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Anti-Bush Protestors Clash With Police

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

By Robin Pomeroy and Deepa Babington

Demonstrators clashed with police in central Rome on Saturday as U.S. President George W. Bush wound up a visit to Pope Benedict and Italian leaders.

Hours after Bush had discussed Middle East peace with Pope Benedict and was wrapping up meetings with Italian politicians, police in riot gear charged and fired tear gas at demonstrators who had thrown bottles at them in Rome’s historic centre.

The protestors, some wearing motorcycle helmets and bandanas to cover their faces, shattered a window of a bank and overturned outdoor dining tables on some of Rome’s most famous streets.

Several policemen and demonstrators were injured.

Tear gas wafted into Rome’s historic Piazza Navona, which had been the scene of a demonstration that was for the most part peaceful. Anti-American graffiti was spray-painted on some statues and restaurants and shopkeepers lowered their shutters.

The incident was far from where Bush was staying at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in another quarter of the city and on the other side of the Tiber River from the Vatican.

The highlight of Bush’s day was his first-ever meeting with Benedict, a fellow religious conservative, in the Vatican.

Bush later said he felt “awe” in the presence of the Pope, who urged him to seek “regional and negotiated” solutions to Middle East conflicts like Iraq.

Addressing the 80-year-old Roman Catholic leader as “sir” instead of the usual honorific “Your Holiness,” Bush heard the Pope’s concerns about the Middle East and the plight of Christians in Iraq.

A PLEDGE TO HELP AFRICA

Bush, who leaves for Albania on Sunday, told him of his government’s efforts to combat AIDS and malaria in Africa and hunger and poverty.

He told the Pope in front of reporters about what he called “the very strong AIDS initiative” at the Group of Eight summit this week, which pledged $60 billion to fight diseases ravaging Africa — although much of that was made up of existing pledges.

A Vatican statement said Benedict and Bush had discussed the Middle East and the Holy See’s “hope for a regional and negotiated solution to the conflicts that afflict that region.”

“It’s good to be with you, sir,” Bush said as he sat before the Pontiff’s desk in his private study.

The two men see eye-to-eye on ethical issues like abortion and euthanasia but differ on the war in Iraq, which Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, tried hard to avert.

When the Pope mentioned Bush had come from the G8 summit, Bush said: “I did — your old country — and it was successful … A lot of different opinions, but it was good.”

Asked if his dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, closely watched because of a number of sharp disagreements between Russia and the West, had been good, Bush responded with a smile as reporters were being ushered out of the room.

“I’ll tell you in a minute,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Stephen Brown, Toby Zakaria, Caren Bohan, Roberto Landucci, Antonella Ciancio and Philip Pullella)

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Freemasons want young blood

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

BBC

Freemasons are extending a welcoming handshake to students on university campuses across England in a bid to attract more younger members.

Young masons make up only 0.25% of the organisation’s members in England, and membership has been falling recently.

Nine lodges in university cities including Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are offering students cut price joining fees in a bid to entice them in.

A spokesman said universities were an obvious place to access young people.

Assistant Grand Master of the United Lodge of England David Williamson said the aim was to open up wider opportunities for undergraduates and other university members to enjoy Freemasonry.

He said: “This is a challenge for the lodges that have chosen to participate.

“Young masons make up only about a quarter of one per cent of the membership of the Craft in this country, so we want to make the Craft more accessible to young men.

“The recent approval by the Grand Lodge to reduce fees for under-25s by half will act as encouragement.”

Spokesman for the Grand Lodge Chris Connop said that like many other membership organisations, the Freemasons had seen a drop in numbers in recent years.

This was mainly due to the older age profile of a large proportion of membership, he said.

Personal gain

“They are passing on to the Grand Lodge in the sky,” he added.

“We have so much to offer that we feel it is important to make younger people aware of it.

“If you are going to put your message across to young people, universities seem to be an obvious place to do it.”

Those wishing to become masons are checked out by the Grand Lodge to ensure they do not have criminal records or are wanting to join for personal gain.

Then their details are passed on to one of the 8,000 affiliated lodges which will get to know them.

They then have to be proposed and seconded by existing members before joining.

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First step for trials at Guantanamo

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

A panel takes first step to restore habeas corpus. But that won’t help resolve how to weed out the dangerous detainees from the rest.

By David G. Savage

A Senate panel took the first step Thursday toward again giving foreign prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the right to go to court and seek their freedom.

On a mostly party-line vote of 11 to 8, the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee said it would restore the right of habeas corpus that had been taken away in recent years by the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress.

“Habeas corpus was recklessly undermined in last year’s legislation,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee’s chairman, referring to the Military Commissions Act. “I hope the new Senate will reconsider this historic error and set the matter right.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the bill’s cosponsor, was the only Republican to vote for it.

By locating the prison offshore, on the base in Cuba, Bush’s lawyers hoped to hold, question and prosecute suspected terrorists and foreign fighters without interference from the nation’s courts.

However, the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the base at Guantanamo was under U.S. control, and therefore was subject to the reach of American law, including the right to habeas corpus.

