Business

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, and the Federal government of Australia have settled out of court with a couple whose house had been raided a couple weeks after the 11 September 2001 attacks against the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers in the USA. ASIO, a domestic counter-intelligence service, mistakenly raided the couples house when they had a search warrant for another house. The couple were detained for an hour and claimed they were assaulted, wrongfully detained and experienced severe shock when, according to

Justice John Gomery has released a preliminary report into Canada's Sponsorship Program, which was run from 1996 to 2003 by the federal Public Works Department to win support for federalism in Quebec. The program has recently come under fire for allegedly scandalous practices and has been accused of being a front to reward Liberal Party supporters. The issue came to a head in the spring of 2002, when the Globe and Mail, using Canada's Access to Information Act, discovered that $550,000 had been paid to Groupaction Marketing for a report that

Three bombs shook the Indian capital of New Delhi on Saturday in crowded marketplace bazaars within minutes of each other, killing at least 61 people, according to recent reports. The national government is on high alert. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a statement in response to the attack, saying, "India will win the battle against terrorism." The BBC reports that ten people have been detained in the investigation into the blasts. Police say they are making progress into the investigation and that it appears the same group was behind al

The World Bank approved a US$9.8 million Competitiveness Enhancement Project (CEP) for the Republic of Moldova Thursday. The approved amount represents a US$4.90 million credit and a US$4.90 million grant. The credit is offered under IDA terms, the World Bank Moldova Country Office has reported. The overall objective of the Competitiveness Enhancement Project is to assist Moldova in enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises through improvements in the business environment and making adequate standards, testing and quality improvement servic

During talks between the respective Foreign Ministers, Ban Ki-moon, the South Korean minister has expressed doubt that his country's President would be able to visit Japan due to opinion regarding Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. The Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister described the prospects for such a visit as "grim". Ban is currently on a visit for talks with his Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura where he said that the "people of South Korea were disappointed" at the Koizumi's visit to the con

Israeli police confirmed that a suicide bomber was responsible for a blast that killed five people and left many seriously injured. The Wednesday afternoon attack occurred in an open market place in the small costal Israeli town of Hadera, a location which has been a frequent target of attacks in the five-year-old Palestinian uprising. The market place was busy with shoppers in advance of a Jewish Holiday, with many stocking up for the weekend. CNN reporters on the scene say 20 have been injured, 6 are critical, 7 are serious, and the death

Three officials of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in South Africa have been suspended for allegedly spying on Saki Macozoma, a businessman with the African National Congress (ANC). The three men; deputy director general Gibson Njenje, general manager Bob Mhlanga, and director general Billie Masethla were temporarily relieved of duty by Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils following the allegations. Masethla has been reported to have clashed with Kasrils over an allegation he made about members of the Directorate of Special Operations(D

The International Federation of Journalists today reported that an Iraqi journalist has been shot dead in Baghdad by unknown assailants. Mohammad Harun Hassan was editor of the Nabdh Al Shabeb Newspaper, and Executive Secretary of an Iraqi trade union, the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate. According to the IFJ, Harun Hassan is the 100th media worker to be killed since March 2003. Moaid Al Lamy, a board member of the union, told the IFJ that Harun Hassan had been critical of a number of political parties and some other editors. "We believe this

A number of publishers represented by the trade union group Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed an injuction in U.S. District Court in New York on Wednesday to stop Google from moving forward with plans for its Print Library Project. The current situation between the publishing industry and Google requires that copyright holders notify the search engine if they do not want works to appear on the internet in full by November 1. Where requests by copyright holders exist, the search result will display only a snippet of the text and a

5 people were killed in a bus crash involving a truck on the return trip from a band marching competition from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The band director, his wife and granddaughter, the bus driver and a student were the five killed. 30 others were injured in the crash. The bus was the first of four buses carrying 200 students home from the competition. The band was happy that they had placed third with their selection 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'. A Whole Foods Market truck had veered off the road and when it tried to get

A woman set off a hand grenade outside the Tajikistan Ministry of Emergencies, killing herself. The incident, which happened on October 9, has not been claimed by any groups. It is unknown whether the attack, and two similar happenings earlier this year, were by a terrorist group. Some Western diplomats suggest the first two bombs were linked to business disputes or political vendettas. The woman died in an ambulance, en route to the hospital. The grenade was hidden in her handbag.

A Vietnamese girl's case of bird flu was found to be oseltamivir-resistant, where oseltamivir is the active ingredient of the anti-viral drug being marketed as Tamiflu. The girl had been taking care of her brother who had caught the disease, and may have contracted it from him rather than from infected birds. She was on a low dosage of Tamiflu, and recovered when given higher doses. She had contracted a mutated form of H5N1 bird flu. Tests on lab animals were also found sensitive to zanamivir, marketed as Relenza. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the U