As the US government throws its weight about the globe, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children fall before Uncle Sam's swinging scythe. But, those at the cutting edge of the scythe are falling too, often by their own hands, in the inescapable confines of their homes or quarters in the barracks back on the US soil. In 2008, 143 soldiers committed suicide, the highest number in the three decades that the army has kept records, reports Washington Post. But, with months still to go till the new year and 141 suicides since January, that figure has almost been reached, with no sign of a slow-down in self-destructive drives of the US soldiers. Four out of the 141 'successful' suicides this year have been by women troopers. Nevertheless, increased durations and frequencies of tours of fighting, first in Iraq and now in Afghanistan, against a resurgent and determined Taliban are all reported to contribute to the increased stress, with the all-too-frequent killings of civilians leading to feelings of guilt and self-disgust among the troops. With US President Barack Obama committing his country's youth to the continued occupation of Afghanistan, it seems that even more soldiers who make it back alive will fall victims to their own trigger fingers.

Barack Obama faced a backlash from the left today after his administration signalled retreat over the introduction of a government-run national health plan. Progressives dubbed the move 'treachery' and 'betrayal'. Obama will continue to push for reform this year but the new healthcare provision is now likely to be run by private insurance companies rather than by the federal government, which had been his preferred option. The apparent White House shift brought to the surface the divisions between Democrats over reform. Left-wingers expressed sadness and anger that Obama appeared to be backing away from the public option while party conservatives claimed that it had never been a realistic option anyway. The softening of the White House position comes after weeks of sustained, noisy and disruptive protests across the country against his health plan, much of it orchestrated by the right. Howard Dean, who chaired the Democratic party from 2005 to this year, today emerged as the most high-profile party member to voice concern about dropping the public option. Interviewed on TV network CBS, he said: "You can't really have reform without a public option. If you don't want to have the public option ... just do a little insurance reform ... and then we'll tackle health reform another time. But let's not pretend we're doing reform without a public option."

A senior Texas judge who refused to hear a last-minute appeal from a prisoner facing execution because her office "closed at five" was herself put on trial today in one of the most high-profile cases of alleged judicial misconduct in the state's history. Sharon Keller, dubbed Sharon Killer by her detractors, was the subject of a hearing at the Texas commission on judicial conduct that could ultimately see her removed from the bench. The case relates to her handling of the imminent execution of a convicted rapist and murderer, Michael Richard, on 25 September 2007. That morning the US supreme court had cast doubt on the constitutionality of using lethal injection - the form of death administered by Texas - by agreeing to rule on whether it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Lawyers for Richard raced to file an appeal that would put a stay on his execution, which was due to take place that evening, but they were delayed by computer glitches. They contacted Keller, who by then had gone home to deal with a worker doing repairs to her house. When, at 4.45pm, they requested a postponement of the execution, her reply was: "We close at five." At 8.23pm Richard was put to death.

Under normal circumstances, it takes a case of national importance to rile the Supreme Court during its summer recess. But in the words of an old axiom of capital punishment, "death is different." And so, on a sleepy mid-August Monday, Aug. 17, the court -- over a strong dissent -- dusted off an antique tool, unused for nearly half a century, to force a new hearing into the slow-rolling fate of a Georgia death-row prisoner named Troy Davis. In the process, the court has opened up new questions about the death penalty: most crucially, how far the courts must go to ensure that an innocent man -- as a wide array of politicians, former prosecutors and judges contend Davis is -- is not executed.

A British husband and wife team have been waging a three-year battle to get their price comparison website recognised by Google in a saga that sheds new light on the power of the world's largest search engine Foundem.co.uk directs shoppers to online deals for goods such as TVs or flights, but has struggled since one day it suddenly disappeared from Google search results for these categories......But Google insists its search rankings are only ever driven by a desire to make results useful. "We can't comment on individual cases," said a spokesman. "But our systems are designed to produce the most relevant and useful results for the people who use Google search...."Where sites are adding little value or original content, they are likely to fall in our ranking. Surveys of our users show that what they most dislike when they search is to receive multiple results from sites showing the same or very similar content."

