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Iraqis hold anti-occupation rally
Tens of thousands of Iraqis held a massive demonstration against the American forces' savage raids on the peaceful parts of Baghdad Monday morning. According to IRIB correspondent in Baghdad, the demonstrators began their protest in Baghdad's Sadr city from early morning by chanting anti-occupation slogans. While holding Iraqi flags, boards condemning the presence of occupiers and pictures of the martyred Iraqi civilians, demonstrators chanted slogans against America, the Zionist regime and all the occupiers and condemned the raid by the American forces on the secure Shia-settled areas of Baghdad and the air raid on Sadr city. The protest was the greatest popular demonstration in Baghdad in the last two months. Heads of tribes, women, university students and doctors from different parts of Baghdad were among the protestors.

Basra police 'work for militias'
Some Iraqi police officers in Basra are working for Shia Muslim militias and carrying out sectarian violence, the UK's chief police adviser has warned. Mike Colbourne, assistant chief constable of Bedfordshire, admitted there were officers who were guilty of corruption, kidnap and murder. But he said the situation was getting better and promised UK forces would not leave until Iraqis were ready. He told BBC's The World at One 'We know that there are bad apples.'Mr Colbourne said that in spite of an anti-militia drive by the new provincial director of police, Major General Jaleel Khalaf Shuwail, a number of officers were still linked to violence.

Contractors in Iraq Have Become U.S. Crutch
One still playing out is the extraordinarily wide use of private contractors. A Congressional Research Service report published last month titled 'Private Security Contractors in Iraq: Background, Legal Status, and Other Issues,' puts it this way: 'Iraq appears to be the first case where the U.S. government has used private contractors extensively for protecting persons and property in potentially hostile or hostile situations where host country security forces are absent or deficient.' Only estimates are available for the total employment by contractors in Iraq that perform 'functions once carried by the U.S. military,' according to the study. Testimony at an April 2007 congressional hearing gave the impressive figure of 127,000 as the number working in Iraq under Defense Department contracts. Breakdowns don't exist, but one Pentagon official said less than 20 percent were American.

Britain's controversial weapons
As the MoD makes an order for a new type of weapon, Channel 4 News asks why they aren't more open about its characteristics. As the campaign for hearts and minds falters and the civilian death toll mounts, our troops will get weapons similar to those the Soviets experimented with there. The lethal blast creates a massive heat and pressure wave - shown in the manufacturer's video - flattening buildings, crushing victims to death. The Russians used these sort of bombs - called thermobarics - to level Grozny. And because of memories of Grozny, the military is very sensitive about these devices. Today in army newspeak, they're called 'enhanced blast devices'.

Miami Five’s defense exposes errors and jury intimidation jury during trial
On August 20, the 11th Circuit Appeals Court in Atlanta heard convincing allegations by the legal team defending the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the United States. The defense lawyers submitted that the prosecution committed serious procedural errors and used intimidation to pressure the jury of the initial trial, which took place in Miami in a climate of apparent hostility toward the five heroes. For the first time eminent foreign legal professionals were present at the hearing of the case of Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labaniño, Antonio Guerrero and René González, known as the Five in the international campaign for their release.

Stun Gun for every UK cop
Taser stun guns will next year be routinely issued to ALL police in England and Wales to combat rising street violence. For the first time they will be used against mobs of drunken yobs, drug gangs protecting their 'turf' or race-hate hooligans.
The need for action was highlighted yesterday as police used a Taser to subdue and arrest a knifeman who lunged at a cop in Newcastle. At present Tasers can only be issued to trained firearms officers as an alternative to conventional guns when there is a threat of death or serious violence. But Home Secretary Jacqui Smith believes they should be deployed more often to safeguard cops.

