Seven dead, 101 wounded in Thailand clashes - medical centre
Seven people were killed and 101 wounded in street clashes between Thai anti-government protesters and troops in central Bangkok on Friday, the Erawan medical centre said.

Kyrgyz government claims control in restive south
Kyrgyz authorities said they regained control across the volatile south on Friday after at least two people died in violent clashes with supporters of the ousted president.

USSR planned nuclear attack on China in 1969
The Soviet Union was on the brink of launching a nuclear attack against China in 1969 and only backed down after the US told Moscow such a move would start World War Three, according to a Chinese historian.

Cameron Already Following Bilderberg Orders
David Cameron risked a confrontation with the Tory Right yesterday by stripping his party’s eurosceptic wing of the symbolic post of Europe Minister.

Footage of Polish air crash ’shows Russians executing survivors’… but is it a cruel propaganda stunt?
A video of the plane crash which killed the president of Poland apparently shows survivors being shot.

Turkish Air Defense System Deployed to “Defend Syria, Iran against Israel Raids”
High-ranking sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed displeasure with Turkey over deploying anti-aircraft batteries along the Syrian border in the Iskenderun district.

Wanted Posters Issued for Alleged Israeli War Criminals
The posters were created and posted by an Israeli human rights group that is maintaining a great deal of anonymity at this point.

U.S. efforts in Kandahar, barely begun, already are faltering
Key military operations have been delayed until the fall, efforts to improve local government are having little impact and a Taliban assassination campaign has brought a sense of dread to Kandahar's dusty streets.

Treaty Aimed at Banning Nukes Remains Grounded
Asked why a proposed nuclear weapons convention (NWC) has failed to get off the ground, Alyn Ware, global coordinator for Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), told IPS: "The nuclear weapon is both a military and a political weapon.

Israeli officials vow to build for Jews, demolish Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish coalition partners vowed Thursday to keep building Jewish settlements and demolishing unauthorized Palestinian homes in contested east Jerusalem — despite indications the Israeli leader has put the brakes on both.

News outlets appeal Pentagon's ban on Guantanamo coverage
Arguing that a Pentagon order banning four journalists from covering military commissions at Guantanamo Bay was illegal and unconstitutional, The Miami Herald and two Canadian news outlets appealed on Wednesday.

Russia warns U.S. against unilateral Iran sanctions
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the United States and other Western nations on Thursday against imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Interfax news agency reported.

Remove Card and Take Bullion; Gold ATM Debuts
Amid fears over the strength of nearly every major currency, Abu Dhabi’s top hotel has come up with a new type of ATM for their most risk-averse guests.

Kyrgyz protesters take over local government HQ in south
Supporters of Kyrgyzstan's ousted leader seized the regional government office in the southern city of Osh on Thursday, in the latest sign of resistance against the country's interim government.

Germans face bitter round of budget cuts as the price of eurozone bailout
Germans have been urged to face reality today as the full impact of the euro bailout on Europe’s biggest economy was laid bare by politicians and financial experts for the first time.

Raw Footage Of Violent Bailout Protests In Ireland (Video)

Bankers jailed, sued as Iceland seeks culprits for crisis
More than a year and a half after Iceland's major banks failed, all but sinking the country's economy, police have begun rounding up a number of top bankers while other former executives and owners face a two-billion-dollar lawsuit.
(Good for the people of Iceland!)

Fungus hits Afghan opium poppies
A serious disease is affecting opium poppies in Afghanistan, Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said.

Detroit To Destroy 10,000 Abandoned Homes
Mayor Dave Bing has pledged to knock down 10,000 structures in his first term as part of a nascent plan to “right-size” Detroit, or reconfigure the city to reflect its shrinking population.

BP Spill May Exceed Estimates, U.S. Congressman Says
U.S. Representative Edward Markey said he is concerned BP Plc’s well in the Gulf of Mexico may be leaking as much as 70,000 barrels of oil a day, compared with previous estimates of 5,000 barrels.

