Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

New York City officials have agreed to pay damages to thousands of Ground Zero "dust" victims of September 11.

New York City officials have agreed to pay over 650 million dollars to thousands of rescue and clean-up workers who were involved in the aftermath of the attacks.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that no "Zionist" was inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, as the terrorists flew the two hijacked planes into the two towers.

President Ahmadinejad said the arrogance, which "demonstrates the satanic characteristics of Satan," sought to evoke sympathy by showing the impact of the planes jamming into the towers.

A senior advisor to former US President George W. Bush says he is "proud" of using "harsh interrogation methods" against alleged terror suspects.

"I'm proud that we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists and gave us valuable information that allowed us to foil plots," Karl Rove said in an interview with BBC on Thursday.

Barack Obama has vowed this week to overhaul the American immigration system. And with half a million people entering the US illegally every year, the number being deported is growing. And there is criticism that officials dealing with the issue often resort to questionable methods, as rt's Cedric Moon reports.

A top US military commander in Latin America has confirmed Venezuelan government's insistence on not aiding regional rebel groups, rejecting Spain's accusations against the Hugo Chavez Administration.

"We have not seen any connection specifically that I can verify that there has been a direct government-to-terrorist connection," said General Douglas Fraser, chief of US military's Southern Command, responsible for Latin American operations, on Thursday.

The border city of Reynosa is Mexico's new front on the war on drugs. A growing turf battle between drug cartels has terrorised locals and the situation has deteriorated to the extent that residents are afraid to go outside, even during the day. Journalists are also fearing for their lives after some reporters were targeted by gangs. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists is now calling on the Mexican government to investigate a series of kidnappings of reporters covering the drug war in the area. Franc Contreras reports (11 Mar 2010).

US President Barack Obama has set up a new high-level agency as a part of strategy that to double US exports in five years in face of a battered economy.

The newly created Export Promotion Cabinet will hold its first meeting in April, and includes representatives from the departments of State, Agriculture, and Commerce, among others.

Two female aid workers with the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in quake-ravaged Haiti, who have been adducted last week, were freed Thursday and are "safe and sound."

For security reasons and in a bid not to "complicate" negotiations to free the women, the Friday kidnapping had been kept secret.

The US President Barack Obama has been cautioned about a humiliating defeat in mid-term elections next autumn if his Democratic Party fails to bring change in Washington.

Steve Hildebrand, Obama's senior advisor during his presidential campaign emphasized in a CNN interview on Thursday that the Democrats will suffer a huge loss in the November elections if they fail "to reform Washington."

After 50 years of suspicions over the cursed bread of the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit and its people's hallucinations, a journalist found CIA in the background of the tragedy.

In summer 1951, the whole quiet village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously affected by psychosis and hallucinations among its residents.