Saturday, Jul 05th
Last update03:37:42 AM GMT
It is, especially for the Afghan people, a war without end, and one to add to their history of other fruitless conflicts. An Independent on Sunday assessment, using records kept by Professor Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire and the UN, puts the civilians killed as a direct result of the war since 2001 at 13,746.
Last year, the toll of those who died directly or indirectly was estimated by another US academic to be as high as 32,000.
Outlook asked Ellsberg for his wish list of documents to be leaked, declassified or otherwise made public, documents that could fundamentally alter public understanding of key national security issues and foreign policy debates.
[Fourth on his 'wish' list was:] The 28 or more pages on the foreknowledge or involvement of foreign governments (particularly Saudi Arabia) that were redacted from the congressional investigation of 9/11, over the protest of then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.).
The vote is in, and Fox News will be the one moving to the front the front row, the White House Correspondents Association announced:
The board of the White House Correspondents Association has agreed, by consensus, to move the Associated Press to the front row, center seat in the James S. Brady Briefing Room.
Reporters covering trials of accused terrorists at Guantanamo on Monday will have their first-ever face-to-face chance to air their complaints about the U.S government's restrictive rules, which journalists say make it nearly impossible for the public to follow the proceedings.
Long-simmering tensions that began during the Bush administration boiled over in May when Pentagon officials barred four reporters from future coverage for naming a witness whose identity military commission prosecutors wanted kept secret, even though it had been publicly known for several years.
Australian weapons and equipment have repeatedly been discovered among Taliban stockpiles, raising fears that Afghan troops trained by Diggers have been pilfering military supplies.
Documents released by the WikiLeaks website show that in the past six years International Security Assistance Force troops have uncovered Australian mortar shells, a hand-grenade and other equipment when defusing roadside bombs and capturing Taliban weapons stores.
A UN panel has added Florida's Everglades National Park and Madagascar's tropical rainforest to a list of world heritage sites at risk. Unesco's World Heritage Committee said development in the Everglades had caused water flow to fall 60% in the wetland, a major wildlife sanctuary.
The pollution level there was so high it was killing marine life, it added. Illegal logging and poaching following last year's military coup has meanwhile imperilled Madagascar's rainforests.
A new global treaty banning cluster munitions has come into force. The Convention on Cluster Munitions bans the stockpiling, use and transfer of virtually all existing cluster bombs, and also provides for the clearing up of unexploded munitions.
It has been adopted by 108 states, of which 38 have ratified it. First developed during World War II, cluster bombs contain a number of smaller bomblets designed to cover a large area and deter an advancing army.
The Coast Guard approved dozens of requests by BP to spread hundreds of thousands of gallons of surface oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s directive on May 26 that they should be used only rarely, according to documents and correspondence analyzed by a Congressional subcommittee.
In some cases, the Coast Guard approved BP’s requests even though the company did not set an upper limit on the amount of dispersant it planned to use.
ADL press release calls mosque location insensitive to 9/11 victims families. Other Jewish voices urge tolerance and denounce ADL's Foxman.
The ADL's announcement expressing doubts over the plan to establish a mosque on the site of Ground Zero created a stir on Saturday. The Anti-Defamation League added their voice on Friday to those opposing the building of a mosque close to Ground Zero and inflamed the public debate that is splitting popular opinion in New York.
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