26-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz of Egypt recorded this video on January 18th, uploaded it to YouTube, and shared it on her Facebook. Within days, the video went viral within Egypt and beyond. This ..is a GREAT WOMAN! Meet Asmaa Mahfouz.. the one who helped spark the revolution in Egypt! May God protect her and her family. The original version of the video is HERE.

US-led forces have killed four civilians, including a woman, in northern Afghanistan when they bombed their house in the war-ravaged country, a top government official says. According to the source, the US-led NATO forces carried out the attacks against the Afghan civilians in Badghis province on Saturday, leaving the civilians dead, a Press TV correspondent reported. US-led coalition forces and NATO troops in Afghanistan have been frequently criticized for the increase in civilian casualties caused by their military operations in the war-torn country. More than 2,000 civilians lost their lives in violence across Afghanistan in 2010.

A 48-year-old Afghan citizen and Guantanamo detainee, Awal Gul, died on Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. Gul, a father of 18 children, had been kept in a cage by the U.S. for more than 9 years -- since late 2001 when he was abducted in Afghanistan -- without ever having been charged with a crime. While the U.S. claims he was a Taliban commander, Gul has long insisted that he quit the Taliban a year before the 9/11 attack because, as his lawyer put it, "he was disgusted by the Taliban's growing penchant for corruption and abuse." His death means those conflicting claims will never be resolved; said his lawyer: "it is shame that the government will finally fly him home not in handcuffs and a hood, but in a casket." This episode illustrates that the U.S. Government's detention policy -- still -- amounts to imposing life sentences on people without bothering to prove they did anything wrong.

The kid was probably angry because his friend was shot, so he walked up to the police, he showed them he had no weapons on him, but they still shot him anyways when he was leaving. [Footage of same incident HERE, HERE and HERE]

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is a good friend and U.S. ally, but declined to predict whether the embattled leader would heed protesters' calls to step down. Cheney made the comments Saturday night at a ceremony honoring former President Ronald Reagan in Santa Barbara, California. Protesters have pledged to stay on the streets of Egyptian cities until Hosni Mubarak relinquishes power. Mubarak, who has led the north African nation for three decades, has said he will stay in power until September, and will not run for re-election. Cheney said the Egyptian leader should be treated with respect.

AJC: Cheney calls Mubarak a good friend, US ally

Former President George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish charity gala, due to the risk of legal action against him for "alleged" torture, rights groups said on Saturday. Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country. Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say. Human rights groups said they had intended to submit a 2,500-page case against Bush in the Swiss city on Monday for alleged mistreatment of suspected militants at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval base in Cuba where captives from Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts in the so-called War on Terror were interned.

Raw Story: Bush ducks Swiss trip over torture complaint

The coverage of Egyptian uprising in the TV Channels across US have been criticised for being both pessimistic and superficial. Since the pro-democracy protests began, the mainstream American media has focused sharply on what it all means for the U.S. and its allies in the region.

LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears in a British court on Monday to fight his extradition to Sweden, with leaked details shedding new light on the rape and molestation accusations he faces. The two-day hearing at a high security London court will examine a Swedish arrest warrant for the 39-year-old Australian, who won worldwide notoriety for his website's release of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables. Celebrity backers including socialite Jemima Khan will also lead rallies in London on Monday for Assange, who insists that sex assault claims made against the former computer hacker by two Swedish women are politically motivated.

The judge is expected to defer his decision in the case at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in south London. If the ruling goes against Assange he will be able to appeal the decision all the way to England's supreme court. His lawyers argue that if Assange is extradited to Sweden, he runs the risk of extradition or even illegal rendition to the United States where they say he could face the death penalty.

The true scale of the theft of overseas aid money by corrupt foreign regimes is disclosed in leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph. Tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been pocketed by their ministers and officials, much of it used to buy luxury goods. In one of the worst cases, £1.2million given to Sierra Leone by the Department for International Development (DfID) to “support peacekeeping” was stolen by the country’s “top brass” and spent on plasma television sets, hunting rifles and other consumer items. Other examples include £16.5million allegedly stolen by ministers in Uganda and £800,000 intended for schools in Kenya stolen by education ministers. DfID is said to be fully aware of the thefts, but regards the losses as being “within reason”. Details of the embezzlement will reopen the debate over the Government’s decision to increase DfID’s £7.3billion budget at a time of cuts. In August, 2009, a secret cable from the US embassy in Freetown reported “deep corruption” within Sierra Leone’s defence ministry, “primarily through pocketing of enlisted members’ salaries”.

Nearly 400 wild buffalo from Yellowstone national park in Montana face cull amid fears of disease outbreak. Hundreds of buffalo from America's last great remaining wild herd could be sent for slaughter after being driven from Yellowstone national park by high snow and harsh temperatures, conservationists warned today. Nearly 400 buffalo have been captured and penned on the northern boundaries of the park after wandering in search of food during an unusually severe winter. Authorities were testing the animals for exposure to brucellosis, a disease that can cause pregnant cattle to abort. Those that test positive will be sent for slaughter under a controversial programme intended to protect Montana's cattle industry.

"It's a nightmare that is going on here," said Jeff Welsch, a spokesman for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. "One third of the herd was slaughtered under the same scenario in the winter of 2007-2008, and now we are going back to a similar situation."