Week ending: Saturday 30th October 2004

Civilian death toll in Iraq exceeds 100,000
The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by coalition forces has lead to the death of at least 100,000 civilians, reveals the first scientific study to examine the issue.The majority of these deaths, which are in addition those normally expected from natural causes, illness and accidents, have been among women and children, finds the study, released early by The Lancet. The most common cause of death is as a direct result of violence, mostly caused by coalition air strikes, reveals the study of almost 1000 households scattered across Iraq. And the risk of violent death just after the invasion was 58 times greater than before the war. The overall risk of death was 1.5 times more after the invasion than before.

Rumsfeld joins Iraq explosive row
The US defence secretary has entered the row over large amounts of explosives allegedly looted in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld says it is very likely that Saddam Hussein moved the 350 metric tons of high explosive before the war began. The Pentagon says a photograph shows pre-war activity at the site. US presidential candidate John Kerry has used the affair to claim that President Bush's handling of the war has been incompetent. The issue becomes more torturous and politically charged by the day.

A month of mini 'October surprises'
A flurry of revelations, from Iraq's missing explosives to the flu vaccine shortage, have touched this year's presidential race. On the eve of a presidential contest, late-breaking events can have an outsize impact. While nothing has risen to the level of a blockbuster 'October surprise' - the term coined from the 1980 race, when Democrats feared Ronald Reagan and his friends were secretly arranging to delay the release of the US hostages in Iran until after the election - this has been an October of mini-surprises.Four days of charges and countercharges over the disappearance of 380 tons of explosives in Iraq have given Sen. John Kerry the kind of final-week run every challenger craves.

Frail Arafat arrives in France
A frail Yasser Arafat arrived in France today for urgent medical treatment, with many of his supporters fearing he will never return to the Palestinian territories. After sunrise the Palestinian leader boarded a Jordanian military helicopter outside his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he has been a virtual prisoner for the last two years. Wearing a grey fur hat and an olive-coloured jacket, and looking pale and tired, he tried to smile as dozens of bodyguards and supporters chanted: 'With our spirit and our blood, we will redeem you, Abu Amar.' Abu Amar is Mr Arafat's nom de guerre. The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, also bade him farewell.

ABC Airs Videotape of Man Making Al Qaeda Threat
ABC News broadcast a videotape it obtained last week of an English-speaking man who threatens bloody new al Qaeda attacks on the United States, but the network said U.S. intelligence officials could not authenticate the man's voice. 'U.S intelligence officials say while they still cannot authenticate the voice on the tape, it has all the trademarks of an al Qaeda production,' ABC News said. It said the voice of the speaker, identified as 'Assam the American,' did not match that of any known American al Qaeda suspects.

Bombers 'ready to target Russia'
More than 80 suicide attackers have been trained on foreign soil to launch strikes in Russia, according to the country's security services chief. During a debate on national security, Nikolai Patrushev told parliament that some attackers had been 'neutralised'. But he said he could not guarantee there would be no further attacks. Suicide bombers have been responsible for many attacks in Russia, including the bombing of two planes in August, which killed more than 90 people. Mr Patrushev's comments came shortly before a Russian parliament debate on President Vladimir Putin's bill calling for a radical overhaul of the way Russia is run, following the Beslan school siege.

Judge wipes out loan row couple's £384,000 debt
A couple's debt, which had risen to £384,000 from an original £5,750 loan, was wiped out yesterday by a judge who described the terms of their contract as 'grossly exorbitant'. In a ruling that is expected to have far-reaching consequences for consumers and lenders, Tony and Michelle Meadows were handed a victory that lifts the threat of their £200,000 home being repossessed. The couple borrowed the money 15 years ago to install central heating at their home in Southport, Merseyside, and were persuaded to borrow more to pay off their mortgage arrears. Under the 'compounded' interest rate, they were charged 34.9 per cent on the arrears as well as on the repayments, all of which resulted in the debt multiplying to 67 times the original amount.

Fathers arrested over conference protest
Fathers 4 Justice protestors have overpowered police and stormed a conference on family law, setting off smoke bombs and flares and forcing the evacuation of the building. The fathers' rights group was hoping to get the chance to remonstrate with the children and families minister, Lord Filkin, outside the conference venue, which is next to the Regent's canal in north London. The group's spokesman, Matt O'Connor, told SocietyGuardian.co.uk that the minister could have found himself 'in at the deep end'.

Bush Campaign Acknowledges Ad Was Doctored
President Bush's campaign acknowledged that a television ad depicting soldiers listening to Bush speak had been doctored so that some of the faces of the soldiers appear more than once. Released five days before Election Day, the ad was called, 'Whatever It Takes' and had been touted by Bush advisers as a personal message from the president talking about the war on terror. It depicts Bush talking of his meetings with family members of fallen soldiers and saying the 'hardest decision' he faced was the one to send soldiers into battle. It then shows clips of people apparently listening to the president, including a crowd of soldiers.

