BREVITAS

TORTURE

Guardian UK - Six Metropolitan police officers have been suspended from duty following allegations they used a form of water-based torture on suspected drug smugglers. . . The torture claims are part of an investigation which also includes accusations that evidence was fabricated and suspects' property was stolen. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial, it was reported last night.

JUSTICE & FREEDOM

Guardian, UK - The law lords have dealt a major blow to the government's controversial use of control orders on terror suspects, saying that reliance on secret evidence denies them a fair trial. . . The orders have not been quashed but the law lords have ordered that the cases be heard again.

SCIENCE

Cosmos Magazine Light pollution has caused one-fifth of the world's population - mostly in Europe, Britain and the US - to lose their ability to see the Milky Way in the night sky. 'The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage,' said Connie Walker, and astronomer from the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Yet 'more than one fifth of the world population, two thirds of the US population and one half of the European Union population have already lost naked eye visibility of the Milky Way.'

THE MIX

Washington Blade - Rev. Harry Jackson, who is leading a referendum effort to overturn D.C.'s marriage recognition bill, has some explaining to do. Lou Chibbaro, Jr., the Blade's senior news reporter, has done some terrific sleuthing this week and discovered that the D.C. condo Jackson claims as his residence belongs to another man, who has reportedly told sources in the building that Jackson is his "roommate." The condo in question, unit 630 in the upscale Whitman, is a one-bedroom apartment. Residents of the building estimate that a third of the units are gay-owned. So, let's recap. The anti-gay minister heading an effort to derail same-sex marriage in D.C. lives in a one-bedroom apartment with a male roommate in a building 30 percent occupied by gays.

ORWELLANDIA

Lancashire Telegraph, UK - Primary school pupils are to be shown a film about the dangers of terrorists as part of an organized safety day. More than 2,000 10 and 11-year-olds will see a short film, which urges them to tell the police, their parents or a teacher if they hear anyone expressing extremist views. . . A lion explains that terrorists can look like anyone, while a cat tells pupils that should get help if they are being bullied and a toad tells them how to cross the road.

CRASH TALK

REPOSSESSING LEAR JETS