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Russia to resume Cold War bomber flights
Russia will immediately resume long-range strategic bomber flights on a 'permanent' basis, ending a 15-year suspension of the missions, President Vladimir Putin has said. Mr Putin said a halt in long-range bombers' flights after the Soviet collapse had affected Russia's security as other nations had continued such missions - a oblique reference to the US. 'I have made a decision to resume regular flights of Russian strategic aviation,' he said. 'Starting today, such tours of duty will be conducted regularly and on a strategic scale. 'Our pilots have been grounded for too long; they are happy to start a new life.' Soviet bombers routinely flew such missions to areas from which nuclear-tipped cruise missiles could be launched at the United States. But that stopped in the post-Soviet economic meltdown.

Climate Camp: Attack of the baby eaters
The allegations have been plaguing the Heathrow climate camp all week. They began in the Evening Standard: 'Hoax bombs to cause alerts. Assaults on airport fence ... Protest leaders calling themselves 'The Elders' advised 'clashes with police will happen'.' When I was asked on to Newsnight to discuss the issue of whether climate change is a greater threat than terrorism, we kept being dragged back to the hoax bombs. The story was later picked up across the media, including appearances in the Daily Mail and the Telegraph, and by Friday had been embellished with some lurid new quotes from the Metropolitan police in the Daily Express, which warned: 'Extremist yobs hijack airport demo in plot to cause mayhem'.

Wikipedia and the art of censorship
It was hailed as a breakthrough in the democratisation of knowledge. But the online encyclopedia has since been hijacked by forces who decided that certain things were best left unknown. The secret of Wikipedia's phenomenal success is that anyone can edit the millions of comments, facts and statistics published on the pages of the world's most popular online encyclopaedia. But that of course is also its greatest weakness. The chance to rewrite history in flattering and uncritical terms has proved too much of a temptation for scores of multinational companies, political parties and well-known organisations across the world. If a misdemeanour from a politician's colourful past becomes an inconvenient fact at election time then why not just strike it from the Wikipedia record? Or if a public company is embarking on a sensitive takeover why should its investors know of the target business's human rights abuses?

Jubilant Iraqi captain scores political goal as well
Emotion swept Iraq to a fairytale Asian Cup win at Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta on Sunday night, but the joyous victory sprint of the match-winning captain, Younis Mahmoud, could not outpace the tragedies of his strife-torn nation. Black arm bands were worn in memory of civilians killed by bomb blasts and gunfire while celebrating the team's previous victory over South Korea. 'More than 50 Iraqi people were killed while they were celebrating this victory,' Mahmoud said. 'One of the victims was a 12-year-old child. His mother, when his body was laid in front of her, she didn't weep, but she said: 'I present my son as a sacrifice for the Iraqi national team.' We have to win.'

Chertoff: You Will Submit to the Control Grid
On occasion, our rulers tip their hands a bit too much, especially when confronted with the recalcitrance of subjects in resistance to their best laid plans. “Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act,” reports CNN. “The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.”

Padilla case seen as a tainted victory for Bush
The guilty verdict against Jose Padilla showed the Bush administration could win a high-profile terrorism conviction despite questions over whether it acted legally in detaining the U.S. citizen for 3-1/2 years without charges. But critics and law experts called Thursday's verdict a messy win for the government, in which it was able to avoid answering for its long detention and interrogation of Padilla without the legal rights normally granted U.S. citizens, and, his lawyers said, for torturing him. Some said it showed that the administration still lacks a workable system for trying terrorism suspects nearly six years after the September 11 attacks.

Ministers accused over casualty figures cover-up in Iraq and Afghanistan
Ministers are covering up the extent of combat injuries suffered by British troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was claimed last night. Many soldiers are being patched up and sent back to the front line without ever appearing in official casualty reports. Campaigners insist British troops are paying a much higher price on the battlefield than is being made public. Their claims came as Ministry of Defence statistics showed deaths and injuries among UK forces have soared over the past year as fighting intensifies in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Warrant out for Saddam daughter
Interpol has circulated an arrest warrant for the oldest daughter of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Raghad Saddam Hussein, who fled the US-invasion of Iraq in 2003, is accused of terrorism and other offences. She helped organise the legal defence of her father, who was hanged last December for crimes against humanity. Last year Iraq put Raghad and her mother, Sajida, on a list of its most wanted fugitives, alleging they supported the insurgency in Iraq. The Iraqi Interior Ministry told the BBC Interpol had notified member countries on Friday. Before her father was executed last year, Raghad asked for his body to be buried temporarily in Yemen until, she said, such time as coalition forces were expelled from Iraq.

