TV News LIES

His final appearance before the White House press corps could not even muster a full house. The door into the White House briefing room - which will be bulging next week for the first briefing under Barack Obama's administration - opened to reveal a sombre-looking president who quickly switched on a smile for the cameras.

He made a few jokes, often at his own expense, but he also revealed how much he has been hurt by the criticism that he was the worst president in recent US history. He admitted to some disappointments, but was generally unapologetic.

Most of the 48 minutes of what Bush described as the "ultimate exit interview" was spent trying to persuade his audience, both in the room and the public watching on television, that he did not deserve to be labelled the worst president in recent US history.

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New research from Austria shows that a commercial strain of Monsanto-made GE corn causes mice to have fewer and weaker babies. What is this doing to human fertility?

Regulators around the world said Monsanto’s GE corn was as safe as non-GE strains.

"Genetic Engineering as a technology cannot be taken as safe without adequate safety tests" said Dr. Sujatha Byravan, Molecular biologist and former President of The Council for Responsible Genetics.

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An Israeli reservist has been sentenced to jail after refusing to fight in Gaza because of the killing of Palestinian civilians by the army.

The soldier whose identity has not been revealed has been sentenced to 14 days imprisonment in a military center, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday.

He is the first soldier to be tried over mutiny against his superiors.

Michael Sfard, the legal advisor of Omets, an NGO for social justice, said eight reservists has sought his legal assistance over conscription since the start of the Gaza offensive on December 27.

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The Central Elections Committee (CEC) yesterday banned the Arab parties United Arab List-Ta'al and Balad from running in next month's parliamentary elections amid accusations of racism from Arab MKs. Both parties intend to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court. Members of the CEC conceded yesterday that the chance of the Supreme Court's upholding the ban on both parties was slim.

Arab faction delegates in the CEC walked out of the hall before the vote, shouting, "this is a fascist, racist state." As they walked out, CEC deputy chairman MK David Tal (Kadima) and the Arab delegates pushed each other and a Knesset guard had to intervene and separate them.

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TVNL Comment: Democracy at its best, right?  Just asking....

Britain's effort to lead the world in stem cell research with the creation of human-animal "hybrid" clones has ground to a halt through lack of funding less than a year after the controversial technique was legalised. Funding bodies are refusing to finance the research and existing projects have been run down to the point at which they may end completely within weeks.

One of the researchers involved in the work said last night that the grant applications may have been blocked by scientists on the funding committees who are morally opposed to the creation of cloned hybrid embryos derived from mixing human cells with the eggs of cows, pigs or rabbits.

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The mother-to-be screamed in pain. Her brother-in-law yelled into a cell phone, begging for an ambulance. With Israeli missiles shattering the night, this was a bad time to be having a baby.

On the flip side of Earth, in the pin-drop quiet of his living room in this Kansas City suburb, Yaser Wishah could only wait. His first child, a baby boy of the Gaza Strip, could not.

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The Balfour Declaration may he the most extraordinary document produced by any Government in world history. It took the form of a letter from the Government of His Britannic Majesty King George the Fifth, the Government of the largest empire the world has even known, on which -- once upon a time -- the sun never set; a letter to an international financier of the banking house of Rothschild who had been made a peer of the realm.

Arthur Koestler wrote that in the letter "one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third." More than that, the country was still part of the Empire of a fourth, namely Turkey.

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