The owner of the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and causing a giant slick, has made a $270m (£182m) profit from insurance payouts for the disaster. The revelation by Transocean, the world’s biggest offshore driller, will add to the political storm over the disaster. The company was hired by BP to drill the well. The “accounting gain” arose because the $560m insurance policy Transocean took out on its Deepwater Horizon rig was greater than the value of the rig itself. Transocean has already received a cash payment of $401m with the rest due in the next few weeks. The windfall, revealed in a conference call with analysts, will more than cover the $200m that Transocean expects to pay to survivors and their families and for higher insurance costs.

At least ten civilians have been killed as US forces clashed with Taliban militants in the troubled western Afghanistan, witnesses say. According to local residents, the fatal incident took place on Saturday night in Herat province, a Press TV correspondent reported. US forces, however, claim only militants were killed. The civilian deaths have prompted angry Afghans to take to the streets of Shindand, to protest against the rising number of civilian casualties, which has become a major problem in Afghanistan. Over 170 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2010 -- a 33 percent rise compared to the same period last year.

[Editor's Comment:] Washington claims the strikes are vital in protecting foreign troops in the region and that the targets are selected with "extreme care"." -Not so. These killings usually are indiscriminate and they are indiscriminate for a reason: they're meant to spread fear and to induce submission. -This is state terrorism. These assassinations also are totally illegitimate. They are crimes. -War crimes in an undeclared and unprovoked war against Afghanistan and Pakistan. [Also see: CIA to expand drone raids in Pakistan]

At least twenty people have been killed in the latest US missile strike in tribal regions in northwestern Pakistan, local security officials confirm. According to two Pakistani intelligence officials on Sunday, a US drone fired two missiles that hit the house of local tribesman Awal Gul in Enzer Kasa village of the Datta Khel area in North Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. A total of 300 people have so far lost their lives in 42 drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal belt this year. PressTV: The US is looking to expand its military presence in Pakistan in the wake of the unsuccessful Times Square bombing that allegedly involved a Pakistani American.

Pakistan intelligence officials said suspected US missiles killed five people in the country's northwest in an area where militants operate. The missiles struck in North Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border. The suspect in the recent failed car bombing in New York's Times Square claimed he visited a militant camp in Waziristan. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the two missiles hit the house of local tribesman Awal Gul in Enzer Kasa village of the Datta Khel area. Residents pulled five bodies from the rubble and the death toll could rise.

AWIP: US drone kills seven PEOPLE in NW Pakistan. STATE TERROR: US drone attack kills 5 PEOPLE in Pakistan: At least five people have been killed in a US drone attack in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on the Afghan border. Several more people were injured when two missiles hit a nearby compound in Boya village, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Miranshah. Since last year, the US has carried out many such attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas. Washington claims its airstrikes target militants. Most of the attacks, however, have killed civilians. AWIP: 11th Drone Strike of 2010: Latest US Attack Kills Six in North Waziristan: AFP: 11 killed in US missile strikes in NW Pakistan: officials. AntiWar: US Drone Fired Missile Into a Crowd of "Suspects," Killing 13 Afghans. TANSW: Pakistan Taliban deny US drone strike killed top leader. This comes on top of this Nobel Peace Prize winner Kills at Least 15 in North Waziristan and this Civilians Slain as Latest US Drone Strike on North Waziristan, Kills Five and this US Drones Kill 12 in North Waziristan: Third TERROR Strike in 24 Hours in Tribal Area and this U.S. Drones Kill 15 People Near Border in Pakistan and summing up all of 2009, this: 44 US drone hits in Pakistan killed 700 civilians in 2009. + AWIP: No assent given to US drone attacks: Pakistan. The Guardian: The 'Obama doctrine': kill, don't detain -George Bush left a big problem in the shape of Guantánamo. The solution? Don't capture bad guys, assassinate by drone. PressTV: Suspected US drone strikes kill eight in north-west Pakistan. PressTV: In Pakistan, death toll from US drone attack hits 8 Yahoo: US drone kills seven PEOPLE in NW Pakistan: security officials.

Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. You Tube: Watch Senator Sanders Eviscerate the Fed: Audit the Fed -Video.

On Thursday night Sarah Palin appeared on the O’Reilly Factor and advocated a law system in the USA based on the Bible. It is wonderful to know what a woman who could have quite literally been a heartbeat away from the presidency wants to replace our legal system. While even the most radical Tea Party members simply want a return to the Constitution, Palin seems to desire a revolution to institute a theocratic government in the United States. NewsHounds: Sarah Palin Lectures Fox News Viewers: Our Constitution Creates Law Based On The God Of The Bible And The Ten Commandments.

So far, just a headline at the Wall Street Journal: “BP Suffers Setback in Installing Containment Dome” and merely a “Breaking News” listing. From its e-mail alert: Hydrate build-up stalled placement of the containment dome over gushing oil. The BP executive of the dome said, “I would say it has failed.” Politics Plus: Gulf Tragedy Update. American Progress: Large Portion of Gulf Coast Oil Is Exported. Miami Herald: Gulf spill reminds America: The era of easy oil' is over. [This era has been over for a long time already. Trillion-dollar wars were started years ago to steal oil from other nations...] McClatchy: Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf.

