"Palestine" is no more. Call it a "peace process" or a "road map"; blame it on Barack Obama's weakness, his pathetic, childish admission – like an optimistic doctor returning a sick child to its parents without hope of recovery – that a Middle East peace was "more difficult" to reach than he imagined. But the dream of a "two-state" Israeli-Palestinian solution, a security-drenched but noble settlement to decades of warfare between Israelis and Palestinians is as good as dead. AWIP: Obama Gets Asked an Unapproved Question -Video

It has been speculated upon in open-source intelligence circles for years. So, there is little surprise for the rest of the world when it hears of China’s first major foray in its new role as a Superpower. Although Americans might be surprised. That is, if they even hear about it before the Juarez, Mexico base goes live.

"I looked at his brain on the ground and pushed him back into the car. I told my sister that they had blown his brains out. I started to scream, ‘They killed my son. They killed my son.’" Description of a Blackwater massacre, for which Blackwater is NOT being prosecuted. AWIP: Iraq shocked as judge drops Blackwater charges.

When Tony Blair appeared at the Chilcot inquiry last week, the families of some of the British soldiers killed in Iraq were there to hear him defend his decision to go to war. Here Reg Keys, whose son was one of six military policemen brutally killed in 2003, writes about the mix of fierce anger and deep sadness he felt as he watched the former Prime Minister. PressTV: At Iraq Inquiry, Tony Blair Targets Iran. AWIP/Chris Floyd: Blood is His Argument: Tony Blair's Gentle Cuddling at Iraq "Inquiry". Alan Hart: Blair as monster: He was ahead of Bush in the war on terrorism game because he is a neo-con, the real thing, whereas Bush had to be won over, conned, by America’s mad men. AWIP: To gasps from the gallery, Blair said we should be proud of the war. The Guardian: Blair: truth and lies.

Village Elder: "It Was the Americans, of Course". NATO troops in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province had a brief overnight gunbattle with Afghan Army forces, with both sides apparently assuming the other was Taliban. The troops called in an air strike against a newly established Afghan Army base, killing four soldiers and wounding six others.

Government sources said the extra cash will fund more helicopters and unmanned drone aircraft for UK troops fighting the Taliban in Helmand Province as well as equipment designed to offer better protection from roadside bombs. In a further move to shore up military spending, ministers will shortly announce that the overall annual budget for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which is £35 billion for the current year (2009-10) will be "ring-fenced" for 2010-11.

TruthIsAll 1) The GOP needed votes in solid Blue states to decrease Democratic margins (see NY and CA) in order to pad the Bush popular recorded vote "mandate". 2) The GOP needed to steal fewer votes in Battleground states where their objective was to win the Electoral vote. 3) The GOP pretty much ignored the Red states; most of them were rural with small populations. But they did not ignore the Red states with large minority (Democratic) voting blocs, such as TX, MS, AL, TN, SC, VA. They could pad the popular vote by not counting minority votes.

Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin said the police arrested five men and five women with US passports, and two Haitians, as they tried to cross into the Dominican Republic with the children Friday night. ABC News: Haitian police have arrested 10 United States citizens caught trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-stricken country in a suspected illicit adoption scheme, authorities say.

PT: The Palestine You Don’t Know: Pre-Occupation PIC: Israeli court allows settlers to storm Palestinian home in Jerusalem. IMEMC: Report: “7300 Detainees, Including 33 Women And 300 Children, Still Imprisoned By Israel”.

“They sliced his belly so that the intestines fell out,” said his widow, Jeanne Birengenyi, 34, Chance’s aunt. “Then they cut his heart out and showed it to me.” The soldiers continued to mutilate the body, while others began to rape Jeanne.

Thousands of protesters from across Japan marched Saturday in central Tokyo to protest the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to move a Marine base Washington considers crucial out of the country. Some 47,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with more than half on the southern island of Okinawa. Residents have complained for years about noise, pollution and crime around the bases.

The revelation will cause fresh embarrassment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which had to issue a humiliating apology earlier this month over inaccurate statements about global warming. The IPCC's remit is to provide an authoritative assessment of scientific evidence on climate change. WUWT: IPCC now in Bizarroland: Pachauri releases “smutty” romance novel.

