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NEW ORLEANS - The city’s embattled police department will have another internal investigation to face after a swarm of converging officers gunned down a man brandishing a knife.
A police spokesman said the officers who fired on the man Monday will be reassigned pending the outcome of the probe, but he defended their response, saying at least one officer’s life was in danger just prior to the barrage of gunfire.
"You have a subject who’s lunging at them with a knife... swinging wildly at (…)

By Evo Morales
Thank you for the invitation to this great meeting of intellectuals "In Defense of Humanity." Thank you for your applause for the Bolivian people, who have mobilized in these recent days of struggle, drawing on our consciousness and our regarding how to reclaim our natural resources.
What happened these past days in Bolivia was a great revolt by those who have been oppressed for more than 500 years. The will of the people was imposed this September and October, and has (…)

by George Monbiot
The road rage lobby couldn’t have been more wrong. Organisations like the Association of British Drivers and "Safe Speed" - the boy racers’ club masquerading as a road safety campaign - have spent years claiming that speeding doesn’t cause accidents. Safe Speed, with the help of some of the most convoluted arguments I’ve ever read, even seeks to prove that speed cameras "make our roads more dangerous"(1). Other groups, such as Motorists Against Detection (officially known (…)

by Eliot Weinberger
In 2005 I heard that Coalition forces were camped in the ruins of Babylon. I heard that bulldozers had dug trenches through the site and cleared areas for helicopter landing pads and parking lots, that thousands of sandbags had been filled with dirt and archaeological fragments, that a 2600-year-old brick pavement had been crushed by tanks, and that the moulded bricks of dragons had been gouged out from the Ishtar Gate by soldiers collecting souvenirs. I heard that the (…)

By Bill McKibben
The year 2005 has been the hottest year on record for the planet, hotter than 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2003. More importantly, perhaps, this has been the autumn when the planet has shown more clearly than before just what that extra heat means. Consider just a few of the findings published in the major scientific journals during the last three months: Arctic sea ice is melting fast. There was 20 percent less of it than normal this summer, and as Dr. Mark Serreze, one of the (…)

Clarence Ray Allen, a Choctaw Indian, will turn 76 years old on Jan. 16, 2006, the day before the state intends to execute him on January 19, in San Quentin. A few months ago, Mr. Allen "flatlined" (died) from a heart attack... and was resuscitated by the medical staff, so that he can be properly executed in January 06! San Quentin Correctional Facility has issued a statement that Mr. Allen, although wheelchair bound, will have to walk 15 feet to the death gurney, because the death chamber (…)

The US ambassador in London has been forced into an embarrassing retreat after his embassy clarified comments he made denying that the United States was involved in removing terrorist suspects to Syria.
Robert Tuttle told Radio 4’s Today programme last Thursday that there was no evidence that US forces had sent suspected terrorists for questioning in Syria, a practice known as "extraordinary rendition".
The US embassy issued a statement yesterday acknowledging that there had been claims (…)

Dismayed by the refusal of EU to publish their own Ramallah and East Jerusalem Heads of Mission findings regarding Israeli state actions towards non Jewish residents of East Jerusalem, Jewish and other peace groups and Palestinian Solidarity campaigns around Europe have decided they must take matters into their own hands.
Every organisation listed below will publish the Report on their websites. A copy of the report can be found on the PSC www.palestinecampaign.org
The day after the (…)

Fraud Alleged at Red Cross Call Centers Contract Workers in Calif. Stole From Katrina Aid Program, Indictments Say
By Jacqueline L. Salmon Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 27, 2005; A02
Nearly 50 people have been indicted in connection with a scheme that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Red Cross program to put cash into the hands of Hurricane Katrina victims, according to federal authorities.
Seventeen of the accused worked at the Red Cross claim center in (…)

Washington, DC - Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-35) expressed outrage and concern about President Bush’s decision to bypass the US Constitution and laws to permit the National Security Agency (”NSA”) to spy on American citizens.
“The revelation of this NSA program is very problematic,” said Congresswoman Waters. “The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (”FISA”) was passed in 1978 to establish clear laws governing the NSA and other intelligence agencies in response to these (…)