A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States next week to stop Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, complicating the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that tactic in Pakistan. Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Thursday that he would deliver a report on June 3 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva declaring that the “life and death power” of drones should be entrusted to regular armed forces, not intelligence agencies. He contrasted how the military and the C.I.A. responded to allegations that strikes had killed civilians by mistake.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismisses Iranian criticism that Russia is susceptible to Western influence and says Tehran has obstinately refused to address concerns about its nuclear program. A top Russian official Thursday dismissed criticism from the Iranian president as "emotional," and expressed frustration over what he portrayed as Tehran's obstinate refusal to confront suspicions over its nuclear program. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed back at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who a day earlier described the Kremlin as a potential enemy that was overly susceptible to pressures from the international community. "Russia has never been manipulated by anyone," Lavrov told reporters. "It has always been guided by national interests." AWIP: Iran warns Russia over nuclear stance.

China "will not protect" whoever sank a South Korean warship in March, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said. "China objects to and condemns any act that destroys the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," Mr Wen was quoted as saying after talks in Seoul. South Korea has blamed the North for sinking the Cheonan with a torpedo. Beijing is under pressure to take a strong stance against North Korea but so far has not accepted the findings of an independent investigation. WSWS: Tense standoff between two Koreas. Taragana: We didn’t sink South Korean warship: North Korea.

Hundreds of activists from 50 countries are aboard nine ships en route to Gaza loaded with 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid and building materials to break Israeli-imposed blockade of the Gaza Strip. “The move is highly appreciated by the Palestinian people. We demanded the international community to back the flotilla,” Haniyeh told Press TV on Thursday. “We want all nations to help put an end to Israel's siege of Gaza which violates all international laws and conventions,” he added. Israel has described the move as a “cheap political stunt” and threatened to divert the ships to its southern port of Ashdod and detain those onboard. AWIP/PCHR: Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (20– 26 May 2010) AWIP/Gilad Atzmon: HUMANITARIAN FLOTILLA VS EVIL NAVY. Uprooted Palestinians: Cyprus Bans Free Gaza Boats as Israel Vows to Detain Activists.

When Binyamin Netanyahu arrives in Canada on Friday, immediately following the ceremony in Paris to introduce Israel to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), it will mark the first visit to Ottawa by a sitting Israeli prime minister since Yitzhak Rabin in 1994. During his last visit, in 2002, Netanyahu's closed door speech at Concordia University in Montreal sparked a riot that made headlines around the world. In the years since, as Israel has found itself increasingly isolated on the world stage, successive Canadian governments have moved against the trend and deepened ties with Israel - something that Netanyahu is keen to protect. "What Netanyahu is trying to do is cement the base," said Dr David Bercuson, the director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary and author of Canada and the Birth of Israel. NewsInEnglish: Israeli Embassy (in Norway) won’t budge.

World stock markets put in some strong rises on Thursday, boosted by supportive comments from China on the strength of the euro. The agency that manages the country's huge foreign assets said it was not rethinking its holdings in euros. That led to a positive day's trading and left shares in all key markets with good gains. London's main FTSE index was up 3.1%, France's Cac was 3.4% higher and the German Dax was up 3.1%. The euro also rose, to trade at $1.236, a rise of almost two cents on the day. At the close in New York, the Dow Jones was 2.85% higher.

Fresh from Gulf disaster, BP urges Canadian legislators to drop regulations: In Canada it is mandatory that a relief well is drilled along with a primary well to ensure that if everything else fails, the oil can be contained. BP is lobbying Canada to have this safety precaution removed.

ZeroHedge: Prominent Oil Industry Insider: "There's Another Leak, Much Bigger, 5 to 6 Miles Away". AboveTopSecret: The video(s) 'BP does not want you to see'. CNN: Hurricane season could be 'active or extremely active'.

Weather Services International (WSI): Weather Authority Predicts Increased Northeast US Threat During Most Active Season Since Record-Breaking 2005: In its latest tropical update for 2010, WSI now calls for 16 named storms, 9 hurricanes and 5 intense hurricanes (category 3 or greater). The 2010 forecast numbers are well above the long-term (1950-2009) averages of 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 intense hurricanes and slightly above the averages from the more active recent 15-year period (1995-2009) of 15/8/4.

The activists, who are invited delegates to the UNs Copenhagen summit, betrayed the dictatorial agenda of the United Nations and the climate change movement as a whole by having zero tolerance for any dissenting opinion crashing and shouting down a small conference of people who had merely gathered to present the other side of the debate.

You are listening now to the shouts in the background of the Hitler youth, said Monckton, as the green thugs interrupted his speech. Monckon mentioned the fact that these same youth corps had green spray-painted Copenhagen with Orwellian messages in a frightening throwback to the red, white and black swastikas that littered the city during the time when it was occupied by the Nazis.

Another disruptor, Laura Comer, claimed, We're representing the majority of Americans on this, particularly young Americans. The real America wants clean energy not more fossil fuel-funded lies about the science. In actual fact, the Climategate emails clearly illustrated how the vast majority of big oil money is behind the climate change alarmists, not the skeptics. Indeed, the entire Copenhagen event is sponsored by a consortium of giant corporations that includes British Petroleum and Shell Oil. Contrast what happens to people who protest demagogues of the environmental movement with what happens to those who protest anyone who dares speak out against green fascism.

Students in Manchester are having their thumbprints digitally transformed into electronic codes, which can then be recognised by a computer program. Under the scheme, pupils swipe a bar code inside the book they want borrow then press their thumb on to a scanner to authorise the loan. Books are returned in the same way. The scheme is being trialled on junior classes at Higher Lane Primary in Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester. Officials confirmed it is due to be extended to all pupils at the school, one of the areas largest primary schools, with 453 pupils aged four to 11.

Israel says it will prevent, "if necessary" by force, a nine-ship flotilla of peace activists and humanitarian aid from reaching the Gaza Strip. [It would not be necessary. What is necessary however is that all of these starving people in Gaza get some food pretty soon, or else they will starve to death. -This probably is what the Zionists really would like to happen. The siege itself is a war crime (re: the duties of occupants) under the Geneva conventions and using force would be yet another war crime. ] The Freedom Flotilla is carrying around 700 pro-Palestinian activists from various countries, as well as 10,000 tonnes of aid. It is by far the largest fleet of aid to try to reach Gaza since Israel imposed its siege on the coastal territory in 2007.

At least 73 people died this week as Jamaican security forces stormed a Kingston slum and battled armed supporters of an alleged drug lord wanted for extradition to the United States, police said on Thursday. Residents complained of abuse and rights groups questioned whether police and soldiers had used excessive and indiscriminate force. Most deaths occurred during an assault by police and army troops on Tivoli Gardens, a volatile Kingston slum and bastion of support for suspected drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, Deputy Police Commissioner Glenmore Hinds told reporters. Coke was still at large. Tension gripped the upper middle class community of Kirkland Heights early on Thursday when word came that he was hiding there in a house owned by a friend.

A second, much larger volcano in Iceland is showing signs that it may be about to erupt, scientists have warned. Since the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, which caused cancellations of thousands of flights in Europe because of a giant ash cloud, there has been much speculation about neighboring Katla. An initial research paper by the University College of London Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction said: "Analysis of the seismic energy released around Katla over the last decade or so is interpreted as providing evidence of a rising ... intrusive magma body on the western flank of the volcano."

TV documentary written and presented by the BBC's Louis Theroux about the Phelps family, at the heart of the Westboro Baptist Church. Bob Altemeyer: The Authoritarians