The health insurance bill passed, and it's one more triumph of the federal government over individual rights. All statists, rejoice! You've managed to succeed in having Big Brother intrude into one more aspect of your life. I, for one, am not happy about it, not only because I don't like living under the watchful eye of Big Brother, but also because I know that American health care used to be run in a very different way. AWIP: House passes health care legislation.

The effort to win over Afghans on former Taliban turf in Marja has put American and NATO commanders in the unusual position of arguing against opium eradication, pitting them against some Afghan officials who are pushing to destroy the harvest.

Slams "Unjust Accusations" Against Israel Though many expected him to deliver a more measured response in the wake of last week’s very public row with the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered another angry rebuke to the Obama Administration over the settlement expansion which stalled the US brokered indirect peace talks. Netanyahu declared that the settlements in occupied East Jerusalem weren’t technically settlements at all, because “everyone knows” that Jerusalem will be the eternal and undivided capital of Israel. The Independent: Netanyahu meets Obama to give him marching orders (Iran). PressTV: In US, Netanyahu pursues Iranophobia policy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Jerusalem (al-Quds) is not a settlement, but Israel's capital, defying the international community over the thorny issue of settlement activities. Netanyahu told participants of the annual conference of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — the main pro-Israel lobby in the US — that “Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital.” AWIP: Clinton vows 'personal commitment' to Israel's security. MEMO: Lieberman says no negotiation on Jerusalem. Irish Times: Jerusalem 'not a settlement' - Israeli PM.

Expulsion follows use of 12 fake passports by suspected Mossad agents during killing of Hamas leader in Dubai. The foreign secretary, David Miliband, will make a statement to the House of Commons this afternoon, blaming Israeli intelligence for the cloning of passports belonging to British citizens. The documents were carried by an assassination team that killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel. British officials said Miliband would "request" the immediate departure of an Israeli diplomat, adding that they expect the request to be honoured. Daily Telegraph: Israeli government to be formally accused over ‘Mossad’ assassination.

Human Shield Story: US activist Rachel Corrie remembered in film. Seven years ago American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while protesting against the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza. Her parents are now suing the Israeli government. The trial got underway on the anniversary of her death. RT caught up with filmmaker Simone Bitton, who made it her mission to find justice. AWIP/Jonathan Cook: Rachel Corrie family finally puts Israel in dock.

Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders is misguided – it should be talking to them instead. As the dust settles on the publicity storm triggered by the Dubai assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a deep feeling of disappointment has descended on the Israeli-Palestinian peace camp. What started as an important public discourse with a potential for real change eventually missed the essential point of the affair.

Extrajudicial killing of unwanted rivals is a "tool" frequently used by Israel, both in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and abroad. Strangled in their beds, bombed from the air, ambushed in their cars or shot down by snipers, hundreds of "unwanted" Palestinians have died at the hands of the IDF and the secret service, leaving a long trail of blood and grief. Beyond the targets themselves, hundreds of innocent bystanders have died in these operations. The typical profile of the assassination target varies from active terrorist to political leader. The typical profile of the innocent bystander is not an issue for the Israeli security services.

Suggests Grand Coalition Government Remains Possible, if Maliki Changes. Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi today vowed that the process for forming a government would not be a quick one, and that his Iraqiya faction would prevent the return to the “one-man rule” of the Maliki government. Allawi said he wasn’t particularly concerned with “what kind of shape the government will take or how long it’s going to take,” but insisted that a quick resolution was a recipe for disaster.

Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon are under investigation over their apparent willingness to help a lobbying firm in return for cash. It is understood that Mr Butterfill has referred himself to the standards commissioner and Baroness Morgan has already referred herself to the sub-committee on Lords' interests. Ms Moran, already deselected by Labour as an election candidate following revelations over her expenses, has been suspended by the Parliamentary Labour Party. Under Commons rules MPs can work for companies, but must declare payments and may not lobby ministers directly. Mr Byers, a former transport secretary, was filmed saying he was like a "cab for hire" who would work for up to £5,000 a day and claimed to have saved millions of pounds for National Express, which wanted to get out of its East Coast mainline franchise.

