9/11 updates: investigations, interviews & 'angel is next'

ahmadinejad urges ban ki-moon to probe 9/11 attacks
from afp: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, asking him to launch an investigation into the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, news reports said on Monday. "The minimum expectation from your excellency is to set up an independent and trusted fact-finding group to comprehensively investigate the real factors behind September 11," Ahmadinejad said in the text of the letter carried by official news agencies. They did not say when the letter was sent. The hardliner, who in March dismissed 9/11 as a "big lie," said in the letter that the attacks "were the main pretext for attacks" by NATO on Afghanistan and Iraq. Several times Ahmadinejad has questioned the accepted version of the Al-Qaeda strikes on New York and Washington which killed nearly 3,000 people.

related updates:
'angel is next'*
loose change producer interviewed on major french news channel*

un peacekeepers & aid workers abusing kids

from ap: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" Tuesday after a leading children's charity said it uncovered evidence of widespread sexual abuse of children at the hands of U.N. peacekeepers and international aid workers. The report (448kb PDF) by Save the Children UK, based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti, describes a litany of sexual crimes against children as young as 6.

flashbacks: dyncorp/halliburton sex slave scandal won't go away & elitist perversion far deeper than foley

violent crackdown launched in myanmar

from ap: Security forces in Myanmar opened fire on demonstrators Wednesday, and witnesses said police beat & dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks. The government said at least one person was killed, while dissident groups & media reported up to eight dead.

The military junta's announcement on state radio and television was the first acknowledgment of the use of force against protesters and its first admission of bloodshed after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations against the government.

The United States and the European Union condemned the attacks and called on the military rulers to open a dialogue with pro-democracy leaders, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to a joint statement on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

The U.N. Security Council planned to hold closed consultations on Myanmar later Wednesday, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dispatched a special envoy to the region.

explosion rattles UN chief's iraq news conference

from raw story: A mortar blast rocked Baghdad's fortified Green Zone on Thursday as Ban Ki-moon held a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, causing the UN chief to flinch.

After a brief pause, both men continued to take questions at an event marking Ban's first visit to the Iraqi capital.

An Iraqi security official said the explosion had been caused by a mortar shell fired into the area. There were no initial reports of casualties.

The loud blast sent a column of smoke and dust into the sky near the northern edge of the Green Zone, opposite the Jumhuriyah Bridge in downtown Baghdad in a heavily policed area surrounded by government offices.

Immediately before the explosion, Ban told reporters: "I'm confident that we'll be able to see, in the near future, a more prosperous and secure... and a healthier future of the Iraqi people and government."

click here for the associated press video