Iran envoy reminds France of skeleton in closet
Iran’s Ambassador to France Mehdi Mir Abu Talebi has called on French officials to be even-handed in their dealings with Iran.
Speaking to Press TV on the eve of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Mir Abu Talebi reminded France of its secret role in helping Israel develop its nuclear program in 1950s.

Israel is accused of waging covert war across the Middle East
Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities.

Major Operation Against Taliban Under Way
British troops are engaged in fierce fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan as Operation Moshtarak gets under way.

New tax bombshell: 20% VAT
A rise in VAT is looming whichever party wins the general election, as Labour and the Conservatives draw up plans to balance Britain’s books.

Twitter diplomacy: Envoy says Russia will 'kick ass' of US
Russia's ambassador to NATO said Wednesday in a post on his Twitter feed that the proverbial Russian bear would "kick the ass" of the United States and its allies if cornered by a new US missile shield.

'US to expand military centers in Pakistan'
A senior US official says the American military plans to expand new training centers inside Pakistan in a bid to boost its so-called war on terror.

Ukraine PM defies pressure to concede defeat
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko Thursday broke more than three days of silence after her defeat in presidential elections, slamming her rival but still defying mounting pressure to concede.

Lawyer of Mumbai attack co-accused shot dead
A lawyer for an Indian accused of being a member of a Pakistan-based militant group and conducting reconnaissance of Mumbai landmarks before the 2008 attacks, was shot dead Thursday, a senior police official said.

Who Wants to Bomb Iran?
They’re back! The “Bomb Iran” crowd is making a big return to the political center stage after months of puzzlement over what to do about developments in the Islamic Republic.

Nigeria killings caught on video
Nigerian police and military units carried out extra-judicial killings last year in the aftermath of clashes with members of a Muslim group in the north of the country, footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to confirm.

Great news: the people responsible for Amazongate, Glaciergate, and Africagate trousered £3 million of your tax money
Our old friend Jo Abbess BSc is back. And she’s got some searching, pertinent questions which could put paid to my AGW-denying antics once and for all!

New voices urge IPCC chief to step down
The credibility crisis facing the UN's climate panel over errors in its 2007 report has cast a shadow on IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri. Now, top researchers in Germany are among those calling for his resignation.

IAEA suggests Iran's new enrichment modest
Iran expects to produce its first batch of higher enriched uranium in a few days but its initial effort is modest, using only a small amount of feedstock and a fraction of its capacities, according to a confidential document shared Wednesday with The Associated Press.

Ahmadinejad Urges Dismantlement of N. Armaments
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called on the established nuclear states to dismantle their nuclear arms.

Demjanjuk presents German law with an almost impossible problem
The Demjanjuk trial, which resumed Monday, has offered up some awkward moral questions for the German justice system. But compared with other Nazi trials, Demjanjuk represents a completely new legal challenge.

Jerusalem Palestinian families come out against building on their ancestors graves
Members of prominent Palestinian families from Jerusalem have come out today in protest against plans to build a Museum of Tolerance on top of part of the ancient Mamilla Cemetery where their ancestors are buried.

Foreign Office releases Binyam Mohamed torture notes
The Foreign Office was forced to publicly admit today that the former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed was effectively tortured while he was being held by the CIA in Pakistan.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri warns of Israel 'threat'
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri says he is concerned about "escalating" threats posed to the Middle East by Israel.

Scotland’s first Islamic ‘terrorist’ walks free
The Government’s terrorism watchdog is to review the controversial legislation that resulted in the acquittal yesterday of “wannabe suicide bomber” Mohammed Atif Siddique.

US may send more troops to northern Afghanistan: official
US commanders are weighing plans to send more American troops to northern Afghanistan, a region under the command of German forces, a US official said on Tuesday.

'No concrete evidence' against Harkat: Witness
The Canadian government had little concrete evidence when it declared an Ottawa man a national security threat, an intelligence expert suggested Tuesday.

