The United Nation says the number of civilian deaths in war-ravaged Afghanistan jumped to a record high of 2,777 in 2010, a 15 percent rise in civilian fatalities compared to 2009.

A spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that the overall figure was the highest annual death toll since the Taliban were ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001. The security situation has recently been at its worst since the US-led invasion. The US-led foreign forces have launched dozens of operations across the war-wrecked country over the past years. Thousands of Afghan people have so far lost their lives as a result of militants' bomb attacks and military operations by the foreign troops. Civilian deaths caused by coalition forces is a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan, and one that came under the spotlight again last week when US-led forces killed nine children in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was probing the civilian casualties after its troops carried out the aerial attack on the children while the nine were collecting firewood. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings and US President Barack Obama apologized for the incident. Afghan officials, including Hamid Karzai, have repeatedly condemned and called for an end to foreign troops' attacks on Afghan civilians. The surge in violence comes despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops, which are engaged in the so-called war on terrorism. The war in Afghanistan, with civilian and military casualties at record highs, has become the longest war in US history. [More images HERE & HERE]

Raw Story: Afghan civilian deaths hit new high

Though Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak termed the pro-democracy revolutions in the region “a movement in the right direction,” that apparently doesn’t mean that they can’t be used as an excuse to press for massive additional military aid. Indeed, that is exactly what the Israeli government intends to do, as Barak insisted that a democratic Middle East would make the massive US military aid funding to Israel “more essential” and that they need an additional $20 billion, on top of the $3+ billion they already get annually, so the nation can increase the size of its military in the wake of all this freedom. In fact Barak suggested that making Israel’s military even more massive would “stabilize” the region, which he implied had something to do with Iran, which of course Israel is constantly threatening to attack. Though traditionally Israeli demands for insanely large sums of money are met with instant and near unanimous Congressional votes of approval, the massive budget deficit has made all spending increases at least somewhat controversial, and with some calls already existing to cut the foreign aid budget, the call to give Israel an extra 7 years worth, apparently for no other reason than to make them feel better about Egyptian freedom, may be less easy than normal.

People living in England enjoy better health than Americans, despite less investment in healthcare, research published in the US has revealed. Across all ages, US residents tend to fare worse in terms of diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease markers, data on over 100,000 people show. The reason remains a mystery, says the US team, and challenges the idea that resources necessarily improve health. It may be due to the UK's bigger drive on disease prevention, they say.Despite the greater use of health care technology in the US, Americans receive less preventive health care than their English counterparts. They have fewer physician consultations per year. Acute hospital visits are also shorter in the US, potentially resulting in missed opportunities for follow-up, say the report authors in the American Journal of Epidemiology. It is also possible that differences in social or environmental conditions or lifestyle play a role.

Greek officials say Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's plane has crossed Greece en route to Egypt, as the bloody anti-government revolution in the country continues. This comes as the revolutionary forces in crisis-hit Libya, the Libyan National Council, have given Gaddafi 72 hours to quit and leave the North African country as he remains defiant and orders his forces to escalate their attacks on the civilians. The ultimatum report comes as Libyan forces loyal to Gaddafi, using tanks, rockets and warplanes, are stepping up a campaign to root out revolutionaries while most of the eastern cities have fallen in control of oppositions. On Wednesday morning, beleaguered Gaddafi said that he will not quit, describing members of the opposition National Libyan Council as traitors.

PressTV: Gaddafi given 72 hours ultimatum
Herald Sun: Gaddafi official arrives in Cairo

Any no-fly zone over Libya must have international backing and not be a U.S.-led effort, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday. "We want to see the international community support it," she told Sky News when asked about a no-fly zone over Libya.

"I think it's very important that this not be a U.S.-led effort because this comes from the people of Libya themselves. This doesn't come from the outside, this doesn't come from some Western power or some Gulf country saying 'This is what you should do'," she said.

NYT: Qaddafi Says He Would Fight Against a No-Flight Zone
The Guardian: Gaddafi threatens armed resistance against no-fly zone

I'm not sure what "LessGovernment" has to do with Al Jazeera, but Judge Napolitano and Glenn Beck's bookers took the opportunity to let their spokesmouth, Seton Motley (yes, that IS his name), come on and "analyze" them after Hillary Clinton's remarks and praise of their broadcasts. Mr. Motley starts out with some incoherence about campaigning in prose and broadcasting in Arabic before launching into an indictment of Hillary Clinton as a "leftist" who likes "leftist reporting". Oh, and then there's that thing about how Al Jazeera is no different than any US mainstream outlet because they all bash the Tea Party.

Today, with the signature of Governor Pat Quinn, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty, and the third state to do it in four years. The Governor also commuted the sentences of the 15 men currently residing on Illinois’ death row. In addition to Governor Quinn, State Senator Kwame Raoul and State Representative Karen Yarbrough were key players in making death penalty abolition a reality in Illinois. Please take a moment to thank them for their leadership.

No state has made a greater effort to “fix” their broken death penalty than Illinois. A ten year moratorium on executions was established in January 2000, and since then various commissions and studies have attempted to grapple with the challenge of imposing an irreversible punishment in an error-prone system. After over a decade of trying, Illinois politicians came to the conclusion that it simply cannot be done – that capital punishment in Illinois is beyond repair. The system will always be prone to error, and the punishment of death will always be irreversible.

Chicago Breaking News: Quinn signs death penalty ban, clears Death Row

Nine people, including property tycoons Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, were arrested on Wednesday over the collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing. More than 130 police swooped on two business properties and eight residential addresses in a series of dawn raids, arresting seven men aged between 42 to 54. They are now being interviewed at police stations in central London. Two further arrests were made in Reykjavik. It is understood that Armann Thorvaldsson, the head of the UK arm of Kaupthing, and former executive chairman and chief executive Sigurdur Einarsson have also been arrested along with the Tchenguiz brothers - who are two of Britain's most high-profile property entrepreneurs. Sigurdur Einarsson was last year named as a wanted man by Interpol. Two years ago Armann Thorvaldsson published a book, called Frozen Assets, billed as: "How one man, one bank and one country experienced and affected the course of world economic history." The Serious Fraud Office has been investigating the collapse of Kaupthing since last year, amid allegation market manipulation in the run-up to the financial crisis.

Ynet reported yesterday , that in a BBC global poll gauging attitudes towards various countries worldwide, Israel came pretty much at the bottom -- There were just three countries less popular than the Jewish State – Pakistan, North Korea and Iran.

The Israelis must find it hard to accept that their state is one of the least popular countries in the world. Seemingly, Zionism -- that presented itself as a promise to bring about a civilised and lovable Jewish state -- has totally failed.

In spite of relentless Hasbara efforts and the Jewish lobbies around the world, the penny has dropped -- People out there see Israel for what it is : Just 21% of those polled wordlwide expressed a positive opinion of Israel. I guess that the message is clear -- the solidarity with the Palestinians is about to become a tidal wave. Palestinian solidarity is the true meaning of humanism. We are now a mass movement that is becoming increasingly aware of itself as such. [Cartoon © Pat Oliphant]