EUROPE - Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "We can now see a pattern emerging across the EU where people who exercise their democratic right to attend cross border protests are CONFRONTED BY AGGRESSIVE PARA-MILITARY POLICING, SURVEILLANCE, PREVENTIVE DETENTION AND EXPULSION.
USA - In a speech in Boston on Friday Gordon Brown called for the creation of "a truly global society", and backs plans to give the EU a greater intervention role abroad.
EUROPE - The European Police Office, Europol, will be turned into an EU agency and given a broader scope of action, EU ministers agreed on 18 April.
EUROPE - Telegraph journalist Bruno Waterfield reports that a conference on EU budget reform scheduled for 27 May has been moved to June 15 - after the Irish referendum - IN ORDER TO AVOID DEBATE OF SENSITIVE ISSUES WHILE THE RATIFICATION PERIOD IS ONGOING.
USA - Al Gore's widely discredited film 'An Inconvenient Truth' that falsely hypes the threat of global warming has now been further discredited.
USA - For many of the purveyors of this psychosis, there is little reason to offer up facts to counter their delusions. There can be no debate on this matter, they contend. The hour is too late. Anyone who counters their zealotry has suspect motives and is probably on the payroll of the oil industry.
UK - The "scale and pace" of change in Britain has been so dramatic that Eastern European migrants now make-up a quarter of one town's population, a Government minister revealed yesterday.
USA - The price of a food staple - rice - is rising significantly, NBC11 reported. The price of rice has increased dramatically in recent weeks due to crop failure overseas and resulting hoarding, NBC11 reported.
NEW ORLEANS - President Bush has replied to criticism from Democratic presidential candidates and says that now is not the time to renegotiate the NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT or to walk away from the accord.
UN Food Chief: Biofuels are a "crime against humanity";
EU Commission: "There is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for biofuels"
DUBLIN - The front page of the Irish Daily Mail yesterday reported on a leaked memo from the Irish Foreign Office to the British Government, which shows that Irish ministers will seek TO FOCUS THE REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN ON OVERALL BENEFITS OF THE EU RATHER THAN THE TREATY ITSELF.
NEW YORK - Individuals might treasure their personal data like Social Security and credit-card numbers, but identity thieves can buy them cheap and in bulk online.
JERUSALEM - Just hours after former President Jimmy Carter trumpeted Hamas' agreement to let Israel "live as a neighbor," the same terrorist leader he met with face-to-face vowed not to recognize the Jewish state.
NEW YORK - He came, they saw, he conquered. Pope Benedict arrived in the United States with a reputation as a stern Catholic doctrinaire and left the faithful with an image of a kindly pastor.
MOSCOW - Russia could soon follow the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and invest billions of dollars in direct overseas investments if, as expected, its national welfare fund is given more freedom to invest.