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The family of the American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago, is to bring a civil suit over her death against the Israeli defence ministry.

Emotions ran high at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival over the showing of Rachel, a film that looks at the International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie and her death in Gaza in March 2003. The controversy had been brewing for some time, concerning both the showing of the film and the invitation to Rachel's mother, Cindy Corrie, to speak at the festival. In the wake of protests against the showing of the film last Saturday, Peter Stein, the festival's executive director, invited Dr. Mike Harris, one of the leaders of the local Stand With Us chapter, to speak in...

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has come under siege after deciding to show a documentary about Rachel Corrie, a Washington state 23-year-old killed in 2003 while trying to prevent an Israeli military bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian's home. Whether Corrie naively put herself in harm's way in support of terrorists or was intentionally killed by the Israeli military is the nexus of the controversy. Compounding the issue, festival organizers invited Corrie's mother, Cindy, to speak after today's showing at the Castro Theatre of the film "Rachel." It is one of 71 films at this year's festival, which includes two...

COVERT RADIO SHOW http://www.covertradioshow.com http://covertradioshow.com/podcast.cfm?pid=171 COVERT RADIO SHOW.com: "The Daily Blast" "Sure the Pirates lost the American Ship, but the real problems remain"

(IsraelNN.com) In a public relations effort to market to the world its nuclear energy program and to calm fears of its nuclear aspirations, Iran will open the Bushehr nuclear plant to the public. Iran’s television network reported Monday that the nuclear installation would be open to visitors during the Iranian New Year holiday.

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF reported that two well known Hamas terrorists were among the dead in the IDF strike on a school Tuesday which also killed over 40 civilians. According to the IDF, the terrorists were using the school to fire mortar shells at troops. The dead Hamas operatives were Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar. The IDF said, “We face a very delicate situation where the Hamas is using the citizens of Gaza as a protective vest.”

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 9, 2008 – Afghan government officials and Afghan and coalition forces traveled Nov. 6 to the Shah Wali Kot district of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province to investigate claims of civilian casualties in recent operations. Results of the joint investigation to date indicate 37 civilians were killed and 35 others were wounded in a battle after a combined Afghan and coalition patrol was ambushed in the village. The combined forces met with village elders in Wech Baghtu to discuss the Nov. 3 battle. Village elders told the joint investigation team that insurgents who were not from their village came...

U.S. forces in Afghanistan will "back off" from firing at insurgents if the fighters are using civilian buildings as cover, the U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan told CNN. "I've given direct guidance, and so has my boss to me, that if there's any doubt at all that the enemy is firing from a house or building where there might be women and children, that we'll just back off," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, told CNN's Barbara Starr. "That potentially is something that we did not do before, but now because of this increased...

Who Is Silda Spitzer? First Lady Of New York Born In North Carolina New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer married in 1987. The couple has three teenage daughters. Silda Spitzer is a native of North Carolina. According to the New York Governor’s office Web site, she is the founder and chair of Children for Children a not-for-profit organization that creates opportunities for young people especially in under-resourced areas of New York City. Spitzer has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Meredith College in North Carolina. She...

Would You Make A Good Human Shield? Sacrifice is essential to any victory. If you're useless in combat, you might consider using your body as a shield to protect others. This quiz will test how effective your body would be shielding both modern and ancient weaponry. Note: To take this self survey, click onto the link provided...

Anti-war protests have returned to the Port of Olympia with the unloading of a military ship bearing Army gear from a Stryker Brigade that recently returned to nearby Fort Lewis from Iraq. According to an initial news release Sunday from Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, the group at first did not plan to try to block cargo from being sent from the port to the Army post ... Late Monday, however, after the arrival of 950-foot roll-on, roll-off cargo vessel, group leaders said a series of votes and discussions resulted in a change in strategy. "As long as the war in...

