Thank you to Guardian News for another report on the babies born with deformities as a result of depleted uranium munitions and chemical weapons. AWIP/Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'.

Email messages obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute via a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the climate dataset of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) was considered — by the top climate scientists within NASA itself — to be inferior to the data maintained by the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU). The NASA scientists also felt that NASA GISS data was inferior to the National Climate Data Center Global Historical Climate Network (NCDC GHCN) database. These emails, obtained by Christopher Horner, also show that the NASA GISS dataset was not independent of CRU data. Further, all of this information regarding the accuracy and independence of NASA GISS data was directly communicated to a reporter from USA Today in August 2007. The reporter never published it.

There are only four climate datasets available. All global warming study, such as the reports from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), must be based on these four. They are: the NASA GISS dataset, the NCDC GHCN dataset, the CRU dataset, and the Japan Meteorological Agency dataset. Following Climategate, when it became known that raw temperature data for CRU’s “HADCRU3″ climate dataset had been destroyed, Phil Jones, CRU’s former director, said the data loss was not important — because there were other independent climate datasets available. But the emails reveal that at least three of the four datasets were not independent, that NASA GISS was not considered to be accurate, and that these quality issues were known to both top climate scientists and to the mainstream press. WUWT: Gallup: Americans’ Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop.

Several Palestinians have been injured as Israeli aircraft bomb two sites in southern Gaza Strip early Friday, the army and witnesses said. The Israeli military said it blew up a metal workshop in Khan Yunis in the early hours of Friday, injuring several people. The condition of the injured was not immediately clear, witnesses said.

Netanyahu Publicly Apologizes To Biden, But Refuses To Scrap Settlement Plan. Vice President Joe Biden attempted to soothe tensions with Israel on Thursday in a speech extolling the countries' close relationship, signaling the U.S. wants to move beyond an embarrassing diplomatic spat over settlements that tarnished his three-day visit. But the warm words, coming after an Israeli move seen as a slap in the face to Biden, could exacerbate Palestinian perceptions that the U.S. is unwilling to take Israel to task. AntiWar: Biden in Israel: They b*tch-slapped him good. PressTV: US has no better friend than Israel, says Biden.

[Editor's Comment:] If a "friend" kicks you in the balls, you're better off with just...enemies. Israel is not a friend. Period. Biden & Obama are too corrupt to admit it and by not acting forcefully they're exposing America to scorn & derision. The US government already is the laughing stock of people and leaders all over the world.

WRMEA: U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact.

[Editor's Comment:] 1) Vast sums of US taxpayers' money go into Israeli pockets. Think about it. 2) They refer to it as "aid", implying the the US government is the stronger of the two, but think again: Does the US government have the power to stop giving this kind of "aid" to Israel? -We don't think so.

The ongoing recession has raised a troubling question for otherwise resurgent Keynesian economists: How can the American economy keep getting worse under the intensive care of an interventionist economic team almost universally praised for its brilliance? The answer may be that the Obama administration is dealing with a fictional economy, one that bears little resemblance to the economy the rest of us inhabit. And when the difference between fact and fiction becomes too apparent, they just make stuff up. HuffPo: The Speech For Which We Have Been Waiting: On Thursday, Senator Ted Kaufman (D., DE) is due to deliver a strong blow to the overly powerful and unproductively mighty within our financial sector. He will say, according to what is now on his website.

The phone manufacturer's concept would harness the energy created as a person moves around, through the use of piezoelectric crystals. Nokia, the mobile phone makers, are developing a self-charging phone that will use the kinetic energy created when a person moves around to ensure that the mobile never runs out of juice. The plan is revealed in a patent application seen by The Times and filed with US authorities. The new device could power a phone, but the concept could transfer on to any portable electronic device - such as a music player, medical equipment or games console - and so could do away with the need for batteries and chargers altogether. The machine would work through the use of piezoelectric crystals, a substance that creates an electric current when bent or compressed, for example in the igniter of a cigarette lighter or in a gas oven.

Sour Gropes: Glenn Beck's interview with Eric Massa wasn't a total waste of time -- he got a new sign-off phrase.

An overwhelming majority of Americans wants Wall Street subjected to tougher regulation in the aftermath of the bank bailout and the bonus scandals that have rocked the U.S. financial sector, according to a Harris poll released on Thursday. The findings suggest that 82 percent of Americans want the government to clamp down more strongly on Wall Street excesses, with a particular emphasis on bonus schemes that have rewarded employees at loss-making companies such as American International Group.