US President Barack Obama says there will be no quick or easy victory over the Taliban, noting that the war in Afghanistan is crucial in protecting Americans from terrorism. Talking in a meeting of veterans in Arizona on Monday, Obama tried to step up the campaign in Afghanistan. "The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight and we won't defeat it overnight," he said. US administration is sending 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, therefore the success or failure of the mission of US forces in the war-torn country is crucial for its future plans in the region. The remarks came a day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown trying to ease the growing opposition to the Afghan war said the war in Afghanistan is a "sacrifice" made to make "Britain and the rest of the world" a safer place. The two leaders however failed to elaborate the dire situation the war-ravaged nation has been facing ever since the US-led coalition forces invaded their country more than eight years ago. According to UN figures, Afghan civilians remain the main victims of the notorious war which was launched to allegedly destroy the militancy and arrest militant leaders including Osama bin Laden.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has again slammed US plans to increase its military presence in Colombia, echoing his earlier remarks in which he warned of an imminent war in the region. The US President Barack Obama is 'lost in the Andromeda' galaxy on Latin American policy, Chavez said on Sunday in his weekly address. He made the comments after Bogota announced a deal that will allow US troops to use seven military bases on Colombian soil. The leftist president believes that a larger US troop presence ups the prospect of a war in the region. Accordingly, Venezuela is planning to revamp its army by buying weaponry from Russia, Chavez said, adding that his country needs to be prepared for an attack. Chavez charged that the United States is after controlling Venezuela's huge oil reserves as well as the Amazon region. "This is just the start of an imperial military expansion," Chavez said, referring to the US-Colombian security arrangement.

Liechtenstein's reigning prince has drawn the ire of Germany's Jewish community after linking the country's banking secrecy to Jew's survival during the WW II. The Prince Hans-Adam II's defense of the Alpine principality's banking laws in which he invoked the Holocaust, drew sharp criticism on Monday, the Associated Press reported. The prince's remarks come amid pressure from its northern neighbor to reform its banking tactic. Last year, Germany charged that Liechtenstein's had become a safe haven for tax cheaters. The prince, however, said that his country was not thriving because of tax evasion. "We and Switzerland saved many people, especially Jews, with banking secrecy... Germany should clean up its own act, and think about its past," Hans-Adam II told the Liechtensteiner Volksblatt. Money stashed away in Switzerland or Liechtenstein helped some Jews buy their safety during the Holocaust, the prince noted Confidential banking rules provides a refuge for people persecuted by communist governments and "continues to save life... in Third-World countries run by bloodthirsty dictators," he said. "Beyond that, Germany and many other countries have an unbelievable mess with their state finances." Hans-Adam II said, adding that he believed the economic crash "basically" was a result of the German failure to put their finances in order.

The Dimona nuclear reactor in Israel garners new controversy after revelations that former staff members 'were forced to drink uranium' as part of an experiment. In a recently-filed lawsuit, Julius Malick, who worked in Dimona for over 15 years, explained how he was ordered by his superiors to take part in a toxic experiment on five workers. During the experiment, Malick and his fellow colleagues were forced to drink juice containing uranium and were then asked for a urine sample, which was then analyzed to determine how uranium is excreted from the body through urine. Malick said he was threatened and forced into early retirement by the former director of the facility, Yitzhak Gurevich, and the director of human resources, Gary Amal. He is now suing the Dimona facility for thousands of dollars in compensation, reported Haaretz. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission has rejected his claims, arguing that the Dimona facility "has the safety and health of its workers as its highest priority."

More insidious than the wars with tanks and guns, aircraft and bombs, missiles and guidance systems, shock and awe campaigns. The wickedest wars are the wars for people's minds - the propaganda campaigns that exercise thought control. Western brainwashing comes from the media. Readers, listeners and viewers need to be aware of these propaganda sources. ...On anti-Arab radio you hear things like "Arabs love dictators" and "Obama is an Arab," as if being an Arab disqualifies one from humanity. If they aren't referring to Arabs as "camel jockeys" or "rag heads", they're calling them as Islamo-fascists. Along with O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck give Fox news stable of anti-Arab propagandists.....Those who control the media control the mental attitudes of the population; Americans have been programmed to hate Arabs and Muslims and to love Israelis. How could compassionate Americans be nonchalant about their slaughter of a million Arabs in Iraq, even though they know that it was all based on lies? Decades of propaganda and brainwashing.