Last year, I asked the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board who received $1 trillion in funds that the Fed handed out to domestic banks and financial institutions.He said, essentially, "I'm not going to tell you." More recently, I asked the Chairman of the Fed who received the half trillion dollars - that's $500,000,000,000 - that the Fed handed over to foreign central banks. He said he didn't know. Half a trillion dollars, and he doesn't know! That kind of ignorance and arrogance must end. We need to audit the Fed. And now we're closer than ever. The House passed our bill to conduct the first independent audit of the Fed in its 96-year history. Now it's time for the Senate to act.

The United States has become the first country to disclose an up-to-date figure for the number of weapons in its nuclear arsenal. It has done so to encourage more openness from other nuclear states and to further President Barack Obama's goal of global disarmament. The Pentagon said 5,113 warheads were either operationally deployed, kept in active reserve or held in inactive storage. On a fact sheet detailing numbers that had been classified for decades, it said that the arsenal has been reduced by 84 per cent from its maximum level of 31,225 warheads at the end of 1967. The total disclosed by the Pentagon did not include the number of warheads that have been retired and scheduled for complete dismantlement, an estimated 4,600 according to the Federation of American Scientists. The US government had only made partial announcements before, revealing it had 1,968 operational warheads at the end of last year. In 1993 it disclosed the numbers only up to 1961.

Indonesia has urged Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) voicing grave concern on the threat of nuclear proliferation across the globe. "We must prevail on Israel to come into the NPT fold," Indonesian Foreign Minister Raden Mohammad Marty Muliana Natalegawa said Monday in New York at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal of at least 250 warheads and has never allowed IAEA inspections of all its nuclear facilities.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the start of a UN conference in New York reviewing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). He said there wasn't a shred of credible evidence his country was developing nuclear weapons, and attacked the US, accusing it of double standards. You Tube: US, Iran go 12 rounds in nuclear punch-up at UN conference -Video. PressTV: Iran slams Clinton's 'irrational' words.

The US is deploying thousands of drones in Afghanistan, raising suspicions as to whether the move is aimed at monitoring "militants" or targeting another country. Regional defense analysts believe that the unmanned aerial vehicles could be brought into play against regional countries in the wake of mounting tensions with Iran over its nuclear activities, the Pakistan Observer newspaper reported on Tuesday. AWIP: Obama Jokes About Killing Jonas Brothers With Predator Drones -Video

● Irish airspace closed from 7am to 1pm
● Around 20 Heathrow flights cancelled
● Ash cloud also affects parts of Scotland
● Passengers told to check before travel
● Cameron cancels election visit to N.I.

The return of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud caused travel misery for thousands of air passengers today with hundreds of flights cancelled. Airlines had to scrap all services to and from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland after no-flight restrictions were introduced until 1pm.

The ash cloud, borne on north-westerly winds, also prevented flights to and from Tiree, Barra, Benbecula and Islay in the Hebrides, and Campbeltown in Argyll in mainland Scotland. Forecasters warned the cloud is now coming towards England. It is being blown south-east from its current position above Ireland and Scotland, the Met Office said. But they stressed it was too early to say whether the ash that reached England would be concentrated enough to cause air travel restrictions. BBC: All flights in and out of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic will resume at 1300 BST after being grounded owing to a fresh volcanic ash threat.

Faisal Shahzad

Federal agents and police detectives arrested a Connecticut man, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, early Tuesday in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing, according to people briefed on the investigation. The man, Faisal Shahzad, was believed to have recently bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that was found loaded with gasoline, propane, fireworks and fertilizer in the heart of Times Square, one of the people briefed on the development said. AWIP: "Pakistani Taliban" [Israeli asset] claims Times Square car bomb.

CBS News: Former Neighbors of Accused Times Square Bomber the Married Father of Two Kept To Himself, Claimed to Work on Wall St.

Faisal Shahzad gave the impression of a quiet family man, raising two small children with his wife in Shelton, Conn. and telling neighbors he worked on Wall Street. Now the Pakistani-American is accused of trying to detonate a homemade car bomb in New York City's bustling Times Square. Shahzad, 30, was on board a Dubai-bound flight at Kennedy Airport when FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives took him into custody late Monday, law enforcement officials said. One official said he claimed to have acted alone.

