and discussions, to be held between Thursday 4th and Saturday 6th September, will be 9/11 Cultwatch's Larry O'Hara and Paul Stott. Source For more information visit http://www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/ # Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America, a worldwide movement has developed. Its activists run thousands of websites, have produced hundreds of books, DVDs and articles, and attend ...

By Stephen Lendman - RINF | Pro-business Supreme Court rulings are nothing new, and it's likely most damaging one ever occurred in 1886. In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railway, the High Court granted corporations legal personhood. Ever since, they've had the same rights as people but not the responsibilities. Their limited liability status exempts them. They've profited hugely as a result and have continued to win favorable rulings ...

By Andy Rowell and Michael Gillard | A spin doctor behind David Davis and his much-vaunted “freedom” campaign against creeping state surveillance is an influential figure in the worldwide promotion of identity cards. Kevin Bell is vice-president of Fleishman-Hillard, a global public relations firm representing security companies that have introduced ID cards in the United States and Spain. Opposition to the Government’s move to introduce a British ID card is a ...

PT | Representatives of the UK’s aviation workers say they are being used as political pawns to further the UK government's controversial ID cards programme.   The British Air Transport Association (BATA) says aviation workers are being used as guinea pigs for the scheme. ID cards for airside workers, those who work beyond airport security checks, will become compulsory in 2009. Roger ...

Kuala Lumpur | President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that the governments and nations should urge the US and Britain to annihilate their nuclear weapons. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the D8 summit in Malaysia, he said "Iran never yields to any illegal and unjust word, no matter it comes from group 5+1, 10+10 or 2+2. We call for dialogue and never makes demand beyond our legitimate rights." The fact ...

A month before the opening of the Olympics Amnesty International has today sent an open letter to Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China, urging him to deliver on the promises made to improve the country's human rights. "If China can mobilise thousands of people to clean up algae on their beaches in time for the Olympics, surely it can also clean up its human rights record to provide ...

Amnesty International today released a report revealing the dire human rights and humanitarian crisis facing the people of Somalia. The report contains first-hand testimony from scores of traumatised survivors of the conflict, exposing the violations and abuses they have suffered at the hands of a complex mix of perpetrators which include Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops, Ethiopian troops, and various armed groups. Amnesty International's Africa Deputy Programme ...

Saudi Arabia should implement labor, immigration, and criminal justice reforms to protect domestic workers from serious human rights abuses that in some cases amount to slavery, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released Tuesday. Employers often face no punishment for committing abuses including months or years of unpaid wages, forced confinement, and physical and sexual violence, while some domestic workers face imprisonment or lashings ...

By Sherwood Ross | One issue the American people likely are not going to hear about in this presidential campaign is how to stop the millitary-industrial complex(MIC) from destroying this country, from bankrupting it morally and financially. No matter that each passing day brings some new revelation of gross Pentagon mismanagement and waste, of treaty violation or crimes against humanity, it is a topic no candidate for the White House dares ...

SchNews | In the run up to the annual meet and greet by world leaders (and ensuing mass insurrection on the other side of the police lines) at the G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, it’s time we took another look at the Group of Eight (the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Japan and Russia). The G8 has been top of activists’ hit lists since the '90s ...

By Danielle Demetriou | Dreadlocks flailing in the wind, the man emitted a fierce cry as he ran down the quiet country lane towards me, brandishing a bamboo stick in each hand. Normally, I would turn and flee. But we were both playing roles in a training exercise for demonstrators preparing for Monday's G8 summit in Hokkaido in northern Japan, and my own face was covered by a menacing revolutionary scarf. Thousands of ...