Luckily for the youngster, it seems these three male cheetahs simply weren't hungry. That's because unlike other big cats, the cheetah hunts in the daytime, either in the early morning or late afternoon. The bursts of speed needed to catch their prey tire them out - meaning they need to rest after a kill. And that seems to be the secret to the antelope's survival, as it's likely it fell into the cheetahs' clutches when they were already full - and tired out - from an earlier hunt. Photographer Michel Denis-Huot, who captured these amazing pictures on safari in Kenya's Masai Mara in October last year, said he was astounded by what he saw. HOWEVER, according to Yann Metrich of Biosphoto, the young antelope eventually was killed & eaten.

Americans' ignorance about politics isn't new, but the latest results from the Pew Poll suggest few are really paying attention. Half of Americans don't even know that Stephen Colbert is a comedian. And among those surveyed, only one in three Democrats knew that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was the Democratic leader. "About four-in-ten (39%) know that Nevada Democrat Harry Reid is the majority leader of the U.S. Senate," Pew reports. "About a third (32%) correctly pick Michael Steele as the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Interestingly, nearly half of Republicans (48%) are able to identify Reid as Senate majority leader compared with just a third (33%) of Democrats. More Republicans can identify Reid as majority leader than can identify Steel as chairman of the RNC (37%)."

The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all. Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials. We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system -- apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout -- deserves further congressional scrutiny.

This is a list of countries and territories by current account balance (CAB), based on the International Monetary Fund data for 2007, obtained from the latest World Economic Outlook database (October 2008).[1] Numbers for 2008 should become available in April 2009. Estimates are highlighted.

Israel’s spy agency Mossad and the country's special forces have carried out a number of assassinations of Palestinian militants in the past and have also been blamed for killings which the Jewish state has never publicly taken responsibility for. In addition, the army and air force have carried out so-called ‘targeted killings’ of numerous Palestinian leaders accused of masterminding attacks inside Israel.

US drones, conspicuously absent from the North Waziristan region for several days after militants shot one down on Sunday, returned to the region today, killing five people in the town in Muhammad Khel. The drone strikes, and more importantly America’s default “no comment” position on them except on those rare occasions when they successfully kill a high profile target, have long been a sore spot for the Pakistani public, but the broad base of this opposition has only increased. According to a Gallup poll, only 9 percent of Pakistanis support the idea of US drone strikes on Pakistani soil. AWIP: U.S. Drone Strike deaths prompt AF/PAK payback. This gives the CIA a pretext for more US terror. There will be more AF/PAK payback.

His voice was hoarse from six hours of questioning. But still he was unrepentant. To gasps of anger from grieving relatives Tony Blair used the final moments of his evidence to the Iraq war inquiry to justify leading Britain in one of the country's most divisive conflicts in its history. Asked by the inquiry chairman, Sir John Chilcot, whether he had any regrets, he replied: "Responsibility but not a regret for removing Saddam Hussein. I think that he was a monster. I believe he threatened not just the region but the world. And in the circumstances that we faced then, but I think even if you look back now, it was better to deal with this threat, to remove him from office." Sir John appealed for calm as a heckler shouted: "What, no regrets? Come on!" His voice fading, Mr Blair insisted that Britain – especially its armed forces – should feel an "immense sense of pride" over the Iraq war. WSWS: Tony Blair, war criminal, testifies before inquiry. The Guardian: Blair at Chilcot: a well-rehearsed performance. Daily Telegraph: Iraq inquiry: Tony Blair had no regrets over toppling Saddam Hussein. TimesOnline: Tony Blair was branded a murderer and liar but unrepentant, unforgiven, Blair says: ‘I’d do it again’. PressTV: Tony Blair defends war legacy, cites 9/11. AntiWar: Blair Defends Iraq War, Citing 9/11. Redress: The Chilcot Inquiry showcases the conspirators. AWIP/New Statesman: The bulletproof case against Blair. BBC: BBC website readers air their views on Tony Blair and the war in Iraq and the consensus seems to be that he should be tried for war crimes. The Independent: Mother of British soldier killed in Iraq felt 'sick' being in same room as Tony Blair. Time.com: Unbowed on Iraq, Blair Makes the Case for Targeting Iran: An inquiry panel of career diplomats and academics was never likely to dent his composure. Yet Blair's light grilling still produced a major eye opener: as opponents of the Iraq conflict waited in vain for an apology or some gratifying symptom of inner regret, Blair instead used the platform to argue for opening a new battlefront — against Iran. The Guardian: Blair: truth and lies.