At least 12 arrested as protests move to downtown, I-5 entrance Jeremy Pawloski The Olympian  OLYMPIA -- At least 12 people have been arrested today as protests of military-cargo shipments from the Port of Olympia moved to downtown and the Plum Street entrance to Interstate 5. About 12:15 p.m., Olympia police arrested at least three people at Fourth Avenue and Plum Street. About 12:20 p.m., protesters gathered at the I-5 entrance in a failed attempt to block convoys. Police arrested at least nine people there.Protesters on foot blocked traffic at Fourth and Plum about noon by jumping in front...

Nothing a politician can do is more unethical and cheap than using the children as human shields to prevent people from debating the hoary details of their disingenuous and deleterious policy agendas. It is with this in mind that I condemn the entire Democratic Party media campaign to enact the S-CHIP reauthorization at much higher cost and much lower efficiency that the previous iteration of the same program. The President had no problem with reauthorizing the S-CHIP Program to continue insuring low income children, but for the poverty warriors seeking a fight with The White House, only insuring poor children...

Elvira Arellano is back in Mexico, where she belongs. Her 8-year old son, Saul, a U.S. citizen by birth, is with her for now. In September Saul will return to the U.S. to go to school, living under the care of Rev. Walter Coleman, who had given him and his mother "sanctuary" for the past year in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago.Arellano's arrest draws "renewed attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of families who are in the same situation," the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, national coordinator of the Los Angeles-based New Sanctuary Movement, tells The Washington Post....

SAIMA KHAN wants to die a martyr. Life is transient, she told her father in a telephone call last week, and the real glory is to sacrifice it for Allah. Her statement would be alarming at any age, but Saima is only 10. As she spoke, rifle shots rang out, the acrid smell of tear gas drifted over Islamabad and hundreds of troops surrounded the pro-Taliban Red Mosque, a religious school complex in the heart of Pakistan’s capital where Saima was among hundreds of children being held as virtual hostages in a stand-off between militants and the government. Saima and...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Fears mounted that women and children were being used as human shields at a besieged mosque in Pakistan's capital on Thursday, as hundreds of militant students ignored a plea from their captured leader to surrender. Pakistan's Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan said the few students who had quit the mosque on Thursday had spoken of a nightmare scenario for security forces trying to keep casualties to a minimum. "A large number of women and children are being held hostage by armed men in a room," Khan told a news conference, adding that the brother of the...

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2007 – Taliban terrorists continue to use innocent civilians as shields, NATO officials in Afghanistan said today. Afghan and American soldiers under International Security Assistance Force command participated in Operation Ghartse Ghar in Helmand province yesterday. The goal was to clear Taliban forces from both sides of the Helmand River in the village of Haderabad. After battling enemy forces most of the day, Afghan and coalition forces came under heavy fire from enemy small arms, medium machine guns, 82 mm mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. The Afghan and coalition forces identified several enemy positions during this exchange, including...

Life is stressful enough. Thought I toss in something completely silly and shallow to lighten things up if but for a minute. With all the anticipation for their birth's, which of the following (or someone not listed here) has the prettiest baby. Suri Cruise. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt Dannielynn Birkhead

The district attorney's office will not file charges against 11 police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a toddler during a gunbattle with her father last year. Nineteen-month-old Suzie Pena was being used as a human shield by her father, District Attorney Steve Cooley said in memo made public Tuesday. Relying on a review of the scene and reports gathered by the police department, prosecutors found the SWAT officers were trying to defend themselves and others when they accidentally killed the child, Cooley said. The father, Jose Raul Pena, exchanged gunfire with police during the hours-long July 2005 standoff...

Hundreds of Palestinians formed a human shield around the home of a terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip late Saturday to prevent an IAF airstrike on the building, residents said. People flocked to the home of Mohammedweil Baroud after he received a warning from the army late Saturday giving him 30 minutes to leave the house. Barhoud is a commander in the Popular Resistance Committees in the northern town of Beit Lahiya who is charge of firing homemade rockets at Israel. The incident was the first time Palestinians have tried to prevent an airstrike. The crowd chanted anti-Israel and anti-American...