TEL AVIV (Reuters) - An Israeli military inquiry found no wrongdoing or negligence in the navy's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, but said intelligence and operational mistakes led to the deaths of nine Turkish activists. A civilian panel is conducting a separate inquiry into the May 31 raid that triggered an international outcry, strained Israel's relations with its once-close Muslim ally Turkey and forced the Jewish state to ease its land blockade on Gaza. "The inquiry found that on the one hand there were no wrongdoings and no negligences in any fundamental areas during a complicated and complex operation," Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli general who headed the military inquiry said on Monday. "But on the other hand there were mistakes that were made in decisions, including some taken at relatively high levels, which meant that the result was not as had been initially anticipated," Eiland told reporters at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, where he released his report into the incident.

"[I]f Washington initiates war with Iran over the nuclear issue, it will be primarily in response to pressure from Israel and the more Likudnik parts of the pro-Israel community in the United States." Israel wants the U.S. to attack Iran. This is Netanyahu's wish, the wish of his government, above all, and of American Likud promoters and agents. And if it happens, the disaster will have been brought to us by Israel.

Three separate explosions have rocked the Ugandan capital of Kampala, killing dozens of people who were packed into restaurants and clubs to watch the World Cup football final. The number of those killed in the deadly blasts has reached 74, AFP quoted a government official as saying on Monday. "The latest official count is 74 confirmed dead," Fred Opolot said. Earlier, officials said 64 people were killed when two blasts took place at an Ethiopian restaurant in the south of the capital and another at a rugby sports club in the east of Kampala, on Sunday. A senior police official who did not wish to be named said that 64 people had been killed, 49 at the rugby club and 15 at the Ethiopian restaurant, Foxnews reported. Joann Lockard, spokesperson for the US embassy in Kampala confirmed that one American national was killed in the blast in the restaurant and several others were wounded.

Ireland objects to EU-Israel data deal Irish minister for justice Dermott Ahern has confirmed that Dublin is seeking to block a new European Commission initiative that would allow the free transfer of personal data on EU citizens to Israel. The minister's statement over the weekend, reported in Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday (12 July), follows recent media reports that Ireland is concerned the data could be misused after eight fake Irish passports were allegedly used by Israel's intelligence agency Mossad in the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh earlier this year. As a result, Irish officials last week called for the scrapping of commission plans to declare Israeli data protection standards as being sufficient to allow the transfer of personal data. Without the formal declaration, the broad transfer of the personal information such as bank and telephone details between the two sides is forbidden. "Personal data provided innocently to Israeli officials by Irish citizens was used in forging passports. Other EU countries, particularly the UK, had similar experiences and that is a matter of the gravest concern." Al-ManarTV: Ireland: Israel Shouldn’t Have Access to Data on European Citizens.

A 15-year-old French Muslim girl has beaten the ban on Islamic headscarves in schools by shaving her head. Cennet Doganay was banned from classes for wearing a headscarf - as it went against the new law banning religious signs in schools, introduced this term. At school on Friday she said: "I will respect both French law and Muslim law by taking off what I have on my head and not showing my hair." With her newly-shaven look, she was allowed into school on Friday. She told journalists waiting outside: "I respect the law but the law doesn't respect me."

This year has been the most violent in Afghanistan since war began in the country in 2001, with civilian deaths rising because of increased insecurity, a local rights group says. "A massive US-led increase in troops has failed to quell the Taliban-led insurgency", Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) was quoted by the AFP as saying. "In terms of insecurity, 2010 has been the worst year since the demise of the Taliban regime in late 2001," it said. ARM underlined the number of security incidents as well as the extent of the insurgency and counter-insurgency-related violence has 'dramatically' increased. At least 1,074 civilians were killed and more than 1,500 injured in war-related incidents in the first six months of 2010, compared with 1,059 killed in the same period last year, ARM said.

Let us have a dose of reality by remembering that 24,145 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel. How many Israeli homes have Palestinians demolished? Answer=Zero! Now let's look at this in the context of other Israeli aggression, shall we? Like the endless bombings in Gaza, more homes destroyed, along with Hospitals, schools and places of worship. Not to mention all those dead civilians and children. How about all the businesses that have had to close, thanks to the evil rogue state? How about all the people who have died needlessly because they can't get out for medical treatment that could easily save their lives? What about the children being born sick due to the chemicals Israel showered down upon the entire population? What about the disfigured and burnt people, or those now confined to life in a wheelchair because their legs are missing, thanks to Israel. This is one big massive ethnic cleansing project, be it removal of homes, death or disfigurement. It's all meant to take land off of Palestinians and reduce their population. Ethnic cleansing by removal or murder. Remember these statistics below, never forget, never stop caring, never stop fighting for justice, never stop working for a free free Palestine!! In addition to the homes demolished by Israel, thousands of Palestinian homes have been destroyed or significantly damaged by Israeli bombing and shelling. On the flip side, while Palestinians have not demolished any Israeli homes, there is one known case of a Palestinian destroying an Israeli home in an explosion.

“Any humanitarian looking at the sheer number of innocent civilians who have lost their homes can only condemn Israel’s house demolition policy as a hugely disproportionate military response by an occupation army... It is a policy that creates only hardship and bitterness, and in the end can only undermine hope for future reconciliation and peace.” – Peter Hansen, Commissioner General of UNRWA

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) said Sunday that the best way to handle the Libyan ship on its way to Gaza with “humanitarian” supplies was to sink it. The ship, he said, was “a threat to Israel's independence. In order to prevent a flood of hundreds of ships and thousands of refugees gathering on our borders, the ship must be sunk. Only thus will these people realize how 'crazy' we are about how we defend our rights. The damage will be short-term, but the benefit will be long-term,” he said. AWIP: Israel warns Gaza-bound Libyan aid ship.

