As a public health catastrophe unfolded in New Orleans, hospitals in the Crescent City sank further into disaster, airlifting babies without their parents to other states and struggling with more sick people appearing at their doors.

Charity and University hospitals evacuated

Dangerous, unsanitary conditions spread across the city, much of which now sits in a murky stew of germs.

The federal government declared a public health emergency for the Gulf Coast region, promising 40 medical centers with up to 10,000 beds and thousands of doctors and nurses for the hurricane-ravaged area.

Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, were held hostage for three weeks in September 2004

The Italian Red Cross treated four Iraqi insurgents to secure the release of two Italian women held hostage last year, a Red Cross official has said.

Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing head of the Italian Red Cross, said the deal had been kept secret from the US.

Mr Scelli - who first revealed the story to the Italian daily La Stampa - said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-man man, Gianni Letta, was aware of the deal. "He acknowledged it and - albeit with a thousand recommendations - he told me to go ahead with it."

Mr Scelli said Mr Calipari had been consulted about the deal to free Ms Torretta and Ms Pari.

Two Brazilian government officials plan to meet members of the IPCC, Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates and other officials. According to the UK's Press Association, they want clarification on new reports that emerged last week about the killing of the innocent 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, sparking accusations of a cover-up by police.

Vigil at Stockwell Tube Station for Jean Charles de Menezes

The Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign group are to hold a vigil and demonstration outside Downing Street today, a month since his death.

At the initiative of Paul Ehrenfest, a special chair in Leiden was created for Albert Einstein, enabling him to come to our university for short periods of his choosing. On October 27, 1920, Einstein began his new position with an inaugural address on ether and relativity theory. The yearly visits stopped when Einstein fled Europe in 1933. The position was formally terminated by the German occupation.

LONDON (AFP) - Police in London were under pressure after leaked documents revealed that a Brazilian killed on suspicion of being a suicide bomber was not trying to evade police and was already being restrained when he was shot at point-blank range.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the police killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, refused to confirm or deny the new information -- broadcast by ITV News -- which contradicted earlier police claims and witness statements.

Police shot the electrician, 27, at point-blank range after he boarded a subway train on July 22, one day after four suspected would-be bombers tried but failed to repeat the July 7 blasts that killed 56 people.

Dublin July 14, 2005 (Irish Examiner) -- THE BALKANS were last night being named as the possible source of the explosive material used in the London bombings.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told the emergency meeting of EU justice ministers in Brussels, that there was strong suspicion the explosives used in the bombings came from the Balkans or Eastern Europe, where it is possible to buy the material on the black market after the Balkan wars.

However, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he was bewildered by the comments.

USS Cole - attack with C4 explosives

.

Al-Qaeda increasingly difficult to pin down

Experts say 'Hydra-like' Al-Qaeda
further complicate police efforts
to build up model of its mindset.

By Chris Wright - LONDON

Like the Hydra, the monster of Greek mythology, Al-Qaeda can grow new heads when others die, say experts, warning that last week's bombings in London show how the terrorist group's periphery is now more important than any remaining command.

The view is spreading that, a new wave of Al-Qaeda affiliated groups were responsible for the London carnage in London and last year's deadly blasts in Madrid. Many argue that the organisation's leadership under Osama bin Laden, has become increasingly cut off, since the Afghanistan's supportive Taliban leadership was forced from power by US-led forces in Afghanistan.

The London bombings have thrown the terror spotlight back on Pakistan, where Islamic militants continue to thrive despite a massive crackdown on Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
(AFP/Pool/File/Farooq Naeem)

LONDON (Reuters) - An Egyptian chemistry student Magdy Elnashar, 33, wanted by police in connection with last week's London bombings is understood to have been arrested in Cairo.

 The group claiming responsibility for the London bombings represents itself as a secret, organized grouping or cell of "Qaida al-Jihad in Europe." It is significant that they identify themselves as "in Europe", suggesting that they are based on the continent and have struck from there into London. This conclusion is bolstered by their description of the attack as a "blessed raid". One raids a neighboring territory, not one's own.

ACLU FOIA Diary - Investigative Tracking
by susanhu  Fri May 27th, 2005

This is the diary that volunteers will use to track their own work, and find out what others are digging up from these FOIA US Government documents (PDF format) at the ACLU site.