NATO says two US service members and one US civilian have been killed in eastern Afghanistan, pushing the American death toll in January to 29.

A statement by the Western alliance says the deaths occurred Friday, adding that the incident is under investigation. It did not give further information.

The brief statement released Friday did not say whether the three were killed by hostile fire or an accident.

At least 29 American deaths have been reported in Afghanistan so far this month.

The toll is more than double the 14 reported in January last year, reflecting warnings that more US casualties were expected this year as President Obama's administration is sending 37,000 new coalition forces to the war-weary country.

The Canadian Supreme Court today found that the rights of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15, were violated during his interrogation and detention in Guantánamo Bay. The American Civil Liberties Union pointed to the decision as affirmation that the U.S. should reverse its decision to try Khadr before a military commission and should repatriate him to his home country for rehabilitation. "This decision underscores the need for the U.S. to reverse its decision to prosecute Omar Khadr before an illegal military commission," said Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program.

Area C doesn't sound very ominous. A land of stone-sprinkled grey hills and soft green valleys, it's part of the wreckage of the equally wrecked Oslo Agreement, accounting for 60 per cent of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that was eventually supposed to be handed over to its Palestinian inhabitants. But look at the statistics and leaf through the pile of demolition orders lying on the table in front of Abed Kasab, head of the village council in Jiftlik, and it all looks like ethnic cleansing via bureaucracy. Perverse might be the word for the paperwork involved. Obscene appear to be the results.

President Obama is planning to increase spending on America's nuclear weapons stockpile just days after pledging to try to rid the world of them. In his budget to be announced on Monday, Mr Obama has allocated £4.3billion to maintain the U.S. arsenal - £370million more than George Bush spent on nuclear weapons in his final year. The Obama administration also plans to spend a further £3.1billion over the next five years on nuclear security.

The London Times is reporting: “The chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit, The Times has learnt. Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists.” See the Times article here

The Republicans' shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US. Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

After just a small amount of research it is my belief that the much hyped Islam4UK group that proposed a march on Wootton Bassett, is actually a British Intelligence group hired by our corrupt government in order to cause further conflict between Muslims and Brits, to keep support for the wars high and to continue the trumped up threat of terrorism. Anjem Choudary is a unislamic fraud linked to Al-Mujaharoun, a group created by British Mi6 to fight the Serbians in the Kosovo war. Either it came back to bite us on the ass or he is still controlled by our own government! BNP and EDL supporters, and Islam4UK supporters are both dupes, being played like puppets by the new world order (global governance) agenda.

For the newest residents of the Bronx Zoo, New York is a long way from home. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo, recently took in four bear cubs -- three brown bears, all siblings, and one grizzly -- whose mothers were killed by humans in Alaska and Montana.

The three brown bear cubs (two of them are shown above) were rescued by Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials and housed temporarily at a bear rescue facility in the Alaskan town of Sitka. (In honor of their short-term home, one of the cubs, a female, was given the name Sitka. The other cubs, both males, are named Kootz and Denali.) The grizzly cub, a male, was rescued in Montana and is named Glacier after his birthplace, Glacier National Park.

All four are housed together and are "healthy and adjusting well to their new surroundings," according to zoo director Jim Breheny.

More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found. --- Areas in and near Iraq's largest towns and cities, including Najaf, Basra and ¬Falluja, account for around 25% of the contaminated sites, which appear to coincide with communities that have seen increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years.

