Sudan Accepts UN/AU Force for Darfur

Reuters - Sudan accepts hybrid force for Darfur

Sudan on Tuesday agreed to a combined United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police to be deployed in its troubled Darfur region after months of intense diplomacy.

AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said Khartoum agreed to a hybrid, compromise force of between 17,000 and 19,000 troops and an additional 3,700 police.

Blair Dismisses New Investigation of Bribery Claims

Telegraph - Blair: No new BAE probe despite bribe claims

Tony Blair has dismissed calls to reopen an investigation into a 1980s arms deal as new allegations surfaced that £1 billion in secret "sweetener" payments were made to a Saudi Prince.

Here is a post from yesterday about what’s happening.

Secret CIA Prisons in Europe

The Guardian - CIA ran secret prisons for detainees in Europe, says inquiry

The CIA operated secret prisons in Europe where terrorism suspects could be interrogated and were allegedly tortured, an official inquiry will conclude today.

Despite denials by their governments, senior Polish and Romanian security officials have confirmed to the Council of Europe that their countries were used to hold some of America's most important prisoners captured after 9/11 in secret.

None of the prisoners had access to the Red Cross and many were subject to what George Bush has called the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation, which critics have condemned as torture. Although suspicions about the secret CIA prisons have existed for more than a year, the council's report, seen by the Guardian, appears to offer the first concrete evidence. It also details the prisons' operations and the identities of some of the prisoners.

Probe says Saudi Prince Received Secret Payments

BBC - Saudi prince 'received arms cash'

A Saudi prince who negotiated a £40bn arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia received secret payments for over a decade, a BBC probe has found.

The UK's biggest arms dealer, BAE Systems, paid hundreds of millions of pounds to the ex-Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

The payments were made with the full knowledge of the Ministry of Defence.

Prince Bandar "categorically" denied receiving any improper payments and BAE said it acted lawfully at all times.

According to Panorama's sources, the payments were written into the arms deal contract in secret annexes, described as "support services".

They were authorised on a quarterly basis by the MoD.

It remains unclear whether the payments were actually illegal - a point which depends in part on whether they continued after 2001, when the UK made bribery of foreign officials an offence.

The payments were discovered during a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation.

The SFO inquiry into the Al Yamamah deal was stopped in December 2006 by attorney general Lord Goldsmith.

Here is a post which has an article about the stopped SFO investigation.

Fluoride Rejected in Rotherham

Yorkshire Post - Tapwater fluoride call rejected

ROTHERHAM Council has decided against putting fluoride in the borough's water supply to improve the condition of children's teeth, claiming there is insufficient evidence that it works.

The idea was strongly recommended by Rotherham Primary Care Trust, which said adding fluoride to tap- water can improve dental health and reduce decay.

But a review by the borough council concluded there was not enough evidence to back up the suggestion and said too much fluoride could have serious health implications.

Here is my previous post on fluoride. It also contains links to posts about fluoride from my older blog.

Did 1.5 Million Get Evicted Over Olympic Games in China?

AP - Group: China Olympics Evict 1.5 Million

Some 1.5 million Chinese have been forced from their homes during preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a rights group said Tuesday.

China rejected the figures from the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions as "groundless'' and said some 6,000 families had been compensated and properly resettled.

Failed Censorship

Reuters - Young clerk let Tiananmen ad slip past censors: paper

A young clerk with no knowledge of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown allowed a tribute to victims slip into the classified ads page of a newspaper in southwest China, a Hong Kong daily reported on Wednesday.

The tiny ad in the lower right corner of page 14 of the Chengdu Evening News on Monday night, read: "Paying tribute to the strong(-willed) mothers of June 4 victims".

An investigation was launched by Chinese authorities to find out how the advertisement slipped its way past censors.

Public discussion of the massacre is still taboo in Beijing and the government has rejected calls to overturn the verdict that the student-led demonstrations were "counter-revolutionary", or subversive. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed when the army crushed the pro-democracy protests on June 4, 1989.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said a young woman on the Chengdu Evening News classified section had allowed the ad to be published because she'd never heard of the June 4 crackdown.

