After the destruction of their homes and forced expulsion from South Mitrovica in Kosovo in 1999, the Roma people were displaced to temporary UN camps at the foot of mountains of toxic lead waste. Ten years later, families are still there suffering from chronic lead poisoning. AWIP/Pete Brook: The Roma People: Matt Lutton building upon a legacy of wandering photographers. AWIP/Michaela Stanková: A wall to keep out Roma + The cost of excluding the Roma minority

4 Bibi quotes from 2001, speaking to illegal settlers, while he thinks the cameras are off:

1) On the proper way to deal with the Palestinians: "beat them up, not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until it's unbearable".
2) Discussing whether the Americans would block a large-scale attack on the Palestinians: "I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in their way.”
3) “They asked me before the election if I’d honor [the Oslo accords]. I said I would, but … I’m going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the ’67 borders. How did we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were. Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I’m concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Go argue.”
4) Describing how he forced former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher to agree to allow Israel to unilaterally determine which parts of the West Bank were military zones (note that the Jews have since, under Netanyahu, reclaimed Hebron): "They didn't want to give me that letter so I didn't give them the Hebron agreement [the agreement giving Hebron back to the Palestinians]. I cut the cabinet meeting short and said, 'I'm not signing.' Only when the letter came, during that meeting, to me and to Arafat, did I ratify the Hebron agreement. Why is this important? Because from that moment on, I de facto put an end to the Oslo accords."

Pretty much sums up why there is no peace agreement. Bibi is America's Partner For Peace! PT: Netanyahu Brags About How Easy It Is To Manipulate The United States.

An Israeli man accused of killing four Palestinians has claimed he was encouraged by the Israeli security agency Shin Bet to commit violent acts. Chaim Pearlman's associates have released new recordings of alleged conversations between Pearlman and his handler. The recordings reveal that a Shin Bet agent allegedly tried to persuade Pearlman into assassinating the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel Sheik Ra'ad Salah. Pearlman maintains that he recorded all his conversations with the man and that has 20 hours of recordings. Pearlman was arrested earlier this week. He is suspected of killing four Palestinians and carrying out a series of attacks against other Palestinian victims over the last 12 years. The Shin Bet denied the claim, saying the exchanges recorded in the tapes represented a legitimate method of extracting a confession from a suspect.

Most Afghans view the foreign troops in their country negatively, with three out of four of those polled saying foreigners disrespect their religion and traditions. According to the survey released Friday by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) think-tank, 68 percent of Afghans say NATO forces do not protect them, as 75 percent believe foreigners disrespect their religion and traditions, Reuters reported. According to the poll, many believe foreign troops are in Afghanistan for their own benefit, to destroy or occupy the country, or to destroy Islam. The poll was based on interviews in June with 552 Afghan men in Kandahar and Helmand provinces in southern Afghanistan.

More than a thousand civilians have been killed in the war in Afghanistan this year alone, an Afghan rights group has reported. The Afghanistan Rights Monitor said recent statistics show more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2010, with over half of them dying in suicide attacks and roadside bombings. Among those killed and injured were children. As Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports, the war's escalation has taken a huge toll on the Afghan people and its children in particular.

A marine and a soldier were killed in separate explosions, while an airman died in a vehicle accident near Camp Bastion, the main British military base. All three British service members died in Helmand Province, the British Ministry of Defense said. An American soldier was killed in a blast on Saturday while another one was killed a day earlier, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. Nearly 380 foreign troopers are estimated to have lost their lives in Afghanistan since the start of 2010. The rising death toll has raised fears that 2010 could become the deadliest year for US-led forces in Afghanistan since the invasion of the country in 2001.

Three relatives also wounded in shelling on Gaza border, as family say no rockets were heard being fired before attack. A mother of five was killed by Israeli artillery fire when she went to fetch her two-year-old son from outside her village home close to the "buffer zone" created by Israel along its border with Gaza. Three of her relatives were wounded in the shelling earlier this week, but Red Crescent ambulances were not permitted to reach the family for several hours. According to the woman's husband, Nasser Abu Said, 37, the attack began without warning at about 8.30pm on Tuesday with two shells being fired as the family of 17 sat outside their house in the village of Johar a-Deek. Apart from Nasser and his 65-year-old father, the entire group was women and children. "It was completely quiet, there were no rockets being fired or we wouldn't have been sitting outside," he said, referring to Qassam missiles launched by militants into Israel.

US stocks plunged Friday after a spate of negative economic reports fueled fears of a sharp slowdown in economic growth. Stock prices were broadly lower in Asia and Europe, mainly in response to signs of renewed recession in the US, but American markets fell more dramatically. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 261 points (-2.5 percent), the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed with a loss of 31.6 points (-2.9 percent), and the Nasdaq was down 70 points (-3.11 percent). The selloff brought to a crashing halt a weeklong rally that had driven the Dow well above the 10,000 mark. Friday capped off a week of ominous economic data with a new consumer confidence report from the University of Michigan showing that its consumer sentiment index had fallen from 76 in June to 66.5 in July--the survey’s lowest level in eleven months.

