UN: Israeli cluster bombs 'immoral'

"What's shocking and I would say completely immoral is that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we knew there would be an end.

Egelund said that the UN had assessed 'nearly 85 per cent of bombed areas in south Lebanon' and identified '359 separate cluster bomb strike locations that are contaminated with as many 100,000 unexploded bomblets'."

USAID: Transition Initiatives: Venezuela Field Report for April-June 2006

"The antagonistic relationship between the U.S. Government (USG) and the Government of Venezuela (GoV) is a challenge for operations in Venezuela. The primary objective in this environment is to develop projects that bring together supporters of the opposition whose constant public discourse brands anything to do with the U.S. as malevolent and anti-Venezuelan. As an example, part of the official government electoral strategy for the December presidential election calls for government supporters to publicly label those in the opposition as 'bushistas.'

President Chavez continues to rail against the 'Empire' for its 'invasion plans' and 'assassination plots,' all of which the Embassy vigorously denies. Visits by the U.S. Ambassador to the inauguration of new USAID-supported project sites in Caracas and the interior are frequently accompanied by crowds of protestors. The projects, however, are well-received by the community and community leaders - those not prodded by the government -- who often request additional USAID projects in the neglected neighborhoods in Venezuela."

USAID from the American people...

"Transition Initiatives

The USAID Office of Transition Initiatives supports U.S. foreign policy objectives by helping local partners advance peace and democracy in priority countries in crisis. Seizing critical windows of opportunity, OTI works on the ground to provide fast, flexible, short-term assistance targeted at key political transition and stabilization needs."

Guardian Unlimited: US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds

"The US government has been accused of trying to undermine the Chávez government in Venezuela by funding anonymous groups via its main international aid agency.

Millions of dollars have been provided in a 'pro-democracy programme' that Chávez supporters claim is a covert attempt to bankroll an opposition to defeat the government.

The money is being provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Office of Transition Initiatives. The row follows the recent announcement that the US had made $80m (£42m) available for groups seeking to bring about change in Cuba, whose leader, Fidel Castro, is a close ally of Mr Chávez."

Aljazeera.Net - The great Coca-Cola controversy

"Aljazeera.net: What were the high pesticides residues present in the cola products? Are they fatal to human consumption?

Shachi Chaturvedi: We tested 57 samples collected from across India (12 states, accounting for some 30% of the country's bottling plants), and found pesticide residues that were 22-24 times above the levels in all the samples. We found Lindane, Chlorpyrifos, Malathion and Heptachlor.

The bottles were tested using a methodology which, three years ago, was examined and endorsed by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).

Moreover, the presence of pesticide residues was additionally confirmed with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and all its spectra confirm pesticide residues.

Pesticides are used to kill pests, and contain extremely toxic elements. They get into our food chain and keep bio-accumulating in our body over a long period of time. A host of studies done across the world have pointed to the link between pesticides and diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders, foetal problems etc."

Aljazeera.Net - Ahmadinejad offers Bush TV debate

"The Iranian president has challenged his US counterpart to a live television debate.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the offer to George Bush on Tuesday. Thursday is the deadline set by the UN Security Council for Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, and Iran faces possible sanctions if it fails to comply."

Aftonbladet: SKI undersökte atomlarm i Ryssland

"Ett av de största problemen i Kola-verket är avsaknaden av skalskydd. Det finns ingen inkapsling som skyddar om en härdsmälta skulle inträffa och radioaktivt material skulle snabbt spridas till omgivningen."

Ett nytt Tjernobyl??

electronic intifada: Israeli Apartheid: The striking parallels to South Africa

"Citizens of the eleventh class, really not citizens at all, have no rights citizens of the first class or their government are bound to respect. Their residence is forbidden in nearly nine-tenths of the country, all of which they used to own. The areas left to them are cut up into smaller and smaller portions weekly, by high walls, free fire zones and hundreds of checkpoints manned by the army of the first class citizens, so that none can travel a dozen miles in any direction to work, school, shopping, a job, a farm, a business or a hospital without several long waits, humiliating searches and often arbitrary denials of the right to pass or to return."

ZNet American Economy ...its great weakness

American Economy: "Prof. Niall Ferguson of the Harvard University compares the US economy to a dinosaur whose bulk once shook the ground. Yet, it disappeared from the face because of its inner problems. Like it, “the US economy is mind-bogglingly enormous—two and a half times as big as the next largest economy in the world and almost as large as that of the six other members of the Group of Seven combined. The catch is that it has to consume almost incessantly to sustain its great heft.” This reveals its great weakness and the inherent seed of its likely collapse at some future date."

Aftonbladet: Lena Sundström: Det har aldrig kommit blod

"Nyheten om att det inte finns någon mödomshinna är inget annat än en sensationell världsnyhet. Borde inte ha varit något annat än en sensationell världsnyhet.
Breaking news.
Hymen does not exist!
Skicka in Lennart Nilsson med en kamera och sprid bilderna över hela jordklotet."

