"High school senior Allen Lee sat down with his creative writing class on Monday and penned an essay that so disturbed his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct.....[his father] added: "I don't see how somebody can get charged by writing in their homework. The teacher asked them to express themselves, and he followed instructions."

Allen Lee, an 18-year-old straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with disorderly conduct for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.

The youth's father said his son was not suspended or expelled but was forced to attend classes elsewhere for now."

Labels: censorship, new fascism

"It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up."

"The federal Attorney-General has come under fire for recommending a personal friend of John Howard to head the Classification Review Board.

The Victorian, New South Wales and South Australian attorneys-general say their federal counterpart Philip Ruddock is trying to appoint of former ABC chairman Donald McDonald as director of the Classification Review Board.

Victoria's Attorney-General Rob Hulls says the process is corrupt."

Labels: collusion, corruption

"US President George W Bush continues to support World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz despite a scandal over pay raises and promotions given to his girlfriend.

"The president has confidence in Paul Wolfowitz and his work" at the World Bank, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Mr Wolfowitz, who was backed for the prestigious post by President Bush in 2005, was fighting for his political life on Friday (local time) after World Bank directors said they had not approved staggering pay rises for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, a World Bank staffer."

Labels: collusion, corruption

"Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock is asking his state and territory counterparts to ban books which advocate terrorism.

Mr Ruddock says current classification laws do not go far enough and says he wants all material advocating terrorism taken off the shelves."

Labels: censorship, corruption, new fascism

"One of the outstanding figures of modern US literature, Kurt Vonnegut, has died aged 84 in New York."

"Interrogations of Saddam Hussein and seized documents confirmed the former Iraqi regime had no links with al-Qaeda, a Pentagon report said today, contradicting the US case for the 2003 invasion.....According to the inspector general of the US Defence Department, information obtained after Saddam's fall confirmed the pre-war position of the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon intelligence that the Iraqi government had had no substantial contacts with al-Qaeda."