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European human rights watchdogs are now watching Belgian democracy closely after the move by Flemish local authorities. The Council of Europe has "opened a monitoring procedure on local democracy" fuelling a row between Dutch speaking and francophone Belgians that has threatened the existence of Belgium. Flemish regional authorities have blocked three French-speaking mayors from taking up public office since they were elected in January 2007 in the Brussels suburbs of Linkebeek, Wezembeek-Oppem and Kraainem. Marino Keulen, the Flemish Interior Minister responsible for the ban, remained defiant and announced he will stick by his decision to outlaw the elected mayors....

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday. The ACLU said it derived that figure from a Justice Department report on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which consolidates terrorist watch list information. The Center "had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month," according to a report by the Justice Department Inspector General, the rights group said. "By those...

WASHINGTON: The name of the Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor has turned up on the U.S. government's terror watch list. The former assistant attorney general, Jim Robinson, joined with the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday in calling for elimination of the list, which is designed to identify suspected terrorists. Critics say the list has caused thousands of innocent people to be questioned or searched. The rights organization estimates that one million records will have been added to the list by the end of July. Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the list, says...

A WATCH list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said today. The ACLU said it derived the figure from a Justice Department report on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Centre, which consolidates terrorist watch list information. The centre "had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month", according to a report by the Justice Department Inspector-General, the rights group said. "By those numbers, the list...

"One man went into a Glen Burnie, Md., Toyota dealership to buy a car, only to be told that a name check revealed he was on a U.S. Treasury Department watchlist of suspected terrorists and drug dealers. He had to be "checked for tattoos," he said, to make sure he wasn't the suspect. An 18-year-old found he could not open an account to accept credit card payments for his fledgling technology consulting business because his name was similar to that of a Libyan official on the watchlist. A former U.S. Navy officer who served in the Persian Gulf and whose...

ACLU calls out US over 'absurd bloating' of terror watch list More that 900,000 people are currently listed as suspected terrorists on the US government's "do not fly" list, and that number will grow to beyond 1 million by summer, says the American Civil Liberties Union.More.... U.S. Terror Watch List Surpasses 900,000 Names, ACLU Estimates The government's centralized terrorist watch list passed the 900,000 name mark this month, according to the ACLU, which estimated the new total by relying on Congressional testimony from the fall that the sprawling list was growing by 20,000 names a month.More....Terrorist Watchlist Database BalloonsWASHINGTON, DC...

Two men on the "national terrorist watch list" have been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following a routine traffic stop, according to Patagonia Police Chief Ed Dobbertin. Dobbertin said that on Feb. 12, between 9-9:30 a.m., he was patrolling State Route 82 near milepost 28 when he pulled over a car for a traffic violation. "There were just indicators that something wasn't right with the vehicle," said Dobbertin. "We searched. My dog indicated that there was the presence of narcotic odor in the vehicle," he added. Dobbertin said he then called Border Patrol to assist. "They...

The US terrorist watch list includes more than 755,000 names and continues to grow, the US Government Accountability Office said Wednesday. The list exploded from fewer than 20 entries before the September 11, 2001 attacks to more than 150,000 just a few months later, after the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) was created in December 2003 to keep tabs on terrorist suspects, according to the GAO, the non-partisan investigative arm of Congress. Including known pseudonyms of suspects, the list's 755,000 names as of May 2007 represents, in fact, around 300,000 people, according to TSC estimates. Tasked with gathering data on individuals...

Manila: The Philippines has put rights activists, including a former US attorney-general and members of church groups on an immigration blacklist, a rights group said on Friday. At least 504 people from 50 countries were included in the blacklist labelled "Al Qaida/Taliban Link" imposed between July and August, Human Rights Watch said. Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general, is among those banned from entry. The list also includes left-wing activists from Europe, Australia and the United States. A senior immigration official confirmed that the blacklist existed, adding only that most of the names on it were "leftists". Human Rights...

An estimated 75 percent of applicants for immigrant benefits - green cards, work visas, and a host of other documents - at a major federal processing center were not screened through the U.S. terrorism watch list over the past four years, the Daily Bulletin has learned. The error - on nearly 3 million applications dating to 2002 - was confirmed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., near Kansas City. The center is one of several facilities across the country that process foreign applications for immigrant benefits. Numerous Department of...

