Defense researchers in the US are developing directed-energy weapons that can paralyze crowds of people while leaving no lasting injuries, cause intense but harmless pain, or render weapons systems like roadside bombs harmless from a distance. More ambitious researchers want to disable incoming missiles in mid-air with lasers or other energy weapons.
Needless to say, human rights proponents are skeptical, even as they see the advantage of non-lethal weapons to bombs and bullets.
Stephen Galton says he was subject to a "barrage of harassing, defamatory and abusive messages" from anonymous users on a Yahoo message board.
Instead of being a man about it, he is now launching a lawsuit against the deepest pockets, that is Yahoo, and he wants to make it a class action suit for other wimps to join in.
Hmm. I'm socially radical (pro-choice, pro-gay marriage), a militant atheist, moderate on the economy and most domestic issues, euroskeptic, pro-Israel, pro-US and probably more hawkish than Rumsfeld on the war on terror. I doubt I'd find that match anywhere, if I was looking for a woman that was a carbon copy of my political views. But where would the fun be in that?
The original evidence was seized by Israeli forces during a Ramallah raid in April 2002. EU investigators given access to the documents concluded they were authentic.
This is not all..
In the past decade, the EU has transferred about £1 billion to the Palestinian Authority. European support for the authority is at present about £6.5 million a month.
A report by the International Monetary Fund last year said senior Palestinian officials had funnelled almost £500 million in funds from donor countries and from profits from corrupt business monopolies in the territories into overseas bank accounts.
One of the beneficiaries is said to be Mr Arafat's wife, Suha, who lives in Paris. Money transfers are being investigated by French authorities.
The EU has massive blinders on when it comes to Arafat. Non-EU member Norway, which awarded him a Nobel peace prize, is no better. They have invested so much in portraying the Palestinians as the heroes and the Israelis as the villains, and will be hard pressed to accept they have been propping up a murderous, corrupt thug for all these years.