The day after Barack Obama praised Benjamin Netanyahu for easing the blockade of Gaza, the High Court of Justice supported the state's position that a lawyer from the Gaza Strip should not be allowed to leave it so she can study for a master's degree in human rights at Birzeit University in the West Bank. Justices Miriam Naor, Hanan Melcer and Isaac Amit wrote in a ruling they handed down on Wednesday, in the case of 29-year-old Fatma Sharif: "We are not convinced that under the present political and security situation, the personal circumstances [of the petitioner] justify intervention in the decision of the respondent [the defense minister]." Since 2000, Israel has imposed a comprehensive ban on Gaza students who want to study in the West Bank, which has been upheld by the High Court. Even before instituting the formal prohibition, by the 1990s Israel had already imposed various restrictions on travel, which have become ever more stringent and led many Gazans to decide not to study at universities in the West Bank.

The Issue of Territorial Waters: Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields Israel's blockade of Gaza is in large part motivated by the broader issue of control of Gaza's territorial waters, which contain significant reserves of natural gas. What is at stake is the confiscation of Palestinian gas fields and the unilateral de facto declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza's maritime areas. If the blockade were to be broken, Israel's de facto control over Gaza's offshore gas reserves would be jeopardy. The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine. The issue of sovereignty over Gaza's gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine. The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine's gas reserves could be much larger. The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza's offshore gas reserves.

At least 64 people died in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in two bomb attacks suspected to have been carried out by Somali Islamist insurgents, Ugandan security officials said. The explosions occurred at bars in the south and east of the city where crowds of football fans were watching the soccer World Cup finals, Agence France-Presse reported, citing police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba. At least 67 people were injured. Al-Shabaab is accused by the U.S. of having links to al- Qaeda. The rebel group has been battling Somalia’s Western- backed government since 2007 for control of the Horn of Africa country. An American citizen was among those killed in yesterday’s blasts, Joann Lockard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, said in a phone interview. “There were Americans injured, but I don’t have any details,” she said. More information will be released later today, Lockard said.

Five American troops and at least a dozen civilians were killed Saturday during violent attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, according to NATO officials. Three U.S. servicemen died in the east—one was the victim of small-arms fire, the other by a roadside bomb, a third during an insurgent attack in separate incidents. Two other American soldiers died in separate roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan. Their deaths raised the number of American troops killed in the war to 23 this month.

Preface: The title is a parody of the fact that the government has effectively made it a felony to take pictures of oiled wildlife. While most of these pictures have previously been published by the mainstream media - and presumably will remain publicly available - that assumption is not 100% certain. By way of analogy, the government sometimes reclassifies as top secret information which was previously declassified. More importantly, while some of these photos have been widely seen, most have not, and I have never seen them rounded up in a single page before.

BP's latest move isn't going to win the beleagured oil giant any popularity points. As oil continues to spew into the Gulf, BP has said it will significantly cut payments on claims to those impacted by the disaster because of problems with their paperwork, the Associated Press reported. Kristy Nichols, the secretary of Louisiana's Department of Children and Family Services, sent an open letter to federal BP claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg on Friday, saying the company had confirmed to her that they would decrease payments "to individuals whose claims files were incomplete." Nichols cites a BP representative who told her that more than 40,000 of the 99,508 people who have filed claims may get lower checks. That "will be devastating to individuals surviving financially month-to-month," she said. "This action is irresponsible and in complete contrast to BP's repeated promise that they will 'make things right.'"

In February of 2005, at a public forum in San Diego, Mattis said that “it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot” Afghans. He continued: “Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know, it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right upfront with you, I like brawling.” A bit later he spoke of the “emotional … satisfaction you may get from really whacking somebody.” The Independent: It's fun to kill in Afghanistan, says top US commander.

On July 7, 2010, at "The Spy Museum," in Washington, D.C., the IRmep sponsored a panel discussion. It was titled: "Israel's Nuclear Arsenal: Espionage, Opacity and Future." One of the panelists was Professor John J. Mearsheimer, the co-author of "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Professor Mearsheimer said: "There is no accountability for Israel on any issue!" He referenced Israel's attack on the USS Liberty, the killing of peace and justice activist Rachel Corrie, and Israel's recent assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. For background on this event and its sponsor, The Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, go to: http://irmep.org/Defaults.asp To view Professor Mearsheimer's full remarks of 25 minutes, 47 seconds, go to: http://vimeo.com/13162351

RIO DE JANEIRO (July 11) -- The bright pink color gives them a striking appearance in the muddy jungle waters. That Amazon river dolphins are also gentle and curious makes them easy targets for nets and harpoons as they swim fearlessly up to fishing boats. Now, their carcasses are showing up in record numbers on riverbanks, their flesh torn away for fishing bait, causing researchers to warn of a growing threat to a species that has already disappeared in other parts of the world. "The population of the river dolphins will collapse if these fishermen are not stopped from killing them," said Vera da Silva, the top aquatic mammals expert at the government's Institute of Amazonian Research. "We've been studying an area of 11,000 hectares for 17 years, and of late the population is dropping 7 percent each year." That translates to about 1,500 dolphins killed annually in the part of the Mamiraua Reserve of the western Amazon where da Silva studies the mammals.