Below is the first paragraph of the graphic account -in text and images- of the aftermaths of a suicide bombing in Iraq.

The photographer, Zoriah, -who you may be familiar with through earlier posts- has since had his embed assignment cancelled by the Marine Corps for posting the blog on his site, which includes pictures of dead soldiers.

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The EU’s plan to keep the illegal Lisbon Treaty ‘legal’ (=’alive’) has so far enjoyed the full support of the Irish Government and recently entered the stage where it turned out that “We didn’t need full vote on Lisbon: FG”
(http://www.independent.ie/national-news/we-didnt-need-f....html)

This essentially means that the Government is considering the option to finally discard the referendum NO, and to effectively overthrow the Constitution of Ireland by ratifying a new constitution, the Lisbon Treaty, on behalf of the people of Ireland.
“The official decision on Lisbon should enter into legal force + comments”
(http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88222)

1. The plan to keep the illegal Lisbon Treaty ‘legal’
2. What the poll results really reveal
3. Democracy: luxury or obligation? read full story / add a comment

Shell are starting the dredging operation to begin laying the offshore part of the production pipeline to pump the raw gas from the Corrib field to their installation at Bellanaboy. The project has been criticised for separating the planning aspects of the offshore pipeline from the nine kilometres of onshore production pipeline which they want to cross the bog landscape and special areas of conservation around Rossport, county Mayo.

The company have not got planning permission for route of the onshore pipeline, but are pressing ahead with the offshore pipe.

Natural Resaources Minister Eamon Ryan, who once supported the local community in their fight against Shell's scheme, has made no statement in reaction to the Department of Transport's announcement (below). read full story / add a comment

Ref: Greenore Port Consultation: 1st and 2nd July 2008 in Greenore Assembley Room in respect of claiming the foreshore for 300 metre pier etc. read full story / add a comment

Lionbridge stalls the court and tries to defend its actions as the case gets more political. read full story / add a comment

Yesterday Choice Ireland picketed the WRC on Dorset street - they intend to picket every Saturday (1pm) this month to highlight "the lies, bullying, and manipulation of the WRC". read full story / add a comment

Twelve years in solitary confinement, 6 more years in "ordinary" prison, four years since his release confined to the prison of Israel with inhuman conditions imposed, fighting another six months sentence for having spoken to journalists, will Mordechai Vanunu ever be a free man again? It's time to end this inhumanity and let Mordechai Vanunu go free at last. His fate may now lie in the hands of the Israeli people. I hope some Israeli voices will support him in his trial on 8 July. read full story / add a comment

In a move which is shocking in its cynicism and casual brutality the HSE in Laois, and I assume nationally, has stopped a free taxi service which had enabled parents with children in foster care to visit their children once a week. This attack on a marginal group with many health and social disadvantages is a clear indication of how theGovt intend to make the poor pay for its recession. The old , the sick and the poor yet again. We must organise to defend basic social services against these slash and burn tactics. read full story / add a comment

Organise! and the WSM picketed Starbucks in Belfast city centre today from 12 to 1 pm. Despite the miserable weather around 12 people joined the picket and leafleted passers by and potential customers outside the coffee shop. At the start of the picket 3 people had gone inside to leaflet customers and staff. There was a very positive response to the picket however one person was falsely accused of assaulting a Starbuck's member of staff after leafleting staff and customers inside. read full story / add a comment

Shell to Sea is currently drawing persistent attention to the flouting of EU/ Irish law in relation to the Wildlife Act of 1985 amended in 1995. It received statutory significance through its signing by the then, Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Michael D Higgins read full story / add a comment

Despite Israeli and International court rulings to the comntrary the Israeli army continues to build the Apartheid Wall, promotes the expansion of settlements and shoots live bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas at protestors or indeed anyone they decide to target. Mairead Maguire reports from Bil'in. read full story / add a comment

Photos taken Thursdaymorning from Cobh
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Includes text no longer available on the Oireachtas timeline for this issue. read full story / add a comment

MP Peter Pilz (Green Party) Visits Martin Balluch in Prison
Directly followed by a press conference outside the entrance to the prison

Today MP Peter Pilz visited DDr Martin Balluch in the Josefstadt
prison in Vienna. He described how he had to pass through three
security checks before being able to speak to Martin over a telephone
and see him through a glass screen. Their conversation was overheard
and documented by a prison official. At a press conference directly
after the visit Mr Pilz told the press that he now had an inkling as
to what it's like to be locked up on remand.

The opportunity to put questions to the Green Party Minister was
seized by members of the press.

MP Pilz's main contention is that, despite the Public Prosecution's
accusations collapsing like a house of cards, so much so that not much
is left over apart from the ominous paragraph 278a (criminal
organisation), the 10 animal protectionists are still imprisoned.

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So far Ireland has been the only one of the 27 EU-states to demonstrate an independent court decision in favour of democracy and the rule of law [1, 2]. In the new situation brought about by the EU-leaders’ rejection of Ireland’s decision [3, 4, 5], Ireland is again tested as the last fortress of democracy within the EU. This test is on whether the official decision on Lisbon arrived at on June 12, 2008 would enter into force, or the constitutional foundations of Ireland, similarly to the other 26 states, would be bent or circumvented to serve the interests of foreign political forces [2]?

The questions and the proposition of this article are meant to provide a starting point for further legal considerations, building on the assumption that an independent court still exists to protect the constitution, the rule of law and democracy in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

GW Bush is in the process of having a sewage plant named after him in San-Fransisco, other Presidents get librarys or hospitals. read full story / add a comment

Two bus loads of Archaeologists arrived at Tara this morning for a Tour of the Hill. read full story / add a comment

A worrying amount of reports are coming in about the possibility of a new front in the ongoing “war on terror”. The chances of an attack on Iran, who have never attacked anyone outside of its borders for 280 years now, is being increasingly talked about. But who might lead this attack and in what way might such an act further destabilise the world, both externally in the Middle East but also here at home in Europe and the “civilized world”? Bush, Obama or maybe Israel? And who might follow? Sarkozy, Burlesconi, Brown, maybe even Poland, maybe even all of Europe? read full story / add a comment

The special torture techniques used by the CIA, US military, Special Access Programme (SAP) teams, and interrogation 'contractors' at Guantanamo, Abu Graib and elsewhere, were developed from Chinese torture techniques used during the Korean War, including so-called Brain-Washing. read full story / add a comment

Since September 2007, the CAN, integrated by Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and the EU, have been negotiating an Association Agreement, consisting in three pillars: Cooperation, Political Dialogue and Trade.
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