Gold jumps to 23-year high
• ReutersGold galloped to its highest price in almost 23 years on Thursday, driven by further investment buying after it pierced the key $500 an ounce level earlier this week.
Current News Headlines
These pages list the most recent news stories reported by the readers and editors of Freedom's Phoenix:
'Report Your Neighbor' Number Yielding Revenge
• USA TodayThe hotline - designed to help identify foreigners and others who could harm U.S. interests - has become a venting board for thousands of tips from across the USA that have nothing to do with potential threats to the homeland.
State's AGs Want Limited Supply of Goods and Long Lines to Purchase Them
• Arizona RepublicThe nation's attorneys general are putting finishing touches on a proposal to create a nationwide price-gouging law that would extend to any "essential services" including medicines, food, water, heating and cooling costs and hotel room
Appeals court delays Padilla transfer
• Associated PressA decision by the Richmond court to withdraw its order would make it much harder for Padilla to pursue his appeal, but would also remove judicial backing for the detentions.
Electronic Voting Examined; Deadline Nears
• ReutersEven in this election off-year, the potential perils of electronic voting systems are bedeviling state officials as a Jan. 1 deadline approaches for complying with standards for the machines' reliability.
Analysis 2: An Offering of Detail But No New Substance
• Washington PostThirty-two months after U.S. forces invaded Iraq, President Bush's advisers concluded that his message of "stay the course" has been translated by a weary American public as "stay forever." And so yesterday the president tried
Congress planning new tax on electronic gear
• Medill News ServiceMany people will replace their old media gadgets with Christmas gifts like HDTVs, iPods, and digital video recorders, often consigning the old TV sets, CD players, and VCRs to the junk pile. Congress is considering how to make sure that this "e-
Analysis 1: Victory, Mr President?
• The IndependentIn a speech aimed squarely at restoring morale on the home front, and to meet the growing clamour for a pull-out, Mr Bush conspicuously failed to deliver: a clear exit strategy from the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
Make Free PC Video Calls With Skype's New Software
• PC WorldSkype Technologies today updated its Internet telephony software, with version 2 adding free integrated video calling to the company's popular Voice over Internet Protocol service.
Why worry about Iran with 600+ lbs. of plutonium missing
• San Francisco ChronicleEnough plutonium to make dozens of nuclear bombs hasn't been accounted for at the UC-run Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and may be missing.
Opposition boycott as Venezuela heads for elections
• ReutersMost of Venezuela's main opposition parties are boycotting legislative elections on Sunday that could allow President Hugo Chavez to consolidate his self-proclaimed socialist revolution.
Coloradan faces jail for refusal to show ID
• Washington TimesDeborah Davis' refusal to show her identification to federal police at a bus stop, a 50-year-old Arvada, Colo., grandmother of five, was handcuffed, placed in a police car and ticketed for two petty offenses by Federal Protective Services officer
China cracks down on Tibet monks after protest
• ReutersSeveral Tibetan monks have been detained for opposition to a Chinese political campaign they were forced to participate in, sparking a rare mass protest, two advocacy groups said.
U.S. Contractor Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers
• New York TimesThe article was one of several in a storyboard, the military's term for a list of articles, that was delivered Tuesday to the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations firm paid by the Pentagon.
Engineers Confirm Levee Shortcomings
• Associated PressGovernment engineers performing sonar tests at the site of a major levee failure confirmed that steel reinforcements barely went more than half as deep as they were supposed to, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official said.
Pelosi does abrupt about face after constituents hound her mercilessly
• Roll Call (via Raw Story)Warhawk now dove, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) endorsed Rep. John Murtha’s (D-CA) recent call to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq as soon as possible.
States Restrict Use of Autopsy Photos
• Associated PressAyres' outrage helped lead to restrictions last year on the display of autopsy photos in Michigan — one of at least 10 states to enact laws in recent years to prohibit coroners from releasing pictures or other death records to the public.
Investigator slams Syria for "propaganda" in assasination probe
• ReutersChief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis accused Damascus of using a Syrian witness in the inquiry into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister as a Communist-like propaganda tool.
Public Schools Convenient for Re-Writing History
• Associated PressFrance's parliament voted to uphold a law that puts an upbeat spin on the country's painful colonial past, ignoring complaints from historians and the former French territory of Algeria, requires school textbooks to address France's
Supremes revisit minutia of abortion law
• ReutersThe U.S. Supreme Court grappled with its first abortion case in five years on Wednesday, considering whether a parental notification law must provide an exception when the health of an abortion-seeking minor is at risk.
Retirement age 'may rise to 69'
• The Daily MailThe school leavers of today could have to work until they are 69 before they collect their state pension if proposals put forward by the Pensions Commission are implemented.
3 Plead Not Guilty to Supporting Terrorism
• Associated PressA Washington, D.C., cab driver, a Florida doctor and a Bronx jazz musician have pleaded not guilty to charges they conspired to help terrorist organizations.
Televangelists on Unusual Side in Indecency Debate
• Los Angeles TimesTrying to preserve their electronic pulpits, the nation's religious broadcasters find themselves in the unusual position of fighting an effort by anti-indecency groups to thwart channels offering racy programming.
Bushwhacking the Constitution
• Village VoiceThe hard rain on our fundamental liberties has been persistently increasing since the White House rammed through the Patriot Act. Recent events in the U.S. Senate further strengthen and deepen presidential powers are reason to be alarmed at what can
Flight logs reveal hundreds of CIA flights to Europe: report
• Agence France PresseMore than 300 CIA flights have landed at European airports, adding a new element to claims that Washington has been transporting terrorist suspects to secret prisons in Europe.
Honor, Duty, Country means something to the Honorable
• ABC NewsThe nation's top military man, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, said American troops in Iraq have a duty to intercede and stop abuse of prisoners by Iraqi security personnel. When Defense Secretary Rumsfeld contradicted Pace, the general stood firm.
Who made Iraq into a threat?
• by Paul Sperry (AntiWar.com)Before he invaded Iraq, President Bush warned us that the terrorists were using Iraq as a base to attack America. After the invasion, we found out that was nonsense on stilts.
National security whistle-blowers call for boycott of hearing
• Christian Science MonitorGroups representing national security whistle-blowers are calling for a boycott of a congressional hearing to examine "whether US agencies are unjustly revoking or suspending security clearances in retaliation against employees who speak out aga
Saturn's Largest Moon Has Dramatic Weather
• Associated PressSaturn's planet-size moon Titan has dramatic weather, with freezing temperatures, carbon- and nitrogen-rich clouds and possibly lightning describing a world that may have looked like Earth before life developed.
Quitting <i>Is</i> an Exit Strategy
• by Aaron Glantz (AntiWar.com)While Bush explains his "victory strategy" for Iraq to the people, his Pentagon chief has already thrown out the most obvious option. There will be no immediate troop withdrawal, cautioned Rumsfeld, because "quitting is not an exit str
