American Buddhist Net

Christopher King calls on Britain’s coalition government to release the postmortem report – so far kept secret – on the death of Iraq war whistleblower and UN weapons inspector David Kelly, who allegedly committed suicide but is suspected of having been murdered by US or Israeli agents.

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The Swedish Pirate Party, who are at the forefront of anti-copyright lobbying in Sweden, are planning to shake up the country’s ISP market. After taking over the supply of bandwidth to The Pirate Bay, Piratpartiet will now partner in the launch of Pirate ISP, a new broadband service that will offer anonymity to customers and provide financial support to the Party.

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Britain was taken to war in Iraq on the basis of “lies”, scaremongering and deliberate exaggeration, a former UK diplomat told the Iraq inquiry.

Carne Ross claimed that Britain and the United States privately did not believe that Iraq's weapons programmes posed a “substantial threat” before launching the 2003 invasion.

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It is good to have former British officials saying this, but it was obvious at the time, just as it is obvious today that Iran poses no threat to the USA or any of our allies. These are and were wars of aggression to satisfy the desires of a select few, who do not seem be thinking clearly even on their own terms. ABN

FRANKFURT — The sovereign debt crisis would seem to create worry enough for European banks, but there is another gathering threat that has not garnered as much notice: the trillions of dollars in short-term borrowing that institutions around the world must repay or roll over in the next two years.

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Polish authorities are investigating whether “artificial fog” could have caused the April plane crash that killed president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, according to reports.

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DG Information Society and Media has launched a public consultation on key questions arising from the issue of net neutrality. European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, announced in April 2010 her intention to launch this consultation in order to take forward Europe's net neutrality debate. The consultation is part of the Commission's follow-up to its commitment – one of the prerequisites for the successful conclusion of the 2009 EU telecoms reform package – to scrutinise closely the open and neutral nature of the internet and to report on the state of play to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

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This is especially relevant for European readers as this is an EU initiative, but the topic concerns all of us. Decisions made now will have major effects on world history for years to come. In my view, the answers to the questions they are considering are obvious. We need net neutrality laws that will ensure an Internet free of corporate or government control. Here is one of the questions the EU is asking: whether internet providers should be allowed to adopt certain traffic management practices, prioritising one kind of internet traffic over another The answer is NO. ABN

Finland has made access to broadband connections to the internet a legal right for every one of its citizens in the first legislation of its kind anywhere in the world.

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After their former hosting provider received an injunction telling it to stop providing bandwidth to The Pirate Bay, the worlds most resilient BitTorrent site switched to a new ISP. That host, the Swedish Pirate Party, made a stand on principle. Now they aim to take things further by running the site from inside the Swedish Parliament.

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Whatever you think about this move, it is in our best interest to support it because more variety and more varieties of freedom on the Internet help ensure that anti-free speech forces in governments around the world do not gain control of the Internet. Iceland's new media laws fall into this same category. Rules for the Internet are constantly changing, and even changes that may look good can harbor traps that end up stifling free speech and the free flow of information. There are many reactionary forces in the US and Europe, to say nothing of China and other nations. The Internet is still in its infancy. We should be very wary of allowing changes that smell even slightly of censorship or government control. ABN

Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband a legal right for every citizen.

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Dostoevsky said something like "you can judge a nation by how its prison system is run." True enough, and still true today. Something else that is true today is you can judge a government by how much it seeks to truly inform its citizens by protecting an open Internet and providing inexpensive service for all. Basically, anyone who seeks to shutdown, censor, or control the Internet is an enemy of human progress. Period. ABN

Gilad Atzmon

A few weeks ago the Jewish Chronicle published a list of Jewish MPs in the UK parliament. It named 24 in total, encompassing 12 Conservatives, 10 Labour, and two Liberal Democrats. Author and peace activist Stuart Littlewood elaborated on these figures and presented the following analysis:

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87 Senators Tell Obama: Stand Behind Israel!

Hospital bosses have banned a support group from calling stillborn babies ‘angels’ in case it upsets non-religious families. They have told organisers that not all faiths believe in an afterlife and their literature could cause offence.

But Michelle Taylor, who founded the Essex-based Whisperers bereavement group, is shocked by the ruling.She said: ‘The word angel is not meant to have a religious sense whatsoever. It is just a word we call our children when we lose them. ‘It is a beautiful word and it fits perfectly.’

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Jerzy Popieluszko, a Polish priest tortured and killed in 1984 by the country’s communist secret police, was beatified recently in Warsaw.

