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The investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks ended as far as the public knew on July 29, 2008, with the death of Bruce Ivins, a senior biodefense researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Md. The cause of death was an overdose of the painkiller Tylenol. No autopsy was performed, and there was no suicide note.

Five reporters must reveal their government sources for stories they wrote about Steven J. Hatfill and investigators' suspicions that the former Army scientist was behind the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, a federal judge ruled yesterday...

How did the AK Party come this far? Some of the comments published in the foreign press about the Turkish general elections demonstrate that Turkey is not fully understood. Some people still think that there was a fight between secularists and the Islamists, and the latter had won. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) increased its votes and this can be described as a sweeping victory. But the AK Party has never been an Islamist party (as understood by Western minds) in its basis and structure, and it had three basic axes: Muslim-conservatives, liberal globalizationists and nationalists. This tripartite...

May he swing in peace George Jonas National Post Saturday, November 11, 2006 Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death last week, which is all well and good. Wherever the death penalty is available in law, a mass murderer should be a fitting candidate for it. But this particular mass murderer may go to his grave smiling and feeling vindicated by history. Saddam's was no small achievement. For one thing, he managed to ward off -- all but defeat, actually -- three U.S. presidents. The first, George Bush Sr., had him in his grasp but let him go. After Iraq's military...

Depressing Times Oriana Fallaci, RIP, the Pope, and a Sad Age Rarely has the death of a public intellectual affected me as much as the passing of Oriana Fallaci. I never met her, and only received a brief note once from her accompanying a copy of The Rage and the Pride. The story of her career is well known, but her death, at this pivotal time, was full of paradoxes and yet instruction as well. Radical Islam is, among other things, a patriarchal movement, embedded particularly in the cult of the Middle-Eastern male, who occupies a privileged position in a...

Ehud Olmert may decide to accept the French proposal for a cease-fire and unconditional surrender to Hezbollah. That is his privilege. Olmert is a prime minister whom journalists invented, journalists protected, and whose rule journalists preserved. Now the journalists are saying run away. That's legitimate. Unwise, but legitimate. However, one thing should be clear: If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he will not be able to remain prime minister for even one more day. ****** You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power. You cannot bury 120...

Iran's quarreling and competing leaders finally decided to reject the US-European offer of an energy reactor, aircraft spare parts, economic cooperation and more in exchange for giving up uranium enrichment with which they could make nuclear weapons. Many had hoped that in spite of their extremism Iran's leaders would accept the offer, if only to avoid sanctions - which are sure to come even if in the end China and Russia refuse to vote for them in the UN Security Council. The United States and Europe are united this time, and they can do much by themselves to cut off...

I found myself thinking: "Yes, this really is the way we're all heading in New Labour's nanny state." Mr Ternouth's thriller flooded back to me this week when I read of the Government's plan to spend £224million of your money and mine on setting up a database, recording details of the lives of all 12 million children in England and Wales. Among other things, the Children's Index will record whether a child's parents are providing a 'positive role model', how the child is performing at school — and even whether youngsters are eating the daily five portions of fruit and...

Dhaka hawks want ancient Dhakeswari temple shifted Pramod K Singh | New Delhi In a bid to appease fundamentalist Muslims in the run-up to the 2007 general election in Bangladesh, certain sections of the Begum Khaleda Zia Government are mounting pressure to shift the historic Dhakeswari Kali temple located in the heart of Dhaka to a more nondescript smaller plot. Assault on faith: Khaleda Govt under Jamat pressure Ironically, Dhaka takes its name from this 12th century temple, the oldest surviving Kali shrine. The temple complex is based at Romona Park from where Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman gave his famous...

The Ontario divison of Canada's largest union has voted to support an international campaign that is boycotting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. Delegates to the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario convention in Ottawa voted overwhelmingly Saturday to support the campaign until it sees Israel recognizing the Palestinians' right to self-determination. The Ontario group represents more than 200,000 workers. The global campaign started last July and has been supported by many North American churches, 20 Quebec organizations, and others, Canadian Press said. CUPE also condemned what they called Israel's "apartheid wall," saying it is illegal under international law. "Boycott,...

Greater Palestine The late Emperor Hirohito of Japan set the world record for understatement in the final moments of World War II, when he made an unprecedented address to his nation on radio -- shortly after atomic bombs had obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He began, “There have been developments in the war situation that are not necessarily to our advantage.”I wouldn’t go quite that far, in describing current developments in the Middle East. Hope remains in many quarters, especially in Iraq, notwithstanding the pathologically negative and anti-American blatherings of (most of the rest of) the mainstream media. There are developments...