Obama signs bill raising debt limit to $14.3 trillion
The United States can now legally go up to $14.3 trillion in debt, as President Obama today signed a new ceiling for red ink.

Few Want Members of Congress Re-Elected, Poll Finds
Just 8 percent of Americans want the members of Congress re-elected, according to a CBS News-New York Times poll taken nine months before roughly one-third of the Senate and the entire House face voters.

Surveillance Video Shows Man Smashing 29 Flat Screens at Wal-Mart
Police in Georgia say a 23-year-old man grabbed a baseball bat inside of a Wal-Mart and smashed 29 flat-screen televisions.

Joestradamus: Biden Predicts Large-Scale Terror Attack on U.S. ‘Unlikely’
Vice President Joe Biden made his latest eyebrow-furrowing prediction Wednesday night, declaring confidently that another Sept. 11-size terror attack is “unlikely” in the U.S., despite signs that Al Qaeda and and other terrorist groups are actively planning more attacks.

Reid's about-face stuns Dems, W.H.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid led colleagues and the White House to believe he supported a bipartisan jobs bill — only to scuttle the plan as soon as it was released Thursday over concerns it could be used to batter Democratic incumbents, according to Senate sources.

Obama invites legislators to health summit
President Obama on Friday challenged Republicans and Democrats to participate in a televised summit this month to thrash out a deal on health care.

Obama Open to tax hikes on middle class
President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

U.S. To Be Hit By Massive Cyber Attack On Feb. 16
On February 16, at about 10:00 am ET, the U.S. will be hit by a massive, crippling cyber attack from an unknown entity. Key players will convene in the White House situation room and plan the response, from mitigation to (possibly) retaliation. It'll be live on television

Flashback - The exaggerated fears over digital warfare
The age of cyber-warfare has arrived. That, at any rate, is the message we are now hearing from a broad range of journalists, policy analysts, and government officials.

Harry Reid pushes $80 billion jobs bill (includes a reauthorization of the Patriot Act)
A draft of the jobs bill circulating on K Street and Capitol Hill also showed the legislation including provisions unrelated to jobs, including a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, infusion of new money to the Highway Trust Fund and extension of the so-called doc fix.

Judge Napolitano: Why The Patriot Act is Unconstitutional (Video)
Judge Andrew Napolitano talks about natural rights and The Patriot Act.
(Who are you going to believe, the fearmongering, warmongering, constitution trashing neocons on so called conservative talk radio, or the Judge?)

Not just ClimateGate – we must remember the entire paradigm of green lies over thirty years
Every ecological problem was instantly transformed into a potential world-ending crisis, from the population bomb to the imminent resource depletion of the “limits to growth” fad of the 1970s to acid rain to ozone depletion.

New Paper in Science: Sea level 81,000 years ago was 1 meter higher while CO2 was lower
This Week in SCIENCE, Volume 327, Issue 5967, Food Security dated February 12 2010.

Google to build high-speed Internet network
Google Inc (GOOG.O) plans to build a super-fast Internet network for up to half a million people, a project that could pressure telecommunications companies to loosen their control of Web access in the United States.

Australiagate: Now NASA caught in trick over Aussie climate data
In this article we look at the findings of two independent climate researchers who analyse climatic data used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to show warming of two degrees per century for Australia without explanation.

Breast cancer virtually "eradicated" with higher levels of vitamin D
In a gathering of vitamin D researchers recently held in Toronto, Dr. Cedric Garland delivered a blockbuster announcement: Breast cancer can be virtually "eradicated" by raising vitamin D levels.

Croat scientist warns ice age could start in five years
A top scientist in Croatia has warned Europe to prepare for an ice age instead of talking about global warming.

Cell Phones are Dangerous, But This May Be Far Worse...
An increasingly alarmed army of international scientists have reached a controversial conclusion. The "electrosmog" that first began developing with the rollout of the electrical grid a century ago and now envelops every inhabitant of Earth is responsible for many of the diseases that impair or kill them.

