In our current armed conflicts, there are two U.S. drone offensives. One is conducted by our armed forces, the other by the CIA. Every day, CIA agents and CIA contractors arm and pilot armed unmanned drones over combat zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including Pakistani tribal areas, to search out and kill Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and civilians. Lots of them...

Faced with the dilemma of how they could possibly justify their year-long claimed support for the public option only now to fail to enact it, more and more Democratic Senators were pressured into signing a letter supporting the enactment of the public option through reconciliation; that number is now above 40, and is rapidly approaching 50. In other words, there is a serious possibility that the Senate might enact a public option if there is a vote on it, because it's very difficult for these Senators to vote "No" after pretending all year long -- on the record -- that they supported it. OpEdNews: Dennis Kucinich, an unwavering progressive Democrat, is saying that he will vote against the the Health Reform bill.

At least two foreign soldiers have been killed and a number of others have been injured in Afghanistan's troubled southern province of Zabul. According to Afghan officials, the troops died after a bomb planted on a bridge went off as their patrol car was passing by. Three more servicemen were reportedly wounded. Nationalities of the soldiers remain unknown. Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying four foreign troops were killed in the blast. Meanwhile, a local official says a similar explosion in the nearby province of Kandahar has left two Afghan soldiers dead and three others wounded. A UN report says 2009 was the deadliest year for both Afghan civilians and foreign forces since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. However, officials believe that the number of foreign casualties in 2010 will surpass that of last year. Thousands have been killed since the US led the invasion of Afghanistan. Most of the victims have been civilians residing in the conflict areas. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: Mujahideen's bombings kill 7 Americans in Kandahar.

An evangelical leader is calling for a boycott of Glenn Beck's television show and challenging the Fox News personality to a public debate after Beck vilified churches that preach economic and social justice. The Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a network of progressive Christians, says Beck perverted Jesus' message when he urged Christians last week to leave churches that preach social and economic justice. Wallis says Beck compared those churches to Communists and Nazis. BigThink: Twenty-six years late, Glenn Beck actually listens to lyrics of Bruce Springsteen's song "Born in the USA". Realizes it is about a war veteran unable to find a job. Declares it anti-American.

(In the same video clip, Beck urges his viewers to wake up and realize that Woody Guthrie's beloved anthem "This Land is Your Land" is unpatriotic, despite the fact that we all sang it at summer camp, and the lyrics make perfect sense (even to Beck). I am not making this up.)

Man-made carbon emissions are staving off a new ice age, says a leading environmental scientist. Climate-change expert Dr James Lovelock says the greenhouse gases that have warmed the planet are likely to prevent a big freeze that could last millions of years. WUWT: Aquatic ‘dead zones’ contributing to climate change.

Google Inc. has drawn up detailed plans to shut its search engine in China and is “99.9 percent” certain of going ahead with the closure, the Financial Times reported today, citing a person it didn’t name. The company may make the decision very soon, while it will take time to carry out a closure to make sure staff don’t suffer reprisals from authorities, the paper said, citing the person as familiar with Google’s thinking. Marsha Wang, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Google, said she had no comment on the report when reached by phone.

Ventura had posted an item on Tuesday which took note of a recent conference at which "more than one thousand architects and engineers signed a petition demanding that Congress begin a new investigation into the destruction of the World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11." The item was featured on the front page of Huffington Post when it first went up, but after a few hours it vanished. All that appears now at its original location is an editor's note saying, "The Huffington Post's editorial policy, laid out in our blogger guidelines, prohibits the promotion and promulgation of conspiracy theories -- including those about 9/11. As such, we have removed this post."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday about the state of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, demanding that Israel take immediate steps to show it is interested in renewing efforts to achieve a Middle East peace agreement. AntiWar: Biden in Israel: They b*tch-slapped him good.

You Tube: Helen Thomas: How Can The U.S. Support Israel When It Continues To Violate International Law?

[Editor's Comment:] Helen Thomas' other question was (RE: Israel's continued violations) -what is he [Obama] going to do about it? Note that this question focuses on the future. Mr. Gibbs on the other hand "answers" by pointing to the past saying that the Vice President was extremely strong in condemning what the Israeli government announced during his trip. -So Mr. Gibbs answered neither of these questions. He cetainly talked a lot (that's what the White House pays him to do) and he insisted that Thomas let him finish his "answer". However, he did in fact not answer her questions at all. This is the way these people operate.

Jos has been ravaged by sectarian violence, with hundreds killed and thrown into mass graves. Daniel Howden, the first British newspaper journalist to visit the Nigerian town since the massacre, hears the survivors' stories.

Barely two years after it opened, a unique Arctic "doomsday" stockpile of all the world's crop seeds has reached the half-million species mark, the foundation that oversees it said Thursday. Built by the Norwegian government in a remote mountainside about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the North Pole, the seed vault opened in February 2006 to bring together the seeds of all the world's food crops. Should a natural or manmade disaster wipe out a particular species, its sponsors say, scientists could go into the vault - it has a capacity of 4.5 million samples - and try to bring it back into production. "Reaching the half-million mark brings mixed emotions," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which coordinates the collection of seeds for the vault and helps pay for its upkeep.

Amnesty report condemns US death rates of women in childbirth. The death rate of women giving birth in the US is worse than in 40 other countries, including nearly all the industrialised countries, Amnesty International said today in a report that describes the country's approach to maternity care as "disgraceful and scandalous". According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the likelihood of a woman dying in childbirth in the US is five times greater than in Greece.

One in 10 UK schoolkids think the Queen invented the telephone and almost one third believe Sir Isaac Newton discovered fire, according to a new study.

Eleven rare Siberian tigers have died at a cash-strapped zoo in China, heightening concerns about conditions at wildlife facilities in the country. The tigers were reportedly starving and kept in small cages. The tigers died in the past three months at Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo, located in the country's cold northeast region, officials and state media said Friday.

The Obama administration is spearheading an unprecedented assault on public education in the US. The White House and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are promoting a nationwide wave of school closures, teacher and staff layoffs, attacks on teachers’ wages and conditions, and an expansion of privately run charter schools—all in the guise of education “reform.”

Songbirds in the US allegedly are getting smaller, and climate change is suspected as the cause. A study of almost half a million birds, belonging to over 100 species, shows that many are gradually becoming lighter and growing shorter wings. This shrinkage has occurred within just half a century, with the birds thought to be evolving into a smaller size in response to warmer temperatures. However, there is little evidence that the change is harmful to the birds.

Cyber wars and cyber security read more...are no longer fictional plots from science fiction movies. They are very real and very serious concerns for the American people, being tracked by politicians and the government in Washington. Webster Tarpley gives his opinion on the seriousness of the cyber threat.