Former attorney general admitted to changing his mind over necessity of further justification for military action. Goldsmith has told the inquiry he changed his mind "for good reasons" but has not spelled them out, nor yet been asked by the inquiry what they were. The change appears to have happened in late February 2003, just before the war, when he told the prime minister's advisers that there was "a reasonable case" that a second UN resolution was not needed. This was sufficient to constitute a "green light," he said. His previous advice had been preliminary. AWIP/Craig Murray: The Partiality of Lord Goldsmith.

The “largest lie,” wrote hisorian Howard Zinn who died yesterday at age 87, is that “everything the United States does is to be pardoned because we are engaged in a ‘war on terrorism.’” “This ignores the fact that war is itself terrorism, that the barging into people’s homes and taking away family members and subjecting them to torture, that is terrorism, that invading and bombing other countries does not give us more security but less security.” AWIP: Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87.

A geoengineering project to block the sun by simulating volcanic eruptions would be 100 times cheaper than cutting greenhouse gas emissions, climate change scientists said. A global plan to put man-made particles into the atmosphere to deflect the Sun's heat would rapidly lower global temperatures until cuts in carbon dioxide emissions took effect, they argued. -Completely irresponsible! Sheer lunacy!

A mere three hours before the Bernanke cloture vote, America just got permission to hit 100% Debt/GDP. Thank Senate Democrats who just approved an amendment increasing the US debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion. The 60/40 vote was across party lines and only successful because Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown has yet to be seated. Breitbart: Senate permits gov't to borrow an additional $1.9T. AntiWar: Price of US Wars: $1 Trillion and Rising.

This so-called president gets a question. He does not answer it. He instead comes up with a lot of bullshit. -He's completely taken aback by the question and knows full well that he were to answer it honestly, it would be the end of him. Literally. He wouldn't even get to complete his first term...

"It is critical for us, and I will never waiver from, ensuring Israel's security," this "president" said. "The plight of the Palestinians is somthing that we have to pay attention to because it is not good for our security and it is not good for Israels's security [...]." -So the plight of the Palestinians is to be "paid attention to", not because what is being done to them by "America" and Israel is morally wrong and downright evil, but because it (allegedly) would compromise Israel's "security"? -This is absolutely pathetic!

And the question was? "Last night in your State Of The Union address you spoke of America's support for human rights -then why have we not condemned Israel's and Egypt's human rights violations against the occupied Palestinian people and yet we continue to support financially with billions of dollars coming from our tax dollars?" WRMEA: Has Obama Made a Devil’s Bargain With Israel?

A scientist with the World Health Organisation has testified, during ongoing hearings in Strasbourg, France, that the swine flu pandemic was part of an overblown “angst campaign”, devised in conjunction with major drug companies to boost profits for vaccine manufacturers. Professor Ulrich Keil, director of the WHO’s Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology, slammed the organization and its flu chief, Dr Keiji Fukuda while giving evidence before The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). “With SARS, with avian flu, always the predictions are wrong…Why don’t we learn from history?” Keil said. “It [swine flu] produced a lot of turmoil in the pubic and was completely exaggerated in contrast with all the really important matters we have to deal with in public health.” The WHO adviser on heart disease, added that the decision had led to a “gigantic misallocation” of health budgets.

Chief executive officers including Bank of America Corp.’s Moynihan, UBS AG’sGruebel and Deutsche Bank AG’s Ackermann convened yesterday, a week after U.S. President Barack Obama shocked financiers with plans that may force large banks to limit their size and curb investments in hedge funds and private equity. The private meeting, held down a hallway near the back entrance of the Davos conference center, aimed to prepare executives for another private gathering in Davos on Jan. 30 with top policymakers and regulators, including U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.

After more than six months straining to convince itself of the immense, nationwide danger of a phenomenon that involves fewer than 0.1% of France's Muslim population, a parliamentary committee yesterday ­recommended the banning of the full veil in many of France's public places. There is nothing eccentric about asking why they are getting so bothered.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed on January 20, Izzat al-Rishq told Reuters in the Syrian capital Damascus. Rishq said Mabhouh was an "important" member of Izz el-Deen al- Qassam brigades, Hamas's military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s. PressTV: 'Israel assassinates top Hamas commander in Dubai'. By the same "right", Hamas can kill any / all of the Israeli war criminals. Cut them down mercilessly like the bastards that they are.