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Four Russian soldiers have been charged with stealing bank cards from the wreckage of the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

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Recall the video allegedly showing Russians shooting survivors of the crash: Footage of Polish air crash emerges claiming to show Russian-speaking men shooting survivors. Do the charges of theft explain the shots? Were they being chased or arrested? Or do the low characters of the soldiers at the site show how sloppy the investigation was? Does this raise yet more questions about why the plane crashed? Recall also that: Man Who Shot Polish Plane Crash “Gunshots” Footage Stabbed To Death. I cannot find a source corroborating this claim, but my memory is that it has been more or less accepted as true. Could be a coincidence, but a strange one. ABN

Tall security agents have been discreetly advised not to apply for a job guarding Nicolas Sarkozy, police sources have claimed.

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Obama says ready to "kick ass" over Gulf oil spill

Similar gestures. ABN

The investigation into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly is likely to be reopened, it has emerged.

The case has 'concerned' Attorney General Dominic Grieve and - as the highest ranking law officer in England - he is considering an inquiry to review the suicide finding, Whitehall sources say.

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Taoiseach Brian Cowen has today warned Israel that if it harms any Irish citizens there will be "serious consequences".

Mr Cowen also said that the Government is "very unhappy" with the current situation, and that the Israeli government hasn't "a leg to stand on" in their detention of Irish citizens, who he says must be released immediately.

"If any harm comes to any of our citizens, it will have the most serious consequences," said the Taoiseach.

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Irish Nobel Peace Laureate, Former U.N. Diplomat Sail for Gaza

The Legal Position on the Israeli Attack

German President Horst Koehler resigned Monday in a surprise move after being criticized for reportedly linking military deployments abroad with the country's economic interests -- creating a new headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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A Newsday article from 2005 details the dirtbags, including Neil Bush, who served on Pope Ratzinger's 'ecumenical foundation' -- all protected from on 'High.' Also in 2005, Pope Rat asked US President [sic] George W. Bush to 'declare the pontiff immune from liability' in a lawsuit that accused him of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys by a seminarian in Texas. In September 2005, the U.S. asserted that the lawsuit should be dismissed, as the Pope enjoys immunity as head of state of the Holy See.

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LONDON (AP) - Six weeks of vacation a year. Retirement at 60. Thousands of euros for having a baby. A good university education for less than the cost of a laptop.

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Dozens of American soldiers and a battery of Patriot missiles have arrived in Poland, as the Polish military will be taught how to operate the advanced guided missile system at a base just a few miles from the Russian border.

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British defense secretary: 'We are not a global policeman'

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By Mazher Mahmood, Investigations Editor, 23/05/2010

THE Duchess of York is shamelessly plotting to sell access to her trade envoy ex-hubby Prince Andrew for £500,000.

Greedy Sarah Ferguson, 50, was filmed on Tuesday night taking a $40,000 (£27,000) cash down-payment from an undercover News of the World reporter.

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This link has a complete version of the video. ABN

The Duchess of York is "devastated" and "regretful" following newspaper claims she offered to sell access to ex-husband Prince Andrew, a source says.

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Here is a link to the video: Sarah Ferguson's secret filming. ABN

Britain's new (and unprecedented) coalition government has promised a set of sweeping, immediate pro-liberty changes including a reduction in the use of CCTV surveillance, an end to the national ID card programme, reform libel law, end pointless data-retention and a commit to using free/open source software in large government IT projects.

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New UK govt to curb CCTV, scrap ID cards, help open source

Very good news. This is a big change for the UK, sending a strong message to the world. This seems to be part of a trend within what used to be called "the free world." The term is out-dated, but in this context it is appropriate. Australia, likewise, appears to be backing away from its stifling and unworkable Internet filter. China and other major nations with repressive speech and personal liberty laws are going to have a hard time competing culturally and intellectually with more open societies, and forward-looking Chinese are well-aware of this. ABN

(LONDON) - Christopher King examines the death of UK weapons inspector Dr David Kelly in 2003 and argues that, in the light of fresh analyses of the circumstances of his death, it is vital that the new British government make public Dr Kelly’s post mortem report and other documentation relating to his death.

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The obvious question is why won't the government release the report? With an open Internet and the use of fMRI lie-detectors on all government employees, a new age will dawn. With luck, we will be done with lying politicians and their nasty cover ups! Imagine the bliss of actually being able to believe what they say and know that they are really basing their decisions on good science and clear thought. That will be unprecedented in world history. ABN

...The plane crashed about a half-mile away from the runway, in a ravine about 50 feet below runway level.

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May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Two passengers were in the cockpit of the Polish plane that crashed last month in western Russia, killing President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior government officials.

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PARIS - The French cabinet approved a draft law to ban the Muslim full-face veil from public spaces on Wednesday, opening the way for the text to go before parliament in July.

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The legalisation of all drugs would cause the black market to collapse and considerably reduce the pressure on the police, former Liberal leader and European commissioner Frits Bolkestein says in an opinion piece in Tuesday's NRC.

The article is also signed by former D66 health minister Els Borst and law professor Theo Roos.

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Berlin Set to Relax Cannabis Laws