Door Sadie Robinson | Een enorme economische crisis grijpt de wereld. In het Globale Zuiden worden miljoenen mensen verminderd op niveaus nauwelijks boven verhongering, aangezien het toenemen voedsel en brandstof de prijzen helpen achterjaren langzame verbeteringen aan gezondheid drijven. In Kambodja, rapporteert het Irin nieuwsagentschap dat de landbouwers tractoren en ander landbouwbedrijfmateriaal verlaten omdat zij zich benzine kunnen niet meer veroorloven. Dit is beurtelings…

Door Ramesh Jaura | Terwijl de belangrijkste geïndustrialiseerdee naties van de wereld tevredenheid over hun driedaagse topvergaderingen uitdrukten dat de besloten Woensdag, niet-gouvernementele organisaties, na wat vroege en beperkte goedkeuring, diep met het resultaat in het algemeen werd teleurgesteld. De „top (in Toyako op het noordelijke Japanse eiland Hokkaido) is een andere betrayal van de armen en de burgers van G8 landen,“ Kumi Naidoo, co-chair van de Globale Vraag aan Actie… geweest

Door Kitty Donaldson | Twee van de vroegere ministers van Tony Blair en zijn hoogste binnenlandse veiligheidsambtenaar zeiden zij tegen anti-terrorismewetten stemmen zullen die door Eerste Minister Gordon Brown in de hogere kamer van het Parlement worden voorgesteld. De vroegere Secretaresse Charles Falconer van de Rechtvaardigheid en de vroegere Procureur Algemeen Peter Goldsmith sloten zich aan bij Eliza manningham-Buller, een vroeger hoofd van het binnenlandse spionagentschap MI5 in het zeggen zullen zij geen plannen… steunen

KUALA LUMPUR, Maleisië | Voorzitter van Iran nam opnieuw doel bij het Westen, beschuldigend de V.S. en Europa voor „kunstmatig“ het opheffen van olieprijzen en het verwerpen aangezien een „grappige grap“ vreest dat zijn land onder aanval kon komen. Hours later, on Wednesday, Iranian state television reported that Tehran had test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles during war games. The report quoted officials as saying the tests are in response ...

Baroness Manningham-Buller tells the Lords why she is against the plans (video) The former head of MI5 has dismissed government plans to extend the time terror suspects can be held to 42 days as not "workable". Baroness Manningham-Buller, who stepped down from the role last year, told peers she disagreed on a "practical basis as well as a principled one". But the government said terror attacks were a "clear and present ...

By David Gutierrez | A neuropsychiatrist who runs a chain of private brain-scanning clinics has issued a call to scan the brains of presidential candidates in an opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times. Dr. Daniel G. Amen is the chief executive officer of the Amen Clinics, which carry out brain scans in order to diagnose and manage everything from physical brain trauma to anxiety, depression, school failure, ...

Who would have thought that Chinese communists would become a model for U.S. interrogators? What a disgrace. The New York Times reported last week that U.S. military trainers at the Guant�namo Bay prison in 2002 taught a set of interrogation techniques that originated with a 1957 Air Force study of how Chinese communists forced confessions, often false, out of American prisoners in the Korean War. U.S. ...

By Naomi Klein The Nation | Once oil passed $140 a barrel, even the most rabidly right-wing media hosts had to prove their populist cred by devoting a portion of every show to bashing Big Oil. Some have gone so far as to invite me on for a friendly chat about an insidious new phenomenon: “disaster capitalism.” It usually goes well — until it doesn’t. For instance, “independent conservative” radio host ...

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 ...

Consortium News | All over the world down through history, political leaders who have engaged in torture and other grotesque crimes of state have justified their actions as necessary to protect their governments or their people or themselves.   It was true when England’s King Edward I had William Wallace – “Braveheart” – drawn and quartered in 1305 for resisting the crown’s rule in Scotland, and a gruesome death was what King ...

By Mike Whitney | After seven years of nonstop belligerence and saber rattling, the Bush administration has given North Korea everything it has demanded. In return, the US gets nothing. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, will not get access to Kim Jong-il's nuclear stockpile or its "Top-Secret" file on weapons programs or be allowed to conduct surprise "go anywhere, see anything" inspections. Kim will continue to develop ...

By Nat Hentoff | In a June 6 letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey—largely ignored by a press immersed in the future of Hillary Clinton—56 Democrats in the House of Representatives asked for "an immediate investigation with the appointment of a special counsel to determine whether actions taken by the President, his Cabinet, and other Administration officials are in violation of the War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 2441) ...

By Tim Shipman in Washington and Philip Sherwell in New York | Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president's future campaign role is a "sticking point" in peace talks with Mrs Clinton's aides. The Telegraph has learned that the former president's rage is still so ...

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Future referendums will be ignored whether they are held in Ireland or elsewhere, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the architect of the European Union Constitution said. The former President of France drafted the old Constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters three years ago before being resurrected as the Lisbon EU Treaty, itself shunned by the Irish two weeks ago. Mr Giscard d'Estaing told ...

By Greg Miller | WASHINGTON -- The United States has paid more than $5 billion to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism expenses that have often been exaggerated, if not fabricated, according to a government audit released Tuesday that blasts the Pentagon for poor management of the program. The report concluded that the Pentagon could not properly account for as much as $2 billion in payments to Pakistan over a three-year ...