Danish/Irish author given six month suspended sentence for drumming up financial support for outlawed organisations. The case against Patrick MacManus, 65, has been a laborious one. The Danish author, originally from Ireland, was accused of helping raise funds for groups deemed to be illegal terrorist organisations through a collection in 2004. Through his work with Foreningen Oprør (Rebellion Association), MacManus tried to draw attention to controversial terror legislation introduced in Denmark and questioned what constituted a terrorist organisation. ‘Oprør and Patrick have acted solely with the intention of putting the terror legislation to debate. There’s no evidence that the money was collected or transferred to FARC and PFLP, the “jungle picture” could have been taken in Frederiksberg Park and it’s impossible to see if the money is Monopoly money,’ he said. AWIP: Retten til åben international solidaritet / Dom i sag om terrorfinansiering.

Despite ongoing criticism by the United States over the approval of 1,600 new homes in Ramat Shlomo during US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel least week, Netanyahu said earlier Monday that construction in the capital would continue as usual. "Construction in Jerusalem will continue in any part of the city as it has during the last 42 years," Netanyahu stressed at the Likud faction meeting. Haaretz: Netanyahu: Israel will keep building in Jerusalem. Jewish Journal: AIPAC to Obama: Defuse tension with Israel.

Israel has been expanding illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land for decade, and it is now emerging just how far-reaching this policy is. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Jerusalem housing committee is planning to build another 50,000 Jewish homes in occupied East Jerusalem to join the hundreds of thousands already there or in progress. That includes 3,000 housing units in Gilo, 1,500 apartments in Har Homa and another 1,500 in the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev. Thousands more have been planned at Givat Hamatos, and the settlement of Ramot, while hundreds more are in the works in Armon Hanetziv, as well as Neveh Yaakov. AWIP: Spain predicts Israeli annexation of entire West Bank.

The Red Shirt protesters have said they will move their campaign to the seat of Thai political power -Government House. on Monday, tens of thousands gathered outside an army compound in the capital Bangkok. But Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister was flown out by military helicopter, refusing to give in to their demands that he step aside. National Post: Will Thailand’s government ride out the storm? eTN: Political developments in Thailand.

The survivors of a NATO night raid against a house party in Afghanistan’s Paktia Province remain up in arms about the slaying of several of their family members, and say that they have rejected US “compensation” payments of $2,000 per person killed. “I don’t want money, I want justice,” noted Haji Sharabuddin, the head of the family. US forces killed five people, including three women, in the raid. One of the men killed was also a key member of local security forces. The killings have sparked more questions than most of the night raid civilian deaths in Afghanistan, primarily because NATO issued an initial statement claiming they killed “several insurgents” in a firefight and made a “gruesome discovery” of the slain women. AWIP: Afghan family killed as special forces defy night raid ban. NYT: Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill "Militants" [mercenaries].

From the intro: Doctors in the Iraqi city of Falluja are handling up to 15 times as many birth defects as they were one year ago. The chronic deformities include multiple tumours, heart problems, nervous system anomalies and eye deficiencies. Residents of the city blame the surge in chronic deformities on controversial weapons used by US forces against Sunni fighters in 2004. White phosphorus and depleted uranium shells were allegedly among the munitions used. Most doctors are unsure about the reasons for the surge in birth deformities over the past year but say it could be a result of the chemicals left over from the fighting. AWIP/Doug Westerman: Depleted Uranium – Far Worse Than 9/11 + AWIP/Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'.

The United Nations' climate change panel is facing fresh criticism after new research contradicted the organisation's claims about the devastating effect climate change could have on the Amazon rainforest. The findings appear to disprove claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest could react drastically to even a small reduction in rainfall and could see the trees replaced by tropical grassland. The IPCC has already faced intense criticism for using a report by environmental lobby group WWF as the basis for its claim, which in turn had failed to cite the original source of the research. Scientists have now spoken out against the 40% figure contained in the IPCC report and say that recent research is suggesting that the rainforest may be more resilient to climate change than had been previously thought.

The British Meteorological Office has been forced to correct its global temperature records after a science blogger discovered that Australian weather data had been misused or discarded. The mistakes were discovered by Dr John Graham-Cumming when the temperature records were made public by the office in December in the wake of the East Anglia University email scandal. Dr Graham-Cumming, a London mathematician and computer programmer who describes himself as a ''computer geek'', found that data from seven weather stations in Australia had been accidentally discarded while another 112 Australian stations - or 28 per cent of the Oceania total - had not been fully included in the calculations. Daily Mail: Met Office 'manipulated climate change figures' says Russian think tank linked to President Putin.

What marvellous news to learn that the UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon is to launch a thorough investigation into the science behind climate change! It’s the equivalent of Kenneth Lay promising to organise a full and frank investigation into the accounts at Enron, or Herod ordering an urgent inquiry into the appalling and mysterious slaughter of infants in Judaea: all it will do is end up confirming the prejudices of the person who commissioned the report.

Make no mistake, we are accelerating at breakneck speed towards hell. There are now so many political entities dedicated to creating a regulatory system predicated on the existence on AGW – besides the UN these include the European Union, the Obama administration, the EPA, the terrifying Carbon Disclosure Project, the Labour government and the forthcoming Heath administration – that none of them is remotely interested in hearing any answers they don’t want to know. It will be like another of those EU referenda where the only acceptable answer is “Yes”, even when the people keep saying “No.”

Bankrupt financial giant Lehman Bros’ former top officers, its auditor and several rival brokers could face legal claims, a court-appointed examiner said in a report released Thursday. In a 2,200-page report, examiner Anton Valukas said that while Lehman’s directors at the time of the collapse weren’t necessarily responsible, some of its top executive management might be held liable, according to reports of the findings. Lehman is currently undergoing court-supervised liquidation to pay off creditors. A 2,200-page report on pre-collapse Lehman Brothers raises serious questions about Enron-style accounting and de-leveraging, Peter Lattman reports on the News Hub panel. AWIP: Lehman Fraudulently Cooked Its Books, Accounting Giant Ernst & Young Helped, Geithner and Bernanke Winked and Slapped Them on the Back.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has dismissed a recent US report accusing Caracas of human rights violations and described the allegations as 'cynical.' Chavez mocked Washington for crediting itself as a role model while it is a country that has launched atomic bombs, killed millions and assassinated presidents.

People who consider themselves liberals or atheists tend to have higher IQs than those who are more religious or conservative, a new study suggests. Higher IQs also seem to make men less likely to cheat. Men with higher IQs place a higher value on sexual fidelity than men with lower IQs, although the same association with intelligence and monogamy was not found in women, according to the study.

Jeff Gates along with Anthony Lawson produce this startling new video that is an absolute necessity for every American who genuinely loves his country and knows something has gone very very wrong. In Jeff’s own words:

What I tell people is that our specialty is enabling people to grasp “how” this duplicity operates in plain sight and, to date, with impunity. With that knowledge, they can sort out for themselves Who and Why. Absent that knowledge, they’re left adrift in the domain of conspiracy theorists, hate-mongers and such. We see this knowledge as essential in the transition to the Knowledge Society.