A man charged with trying to assassinate a US congresswoman in a shooting that left six people dead and more than a dozen wounded has appeared in federal court in Phoenix, Arizona. Jared Loughner, 22, faces several charges over the attack on Saturday.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head, remains in a critical condition but doctors say the swelling in her brain has stabilised. Among the dead were a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge. President Barack Obama, who led the US in a silent tribute from the South Lawn of the White House on Monday morning, said a priority for the nation was "making sure we are joining together, pulling together as a country". The president will travel to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for the victims of the Arizona shooting, administration officials said.

Mr Loughner walked into the courtroom wearing handcuffs and in a prison uniform, with a cut on the right side of his head. During the 13-minute hearing, Mr Loughner said very little, only periodically leaning forward to speak into a microphone. Mr Loughner, who did not enter a plea, confirmed his identity and had an attorney appointed to defend him. When asked, he said he understood that he could get life in prison or the death penalty for allegedly killing federal Judge John Roll on Saturday in Tucson, Arizona.

A self-described humorist named a liberal cable news host a "target" on her blog the day after he denounced incendiary political rhetoric in response to an Arizona shooting that claimed the lives of six people, including a federal judge, a congressperson's aide, and a child. Andrea Rouda's post entitled “Speaking of Target Practice” listed several historical figures who were murdered "by a crazy person" before naming MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, whom she referred to as "the Devil." "What a waste, especially since there are so many good targets out still out there," she wrote. "Take Keith Olbermann."

Juan Cole: Naw, There’s been no Right Wing Extreme Rhetoric

Wikileaks today offered sympathy and condolences to the victims of the Tucson shooting together with best wishes for the recovery of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, a democrat from Arizona's 8th district, was the target of a shooting spree at a Jan 8 political event in which six others were killed.

Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, leading the investigation into the Gifford shooting, said that "vitriolic rhetoric" intended to "inflame the public on a daily basis ... has [an] impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with." Dupnik also observed that officials and media personalities engaging in violent rhetoric "have to consider that they have some responsibility when incidents like this occur and may occur in the future."

WikiLeaks staff and contributors have also been the target of unprecedented violent rhetoric by US prominent media personalities, including Sarah Palin, who urged the US administration to “Hunt down the WikiLeaks chief like the Taliban”.

A UK court has set a date next month for WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange to appear for a full hearing over Sweden's efforts to extradite him for questioning over alleged sex crimes. Assange briefly appeared at London's Belmarsh Magistrates' Court on Tuesday where a date of February 7 was decided for the full hearing where lawyers will draw the battle lines in his fight to avoid extradition. Speaking outside the court, Assange promised to hasten the release of additional US diplomatic cables and data that have infuriated Washington. "Our work with WikiLeaks continues unabated and we are stepping up our publishing for matters related to cablegate and other materials. Those will shortly be appearing through our newspaper partners around the world," Assange said. Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri, reporting from the court in London, said: "Assange came out of the court saying that he was happy with the outcome of what has happened. "He said his work will continue but he is still under strict bail conditions. He is being electronically tagged and is having to report to police daily, and he is facing the real prospect of being extradited to Sweden to face charges of sex crimes."

Earlier on Tuesday, Assange released a statement calling for the prosecution of those in the United States who have called for him to be put to death:

"No organisation anywhere in the world is a more devoted advocate of free speech than WikiLeaks but when senior politicians and attention-seeking media commentators call for specific individuals or groups of people to be killed, they should be charged with incitement to murder."

The Guardian:
Julian Assange 'happy' after extradition hearing
Julian Assange 'faces execution or Guantánamo detention'

A new investigation into the death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has revealed that he had been poisoned by a lethal dose of thallium in his food or drinking water. Former special advisor to Arafat, Bassam Abu Shareef, said the investigation conducted by British forensic experts had revealed that the late Palestinian leader was poisoned by thallium, IRNA reported on Tuesday. Thallium is highly toxic. Cases of poisoning by the substance more commonly occur after oral ingestion.

Abu Shareef said he will soon present more information to an investigation committee probing into Arafat's assassination. He has, however, refused to reveal the name of the investigative team, which conducted the research. Arafat's advisor accused Israel of poisoning his leader through the food or drinking water that he received when he was under siege in his headquarters in Ramallah. Arafat died of a mysterious disease in a French hospital on November 11, 2004.

Wikipedia: Thallium poisoning
Medicine.net: Facts About Thallium Poisoning

BBC: Brisbane residents urged to evacuate
The Guardian: Brisbane residents flee homes as floodwaters rise

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman stated that Israeli organizations which provided information to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (Goldstone Commission) are

“net collaborators with terror whose goal is to harm the IDF and its determination to defend Israeli citizens.”