BP's successful capping of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was 'good news', President Barack Obama said today, but he warned the that measure may not be permanent solution. He said testing continues to determine whether the temporary cap can stay in place and be used to permanently stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. If not the cap and other devices will be used to capture most of the oil, up to 80,000 barrels a day, until a relief well is completed, he said. The relief well is seen as the permanent solution to the disastrous spill which has left oil gushing into the ocean since an explosion destroyed the undersea well on April 20.

Aggressive Toronto police officer threatens to arrest G20 activist for blowing bubbles during a mass detention in Toronto's Parkdale community. Woman is later arrested along with twenty others while dozens more are detained and searched. [This aggressive monster should never have been a police officer in the first place.] AWIP: Torontonians gather at police HQ to condemn abuses. AWIP/Denis Rancourt: They’re not just pigs.

More than 2.5million users will leave Facebook unless certain Islamic pages are reinstated, it has been claimed. A template letter that has been pasted into numerous Facebook pages accuses founder Mark Zuckerberg and other senior members of Facebook of 'ignoring the feelings of more than 2.5million Muslims'. The Muslim community is angry that four extremely popular Islamic pages were removed from the site and the letter warns that unless its demands are met Facebook's Muslim users will move to an Islamic alternative. The letter demands not only that the pages are reinstated but that new rules are introduced which make it a violation of Facebook’s terms to post anti-Islamic comments.

A poll by TIPP, the polling unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, a U.S. research firm of both syndicated and custom Market Research solutions, offers a surprising angle on an Israeli attack on Iran: 56% of American would back an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. According to the poll, 43 percent of U.S. Democrats approve of Israel taking military action against Iran to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, while 40 percent disapprove. However, when Republicans were asked the same question, 74 percent voiced approval while 17 percent disapproved. In another poll, conducted by Pew Research Center, dated June 17, 2010 found that strong majorities of the people in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt view Iran negatively, lack confidence in Ahmadinejad and oppose Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. A majority of those in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon opposing a nuclear-armed Iran actually favor the use of military force if necessary to stop them. The popular backlash resulting from an Israeli strike may not be as much of a threat as is assumed. In Egypt, 55% supported a military strike on Iran, while 16% opposed it. In Jordan, the figures were 53% to 20% in favor. As for Europe, More than eight-in-ten in Germany (86%) and France (81%) view Iran unfavorably, as do 73% in Spain; a somewhat smaller majority in Britain (58%) shares this opinion.

Comment by Truth Seeker: Across the planet Americans are increasingly seen as ignorant or at best, naive. But this writer cannot believe that the majority of them are stupid enough to support an Israeli strike on Iran. Do they know where this will lead? An Israeli strike on Iran would naturally invite retaliation, probably in tandem with Syria and Hezbollah. This would lead to U.S. intervention, which in turn would lead to Chinese and maybe even Russia involvement. In other words an Israeli strike on Iran could potentially lead to a world war. Does the average American understand this? Or are they so brainwashed by their corporate media that they cannot think for themselves anymore? Or maybe there is another reason for these poll findings? Like most U.S. elections now, I suspect that the above polls were rigged: the questions were posed and the answers framed in such a way as to fit preordained results. The giveaway comes with findings that claim to reveal: “strong majorities of the people in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt view Iran negatively”. The majority of Americans, ignorant of the world around them might accept such claims but I doubt that many Turks or Lebanese would. However, the above goes even further with claims that: “A majority of those in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon opposing a nuclear-armed Iran actually favor the use of military force if necessary”. If anything these supposed “opinion polls” look more like attempts to convince us that there is widespread support for a strike on Iran; and that the consequences will not be as bad as we might fear. Or as the above claims: “The popular backlash resulting from an Israeli strike may not be as much of a threat as is assumed”. So it seems that U.S. presidential elections are not be the only polls being rigged nowadays.

Boeing unveils its PhantomEye spy plane today which is designed to fly at 65,00 feet and will be powered by hydrogen alone. With its short, squat body and massive wingspan this is an unmanned jet with a difference - it's powered by hydrogen. Boeing's Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system will be able to stay aloft at 65,000 feet for up to four days.

Phantom Eye is designed to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance missions while remaining at high altitude. It will produce only water as a by-product. Boeing also is developing a larger unmanned plane that will stay aloft for more than 10 days and 'Phantom Ray,' a fighter-sized UAV that will be a test bed for more advanced technologies. 'Phantom Eye is the first of its kind and could open up a whole new market in collecting data and communications,' Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, said today at the unveiling ceremony in St. Louis. 'It is a perfect example of turning an idea into a reality. It defines our rapid prototyping efforts and will demonstrate the art-of-the-possible when it comes to persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. 'The capabilities inherent in Phantom Eye's design will offer game-changing opportunities for our military, civil and commercial customers.'

