The 10 states that fill out the top ranks of this year's Failed States Index -- the world's most vulnerable nations -- are a sadly familiar bunch. Shattered Somalia has been the No. 1 failed state for three years running, and none of the current top 10 has shown much improvement, if any, since FOREIGN POLICY and the Fund for Peace began publishing the index in 2005. Altogether, the top 10 slots have rotated among just 15 unhappy countries in the index's six years. State failure, it seems, is a chronic condition. AWIP/Redress: How to create your very own terrorist state.

WikiLeaks.org, the online organization that was to post tens of thousands of classified military field reports about the Afghan war on Sunday, says its goal in disclosing secret documents is to reveal “unethical behavior” by governments and corporations. Since it was founded in December 2006, WikiLeaks has exposed internal memos about the dumping of toxic material off the African coast, the membership rolls of a racist British party, and the American military’s manual for operating its prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Wikileaks: Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010. Summary: 25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related detail. The document collection is available on a dedicated webpage. The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces' activities. The reports do not generally cover top secret operations or European and other ISAF Forces operations. We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.

“We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies,” the organization’s Web site says. “All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information.”

The Guardian: Wikileaks+Guardian.co.uk: Afghanistan: The war logs. Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation. Includes interview with Wikileaks' Julian Assange.

BoingBoing: Wikileaks releases classified Afghanistan war logs: "largest intelligence leak in history". An archive of classified U.S. military logs spanning six years, more than 91,000 documents, and 200,000 pages, was today made available by WikiLeaks. The papers show a picture of the war in Afghanistan that is far more grim, and far less hopeful, than previously portrayed.

PressTV: Report: Afghan civilian deaths hidden. Newly leaked US military secret documents show how US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have killed or wounded hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents. The documents leaked by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks "[F]or all their eye-popping details," writes the Guardian's Declan Walsh, "the intelligence files, which are mostly collated by junior officers relying on informants and Afghan officials, fail to provide a convincing smoking gun for ISI complicity."allege some of the casualties are caused by airstrikes, but a large number is the result of troops shooting unarmed drivers or motorcyclists in an effort to protect themselves. The documents disclosed by The New York Times, Guardian newspaper and the German weekly Der Spiegel also detail many other disputed incidents involving civilian deaths that have been omitted from daily military reports. The secret documents also link Pakistan to the militancy in Afghanistan. They detail links between the Taliban and Pakistan's military and spy agency, the ISI.

Foreign Policy: The logs of war: Do the Wikileaks documents really tell us anything new? I've now gone through the reporting and most of the selected documents (though not the larger data dump), and I think there's less here than meets the eye. The story that seems to be getting the most attention, repeating the longstanding allegation that Pakistani intelligence might be aiding the Afghan insurgents, offers a few new details but not much greater clarity. Both the Times and the Guardian are careful to point out that the raw reports in the Wikileaks archive often seem poorly sourced and present implausible information.

"[F]or all their eye-popping details," writes the Guardian's Declan Walsh, "the intelligence files, which are mostly collated by junior officers relying on informants and Afghan officials, fail to provide a convincing smoking gun for ISI complicity."

Guards at a prison in Durango state are accused of lending the inmates weapons and vehicles to commit the murders in neighbouring Coahuila state before returning them to their cells. The same group of prisoners are thought to have carried out other killings. The prison director and at least two other officers are under investigation. The killings in the city of Torreon in Coahuila state were traced to Gomez Palacios prison in neighbouring Durango state through bullets found at the crime scene, which matched assault rifles assigned to the guards, attorney-general's office spokesman Ricardo Najera said. "They were allowed out of prison to kill using the weapons of the guards and travelling in official vehicles" he said.

Israel war planes have launched an airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip, targeting Palestinian tunnels across the border between the blockaded enclave and Egypt. Missiles from Israeli aircraft destructed two tunnels early on Monday, but left no casualties, AFP quoted Palestinian security officials as saying. Israel frequently strikes the tunnels in the Hamas-run coastal enclave while an Israeli blockade has pushed the populated territory on the verge of a humanitarian crisis with almost half of its 1.5 million residents depending on food aid handouts. Tel Aviv's crippling siege has left Gazans with no other option but to set up a network of tunnels on the border with Egypt, which in collaboration with Israel keeps the Rafah border crossing -- the only terminal not in Israel control -- sealed off.