A man gave the advertisement to the clerk, who had recently graduated and worked for an advertising company responsible for receiving content for the ads section, the Post reported.

"She called the man back two days later to check what June 4 meant and the man said it was (a date on which) a mining disaster took place," the Post quoted a source at the paper as saying.

"This highlights (the fact) that the government needs to face up to history," the paper quoted the source as saying.

References to the massacre are barred in state media, the Internet and printed works, meaning many of China's younger generation are ignorant of the events.

Censorship on the Internet

BBC - Censorship 'changes face of net'

Amnesty International has warned that the internet "could change beyond all recognition" unless action is taken against the erosion of online freedoms.

The warning comes ahead of a conference organised by Amnesty, where victims of repression will outline their plights.

The "virus of internet repression" has spread from a handful of countries to dozens of governments, said the group.

Amnesty accused companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo of being complicit in the problem.

Lewis Libby Sentenced

Reuters - Ex-Cheney aide sentenced to 30 months in leak case

A former top aide to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was sentenced on Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in prison for lying and obstructing an investigation related to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton imposed the stiff sentence on Lewis "Scooter" Libby for lying to investigators trying to determine who leaked the identity of CIA analyst Valerie Plame in 2003.

Walton also imposed a fine of $250,000 and two years probation.

A spokeswoman for President George W. Bush, who could pardon Libby, said Bush had no plans to intervene in the case while the appeals process continues.

A hearing was set for next week on whether Libby can remain out of prison as he appeals.

That process could last until nearly the end of Bush's second and final term in office, when he would presumably be more free to pardon his vice president's one-time top assistant.

"I find it very plausible that we're going to see a pardon right in that window after the election and before the president leaves office" in January 2009, said Scott Fredricksen, a former government lawyer.

Reuters - White House: Bush won't intervene now in Libby case

President George W. Bush does not plan to intervene in the case of a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney while the appeals process is still under way, his spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

My previous post on Lewis Libby can be seen here.

Russian Missiles May Target Europe

AP - Putin: Missiles may target Europe (Internet Archive link)

Moscow could aim nuclear weapons at targets in Europe as part of "retaliatory steps" if Washington proceeds with building a missile defense system on the continent, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

Speaking to foreign reporters days before he travels to Germany for the annual summit with President Bush and the other Group of Eight leaders, Putin assailed the White House plan to place a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland. Washington says the system is needed to counter a potential threat from Iran.

In an interview released Monday, Putin suggested that Russia may respond to the threat by aiming its nuclear weapons at Europe.

My previous posts on this missile shield situation can be seen here:

What's Going On With Russia?

Russian Missiles Can Be Fired At Europe

Russia Capable Of Hitting U.S. Missile Shield

Stocks in China Drop

Reuters - China shares tumble as panic spreads

China stocks tumbled 8.3 percent on Monday in their second biggest drop this decade, erasing $340 billion in market value and extending big losses from last week after the government hiked the share trading tax to cool a feverish bull run.

Personal Data Hidden in iTunes Tracks

Times Online - Personal data found hidden in iTunes tracks

Fresh privacy fears have been sparked after it emerged that Apple has embedded personal information into music files bought from its iTunes online music store.

Technology websites examining iTunes products discovered that personal data, including the name and e-mail addresses of purchasers, are embedded into the AAC files that Apple uses to distribute music tracks.

The information is also included in tracks sold under Apple’s iTunes Plus system, launched this week, where users pay a premium for music that is free from the controversial digital rights (DRM) software that is designed to safeguard against piracy.

U.S. Attacks Somali Village

BBC - US attacks Somali 'militant base'

A US Navy warship has carried out a missile attack on a Somali village where Islamist militants are reported to have set up a base.

U.S. Presence in Iraq like in South Korea

Reuters - Bush envisions U.S. presence in Iraq like S.Korea

President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability but not in a frontline combat role, the White House said on Wednesday.

The United States has had thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea to guard against a North Korean invasion for 50 years.

Magnetic Fields and Cancer

Reuters - Magnetic fields tied to railway workers' cancer

Railway workers exposed to low-frequency magnetic fields may have an elevated risk of certain blood cancers, new study findings suggest.