Newspapers as undecided as their readers over choice for president
The Cleveland Plain Dealer made news here this week - but not for anything on its front page. Four years after coming out for George Bush in the 2000 presidential election, the paper of the second largest city in the critical swing state of Ohio stunned its readers by throwing up its editorial hands in despair and refusing to endorse either Mr Bush or John Kerry. The Plain Dealer's dilemma is not unique; the normally staunchly pro-Republican Detroit News did the same, as did the New Orleans Times-Picayune and a few others. But its unusual decision captures the extraordinary passions, divisions and uncertainties swirling around this bitter 2004 election.

Homeland Security Agents Visit Toy Store
Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox was taken aback by a mysterious phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to her small store in this quiet Columbia River town just north of Portland. When two agents arrived at the store, the lead agent asked Cox whether she carried a toy called the Magic Cube, which he said was an illegal copy of the Rubik's Cube, one of the most popular toys of all time. He told her to remove the Magic Cube from her shelves, and he watched to make sure she complied. After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic Cube, the Toysmith Group. A representative told her that Rubik's Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on the rival toy's trademark.

More than 400 bodies found in Bosnian grave
Forensics experts have exhumed 405 bodies from a mass grave, making it the second-largest such site found in Bosnia since the end of the 1992-95 war. The site contains the bodies of Muslims and Croats killed at two wartime concentration camps, said Esad Bajramovic, a member of the Muslim-Croat missing persons commission. Exhumations will continue for another week at the grave in Stari Kevljani, 110 miles north-west of Sarajevo. The mass grave is the 51st found in the area. Based on evidence so far collected, most of the dead appeared to be Bosnian Muslims who had lived in and around Prijedor and were killed in the Omarska and Keraterm concentration camps in 1992, Bajramovic said.

Ailing Arafat gets Israel pledge
Israeli government officials have told the BBC that Yasser Arafat will be allowed to return to the West Bank if he goes abroad for medical treatment. A team of doctors are trying to assess whether the ailing Palestinian leader, 75, should be taken from his HQ in Ramallah to hospital. Israel has kept Mr Arafat, who is said to have a blood disorder, in his compound for nearly three years. His wife has returned to the West Bank from Paris to be by his side.

Islamist group: We have Iraq explosives
A militant Islamist group today claimed to be in possession of a large portion of the explosives that went missing from a munitions depot facility in Iraq. The group, calling itself Al-Islam's Army Brigades, made the claim in a video broadcast today and warned that it will use the explosives if foreign troops threaten Iraqi cities. Its video statement said:'Heroic Mujahideen have managed by the grace of God and by coordinating with a...number of the officers and the soldiers of the American intelligence to obtain a very huge amount of the explosives that were in the al-Qaqaa facility, which was under the protection of the American forces.'

Ailing Arafat 'stable' as doctors weigh move to hospital
Ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was in a stable condition, officials said as doctors arrived at his bedside to carry out tests and decide if he needs hospital treatment. Arafat`s top aide said a decision would be made within hours on whether to transfer the 75-year-old veteran leader to hospital from the headquarters where he has been kept under virtual house arrest by Israel for almost three years. The sharp decline in Arafat`s health has raised concerns over who would replace the man who has long been the embodiment of the decades-long Palestinian struggle for independence.

Economic Crash Imminent?
The world economy is on the brink of complete disintegration on a scale not seen since prewar Germany, and World War Three could be the result. The dollar continues to be devalued, as the Federal Reserve Bank keeps rates low, inflating the money supply to never before dreamed of levels. This, in turn, drives prices up, even as wages are falling due to the exportation of jobs overseas and the importation of cheap (often illegal) immigrant labor. This summer, we have seen the price of gas rise to all time highs. The mainstream press blames this on factors such as the 'War' in Iraq, the terrorism in Saudi Arabia, and supposed oil shortages. But is this really the case?

Attack prompts Bush website block
The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking visits from overseas users for 'security reasons'. The blocking began early on Monday so those outside the US and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it. But keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective. Many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses. The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website.

British election worker seized in Afghanistan
A UN election worker holding dual British and Irish nationality is among three foreigners seized in Afghanistan today. The three were taken at gunpoint in the capital Kabul this morning sparking fears among fellow voluntary workers of Iraq-style atrocities. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: 'One of them is a British-Irish dual national. 'We are in touch with the family.' Mr Straw said the incident provided a 'sombre context' for his speech on challenges ahead for Afghanistan. The other two victims are reported to be from the Balkans region and the Philippines.

