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America’s deadly robots rewrite the rules

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

The kohl-eyed Hakimullah Mehsud probably is dead. He was the target for a missile fired last month from an unmanned aircraft hovering over the Afghan-Pakistani border – but launched by an operator in the US.

Mehsud was the ruthless mastermind of multiple suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan. He was part of a suicide mission on December 30 at Khost, just across the border in Afghanistan, which killed seven CIA agents who were working on the covert operation that now appears to have ended Mehsud’s brief and brutal leadership of the Taliban in Pakistan. read more

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Vermont’s Radioactive Nightmare

Like a decayed flotilla of rickety steamers, at least 27 of America’s 104 aging atomic reactors are known to be leaking radioactive tritium, which is linked to cancer if inhaled or ingested through the throat or skin. 

The fallout has been fiercest at Vermont Yankee, where a flood of cover-ups has infuriated and terrified near neighbors who say the reactor was never meant to operate more than 30 years, and must now shut. 

In 2007 one of Yankee’s 22 cooling towers simply collapsed due to rot.  read more

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McCain Campaign Advisors Help Yanukovych Win Ukraine Election

Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Yanukovych, the once-disgraced Ukrainian politician who was defeated by outgoing President Viktor Yuschenko in 2004 as a result of election tampering, a Supreme Court ruling that overturned fraudulent election results and massive street protests dubbed the "Orange Revolution" has finally gotten the last laugh. He is expected to be named the next president of the former Soviet Republic with an election victory on February 7, thanks in no small part to former presidential campaign advisors of Senator John McCain.

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Canada: Foundation for “Political Warfare” Takes Cue from U.S. Strategy

Source: IPS News

 (IPS) – Indicating further integration with its closest neighbour and ally’s foreign policy priorities, the Canadian government is in the advanced stages of establishing a foundation to promote liberal democracy, akin to the controversial U.S. National Endowment for Democracy.

Last December, the minority Conservative government of Stephen Harper quietly tabled in parliament a bipartisan blue panel report titled, "Advisory Panel Report on the Creation of a Canadian Democracy Promotion Agency". The panel is recommending that the government create The Canadian Centre for Advancing Democracy, with a proposed budget of between 28 million and 65 million U.S. dollars per year. read more