PARIS, December 13 – Swiss senator Dick Marty, who is in charge of a committee to investigate the claims of secret prison in Europe, explained in a presentation today that the allegations could very well be true. Reports and evidence found so far support the claims although Marty believes no prisoners are being held in Europe at this moment.

He said he has information that indicates that all the prisoners have been moved to North Africa since the beginning of November, the same time the information leaked. One of the target countries is Morocco where he believes that most prisoners were moved.

Marty held his presentation before the Council of Europe, an important human rights watchdog consisting of 46 European countries. He expressed especially that he believes that Poland and Romania were two of the main hosting countries for these secret detention centers and satellite footage has been requested to establish whether two airports in these countries may have functioned as such a center.

He clearly also condemned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for not denying the allegations of secret prisons but merely ignoring these questions without any explanation. Marty also admitted that the information available to his committee clearly shows that individuals have been abducted and transferred without any respect for legal processes.

PENNSYLVANIA, December 12 – President Bush held his first speech in a series of three leading up to the elections on December 15th in Iraq. His goal is to increase support for the war in Iraq in times that his approval rating is at an all-time low.

Several causes can be identified for the lacking support for this war. One of the most important reasons is the casualty rate, over 2,100 U.S. soldiers have died in this war and the rate is not slowing down. Also a major factor is the fact that the public sees no real progress, the insurgent attacks remain and even increase on times, the democratic process is slow and the citizens in Iraq would rather see the U.S. troops go.

Despite all this Bush still thinks he has made the right decision, in his speech today he even noted that if he had to make the choice again with all the knowledge he has gained since he would do it the same. Some might say that just makes him a hard learner.

In an unusual move the President allowed questions from the audience after the speech, a risky move. One reporter asked why he keeps linking 9/11 to the war in Iraq. Bush answered that 9/11 changed his view on foreign policy forever and the threat of Saddam Hussein was accentuated by the terror attacks. Another reporter asked if he knew how many Iraqi’s died in the war so far. Bush responded with an estimation of 30,000. An unreal number but quite possibly accurate, he added that every new democracy faces its challenges and even compared the Iraq situation to the foundation of the United States.

It’s highly unlikely he will be able to round up support for a war that should have never been started. Instead of learning from his mistakes he keeps making new ones, luckily it’s just a matter of time before he will be gone from the stage forever.

LONDON, December 11 – The residents of Hemel Hempstead, 30 miles north of London, had a rude awakening this morning as a nearby fuel depot suffered blast after blast. The cause of these explosions are still unknown but an attack should not be discarded immediately.

Witnesses reported either hearing a plane crash or seeing a plane crash into the fuel depot but there has been no official response toward these statements or any other regarding the cause of these immense explosions.

The town of Hemel Hempstead was awakened by these big blasts which lit the sky and rocked many homes. There have been reports of blown in doors and garage doors, cars have been damaged and many windows shattered when the shockwave hit the town. The Ramada Hotel not far away of the disaster site was evacuated as many injuries occurred because of the shattered windows. There have been no official reports on casualties or deaths but it seems as though there should be a large number of casualties given the power of the blast.

HEALTH, December 9 – Vioxx is quickly turning into the consumers worst nightmare. After being pulled off the market in September of 2004 for concerns about cardiovascular safety new details emerged today which could put Merck in a very bad light.

Witnesses testifying before the FDA earlier this year and testimonies in three lawsuits indicate that Merck was aware of the safety issues as early as 2000. The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that in 2000 a study was submitted called VIGOR which was actually used to prove the safety of Vioxx. As it now seems the study neglected to report three heart attacks and other cardiovascular incidents among the trial patients. Allegedly Merck was responsible for deleting this information, not strange considering that they funded the study.

This news may be extremely bad for Merck, they were already losing big lawsuits but these details aren’t giving them a better chance at redeeming themselves.

An estimated 20 million people used Vioxx since its launch, at the peak of the product the sales grossed over $2 billion yearly making it the number one seller for Merck. It could very well be that this same drug will destroy everything that it has created, at least the Merck stocks plummeted when this news was made public.

BAGHDAD, December 8 – The capital of Iraq was disturbed heavily today as many explosions ripped through the city. The deadliest one occurred at the biggest bus station in Baghdad where most buses leave for a long travel to large Shiite cities.

Witnesses reported a man getting out of a vehicle in a hurry and entering the bus at the last moment, just before it left. The man then immediately detonated his belt filled with explosives as the bus took off. The explosions left a carcass of fire in which all passengers died. At least 30 deaths were reported so far and almost 40 were wounded. Locals standing at a nearby food stall were swept away in the blast too which demanded a few casualties as well.

It was expected that in the last week before the election of December 15th the violence would surge to influence the voters and wreak fear among the already divided citizens of Iraq.

Meanwhile in other news a terrorist insurgent group claimed to have killed a U.S. security advisor who was taken hostage a few days ago. No pictures, videos or other means of proof have been released yet but the group claiming the killing said they would release proof soon.

Global Warming Force Islanders to Move Inland, Says UN

Rising seas have forced 100 people on a Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report said.

With coconut palms on the coast already standing in the water, inhabitants in Lateu settlements on Tegua island in Vanuatu started dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 600 meters inland.

“They no longer live on the coast,” Taito Nakalevu, a climate change expert at the secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), said during a 189-nation conference in Montreal on ways to fight climate change.

So-called “king tides” often whipped up by cyclones, had become stronger in recent years and made Lateu uninhabitable by flooding the village four to five times a year.

“We are seeing king tides across the region flooding islands,” he said.

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) said in a statement that the Lateu settlement “has become one of, if not the first, to be formally moved out of harm’s way as a result of climate change.”

The scientific panel that advices the United Nations projects that seas could raise by almost a meter by 2100 because of melting icecaps and warming linked to a build-up of heat trapping gases emitted by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and autos.

Many other coastal communities are vulnerable to rising seas, such as th U.S city of New Orleans, the Italians city of Venice or settlements in the Arctic where a hawing of sea ice has exposed coasts to erosion by the waves.

Pacific islanders, many living on coral atolls, are among those most at risk. Off Papua New Guinea, about 2000 people on the Cantaret Islands are planning to move to near by Bougainville Island, a four hour boat ride to the south west.

Two inhabited Kiribati islands, Tebua Tarawa and Abenuea, disappeared underwater in 1999.

“In Tegua, the dwellings are moving first. The chief has moved, he has to start the process, so his people are now following,” Mr. Nakalevu said.

A church would also be dismantled and moved inland.

Mr. Nakalevu said the rising seas seemed linked to climate change.

It was unknown if the coral base of the island, about 31 square km, might be subsiding. Most villagers rely on yams, beans and other crops grown on higher grounds…