Syria 'ready for possible regional war' - "He added that a US-French draft resolution to end the war "adopted Israel's point of view only." Underlining his support for Hizbullah, Moallem said, "as Syria's foreign minister I hope to be a soldier in the resistance.""
Blair, Olmert and Bush are murderers - "No one should be in any doubt which way the chain of cause and effect runs. George Bush, with Tony Blair at his heel, is backing Israel to the hilt because the US wants Hizbollah’s resistance in Lebanon smashed as a prelude to an attack on Iran. In Washington, Blair alluded to such a war."
Olmert tells Europe to stop preaching to Israel - ""European countries attacked Kosovo and killed ten thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket. "I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians.""
Iran's plot to mine uranium in Africa - "The disclosure will heighten western fears about the extent of Iran’s presumed nuclear weapons programme and the strategic implications of Iran’s continuing support for Hezbollah during the war with Israel."
Iranian scientists have visas revoked on eve of meeting in U.S. - "It was supposed to be an academic gathering about earthquakes. But a political temblor bouncing all the way from the war-torn Middle East shook a meeting of elite Iranian scientists and engineers in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday when dozens of their colleagues arrived to find their visas had been inexplicably revoked. U.S. consular officials in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on why as many as 100 people with the Sharif University of Technology Association, who carried valid visas approved months ago, were detained over the last week when they arrived at San Francisco International and other airports from Iran."
Carter: Bush Israel's 'worst ally' in D.C. - "Former President Carter, who helped broker the historic Camp David peace accord, said President Bush has pursued an "erroneous policy" that has fostered violence in the Middle East."
Reuters admits altering Beirut photo - "A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage."
Hong Kong Passes Controversial Spy Bill - "Hong Kong's legislature on Sunday passed a law regulating phone tapping and other surveillance measures, a move critics fear will curtail civil liberties in the former British colony now ruled by China."
Kennedy: Jury's Out on U.S. Democracy - "Kennedy, 70, said he fears many parts of the world are not yet convinced that the American form of government as designed by the framers of the Constitution guarantees a better way of life."
Absence of America's Upper Classes From the Military - "Why does it matter? Because, quite simply, we cannot remain both a world power and a robust democracy without a broad sense of ownership — particularly of the leadership class — in the military. Our military is too consequential, and the implications of our disconnect from it too far-reaching. We are on the wrong path today."
Does Big Media Need to Get Any Bigger? - "Over the last 25 years, the number of corporations that dominate television, movies, music, radio, cable and the Internet has dwindled from more than 50 to just a handful of massive conglomerates. Do we really want Big Media to get even bigger? Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin does. He just relaunched the FCC's formal review of media ownership rules. The agency's "Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking," issued July 25, is vague, but its intent is clear: to let a few giant media corporations swallow up more local television channels, radio stations and newspapers in a single market."
Lights! Camera! Incision! - "The brave new world of live surgery on the Internet. ... The Webcasts, which are aired live and later archived, combine the entertainment of TV (it's a cross between a doctor drama and a reality show) with the usefulness of the Web. And they're pulling in decent ratings."
Google puts up 'Beware of malware' signs - "People who attempt to go to a Web site that has been identified as risky by the coalition are taken to a warning page. "Warning--the site you are about to visit may harm your computer!" the page states in bold type, then suggesting users can "learn more about malware and how to protect yourself at StopBadware.org." The interrupt page suggests that users can try returning to the search page and choosing a different result, trying another search, or they can continue to the potentially malicious site."
Running Out of Money - "How's that for summer entertainment, dear reader?"
Police drop wiretap charges - "Michael Gannon was arrested June 27 after he made the videotape to record conversations among detectives who were at his door looking for his 15-year-old son, who was being investigated in connection with a mugging downtown. When Gannon brought the videotape to a police station to complain that a detective was rude to him, he was arrested on felony wiretapping charges."
2 billion years added to age of universe - "Researchers, who measured the distance to a pair of stars in a nearby galaxy, said they've identified an error in the Hubble constant that suggests the universe is 15% larger and 15% older than previously thought. ... Recent estimates by some scientists for the age of the universe have put the so-called Big Bang at 13.7 billion years in the past. Adding 15 percent to that estimate would suggest an age for the cosmos of 15.8 billion years."
Biggest ever eye could find life in outer space - "The telescope, which could cost up to $A1.7 billion, would be operational within a decade. The sharpest eye astronomers have on the universe today is the Very Large Telescope (VLT), a €500 million ($A842 million) array that sits on the 2500-metre high peak of Cerro Paranal. It has produced the first direct images of planets outside our solar system, weighed distant stars and made important observations of black holes. Because the ELT would be more sensitive, it would raise the chances that astronomers could find other Earth-like planets."
Saudi Youth Use Cellphone Savvy To Outwit the Sentries of Romance - "Cellphone technology is changing the way young people meet and date in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the most insular, conservative and religiously strict societies in the world. Calls and texting -- and more recently, Bluetooth -- are breaking down age-old barriers and giving young men and women discreet new ways around the sentries of romance. Saudi Arabia's zealous religious police can arrest and jail anyone who violates the rules of local culture, a mixture of tradition and the country's ultra-strict Wahhabi Islam that forbids most social contact between men and women who are not related. Cinemas are banned -- men and women sitting in the same dark place is considered too likely to arouse mischievous hormones. Restaurants and coffeehouses have separate, partitioned areas for "families" -- male and female relatives -- and single men. Security guards stand at the entrances to shopping malls to bar men who are not accompanied by a wife, sister or mother. University classes are segregated by sex. Unrelated men and women riding in the same car (women are not allowed to drive) can be jailed by the religious police, a government agency known formally as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice."
Western men duped in quest for net brides - "Dozens of Western men looking for Russian internet brides have been fooled into falling for real-life Russian celebrities whose photographs were passed off as “ordinary” girls looking for love."
MTV 'SNOOP' POOP - "Media watchdogs are barking over an MTV cartoon that portrays a Snoop Dogg-like character leading two women around on leashes - before scooping up their poop."
Quote of the Day
"The structure is set; you’ll never change it with a ballot pull."
~ Zach de la Rocha, Rage Against the Machine
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