Nexus - 1401 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

... GLOBAL NEWS ... NEWS responses were the opposite of those seen in subjects in a meditative state. Newberg has found that when people meditate on a particular sacred object, their frontal lobe activity increases while their parietal activity goes down. This conforms with the notion that in meditation one has a controlled focus while losing a sense of self. (Source: | ScienceNOW Daily News, 2 November 2006, http://tinyurl.com/y2zwo3) diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran. Sources say that there was a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. According to senior American officials: "China not only has the capability, but has exercised it." American satellites like the giant Keyhole craft have come under attack "several times" in recent years. The United States military has been so alarmed by the Chinese activity that it has begun test attacks against its own satellites to determine the severity of the threat. There has been increasing alarm in parts of the US military establishment over China's growing ambitions. Military experts have already noted that Chinese military expenditure is increasingly designed to challenge American military pre-eminence by investing in weaponry that can attack key systems such as aircraft carriers and satellites. (Source: Daily Telegraph, UK, 26 September 2006, http://tinyurl.com/qxbgq) UK courts in this area. Mohammed Jameel, a billionaire Saudi car dealer, had been identified by the Wall Street Journal in a front-page story as a holder of bank accounts which were the subject of monitoring at the request of United States authorities so as to ensure that funds were not being provided, whether intentionally or unwittingly, to terrorist organisations. The newspaper could not prove the truth of its story at trial because its sources in Saudi Arabia were reluctant to give evidence. The House of Lords nonetheless ruled that because the material was of public importance and had been published fairly and responsibly, a public interest privilege should be attached to it, thereby excusing the publisher from liability for defamation. In a statement unlikely to be heard in an Australian court, the five Law Lords said that judges, with leisure and hindsight, should not second-guess editorial decisions made in busy newsrooms. The decision by the House of Lords provides a stark contrast with the more limited and narrowly construed form of public comment defence available in Australia, which is derived from the "implied freedom of political communication" in our Constitution and preserved in the new uniform defamation laws. This implied freedom is comparatively weaker than the positive rights to free speech provided by the UK Bill of Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. (Source: Crikey.com, 13 October 2006) ROBOT SOLDIERS: THE FUTURE OF WARFARE lhe US Department of Defense plans to have one-third of its fighting strength composed of robots by 2015—part of a US$127 billion project known as Future Combat Systems (FCS), a transformation that is part of the largest technology project in American history. The US Army has already developed around 20 remotely controlled Unmanned Ground Systems that can be controlled by a laptop from around a mile away, and the US Navy and US Air Force are working on a similar number of systems with varying ranges. The US military has 2,500 uncrewed systems deployed in conflicts around the world. The plan is for the first completely autonomous robot soldiers to stride onto the battlefield by 2035. The United States is not alone. Around the globe, 32 countries are now working on the development of uncrewed systems. In the UK, QinetiQ, the former Defence Research Agency which owns Foster- Miller (manufacturer of the Talon system), confirmed that it has developed remote- controlled bulldozers and earthmovers and that its technology could also be installed in tanks. Scientists at QinetiQ told the Guardian two years ago that it had built a robot fighter plane. They said that when flown on test flights, the fighter is accompanied by two crewed fighters whose role is to shoot it down if it malfunctions. (Source: The Guardian, 26 October 2006) PRESS FREEDOM PRIVILEGE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST ailed as "probably the most significant decision ever in the UK favouring freedom of speech", a unanimous judgement from the House of Lords has installed a public interest defence for serious investigative journalism, so long as the material is published responsibly and even if the material proves to be incorrect or cannot be proved to be true. The ruling radically revises the approach taken by the frm HERE To WARM \ You oF THE #LoBAL consPreacy oF BAD “s CARTEOMTETS . a yo consPreacy oF BAD eit U of THE 6LoB8AL “_CARTOOMISTS . = Gide hae es cre ‘a at es LASS —_ Cen & i U meres Pe — — CHINA FIRES LASERS TO DISABLE US SPY SATELLITES hina has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance device. News of the hitherto unreported attacks has been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in NEXUS +7 DECEMBER 2006 — JANUARY 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com