British citizens face being subjected to chilling new EU 'Big Brother' surveillance and investigation powers: Bureaucrats want foreign officials to be able to travel to the UK and immediately assume the powers of our own police. They would be able to order undercover-spying missions, demand DNA and even pursue people for 'crimes' which are not recognised in UK law - such as criminal defamation. Other EU countries could demand the personal details of entire plane-loads of holidaymakers, and force hard-pressed British police to trail suspects on their behalf. The countries demanding the new powers on behalf of the European Union include ex-Eastern Bloc states Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia.

A federal judge today ruled that the government can withhold information from the public about intelligence sources and methods, even if those sources and methods were illegal. The ruling came in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union for Justice Department memos that authorized torture, and for records relating to the contents of destroyed videotapes depicting the brutal interrogation of detainees at CIA black sites. The government continues to withhold key information, such as the names of detainees who were subjected to the abusive interrogation methods as well as information about the application of the interrogation techniques. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York today ruled that the government can continue to suppress evidence of its illegal program.

The hull of a ship likely made in the 1700s was discovered at the World Trade Center site Tuesday. Archaeologists say that it probably was sunk there in the effort to add land to Manhattan in the early 19th century.

Molly McDonald, an archaeologist with the firm AKRF, said that about one-third of lower Manhattan is man-made, constructed sometime between 1797 and 1836. Prior to 1797 the site of the ship was part of the Hudson River, as was about half of the ground zero site. McDonald said that timber crisps and houses were sunk into the ground to create piers and cliffs. "This ship was most likely sunk for the same purpose, to retain land, to create new land," she said.

A handful of ships have been found in the past 40 years, she said, "but it's quite unusual and exciting to find it here on the World Trade Center site."

Doug Mackey, the chief regional archaeologist for the New York State Historic Preservation Office, said that finding the ship is very exciting. "We've known that those things exist but we don't get the opportunity to record them very often. It is a unique experience." The discovery highlights a curious aspect of Manhattan: The land is so valuable that government officials and landowners have searched for ways to add more, Mackey said. The ship was found just south of where the World Trade Center towers used to stand, about 20 feet below the surface, It was not touched by earlier construction. McDonald and her AKRF colleagues Elizabeth Meade and A. Michael Pappalardo have been monitoring the site for over a year. They found historical maps and documents suggesting that excavation in Lower Manhattan would reveal landfills that might hold unusual artifacts. Early Tuesday morning their work paid off when McDonald spotted the curved timber of the ship poking through the soil and mud.

BP's use of chemicals to disperse the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill has become a source of concern for the US, with lawmakers warning of another "Agent Orange" scandal. Agent Orange is the codename for one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the US military in its herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. According to Vietnam Red Cross as many as 3 million Vietnamese people have been affected by Agent Orange including at least 150,000 children born with birth defects. The US lawmakers at a Senate subcommittee hearing on Thursday urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to keep a closer eye on the dispersants used by BP to properly analyze their effect on the ocean ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. The London-based energy giant applies Corexit to the massive oil slick gathered both on the surface and undersea in the disaster zone. BP has so far used about 1.8 million gallons of the chemical agent in the Gulf, an amount unprecedented in the US history to be directly applied to the spill.

Wall Street has been caught laundering massive amounts of drug money. So why isn't anybody being punished? Too-big-to-fail is a much bigger problem than you thought. We've all read damning accounts of the government saving banks from their risky subprime bets, but it turns out that the Wall Street privilege problem is far more deeply ingrained in the U.S. legal system than the simple bailouts witnessed in 2008. America's largest banks can engage in flagrantly criminal activity on a massive scale and emerge almost completely unscathed. The latest sickening example comes from Wachovia Bank: Accused of laundering $380 billion in Mexican drug cartel money, the financial behemoth is expected to emerge with nothing more than a slap on the wrist thanks to an official government policy which protects megabanks from criminal charges.

Bloomberg's Michael Smith has penned a devastating expose detailing Wachovia's drug-money operations and the government's twisted response. The bank was moving money behind literally tons of cocaine from violent drug cartels. It wasn't an accident. Internal whistleblowers at Wachovia warned that the bank was laundering drug money, higher-ups at the bank actively looked the other way in order to score bigger profits, and the U.S. government is about to let everyone involved get off scott free. The bank will not be indicted, because it is official government policy not to prosecute megabanks. [Photo: The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants]

Police in the Ivory Coast have arrested three journalists on charges of stealing secret documents about a judicial inquiry into corruption in the country’s Coffee and Cocoa Bourse. Le Nouveau Courrier on Tuesday reportedly carried as its front page story an article detailing the contents and results of a report on the ongoing investigation into the graft allegations. Authorities on Tuesday arrested the editor, managing editor and director of publications at the newspaper and accused them of stealing judicial documents. According to local media, the police asked the journalists for the source of the documents, which they refused to divulge. The public prosecutor had said that the journalists would be held for the legal maximum of 48 hours for questioning and would be charged today.