Plumbing boss charged Pentagon $1m for two washers
Plumbers are notorious for excessive bills. But none has come even remotely close to matching an extravagant claim by a South Carolina firm: almost $1m (£500,000) for two metal washers worth 19c each. Charlene Corley, 47, co-owner of the plumbing and electrical firm C&D Distributors, who supplied parts to the military, is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty yesterday to defrauding the Pentagon. She faces 20 years in jail. The most expensive washers in history were part of $20.5m the company stole from the Pentagon over the last 10 years. The company shipped plumbing and electrical parts to US bases round the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

MIT professor staged his own shooting
It bore all the hallmarks of a shocking crime, convulsing the normally tranquil life in Cambridge, home to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On December 16, 2005 a renowned academic and entrepreneur, Professor John Donovan, was found sprawled across the front seat of his car, his legs hanging out of the door, outside the offices of his company, Cambridge Executive Enterprises. The driver's window was shattered and Donovan had been shot in the side. Two white men with Russian accents and wearing ski masks, the 63-year-old billionaire told police, had shot him. He had only been saved from further injury, he said, by his large belt buckle, which had deflected several bullets.

The reality of protected child abuse and snuff networks
In Belgium the evidence seems to point to a loose network of criminals, fascist militants, businessmen, law enforcement officers and child abusers who frequently met one another in certain clubs . According to testimonies, child abuse was regularly going on in the private areas of these clubs, or possibly after closing time, at certain evenings, or in nearby apartments belonging to the club owner. Furthermore, X1 quite convincingly pointed out that the hotel-villa of X1's grandmother, one of Annie Bouty's homes, and the ASCO factory were other similar 'safe-houses' for various forms of child abuse. Other witnesses pointed to a whole range of other villas, country houses and castles where abuse parties had been held.

Powerful aftershocks hit Peru
An aftershock measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale has hit Peru, following Wednesday's devasting earthquake in the same region. A series of aftershocks have struck Peru as rescue workers continue to search through the rubble searching for survivors from Wednesday's earthquake. More than 500 people are thought to have died and thousands more have been left homeless. Channel Four reporter Guillermo Galdos has travelled from Peru's capital Lima to Ica, which was close to the quake's epicentre, and then on to the coastal town of Pisco where dozens died when a church collapsed.

Federal ID plan raises privacy concerns
Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says there are no plans for a federal database of drivers' information. The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain. The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.

Bush officials tried to goad sick Ashcroft into warrantless wiretapping
Attorney General John Ashcroft was 'feeble, barely articulate (and) clearly stressed' when then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card visited his hospital room to push for legal approval of a warrantless wiretap program approved by President Bush, according to newly released notes from FBI Director Robert Mueller. The notes were released Thursday by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee that is investigating the legality of the warrantless wiretapping program. Mueller's notes of the March 10, 2004 incident outline a dispute between the Justice Department and the White House over the legality of a National Security Agency surveillance program.

BBC radio ordered off Russian FM
The BBC's Russian-language service will no longer be heard on Russian FM radio, after the country's media regulator ordered that it be removed. The broadcaster's last FM distribution partner in Russia, Bolshoye Radio, said it had been told to remove BBC content or risk being shut down. Two other Russian FM stations have dropped BBC programming recently. The BBC's Russian Service can still be heard online and on medium and short wave frequencies in Russia. BBC executives said they would appeal against the decision. A spokesman for the company said management had made the decision without outside prompting and that it was well known that the BBC was set up to broadcast foreign propaganda.

NutraSweet launches replacement for Aspartame
This month NutraSweet Co. launches what it calls the “new” NutraSweet - a product it describes as a better tasting, no-calorie tabletop sweetener. NutraSweet’s new tabletop sweetener is a blend of two compounds - aspartame and acesulfame potassium. It is a mix that is intended to have less aftertaste and an increased spike of sweetness at the start. The new NutraSweet has been launched in Wal-Mart Super Centers on the East Coast and is scheduled for a national rollout in October. See also

Apartheid-era minister pleads guilty in poison underwear trial
South Africa's former law and order minister, Adriaan Vlok, today became the only senior politician in the country's white regime to be convicted of apartheid-era crimes when he pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a prominent cleric. Mr Vlok received a 10-year suspended prison sentence under a plea bargain by admitting he ordered the security police to kill the Reverend Frank Chikane, a leading anti-apartheid activist, in 1989. The deal saved former cabinet colleagues the prospect of a full trial and further revelations about just how much South Africa's white rulers knew of atrocities, including murders, bombings and torture, that they continue to blame on rogue elements in the security forces.

'India deal will lead to more nuke weapons'
Selling uranium to India could prompt New Delhi to use its own uranium for nuclear weapons, say the Australian Greens. Prime Minister John Howard last night announced an in-principle agreement to export uranium to India, despite the country refusing to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Mr Howard said the exports would be subject to strict conditions, including guarantees that the uranium would only be used for generating electricity. But Greens leader Bob Brown said the deal would lead to more nuclear weapons being created. 'The Indians have made it clear that this will free up their own uranium to go into nuclear weapons,'' Senator Brown said.