Sunday, Dec 21st
Last update09:46:34 AM GMT
Authors, artists and musicians are due to gather at a library in San Francisco to protest against the banning of books in schools and libraries in the US. The event, part of the 27th annual Banned Books Week, has been organised by the American Library Association.
Since 2001 bans on 3,736 books and other materials have been requested. In recent years, And Tango Makes Three - based on a true story and centring on gay penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo - has had the most ban requests.
"The FBI's misuse of its gag power continues to prevent NSL recipients like Doe – who have the best first-hand knowledge of the FBI's use and abuse of NSL power – from participating in the Patriot Act debate in Congress," said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project.
"The gag power has allowed the FBI to manipulate the debate, to suppress evidence of its misuse of the NSL power, and to deprive Congress and the public of important information it needs to inform whether these intrusive surveillance and gag powers should be reformed."
An ancient human-like creature that may be a direct ancestor to our species has been described by researchers. The assessment of the 4.4-million-year-old animal called Ardipithecus ramidus is reported in the journal Science.
Even if it is not on the direct line to us, it offers new insights into how we evolved from the common ancestor we share with chimps, the team says. Fossils of A. ramidus were first found in Ethiopia in 1992, but it has taken 17 years to assess their significance.
In a new post on the official White House blog, an administration official specifically names Fox News for lying about the administration's push to bring the Olympics to Chicago.
"Last night Fox News continued its disregard for the facts," the post begins, "in an attempt to smear the Administration's efforts to win the Olympics for the United States."
The men of Bravo Company have a bitter description for the irrigated swath of land along the Arghandab River where 10 members of their battalion have been killed and 30 have been wounded since the beginning of August. "Like Vietnam without the napalm," said Spc. Nicholas Gojekian, 21, of Katy, Texas.
A U.S. federal judge refused Wednesday to release records describing interrogation techniques authorized for overseas use by the CIA, saying it was up to the agency to decide if they should remain secret.
Raymond Lahey, 69, who stunned his diocese by resigning suddenly as the bishop of Antigonish on Saturday, was charged Sept. 25 by the Ottawa police after images "of concern" were found on his laptop computer.
Israel said Wednesday it would release 20 Palestinian women from its jails in exchange for a videotape of a captured Israeli soldier that would prove that he is alive.
Cpl. Gilad Shalit was seized by the Islamic group Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in 2006 in a cross-border raid and taken into Gaza. The prisoner release offer, announced on Wednesday by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was the first significant sign of progress in negotiations on Corporal Shalit since Mr. Netanyahu took office in March.
TVNL Comment: The number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails reached 9,600, including 345 children and 85 women, Hamas holds ONE invading soldier.
According to a new U.S. Geological Survey study, scientists detected mercury contamination in every fish sampled in nearly 300 streams across the United States.Page 882 of 1161