Communist Leader Says Oil Disaster Proves Governments Are Too Weak to Prevent Large Companies From Controlling Our Destiny Fidel Castro says the spreading oil slick fouling the Gulf of Mexico is proof that the world's most powerful governments cannot control large corporations that now dictate the public's destiny. Officials are rushing to seal an underwater oil gusher triggered after a deep-water rig operated by BP PLC exploded and sank on April 20, killing 11 people. It still is unclear whether some of the 3 million gallons of spilled crude could eventually reach Cuba's shores - though government scientists have appeared on state television to say the island is not immediately at risk.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled or postponed in Spain, France and Portugal as a moving cloud of volcanic ash once again disrupts air travel in Europe. "Ash eruptions are ongoing and the area of potential ash contamination is expanding," AFP quoted a statement by European air traffic coordination agency, Eurocontrol, as saying. The Brussels-based agency also said transatlantic flights were experiencing "substantial delays" because they were being re-routed due to different concentrations of ash particles and predicted engine tolerance levels at different altitudes. "The reduction of available airspace is also impacting flights arriving in or departing from the Iberian peninsula and delays could be expected," Eurocontrol said.

Police in Mexico's Guerrero state are investigating the killings of five men found decapitated near the resort town of Acapulco, authorities said Saturday. The men were between 20 and 30 years old and were found in a car in the region of Costa Grande in the subdivision of Tamarindo, less than 3 miles from Acapulco, Guerrero state police officer Jorge Tellez told CNN. All five showed signs of torture and their bodies were riddled with bullets, police said. Three of the men were killed Friday, investigators said. They did not know when the other two died. AWIP/Mike Whitney: Is the CIA behind Mexico's Bloody Drug War?

PARIS: France and Germany, while publicly urging Greece to make harsh public spending cuts, bullied its government to confirm billions of euros in arms deals, a leading Euro-MP alleged Friday. Franco-German lawmaker Daniel Cohn-Bendit said that Paris and Berlin are seeking to force Prime Minister George Papandreou to spend Greece’s scarce cash on submarines, a fleet of warships, helicopters and war planes. “In the past three months we have forced Greece to confirm several billion dollars in arms contracts. French frigates that the Greeks will have to buy for 2.5 billion euros. Helicopters, planes, German submarines.”

A Spanish clown - it sounds like the start of a joke - lands in Israel. Not just any clown, but Spain's greatest, Ivan Prado. He expected to sail through passport control - a Spanish citizen, even a clown, needs no security authorization to enter the democratic State of Israel - claim his bags of tricks and continue to Ramallah. He had planned, this joker, to establish an international clown festival in Ramallah, of all places. It was the mistake of a lifetime, a truly mad idea.

First, what use do the Palestinians have for clowns from other countries? They have quite enough of their own, thank you. Anyway, what do they have to laugh about in Ramallah? In the blink of an eye one of the Shin Bet's finest appeared, a true guardian of Israel, to take this jester in for questioning about his links to "terror groups." Prado, silly clown that he is, refused to answer. The Shin Bet agent (a clown of lesser renown ) apparently believed he had been chosen to save the day. To make a long story short, after six hours of waiting miserably at Ben-Gurion International Airport Prado was informed by an Interior Ministry official, "You're being expelled. Get on the first flight to Madrid, where there's room for jokers like you." With that, Prado transmogrified into a prophet of the apocalypse. After landing in Spain he began denouncing Israel to the local press, comparing the Palestinians' plight with that of the Jews in wartime Poland.

26-year-old Dorota Rabczewska, known as “Doda”, is a Polish pop star. Generally not much different from American pop stars — other than being a member of MENSA — Doda likes to speak her mind. That’s gotten her into some hot water this time around. In a television interview last year, Doda explained that she found it far easier to believe in dinosaurs than the Bible; “it is hard to believe in something written by people who drank too much wine and smoked herbal cigarettes.”

This is an analysis to compute the probability that at least 15 witnesses would die unnaturally within one year of the JFK assassination. The deaths were a combination of homicides, suicides, accidents and undetermined origin. The deaths could not have been due to chance.

Assuming there were 1000 witnesses, for at least 15 to have an unnatural death in the year following the assassination: The Probability is 1 in 21,230 trillion.

Assuming there were 10000 witnesses, for at least 15 to have an unnatural death within one year: The Probability is 1 in 1,000.

Photo-Gate: Climate Con Continues! Letter Signed by 250 Warmist Scientists Accompanied by Faked Polar Bear Photo -- Science Journal Uses Photoshopped Image

Underwater footage showing oil gushing into the ocean from the sea-bed (on 3 May), and the attempts of a remotely operated vehicle to contain one of the leaks (on 4 and 5 May), have been released by British Petroleum (BP). Work is continuing to lower a giant funnel onto the bed of the Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to contain oil gushing from leaks in a blown-out well. Reuters: Containment dome positioned over Gulf leak.