Scientists seek better way to do climate report
Some climate scientists are calling for drastic changes in how future United Nations climate reports are done.

Faber says correction is underwy and all governments will default

Credit Suisse Declares the U.S. a Riskier Investment Than Indonesia
Amid fears that Switzerland might come to an agreement with the United States on banking privacy and tax evasion disclosures, Credit Suisse issued a report identifying those countries it determined to have the highest risks of default on their sovereign debts.

New Phase, Not Just Another Recession
Although the current domination of our economy by finance capital seems new, it is in fact a throwback or “retrogression” (as financial expert Michael Hudson puts it) to the capitalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that is, the capitalism of monopolistic big business and gigantic financial institutions.

Beijing Seen Vacant for 50% as Chanos Predicts Crash
Jack Rodman, who has made a career of selling soured property loans from Los Angeles to Tokyo, sees a crash looming in China.

Inspector General: We're All on Welfare Now
When Inspector General Neil Barofsky, testified before Congress late last month, he received ample coverage for highlighting the incompetence of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in his work bailing out AIG.

Just How Ugly Is The Sovereign Default Truth? How Self Delusions Prevent Recognition Of Reality
When psychologists evaluate human behavior, one of the most prevalent observations regarding any activity is the all too often flawed basis of perceived versus realistic outcomes that dictates our every action.

Sparse U.S. Listings Prompt Rush on China I.P.O.’s
Last April, when global financial markets were collapsing, a Chinese Web site named Sohu.com made a bold move to spin off its online gaming unit and list it on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Why cities aren't hitting panic button -- yet
Cities and other municipalities are in a world of budgetary hurt. Is a wave of bankruptcies on the way?

Collapse of the euro is 'inevitable': Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says FRENCH banking chief
The European single currency is facing an 'inevitable break-up' a leading French bank claimed yesterday.

Greece turns on EU critics
Greece on Friday unleashed a fierce attack on its European Union partners, accusing them of creating a “psychology of looming collapse” a day after they pledged support for the country’s crisis-hit government.

Gold futures off Friday lows, remain higher for the week
Gold and other metals futures fell on Friday, though they finished off lows, as a move by China , one of the world's biggest consumers of commodities, to slow the pace of bank lending triggered a rally in the U.S. dollar and a sell-off in commodities.

Plot thickens in the battle of 'The Plunge'
The Treasury Department has records of the secret meetings that its President's Working Group on Financial Markets held to discuss the troubled financial markets, after all. That doesn't mean Washington wants us to know what was discussed, or whether Wall Street executives were in the meetings.

Angela Merkel dashes Greek hopes of rescue bid
German chancellor refuses to rescue Greece's ailing economy amid Berlin's domestic austerity

The Run On Greece Is Here: Investors Pull Out €10 Billion From The Troubled Country; Crisis Escalation Approaches
Remember the proverbial run on the bank? Well, that was the norm (or rather the outlier) before governments decided to backstop entire financial industries residing within their territo

How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt
Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country's already bloated deficit.

Greece: How the Bond Vigilantes Left It in Ruins
While Greece is uniquely dysfunctional, there's a lesson here for any country with a heavy debt load, including Britain, Japan, and the U.S.: The bond market is treacherous

Taxpayer's $2.3 Billion Stake In CIT Group Worth $0
Thank you Hank, Ben and Tim. Excellent work. Seriously. Great f*cking job. Maybe just maybe you should have peered at the books before committing TARP funds.

GE’s Immelt Disagrees With Paulson’s Memory of Talks
General Electric Co. says Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt disagrees with former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson’s recollection of discussions involving commercial paper as the financial crisis swelled in September 2008.

