Here is the link to the execution video. BE WARNED, IT SHOWS THE FULL AND GRAPHIC EXECUTION

“The tyrant has fallen,” a witness shouted after Saddam Hussein dropped through the trap door of the gallows, his neck broken in an instant by the rope moments after exchanging sectarian taunts with onlookers.

Grainy footage of the execution, apparently shot on a mobile phone by a witness who was standing below looking up at the gallows, was circulating widely on the Internet on Sunday, a day after Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity.

As the hangmen prepare him for his final moment, some of those invited to attend standing below the platform taunted the former president, who was executed on Saturday before dawn. (more…)

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney hailed former U.S. President Gerald Ford at a state funeral on Saturday for pardoning Richard Nixon, his disgraced predecessor, and helping to heal the nation after the Watergate scandal.

Ford, the 38th president who died on Tuesday at age 93, steered the United States through “a crisis that could have turned to catastrophe,” said Cheney, chief of staff in Ford’s White House 30 years ago and an honorary pallbearer at the ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.

Cheney spoke after it emerged that Ford, a moderate Republican, had said in an interview with journalist Bob Woodward that he disagreed with President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq. The report was published in The Washington Post two days after Ford’s death.

Ford held office for 2-1/2 years after Richard Nixon became the only president to resign. Nixon did so on August 9, 1974, implicated in a cover-up of a break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington. (more…)

John Scarlett, who took responsibility for the error-ridden dossier that justified the war in Iraq, is knighted in today’s New Year’s Honours list. The award will enrage peace campaigners, who have accused the veteran spymaster of saving Tony Blair’s skin over the flawed case for the invasion.

The news came as a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra yesterday, the 127th to die since the invasion in 2003.

Sir John, the head of MI6, played a key role in the Hutton Inquiry hearings into the death of the weapons expert David Kelly, three years ago. He steadfastly defended the dossier, which contained the notorious claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. And he dismissed accusations he had bowed to pressure to “sex up” the document’s conclusions.

As chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, he told the inquiry he had “overall charge and responsibility” for the dossier.

Sir John allowed last-minute changes that had the effect of strengthening its conclusions, leading Lord Hutton to suggest that he could have been “subconsciously influenced” by his political masters. (more…)

NEW YORK — The search for human remains at the World Trade Center site will be expanded, a city official said Friday, hours before searchers found what may be more bone fragments at the site.

In a memo to Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the search for remains, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said debris believed to be from the towers had been dug up from under a service road on the site’s western edge and said more of the road would be excavated.

Crews sifting through the material have reported finding computer parts, office carpet, electrical wires and steel from the building.

“Based on the appearance of what could be WTC-related debris in the trench, the majority of the haul road requires further excavation,” Skyler wrote. He said officials had identified another 165 underground utility cavities in the streets around the site that need to be searched, bringing the total number to nearly 600. (more…)

North Korea on Saturday accused the United States of having conducted at least 2,200 spy plane missions over the communist country this year, its official media said.
“This means six reconnaissance planes were involved in the espionage on a daily average,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Pyongyang has said such missions show the US aims to invade North Korea despite Washington’s categorical denials. Both sides are locked in a standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.

The KCNA said “the US imperialist aggression forces” had carried out their spy missions with reconnaissance planes including the U-2, RC-135, E-3, EP-3, RC-7B and RC-12, either based in South Korea or overseas. (more…)

Tony Blair is today accused of “disgraceful hand-washing” in Iraq by a former British Army chief, the latest attack on the Government by an increasingly outspoken military.

General Sir Michael Rose, the former commander of British troops in Bosnia, accuses the Prime Minister of putting British soldiers at “considerable and quite unnecessary risk” in Iraq, in an article for today’s Independent on Sunday.

His remarks follow those of the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, and of the Army’s commander in Iraq, Major General Richard Shirreff.

Maj-Gen Shirreff said on Wednesday that a “generation of underfunding and neglect in political terms” was undermining soldiers’ capacity to protect themselves. His remarks follow those of General Dannatt’s pledge to “stand up for what is right” for the troops.

In his article, Sir Michael says it is “tremendously heartening” for soldiers to see their “present bosses standing up for them”. (more…)

WASHINGTON — Another terrorist attack, a warmer planet, death and destruction from a natural disaster. These are among Americans’ grim predictions for the United States in 2007.

Only a minority of people think the U.S. will go to war with Iran or North Korea over those countries’ nuclear ambitions. An overwhelming majority of those surveyed think Congress will raise the federal minimum wage. One-third see hope for a cure to cancer.

These are among the findings of an Associated Press-AOL News poll that asked people in the U.S. to contemplate what 2007 holds for the country.

Six in 10 people think the U.S. will be the victim of a terrorist attack. An identical percentage thinks it likely that a biological or nuclear weapon will be unleashed somewhere else in the world.

Seventy percent of people in the U.S. predict a major natural disaster in the country and an equal percentage expects worsening global warming. Also, 29 percent think it likely that the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Iraq. (more…)

BANGKOK — At least six small bombs exploded in Bangkok on Sunday, killing two people and wounding more than 20, shocking the Thai capital into cancelling some New Year countdown celebrations.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombs, which went off within about an hour and included one planted under a seat at a bus stop outside a shopping mall which wounded 17 people, two seriously, they said.