Iraqi militants claim 11 deaths
An Islamist militant group today claimed to have abducted and killed 11 Iraqi soldiers. The Ansar al-Sunna Army said it had beheaded one of the officers and shot the other 10, after capturing them on the highway between Baghdad and Hilla. A statement posted on the group's website said: 'After investigating with the [soldiers] and [hearing] their confessions, it turned out this group was responsible for guarding the crusader American troops' in the southern Baghdad area. The site had a video link showing the soldiers who read out their names and the name of their unit. It then showed the murder of the men - some of whom were squatting, their hands tied behind their backs.

Blair 'uses intelligence as PR tool'
Intelligence has been used as a 'PR tool' since Tony Blair came to power, a former senior security services officer said today. John Morrison lost his job as the Intelligence and Security Committee's chief investigator after criticising the Prime Minister's claims about Iraq. Mr Morrison said he had no regrets and went further, suggesting media requirements influenced intelligence in Kosovo and an earlier operation in Iraq. 'There was a culture of news management which came in after 1997 which I had not seen before and intelligence got swept up in that,' he said.

ABC News Gave Videotape of Attack Threat to FBI, CIA
ABC News has asked U.S. security officials to examine a videotape it obtained in Pakistan of an English-speaking man threatening a massive attack on the United States, the network said. Sources familiar with the tape - the authenticity of which U.S. intelligence officials have not been unable to verify - said the man, who claims to be a U.S. native and al Qaeda supporter, warns that the 'streets will run with blood.' The video appears to have been made as recently as late summer because the speaker discusses the Darfur conflict in Sudan, makes a reference to the Massachusetts same-sex marriage legislation and mentions the Sept. 11 Commission.

9/11 'black box' cover-up at Ground Zero?
Two men who worked extensively in the wreckage of the World Trade Center claim they helped federal agents find three of the four “black boxes” from the jetliners that struck the towers on 9/11 - contradicting the official account. Both the independent 9/11 Commission and federal authorities continue to insist that none of the four devices - a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) from the two planes - were ever found in the wreckage. But New York City firefighter Nicholas DeMasi has written in a recent book -- self-published by several Ground Zero workers -- that he escorted federal agents on an all-terrain vehicle in October 2001 and helped them locate three of the four.

The one metre-tall human that challenges history of evolution
Australian and Indonesian scientists have identified a new and completely unexpected species of human. It was only a metre high, had a small brain but a distinctly human face. It made delicate stone tools and it shared the planet with Homo sapiens at least 18,000 years ago. The scientists report in Nature today that they found the skull and incomplete skeleton of creature known as LB1 in the sediments of a limestone cave at Liang Bua on the remote island of Flores in Indonesia last September. Since then, fragments of bone from at least seven individuals have been found.

Kerry tied to '666'?
During his presidential campaign in Iowa today, Democrat John Kerry was surrounded by a sea of handheld signs displaying the number six on them. That caught the attention of WND reader Michael of Kaufman, Texas, who happened to record this evening broadcast of ABC's 'World News Tonight.' 'You can imagine my surprise, when they broadcast a video of John Kerry finishing a speech in Iowa to the acclaim of hundreds of people waving signs with the number six on them,' he said. 'The imagery of 666 appearing everywhere was too much to be ignored. I had to rewind my TIVO and shoot these photos of the TV screen.'

US gave date of war to Britain in advance, court papers reveal
Secret plans for the war in Iraq were passed to British Army chiefs by US defence planners five months before the invasion was launched, a court martial heard yesterday. The revelation strengthened suspicions that Tony Blair gave his agreement to President George Bush to go to war while the diplomatic efforts to force Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions were continuing. Alan Simpson, the leader of Labour Against the War, said the documents were 'dynamite', if genuine, and showed that Clare Short was right to assert in her book that Mr Blair had 'knowingly misled' Parliament.

Black Watch troops move north
The British army said today that some 800 Black Watch troops have begun their deployment north towards Baghdad from their base in southern Iraq. Lieutenant-Colonel James Cowan said the troops, accompanied by 40 US marines, had left the southern city of Basra to head for a base in Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. 'British forces have just started moving this morning into the north of Hilla. They will deploy in that area and will receive their jobs in maintaining security there,' he said. The government gave the go-ahead last week for an 850-strong battle group led by the Black Watch to deploy north of their base around Basra. They will replace US troops who are expected to take part in offensives against insurgent strongholds west and north of the capital.

Guardian 'could support Lib Dems'
The Guardian's editor has said the newspaper might endorse the Lib Dems instead of Labour at the next election. At a talk in London on Tuesday, Alan Rusbridger said the switch from Labour would be 'very dramatic' but there was 'every chance' it could happen. But he stressed no final decision on the move had been taken and any support would be decided 'collegiately'. The paper has in recent years been a firm Labour supporter but backed the Lib Dems in the Hartlepool by-election.