Whistleblower Claims That BP Was Aware Of Cheating On Blowout Preventer Tests
As the federal and congressional probes continue into the causes of the Gulf oil rig explosion, new information is coming to light about the failure of a key device, the blowout preventer, to shut off the gushing well, which could have prevented the growing catastrophe.

Obama wants $80 billion to upgrade nuclear arms complex
President Barack Obama sent a landmark arms-reduction treaty with Russia to the Senate on Thursday for ratification and called for $80 billion in nuclear funding, which could help win opposition support.

'Black Friday,' birth of U.S. protest movement
It is the 50th anniversary of "Black Friday," May 13, 1960, when a demonstration against the House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities turned into a so-called riot.

Pentagon works to lay out rules of electronic war and when to strike back at cyber attacks
The U.S. military may never have a direct answer on when to fire back against a computer-based attack, a top Pentagon leader said Wednesday, reflecting the complex world of cyber warfare.

Hawaii law lets state ignore repeated demands for Obama’s birth certificate
The island state’s Republican Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law on Wednesday a bill that would allow Hawaii to ignore repeated requests for President Obama’s birth certificate.

FBI Raids in Mass. Related to Times Square Probe
Two People Taken into Custody for "Immigration Violations," as FBI Looks to Uncover Plot's Money Trail

Kagan Was ‘Not Sympathetic’ as Law Clerk to Gun-Rights Argument
Elena Kagan said as a U.S. Supreme Court law clerk in 1987 that she was “not sympathetic” toward a man who contended that his constitutional rights were violated when he was convicted for carrying an unlicensed pistol.

Laura Bush Supports Gay Marriage, Abortion
Former first lady Laura Bush has broken with her husband on the premier social issues of his administration and said she backs gay marriage and abortion.

LA Votes in Favor of Arizona Boycott
The Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution Wednesday that calls for cutting some of its business ties to Arizona.

Democratic voters remain skeptical of Arlen Specter
Despite support from Obama and the party's leaders, the former Republican is fighting for his political life.

Arkansas senator is latest incumbent in primary trouble
This was no "tea party" rally. These were Democrats. But their feelings had a lot in common with their disgruntled counterparts on the right — anti-spending, anti-bailout and, most of all, anti-incumbent

Small New York Town Makes English the Law
It’s about 2,500 miles from this green, rural town in the rolling hills near Vermont to the Mexican border at Nogales, but that hasn’t stopped Jackson from making a bid to be New York’s small version of Arizona in the immigration wars.

Climate change bill has critics from both sides
Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Kerry, D-Mass., unveiled their long-delayed climate change bill Wednesday and immediately encountered liberal and conservative critics who said the measure was either an energy bailout or a danger to the American economy.

9 indicted on charges of accessing Obama records
Nine people were indicted Wednesday on federal charges of accessing President Barack Obama's student loan records while they were employed for a Department of Education contractor in Iowa.

Big Picture Gallery: Disaster unfolds slowly in the Gulf of Mexico
In the three weeks since the April 20th explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the start of the subsequent massive (and ongoing) oil leak, many attempts have been made to contain and control the scale of the environmental disaster.

Rand Paul coasting in new poll
With less than a week until Kentucky voters go to the polls, Rand Paul is opening up his lead against Trey Grayson. It's the Senate race the entire nation is watching -- as Trey Grayson -- the choice of some of the biggest names in the Republican party is trying to overcome a tidal wave of tea - as Rand Paul is coasting on that tea party wave.

Obama's health care tab may top $1 trillion
It's no surprise that the Congressional Budget Office now says the 10-year, $938 billion health care bill passed by Democrats and signed by President Obama likely will cost at least $115 billion more.

Biometric cash machine lands in Europe
A Polish bank has become the first in Europe to offer the use of biometrics instead of PINs at cash machines.

Heavy Metals Poisoning, Brain Injury, and Clandestine Weather Modification Programs. Connecting the Dots.
For decades, we have known that heavy metals and chemicals can cause grave physical harm.

