4.07.2005
Headlines From the Middle East
Settlement Activity Ought to Stop, Rice Says
Bush won't raise thorny issues with PM Sharon in U.S. visit
High alert amid warnings of Temple Mount attack
Israeli rampage:
Settler violence against Palestinians is burgeoning at an alarming rate
Border policeman breaks arm in violent scuffle with Hebron settlers; 10 arrestedA border policeman suffered a broken arm and 10 settlers were arrested during clashes yesterday between security forces and residents of Hebron's Avraham Avinu neighborhood. The protesters were trying to prevent the construction of an eight-meter-long wall intended to protect a Palestinian home from attacks by Jewish settlers.
Abu Mazen's plan to pull the rug out from under Sharon
Israel Limits Rafah Radioactive Screening After Protests
Israeli occupation forces said they would limit the use of a controversial “radioactive” screening room at Rafah border checkpoint after medical experts warned of its life-threatening impact on Palestinian travelers.
Israel's Peeping Tom in Rafah still operational
On a silver screen, Palestinians hear Gandhi's message
Israel and the Occupied Territories: Conflict, occupation and patriarchy-Women carry the burden
Israel's defense minister decides not to destroy homes in Gaza settlements
Police arrest 2 far-rightists suspecting of planting fake bombs in J'lem
Israeli police move to counter hardline Gaza pullout opponents
Bush Sr.'s former advisor blasts younger Bush
Brent Scowcroft, a mentor to current national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, also said in an interview published in England that Bush is inordinately influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Sharon just has him wrapped around his little finger," Scowcroft told London's Financial Times newspaper.
"I think the president is mesmerized."
4/07/2005
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4.06.2005
Papal Conservative Coup In The Offing?
London, April 5: The politics of electing of the next Pope moved into bizarre territory yesterday with rumours sweeping Rome of a conservative plot to secure the papacy.
In a conspiracy theory worthy of a Dan Brown novel, liberals suggested that Pope John Paul II had died a day earlier than was officially declared but the news was withheld to give the conservatives an advantage.
According to the rumours, said to have come from sources in the Italian government and believed by senior cardinals, the Pope actually died on Friday.
The theory goes that conservatives close to the Pope decided that if they had an extra day they could mobilise many more sympathetic Roman Catholics from around the world to converge on Rome for the Pope’s funeral.
The event would then become one of the biggest mass rallies in Catholic history and increase the momentum in favour of the Pope being elevated to sainthood in record time. In this heady atmosphere, the speculation goes, the conservative plotters could then ensure the election of another doctrinally conservative figure in the mould of John Paul II.
The rumour may sound far fetched but the fact that it is circulating among — and is believed by — informed liberal Vatican-watchers was an indication of the febrile mood possessing Rome after the death of the most influential Pope of modern times.
“They managed all this in the Pope’s last hours to mobilise the Polish people and the conservative and charismatic movements, like Opus Dei, Communion and Liberation and the Neo Catechuminates, for the purpose of creating a huge turnout for the funeral,” said one distinguished academic.
further into the article
Amidst the roar of praise for John Paul, some dissenting voices stood out, accusing the Pope of destroying democracy in the Church and alienating many with his rigid moral values.
”The Polish Pope's internal policies were devastating,” Roman Catholicism's leading rebel theologian Hans Kueng said.
Is Karl Rove Catholic? Just asking...
Rise of Opus Dei under Pope has liberals concerned over succession
The Vatican and Family Politics
Vatican Shock Troops: John Paul ll's Holy War
"Highly organised secular humanists in the UN and European governments," explained a Vatican official, are "the enemy."
4/06/2005
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4.05.2005
Abu Ghraib Anomoly? Think Again
Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?
BBC film and text exposing institutionalized prison brutality often using the states own videotapes.
Get more facts: "The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry" is a resource from the Prison Policy Initiative that will open your eyes to the realities of crime and incarceration and the prison economy. Although the book is available to read free online the "Global Comparisons Crime and incarceration around the world" section of the book alone is worth buying the hardcopy for.
4/05/2005
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