Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others were shot by a lone gunman Saturday morning during a scheduled public event outside a Tuscon grocery store, according to an NPR report.

Despite earlier reports that the Congresswoman was killed, Reuters and Politico reported that she is in surgery. "She's alive," Giffords' spokesperson reportedly told Reuters. The Pima County sheriff's office told NPR that six others at the event were killed.

Giffords, 40, was chatting with a couple in her district when the shooter opened fire from about four feet away. The shooter, described as a man in his teens or early 20s, was tackled by a bystander as he ran from the scene, according to NPR. The gunfire erupted around 10 a.m. during the "Congress at Your Corner" event outside a Safeway store. A witness told CNN that 15 to 20 gunshots were fired during the shooting spree. Giffords was shot along with members of her staff, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

TwitPic: Sarah Palin had Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on her "gun target" map [Map]
NYT: Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson
WaPo: Gabrielle Giffords [Updated: Condition unclear]
Raw Story: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords among ‘at least 12′ others shot outside Tucson grocery store
The Atlantic: An Assassination?

The United States Department of Justice is allegedly attempting to obtain personal information from Twitter on a member of the Icelandic parliament who is known as a supporter of WikiLeaks.

"just got this," Birgitta Jónsdóttir tweeted on Friday afternoon. "Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account in (relation to wikileaks)." "usa government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009," she continued a few minutes later. "do they realize i am a member of parliament in iceland?"

In response to tweeted requests for additional information, Jónsdóttir explained that she was "waiting for some legal advice before i will make this a foreign affairs issue." She also noted, "i think i am being given a message" and called the experience "creepy."

Glenn Greenwald/Salon.com: A copy of the Order served on Twitter (.pdf) [Exclusive]
Birgitta Jónsdóttir/Twitter: Birgitta Jónsdóttir harassed by U.S Government.
Le Monde: Washington veut mettre la main sur des comptes Twitter liés à WikiLeaks
The Guardian: WikiLeaks demands Google and Facebook unseal US subpoenas
The Register: Icelandic MP sounds alarm: Feds subpoena Twitter for info on WikiLeaks backer
Glenn Greenwald: DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers

The graves of hundreds of missing people in Bitlis are waiting to be unearthed, the Human Rights Association, or İHD, has claimed following the excavation of a mass grave in the southeastern province earlier this week. Relatives of the missing people are aware of the graves’ locations and more will be opened soon, Bitlis İHD branch head Hasan Ceylan told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “We, as human rights defenders, have made research everywhere in our districts and villages,” said Ceylan in detailing the source for their claim that there are 350 to 400 more graves in the provinces. Ceylan said three more locations would soon be excavated as the necessary applications have already been filed with the Bitlis Public Prosecutor’s Office.

In the week after the killing of Jawaher Abu Rahma by Israeli military forces, Bil'in village has continued the struggle of resistance against the occupation.

At today's demonstration, three persons were wounded, in addition to dozens of more cases of people choking on tear gas. The Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil'in organized today's demonstration. The march began after Friday prayers from the center of the village, towards the site of the wall.

Representatives from Bil'in as well as hundreds of Palestinians from around the West Bank participated in today's march. Today's demonstration was led by feminist and women's organizations. In addition, dozens of international activists and hundreds of Israelis participated in the demonstration, chanting slogans calling for national unity, ending the occupation, and destroying the wall. Participants raised Palestinian flags and banners of the various factions, calling for liberation and national unity.

When demonstrators reached the site of the wall, they were met with a shower of tear gas and sound bombs, rubber bullets, and the use of wastewater contaminated with chemicals. Iyad Bernat, the Chairman of the People's Committee was injured, and Mustafa Shawkat and Miss Ahmed Abu Rahma were rendered unconscious by tear gas. Dozens of people suffered from teargas inhalation, which was used intensively, and many more suffered from the use of waste water by the Israeli army.

