Upwards of 100,000 claims arising from the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may never be paid, the beleaguered administrator of the oil company's compensation fund has acknowledged. A defensive Ken Feinberg, under fire from the Obama administration, Gulf leaders and local business for the slow pace of payouts for losses due to the BP spill, said the vast majority of the 130,000 unsettled claims did not have adequate documentation. "Here is the problem that I continually have to address … roughly 80% of the claims that we now have in the queue lack proof," Feinberg told foreign reporters in Washington. "That is a huge number." Feinberg did not rule out settling claims in the future, but he added: "The claims that were denied had woeful, inadequate or no documentation to speak of."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is laying out plans to tackle "all eventualities" in the Libyan crisis in case the UN calls on it to intervene.

“I would like to stress that NATO does not have any intention to intervene. But as a defense alliance and security organization, we do prudent planning for all eventualities,” Xinhua news agency quoted NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as saying in Brussels on Thursday. The alliance chief noted that "That planning takes place within the framework of the UN Security Council resolution."

The US and its allies have on many occasions pushed through resolutions in the UN Security Council in efforts to intervene in different countries and regions of the world. Rasmussen also said that NATO officials "take note" of a request from the Libyan opposition to launch airstrikes against mercenaries hired by Muammar Gaddafi. On Wednesday, Gaddafi warned of a "bloodbath" and a "very long war" in Libya if the West decides to take direct military action against his regime.

Antiwar: US Preparing for Possible Libya Invasion

The U.S. Army yesterday announced that it has filed 22 additional charges against Bradley Manning, the Private accused of being the source for hundreds of thousands of documents (as well as this still-striking video) published over the last year by WikiLeaks. Most of the charges add little to the ones already filed, but the most serious new charge is for "aiding the enemy," a capital offense under Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Although military prosecutors stated that they intend to seek life imprisonment rather than the death penalty for this alleged crime, the military tribunal is still empowered to sentence Manning to death if convicted.

Article 104 -- which, like all provisions of the UCMJ, applies only to members of the military -- is incredibly broad. Under 104(b) -- almost certainly the provision to be applied -- a person is guilty if he "gives intelligence to or communicates or corresponds with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either directly or indirectly" (emphasis added), and, if convicted, "shall suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial or military commission may direct." The charge sheet filed by the Army is quite vague and neither indicates what specifically Manning did to violate this provision nor the identity of the "enemy" to whom he is alleged to have given intelligence. There are, as international law professor Kevin Jon Heller notes, only two possibilities, and both are disturbing in their own way.

Antiwar: Manning Faces 22 New Charges Over Leaks
Daily Mail: Bradley Manning faces death penalty after Army charges him with 'aiding the enemy'

Global food prices have reached their highest point in 20 years and could increase further because of rising oil prices stemming from unrest in Libya and the Middle East, a UN agency has warned. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement on Thursday that its food price index was up 2.2 per cent last month, the highest record in both real, inflation-corrected terms and nominal terms since the agency started monitoring prices two decades ago. It is the eighth consecutive month that food prices have risen, the Rome-based agency said. The increase was driven mostly by higher prices of cereals, meat and dairy products, the FAO said. Sugar was the only commodity of the groups being monitored whose price had not risen. Oxfam International, a UK-based aid group, called the rise "deeply worrying".

Court Rules CIA Killer Raymond Davis Has No Immunity - Thursday's decision is at least a temporary blow to the US, which insists Davis was considered a diplomat and was acting in self-defence against the dead men, whom he called robbers. A Pakistani court has said a CIA contractor facing trial over the fatal shooting of two men does not have diplomatic immunity. The court in the eastern city of Lahore also adjourned hearing of the case where Raymond Davis, 36, is being tried until March 8.

Thursday's decision is at least a temporary blow to the US, which insists Davis was considered a diplomat and was acting in self-defence against the dead men, whom he called robbers. The US had retained a retired judge, Zahid Hussain Bokhari, who is also a former government prosecutor, to help with the Davis case. The issue of immunity is also being considered by the Lahore high court, which could override the trial court's decision. Asad Manzoor Butt, a lawyer for the families of the two men, said: "The court adjourned the hearing until March 8 because Mr Bokhari [the retired judge] said he needs time to complete papers for the case." The case has further inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and is testing the often-strained ties between the allies.

Hillary Clinton Says Al Jazeera Is Putting American Media To Shame. Hillary Clinton was defending her department budget in front of the U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities committee this morning on C-Span. She says a major reason the State Department needs money is because "we are in an information war and we are losing that war."

Clinton [now wants a Propagandaministerium and] said private media is not good enough to handle the job: "Our private media cannot fill that gap. Our private media, particularly cultural programming often works at counter purposes to what we truly are as Americans. I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling."

Meanwhile she says Al-Jazeera, CCTV and Russia Today are killing it:

"Al Jazeera is winning. The Chinese have opened up a global English language and multi-language television network, the Russians have opened up an English language network. I've seen it in a couple of countries and it's quite instructive."

Judge for yourself...

You Tube: Crazy israeli settler attack pacifists at Jerusalem

(H/T: Desert Peace) Peace? What a wonderful idea ….. with whom? The Palestinians who simply want Justice and a land for their people, or with these Occidental zionists that will never allow it to happen. Perhaps they should return to the streets of Brooklyn as was suggested last year. Those sentiments cost Helen Thomas her job, but they could lead to a Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East.