DENVER -- You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

POTENTIAL terrorists and war criminals entering Australia will face heightened scrutiny, under an improved "watch list" to be set up this year. The Department of Immigration and Federal Government security agencies are establishing a control centre to administer the Movement Alert List, which places a red flag next to the names of criminals, people with terrorist connections, and other undesirables. Everyone applying for a visa to come to Australia will have their name checked against the database, which contains more than 400,000 people of interest. They include terrorists, serious criminals, those involved in organised immigration rackets, people who have previously...

The Republican revolt over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointment of Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff is looking serious. The influential California Republican Assembly group says the choice of a lifelong Democrat and former aide to Gov. Gray Davis was so appalling that the state GOP should rescind its endorsement of Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election bid. But the more one learns about Kennedy – for example, she voted for all of the governor's initiatives in the Nov. 8 special election – the less she seems to be the leftist apparatchik her critics depict. Republicans should look to the governor's pending policy...

US terror watchlist 80,000 names long Thu Dec 8,10:59 AM ET STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A watchlist of possible terror suspects distributed by the US government to airlines for pre-flight checks is now 80,000 names long, a Swedish newspaper reported, citing European air industry sources. The classified list, which carried just 16 names before the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington had grown to 1,000 by the end of 2001, to 40,000 a year later and now stands at 80,000, Svenska Dagbladet reported. Airlines must check each passenger flying to a US destination against the list, and contact...

Los Angeles Unified and eight other Los Angeles County school districts were placed Thursday on the state's financial watch list after overspending their budgets in 2003-04. LAUSD -- the nation's second-largest district -- made its first appearance on the list predicting "impending financial problems" after it overspent its $5 billion budget by $253 million. The Annual Financial Report of California K-12 Schools, released by State Controller Steve Westly, points to a dire future for public school finances and warns that nearly 80 districts may not be able to pay their bills in two years. The Los Angeles School District said...

Wed 13 Apr 2005 9:47am (UK) Naval Security Reviewed over Ship Intruder By Ben Mitchell, PA A review of security at a major UK naval base has been carried out after an alleged intruder was found on board a visiting US aircraft carrier, the Royal Navy said today. The alleged trespasser was discovered on board the USS Harry S Truman, anchored off Stokes Bay, Gosport, Hants, on Saturday night during a week-long visit to Portsmouth Naval Base. A navy spokesman said the man had allegedly passed through both Royal Navy security and US Navy security to get on board passenger...

By The Associated Press(3/09/05 - HOUSTON) — A woman whose arrest at a South Texas airport with a mutilated passport raised terrorism concerns was deported Tuesday to South Africa, never having faced terrorism charges. Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, 49, was convicted of criminal charges of illegal entry into the United States, making false statements to federal authorities and misuse of an altered South African passport. She was sentenced Dec. 7 to the time she was held on the charges and was ordered deported Dec. 22. Ahmed waived her right to appeal the judge's decision. She was turned over to...

LONDON — The singer formerly known as Cat Stevens will headline a fund-raising concert in Indonesia for victims of the Asian tsunami. Yusuf Islam will have top billing at Monday's concert in Jakarta that will raise money for victims from Indonesia's Aceh province, according to his Web site. Islam has composed a new song, Indian Ocean, and recently recorded it with musicians including A.R. Rahman, Magne Furuholmen and Neil Primrose. The song will be released in February to raise money for children orphaned by the Dec. 26 disaster. "Like everyone else, I was so shaken by the enormity of...

Feds divert plane to Keys, remove man on watch list BY SCOTT FUSARO Citizen Staff A jetliner en route from Colombia to Atlanta landed at Naval Air Station Key West Sunday afternoon where federal officials pulled from the plane a passenger believed to be on a government "no-fly" list. Federal officials were not releasing the identity of the passenger whom FBI and U.S. Customs agents continued questioning after the plane resumed its journey to Atlanta just after 4 p.m., according to officials. "The name was a positive match on the TSA's no-fly list," said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lauren Stover....