Bush has no choice but to reinstate draft: Senator Tom Harkin
President Bush may or may not have a secret plan to reinstate the draft. But this is beside the point. The deteriorating facts on the ground in Iraq, plus the Bush doctrine of acting pre-emptively and unilaterally against hostile regimes, will soon leave him no choice. If President Bush is re-elected, he will have to restart the draft. Indeed, President Bush has already imposed Stage 1 of a new draft. Many soldiers whose enlistment period is up are not being allowed to leave the service, and those who left the service years ago are being forced to put on the uniform again against their will. It is clear that we already have a backdoor draft.

Web Server Takedown Called Speech Threat
Devin Theriot-Orr, a member a feisty group of reporter-activists called Indymedia, was surprised when two FBI (news - web sites) agents showed up at his Seattle law office, saying the visit was a 'courtesy call' on behalf of Swiss authorities. Theriot-Orr was even more surprised a week later when more than 20 Indymedia Web sites were knocked offline as the computer servers that hosted them were seized in Britain. The Independent Media Center, more commonly known as Indymedia, says the seizure is tantamount to censorship, and civil libertarians agree. The Internet is a publishing medium just like a printing press, they argue, and governments have no right to remove Web sites.

Tobacco firm gained secret access to Blair
Documents obtained by the Guardian disclose today how one of the world's biggest tobacco companies, British American Tobacco, was able to put private pressure on Tony Blair and a cabinet minister who wanted to hold an inquiry into allegations that the firm was colluding with criminals. Behind the back of parliament and public, the head of British American Tobacco (BAT), Martin Broughton, obtained access to Mr Blair at a private breakfast, followed by an equally private meeting with the then trade secretary, Stephen Byers.

Study: Terror Warnings Up Approval Ratings
When the government issues a terror warning, the president's approval rating increases an average of nearly three points, a Cornell University sociologist says. 'The social theories predict it, and anecdotally we know it to be true. Now we have statistical science to confirm it,' said Robb Willer, assistant director of Cornell's Sociology and Small Groups Laboratory. On average, a terror warning prompted a 2.75 point increase in President George Bush's approval rating the following week, said Willer, who published his study in Current Research in Social Psychology, a peer-reviewed online journal.

Thatcher turns up at court in bid to block coup-plot questions
Dressed in a blue blazer and tapping a pen on his knee, a defiant Sir Mark Thatcher appeared in court yesterday to fight an attempt to force him to answer questions about his alleged role in a coup plot. The son of Baroness Thatcher made notes and listened intently as his legal team presented an 80-page argument to the High Court in South Africa in an effort to overturn a subpoena obtained on behalf of the government of Equatorial Guinea. Prosecutors in the oil-rich west African state want to ask Sir Mark about a coup attempt he is alleged to have helped fund by buying aircraft to carry mercenaries seeking to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Gene wars only a few years away, say doctors
There is concern that bio-weapons could be programmed to wipe out specific ethnic groups within five years. Genetically targeted weapons capable of ethnic cleansing could become a reality within five years because the “window of opportunity” to tackle their development is shrinking fast, doctors said yesterday. The warning comes after a report by the British Medical Association (BMA), which stated that within a decade genetic research would unleash new and terrifying biological weapons capable of killing only people of specific ethnic groups.

Sharon wins historic Gaza vote
Israel's parliament last night voted for the first time in 37 years of occupation to remove Jewish settlements from the Palestinian territories in a historic move that Ariel Sharon said paved the way to the end of the conflict. At the end of two days of at times raucous and bitter parliamentary debate, Mr Sharon was forced to rely on the opposition to carry through his 'unilateral disengagement plan' after his Likud party split over the removal of all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and a small part of the West Bank.

Iraq bomb: Did media know?
An investigation has been ordered into whether the media was tipped off before a car bombing that caused Australia's first casualties in the Iraq conflict, foreign minister Alexander Downer said. In the first direct attack on Australian forces in Iraq, a car bomb was set off as a convoy of three light armoured vehicles drove by on a routine patrol 350m from the Australian embassy in Baghdad. Two of the three soldiers have left hospital and the third, who suffered serious facial injuries, were expected to recover after surgery. Three Iraqi bystanders were killed and 16 others, including young children, were wounded.

