Speaking today in an interview broadcast on CBS, President Barack Obama alleged that “all the evidence” available to him showed that Iran’s civilian nuclear program was secretly aimed at developing nuclear weapons. The claim was just the latest in a long line of similar allegations by the Obama Administration and, as with the previous claims, did not come with any details on what all this evidence was, nor any explanation for why all the evidence available to the American public, up to and including the most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, points in exactly the opposite direction.

[Editor's Comment:] Mr. Obama has no evidence whatsoever. None. Because there is none. -Just a few days ago journalist veteran Helen Thomas had a question for Mr. Obama. Referring to Israel, her question was: "Mr. President, do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?" Dodging her question, his "answer" was: Ah...with respect to nuclear weapons, ah...I don't want to speculate...what I know is this: if we see a nuclear arms race..." [blah, blah, blah]. VIDEO here.

The current state of climate research: 'An Entire Branch of Science in Crisis': 'IPCC has experienced a dramatic fall from grace...more and more mistakes, evidence of sloppy work and exaggerations'.

The US has expressed deep concern over the Afghan president's recent remarks, which implicated "foreign governments" [the US] in vote rigging during the country's elections. In an April 1 speech to Afghan election commission workers in Kabul, Hamid Karzai said "foreign powers" were to blame for the fraud that occurred during last years elections. “There was fraud in presidential and provincial council elections -- no doubt that there was a very widespread fraud, very widespread,” he said. “But Afghans did not do this fraud. The foreigners did this fraud,” he added, referring to the August presidential election. AntiWar: Karzai Faces Fallout: Will Vote Fraud Claims Undermine War?

At least 25 people have been shot dead when gunmen dressed in military uniforms swooped on a village south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. According to security officials, the gunmen attacked the village of Sufia in the region of Hour Rajab at dawn Saturday. "Men wearing uniforms and driving vehicles similar to those used by the army stormed three houses in the village of Sufia, in the region of Hour Rajab, and killed 25 people, including five women," an interior ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The official further pointed out that the victims were from families "linked" to an anti-Qaeda militia. [Probably a lie, post factum to make the non-existent al Qaeda more "real."] Al Jazeera: Dozens dead in Baghdad shooting.

After a protracted brawl with the Chinese government over censorship, the Internet giant Google shut down its search engine inside China, Google.cn, on March 22. While Google’s tactics were primarily driven by commercial considerations, the issue has become entwined with the Obama administration’s more aggressive stance toward Beijing since the beginning of the year. Google claimed its move would “meaningfully increase access to information for people in China”. In fact, the company simply redirected Google.cn users to its Hong Kong site.

The first group of rescuers and divers entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week Saturday, while no further signs of life came from underground since tapping was heard the previous day. Seven rescuers and four divers entered the mine in the early afternoon, the state-run China Central Television reported. The first team is expected to explore conditions underground before more rescuers are sent.

Pakistan has submitted a major package of constitutional reforms to parliament that will strip President Asif Ali Zardari of key powers.If the amendment is passed as expected, the president would no longer be able to dismiss the prime minister, dissolve parliament or appoint the head of the country's armed forces. AWIP: UN delays Bhutto killing report.

[Abu Rahma after being shot ] Despite a video clearly showing the death of Bassem Abu Rahma, who was shot in the chest by a gas bomb, an Israeli court decided Thursday that the killing that took place during a nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall in Ni’lin near Ramallah, was not intentional. The soldier will not face any charges, and will be allowed to resume his military service as if nothing happened.

Bassem Abu Rahma, 31, was killed in April of last year. Israeli and International peace activists were also at the scene. The Israeli army claimed that Abu Rahma and other protestors were throwing stones at the soldiers, yet the video footage clearly shows him shouting at the soldiers asking them not to open fire. “rega, rega, catzin” the Hebrew words Abu Rahma told the soldiers… “officer… officer… wait.. listen..”. The Israeli court disregarded the facts and decided to close all investigations in the issue, and decided that the gas bomb fired by the army was not intentionally aimed at Abu Rahma.

Three German soldiers were killed and five seriously injured on Friday in a clash with Taliban rebels in northern Afghanistan, an armed formes spokesman said. The clash took place in restive Chardarah, one of six districts that make up Kunduz province, said the spokesman at the German operational headquarters near Berlin. According to reports from Kunduz, Taliban fighters attacked a German military convoy. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: 11 Britons killed in Lashkar Gah. + Mujahideen attacks in Helmand kill 6 Afghan and coalition soldiers.

We really have to take our hats off to NATO. This clique of arms lobbyists and defender of jobs for the boys invaded Afghanistan in 2001 on the pretext that Osama bin Laden was using the country to attack western interests. Almost a decade after the Taleban declared war on drugs production, NATO’s Afghanistan is not only the world’s largest producer of opium but now, of hashish also. VOA: Afghanistan, already world's largest producer of opium, overtakes Mexico in production of hashish. AWIP: NATO won't destroy Afghan poppy fields. + U.S. & NATO Are Supporting Afghan Drug Industry.

[Background info:] Interview with Alfred McCoy. + The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade [Interview]. + Afghanistan: Drug Addiction Lucrative for Neolib Banksters, CIA. + Washington's Hidden Agenda: Restore the Drug Trade. + Halliburton Corporation's Brown and Root is one of the major components of THE BUSH-CHENEY DRUG EMPIRE.

A photo exhibition showcasing gory pictures of victims of violence in the country’s 2008 elections was confiscated by the police, later returned to the organizers after they secured a court order and then hidden when the police threatened a second raid. The police wanted to see written permission from everybody featured in the 65 pictures. In the midst of this tussle, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formally opened the exhibit. A photo of him with a swollen face after a savage beating at a police station in March 2007 formed part of the display. Tsvangirai, who had instructed the minister responsible for the police to uphold the court order and return the pictures, said he felt sorrow not anger when he heard of the attempt to stifle the display.

A Baghdad musician struggles to keep his labours hidden from the local militia. In a tiny workshop on the roof of his Baghdad home, Farhan Hassan works in secret, lovingly carving wood and tightening strings to make music. Hassan produces ouds, a traditional musical instrument whose muted sounds are dear to Arabs. Only close family and friends know what he is doing, because neighbourhood militiamen frown on such frivolities.

The oud's angst-filled tunes define Iraq's music, the way the Tigris and Euphrates rivers define its landscape. But nowadays few in the country play or make the oud, a pear-shaped, deep-voiced cousin of the lute. Hundreds of artists fled Iraq during recent years, and continued instability and the power of religious hard-liners give them little desire to return. So Hassan's ouds have come to symbolise a lost Iraq, or maybe the country it could become. What they don't speak of is today's Iraq.