"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that." - David Kim, engineer

The United States has recalled its ambassador to Syria amid rising tensions over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon.

Iran has neared completion of a uranium production facility that could be used for the assembly of nuclear weapons.

Perhaps it's time to recognize the ACLU as the American Communist Lawyers Union instead of their disingenuous "civil rights" stage name.

An angry mob attacked Syrian workers in southern Lebanon Tuesday and another group threw stones and set fires outside a Syrian government office in Beirut, blaming Damascus for the bomb that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The Food and Drug Administration will establish a new independent Drug Safety Oversight Board to monitor FDA-approved medicines once they're on the market and update physicians and patients with emerging information on risks and benefits.

The Bush administration, condemning the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, is suggesting that Syria is to blame and moving to get a new condemnation of Syria's domination of Lebanon at the UN Security Council.

Lebanon's Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt Tuesday accused Syria and Lebanese authorities of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The leader of a new Pentagon espionage unit has resigned, shortly after public disclosure that the Defense Department is expanding into clandestine operations traditionally undertaken by the CIA.

A new plan by the Bush administration to test the nation's public school population for mental disorders and treat them with controversial drugs has raised an alarm among some medical science watchdogs and members of the mental health community, according to the June 27,2004, New Standard.Bush wants to launch a mental health and disability initiative that recommends the screening and treatment for students K-12 in public schools.If enacted on a national level, the scheme would mandate widespread testing all across the country which would result in the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of new customers for the pharmaceutical Industry -Evelyn Pringle/Scoop NZ

A journalist who helped Iraq form a new broadcast network in 2003 testified Monday that U.S. occupation officials were more interested in airing their own activities than stories essential to Iraqis.Don North, who served as a U.S. government adviser to the Iraqi Media Network, said the network became an irrelevant mouthpiece for the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority -Winnipeg Sun CA

Handover of the West Bank town of Jericho to Palestinian control was delayed by last-minute disagreements, a setback to implementation of a truce declared a week ago in a gala summit meeting, aiming at ending four years of Mideast bloodshed...in meetings yesterday, officials were unable to agree on how much territory the Palestinians would receive and where the new Israeli roadblocks would be placed, officials on both sides said -Scotsman UK

A government contractor defrauded the Coalition Provisional Authority of tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction funds and the Bush administration has done little to try to recover the money, an attorney for two whistle-blowers told Democratic lawmakers yesterday -Washington Post

After millions of tax dollars were spent investigating how Halliburton ended up being awarded billions of dollar worth of no-bid contracts in Iraq, the Government Accounting Office determined that the company should never have been awarded the contracts in the first place.In response to those findings, Cheney and Bush both, as much as thumbed their noses at tax payers as if to say "so what, what are you going to do about it?" -Evelyn Pringle/Scoop NZ

President Bush sent Congress on Monday an $81.9 billion package to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the total bill for both conflicts to nearly $300 billion and the budget deficit to a record high.The White House acknowledged that the $81.9 billion request would push the federal deficit to a record $427 billion for fiscal 2005, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "We don't know what the cost will be going forward."

Nepal came under international pressure on Monday after the United States, European Union and India recalled their ambassadors to protest King Gyanendra's seizure of absolute power.The US State Department indicated of possible international action if the king refused to heed calls to restore fundamental rights -Sify IN

Now the democratic impulse has run its course, super-powerish rage has subsided, and a sense of reality has set in. New Delhi cannot afford to disengage with Nepal and thus leave the door open for China and Pakistan to step in and perhaps establish a permanent military presence on India's northeastern borders -Sultan Shahin/Asia Times

In the midafternoon of Oct. 9, 2003, Kirk von Ackermann, an American contract worker from the Bay Area, used a satellite phone to call a colleague from a lonely desert road between Tikrit and Kirkuk in northern Iraq.He told his colleague he had a flat tire and needed a jack.About 45 minutes later, the colleague found von Ackermann's car, abandoned.There was no sign of von Ackermann, who had been alone when he called. No hint of struggle, not even a footprint.All that remained was his satellite phone, his laptop computer, and, on the car's backseat a briefcase holding $40,000 in $100 bills -San Francisco Chronicle

South Korea's top policymaker on North Korea said Monday North Korea's claim to have nuclear weapons was unproven and Seoul's controversial engagement policy with the North would remain, at least for now.A South Korean Defense White Paper released on Feb. 4 said North Korea was believed to have conducted an aerial blast test and has probably built one or two nuclear weapons

A test of the national missile defense system failed Monday when an interceptor missile did not launch from its island base in the Pacific Ocean, the military said. It was the second failure in months for the experimental program

Col. David Hackworth says lying Bush team is ignorant about art, science of war.

Leaders of Sudan, North Korea, Burma, China top list.

Officials are concerned Sharon strategy could spark Israeli civil war.--WorldNetDaily

Kofi Annan has urged the European Union and the United States to work more closely as "the backbone of a new world order in the 21st century."

New World Order world army needed.

Everyday foods consumed by Canadians - such as salmon, ground beef, cheese and butter - are laced with chemical flame retardants, according to research commissioned by The Globe and Mail and CTV News. In fact, the research found that Canadian foods are among the most contaminated with polybrominated diphenyl ethers in the world, with levels up to 1,000 times higher than those found in tests in European countries.