After 9/11, Rudy wasn't a rescue worker - he was a Yankee
On Friday, a New York Times story examined Rudy Giuliani's schedule in the months after 9/11 to verify his controversial claim that, like rescue workers, he'd spent long hours at ground zero, and so was 'in that sense ... one of them.' In fact, the Times found, he only spent 29 hours at the terror site between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16. What was he doing instead? Giuliani's beloved New York Yankees made it to the World Series in 2001. We decided to compare the time he spent on baseball to the time he spent at the ruins of the World Trade Center. The results were, considering the mayor's long-standing devotion to the Bronx Bombers, unsurprising. By our count, Giuliani spent about 58 hours at Yankees games or flying to them in the 40 days between Sept. 25 and Nov. 4, roughly twice as long as he spent at ground zero in the 90 days between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16.

Final Abu Ghraib abuse trial begins
A US military court has dismissed two of the most serious charges against the only ranking US officer accused of abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. Army Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Jordan is the last of 12 defendants to face a court-martial over the case. Prosecutors also amended one of the four remaining charges Jordan still faces, narrowing the scope in a cruelty and maltreatment charge from three months to a single day. Jordan, 51, has pleaded innocent to illegally approving the use of dogs and nudity during interrogations, and allowing the mistreatment of Abu Ghraib prisoners to continue. He faces up to eight-and-a-half years in prison if found guilty on the four remaining charges.

The Iraq war as we see it
Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day.

Amazon forest sold off in housing scam, claims Greenpeace
The Brazilian government stands accused of selling off huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest - including its oldest protected national park - to unscrupulous logging companies, under the cover of a flawed sustainable development project. The Brazilian President, Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva, won power in 2003 with a promise to settle 400,000 homeless families during his four-year term, an unrealistic target he is accused of reaching in last-minute deals prior to last year's election. An eight-month investigation by Greenpeace into the land scam, revealed that the Brazilian land reform agency, INCRA, had set up large settlements in rainforest areas instead of placing them in already deforested areas, and settling urban families who promptly sold logging rights to major timber conpanies.

No death in the afternoon: state TV axes bullfights
It was once, along with football matches featuring Real Madrid, the lifeblood of Spain's public television. In the late afternoon bars with television sets would fill up, families would settle down together in their living rooms, and the country's most famous television presenter would appear on the screen to announce the day's star attraction - the bullfight. At times of political tension the regime of rightwing dictator General Francisco Franco reputedly programmed bullfights against protests. How many people, the logic apparently went, were going to join a march for freedom if the sex symbol matador Manuel Benítez El Cordobés was on the television?

Protests over terror arrest of German academic
Academics from around the world have protested to Germany's federal prosecutor about the arrest and detention of a Berlin sociologist who is accused of associating with a terrorist group - apparently on the basis of his academic work. Andrej Holm, from Berlin's Humboldt University, who specialises in urban gentrification, was arrested three weeks ago on suspicion of aiding a militant organisation suspected of carrying out more than 25 arson attacks in Berlin since 2001. In protest letters the academics from across Europe, the US and Canada said Mr Holm's arrest was based on his academic writings, and the evidence used to connect him to terrorism was at best flimsy.

Iraqi Shia uprising trial begins
The trial of 15 aides to Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president, over their alleged role in the suppression of a Shia uprising in 1991, has opened in Baghdad. Among those being tried is Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin, who has already been sentenced to death having been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial opened on Tuesday, and is the third to be held by the Iraqi High Tribunal, an Iraqi court set up with US assistance to examine crimes committed by Saddam's government. Prosecutors will argue that tens of thousands of Shia were killed when armed forces put down an uprising in southern Iraq by deserting soldiers retreating from their defeat in Kuwait in the first Gulf war.

Howard accused of strip club smear against rival
The Australian opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, whose squeaky-clean image has been dented by revelations that he visited a lap-dancing club in New York, indicated yesterday that the conservative government may have leaked the episode in an attempt to smear him. The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, had taunted Mr Rudd during parliamentary questions about three months ago, telling him: 'We know all about you and Col Allan in New York.' Allan, the Australian who is editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, invited Mr Rudd and another Labour politician, Warren Snowdon, for late-night drinks at the strip club Scores in 2003. Mr Rudd claims to have almost no memory of being in the club, because he was so drunk.

