Requiem for the Gulf - Music: Lux Aeterna by Clint Mansell.

The Justice Department has decided not to file criminal charges against the former head of a division at American International Group Inc. whose dealings in mortgage-related securities nearly bankrupted the company and led to a controversial government bailout, according to lawyers involved in the cases. The decision appears to bring an end to the criminal investigation of AIG, but a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into AIG and the dealings of its London-based Financial Products subsidiary is continuing and could lead to a civil securities fraud case.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama decided to move a U.S. military base within Okinawa in adherence to a bilateral agreement, saying security threats from countries such as North Korea trump local sentiment to shift it elsewhere. Hatoyama has “no choice” but to relocate the Futenma Marine Air Base on the island, he told Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima yesterday, abandoning a campaign pledge to move the Marines elsewhere. Apologizing for the “heartrending decision,” he said it was made “given security concerns in East Asia such as the situation on the Korean Peninsula.” The decision resolves an eight-month dispute with the Obama administration that has contributed to a plunge in Hatoyama’s popularity ahead of elections slated for July. He spoke two days after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss how to respond to North Korea’s deadly attack on a South Korean naval vessel in March. “The North Korean attack is good news for Hatoyama in that he can say we’re in a heightened state of alert,” said Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus. “At least he can go into the election without this over his head, but I don’t know how much it will help him.”

[Editor's Comment:] How convenient! Just when Japan was considering closing down the American base there, North Korea's President Kim "ordered the attack" on a South Korean warship. Just when America needed it the most -how good a friend of America Kim Jong-Il is! -Or...who else could possibly be behind the attack?

Asia Times: Pyongyang sees US role in Cheonan sinking

UN says case for saving species 'more powerful than climate change'. Goods and services from the natural world should be factored into the global economic system, says UN biodiversity report. The economic case for global action to stop the destruction of the natural world is even more powerful than the argument for tackling climate change, a major report for the United Nations will declare this summer. The Stern report on climate change, which was prepared for the UK Treasury and published in 2007, famously claimed that the cost of limiting climate change would be around 1%-2% of annual global wealth, but the longer-term economic benefits would be 5-20 times that figure. [VIA: Climate Depot]

A woman has claimed she was approached near a health centre in Glasgow by three women who offered her £200 if she agreed to be sterilised. Deborah Wilson said the offer was made as she left Possilpark Health Centre with her nine-year-old son on Friday. Ms Wilson said the women told her they were from Project Prevention, a US group which pays drug addicts to be voluntarily sterilised. Police advised anyone approached in a similar way to contact them. Ms Wilson, a mother-of-two, said she was shaken by the incident:

"As we left the health centre I saw three ladies coming out of a car and they told me there was this new scheme, offering £200," she said. "Then I saw a bit of paper in her hand and it had drug addicts written on it. "I'm not a addict. I think I was approached because I was in the Possilpark area - it's a well-known area for drugs - but that's where my doctor is based." Ms Wilson said she was particularly angry because the women had asked her in front of her son. "I'm very hurt and angry that someone could approach me in the street and ask me those sorts of questions at all, let alone when I had my nine-year-old with me," she said.

Ten thousand tons of cargo, 800 passengers, 50 nationalities, nine vessels - one aim - to break the siege on Gaza. That's the simple math behind the Freedom Flotilla as its lead vessel was unveiled on Saturday in Istanbul. At a rally held to bid the ship farewell, organisers challenged Israel's insistence that its navy would not allow this convoy, of much needed humanitarian aid, to reach the Gaza Strip. As one organiser put it to me: "These ships will only return empty of their cargo, and with the footprints from Gaza's sand". And from what I've seen from the organisers and supporters, I am inclined to believe her.

There are more than 20 charities partaking in one way or another in this flotilla -activists, humanitarians, politicians from the USA to Indonesia. If Israel were to prevent these people from entering or if it were to harm or detain them, Israeli authorities could very well find themselves embroiled in diplomatic disputes with up to 50 countries. SMH: Flotilla aims to break Israel's grip on Gaza. FreeGaza.org: Second Ship Joins the Freedom Flotilla on Way to Gaza.

[Sunday, May 23, 2010] A customs officer at Melbourne airport has said the passport of the Australian founder of Wikileaks will be cancelled “soon”. Julian Assange, formerly from Melbourne, now stays in several countries while running the high-profile Wikileaks website. He usually avoids publicity, but became famous in April when his site released a classified video of US forces laughing after killing 12 people in Iraq, including two staff from the news agency Reuters. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, showed clearly the unprovoked killing of Iraqis and reporters. Two children were also seriously wounded by US shelling in the attack.

The first and foremost lie by BP, coddled, encouraged and used by the Obama administration is the phrase, OIL SPILL. The Gulf Coast catastrophe is NOT AN OIL SPILL. Stop using the phrase. The phrase might roll off the tongue better but it is not a spill. Let's say Old Faithful is hot water spill. In an LA Times investigation, a dozen experts with knowledge of offshore drilling, including one who has seen BP investigation documents, agreed that, deep in the well, cement, or pipes encased by cement, had to have failed first. [...] The Gulf Coast disaster is an unmitigated man made deep water volcanic vent of crude oil and gas.

An international anti-war organization, the War and Peace Foundation, says continued fatalities of US troops in Iraq is a sign of their involvement in secret operations. Speaking to Press TV on Saturday, Director of the War and Peace Foundation Kevin Sanders said the fact that the US soldiers are killed off-base in Iraq shows that the US is violating certain restrictions.

Talking to to Yiorgus Vondiklaris about music, Gaza, Jazza, Palestine, Israel, Jewishness..basically everything. AIR 104.4 FM - Athens International Radio.

Pro-Palestinian groups, left-wing Gush Shalom movement call on supermarkets in Italy to ban Israeli products from West Bank settlements and Golan Heights. To ensure full enforcement, they seek to take move one step further, boycotting all Israeli goods because 'you can't differentiate'.