Robot arm controlled by the mind
Doctors say he is the first person in the world to drive a car using a mind-controlled robotic limb

$3 Microscope Plugs into Cell Phones
A small digital microscope that costs just a few dollars can plug into a cell phone and perform basic medical diagnostics that would ordinarily require expensive lab equipment.

Jupiter loses a stripe
Jupiter has lost one of its prominent stripes, leaving its southern half looking unusually blank. Scientists are not sure what triggered the disappearance of the band.

Oh No! Kerry-Lieberman Climate Bill Would Create ‘60 new Programs, Studies, and Reports’
Climate Depot has obtained an advance memo circulating on Capitol Hill about the Kerry-Lieberman Climate Bill.

'Starving yogi' astounds Indian scientists
An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period.

Pentagon Turns to Brain Implants to Repair Damaged Minds
An estimated 10 to 20 percent of troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, which afflict 1.7 million Americans each year. Now the Pentagon’s rolling out a revolutionary initiative to treat the condition: brain implants that one researcher likens to “replacement parts” for damaged gray matter.

Desperation as alarmists sense the battle is lost
The more desperate the quotes, the more tragic the arguments, the more it reveals that the alarmists realise that not only is the planet not complying with their incomplete and worthless climate models, but also that the penny has dropped in the public mind.

Bill Gates pays for ‘artificial’ clouds to beat greenhouse gases
The first trials of controversial sunshielding technology are being planned after the United Nations failed to secure agreement on cutting greenhouse gases.

Largest scientific instrument ever built to prove Einstein's theory of general relativity
Three spacecraft flying three million miles apart are to fire laser beams at each other across the emptiness of space in a bid to finally prove whether a theory proposed by Albert Einstein is correct.

Babies know the difference between good and evil at six months, study reveals
According to psychologists, they have already developed a sense of moral code – and can tell the difference between good and evil.

A fast, inexpensive way to clean up the oil slick in the Gulf
Dried hay. It's cheap, easy, and environmentally friendly. However, the petrochemical industry doesn't want you to know that.

Morgan Stanley’s Doomed Baldwin CDOs Thwarted ‘Natural Process’
In June 2006, a year before the subprime mortgage market collapsed, Morgan Stanley created a cluster of investments doomed to fail even if default rates stayed low -- then bet against its concoction.

Sarkozy threatened to quit euro in showdown with Germany: report
French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull his country out of the euro currency group to force Germany to help Greece with its debt crisis, El Pais newspaper reported Friday, quoting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Volcker Sees Euro ‘Disintegration’ Risk From Greece
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said he’s concerned that the euro area may break up after the Greek fiscal crisis that sparked an unprecedented bailout by the region’s members.

Harley Schlanger Interviewed on the Glass-Steagall Act (Video)
An interview on the immediate need for a Glass-Steagall reform of the financial system. Without Glass-Steagall there is no hope for the survival of the United States. Harley Schlanger is Larouche's Western States Spokesman.

Geithner Briefs Super Power Elite, Friday Afternoon
The heavyweights want a report from the Treasury Secretary, including David Rockefeller and Lynn Forester de Rothschild.

When Will China's Bubble Burst?
As Bloomberg notes, Marc Faber thinks China may crash in 9 to 12 months, and hedge fund manager Jim Chanos and Harvard University’s Kenneth Rogoff are also warning of a crash.

Criminal probe targets 6 Wall Street firms: source
Prosecutors are conducting a broad criminal investigation of six major Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, to determine if they misled investors, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Morgan Stanley shares drop on reported probe
Morgan Stanley shares dropped Wednesday after a report the investment bank is facing an investigation into mortgage derivative deals.

Prosecutors Ask if 8 Banks Duped Rating Agencies
The New York attorney general has started an investigation of eight banks to determine whether they provided misleading information to rating agencies in order to inflate the grades of certain mortgage securities, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

Flashback - William K. Black's eye-popping opening statement at House Financial Services Committee (Video)
Black exposes Wall Street liar's loans. The Fed and SEC knew exactly what needed to be done and they refused to do their jobs.