Two charges against Abu Ghraib officer dropped
A military judge on Monday dismissed two charges against a U.S. Army intelligence officer charged with abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Lt. Col. Steven Jordan headed the interrogation center at the prison and is the highest-ranking person charged in the abuse scandal which came to light after pictures showed U.S. troops sexually humiliating detainees. The dismissal of charges that Jordan made false statements to investigators and obstructed justice came at a hearing before the start of his court-martial at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, the Army said in a statement.

Beneath Heathrow's pall of misery, a new political movement is born
There are plenty of people at the Heathrow climate camp who say they are campaigning on behalf of their children. But when Alf Pereira spoke on Sunday outside the church in Harmondsworth, we knew he meant it. His daughter died of bronchial problems caused, he believes, by pollution from the airport. She was buried in the graveyard behind us. He fears that if a third runway is built, the developers will disinter her. Until this week, Mr Pereira's voice was drowned by the roar of jet engines. The people of the villages around the airport have been campaigning for years against the threat of expansion, but no one in power has listened. Both the government and the airports operator BAA appear determined to evict the living and raise the dead.

Thousands more homes face life in shadow of the flightpath
The campaign to halt the expansion of Heathrow will intensify dramatically after it emerged that thousands of homes will be blighted by new flight paths to handle a massive increase in traffic from the airport. As the week of climate change protests reached a climax yesterday with a blockade of the headquarters of the airport operator, BAA, a coalition of 12 communities - two million people - unveiled a new battle over noise pollution in London and the home counties, which will be the inevitable outcome from a planned third runway at Heathrow. Under government proposals, which will go out to public consultation in autumn, the world's busiest international airport would see its number of take-offs and landings nearly double from 480,000 to 800,000 a year by adding a runway for short-haul flights by 2020 and expanding the use of the existing two runways.

Pupils face tracking bugs in school blazers
A school uniform maker said yesterday it was 'seriously considering' adding tracking devices to its clothes after a survey found many parents would be interested in knowing where their offspring were. Trutex would not say whether it was studying a spy in the waistband or a bug in the blazer but admitted teenagers were less keen than younger children on the 'big brother' idea. The Lancashire company, which sells 1m blouses, 1.1m shirts, 250,000 pairs of trousers, 200,000 blazers, 60,000 skirts and 110,000 pieces of knitwear each year, commissioned an online survey for 809 parents and 444 children aged between nine and 16. It said 44% of the adults were worried about the safety of pre-teen children and 59% would be interested in satellite tracking systems being incorporated in schoolwear.

Meet Britain's biggest eco-wasters
The family with gas-guzzling cars, 15 televisions and a barrage of wasteful electrical home appliances badly needed a makeover. Meet the Fowlers. Roger, 46, is the likeable, blokeish father of three who runs a successful courier company from his seven-bedroom, £1 million farmhouse near Stoke-on-Trent with his engaging wife, Nicola, 37. Going greener: the Fowler family love their gadgets They moved here with their nine-year old, Katya (who wants to be an actress), and their sulky but polite sons, Francis, 15, and Jonathan, 13, to escape the rat race of life in the south-east. So far, so normal - but the Fowler family has a guilty secret - they were once the proud possessors of what was estimated to be the largest carbon footprint of any family in the UK.

The Empire and the Independent Island: Reflection by Fidel Castro
The history of Cuba during the last 140 years is one of struggle to preserve national identity and independence, and the history of the evolution of the American empire, its constant craving to appropriate Cuba and of the horrendous methods that it uses today to hold on to world domination. Prominent Cuban historians have dealt in depth with these subjects in different periods and in various excellent books which deserve to be readily available to our compatriots. These reflections are addressed especially to the new generations with the aim of helping them learn about very important and decisive events in the destiny of our homeland.