NEW DELHI — India may be the land of the Kamasutra (search), the famed ancient treatise on sex, but in the country's hinterlands, public displays of affection remain strictly taboo. An Israeli couple discovered just how staid the small towns of India can be when they were fined 500 Indian rupees (U.S. $11) each for embracing and kissing after getting married in the Hindu holy town of Pushkar (search) in northwestern India, the Asian Age newspaper reported Wednesday.

Fear not Sharia in Ontario The ongoing brouhaha surrounding Ontario's possible approval of Sharia law as a basis for legal arbitration of family disputes reflects the suspicions many Westerners harbour toward Islam in the wake of 9/11 and other terror attacks. With activists fearing any validation of Sharia in Ontario may lead to similar moves elsewhere, the issue has attracted international attention: Yesterday, protest marches took place not only in Toronto and Ottawa, but also in 10 other cities among them Montreal, Ottawa, Paris and London. " But while critics are correct to guard against the validation of extreme religious...

The Libranos Strike Back II Further to events of this morning; Reading Coyne's column again, can anyone point me to a passage that accuses Tim Murphy of committing a crime? You know, among my first thoughts in reading this were that the National Post is a big place, with lawyers and whatnot, to vet columns before they run. Are we assuming too much in thinking this column is the target, or if it is, is this just a ham-fisted attempt by Murphy to intimidate the leading critic of Papa Paul - and more importantly, the powers that be who publish...

Canadians ought to realize that this week's breakdown of their Parliament is far more serious than any of the thuggish revelations from the Gomery commission. As of this weekend, we are in the historically unprecedented situation of having a Prime Minister who is clinging to office by recklessly disregarding the fundamental principles of our democracy. It is a shocking act of proto-tyranny, which justifies the extreme resort of intervention by the Governor-General. I am not writing this lightly or with any knowledge of or involvement in any party's strategy. Nor do I think that most Canadians understand or perhaps even...

The Globe and Mail recently reported that two Canadian car makers won't be offering satellite radio in their 2006 models because the CRTC refuses to approve the radios for sale in Canada. The broadcast regulator has steadfastly refused to allow two American satellite radio providers, Sirius satellite radio and XM satellite radio to operate in this country and will prosecute Canadians who dare to operate or sell these products in Canada. We examine the situation and wonder, has a government organization that is prepared to prosecute Canadians for listening to foreign radio stations outlived its usefulness? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Satellite radio is...

Next Crisis at U.N. May Involve Ties Of Volcker, Strong BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun April 22, 2005 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/12647 UNITED NATIONS - The next chapter in the United Nations crisis may erupt over U.N. investigator Paul Volcker's membership on the board of one of Canada's biggest companies, Power Corporation, since a past president of the firm, Canadian tycoon Maurice Strong, is now tied to the oil-for-food scandal.Also, following yesterday's reports of resignations of top investigators on Mr. Volcker's team, Washington officials revisited Secretary-General Annan's assertion that the team's report last month exonerated him. For the...

The Power behind the thrones   Monday, 14 February 2005 Mark Steyn I always love the bit on the big international news story where they try to find the Canadian angle. A couple of months back, every time I switched on The National, there seemed to be no news at all and Peter Mansbridge was in the middle of some 133-part series of reports on “Canadians making a difference in the world,” which at least three nights a week seemed to be an “encore presentation” of the same worthy soft-focus featurette about some guy helping with an irrigation project in...

UN linked to Iraqi oil-for-food agent By Mark Turner in New York Published: April 14 2005 14:40 | Last updated: April 14 2005 23:30 The United Nations suffered a further blow on Thursday when US authorities revealed that at least one high-ranking official in the organisation might have been bribed in connection with the Iraq oil-for-food programme by a South Korean lobbyist for the Baghdad government. The disclosure, in a complaint by the US attorney for the southern district of New York, came as criminal charges were also brought against three businessmen linked to Bayoil, a Texan oil company said...

Chretien challenge of Guite fast-tracked Jim Brown Canadian Press Tuesday, April 05, 2005 Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. (CP PHOTO/Tom Hanson) OTTAWA -- Federal Court has put Jean Chretien's challenge to the federal sponsorship inquiry on a legal fast track, in the hope of resolving the dispute before Justice John Gomery starts writing a final report. The court agreed Tuesday to set June 7 for the start of hearings on the former prime minister's claim that Gomery is biased and should be removed as head of the inquiry. By judicial standards, that's speedy action for a case that was filed...