American officials blocked European attempts to publish the latest draft of the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on an EU website after a Washington-based round of negotiations in August.

The European Commission, which has been feeling the heat from lobby groups and the European Parliament for greater transparency in the negotiations, debriefed MEPs on the August negotiations yesterday (1 September).

MEPs have been demanding to see the full negotiating text as they will be asked to give ACTA their consent in a vote later this year.

Islamist Basiji militias and Iran's Revolutionary Guards surrounded the home of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi on Friday to prevent him from joining the annual Quds rally, which last year brought on anti-government protests, his website said.

A suicide bomber targeting a Shiite Muslim rally has killed at least 43 people in the Pakistani city of Quetta. The rally was held to mark the annual international Shiite event of al Quds day.

REUTERS - Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned on Thursday an air strike by NATO-led forces which he said killed 10 election campaign workers, although U.S. officials maintained it was aimed at an Islamist leader.

Civilian casualties caused by foreign forces hunting militants have caused major tension between Karzai and his Western allies. The latest incident came at a bad time as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates landed for unannounced talks.

Gates's arrival was also overshadowed by renewed worries about corruption, one of Washington's biggest concerns in Afghanistan, after two officials from the country's top private bank left their positions amid allegations of graft.

Puppets are expendable?

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Fourteen police officers died when their vehicle was destroyed by a mine in southern Caqueta department, police said Thursday. Officials attribute the blast to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), whose main stronghold is in Caqueta.

AP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard edged closer to retaining power in Australia on Thursday when an independent lawmaker said he would support her center-left Labor Party to form Australia's first minority government in almost seven decades.

A bloc of three independent kingmakers will now decide whether Labor will govern for a second three-year term or whether a conservative Liberal Party-led coalition will form the next administration after Aug. 21 elections failed to give any party a majority.

The conservative coalition now needs the backing of all three remaining uncommitted independents to reach a 76-seat majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives, while Labor needs only two.

SANTIAGO, Sep 3, 2010 (IPS) - Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean will grow again this year, driven largely by demand from China. But the high proportion of commodities may increase dependency on China, and Asia as a region, warns a new report by ECLAC, the regional United Nations agency.

"Clearly, trade relations between the region and China could give rise to centre-periphery dynamics. We supply it with raw materials, with little added value, and it sends back manufactured goods," Claudia Casal, a researcher at the non-governmental National Centre for Alternative Development Studies (CENDA) in Chile, told IPS.

Bolivia (Erbol): Relatives of the victims of the massacre of October 2003 will present a complaint against the United States government before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for its failure to act two years ago on the request for extradition of former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

SAN MARTIN DE SAMIRIA, PERU - To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial - from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines. Archaeologists, many of them Americans, say the opposite is true: This patch of forest, and many others across the Amazon, was instead home to an advanced, even spectacular civilization that managed the forest and enriched infertile soils to feed thousands.

ROAD TOWN, BVI -- At 5:00 pm on Thursday, the centre of the newest tropical storm, Gaston, was located near latitude 13.5 north, longitude 39.5 west or about 1,425 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Gaston is moving toward the west at 3-5 mph. Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 30 mph making Gaston a remnant low or a low pressure system.