British Agents Behind Hassan Kidnapping As US Prepares For Fallujah Strike
On October 21, the British government confirmed that it would accede to a U.S. request to redeploy approximately 850 troops and support staff from their base in southern Iraq to positions near to the capital Baghdad. The area around Baghdad has been described as a “valley of death” by U.S. forces that face fierce resistance from the vanguard of the Mujaahideen (opponents of the Crusader occupation). But the major cause for concern is that the troop redeployment is being sought in order to free up American marines for an all-out assault against Fallujah and other towns in the 'Sunni triangle'

Hamza faces charges at Old Bailey
Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has appeared briefly in court via video-link to face 16 charges, including soliciting murder and racial hatred. He spoke only to say that Abu Hamza was the name he was known by in Britain at the Old Bailey hearing. Mr Abu Hamza, 47, will appear for a plea hearing on 21 December. Extradition proceedings to the US, where the cleric is wanted in relation to other matters, have been suspended pending the outcome of the UK case.

Bombshell for Bush: 350 tons of explosives go missing in Iraq
In a massive pre-election embarrassment for the Bush administration, nearly 350 tons of lethal explosives - which could be used to trigger nuclear weapons - have vanished from a military facility in Iraq supposed to have been guarded by US troops. Hardly had the disappearance come to light than John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, seized on the episode as proof that George Bush was incapable of keeping America safe. The material could already be in terrorist hands, he warned.

Website on tobacco giant launched
A website has been launched detailing the inner workings of leading tobacco firm British American Tobacco. The site includes 1m pages of memos, research and reports, which BAT was forced to make public by a US court. The researchers compiled the site by scanning documents from BAT's depository in Guildford, Surrey. The website, which will be added to, is a joint project by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of California in the US.

New documentary indicts US as co-defendant with Saddam
What if Saddam Hussein were to have a genuinely fair trial? That is the central question of a hard-hitting documentary to be aired on French television. Michel Despratx of France's Canal Plus television teamed with independent Canadian filmmaker Barry Lando to produce 'The Trial of Saddam Hussein, the Trial You'll Never See.' The 43-minute film begins with frank and graphic highlights of Saddam's brutal reign. But it soon delves into a history of collusion going back to the cataclysmic Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when Washington, fully aware that Saddam was using mustard and nerve gas against Iranian civilians, calculated that it was better to keep backing him as the lesser of two evils.

Zarqawi aide 'dies in air strike'
A close associate of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in a US air strike on the Iraqi city of Falluja, the US military has said. Planes attacked what was believed to be safe house used by Zarqawi in a 'precision strike', the statement said. However, Falluja hospitals said they received no casualties and local people said the bombed house was unoccupied. Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, which recently announced an alliance with al-Qaeda, has been blamed for hostage beheadings and suicide bombings in Iraq.

Blair softens line on hunting ban
Downing Street today signalled a willingness to live with an amendment proposed by pro-hunting peers which would ensure a future for foxhunting, albeit under a licensing scheme. Questioned about the amendment to the hunting bill due to be debated in the Lords this afternoon, Tony Blair's official spokesman declined to confirm that the government would use the Parliament Act to push through a complete ban. MPs voted last month for a complete ban of hunting with hounds, amending a government 'compromise' bill to that effect.

Pupils shown suicide victim photos
Snapshots of children who killed themselves after being bullied are being used to help prevent more tragedies. In a new Welsh anti-bullying scheme, pupils as young as 12 are handed photographs of smiling children and asked to guess what they have in common. The pupils are then told that all have killed themselves after being bullied. The pilot aims to spread the message that bullying can lead to tragedy.

Hundreds demonstrate for release of 'Mama Margaret' Hassan
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Baghdad yesterday to show their support for kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan - the first time there has been such a public protest against an abduction since the wave of hostage-taking began. Many of those taking part were disabled people who had benefited from the work carried out by Mrs Hassan, the country director for the charity Care International. Among them were 30 pupils from a school for deaf children carrying her photographs asking for the release of 'Mama Margaret'.

Few bad reactions to drug: army
The Australian Defence Force said today only five soldiers had suffered adverse reactions in defence trials of a widely-used anti-malarial drug, rejecting claims of widespread side effects including psychosis. The ADF was responding to a report that hundreds of Australian soldiers serving in East Timor were ordered to take the drug Lariam as part of tests to observe side effects, which can also include depression and paranoia. But the report said the soldiers claimed they were not fully informed of the possible adverse reactions and some were planning a class action against the army.

Cuba to end circulation of US dollar
Cuba announced on Monday that it was ending circulation of the US dollar in its territory as of November 8 in response to tightened US economic sanctions. Cubans, foreign residents and tourists will have to use locally printed convertible pesos, equal in value to the dollar, a Central Bank decree read on television said. As of November 8, the dollar will not be accepted in our shops, which will only accept convertible pesos,' it said. A 10 percent commission will be charged for changing dollars into the local currency, the decree said. The government encouraged Cubans living abroad to send cash remittances to their relatives in Cuba in other currencies, such as the euro, the British pound, Swiss francs and Canadian dollars, to avoid exchange costs.

