Dr. Costella’s study has been widely accepted by all sides of the global warming debate as a faultless assessment. Climategate publicly began on November 19, 2009 allegedly pointing to a conspiracy to fraudulently bolster greenhouse gas theory. The British mainstream media, more than any other nation, have widely reported on the scandal. The Australian physicist documents, step by step, flawed scientific procedure, over-arching concerns with personal and professional interests and how an elite of climatologists discussed immorally securing ‘research’ funding and evading tax payments. The emails cover correspondence between international climatologists over a 13-year period up to November 2009.

Palestinian officials warn that more than 20,000 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem al-Quds could soon face demolition orders from Israeli municipal authorities. Ahmad Ruweidi, the Palestinian Authority's legal advisor on al-Quds affairs, said Israeli courts will soon hand demolition orders to Palestinian homeowners over what Tel Aviv calls violation of construction rules over the past 10 years and the requirement of renewable licenses. The figure does not include homes whose owners have already received final demolition orders from Israeli courts or the Israeli municipality in al-Quds, Ruweidi noted. This means that all owners will live in a state of fear that at any moment their homes could be demolished or a family member may be found homeless on the street, he cautioned.

US president is in Afghanistan on his first trip as president to a country where tens of thousands of US troops are being deployed this year. US President Barack Obama arrived at Bagram airfield, the US airbase north of the capital, early Sunday morning. Obama held a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the presidential palace after holding talks with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of Western forces in Afghanistan, and US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry at the base. Obama is also due to meet with Afghan cabinet members and American troops in the country.

Other U.S. presidents have bonded with foreign leaders, but Obama so far has no such ties. Does that matter? "It really is striking about Obama: Most presidents have had a special or close relationship with a foreign leader they could turn to," says Thomas Henriksen, a US foreign-policy scholar at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, Calif. "But it appears to be his nature or personality, the so-called no-drama-Obama thing."

The Lord's Resistance Army killed about 300 people and kidnapped 250 more in a rampage in the Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2009, according to an international rights group and the UN. The previously undocumented massacre, undertaken over four-days in the remote Makombo area of DRC's northeastern Haute Uele district, was highlighted in reports by Human Rights Watch and the UN on Sunday. The killings of 321 civilians occurred between December 14 and 17, HRW said in a reportafter documenting the deaths in a visit to the region in February.

Whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks is planning to release a video that reveals what it's calling a Pentagon "cover-up" of an incident in which numerous civilians and journalists were murdered in an airstrike, according to a recent media advisory. The video will be released on April 5 at the National Press Club, the group said. They also noted their members have recently been tailed by individuals under State Department diplomatic immunity, and that "one related person was detained for 22 hours" while authorities seized computer equipment.

The CIA has called for recruiting Afghan women in a public relations bid to persuade Europeans to support war in Afghanistan, a document leaked to the media has revealed. "Afghan women could serve as ideal messengers in humanizing" the mission for European audiences, particularly in France, according to the CIA analysis, posted on WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website, AFP reported. Afghan women's views would carry special weight as they could express "their aspirations for the future, and their fears of a Taliban victory," it said. The proposed PR strategies focus on pressure points that have been identified within these countries. For France, it is the sympathy of the public for Afghan refugees and women. For Germany it is the fear of the consequences of defeat (drugs, more refugees, terrorism) as well as for Germany's standing in the NATO. AWIP: CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe.

White House Press Corps longest-serving member says Obama lost credibility when he dodged her question on Israeli nukes.

[Editor's Comment:] Here's another question that this so-called president dodges and doesn't answer truthfully (Obama Gets Asked an Unapproved Question): "Last night in your State Of The Union address you spoke of America's support for human rights -then why have we not condemned Israel's and Egypt's human rights violations against the occupied Palestinian people and yet we continue to support financially with billions of dollars coming from our tax dollars?"

After months of waiting that ultimately triggered an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit under Freedom of Information Act, the United States government has for the first time offered a legal justification for its' Predator drone program. The principle upon which unmanned weapons are deployed, according to a state department legal adviser, is "self defense" under international law. The CIA attacks by unmanned aircraft in Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere have sharply increased under President Barack Obama's administration but have remained shrouded in secrecy, with some human rights groups charging the bombing raids amount to illegal assassinations. AWIP: No assent given to US drone attacks: Pakistan. AWIP/Pakistan: PAKISTAN.

Gordon Brown will have to impose "deeper and tougher" spending cuts than those of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s if Britain's Labour government is re-elected, Chancellor Alistair Darling has admitted. The confession by Britain's chief economics minister yesterday came a day after he released an annual budget that avoided spelling out the tough spending cuts that are certain to follow an election expected on May 6.

South Korea has all but ruled out the chance that North Korea was involved in the sinking of one of its navy vessels near their disputed border. Initial speculation that North Korea might have sunk the ship had spooked Wall Street on Friday. Share prices dipped partly on geopolitical concerns, and the won dropped against the dollar. "Given the investigations by government ministries so far, it is the government's judgement that the incident was not caused by North Korea, although the reason for the accident has not been determined yet," a senior government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. WSJ: Explosion sinks South Korean naval ship near North border.

Remember when Canada used to take morally courageous stands on issues and was well-respected for it? Remember when it was America on the wrong side of so many issues, rather than Canada? And remember when the lust for profits didn't necessarily trump all else in every decision this country made? Well, I've got something new for you to all remember and it's something, when the time comes, I sure hope no one forgets: When you read about the complete collapse of the Atlantic bluefin tuna population and its eventual extinction in a few short years from now, remember that it was Canada, as much as any other nation (aside from Japan), that was responsible.

The number of US troops killed in Afghanistan has roughly doubled in the first three months of 2010 compared to the same period last year as Washington has added tens of thousands of additional soldiers to reverse the Taliban's momentum. Those deaths have been accompanied by a dramatic spike in the number of wounded, with injuries more than tripling in the first two months of the year and trending in the same direction based on the latest available data for March. US officials have warned that casualties are likely to rise even further as the Pentagon completes its deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and sets its sights on the Taliban's home base of Kandahar province, where a major operation is expected in the coming months.

The Vatican is facing one of its gravest crises of modern times as sex abuse scandals move ever closer to Pope Benedict XVI - threatening not only his own legacy but also that of his revered predecessor. Benedict took a much harder stance on sex abuse than John Paul II when he assumed the papacy five years ago. Under a new policy of zero tolerance, he disciplined a senior cleric championed by the Polish pontiff and defrocked others. TVNZ: Vatican admits credibility at stake.

The WWF sponsored Earth Hour has already come and gone in the Korean time zone, and the North Korean proletariat has claimed a stunning victory over its evil capitalist neighbor, South Korea.