International

Vanunu Moves from Prison to House Arrest

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu is scheduled to be released soon from prison after serving an 18-year sentence for blowing the whistle on Israel's weapons of mass destruction. However, Israel is also forbidding him from communicating with foreigners or moving about without permission and has been told that any infraction of these rules will land him back in prison without trial.

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One Less Cog in the Propaganda Machine

A senior defense advisor to the Australian government says she was fired after refusing to write media briefings that supported claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "I felt like I was part of the propaganda machine. As a public servant I shouldn't be expected to write propaganda," said engineer and analyst Jane Errey. Rather than participate in pro-war briefings, she took a leave of absence and has now been terminated permanently.

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Working Hard for the Money

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) may not "ensure adequate remedy for workers' rights abuses, protect women workers from discrimination, or improve domestic labor law enforcement," as Human Rights Watch claims, but it does have an international PR campaign.

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The Play's the Thing

"It allows people to exercise a kind of hour of hate, or whatever George Orwell called it," said the drama critic for Egypt's largest newspaper, explaining the popularity of "a harshly anti-American show" called "Messing with the Mind." The writer, director and star, Khaled al-Sawy, said: "Most plays just weep about our general situation... I felt people wanted a play that talks about resisting." The U.S.

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World Opinion, One Year Later

"A year after the war in Iraq, discontent with America and its policies has intensified rather than diminished," concludes a new international survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "Opinion of the United States in France and Germany is at least as negative now as at the war's conclusion, and British views are decidedly more critical. Perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America's credibility abroad.

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