Atrocity: US Forces Slaughter 45 Afghan Civilians - "They can see something as small as an insect just four inches on the ground, so how were they not able to see all of those women and children when they bombed them?" International forces in Afghanistan say they are urgently investigating reports as many as 45 civilians died in an air strike in Helmand province on Friday. Nato's initial investigation found no evidence, but a BBC journalist visiting Regey village spoke to several people who said they had seen the incident. At the time, dozens were sheltering in the village from nearby fighting. A significant civilian loss of life would be rare this year as a new policy of restraint has reduced casualties.

Witnesses said the attack had come in daylight as dozens sheltered from fighting in nearby Joshani. Mohammed Khan, a boy aged about 16, said helicopters had circled over the village before the incident. He said that he had warned other children to take cover. But his mother told him not to worry them. He went further away and was shielded by a wall that saved his life when the attack started. "I heard the sound of the rocket land on our house. I rushed in screaming with my father and saw bodies lying in the dust… I found I was even standing on a dead body." One of the bodies was his brother. "He had been lying asleep in the afternoon when they were killed," Mohammed said. After the attack relatives and neighbours came to assist in digging out the dead and taking the injured to hospital.

PressTV: Report: Afghan civilian deaths hidden. Newly leaked US military secret documents show how US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan have killed or wounded hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents. The documents leaked by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks allege some of the casualties are caused by airstrikes, but a large number is the result of troops shooting unarmed drivers or motorcyclists in an effort to protect themselves. The documents disclosed by The New York Times, Guardian newspaper and the German weekly Der Spiegel also detail many other disputed incidents involving civilian deaths that have been omitted from daily military reports. The secret documents also link Pakistan to the militancy in Afghanistan. They detail links between the Taliban and Pakistan's military and spy agency, the ISI.

The Taliban say one of the two missing American soldiers has been killed and the other, captured alive, is currently held by the militants. A Taliban spokesman said Sunday the group is holding both the body of the dead soldier and the captured one. "One of the two was killed in the exchange of fire and we arrested the second alive," said Zabihullah Mujahid. He said the two servicemen were attacked after they drove into a Taliban-dominated area in eastern Logar province. The group says it has not yet decided on the fate of the captive soldier. WSWS: Afghanistan casualty rate highest of war.

Saber Kushour, an Arab convicted of 'rape by deception' of a Jewish woman, gives his side of the story in an exclusive interview. Saber Kushour apologises as he asks his guests to move the plastic chairs on his breeze-block balcony a little closer to the door to his house. If he were to sit where they are now, he explains, the electronic tag attached to his ankle would set off an alarm. Kushour's edginess is understandable – he is recalling a 15-minute encounter almost two years ago which he says "has destroyed my life". Last week the married father of two from east Jerusalem was sentenced to 18 months in jail for the "rape by deception" of a Jewish woman who claimed she would not have had sex with him had she known he was an Arab. What might have been a tawdry episode – casting neither Kushour nor the woman in a favourable light – exploded into a debate in Israel about racism, sexual mores and justice. "I am paying the price for a mistake that she made," Kushour, 30, told the Observer. "I was shocked at the sentence – it shows a very vivid and clear racism." The message from the judge, he says, was that "because you are an Arab and you didn't make that clear, we are going to punish you".

Did you everwonder how manipulation and brainwashing works?

Did you ever wonder how could people take part (even by their silence) in acts of genocide?

This is a collection of items below will give you an idea.

These items are for sale, on a UK website, CafePress

The items include -in their own words- " Baby Bodysuits > Anti Islam Baby Bodysuits " and "Anti Islam designs available on 1,760 products"

"Jew designs available on 4,420 products"

Browsing through the collection, I guess you would know which items come from the "anti- Islam" section and which come from "Jewish" collection

Just to get an idea how "wonderful" freedom of speech might be, please replace:

Muhammed" with "Rabbi"
Islam with Judaism
Muslim with Jew
Qur'an with Talmud
Jew with Muslim

Then read what you see out loud, then tell me how it feels!