In a study of more than 20,000 Swiss railway workers who were followed for 30 years, researchers found that certain workers' risk of myeloid leukemia and Hodgkin's lymphoma climbed in tandem with their exposure to very low-frequency magnetic fields.

Talking Cameras

BBC - 'Talking' CCTV cameras for city

CCTV cameras that tell people off for committing anti-social behaviour have gone live in Greater Manchester.

The "talking" cameras in Salford come complete with speakers to bark orders at litter louts or vandals.

The speakers have been rigged to 11 CCTV cameras along Liverpool Road, and officers in the control room can flick a switch and speak to offenders.

My previous post on talking cameras can be seen here: Camera Capabilities

My other posts on cameras can be seen here:

NY Security Cameras

Cameras In Toronto

X-ray Cameras

Cameras Going Up In Toronto

Bilderberg Conference 2007

The Bilderberg Group will be meeting May 31st - June 3rd in Istanbul, Turkey this year.

UPDATE - June 1, 2007. 5:36 pm: The meeting is at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Here is an article about it. A list of some of the guests is there.

Turkish Daily News - 'High priests of globalization' in Istanbul

Some call it "the multinational government", some call it the "elite club which shapes world policies" while others say it essentially "fixes" the world's fate. It literally breeds conspiracy theories all around the world with its secrecy, while participants say it is only a private gathering that should be respected.

Fluoride in Manchester

Manchester Evening News - Bid to put fluoride in water

FOUR schemes for adding fluoride to tap water across Greater Manchester are being considered.

Health bosses have asked United Utilities to price up four options for the highly controversial scheme to improve the region's terrible dental health. They argue adding fluoride to the water supply could help improve dental health - it strengthens tooth enamel. But some anti-fluoride campaigners claim it is potentially dangerous mass medication.

I posted articles about fluoride before. They were posted a few months back and can be seen here and here.

No point in even going into the negative things that fluoride does since you don’t have to look that far to see how totally ridiculous this whole concept of putting fluoride in the tap water is. It’s mass medication. It’s getting put in because some people are having tooth problems. What are they going to do next? Put aspirin in the water because a lot of people are having headaches. It’s totally ridiculous. Stop eating filth and brush your teeth but no, the logical solution to this problem is of course to throw away millions of dollars and mass medicate people.

Pfizer Faces Criminal Charges

The Washington Post - Pfizer Faces Criminal Charges in Nigeria

Officials in Nigeria have brought criminal charges against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for the company's alleged role in the deaths of children who received an unapproved drug during a meningitis epidemic.

Authorities in Kano, the country's largest state, filed eight charges this month related to the 1996 clinical trial, including counts of criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous harm. They also filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $2 billion in damages and restitution from Pfizer, the world's largest drug company.

The government alleges that Pfizer researchers selected 200 children and infants from crowds at a makeshift epidemic camp in Kano and gave about half of the group an untested antibiotic called Trovan. Researchers gave the other children what the lawsuit describes as a dangerously low dose of a comparison drug made by Hoffmann-La Roche. Nigerian officials say Pfizer's actions resulted in the deaths of an unspecified number of children and left others deaf, paralyzed, blind or brain-damaged.

The lawsuit says that the researchers did not obtain consent from the children's families and that the researchers knew Trovan to be an experimental drug with life-threatening side effects that was "unfit for human use." Parents were banned from the ward where the drug trial occurred, the suit says, and the company left no medical records in Nigeria.

Phone Masts Kept Secret

The Independent - Phone mast locations kept from public

Mobile phone companies and the Government's official regulator are keeping information about the siting of radiation-emitting masts secret, despite rising concern about effects they may have on health.

The companies have stopped disclosing the sites of newly erected masts in what critics describe as "a fit of pique". And Ofcom, the communications industry regulator has refused to release information because it is afraid this might make the firms even more secretive.

News of the cover-up came as Sir William Stewart, the Government's top health protection watchdog, publicly voiced concerns about the possible effects of the radiation from the masts and Wi-Fi installations, and called for a "timely" official review.