Fed in Talks With Money Market Funds to Help Drain $1 Trillion
The Federal Reserve is in talks with money-market mutual funds on agreements to help drain as much as $1 trillion from the financial system as policy makers prepare for the first interest-rate increase since June 2006, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Smaller banks at risk if commercial real estate falters
A blizzard of commercial real estate defaults could bury hundreds of community banks, a congressional watchdog reports Thursday.

U.S. trade deficit widens to $40.2 billion in December
The U.S. trade deficit widened to a seasonally adjusted $40.2 billion in December as imports of crude oil surged, outpacing a large increase in exports, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Euro zone in intense talks on Greek rescue
Euro zone countries held intensive talks on Wednesday on a possible rescue for debt-laden Greece as civil servants in Athens staged the first big strike against government austerity plans.

Caller Angus Calls Out Glenn Beck On His BailOut Hypocrisy

Leading Austrian Economist: Some Conspiracy Theories Are True
Many people are starting to appreciate the Austrian school of economics, and its recognition that unrestrained bubbles lead to economic crashes.

A Question for Glenn Beck on Global Warming and Conspiracy
By Michael Boldin
Obviously the Constitution isn’t very important to you. A person’s stance on a conspiracy theory is.

The Pre-Iraq War Lies Conspiracy-Conspiracy: Nice Try, Tony
By Darryl Mason
Tony Blair has discovered that nobody, but nobody, believes his bullshit anymore, and the possibility of far more hostile attention to come, from signing his country up for the illegal War On Iraq back in 2002, is dampening his trousers and dementing his mind.

There are No Conspiracies Because Daddy Will Always Protect Us
Indeed, long-term psychological studies show that approximately one-quarter of the American population has an “authoritarian personality“, where they look for a “strong leader” to protect them (that’s why even after his lies were exposed, Bush still stayed at approximately a 25% approval rating).

The Enemy Within
By Kirby Ferris
The 2005 movie “Lord of War” opens with lead actor Nicholas Cage standing in a street littered with spent shell casings. He turns and speaks to us with droll sincerity: “There are over 500 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That is one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?”

‘PIGS’ in Rescue Lipstick Are Uglier Than Default
By Mark Gilbert
“The worst possible signal which we could send out is one calling for outside help,” Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told Bloomberg Television this week. He may be the only policy maker in the European Union who understands how disastrous a bailout would be.

The Tyranny of Emergency – Gun Rights Suspended…Again
While inches turned into feet of snow and life along the East Coast came to a standstill, government agencies were far from dormant.

The 700 Military Bases of Afghanistan
By Nick Turse
Black Sites in the Empire of Bases

Secession: A Solution to the Washington Debt Threat
By Ron Holland
Frédéric Bastiat must have been looking toward the future of the United States today when he said, "When plunder has become a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it."

Gun Control and the War on Drugs
By Anthony Gregory
In reality, these two issues are more similar than many people might think.

Gary Franchi: Tea Parties Co-opted
In Reality Report 31 Gary Franchi declares the Tea Party movement officially co-opted and provides remedial instructions on how to take it back.

10,000 TSA staff to get secret intel
About 10,000 airport security workers will get access to secret intelligence that could help stop terrorist attacks on planes.

Airport absurdity hits the US
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a case against TSA, the transportation authority and the FBI on behalf of a California physics student. Nick George was handcuffed and interrogated at a Philadelphia airport, he was detained for 5 hours at the airport and was released. The student happened to be studying Arabic and was holding flash cards with Arabic and English on them.

Future police: Meet the UK's armed robot drones
Police forces all over the UK will soon be able to draw on unmanned aircraft from a national fleet, according to Home Office plans. Last month it was revealed that modified military aircraft drones will carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers, and will be in place in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Court Keeps White House Spy Docs Secret
A federal appellate panel on Tuesday blocked a court order requiring disclosure of e-mail between the White House, Justice Department, National Security Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence — communications that paved the way for new spy legislation.

Feds push for tracking cell phones
“If the courts do side with the government, that means that everywhere we go, in the real world and online, will be an open book to the government unprotected by the Fourth Amendment.”