After last week's report about

1 in 4 girls having contracted an STD,

the NYT led with this as the title:

"Sex Infection Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls"

This is crass scaremongering with the darker

intention of using fear to inhibit teenage sex

   more »

Keywords: teenage, fear, scare, infection, sex, std, propaganda

Along with his signature bright white hair, the most striking aspects of Senator John McCain’s physical appearance are his puffy left cheek and the scar that runs down the back of his neck.

The marks are cosmetic reminders of the melanoma surgery he underwent in August 2000. Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sometimes tells audiences that he has “more scars than Frankenstein.”

The operation was performed mainly to determine whether the melanoma, a potentially fatal form of skin cancer, had spread from his left temple to a key lymph node in his neck; a preliminary pathology test at the time showed that it had not.

But because such a test cannot be definitive, the surgeons, with Mr. McCain’s advance permission, removed the surrounding lymph nodes and part of the parotid gland, which produces saliva, in the same operation, which lasted five and a half hours.   more »

As Obama heads into the final

presidential primaries, McCain and other

Republicans have already started

to brand him a standard-order left-winger,

"a down-the-line liberal," in a long line of

Democratic White House hopefuls

labeled as 'extremists'

   more »

Keywords: liberal, conservative, 2008, politics, president, obama, leftwing

One doesn't hear calls to investigate the United States' handling of the Iraq war and the staggering civilian casualties, yet riots in Tibet can raise overwhelming sympathy and finger-pointing from the West.

It's safe to say that Beijing doesn't have the patent to hypocrisy.

Countries act in their self-interests. Sometimes such acts are controversial, and often one country's self-interest conflicts with others'.

China is no exception, but at least it doesn't cry foul at the first news a controversy emerges in another country. The West should do the same.   more »

The election of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton as president in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in 75 years will present the small socialist left of the United States today with an enormous challenge.

The left will have to find a way to build an independent labor, social, and political response to the crisis without becoming drawn into the Democratic Party.

Obama, with his charisma, creativity, and flexibility, may prove to be a Rooseveltian figure who will be able to lead the social forces that can cohere and consolidate a new life for American capitalism.

The responsibility of the left is to fight to prevent such a consolidation of a new social pact between capital and labor, government and the people, and to build an independent working class movement and political party that can fight for socialism in the coming decade.   more »

The success of the US "surge" strategy in Iraq may be under threat as Sunni militia employed by the US to fight al-Qaida are warning of a national strike because they are not being paid regularly.

Leading members of the 80,000-strong Sahwa, or awakening, councils have said they will stop fighting unless payment of their $10 a day (£5) wage is resumed. The fighters are accusing the US military of using them to clear al-Qaida militants from dangerous areas and then abandoning them.

A telephone survey by GuardianFilms for Channel 4 News reveals that out of 49 Sahwa councils four with more than 1,400 men have already quit, 38 are threatening to go on strike and two already have.

Improved security in Iraq in recent months has been attributed to a combination of the surge, the truce observed by Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, and the effectiveness and commitment of the councils, which are drawn from Sunni Arabs and probably the most significant factor, according to most analysts.   more »