[Editor's Comment:] Perhaps he was indeed a quiet family man and innocent of any wrongdoing. The media now are looking back trying to build a story around the facts. -What are the facts? Do we know much at all? Perhaps this guy was an Israeli agent, a patsy set up as a 'fall guy'. Maybe he's just an amateur with a grudge. Maybe he's innocent of any wrongdoing and was pounced on quickly to make the police look good.

Please also note that that this man now is being held incommunicado, as if behind a veil, and that we're not permitted to hear what he's saying. -Not now, nor ever. This man now has permanently disappeared from view. He is as good as dead, whether innocent or not. There is a complete disconnect between what's going on behind the scenes and the standard fairy-tales of the corporate media. For all we know he may not have "claimed" to have acted alone. He may not even have claimed anything whatsoever. He may not even have committed any crime at all. Maybe he's in a state of shock. -Working the media, "officials" now are concocting a narrative that we all are supposed to believe in. It would be better if we stayed away from jumping to conclusions based on the official narrative peddled by the media and took a wait-and-see attitude instead. Truth is never far behind.

The mosque, located in Lubban ash-Sharqiya some 10km south of Nablus, was largely destroyed in the attack, said the town's mayor, Jamal Daraghma. "The settlers set fire to the mosque. Witnesses heard the sound of their cars near the mosque at around 3am and saw them through the window setting fire to the books inside," Mr Daraghma said, saying most of the mosque had been destroyed. The town is located next to three Jewish settlements: Eli, Maaleh Levona and Shiloh. Israel radio said the civil administration, the Israeli military arm that controls the occupied West Bank, had opened an "inquiry" into the cause of the blaze. [Don't hold your breath...]

At least 20 sea turtles have been found dead along a 50-kilometre stretch of coast in the US state of Mississippi. Wildlife officials say they are not sure if the turtles died as a result of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of litres of crude oil is spewing from a BP oil well which exploded and sank late last month. State authorities say no oil was found on the turtles but they may have died after eating oil-coated fish. Meanwhile, US officials are considering throwing open dams in a desperate bid to flush oil out of the Gulf of Mexico. Oil Spill Progression (Image). HuffPo: NOAA Warned Interior It Was Underestimating Threat Of Serious Spill. Demoocracy Now: BP Oil Spill Worsens With No Solution in Sight, 210,000 Gallons a Day Spew into Gulf of Mexico. Washington's Blog: Oceanographer "Cannot Think Of Any Scenario Where The Oil Doesn't Eventually Reach The Florida Keys". WSWS: Funerals begin for workers killed in oil rig explosion.

Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us. - Mike Prysner

Collins said somehow they ended up in the Cherry Hill section of south Baltimore. Hopelessly lost, relief melted away concerns after they spotted a police vehicle. "I said, 'Thank goodness, could you please get us to 95?" Kelly said. "The first thing that she said to us was no -- you just ran that stop sign, pull over," Brook said. "It wasn't a big deal. We'll pay the stop sign violation, but can we have directions?" "What she said was 'You found your own way in here, you can find your own way out.'" Kelly said.

"The Jonas Brothers are here. (Applause.) They're out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But, boys, don't get any ideas. (Laughter.) I have two words for you -- predator drones. (Laughter.) You will never see it coming. (Laughter.) You think I'm joking. (Laughter.)" -- Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, May 1, 2010. AWIP: US drone strike kills 6 in Pakistan.

Banks and governments in these five shaky economies owe each other many billions of euros — converted here to dollars — and have even larger debts to Britain, France and Germany. Arrow widths are proportional to debt amounts.

As the scale of the disaster caused by the explosion at an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana became more apparent last week, right-wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh unleashed a conspiracy theory suggesting that someone intentionally blew up the rig in order to “head off more oil drilling”.

A Pakistani man faces a possible death sentence after being convicted by an Indian court in connection with the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Mohammad Ajmal Kasab was the only gunman to survive the siege, which left more than 160 people dead after a three-day rampage through some of Mumbai's best known landmarks, including two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre. Prosecutors said Kasab was caught on tape strolling through Mumbai's main train station carrying an AK-47 rifle and a knapsack. Nearly 60 people were gunned down in the crowded station. Kasab, wounded by police and arrested on the first night of the attacks, initially admitted his role but then said he had been framed.

Global warming may make the world's inhabitants cranky and stressed, drive them crazy, give them cancer and even worsen their suffering from sexual dysfunction, according to a new government report on climate change – but the scientists say more money is needed before they can be certain. What are the consequences of doing nothing? In a nutshell: Humanity will suffer every imaginable illness, and the world will essentially end.