Tony Blair is set to mount a spirited defence when he is questioned in public for the first time about his decision to take the UK to war against Iraq. He will be questioned at the Iraq war inquiry for six hours on the build-up to the 2003 invasion and its aftermath. AWIP/NS: The bulletproof case against Blair.

[A Palestinian woman waves her national flag in front of Israeli soldier during a peaceful demonstration organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall in al-Ma'sara village, south of Bethlehem] Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). ►Two Palestinian civilians were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank. ►IOF conducted 19 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. ►IOF arrested 29 Palestinian civilians, including two women and a child, in the West Bank. ►IOF stormed houses of a number of activists against the construction of the Annexation Wall. ►Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world. ►IOF troops positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 3 Palestinian civilians (two journalists and a child). ►Israel has continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. ►IOF ordered a number of Palestinian farmers to the east of 'Aqraba village near Nablus to evacuate their property. ►Israeli settlers uprooted 15 olive trees in Deir Nizam village near Ramallah.

The Washington Post's Dana Priest today reports that "U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people." That's no surprise, of course, as Yemen is now another predominantly Muslim country (along with Somalia and Pakistan) in which our military is secretly involved to some unknown degree in combat operations without any declaration of war, without any public debate, and arguably (though not clearly) without any Congressional authorization. The exact role played by the U.S. in the late-December missile attacks in Yemen, which killed numerous civilians, is still unknown. AWIP: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mulls Legality of Assassinating US-Born Cleric.

Can't speak for others, but how he can get me back? Lots and lots of jobs and ending the wars. Ball's in your court, Mr. President. My reaction? As always, an excellent speech. Said all the right things, challenged the banks, proposed things we very much need. But I already thought this. I want to see him willing to fight for all this now. And when I say fight, I mean fight. HuffPo: State Of The Union 2010 (FULL TEXT). CNN: Reaction to the State of the Union address. SF Gate: Analysis: Amid pleas for unity, President Obama riles both left and right. Politico: Reality check: President Obama gropes for a strategy. BAGnews Notes: SOTU: Pic of the Night. AntiWar: Obama Ignores Key Afghan Warning - Sadly, the inevitable conclusion is that, although Obama is not as dumb as his predecessor, he is no less willing to sacrifice thousands of lives for political gain. BAR: Guns For the Pentagon, Butter For Wall Street, A Spending Freeze For You.

A recent survey by the Independent Polling Institute Forsa indicates that four out of five Germans disagree with Berlin having a stronger military role in Afghanistan. Forsa indicated even among supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Union, 77 percent said they objected to adding soldiers to the 4,300-strong force currently in the war-ravaged country. The survey says 32 percent of Germans are calling for an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The visit to Australia this week of Lord Christopher Monckton - the world's most effective global warming sceptic - couldn't have been better timed. Hot on the heels of the "Climategate" email leak, which called into question the "tricks" used to sex up the case for the war against global warming, have come back-to-back revelations tarnishing the reputation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. GlobalWarming.org: EPA Suppresses Internal Global Warming Study. Examiner: The Silence of the Warmists: 'Who's defending UN IPCC's Pachauri? Gore? RealClimate.org? Hansen? Romm? EU? 'None of them have spoken out defending Pachauri': Climate skeptic websites, such as Marc Morano's Climate Depot, are monitoring the blogosphere for attacks on Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC, who through a series of tone-deaf statements and inability to realise that the uncovery of a series of mistakes in IPCC reports is actually serious, topped by revelations of financial connections of his that have benefited from climate alarmism, is considered a candidate for unemployment insurance. They have trumpeted Andrew Weaver 's (a prominent climatologist and IPCC Lead Author) call for Pachauri's resignation, and Mick Hulme of East Anglia University's more measured statement about the possible need for new leadership, as signs of his imminent demise. They're looking in the wrong place. When a high bureaucrat is in trouble, what you need to look for is who's defending him.

