In The News

Kazakhs Seek Stronger Ties With Israel

Ruth Eglash November 7, 2006
Kazakhstan is abruptly the center of global attention, thanks to a film set in the US with a British star who is Jewish. British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen poses as a Kazakh television reporter, who is congenial, but also sexist and anti-Semitic. Kazakhstan officials protested the satiric film – “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” – for an...

IoS 2060: Tsunami Horror Hits Britain

Geoffrey Lean November 6, 2006
Nations have slacked off in reducing energy use and efforts to combat global warming. Nations meeting in Nairobi on setting new targets for pollution reduction will hear three reports – the Stern Report in the UK on economics and global warming, the United Nations report on national efforts and an Institute on Public Policy Research report from the UK that suggests the need for immediate policy...

Climate Chaos? Don't Believe It

Christopher Monckton November 6, 2006
Most scientific evidence points toward an alarming trend of a warmer planet, with a meltdown of polar caps, extinction of species and extreme weather that will threaten populated coasts throughout the world. A small group of people – including writer, puzzle-maker and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher Christopher Monckton – suggests that the warnings about global warming are alarmist and...

Apocalypse Now

David Adam November 4, 2006
A report released by the British government has everyone talking about the weather, and contains dire reasons for the world to start doing something about it. The 600-page Stern Report warns that, unless drastic measures are taken to combat global climate change, average temperatures will rise 2 or 3 degrees Celsius in the next half century, which will in turn melt ice fields, raise sea levels,...

US Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer

William J. Broad November 3, 2006
Intent on proving that Iraq was pursuing weapons of mass destruction before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Republican politicians in the US demanded release of an archive of Iraqi documents, and President George Bush gave the nod. Weapons analysts, from agencies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, now describe the release as a...

Spy Agencies Now Share the Wikipedia Way

Greg Miller November 2, 2006
Typically, the US intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense invent gadgets that often find their way into daily American life. But aiming for better teamwork, US spies have turned to open-source software as invented by Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia where anyone can propose, write or edit entries. US Intellipedia, not open to the public, will allow staff of 16 intelligence agencies...

Google Defiant Over Censorship in China

David Smith November 1, 2006
Defenders of free speech reject any controls over the internet. This issue and others were debated by more than 90 countries attending the first Internet Governance Forum in Athens. Companies like Google do business in China despite some censorship, and Google maintains that simply providing a connection is a major first step to creating an open society. To deny access to restrictive regimes only...