Today's top 20 rating items on Scoop are...
1: Massive
Canal Planned For
Thailand
Thailand and the Japanese Global Infrastructure Fund are embarking on a bold and ambitious plan to build a canal linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It will rival the Panama and Suez canals. John Howard reports.
2:
Scoop
Column: Hypocrisy In The War On
Drugs
The United States is now a major drug-producing nation on a par with Burma, Peru, Bolivia and Columbia according to Barry McCaffrey, head of President Clinton's US Office of National Anti-Drug Policy. John Howard reports.
3:
Free'd
billioniare reveals arbitrary
injustice
Cannabis law reformers have mixed feelings over the recent "non-criminal" importation of marijuana and hashish by an American billioniare.
4:
Russia
Launches New ICB Missile as Grozny
Invaded
As the Russian military begins its invasion of Grozny, Russia has launched a strategic intercontinental Topol-M missile using the occasion to warn the West against criticising its Chechen campaign. John Howard reports.Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
5:
Scoop
Editorial: Floating Hope
If you thought 1999 was a roller-coaster and hoped the world would return to normal on January 1 2000 - sorry. If anything - so far - all appearances indicate it is going to get a whole lot worse, even if Y2k computer problems have proved rather ...
6:
Scoop
Editorial: Time To Get
Uncomfortable
If democracy can be likened to a flower then in Russia the flower is wilting. Shortly it will probably be plucked and thrown into the compost heap. The results in the Russian Parliamentary elections - now nearly finalised - are a clear wake-up call ...
7:
Russian
President Putin Launches Online
Presence
The following is a transcript taken from a new web-site launched by then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin four days before his President Boris Yeltsin resigned and handed him the reigns to the Russian Republic. The article is interesting in ...
8:
Poms
Dropping Like Flies As Flu Epidemic
Bites
The UK is in the grips of what is being desribed by authorities as a full scale killer-flu epidemic. People are dropping like flies and up to 20,000 could die. John Howard reports
9:
Grozny
Assault Underway - Troops Enter
Outskirts
The Moscow Times reports that Russian troops have blasted their way into the outskirts of the Chechen capital of Grozny and are now engaging rebel soldiers in the besieged city.
10:
Scoop
Images: First Light In
Timor
Images courtesy of the New Zealand Defence force….
After 37 years the fifth French foreign military regiment is leaving the Mururoa and Fangataufla atolls used for nuclear testing between 1963 and 1996. However, the atolls future remains fragile. John Howard reports.
12:
Scoop
Editorial: Putin Pushes Devil's Own
Button
An increasingly desperate Russian Prime Minister may have overstepped the mark in his flagrant nuclear sabre rattling display today, writes Scoop's Alastair Thompson.
13:
Scoop
Today - Tomorrow's News Today
Lots more news....from Scoop
14:
Cyber-Nations
Causing Legal Interest
Psst! Want a new passport? You can get it over the Net. Welcome to Lomar the latest in a string of cyberspace nations that is causing international legal interest.
15:
Waitangi
Day Invitation Extended to Prime
Minister
A special Waitangi Day invitation has been extended to Prime Minister Helen Clark from organisers of several Waitangi Day events in Auckland.
16:
World
Watches As Russian Bear Awakes
The issue of Chechnya has been raised informally in the UN Security Council by individual members, but Russia has never allowed the matter to go further. The world is angry - but largely silent. John Howard reports.
17:
Release
Of Foreign Affairs & Trade Briefing
Papers
On the eve of his departure to East Timor, Foreign Minister Phil Goff has today released the 'Post Election Briefing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade'.
Drugs Billionaire - Name Suppression – Cannabis – Meningitis – Global Warming – Alan Gibbs In Accident – Young Kauri Award – Give Way Rule Changes – Waitangi – Parihaka – Lifesaving – ACT Review
19:
New
millennium, new government, new hope
We have just witnessed the first global party. It seemed the whole world was celebrating, and we were first. There is a strong feeling that now is the time to make a new start.
Time, what is it? Like the weather it is something to talk about. And like the weather you have to take it has it comes. And it keeps on coming, at the speed of light. Occasional Dublin Scoop Greg Meylan writes on how to get free bananas.