Germany, France May Hurt AAA Ratings in ‘Ponzi Game’
Germany and France are among top- rated euro-area states that may compromise their AAA grades by standing behind the debts of weaker members with their 750 billion-euro ($955 billion) stabilization fund.

JP Morgan: Gold Could Now Face 'Unlimited' Demand
JP Morgan's John Bridges believes the latest breakout for gold was a huge positive sign for the metal.

NY attorney general investigating eight banks: report
The New York attorney general has begun an investigation into eight banks to determine whether they provided misleading information to agencies that rate mortgage securities, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Will The U.K. Be The Next European Nation To Experience A Massive Debt Crisis?
Now that the Greek debt crisis has been “fixed” by a gigantic pile of more debt, many are wondering which European nation will be next to experience a massive debt crisis.

Big TARP Banks Not Helping Small Businesses: Warren
The government's bank bailout program may have helped big financial institutions weather the credit crisis but has failed in getting money to small businesses, the head of the commission overseeing the fund told CNBC.

California now in top ten for highest government default probabilities in the world
Meanwhile, other state and national governments are showing continued stress. Venezuela tops the list with a CDS spread of 1049 and a risk of default now over 50%. Argentina and Pakistan are also now ahead of Greece which is now only the 4th most likely government in the world to default.

First Gold, Now Europe Running Out Of Silver
Earlier we noted that the Austrian mint was on its way to depleting its gold reserves following “panicked buying” from Europeans, who now openly fear the demise of their currency.

U.S. posts 19th straight monthly budget deficit
The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

RIDICULOUS: Basically Every Major Bank Went The Entire Quarter Without A Single Losing Trading Day
Well, this is good news for Goldman Sachs (GS). They weren't the only major bank to go all of Q1 without a single day of trading losses. In other words, the game isn't necessarily rigged in their favor.

Federal Reserve Bank Chairman NWO Elite
The Federal Reserve Bank Chairman is Not Publicly Elected. Elite Bankers Who Put Him Into Office Are Power Players Who Run the World From Behind the Scenes.

Economist Tim Madden: The PIIGS Brief: understanding how oligarchs rig, loot our economies.
By Carl Herman
Tim’s following article explains collusion of government and judicial “leadership” to facilitate criminal looting through parasitic credit practices.

Are the bombers Al-Qaeda, the CIA or Israel?
By Christopher King
Christopher King argues that it is likely that the American CIA – or Israel acting on its behalf – is responsible for recent atrocities in Iraq, in order to extend and consolidate the occupation, just as it is probable that the Times Square bomber was, wittingly or otherwise, acting for the CIA or Israel, to justify the US military intervention in South Asia.

Drug Czar Admits Failure, Pledges to Continue It
We're in the middle of an economic crisis, and here's the drug czar telling us we can't stop funding programs that even he himself admits are a complete waste.

New target of rights erosions: U.S. citizens
By Glenn Greenwald
A primary reason Bush and Cheney succeeded in their radical erosion of core liberties is because they focused their assault on non-citizens with foreign-sounding names, casting the appearance that none of what they were doing would ever affect the average American. There were several exceptions to that tactic -- the due-process-free imprisonment of Americans Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla, the abuse of the "material witness" statute to detain American Muslims, the eavesdropping on Americans' communications without warrants -- but the vast bulk of the abuses were aimed at non-citizens. That is now clearly changing.

Britain and Europe are living separate crises. Underneath, it's the same one
By Timothy Garton Ash
What a week. While Britain lives one of the greatest political dramas in its postwar history, the continent is convulsed by a historic crisis of the eurozone. Here in Brussels, I keep flicking to and fro between the two, like someone trying to watch two cliffhanger Wimbledon finals simultaneously.

The Torture of Omar Khadr, a Child in Bagram and Guantánamo
By Andy Worthington
Too much about this story — from the trumped-up war crimes charges, to the doubts about Khadr’s guilt, to his age and the abuse to which, on occasion, he was undoubtedly subjected — makes proceeding with the trial an unpalatable and essentially pointless exercise.

