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Gary Younge
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Chicago mayor's opponents offer cash for fraud whistleblowers
Allegations that the city hall has been stuffing the payroll on the basis of political patronage have got closer to the mayor in recent months and Republicans smell blood.
New York apologises after Britons seized in security scare
The five Sikh tourists from Birmingham were ordered off the bus on Sunday with their hands bound behind their backs after a tour company employee called police to report that they seemed suspicious.
US unions to break away from national movement
In a move that could have serious implications for the Democratic party's electoral machine, four of the country's largest unions said they would boycott the annual convention of the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organisations) in Chicago yesterday to form the Change to Win coalition.
No tails or tridents
In a clear indication of how terrorism not only destroys bodies but contaminates perceptions, fellow travellers say they saw an "Asian man" with "a bomb belt and wires coming out". What they actually saw was a young Brazilian in a Puffa jacket. The police saw a threat. To them De Menezes looked like another "clean skin" (a perpetrator with no history of previous terrorist involvement or affiliation) on the run and possibly about to act. Having cornered him and pinned him to the ground they pumped five bullets into his head at close range.


Crash of cultures: Joan Allen and Simon Abkarian in Yes
The passion project
Joan Allen sits in the kitchen of her New York apartment like a debutante getting ready for her big coming-out ball. Dressed in casual shorts and T-shirt, she perches on a stool while a stylist fusses with her hair and make-up. She clutches her pocket-sized Boston terrier, Nora, to her - a fixed, calm point in a blur of bustle and excitement. More stylists and photographers' assistants trot in and out, walking fast and talking even faster, all in preparation for a photoshoot with InStyle magazine, a fashion and celebrity glossy. Allen slips on her sandals, and suggests that we go outside to talk in a restaurant instead. Downstairs, big men are unloading a buffet of avocado salad, rolls, satays and chocolate mousse on to the pavement, but Allen strides by as if none of this has anything to do with her.
Lavish lifestyle comes back to haunt Detroit's hip-hop mayor as election nears
He wears his title with pride and style - "mayor" is embroidered on the French cuffs of his fanciest shirts.
How Stella lost her groove
Review of executed man's conviction boosts anti-death penalty lobby
Jennifer Joyce, a St Louis district attorney, has decided to reopen the case of Larry Griffin, who was convicted in 1981 of the murder of Quintin Moss, a 19-year-old drug dealer who was shot dead. Griffin maintained his innocence to the end, but was put to death in 1995, aged 40, by lethal injection.
Bigger than Dan Brown
Newspapers warn of threat to America from 'Londonistan'
London has become a "feeding ground for hate" and a "crossroads for would-be terrorists" where Muslims exploit civil liberties to "openly preach jihad", according to newspapers in the United States.
Hurricane Dennis pounds Florida
Hurricane Dennis sent Gulf coast residents fleeing yesterday, but spared the region the worst of the predicted devastation after it weakened shortly before landfall.
Blair's blowback
For those interested in keeping the earth intact in its present shape so that we might one day live on it peacefully, the bombings of July 7 provide no such "opportunities". They do not "clarify" or "sharpen" but muddy and bloody already murky waters. As the identities of the missing emerge, we move from a statistical body count to the tragedy of human loss - brothers, mothers, lovers and daughters cruelly blown away as they headed to work. The space to mourn these losses must be respected. The demand that we abandon rational thought, contextual analysis and critical appraisal of why this happened and what we can do to limit the chances that it will happen again, should not. To explain is not to excuse; to criticise is not to capitulate.
Parents torn off a strip over dancer
But rather than wrap up a new computer or mountain bike, the 34-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, hired a stripper to perform explicit dances for her offspring.
Rapper Lil' Kim sentenced to a year and a day for lying about shootout
Dressed in a blue trouser suit that was far more sober than the revealing outfits in which she performs, Lil' Kim became the first prominent female rap artist to go to jail owing to a fracas involving her entourage.
New York Times journalist jailed
A New York Times journalist was jailed for up to four months for contempt yesterday after she refused to reveal the source in an investigation into the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name.
Veteran Middle East specialist no stranger to controversy
What makes it all the more strange is that Ms Miller never actually wrote a story about the leak and it has not yet been ascertained if anyone committed a crime.
US imposes controls on a new security threat - birdwatchers
Law enforcement officials say that because the birdwatchers have equipment such as binoculars, telescopes and cameras, they have the potential to commit acts of espionage. The areas they use are sometimes close to military bases, dams and sewage plants.
US accused of excessive secrecy
According to the security oversight office, federal departments classified 15.6m documents last year, twice the number in 2001, with the help of new categories with unclear functions such as "sensitive security information".
Key Bush aide named in row over CIA leak
President George Bush's right hand man, Karl Rove, yesterday found himself at the centre of the controversy over who revealed the name of a secret CIA agent, after Newsweek revealed that he was a source for a story that appeared in Time magazine and for which two reporters are facing prison.
Conservatives seek appointment of one of their own to supreme court
A delegation of conservative lawyers met the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, last week to make it clear they would not support Mr Gonzales's nomination because his stance on abortion and affirmative action was unclear.
Cruise meets match in War of the Words
At the premiere he called a Channel 4 prankster a jerk for squirting him with water; in an interview on US TV he branded the host "glib" and "irresponsible" for expressing his views on psychiatry.
Bush administration to keep control of internet's central computers
The Bush administration has decided to retain control over the principal computers which control internet traffic in a move likely to prompt global opposition, it was claimed yesterday.
Time agrees to hand over notes of reporter facing jail over CIA leak
The owners of Time magazine yesterday submitted to judicial pressure to disclose a confidential source and promised to hand over the notes of a reporter threatened with jail.
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