AFP – He was the spitting image of the killer, had the same first name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour: Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price and was executed in place of someone else in Texas in 1989, a report out Tuesday found. Even “all the relatives of both Carloses mistook them,” and DeLuna was sentenced to death and executed based only on eyewitness accounts despite a range of signs he was not a guilty man, said law professor James Liebman. Read Article
CBS — Surveillance aircraft used by the U.S. military overseas could soon be coming to the skies above Los Angeles County. KNX 1070?s Charles Feldman reports the Federal Aviation Administration is making it easier for local law enforcement agencies to fly unmanned drones. The FAA has streamlined the process that would allow agencies to fly smaller, unarmed versions of the drones that hunt down terrorists in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Read Article
Reuters – Up to 8,000 companies doing business with the Pentagon may be qualified to join a newly expanded U.S. effort to guard sensitive information on private networks, a senior Defense Department official said Monday. The Pentagon on Friday invited all of its eligible contractors to join the voluntary pact aimed at fighting what U.S. officials have described as growing cyber threats that allegedly originate, above all, in Russia and China. Read Article
Guardian – Russian riot police have broken up an Occupy-style protest against President Vladimir Putin, forcing dozens of people out of a central Moscow park where they had staged a sit-in for a week and detaining at least 15. The dispersal of the makeshift encampment is the latest step in a government crackdown on protests over Putin’s return to the presidency on 7 May for a six-year term following four years as prime minister. Read Article
The Nation – Willice Onyango is an enterprising university student in western Kenya who is traveling the country with an unusual offer for women living with HIV. It goes like this: you join a cohort of ten to fifteen other HIV-positive women, together you come up with a viable plan for a small business, and you get an intrauterine device (IUD) to serve as long-term birth control. In return, you will be paid $40. Read Article
AFP – The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor on Monday sought new war crimes charges against Bosco “Terminator” Ntaganda and another notorious Democratic Republic of Congo warlord. Ntaganda and Sylvestre Mudacumura are two of the “most dangerous” men in a region where millions have been killed in the past 20 years, chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in announcing the charges. Read Article
A once free society doesn’t necessarily become a closed one to the sound of marching jack boots, and seismic shifts in the political landscape. In reality it happens through tiny shifts, the totalitarian tip-toe, but through these shifts the 10 Steps are realised and your freedom is gone. To read our 1,958 articles (tip-toes) CLICK HERE
CBC – At least 72 civilians, a third of them under the age of 18, were killed by NATO airstrikes, according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch — one of the most extensive investigations into the issue. The New York-based advocacy group called on the Western alliance to acknowledge the casualties and compensate survivors. Read Article
Washington Post – Seems no one is immune from the tender mercies of the TSA pat-down. First, we learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was subjected to a handsy search. And now we learn of the latest high-profile search-ee: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Yeah, the guy who was once an advisor to presidents, the one who helped negotiate the end to the Vietnam War…and, oh yeah, he’s got a Nobel Peace Prize. Read Article
MiamiHerald – Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted in a state hunt to remove thousands of noncitizens from Florida’s voting rolls, a Miami Herald computer analysis of elections records has found. Whites and Republicans are disproportionately the least-likely to face the threat of removal, the analysis of a list of more than 2,600 potential noncitizens shows. The list was first compiled by the state and furnished to county election supervisors and then The Herald. Read article
Guardian – Demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza in support of about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are escalating amid efforts by Egyptian mediators to broker a deal to avoid protests spiralling out of control if a detainee dies. Two prisoners, who have refused food for 77 days, are thought to be close to death with another six in a critical condition, say Palestinian groups. The Israeli prison service (IPS) says no one’s life is at risk. Read Article
PressTV – Amnesty International has expressed concerns over the British government’s plans, introduced in the Queen’s speech this week, to expand secret hearing into civil courts. The proposal submitted by the British government, confirmed in the British Queen’s speech during Wednesday’s state opening of the UK Parliament, allows certain court evidence to be heard from behind closed doors. Read Article
NY Times – Police officers stopped people on New York City’s streets more than 200,000 times during the first three months of 2012, putting the Bloomberg administration on course to shatter a record set last year for the highest annual tally of street stops. Data on the 203,500 street stops from January through March — up from 183,326 during the same quarter a year earlier — was sent to the City Council from 1 Police Plaza late on Friday under a legal requirement spawned by public outrage over the 1999 fatal police shooting in the Bronx of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black street peddler. Read Article
The Week – Soon, Congress will begin drafting legislation reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which serves as the legal framework for domestic espionage against external threats. And while FISA doesn’t affect spy activities overseas, the attention it generates will shift scrutiny to the National Security Agency and its growing and astonishing capabilities. Read Article
AFP – About 4,000 accused supporters of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi are still being held in Libyan militia detention centers, often in secret and many are tortured, a UN envoy said Thursday. Ian Martin, head of the UN mission to Libya, said good progress was being made toward the country’s first democratic election, but militia prisons were one of a number of “serious obstacles” to establishing the rule of law. Read Article
PressTV – UK police mistreatment of people held in their custody has come under spotlight as a new incident captured on CCTV emerges of County Durham police “torture” assault. Two British police staff who twisted and grabbed the arms of a man in order to make him answer their questions after his arrest at Peterlee Police Station in March 2011, have been ordered to pay him £50 each in compensation, with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) condemning the violent act as “a form of torture”. Read Article
Sun Sentinel – Criminals, beware the gardener. This city has a new way of fighting crime: Employees who are out and about, trimming trees or picking up litter on the beach, are officially on the lookout for signs of a crime. A group of about 70 landscapers and garbage truck drivers got training from the Broward Sheriff’s Office this week so they know what to look for. Another group of about 35 will train next week. Read Article
BBC – The US State Department says the shipment will help Bahrain “maintain its external defence capabilities.” Arms sales were frozen last year after the Bahraini government suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations. Amnesty International says 60 people have been killed since the protests began in February 2011. Read article
Wired – Since the Patriot Act broadly expanded the power of the government to issue National Security Letters demanding customer records, more than 200,000 have been issued to U.S. companies by the FBI. But the perpetual gag orders that accompany them are rarely challenged by the ISPs and other recipients served with such letters. Just how rare these challenges are became more evident following the recent release of a 2010 letter from the Justice Department to a federal lawmaker. Read Article
Open your eyes for there is a brave new world upon us! Aldous Huxley’s 5thnovel prophetically anticipates developments in reproductive technology, drug use, education and psychoanalysis that combine to change society. Watch our brave new world come into focus before your very eyes by reading our news archive on the subject. CLICK HERE
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