Last year, the administration won legislation in the GOP-controlled Congress which overturned that ruling. It said “no court, justice or judge” could hear a claim from a foreigner designated by the government as an “enemy combatant.”

Democrats are seeking to remove that ban. But doing so does not help settle a key issue: how to decide which of the detained men are dangerous and which should be sent home. The right to habeas corpus represents a passage into court, but does not say what, if anything, the detainees will win.

From the start, the Bush administration has said it was unwise and unrealistic to have federal judges decide the fate of hundreds of foreign nationals captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan or elsewhere in the Mideast.

But civil libertarians have said it was unfair and inhumane to imprison the men for years without a chance to plead their case before an independent judge.

Under the current system, the Guantanamo detainees are entitled only to a cursory hearing before a three-member panel of military officers.

Separately, the administration is moving ahead with plans to hold trials for a small number of the detainees in military commissions. Those trials were put on hold this week when two military judges said the men facing prosecution had not been properly categorized as “unlawful enemy combatants.”

The Pentagon has not announced what it will do in response to the rulings.

Last month, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced a bill to close the prison at Guantanamo and transfer the remaining 385 prisoners to the military prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. Among the prisoners are several Al Qaeda leaders, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Harkin’s bill would require the administration to charge each of the prisoners with a crime or return them to their home country.

“Closing this facility is our single best opportunity to rally our allies in a more effective fight against terrorism and reduce the risk to Americans traveling abroad,” Harkin said in introducing the bill.

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CCTV snooping into homes

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

By Mick Meaney
RINF Alternative News 

Alarmed residents in Islington, London, UK, have highlighted a truly disturbing habit of local CCTV camera operators - spying into homes.

A CCTV camera on a 70 foot pole has been found staring directly into the bedrooms of residents, which is raising awareness of the Orwellian Big Brother State that has become Great Britain.

Resident Jessamy Corbett is concerned the camera is being used to spy into the family home.

She said: “We have a right to absolute privacy in our own homes. I’ve no issue with CCTV. But I do have an issue about it looking into my bedroom. We want it taken away and put where there’s no potential to intrude.”

Another concerned resident, butcher Maurice Wood, said: “Our shop is celebrating its centenary next year. But currently I don’t feel very much in the party mood. I’m all in favour of CCTV for the deterrence of crime but there is nothing more unnerving and distressing than having a camera aimed at your home.

“My daughter has even had the camera pointing towards her bedroom.”

Islington Council are considering a proposal by MP Emily Thornberry to have the offending camera relocated.

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Smoking Ban To Hit Amsterdam Coffee Shops

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

By Mick Meaney
RINF Alternative News

A new Dutch law which comes into force in July 2008 will ban smoking in all Amsterdam coffee shops, the government decided on Friday.

Amsterdam is a hot spot for tourists as relaxed laws allow the possession of soft drugs, such as Cannabis. Although Cannabis is officially banned in the Netherlands, consumers are allowed to carry less than 5 grams in their possession.

Coffee shop owners believe the laws will not effect their business as it applies to tobacco and Cannabis can be smoked pure.

“Coffee shops will be treated in the same manner as other catering businesses. They will be smoke-free,” Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told NOS television.

“It would have been wrong to move towards a smoke-free catering industry and then make an exception for coffee shops. People would not have understood that.”

“Employees should not have to work in an environment were they are constantly exposed to the harmful effects of smoking,” Balkenende said after the cabinet’s decision on Friday.

However customers will be allowed to smoke in separate rooms or glass partitions to protect staff from second hand smoke.

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CIA rejects secret jails report

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

BBC 

The CIA has dismissed a Council of Europe report alleging that it ran secret jails for terror suspects in Europe after the 11 September attacks.

A CIA spokesman said the report was biased and distorted, and that the agency had operated lawfully.

Swiss Senator Dick Marty, who wrote the report, said secret CIA prisons “did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania”.

The charge was denied by both Polish and Romanian officials.

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who served from 1995 to 2005, said on Friday: “There were no secret prisons in Poland.”

Romanian senator Norica Nicolai, who headed an investigation into the allegations, also denied his country’s involvement.

“All statements made by Dick Marty are totally groundless,” he said.

A spokesman for the CIA told the BBC that the agency’s “operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed and of benefit to many people - including Europeans - by disrupting plots and saving lives”.

Mr Marty - working on behalf of the Council of Europe, a human rights body - has been investigating the CIA’s “extraordinary renditions” programme, under which terror suspects were transported around the world for interrogation.

In his report, he said a secret agreement among Nato allies allowed the CIA to operate the camps.

Unnamed CIA sources quoted by Mr Marty said Poland was the “black site” where eight “high-value detainees (HVDs)” were interrogated, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001.

The report says Romania “was developed into a site to which more detainees were transferred only as the HVD programme expanded”.

“The secret detention facilities in Europe were run directly and exclusively by the CIA,” the report says.

But it said “the highest state authorities” knew of the CIA’s activities.

A report approved by a European Parliament committee earlier this year said more than 1,000 covert CIA flights had crossed European airspace or stopped at European airports in the four years after the 9/11 attacks.

US President George Bush admitted last year that terror suspects had been held in CIA-run prisons overseas, but he did not say where the prisons were located.

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