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Saturday, March 31, 2007 |
CommonDreams: "As the Western media turns its attention to the fate of 15 Britons detained for allegedly trespassing into Iranian waters over the weekend, the status of five Iranian officials captured in a U.S. military raid on a liaison office in northern Iraq on Jan. 11 remains a mystery.
Even though high-level Iraqi officials have publicly called for their release, for all practical purposes, the Iranians have disappeared into the U.S.-sanctioned 'coalition detention' system that has been criticized as arbitrary and even illegal by many experts on international law.
The U.N. Security Council resolution that officially marked the end of the U.S. occupation and transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi government retains the U.S. military's right to implement 'security detentions'. However, any such detentions should be subject to Iraqi law, according to Scott Horton, who teaches international law at Columbia University School of Law.
'The Iranians who are being held as 'security detainees' are not being charged with anything, and so are being held unlawfully,' he told IPS."
VancouverSun: "Two Afghanistan experts painted a sobering picture of the conditions there yesterday, arguing support among Afghans for NATO forces is plummeting, the U.S.-driven policy of poppy eradication is wrongheaded, and the war might not be winnable in its present form."
WashingtonPost: "A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed confidential information to private groups seeking to affect policy decisions, the department's inspector general concluded."
11:29:14 AM 
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BBC: "The US has lost its position as the world's primary engine of technology innovation, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.
The US is now ranked seventh in the body's league table measuring the impact of technology on the development of nations."
11:16:38 AM
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Core77: "Earlier this week c,mm,n (website in Dutch), the world's first open-source car, was revealed at AutoRAI, the Amsterdam car show. The initiative and vision behind the c,mm,n (pronounced 'common') comes from the 'Stichting Natuur en Milieu' (The Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment) and the three technical universities of Delft, Eindhoven and Enschede.
The vehicle's technical drawings and blueprints are freely available online, and everyone is invited to add their own ideas and modifications, provided of course that these are shared again with the community.
Environmental sustainability was a key factor in the development of the c,mm,n: the vehicle is therefore a zero-emission, hydrogen-powered 2+2 family car. c,mm,n drivers can also easily share information on traffic conditions, route planning and parking availability."
11:13:48 AM
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Two teachers in California have created a new Literature Trip site in which they present their own literature projects as Google Earth placemarks.
It is their intention to add literature projects made by other people as well.
Wonderful site.
11:07:43 AM
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