Police said they did not believe the bombs were the work of militants in the Muslim-majority far south who have set off a series of bombs in towns there during three years of separatist insurgency and who do not issue claims of responsibility.

“I don’t believe it has anything to do with the militants in the south,” deputy national police chief General Achiravit Supanpasat told a news conference, referring to an insurgency which has cost more than 1,800 lives. (more…)

London- Human rights organization Amnesty International said Sunday in London that it “deplores” the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. “”We oppose the death penalty in all cases as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, but it is especially abhorrent when this most extreme penalty is imposed after an unfair trial,” Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme, said in a statement.

“It is even more worrying that in this case, the execution appeared a foregone conclusion, once the original verdict was pronounced, with the Appeals Court providing little more than a veneer of legitimacy for what was, in fact, a fundamentally flawed process,” Smart said.

The statement pointed out that Amnesty had always campaigned for Saddam to be brought to justice for crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, the trial the former dictator faced was “a deeply flawed affair.”

“It will be seen by many as nothing more than ‘victor’s justice’ and, sadly, will do nothing to stem the unrelenting tide of political killings,” Smart said. (more…)

‘Fusion’ Facilities Raise Privacy Worries As Wide Range of Information Is Collected

Frustrated by poor federal cooperation, U.S. states and cities are building their own network of intelligence centers led by police to help detect and disrupt terrorist plots.

The new “fusion centers” are now operating in 37 states, including Virginia and Maryland, and another covers the Washington area, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The centers, which have received $380 million in federal support since the 2001 terrorist attacks, pool and analyze information from local, state and federal law enforcement officials.

The emerging “network of networks” marks a new era of opportunity for law enforcement, according to U.S. officials and homeland security experts. Police are hungry for federal intelligence in an age of homegrown terrorism and more sophisticated crime. For their part, federal law enforcement officials could benefit from a potential army of tipsters — the 700,000 local and state police officers across the country, as well as private security guards and others being courted by the centers. (more…)

Thousands of Iraqis flocked to Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Ouja on Sunday, where the deposed leader was buried in a religious compound 24 hours after his execution.

Dozens of relatives and other mourners, some of them crying and moaning, attended the interment shortly before dawn near Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. A few knelt before his flag-draped grave. A large framed photograph of Saddam was propped up on a chair nearby.

“I condemn the way he was executed and I consider it a crime,” said 45-year-old Salam Hassan al-Nasseri, one of Saddam’s clansmen who attended the interment. (more…)

British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease.

Described as the ‘holy grail’ of flu vaccines, it would protect against all strains of influenza A - the virus behind both bird flu and the nastiest outbreaks of winter flu.

Just a couple of injections could give long-lasting immunity - unlike the current vaccine which has to be given every year.

The brainchild of scientists at Cambridge biotech firm Acambis, working with Belgian researchers, the vaccine will be tested on humans for the first time in the next few months.

A similar universal flu vaccine, being developed by Swiss vaccine firm Cytos Biotechnology, could also be tested on people in 2007 - and the vaccines on the market in around five years. (more…)

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday called for the immediate expansion of uranium mining and the development of nuclear powered energy.

Unveiling a final report on the nation’s future energy requirements, Howard backed the controversial findings first revealed last month and said nuclear energy should feature in any plan for Australia’s future needs.

“The reality is we won’t have nuclear power stations tomorrow, but over time if we are to have a sensible response, we have to include nuclear power,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“It is foolish and backward-looking and old fashioned of people to say ‘Well, we will always oppose the use of nuclear power’.”

Howard said while nuclear energy was not a “silver bullet” solution to global warming or energy security, a nation such as Australia would be “crazy in the extreme if we didn’t allow for the development of nuclear power.” (more…)

Cameras may soon make it easier for police to catch drivers running red lights. The city is signing a contract with Redflex Traffic Systems, of Arizona, to install the technology. But, as “Big Brother” snaps shots of drivers… some question if the cameras violate basic rights under the law.

You’ll soon think twice about running a red light in Sioux City. Cameras will snap shots of cars going through red lights. The images will then be sent to the police department, where an officer will decide whether to write out a ticket. Police say the technology will put a dent in the number of travelers breaking the law and endangering public safety.

Captain Melvin Williams, Sioux City Police Department, says “We don’t have the staff to monitor all the intersections in the city, so this is a way to be a force multiplier and handle the concerns of the public that’s been brought forward to us.” (more…)

A car bomb exploded at Madrid’s international airport injuring four people on Saturday after an anonymous warning by telephone and a second call claiming it was the work of Basque rebels ETA, Spanish authorities said.

Passengers at the ultra-modern Terminal Four said the departure hall filled with smoke after the explosion in a nearby parking lot which could mark the end of a cease-fire declared by ETA in March after four decades of armed struggle for Basque Country independence.

The bomb exploded at about 9 a.m. (8:00 a.m. British Time), causing minor injuries to four people including two police officers and a taxi driver, emergency services said, and sending a huge pall of smoke over the terminal at Barajas Airport.

While witnesses said they were evacuated after the explosion, authorities received the first warning at about 8 a.m. (7:00 a.m. British Time) after a man with a Basque accent called Basque traffic authorities to warn them of a bomb in a purple Renault Traffic van in a roofed parking area. (more…)