Venezuela Information Office

"As the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, Venezuela has long been a country of contrasts. Despite its great wealth, 80 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty. To address this injustice, the state-owned oil company has increased annual spending on social programs from 40 million to 1.7 billion dollars. For the first time, many Venezuelans have access to education, job training, housing, and health care. "

The Nation: Neocon Dreams, American Nightmares

"To borrow from both Beyoncé and Yogi Berra, it really is déjà vu all over again. Roughly four years, 2,600 American deaths, $1 trillion and one murderous civil war ago, the same William Kristol predicted that a US invasion of Iraq would inspire 'the principles of liberty and justice in the Islamic world.' Richard Perle, his comrade in armchair warfare, suggested that the impending US invasion would 'transform the thinking of people around the world about the potential for democracy, even in Arab countries."

" Four wars simultaneously? Led by this crew? After what we've seen in Iraq and Afghanistan? Is it me, or are the people who run this country dangerously out of their minds?"

Eric Alterman
The Nation

Offutt, Buffett, and 9/11: Strange Coincidences

By Mary Louise

"The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska' by John W. DeCamp, attorney and former Nebraska senator, is an investigation of satanic sexual abuse, ritual murders, pedophile rings, child pornography and prostitution, kidnapping, and money-laundering. It involves top Washington D.C. politicians, savings and loan executives, and media cover-ups. This book is dedicated to the author's dear friend, Bill Colby, former head of the CIA (before Bush), who died under very mysterious circumstances in 1996.

The Franklin Credit Union scandal centered in Omaha opens a window into the hellish world of child abuse and organized drug trafficking patronized and protected by powerful figures in politics and business. This awful but true story is about the abuse of positions of public trust, the Cover-up by institutions of government, and the abhorrent conduct and Cover-up by some of our wealthiest citizens. The unfinished business of the Franklin investigation is not only a matter involving children from Nebraska, but the lives of untold numbers of children everywhere. "

electronic intifada: Israel's Foreign Ministry provides Free Internet Tool to online activists

"Dear friends,

Many of us recognize the importance of the Internet as the new battleground for Israel's image. It's time to do it better, and coordinate our on-line efforts on behalf of Israel. An Israeli software company have developed a free, safe and useful tool for us - the Internet Megaphone.

Please go to www.giyus.org, download the Megaphone, and you will receive daily updates with instant links to important internet polls, problematic articles that require a talk back, etc.

We need 100,000 Megaphone users to make a difference. So, please distribute this mail to all Israel's supporters.

Do it now. For Israel.

Amir Gissin

Director Public Affairs (Hasbara) Department
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem"

Aljazeera.Net - Church body condemns Israel

"De Clermont said Hezbollah was a scapegoat.

'It is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and not the role and actions of Hezbollah that is at the heart of the present crisis,' the council's statement said."

Aftonbladet: Den starkes fred

"Men Israels krig har onekligen lönat sig: någon annan får bevaka, någon annan får betala, och motståndaren avväpnas.
Det är den starkes fred, skapad på marken, välsignad av FN.

Petter Larsson"

Aftonbladet: Var sjätte laptop paj efter 1 år

Aftonbladet: Var sjätte laptop paj efter 1 år

'KOLLA OM DEN ÄR STABIL' It-chefen Claes Dahlberg på Acando i Göteborg tipsar datorköpare om hur de ska minska risken för fel på sin nya dator. 'Kontrollera att den känns stabil innan du köper den'.
'Om bilar hade byggts lika illa hade vi stått inför en katastrof'"

Israel backed by army of cyber-soldiers - Times Online

"WHILE Israel fights Hezbollah with tanks and aircraft, its supporters are campaigning on the internet."

In the past week nearly 5,000 members of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) have downloaded special “megaphone” software that alerts them to anti-Israeli chatrooms or internet polls to enable them to post contrary viewpoints. A student team in Jerusalem combs the web in a host of different languages to flag the sites so that those who have signed up can influence an opinion survey or the course of a debate.

New Scientist: GM plant has escaped into the wild

"It is the first time a GM (Genetically Modified) plant has escaped into the wild in the US, and it has managed it before securing USDA approval. The plant, creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera, carries a bacterial gene that makes it immune to the potent herbicide glyphosate, better known as Roundup. The manufacturer, The Scotts Company, Marysville, Ohio, is hoping the grass will provide a turf that makes it easier for golf course owners to manage their fairways and greens by letting them kill competing weedy grasses with glyphosate."

Aljazeera.Net - British Muslims criticise profiling

"What you are suggesting is that we should have a new offence in this country called 'travelling whilst Asian'

Ali Desai, a British Muslim chief superintendent"