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THE Fire Brigades Union has voted to break its 86-year affiliation with New Labour in a move instigated by a Northern Ireland member.
21 June 2004
The vote at the national conference was in response to a motion moved by Tony Maguire, a firefighter and member of the Belfast-based Socialist Party.
Mr Maguire said the FBU had been "demonised" by the Government during its pay dispute.
The vote was carried 35,000 to 14,000, prompting Mr Maguire to call for the creation of a "new working (…)

By Antony Barnett and Martin Bright
A British lawyer is emerging as a key witness in a $180 million bribery investigation that could lead to the indictment of US vice president Dick Cheney.
Last week, US oil corporation Halliburton cut all ties with a former senior executive, Albert Stanley, after it emerged he had received as much as $5m in ’improper personal benefits’ as part of a $4bn gas project in Nigeria. Halliburton also sacked a second ’consultant’, William Chaudan in connection (…)

When Morgan Spurlock stuffed himself with junk food until his doctors begged him to stop, he threw an industry into a super-size crisis. Now a fierce corporate counter-attack has begun.
By Andrew Gumbel
A few days into his grand experiment of eating all McDonald’s, all the time, for 30 days straight, the New York film-maker Morgan Spurlock started complaining of headaches and other unpleasant side-effects: listlessness, depression, chest pains, shortness of breath, sexual dysfunction and (…)

By Robert Gavin
BREWER, Maine — In a fast-moving global economy, driven by technology and fierce competition, there was no longer a place for Eastern Fine Paper, a century-old mill on the Penobscot River here. The same might be said for Jim Bracy.
Bracy, 47, is a high school dropout who, after losing his job at bankrupt Eastern, quickly learned that 27 years in a paper mill qualified him only for service jobs that paid a fraction of his old paycheck. Today, he works at a local Home (…)

By Arianna Huffington
It’s that time. And I’m not talking about cicadas. It’s graduation time, and all across the country high school seniors are tossing their mortarboards into the air and heading off to face a future filled with hope, promise - and soaring college tuition and fees.
It’s one of the few areas in which the GOP really has taken the country to a higher level.
The cost of a college education at a four-year public university has risen a devastating 35 percent since George (…)

No to fake sovereignty — Bring the troops home now
Defend your right to protest at the Republican National Convention (RNC) NO PERMITS, NO PEACE!
Wednesday, June 30, 5 p.m. In front of Madison Square Garden Eighth Ave. & 32nd St., Manhattan
On June 30, there will be demonstrations in many cities and countries on the day of the so-called "turnover of sovereignty" in Iraq. The only real turnover of power on June 30 will be from outgoing U.S. dictator L. Paul Bremer to incoming U.S. (…)

by Hugh Muir
Ken Livingstone’s closest lieutenants have been re-appointed to senior posts in his administration on salaries of £111,000 each.
A week after his re-election, Mr Livingstone has used the powers given to the mayor under the Greater London Authority Act to re-engage six of the advisers who were prominent in the first term. The deal, which has been independently evaluated, means each will earn more than the mayor of New York. Mr Livingstone’s salary is £108,000.
The pay range (…)

The United Nations along with the human rights organizations celebrates the International Day Against Torture, annually, in order to support the torture victims and to raise voices against any violation for the human rights and also to remember all the victims of torture who suffered physical and mental harassment and who passed away under sever torture.
Torture is a crime against humanity, a crime that is still practiced in more than hundred countries.
Torture practices humiliate the (…)

US warplanes launched a fresh air raid on Falluja town on Tuesday night, killing three people and wounding nine others, hospital sources told Aljazeera.
The US raid came few hours after the beheading of South Korean citizen Kim Sun-Il who was captured near Falluja last Thursday.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmit confirmed the US strike was on a “known Zarqawi network” safe house. "Wherever and whenever we find elements of the Zarqawi network, we will attack them," he said.
Witnesses said (…)

By Robert Coalson
Russian President Vladimir Putin caught Russian, U.S., and European observers off guard on 18 June when he unexpectedly announced that Russian intelligence services had repeatedly received information the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had planned terrorist attacks against the United States and U.S. interests abroad. In the ensuing days, Russian commentators have been energetically dissecting the context of Putin’s statement and speculating on just what the KGB (…)