In a resolution adopted today, the Swedish parliament (the Riksdagen) referered to the World War I-era killings of 2.75 million Armenians, Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) and Pontic Greeks by the Ottomans as a genocide. Turkey is regarded legally and politically as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire but vehemently rejects calling the killing genocide according to the U.N. definition adopted in 1948, insisting that those killed were victims of war and uprising. The genocide claimed the lives of 750,000 Assyrians (75%), 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians. PressTV: Gul slams Sweden over Armenian 'genocide' publicity.

Second Earthquake Strikes Chile - Magnitude 7.2. USGS data.

'Stolen votes' claim casts cloud over Iraq poll. Ayad Allawi told Western officials that aides to Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, had hidden ballot papers and falsified computer records in an effort to retain power. “They are stealing the votes of the Iraqi people,” his spokesman told a press conference called to set out the main claims. The Australian: Iraqi opposition leader Iyad Allawi alleges widespread election fraud. Al Jazeera: Early results show close Iraq race: Thursday's results put al-Maliki's State of Law coalition ahead in Najaf and Babil provinces south of Baghdad, while Allawi's secular Iraqiya alliance topping the list in two provinces north and east of Baghdad, the capital. In northern Iraq, a list representing Iraq's two major Kurdish parties is apparently far ahead of a reform-minded challenger, according to partial early results. Twenty eight per cent of the votes counted showed the bloc including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal Talbani, the Iraqi president, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barazani, the regional president of Iraqi Kurdistan, are far ahead of the Goran Party, running on a reform platform.

Bethune, a New Zealand citizen who jumped aboard the patrol boat Shonan Maru No. 2 on February 15, has been charged with trespass. After taking him off the vessel, Coast Guard officials began questioning him about earlier clashes with the Japanese whaling vessel with an eye to laying further charges. Bethune, skipper of the Sea Shepherd powerboat Ady Gil, which was run down and destroyed by Shonan Maru 2 on January 6, faces maximum penalties of three years’ prison or a Y100,000 fine. Examiner: Sea Shepherd Captain placed under arrest in Japan -Slideshow.

Fifty-one decapitated skeletons found in a burial pit in Dorset were those of Scandinavian Vikings, scientists say. Mystery has surrounded the identity of the group since they were discovered at Ridgeway Hill, near Weymouth, in June. Analysis of teeth from 10 of the men revealed they had grown up in countries with a colder climate than Britain's.

Archaeologists from Oxford believe the men were probably executed by local Anglo Saxons in front of an audience sometime between AD 910 and AD 1030. The Anglo Saxons were increasingly falling victim to Viking raids and eventually the country was ruled by a Danish king. The mass grave is one of the largest examples of executed foreigners buried in one spot. It was discovered during investigative excavation work before construction started on a controversial £87m relief road through the ridgeway. Initially, it was thought the burial site dated from the Iron Age (from 800 BC) to early Roman times (from AD 43) after examining pottery in the pit, later identified as a Roman quarry. Radiocarbon dating later revealed they were from the Saxon period.

About 200 people have been arrested and 49 charged with murder after massacres at three Christian villages at the weekend, police in Nigeria said yesterday. The announcement came as more details emerged of the violent outburst in the central Plateau state whose capital, Jos, lies at the faultline between the country’s Muslim north and Christian south.

The Israeli military has indicted two of its soldiers for endangering the life of a Palestinian boy during the three-week war in Gaza more than a year ago. The soldiers face charges for instructing the boy to open several bags suspected of being booby-trapped while searching a building in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza, the military said in a statement on Thursday. The bags turned out to be harmless. Ynet News: Child's testimony incriminates soldiers.

The strike involved an estimated 3 million workers, with the majority in organisations affiliated to the two main trade union federations—the private sector General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE) and the public sector Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY). The GSEE, with around 2 million members, and ADEDY, with 800,000 members, represent about half of the 5-million-strong Greek work force. The strike was solidly supported and led to the shutdown of virtually all public services and transport networks nationwide. All scheduled flights to and from Greece were cancelled due to action by air traffic controllers. Trains were cancelled and buses and subways ground to a halt. PressTV: Greek police clashes with protesters amid the strikes.