Obama Scraps Iraq Withdrawal
By David Swanson
So, we elected a president who promised a withdrawal from Iraq that he, or the generals who tell him what to do, is now further delaying. And, of course, the timetable he's now delaying was already a far cry from what he had promised as a candidate.

Obama on Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan: "I Am Accountable"
By Jeremy Scahill
That statement is quite remarkable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it is not true. How are President Obama or Gen. McChrystal accountable? Afghans have little, if any, recourse for civilian deaths.

Gambling With Our Future
By Dave LIndorff
Hard times are coming, especially for retirees.

Obama Tries to Strongarm Karzai
By Robert Dreyfuss
President Obama made it clear yesterday that he’s looking at his war in Afghanistan through rose-tinted glasses, and there’s no indication at all that he understands the importance of trying to strike a deal with the Taliban-led insurgents to end the war.

Israel seeks to silence dissent
By Ben White
Repressive practices long used in the West Bank and Gaza are now being used to limit civil liberties within Israel.

Obama’s Natural-Born Useful Idiots
By JB Williams
As I have written in a recent series, the search for a birth certificate is a diversionary tactic which aims to distract attention away from the real issue at hand, Obama’s “dual citizenship” and “divided loyalties,” which are at the heart of his ineligibility for office.

Gerald Celente: Banks robbing the people
Gerald Celente says that this is the greatest bank robbery in history and it is the banks that are doing the stealing.

How Private Property is being Abolished in America
Just how much property and access have they already thieved from Americans…and how much more do they intend to thieve?

Did You Say $33 Billion?
By David Swanson and Tom Engelhardt
What do you call wasting $33 billion on a hopeless, immoral, illegal war that a majority of Americans oppose, and denying those same dollars to job creation or any other decent purpose?

Toward a Fed Audit
Everywhere one goes, moreover, there is a growing recognition, among both ordinary Americans and the high and mighty, that something is off.

Deficits, Debts and Unfunded Liabilities: The Consequences of Excessive Government Spending (Video)
Huge budget deficits and record levels of national debt are getting a lot of attention, but this video explains that unfunded liabilities for entitlement programs are Americas real red-ink challenge. More important, this CF&P mini-documentary reveals that deficits and debt are symptoms of the real problem of an excessive burden of government spending.

Europe and America Morally and Financially Bankrupt
By Bob Chapman
Greece Bailed out, 19 more nations to go, Greeks not ready to submit to austerity, Gold is the antithesis of Fiat money, fals hope for jobs, Goldman Sachs under investigation, but they make money every quarter regardless...

A Tradition of Dehumanizing: The CIA's Psycho-War and Torture Schemes in The Philippines
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) occupies center-stage again in the Philippines, the laboratory in 1950-1960s for the Phoenix assassination program in Vietnam inspired by CIA agent Edward Lansdale who is credited for defeating the communist-led Huk uprising.

Barack Obama visits Real Time Crime Center
President Obama was shown how the New York police track suspected criminals and record their movements.

US drug war has met none of its goals
After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.

Woman Hospitalized Following Botched Raid
An elderly Polk County woman is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a heart attack when drug agents swarm the wrong house.

Big Brother Wants To Know How You Spend Your Money
Big Brother wants to watch you more closely. Especially how you spend your money. His latest snooping plan comes from provisions in the banking bill being debated in the Senate. The bill is being pushed by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

FDA finally sued over its illegal suppression of raw milk
Recently the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit organization devoted to protecting family farms and their customers from unconstitutional government intrusion, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over its unconstitutional ban on the interstate sale of raw milk.

Storage of newborns’ blood samples raises privacy concerns
Millions of infants’ blood samples – along with their names and birthdates – are stored on information cards in laboratories across Canada. What has riled civil libertarians and privacy advocates is that parents aren’t told that their babies’ genetic blueprint will be stored indefinitely, and perhaps used for research purposes.

City Police still using Terror Act to bother photographers
Just when you thought it was safe to go snapping… City of London Police prove they still haven’t got the memo.