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Powell raps Europe on CIA flights Colin Powell dismissed the furore in Europe Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has indicated that Europeans are being disingenuous when they deny knowledge of the rendition of terror suspects. Mr Powell said the recently highlighted practice of moving people to places where they are not covered by US law was neither "new or unknown" to Europe. A number of countries where flights allegedly stopped have said they were unaware of their land being used. Talking to the BBC, Mr Powell also described his difficulties over Iraq. In an interview with Sir David Frost...

Editor's Note: Published on Page A3 of the November 12, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer GREENPEACE, THE ENVIRONMENTAL activist group, is considering filing charges against the security guards who beat up a German volunteer during a protest against "dirty energy" in the state-run Masinloc coal-fired power plant in Zambales. The violent encounter between the National Power Corp. guards and 16 Greenpeace activists on Thursday was "the most severe attack" against its campaigners in the Philippines, said Red Constantino, Greenpeace's Southeast Asia energy campaigner. "The security personnel put the safety of the activists at extreme risk," Constantino said in...

Los Angeles -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein stood in front of the gospel-charged congregation in South Central Los Angeles on Sunday to be proudly introduced as "the only member of the United States Senate to be a member'' of the First African Methodist church. And the Democratic senator from California delivered a sermon on values: The Bush Social Security plan, she said, is a threat to the well-being and families of African American seniors. "It is the wrong thing to do at the wrong time,'' she said as the seniors in the audience nodded their heads in agreement. "Will you help...

CARSON, Calif. - John Kerry (news - web sites) said Thursday that President Bush (news - web sites)'s musing about a national sales tax is an insult to financially struggling voters and would amount to "one of the largest tax increases on the middle class in American history." The Democratic presidential nominee, during a speech at California State University, Dominguez Hills, tried to reverse partisan stereotypes by portraying the Republican president as the tax raiser and himself as a tax cutter. Kerry said if Bush wants to create a national sales tax without increasing the deficit, people will end up...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) on Tuesday demanded a "specific explanation" from President Bush (news - web sites) about how his prosecution of the war will lead to a shared goal of a stable Iraq (news - web sites). "The last several weeks have made it even clearer to Americans than it was before that this mission is not only not accomplished, it is more challenged than perhaps at any time," Kerry said. Speaking during a fund-raising lunch, Kerry toughened his criticism of Bush, pointing to the president's scheduled news conference Tuesday night...

FORMER Davao City mayor Luis T. Santos will be facing criminal and administrative charges for violating the city's anti-smoking ordinance. Acting City Administrator Melchor V. Quitain said aside from the administrative complaint the city will lodge before the Office of the Ombudsman, the Davao City Police Office will also be filing criminal charges against Santos. "That is what we agreed upon," Quitain said after meeting Davao City Police Office officials at City Hall Thursday morning. Quitain said they will also include in the complaint Leyte Rep. Ernesto Veloso for the same infraction. Veloso smoked inside a prohibited area while he...