The federal government may soon send unmanned aircraft to scour West Texas and the state's coastal waters in an effort to boost border security, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a letter to the governor sent Friday. Perry had formally requested the assistance a week ago. The need also was underscored in a phone call that Democratic nominee Bill White had with Napolitano on Thursday. Homeland Security has six drones and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to get the necessary clearance to begin flying over Texas, Napolitano wrote.

I gave John Yoo every opportunity I could to place a limit on presidential power. Can a president shoot missiles in the United States? Can a president drop nukes in the United States? Yoo refused to concede any limits. -- video by Shepherd Johnson. David Swanson: John Yoo: A President Can Nuke U.S.

The US President has repeated his symbolic offer of dialogue with Tehran, without specifying what concessions Washington is actually prepared to make. Barack Obama who has pledged to pursue aggressive sanctions to prevent Iran from implementation of what the US and its allies describe as a nuclear weapons program renewed promise of dialogue in a videotape marking Nowroz, the start of the new Iranian year.

Sunday Herald: Final destination Iran?

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.

Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons.

“They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, co-author of a recent study on US preparations for an attack on Iran. “US bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours,” he added.

A watchdog in Britain has revealed that former UK Premier Tony Blair has secretly received cash from a South Korean energy company and from Kuwaiti royals. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments says Tony Blair has been receiving cash from the Kuwaiti government and the South Korean UI Energy Corporation which has oil interests in the US and Iraq. The Advisory Committee had allowed Blair to keep details of both deals from the public for 20 months, since June 2008, as the former prime minister claimed the deals were commercially sensitive. Blair has reportedly made some 20 million pounds since leaving Downing Street in June 2007 and approximately 1 million pounds sterling from the deal with the Kuwaiti government.

In a further revelation, a classified memo from Blair to former US President Bush showed the full extent of his support for the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The personal note shows that Blair wrote eight months before the Iraqi invasion: "You know, George, whatever you decide to do, I'm with you." This is London: Revealed: Tony Blair’s secret oil links to Middle East.

The Israeli military said the soldiers did not fire live ammunition, but used riot control weapons such as teargas and rubber-coated bullets to disperse the Palestinians who were approaching a nearby Jewish settlement. However, sources have told Al Jazeera that Qadus was shot and killed by two live bullets to his chest.

At least 11 people have been injured in an Israeli air strike at an airport in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical officials and witnesses said. The strike targeted Gaza's defunct international airport, located near the town of Rafah, late on Friday, witnesses said. The Israeli army told Al Jazeera that the attack targeted "a terror site" and said its pilots confirmed that the target was hit. PressTV: Israeli jets hit 7 Gaza sites, injure 14.

January 29, 2002: President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit the congressional investigation into the events of September 11. Graham's spokesman said the committees will review intelligence matters only.

China and commodities bull Jim Rogers thinks the economy is going to eventually run out of gas by 2012. While he doesn’t call this a double dip, he does say that “the next time it’s going to be worse because we’ve shot all of our bullets.” With zero interest rates and huge government deficits all around, policy options are definitely more limited. As for currencies, he sees weakness all around because of the ‘liquidity seeking return’ mentality in which stock markets are buoyed by easy money.

In an official letter, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has urged the Kyrgyz government to stop censoring online media. As the fifth anniversary of the country’s March 2005 ‘orange’ revolution approaches, Kyrgyz authorities are putting unprecedented pressure on independent media. Ordinary Kyrgyz are also outraged by fee hikes of essential services, encouraging the opposition. In its letter, the OSCE has called on the Kyrgyz government to respect its international obligations to protect freedom of speech and to restore access to a number of online media sources and to Azattyk Radio (the Kyrgyz Service of RFE/RL).

'The blogosphere and meeting places have been alight with anger, outrage, frustration. And questions about how to defeat our tyrannical 'masters' that make our lives a living hell. Gandhi found non-compliance to be an effective tool to defeat his masters. And he was just one man. Imagine what we could achieve, if we made a concerted effort, for a given number of days.

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.

Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).

The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula, on the other hand, can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to discover how it is able to reverse its aging process.

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They're now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters. "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion," says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute.

The release of the report [.pdf] coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21st March. The Guarani suffer high rates of suicide, malnutrition, unfair imprisonment and alcoholism, and are regularly targeted and killed by gunmen hired by the ranchers who have taken over their land. The denial of the Indians’ land rights is singled out in the report as the main cause of this explosive situation. The report warns that the growing demand for ethanol as an alternative to gasoline will take more land from the Guarani and further worsen the situation. Despite living in one of the wealthiest states in one of world’s largest emerging economies, many Guarani live in dire poverty. Some live under tarpaulins on the side of busy highways, others in chronically overcrowded ‘reserves’ where they are reliant on government handouts. One Guarani community living on the roadside, who have seen three of their leaders killed by ranchers’ gunmen, said, ‘We are growing impatient with the excessive delay of land demarcation. It is slowly killing us and exposing us to genocide’.