Cutting back on consumption of meat and dairy products will not have a major impact in combating global warming — despite repeated claims that link diets rich in animal products to production of greenhouse gases. That’s the conclusion of a report presented here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. “We certainly can reduce our greenhouse-gas production, but not by consuming less meat and milk,” said Mitloehner, who is with the University of California-Davis. “Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries.”

As Democrats secure historic healthcare reforms, fresh details emerge of proposed climate change bill. The chances of US climate change legislation passing this year received a major boost after President Obama secured victory in his historic battle to pass healthcare reforms late last night. The successful House vote on the legislation following over a year of intense and fraught negotiations will clear a path for the administration to turn to its next large piece of administrative business: climate change. Some senior Democrat Senators have suggested that following such a long battle to pass healthcare legislation the Senate will have "no appetite" to deal with a climate change bill that is likely to prove equally contentious.

Sometimes things are a little clearer in retrospect. Now that health care reform has passed in the House, it seems there are two main questions in people’s minds: What’s next? Why, procedurally, was the legislative process so confusing and painful to watch? Let’s answer that second question first. To help do that, we’ve drawn up some helpful infographics. AWIP/Chris Hedges: The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed.

As the representatives of what passes for the liberal establishment in the United States, the New York Times has played a key role in promoting Obama’s health care agenda and characterizing it as a progressive reform. In fact, the Times represents those privileged sections of the ruling elite who stand to profit most from its cost-cutting features and the gutting of health care for ordinary Americans.

Jerome Starkey recently reported for The Times of London about a night raid on Feb. 12 in which U.S. and Afghan gunmen opened fire on two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials -- an atrocity which NATO’s Afghanistan headquarters then tried to cover up. Now, in a blistering indictment of both NATO and his own profession, Starkey writes for Nieman Watchdog that the international forces led by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal are rarely called to account because most reporters are too dependent on access, security and the 'embed culture' to venture out and see what's happening for themselves.

The US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says he is concerned "in principle" about the existence of an alleged private [CIA] network of assassins in Afghanistan and Pakistan run by the Pentagon.

A Russian awarded $1million (£666,000) for solving one of the most intractable problems in mathematics said yesterday that he does not want the money. Said to be the world's cleverest man, Dr Grigory Perelman, 44, lives as a recluse in a bare cockroach-infested flat in St Petersburg. He said through the closed door: 'I have all I want.'

It was in 2002 that Perelman, then a researcher at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in St. Petersburg, began posting papers online suggesting he had solved the Poincare Conjecture, one of seven major mathematical puzzles for which the Clay Institute is offering $1 million each. Rigorous tests proved he was correct. The topological conundrum essentially states that any three-dimensional space without holes in it is equivalent to a stretched sphere. The puzzle was more than 100 years old when Perelman solved it - and could help determine the shape of the universe.

It looks like a filmmaker's apocalyptic vision of Earth following a devastating natural disaster. But this colossal ice formation is actually a portion of the wall terraces of a huge crater on Mars. Approximately 37 miles in diameter, a section of the Mojave Crater in the planet's Xanthe Terra region has been digitally mapped by Nasa scientists. The result is this digital terrain model that was generated from a stereo pair of images and offers a synthesized, oblique view of a 2.5-mile portion of the crater's wall terraces.

The sheer depth of the crater - about 1.6 miles - demonstrates that Mojave has experienced little infilling or erosion. The result offers scientists a tantalising glimpse of what a very large complex crater looks like on Mars because it remains so fresh while most others - especially this size - have been affected by erosion, sedimentary infilling and overprinting by other geologic processes. Such a fresh crater provides an insight into the impact process. This view, in which the vertical dimension is exaggerated three-fold compared with horizontal dimensions, shows the ponding of material backed up behind massive wall-terrace blocks of bedrock. Hundreds of impact craters on Mars have similarly ponded features with pitted surfaces.

The former British colony has been part of China since 1997, but operates under a “one country, two systems” philosophy. The mainland authorities do not censor political news and searches on the Web in Hong Kong. The shift of its Chinese service to Hong Kong, Mr. Brin said, was not given a clear-cut stamp of approval by Beijing. But he said there was a “back and forth” with the Chinese government on what to do. “There was a sense that Hong Kong was the right step,” Mr. Brin said. NYT: China Counters Google Move by Partly Blocking Hong Kong Site. Daily Finance: Chinese Media: Google Is Tied to U.S. Intelligence.