The US has led international condemnation of Israel after it evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in occupied East Jerusalem.
Washington said the action was not in keeping with Israel's obligations under the so-called "road map" to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, a move not recognised by the world community.
The removal of the 53 people was also condemned by the United Nations, the Palestinians and the UK government.

The federal government today sued Teva Animal Health Inc., saying government inspections
had uncovered adulterated animal drugs at the company's main facilities in St. Joseph.

Among other violations, the government's suit alleged that Teva had failed to:

Reject drug products that did not meet established specifications;

Assure that products had the "identity, strength, quality and purity" they are represented to have;

Conduct adequate equipment maintenance;

Provide adequate training for employees; and

Establish a quality control unit.

The suit charged that Teva officials had taken part in five regulatory meetings with the FDA between June 2007 and June 2009 but had "shown that they are unwilling or unable to take the necessary steps to prevent recurrence" of Good Manufacturing Practice violations.

A unit of Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Teva Animal Health is the largest manufacturer of generic drugs for animals in the United States. Formerly IVX Animal Health, the company was acquired by Teva in 2006.

http://economy.kansascity.com/?q=node/3126

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm174880.htm

(CNN) -- Black employees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city.

Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom -- which he called the "supervisors' bathroom" -- was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city's Streets Department, Trubman said.

As far back as 1996, it became apparent to black employees that they were being slighted, said Trubman. They would watch white co-workers walk into the segregated bathroom, conveniently located one floor above Gill's office.

"If you tried to use the bathroom, you might get suspended," said Leslie Young, a former worker at the facility. Young, along with Gibson Trowery, who still works at the station, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in October 2007.

He said he wants to produce a documentary from both the perspective of police and people who have been victims of racial profiling so "Americans can understand that you can have two equally valid perceptions of the same event."
"Racial profiling is a huge problem in this country and a serious problem, and I intend to devote my resources to fighting it," he said.
Gates called what happened to him "small potatoes," and said he is more concerned about people who don't have Harvard lawyers to represent them.
"At the same time, it's important that all of us are keenly and acutely sensitive to all the police do for the good of the community," he said.

AP

The crafting of Obama's Cairo speech to world's Muslims

The president worked with dozens but put his own delicate touch onto a blunt address that would grab global attention -- and some criticism.

By Christi Parsons
August 2, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- He sat with his legs crossed in an armchair in the Oval Office, his brow furrowed. Aides clustered on the couches around him. They could see black scratch marks all over their proposal for the most sensitive speech of his young presidency -- his long-promised address to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

The reason middle america's taxes may go up is because some members of congress would rather have everyone's taxes go up to pay for two wars and healthcare and stimulus than to raise taxes on the wealthiest members of our society.

The right has done a great job for several years now in winning over hard core blue collar americans to their tune of no new taxes for the super wealthy because one day, you may be super wealthy.  

The most striking aspect of this episode is that GE isn't even bothering any longer to deny the fact that they exert control over MSNBC's journalism.  They've brazenly dispensed with the long-held fiction of the sanctity of journalistic independence from interference by the corporate parents that own America's largest news organizations.  

Instead, GE is now openly and proudly boasting of their editorial control over the news organizations they own, and publicly rubbing it in the faces of NBC News journalists that they're subservient to GE's corporate agenda.  Look at this smug, creepy quote from GE executive spokesman Gary Sheffer explaining in The New York Times why GE issued its gag order preventing Olbermann from criticizing Fox and O'Reilly, all but mocking NBC and MSNBC journalists as nothing more than GE's office of corporate spokespeople:

"We all recognize that a certain level of civility needed to be introduced into the public discussion," Gary Sheffer, a spokesman for G.E., said this week. "We're happy that has happened."

Why is GE even speaking for MSNBC's editorial decisions at all?  Needless to say, GE doesn't care in the slightest about "civility" in general.  Mika Brzezinski can spout that people who dislike Sarah Palin aren't "real Americans" and Chris Matthews can say about George Bush that "everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs," and GE executives won't (and didn't) bat an eye.  What they mean by "civility" is:  "thou shalt not criticize anyone who can harm GE's business interests or who will report on our actions."  Thus:  GE's journalists will stop reporting critically on Fox and its top assets because Fox can expose actions of GE that we want to keep concealed.

CROWDED on to the International Space Station (ISS) with as many as 12 colleagues, Koichi Wakata's laundry habits might not ordinarily have gone down well with his fellow astronauts.
But thanks to the wonders of science, the Japanese spaceman's revelation that he had been wearing the same pair of underpants for the past month did not cause too much of a stink.

After landing back at Florida's Kennedy Space Centre yesterday on ADVERTISEMENTboard the shuttle Endeavour following 138 days in orbit, Mr Wakata told how an experiment designed to test the prototype pants held up well during the final stages of his 57 million-mile adventure, during which he circled the Earth 2,208 times.

The anti-static, flame-resistant, odour-eating, bacteria-killing, water-absorbent smalls are manufactured to resist the rigours of long-duration space travel, and were put through their paces as part of a project aimed at ensuring that when it comes to packing for long-duration trips to the Moon and Mars, future travellers will need only minimal luggage space.