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by Shinya Ajima
HIROSHIMA - Hiroshima on Friday morning marked the 59th anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city. An estimated 40,000 people attended the ceremony that started at 8 a.m. at the Peace Memorial Park in the downtown part of the western Japan city that was devastated in the world’s first nuclear attack Aug 6, 1945, three days before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
In his peace declaration, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba voiced serious concern over the (…)

HIROSHIMA, Japan - The mayor of Hiroshima marked the anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb attack Friday by lashing out at the United States for its pursuit of next-generation nuclear weapons and called for a global ban on all nuclear arms by 2020.
Denouncing U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration for its "egocentric" view of the world, Tadatoshi Akiba said the United States has turned its back on other countries.
"Ignoring the United Nations and international law, the (…)

by Kim Sengupta
The two helicopter gunships took off late in the morning, blades slashing the air as they banked over Nayala airport to head off for another day on the killing grounds of Darfur.
The Russian-built Hines began their military mission just after a flight had arrived from Britain loaded with aid for villagers fleeing the murders, mutilations and rapes of the Sudanese region, which is experiencing what the United Nations has described as the "world’s worst humanitarian (…)

by Robert Fisk
"I vomited," Mouffak Fathi Daoud says, and you have to understand why. Three young soldiers were brought to the trees on the hills outside Sulimaniyah. They had been retreating from the great battle against the Iranians on Jebel Maout. Saddam had ordered that all deserters should be shot. Daoud was one of the Iraqi army’s top newsreel cameramen. He didn’t have to watch. But he was a witness.
"They were between 20 and 26 years old. All of them said the same thing, ’Our (…)

McCain Calls Ad Criticizing Kerry’s Military Service ’Dishonest and Dishonorable’
Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry’s military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.
The White House declined.
"It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, comparing the anti-Kerry ad to tactics in his bitter (…)

By Ben Dobbin
FEDERAL agents investigating the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks searched homes Thursday belonging to the founder of an organisation that trains medical professionals to respond to chemical and biological attacks.
More than three dozen agents, some in protective suits, combed through two homes in this upstate New York village at the same time as a similar search occurred in New Jersey.
Authorities provided few specifics about the investigation, other than to say that FBI and (…)

by F. William Engdahl
Today, much of the world is convinced the Bush Administration did not wage war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein because of threat from weapons of mass destruction, nor from terror dangers. Still a puzzle, however, is why Washington would risk so much in terms of relations with its allies and the entire world, to occupy Iraq. There is compelling evidence that oil and geopolitics lie at the heart of the still-hidden reasons for the military action in Iraq.
It is (…)

YC Police Officer Stands Trial for Refusing to Arrest Homeless Man; Could Lose Job
NEW YORK - An officer on trial for refusing to arrest a homeless man took the stand Thursday, saying he was punished for trying to help needy people instead of locking them up.
Officer Eduardo Delacruz could be kicked off the police force if an administrative judge finds him guilty of failing to obey a lawful order. He refused to arrest a homeless man who had been sleeping in a Manhattan parking garage in (…)

The nation’s largest lawyers group plans to consider a strongly worded condemnation of the Bush administration’s treatment of overseas detainees as well as recommendations that would make it easier to prosecute members of the U.S. military and civilians who torture prisoners.
The subject will be debated during the 400,000-member American Bar Association’s summer meeting, which begins Thursday in Atlanta. Other proposals address abortion rights, human cloning and prison sentences.
"The (…)

WASHINGTON - Sen. Richard Shelby (search) accused federal law enforcement officials of abuse Thursday after a newspaper reported that federal investigators had concluded he leaked to the media classified messages from the eve of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation, reported that the Alabama Republican’s role had been confirmed to FBI investigators by FOX News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron. Cameron denied that. (…)