Dr. Siddiqui is a Pakistani national, physician, mother of three young children, one in US detention since 2003. She was kidnapped five years ago in Pakistan and is obviously a victim of horrendous torture at Bagram AFB.

"...it is, I think, fairly clear that in future a human body, from the moment of conception, will not be regarded merely as something which must be left to grow in accordance with natural forces, with no human interference beyond what is required for the preservation of health. The tendency of scientific technique is to cause everything to be regarded as not just a brute datum, but raw material for the carrying out of some human purpose." - Bertrand Russell, 1931

From Subversivesub

It always makes me a little irritated when I see BDSM misrepresented in the mainstream media. It makes me sad to see feminists critiquing other women for their kinky sexual orientations/practices. But it breaks my fucking heart when I see anarchists doing it.

From Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah - Palestinian Information Centre

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas last week warned that he would dissolve the PA entirely if Israel released from its jails Palestinian parliamentarians affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, the Israeli press reported Wednesday...Israel is detaining more than 45 Palestinian lawmakers in captivity to force Hamas to release an Israeli occupation soldier Palestinian fighters captured during a cross-border operation near Gaza more than two years ago.

by Saed Bannoura

[So follow along...first they arrest and handcuff a protester. Then they shoot him. Why? Then, they arrest the father of the woman who films the entire incident. He is sentenced to 100 days in prison. You have to wonder who learns these tactics from whom? Includes video footage of the shooting.]

By JONATHAN COOK - July 26/27, 2008

It must be the smallest Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories: just half a house. But Palestinian officials and Israeli human rights groups are concerned that it represents the first stage of a plan to eradicate the historical neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, cutting off one of the main routes by which Palestinians reach the Old City and its holy sites.

NAIROBI - More than 14 million people in the east Africa region require urgent food aid due to drought and spiralling cereal and fuel prices, aid agencies say.

By Amos Schocken - July, 16 2008

The claim that there are characteristics of an apartheid state in Israel is widely heard in the Western world. The word apartheid is catchy and understood in many parts of the world, which makes it useful to send a message that [Israeli's] resent and which we claim has no connection with reality in Israel. However, we do not need to replicate exactly the characteristics of South African apartheid within discriminatory practices in civil rights in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. The amendment to the Citizenship Law is exactly such a practice, and it is best that we not try to evade the truth: Its existence in our law books turns Israel into an apartheid state.

By john teevins

Somewhere between 15 and 18 years ago I wrote my first batch of songs. The lyrics to the chorus of one of them are as follows: "we the abused we stand accused - of crimes committed against us"

I am a 39 year old survivor of physical, emotional and sexual violence and I am a full time smoker. I have been and still am receiving focused, trustworthy, loving and professional help for the first time in my life and the positive results are astounding.

By KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY - July 11, 2008

Just as Bill Clinton during his 1992 campaign tried to reassure whites that he wasn't too cozy with blacks by denouncing a rapper, Obama [is] appealing to whites by condemning his own...Obama’s "bash the black man" game...passes on one of the lowest of all the smears and stereotypes: the lie that black men have no morals. It reinforces the white supremacists’ notion of blacks as irresponsible, overly sexual beasts; a notion that far too many black folk as well as white unwittingly buy into.

by Kelly Cryderman; Tuesday, July 01, 2008 - Calgary Herald

A provincial emergency fund designed to help renters in dire straits has ballooned to more than six times its original size -- going to $43.5 million from the $7 million announced by the Stelmach government.

[From No One Is Illegal - Montreal]

This past Saturday, Katenies reiterated that she does not recognize the authority of the [Canadian Border Services Agency] over Kanion'ke:haka [Mohawk] land...She was then brutally arrested, with at least four male guards forcing her face down onto the ground, handcuffing her, and taking her into custody, where she remained for three days...CBSA guards then demanded that, Kahentinehta, 68, leave the car she was driving. She refused, and she too was brutally overpowered by at least four male CBSA guards and handcuffed tightly. Kahentinehta suffered a heart attack...

Seattle's Wooden Boat Center offers an amazing wealth of skill sharing, story telling, and maritime history. The WBC offers not only "float in" movies, like drive ins movies with cars, but with boats, but they also offer a trade system where you can volunteer and trade those hours for free sailing lessons, free sailboat rentals, etc. The WBC also has wooden boat building classes and even has a family sailboat building class where families make their own boats...

Nicholas Keung | The Star

An international union has launched an advocacy group to support the tens of thousands of live-in caregivers in Canada – and ensure their rights are respected at the hands of abusive employers and recruiters.

For $10 a month they'll get a dental plan, legal counselling, insurance and other benefits.

Sacramento - A constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in California was placed on the Nov. 4 ballot Monday, kick-starting an election struggle that will have repercussions across the nation.