Liberman was speaking at a meeting of his party Yisrael Beitenu today in the Knesset, in which the recent Knesset decision to establish a parliamentary investigative committee to “examine the activities of Israeli organizations involved with the collection of information about soldiers and follow their funding sources.”

Stephen Lendman: Israel's Knesset Targets Leftist Organizations

Hollywood types don't often stop by wonky think tanks, but actor Sean Penn brought an impassioned demand for American help in Haiti to the Brookings Institution Monday. For Penn, America's action — or inaction — in helping Haiti recover from last year's devastating earthquake speaks volumes about the American spirit.

"The time for action is now," said Penn. "Haiti cannot wait any longer. ... We can do this right and we owe the people of Haiti to do so." "Once upon a time the United States was known for its capacity, for its willingness to take on visionary programs," said Penn. He said that a restored Haiti "would spark a new generation of American might through dignity."

Penn has focused much of his recent time in Haiti ("I've been Haiti since mid-January 2010") on his NGO, called J/P Haitian Relief Organization, but he said he saw some similarities between his work on the island and his work in Tinseltown.

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange is due to appear in a London court Tuesday as lawyers draw the battle lines in his fight to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning about alleged sex crimes. The mainly procedural hearing at the top security Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, due to start at 1000 GMT, is likely to confirm the date for a full extradition hearing which is expected in early February. The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, who has infuriated Washington by releasing details of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website, has protested his innocence over claims of sexual misconduct against two women.

"The hearing Tuesday is to ensure that the real issues in the case are identified and that preparation of the case is progressing in a timely fashion," said a spokesman for Britain's courts service. It will also decide elements of the legal process, such as which documents the prosecutors and defense lawyers should provide and whether any witnesses should be called up. British police arrested Assange last month on a European warrant issued by Sweden following allegations made by two WikiLeaks' volunteers.

("I am with WikiLeaks")

Global: Media Blitz to support Wikileaks
Date and time: Tuesday, January 11 · 10:30h - 13:30h
Details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120437981357342

Global: Wikileaks Flash Mob Event
Date and time: Wednesday, January 12 · 15:30h - 17:00h
Details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112718522134191

Global: Global Protest
Date and time: Saturday 15 January 2011, 18:00h
Details: http://freewikileaks.eu/en/protests/

Global: Anonymous in defense of WikiLeaks and freedom of expression
Date and time: Saturday 15 January 2011
Details: http://www.whyweprotest.net/en/
Event Information: http://forums.whyweprotest.net/forums/planning.283/

Global: Global WikiLeaks Support Rally
Date and time: Saturday 5 February 2011, 15:00h local time
Details: http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiLeaks-Supporters-United-global-Support...

Global: Freedom of Information Rally
Date and time: Third Saturdays Every Month
Location: Earth, Everywhere
Details: http://www.whyweprotest.net/en/
Event Information: http://forums.whyweprotest.net/forums/planning.283/

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In an extraordinary statement while flying to China for a three-day visit last Sunday, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates warned Beijing not to underestimate the United States and its military power.

“I’ve watched this sort of cyclical view of American decline come around two or three times, perhaps most dramatically in the latter half of the 1970s,” Gates told reporters. “And my general line for those both at home and around the world who think the US is in decline is that history’s dustbins are filled with countries that underestimated the resilience of the United States.”

Gates was responding to a journalist’s suggestion that China now viewed the US as a declining power. Gates’s reply was clearly aimed not only at Beijing, but at any country seeking to develop closer political and military ties with China. He was also putting paid to any conception that Washington would peacefully cede its dominant position in the Asia-Pacific region to Beijing. Far from accepting China’s rise, Washington is aggressively seeking to undermine Beijing’s influence in Asia.

BBC: China conducts first test-flight of stealth plane

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon denounced Israel for demolishing Shepherd hotel, the house of late grand mufti of the holy city Amin Al-Husseini, in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem.

A spokesman for Ki-moon said on Monday that the UN secretary-general condemns Israel's destruction of Shepherd hotel in east Jerusalem and warned that such acts would escalate tensions between Palestinians and Israelis. Spokesman Martin Nesirky added that it is very unfortunate that the growing international concern over Israel's illegal settlement expansion is disregarded. For his part, Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, deplored what happened to the hotel, saying that Israel's black dreams about Judaizing Jerusalem and building its alleged temple on the ruins of the Aqsa Mosque would never come true. Israel's demolition of this historical hotel was also slammed by Palestinian minister of tourism and antiquities Mohamed Al-Agha who described the act as a dangerous precedent and a flagrant assault on one of the most important historical landmarks in Jerusalem.

PressTV: Analyst: Resistance only way to stop Israel
Alternative Information Center:
PA: By Demolishing Shepherd’s Hotel, Israel Ended US Efforts to Renew Peace Talks
Israel Demolishes Wing of Hotel in East Jerusalem for Settlement Construction