AWIP: Israel's Deadly Tear Gas Made in USA

The Palestinians have finalized a draft resolution asking the United Nations Security Council to condemn Jewish settlement activities in occupied territories, a senior Palestinian official said Saturday. "The drafting is ready and would be submit to the Security Council within a few days," said Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator. The draft resolution stresses that all Israeli settlements in the lands that Israel has occupied in 1967 war, including East Jerusalem, are "illegal and make a big obstacle on the way of just, comprehensive and lasting peace," Erekat told Xinhua. The articles of the draft resolution also demand Israel to cease all settlement activities, including the so-called natural growth of existed settlements and removing all structures built over the past decade.

According to comments from administration officials, the Obama Administration’s $50 billion projection for 2012 war funding is going to be blown apart, with a closed-door meeting putting the actual funding request closer to the $120 billion range. The figure will be slightly less than the $159 billion war funding request for 2011, but as the overall military budget for 2012 will be considerably larger than the record 2011 budget, it is really only a question of officials having shuffled certain funding into different categories.

[T]hese “emergency” war funding requests seem to be continuing for the forseeable future, even though President Obama made folding them into the military’s regular budget a top priority. Splitting up the record budgets is just too politically convenient, particularly when the administration is running massive deficits, to stop.

US President Barack Obama has signed a major defense bill effectively preventing the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Obama has vowed to repeal the curbs regarding the Guantanamo Bay prison, saying he was forced into signing the bill on Friday. The new bill bars Guantanamo suspects from being brought to the United States for trial. The US president further stated that the bill was vital for funding the country's foreign wars in 2011 and that was why he signed it into law.

Jason Ditz: Obama Signs Law Blocking Gitmo Closure

Castro: Israel, US killed nuke scientists.

Recently it was revealed that Fidel Castro was super critical of the Iranian President’s views on Israel. When this became public the accusations came flying from every server on the Web… Fidel is a zionist, Fidel is senile, Fidel has lost his mind!

Today he proved that all of the above is false, and that his mind is as clear as it was when he and his forces toppled the Cuban dictator, Batista, in 1959. He probably holds the Guinness Book of Records’ ‘record’ for the Longest Lasting Thorn in the Side of The United States’ …. and here’s why:

Cuban revolutionist blames Mossad, secret services of US, UK for recent assassination of Iranian scientist. ‘I don’t remember another time in history when killing of scientists was official policy of powers armed with WMDs,’ he writes in local paper. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro on Friday accused Israel, the United States and Britain for the “massacre” of Iranian scientists. The Cuban revolutionist claimed that the mercenaries who acted on behalf of these countries are also responsible for a series of other assassinations that are meant to thwart the development of an Iranian nuclear program. Washington immediately refuted Castro’s allegations, calling them “ludicrous.”

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has accused the United States, Britain, and Israel of organizing the "butchery" of Iranian scientists to undermine Tehran's nuclear program. In an article published on Friday entitled “What Would Einstein Say?”, the 84-year-old Castro cited reports in the international media, particularly one article in the US magazine The Atlantic, describing efforts by the intelligence agencies of the three countries to subvert Tehran's nuclear program and torpedo international negotiations on it through sabotage, which sometimes includes the "coordinated disappearance" of Iranian scientists, AFP reported. "There are other serious developments related to the butchery of scientists, organized by Israel, the United States, Britain, and other powers," he wrote.

PressTV: Mossad involved in Iran assassinations

Julian Assange's $1.5M Memoir Being Rushed to Press by Publisher. Julian Assange’s memoir -- part of a $1.5 million book deal the WikiLeaks founder inked two weeks ago -- already has a release date: April. As in 2011. Assange’s U.K.-based publisher Canongate announced on Friday that his first book will come out sometime that month. Knopf, Assange’s North American publisher, will release the book in April, too.

“I hope this book will become one of the unifying documents of our generation,” Assange said in a statement. “In this highly personal work, I explain our global struggle to force a new relationship between the people and their governments.”

Canongate has already sold rights to publishers in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Catalonia, Brazil, Norway, Assange’s homeland of Australia, and Sweden, where Assange is wanted for questioning in a highly-publicized sex crimes case. Canongate says all will be “part of an internationally coordinated launch.” (Hey, kind of like a WikiLeak!)