A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake has struck central Chile, shaking the capital for a minute-and-a-half and setting off a tsunami, which triggered international alerts. Buildings collapsed and phone lines and electricity were down, making the extent of the damage difficult to determine. At least 16 people were killed when the earthquake struck, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced. "We have had a huge earthquake," Bachelet said, speaking from an emergency response centre in an appeal for Chileans to remain calm. ABC News: Massive earthquake hits Chile: President Michelle Bachelet said 47 people were killed and that more deaths were possible, as the US government reported aftershocks in Chile measuring 6.2, 5.6 and 6.9. "With the quake of this magnitude, we cannot rule out other casualties," she said. USGS: Magnitude 8.8 - OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE. [Internet Not Working in Chile - all sites with .cl are dead at the moment.] Al Jazeera: Scores killed in Chile earthquake -Video. The AtlanticWire: The Chile Quake: How Bad Will the Damage Be?

Russia's foreign minister says Moscow will not agree to harsh sanctions against Iran, reasoning that there is nothing to prove Tehran is working on nuclear weapons. "There is no evidence that Iran has made a decision to produce nuclear weapons," Sergei Lavrov said in a recent interview with RIA Novosti. Lavrov went on to add hat he did not believe that sanctions were an effective course to take. "If we go with the sanctions, we'll not go beyond the goal of our purpose of defending the nonproliferation regime. "We don't want the nonproliferation regime to be used for ... strangling Iran, or taking some steps to deteriorate the situation [and] the living standards of people in Iran," he said clarifing that Moscow did not plan to agree to embargoes that could seriously damage Iran's economy. AntiWar: Israeli DM: No Need to Coordinate With US on Attacking Iran. WRH: Barak: 'Iran challenges world's stability'.

"I didn't like it when a certain former president -- and it wasn't 41 or 42 -- made my life miserable," he said in a reference to Jimmy Carter, who infuriated the Bush White House in 2007 when he accused the administration of allowing the use of torture on terror suspects.

Dubai police say they have recovered the DNA of assassins, who killed a senior Hamas commander in January. "We have DNA evidence ... from the crime scene. The DNA of the criminals is there," police chief Dhahi Khalfan said on Friday on the Arab satellite television Al-Arabiya. On January 20, the lifeless body of Mahmud al-Mabhouh was found in his hotel with Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, being widely deemed to be behind the hit, given the agency's record of overseas assassinations. The case dipped into soaring controversy when the 11 people, initially identified by the Dubai police as suspected murderers of Mabhouh, were found to have been traveling on fake European passports. AWIP: 'Netanyahu authorized Dubai assassination'.

"Would you be prepared to cross-dress? And kill a guest in an adjacent hotel room? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “yes”, and you can also act, enjoy luxury international travel with a twist and can carry off a convincing Irish or Australian accent, then the job could be yours." The Israeli spy agency Mossad may be the target of international reproach since it allegedly killed the Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel this month, but at home emerging details of the operation have generated Mossad mania. It has never been more popular in Israel, with stores selling out of Mossad memorabilia and its official website reporting a soaring number of visitors interested in applying to become agents. AWIP: 'Netanyahu authorized Dubai assassination'.

In southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, thousands of American, Afghan Quisling and British troops entered Marja in the biggest offensive of the war, with the goal of destroying the Taliban's Afghans' largest haven main positions and restoring the Quisling government's presence in southern Afghanistan. Resistance was sporadic and fierce as troops seized positions around the area. Allegedly stricter combat rules and a concerted effort by the Afghan Quisling government and NATO forces were aimed at not only protecting the civilian population improving the US' image problem, but planning for the aftermath a permant occupation, building infrastructure, support and trust compliance & submission in an area long dominated by the Taliban Afghans. Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on illegally occupied Afghanistan. (43 photos total)

[Editor's Comment:] Sorry for the annoying number of corrections. They seem to be necessary in order to flush out the true story, or to at least to get past the government fairy-tale and closer to the truth. -That's the MSM for you; chock full of lies & distortions, so please don't blame us. :-) Thank you.

“The Washington Post reports that nearly one billion dollars per year in cash, suspected to include U.S. aid, opium receipts or both, is moving from Afghanistan to Dubai, where friends and family of Afghanistan’s President Karzai have multimillion dollar villas. “Dubai real estate deals and a number of crooked enterprises connected to the Karzai family have created crony capitalism in a country awash with U.S. cash and U.S. blood."

BANGALORE: Criticising Genetically Modified (GM) products could land you in jail — if the draconian draft Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill (BRAB) of 2009, which will be tabled in the current session of the parliament by the UPA government, is passed. In an unprecedented muzzle on the right to freedom of speech of the citizen, Chapter 13 section 63 of the draft bill says, “Whoever, without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about the safety of the organisms and products…shall be punished with imprisonment for a term that shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or with both.” The BRAI Bill drafted by the department of bio-technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology comes on the heels of a moratorium on Bt Brinjal announced by the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. “What they are doing is much worse than what Hitler or Mussolini did. Through this bill, they want to take absolute authority. They are behaving like a vendor instead of a regulator,” Pushpa M Bhargava, a member of the Supreme Court appointed Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday the organization might one day be called on to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. "That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now," he said in a speech on the future mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization. Strauss-Kahn said such an asset could be similar to but distinctly different from the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs, the accounting unit that countries use to hold funds within the IMF. It is based on a basket of major currencies. Truth Serum: BILDERBERG IMF CHIEF STRAUSS-KHAN PROPOSES CONVERGENCE OF BANKING LEGISLATION. [More about the Bilderbergers here.]

Canada and U.S. authorities are talking about extending cross-border security measures that were implemented for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and were to end with the closing of the Winter Games. The RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard have jointly patrolled the waters off Vancouver since the beginning of the month, boarding nearly 200 vessels and interviewing about 500 people in their efforts to maintain security, RCMP Sergeant Duncan Pound of the border integrity program said in an interview. The Atlantic: Is America Really Ahead in the Olympic Medal Count?

Tens of thousands of striking Greek workers took to the streets today, some throwing stones at police, in a defiant show of protest against austerity measures aimed at averting the debt-plagued country's economic collapse. Riot police responded with teargas when, in sporadic bursts, masked youths charged them in Athens city centre. The violence coincided with a general strike that shut down public services and closed off Greece to the outside world. For trade unions the mass show of force was a warning shot to a government struggling to satisfy its eurozone partners with policies deemed vital for the nation's fiscal health while appeasing angry workers at home. AWIP: Greece not on the brink of bankruptcy, actually attacked by Goldman Sachs.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation. It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power – and duty – to bring a resolution.

Here are the simple facts of the great betrayal. Wilson and House knew that they were doing something momentous. One cannot fathom men’s motives and this pair probably believed in what they were up to. What they did not believe in was representative government. They believed in government by an uncontrolled oligarchy whose acts would only become apparent after an interval so long that the electorate would be forever incapable of doing anything efficient to remedy depredations.