Sponsorised links
January 2008
Oops: MPAA admits college piracy numbers grossly inflated
After commissioning ... study ... that showed collegiate file-swappers were responsible for 44 percent of movie studio "losses" to piracy, the MPAA then used the report ... to bludgeon Congress into considering legislation... Now the MPAA admits ... collegiate piracy accounts for only 15 percent of "losses."
Guardian | This brutal siege of Gaza can only breed violence
Palestinian suffering has reached new depths. Peace cannot be built by reducing 1.5m people to a state of abject destitution
Paul Krugman: Debunking the Reagan Myth - SPIEGEL
the furor over Barack Obama's praise for Ronald Reagan is not, as some think, overblown.
BBC | Macau revenues close in on Vegas
Last year, Macau's gambling revenues overtook those of the 40 casinos along Las Vegas Strip.
No light, no heat, no bread: stark reality for the powerless in Gaza | Guardian
Osama Nahal, a paediatric doctor in the European hospital's special care baby unit, looked resigned. "Politics is politics, but the care of human beings must be away from politics," he said. His unit now has 10 newly-born patients, of whom two are on ventilators.
FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft - Times
THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets.
'Enemy combatant' receives 17-year US jail term | Guardian
A US citizen held for more than three years without charge as an "enemy combatant" was today sentenced to 17 years and four months...
Biotech groups desert international agriculture project | Guardian
Monsanto, Syngenta and BASF resigned after a draft report from the project highlighted the risks of GM crops and said they could pose problems for the developing world.
Guardian | Bubble economics
Alan Greenspan - the man primarily responsible for the current crisis. Greenspan, always accommodating to the needs of Wall Street, worked on the principle that the best way to cope with the collapse of one bubble was to blow another one.
BBC | Canada puts US on 'torture list'
The United States has been listed as a country where prisoners are at risk of torture in a training document produced by the Canadian foreign ministry.
BBC | Thirteen convicted for India riot
More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the riots, although independent groups say the toll was nearly 2,000.
E-Commerce News: Time Warner Starts the Meter in Net Access Experiment
Time Warner's plan includes installing bandwidth meters on new high-speed accounts and giving users access to a Web page where they can track how much they have consumed and upgrade to more expensive plans if necessary. Users will pay on a per-gigabyte basis for bandwidth they use above and beyond their plan.
Sponsorised links
March 2007
Our Founding Illegals - NYT
You wouldn’t know it from the immigration debate going on all year (the bipartisan immigration bill-in-progress, announced this week, is unlikely to mention it), but America’s pioneer values developed in a distinctly illegal context.
October 2006
Pinochet held on murder and torture charges | Guardian
The former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, was detained under house arrest in Santiago today, over charges including, murder, torture and kidnapping in the years following his 1973 coup.
BBC | Security firms 'abusing Iraqis'
Private security firms operating in Iraq are committing human rights abuses, a charity has claimed.
BBC | Starbucks in Ethiopia coffee row
US coffee chain Starbucks is denying Ethiopia earnings of £47m ($88m) a year, according to Oxfam.
New Jersey Court Backs Rights for Same-Sex Unions - NYT
New Jersey’s highest court ruled on Wednesday that gay couples are entitled to the same legal rights and financial benefits as heterosexual couples, but split over whether their unions must be called marriage or could be known by another name, handing that question to the Legislature.
Guardian | Muslims being demonised, says Livingstone
"That echoes very much the demonology of Nazi Germany when Hitler said it was the Jews' fault and the problems were brought upon themselves. There is a faint echo of that in a lot of the rubbish we have been seeing in the media recently."
Guardian | Humans using resources of two planets, WWF warns
If everyone lived as Britons did, three planets would be needed to sustain the world's population, the group said.
Rwanda Genocide: French Role in Slaughter under Investigation - SPIEGEL
The Rwandan government has alleged since 1994 that French soldiers trained and armed some of the Hutus that carried out the massacre, and also allowed Hutu extremists to enter camps set up to protect Tutsis.
Lieberman’s Words on War Show Some Shifts - NYT
NYT gives examples of Leiberman's self-serving shifting positions on Iraq.
BBC | US 'cannot stay course' in Iraq
A senior US state department official earlier said that the US has shown "arrogance and stupidity" in Iraq.
Whiskey Bar: Friends in High Places
Time magazine is reporting that Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is under investigation for her ties to the Israel lobby
And the Winner Is ... Me - NYT
Republican nominee, Kenneth Blackwell, who is also the Ohio secretary of state, could rule that his opponent is ineligible to run because of a technicality.
Guardian | FO's human rights report omits attacks on Lebanon
Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, told a press conference the omission was because the timing was "a little bit tight" for publication. She said she anticipated the war being dealt with more fully in next year's report.
But the authors did find sufficient time to include criticism of the Lebanese-based guerrilla group Hizbullah, and one of its backers, Syria, over attacks on Israel and to provide a figure for Israeli, but not Lebanese, casualties.