MPs set to axe 'strangers' label
MPs look set to say goodbye to the term Strangers - the centuries-old House of Commons name for members of the public. The House's modernisation committee feels it is outdated and unfriendly. MPs are expected to agree later on Tuesday to a recommendation that Strangers be referred to instead as 'a member of the public'. Historic Commons refreshment facilities such as the Strangers' Bar and restaurant and the Strangers' Gallery may also face a possible name change.

Depleted Uranium Released During Canadian Plane Crash
The recent crash of a Boeing 747 in Halifax, Canada, raises a number of questions about the use of depleted uranium (DU) in airplanes, public health concerns and the 9-11 attacks. When a Boeing 747 crashed and burned on takeoff at Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Oct. 14, an official accident investigator said the aircraft probably contained radioactive depleted uranium. Bill Fowler, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said the plane was likely equipped with DU as counterweights in its wings and rudder.

DVLA man gave addresses to animal rights extremists
Animal rights extremists seeking to close down a guinea pig farm used a civil servant to obtain the addresses of drivers supplying the establishment and attack their homes, a court heard yesterday. Barry Dickinson, who works at a regional office of the DVLA, entered the vehicle-licensing agency's central computers to obtain 13 addresses from number plates on vehicles which were seen arriving at Darley Oaks Farm in Staffordshire. The information was then used to target four homes where militants smashed windows, daubed paint on cars and, in one case, placed a hosepipe through a letter box before turning on the tap.

Murdoch: Fox News does not favour Bush
Rupert Murdoch has claimed his Fox News channel is not biased in favour of George Bush and that News Corporation, his global media empire, is a 'fair and balanced' company. Speaking at the company's annual general meeting in Adelaide, Mr Murdoch insisted Fox News' reporting was more balanced than that of other US networks. 'It's full of Democrats and Republicans, the others only have Democrats. We don't take any position at all,' Mr Murdoch said in response to a question about Fox's impartiality.

Is 'Al Qaeda' the Modern Incarnation of 'Emmanuel Goldstein'?
Is 'Al Qaeda' the modern incarnation of 'Emmanuel Goldstein', the arch-villain manufactured by the state to rule the population with fear? Is it really far-fetched? If one can accept a real terrorist organization willing to kill people for their political aims, is a fake terror organization willing to kill people for their political aims any less possible? Once you accept that there can be one group of people willing to commit acts of terror you must accept that there can be a second group equally willing to commit acts of terror to blame on the first group.

CIA 'took detainees out of Iraq'
United States intelligence officers have taken detainees out of Iraq for interrogation, according to The Washington Post. At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department allegedly compiled a secret memo allowing transfer of a dozen detainees over the last six months. International Red Cross officials have not met with the detainees, an unnamed officer told the newspaper. Legal experts have said the practice contravenes the Geneva Conventions.

Australia probes report that suspect polio virus released to the public
Australian authorities moved Saturday to reassure people vaccinated against polio in the 1950s and 1960s after a report that a contaminated vaccine linked to cancer was issued at that time.Australian Chief Medical Officer, Professor John Horvath, said there was no evidence of an increased cancer risk to those exposed to the vaccine, produced between 1956 and 1962. The Age newspaper said it had uncovered evidence that almost three million doses of the Salk polio vaccine made then were contaminated by a monkey virus linked to a range of cancers. Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, then a government agency, released at least four batches of the vaccine knowing they were contaminated with the virus, called Simian Virus 40 or SV40.

Cherie 'helped make the legal case for war'
Cherie Blair helped to convince Clare Short, the former Secretary of State for International Development, that the decision to attack Iraq was justified under international law, according to a new book by Ms Short. The soothing words from the Prime Minister's wife were one reason that Ms Short surprised many of those who knew her by voting in favour of the war. She later resigned from the Cabinet, claiming that she had been misled by Tony Blair. Ms Short also suspects that Mrs Blair, a highly qualified lawyer, helped to reassure her husband that what he was doing was legally justified.

Massacre of Iraqi army recruits
The bodies of more than 40 Iraqi army recruits have been found following an ambush near the Iranian border in the north-east of the country. Police said there were signs many of the soldiers had been executed. Hours later, a US diplomat was killed in a mortar attack at Camp Victory near Baghdad airport. Ed Seitz, assistant regional security officer at the US embassy in Baghdad, is believed to be the first US diplomat killed during the current war. Police said the bodies of the recruits were found by a road near the village of Mandali, south of Baquba.