A new poll finds that Fox is now the most trusted name in news. This is not, shall we say, an intuitive finding. And if you guessed there’s a catch: You’re right. “Most trusted,” in the context of this particular poll means a 49%/37% trust/don’t trust split — meaning Fox beats out CNN at 39/41, NBC at 35/44, CBS at 32/46, and ABC at 31/46. And, unsurprisingly, that 49% number for Fox is driven not by widespread trust, but by partisan polarization: 74% of Republicans trust Fox News, but no more than 23% of Republicans trust any of the other four sources. Democrats are the mirror image, with a majority trusting all of the other outlets and only 30% trusting Fox.

Howard Zinn died today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. He suffered a heart attack. He was 87. Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as "A People's History of the United States," inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience. "He's made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, said tonight. "He's changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can't think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect." Chomsky added that Dr. Zinn's writings "simply changed perspective and understanding for a whole generation. He opened up approaches to history that were novel and highly significant. Both by his actions, and his writings for 50 years, he played a powerful role in helping and in many ways inspiring the Civil rights movement and the anti-war movement." For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. "A People’s History of the United States" (1980), his best-known book, had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers -- many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out -- but rather the farmers of Shays' Rebellion and union organizers of the 1930s. WaPo: 'People's History' author Howard Zinn dies at 87.

"If resorted to in a widespread and systematic manner, secret detention might reach the threshold of a crime against humanity," the authors cautioned in their executive summary. The study, which is due to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in March, listed 66 states that have been involved in secret detentions, mainly over the past nine years. In spite of international norms protecting individual rights, "secret detention continues to be used in the name of countering terrorism around the world," the report added.

"We don't own anything anymore. If the city can come in, City Council comes and says, 'you cannot do this, you cannot do that on your property, because this is just the beginning,'" said John W. Ford, Sr. Ford is fuming over a new ordinance that prohibits him from parking in his own grass. People say there's simply not enough room to park in the driveway, so they park in the yard instead.

Undercover videos produced by animal rights groups are fueling a debate over the need for new laws to regulate the treatment of American dairy cows. Graphic footage suggests milk cows may be victims of some cruel practices. The graphic videos include one made inside a huge New York dairy operation where cows never go outside, have the ends of their tails cut off in painful procedures without anesthesia, and are seen being abused by one employee who hits a cow over the head with a wrench when it refuses to move.

An investigator for the group Mercy for Animals worked at the New York dairy farm, Willet Dairy, one of the largest in the state, for two months as a mechanic. Willet supplies to Leprino Foods, based in Denver, which produces mozzarella cheese and other cheese products that are used at chains including Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Domino's. "These animals are really treated as little more than milk-producing machines," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals. "The overall environment at this facility was really a culture of cruelty and neglect." Portions of the video will be played in reports to be aired this evening on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and later on Nightline.

Tony Blair and Jack Straw brushed aside repeated warnings from Government lawyers that they would not have a 'leg to stand on' if Britain invaded Iraq. Devastating evidence at the Iraq inquiry yesterday revealed that every senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office believed the conflict was in breach of international law. Astonishingly, Downing Street asked lawyers to assess what the consequences would be if Britain toppled Saddam Hussein without legal authority. When they received the lawyers' memo, No.10 demanded: 'Why has this been put in writing?' Sir Michael Wood, then the Foreign Office's senior legal adviser, warned ministers again and again that to go to war without approval from a UN Security Council resolution would constitute a 'crime of aggression' in international law. Daily Mail: Jack Straw ignored advice the Iraq invasion would be illegal, Foreign Office law chief tells Chilcot inquiry. The Guardian: Lord Goldsmith got taxpayer help for Iraq war inquiry legal advice. + Wanted: Tony Blair for war crimes. Arrest him and claim your reward. Craig Murray: God, I Didn't Know: Still feeling an immense frustration that truly evil men like Blair prosper, but that has been part of the human condition forever. + Murder In Samarkand - Documents. The Guardian: Britain 'complicit in mistreatment and possible torture' says UN.

Army leaders had warned that the suicide rate was on track to surpass last year’s toll of 140, but said the causes of the spike remain unclear. “There’s no question that 2009 was a painful year for the army when it came to suicides,” said Colonel Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of an army suicide prevention task force.