Mortars rain on Gaza settlements
Palestinian militants fired mortars at Jewish settlements in Gaza overnight in retaliation for Israel's killing two Hamas militants. Israel Radio said between 25 and 35 mortars crashed into the settlements, sending settlers into panic and inflicting property damage but no casualties. Israel's daily Yediot Ahronot said on its Web site Friday heavy mortar fire targeted the Gaza settlements, especially Naveh Dakaleem in the center of the strip.

Blunkett legislates to silence lone protester at Westminster
His home is a roll of green plastic sheeting, his possessions no more than necessary to make coffee, keep warm and roll the occasional cigarette. Approaching his fourth winter on Parliament Green, few passers-by even notice Brian Haw and his collection of anti-war posters. For ministers, however, the 55-year-old peace protester is about to become Britain's most wanted man, the first target of new legislation to crack down on organised crime. David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will announce next week he is to outlaw 'permanent encampments' outside Parliament as well as the use of megaphones.

American diplomat killed in Iraq
An American diplomat has been killed in a mortar attack near Baghdad airport, US officials have said. Ed Seitz, assistant regional security officer at the US embassy in Baghdad, is thought to be the first US diplomat to have died in the Iraq conflict. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is in East Asia, said Mr Seitz was 'a brave American, dedicated to a brighter future for the people of Iraq'.
A US soldier was also hurt in the attack at the Camp Victory site.

Army's Recruiters Miss Target For Enlistees in Latest Month
For the second straight year, U.S. Army recruiters fell short of their goal for signing up enlistees in the first month of a new recruiting cycle. For the first 30-day period in its new recruiting year, the Army was 30% shy of its goal of signing up 7,274 recruits. The Army had a particularly hard time recruiting for the Army Reserve, on which the Pentagon has relied heavily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Enlistments for the reserves were 45% below the target. In the same period last year, the Army came up 25% short in its goal in the first month for enlisting 6,220 regular recruits and 40% short of its reserve enlistment goal.

Navy approves first ever Satanist
The British Armed Forces has officially recognised its first registered Satanist, according to a newspaper report. Naval technician Chris Cranmer, 24, has been allowed to register by the captain of HMS Cumberland. The move will mean that he will now be allowed to perform Satanic rituals on board the vessel. Mr Cranmer realised he was a Satanist nine years ago. At the time he stumbled across a copy of the Satanic Bible, written by Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey.
He said: 'I then read more and more and came to realise I'd always been a Satanist, just simply never knew.'

Judgment day arrives in the South Pacific
The two-way radio system used to communicate between households on Pitcairn Island crackled to life as Steve Christian, the Mayor, vented his fury about an offence of the utmost gravity: the use of the radio's public channel to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Simon Moore, a New Zealand prosecutor. The strain of recent weeks has plainly taken its toll on Mr Christian, 53, who will learn today whether he has been convicted of six rapes and four indecent assaults, allegedly carried out against young girls 30 to 40 years ago.

Casino bill derailed by bitter split in Cabinet
Only days after the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, published a Gambling Bill that would introduce hundreds of Las Vegas-style casinos across the country, she is being forced into a humiliating climbdown by a pincer operation from the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. In a clear indication of outright Cabinet hostility to the bill, a key confidant of the Chancellor heavily criticised Jowell's proposals this weekend as 'not well thought through'. It is now believed there will be no more than 20 of the super-casinos with fruit machines offering £1 million jackpots.

Kerry: Bush to privatize Social Security for ‘January surprise’
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush on Sunday of planning a surprise second-term attempt to privatize Social Security, and forecast a 'disaster for America’s middle class.' Republican party chairman Ed Gillespie called the charge 'just flat inaccurate.' The clash erupted as Kerry and his running mate both appealed to Florida voters to cast their ballots as early as today under the state’s early voting program. 'There’s no reason to wait until November the 2nd,' vice presidential candidate John Edwards said in the state that settled the last race for the White House. Little more than two weeks before Election Day, the latest polls made the campaign a close one, seemingly tilting Bush’s way despite debates that bolstered his Democratic rival’s standing.

Agency appeals to kidnappers
Aid agency Care International has made a televised appeal asking the kidnappers of its Iraq director Margaret Hassan to release her. Secretary-general Denis Caillaux asked them 'to understand she is an Iraqi' and called for her immediate release. Freelance journalist Felicity Arbuthnot, a close friend of Mrs Hassan, told the BBC: 'She is a very tough lady and if she is crying on this video - I haven't been able to steel myself to look at it yet - that is really bad.'

Abu Ghraib team bids to run UK prisons
The American prison company whose director set up Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib jail for use by the US military is bidding to run a number of prisons in Britain. The Utah-based Management and Training Corporation (MTC) has set up a London headquarters and is in advanced negotiations to operate at least one prison in Britain. It is also planning bids to build and manage a number of other jails, including the extension of Belmarsh in south-east London, Britain's maximum security prison, where terrorist suspects are being held without trial. The disclosure has provoked anger among MPs and prison groups.

Further abuse at Abu Ghraib detailed: ACLU forces US to disclose records
Government documents made public Thursday provide fresh details about allegations of abuse by guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other detention facilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They include incidents in which a female prisoner was sexually humiliated by US military intelligence officers and a male inmate was shot at to force cooperation. Meanwhile, a military judge has ordered two US Army reservists to stand trial in Baghdad for allegedly abusing Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib.

Town covered with deadly blue dust
The horrific conditions of the Wittenoom asbestos mine are etched into Jim McNulty's memory, nearly 50 years after he first saw them. 'It was filthy, the mine was filthy. There was dust everywhere,' says the doctor who first diagnosed asbestosis and mesothelioma among the Wittenoom workers. 'All the surfaces, if you touched them you would get dirt and asbestos fibres in your fingers. You felt it on your teeth, you felt the very fine dust,' he said. The retired doctor filed the first reports warning of the dangers of asbestos fibres at Wittenoom. He is not surprised by the decision of the West Australian Supreme Court to grant compensation to Arthur Della Maddalena for anxiety and depression caused by his fear of developing cancer after working at the Wittenoom mine.

Most Iraqis don't care who wins U.S. election, poll finds
While domestic polls find the U.S. presidential election is too close to call, in Iraq few people are losing sleep picking between President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry. Overwhelmingly, they just don't care. In a survey of 1,285 Iraqis, 58.6 percent said the American elections didn't matter to them. Many said the election process was fixed and that U.S. policy toward Iraq wouldn't change no matter who won. The Iraqi Center for Research and Strategic Studies regularly conducts this poll. While it has always found that I-don't-care wins, Kerry beat Bush for the first time in the latest poll. He won 20.7 percent, while Bush garnered 16.5 percent. The remaining 4.2 percent said they didn't know or didn't have an answer.

Schwarzenegger refuses to apologize for remarks about Indian casinos
Despite protests from US Indian tribes in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he would not apologize for his remarks that the Indians 'are ripping us off.' The governor was in response to questions at a news conference held in Los Angeles International Airport Friday about his remarksthat were denounced by the Indians as 'racist'.  ' Read my lips. The Indian gaming tribes with Proposition 70 aretrying to rip off California. I will say it again and again and again because that's what they are doing. And the reason they are upset is because the truth hurts,' he said. Groups representing Indian gaming tribes criticized that Schwarzenegger's comment made last week at a San Diego restaurant was 'insensitive.'

Report raises questions about Pentagon's use of pre-war intelligence
Pentagon officials told the White House in September 2002 that Saddam Hussein was linked to the Sept. 11 attacks, even though U.S. intelligence experts couldn't verify the information and considered it dubious, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Thursday. Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, cited the Pentagon's use of the suspect material in a report based on a 16-month inquiry by Democratic staff aides on pre-war intelligence. The report charged that the Bush administration's case against Saddam relied on exaggerated and unproved allegations that Iraq and al-Qaida were in league. 'In the case of Iraq's relationship with al-Qaida, intelligence was exaggerated to support administration policy,' the report said.

Bin Laden is located, says 9/11 panelist
The Pentagon knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan, it just can't get to him, John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission said. Lehman's remarks echoed those made Tuesday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said the al-Qaida leader was alive and operating in the western part of Pakistan. Bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the Baluchistan Mountains of the Baluchistan region, Lehman told the San Bernardino Sun after delivering a keynote speech on terrorism at Pitzer College in Claremont.

A Bush pre-election strike on Iran 'imminent'
According to White House and Washington Beltway insiders, the Bush administration, worried that it could lose the presidential election to Senator John F. Kerry, has initiated plans to launch a military strike on Iran's top Islamic leadership, its nuclear reactor at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, and key nuclear targets throughout the country, including the main underground research site at Natanz in central Iran and another in Isfahan. Targets of the planned U.S. attack reportedly include mosques in Tehran, Qom, and Isfahan known by the U.S. to headquarter Iran's top mullahs.

Man Who Says He Predicted Sept. 11 Attacks Arrested
A Michigan native who claims to have predicted the events of Sept. 11, 2001, was arrested by authorities in Iowa. Delmart Vreeland, 38, of Rochester Hills, was wanted by eight Michigan jurisdictions, including Oakland County, for crimes like fraud and burglary, according to a report in The Daily Oakland Press. Vreeland was captured by sheriff's deputies in Iowa's Franklin County after he stopped to refuel at a gas station. Vreeland used a credit card at the station that had an alert placed on it by authorities in Colorado - where he is wanted on child prostitution charges, according to the paper.