Israel's minister for strategic affairs says "the world" must take joint action to halt Iran's nuclear activities, including a pre-emptive strike if necessary.

Moshe Ya'alon called on "the world" to realize what he called “nuclear threat posed by Iran” and noted that it could become to conduct a “pre-emptive strike” on the Islamic Republic. The former chief of staff of the Israeli army made the remarks on Monday, ahead of a visit to Moscow. The International Atomic Energy Agency has maintained in all its reports that there has been no diversion of nuclear material in Iran. Iran has stressed that its nuclear program [unlike Israel's] is purely aimed at civilian purposes, including electricity generation and medical research.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Serbia extradited Ratko Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Tuesday where he will stand trial for genocide, 16 years after he was charged by the court for the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the worst massacre of civilians in Europe since World War II.

A Serbian government jet carrying the Bosnian Serb wartime military commander landed in Rotterdam and pulled into a hangar, out of view of reporters and live television cameras. A Dutch police helicopter stood just outside the hangar's entrance, and police vehicles also pulled up near by. The government plane touched down at Rotterdam airport hours after judges in Belgrade rejected his appeal to delay his extradition on grounds of ill health, and the Serbian justice minister authorized his handover to U.N. officials in The Hague. Mladic was being taken to the U.N. detention unit near The Hague to undergo a formal identification process. Within a few days he will be brought before a U.N. judge for a preliminary hearing. In Belgrade, Justice Minister Snezana Malovic said the handover marked the fulfillment of Serbia's "international and moral obligation."

Christian Science Monitor: Ratko Mladic's arrival at Hague bolsters promise of international courts

Police are using CCTV images taken on university and college campuses, sometimes with the collusion of university authorities, to "spy" on student demonstrators as young as 16, it was claimed yesterday.

University lecturers are demanding an independent investigation into the "over zealous" use of surveillance techniques against students during the policing of demonstrations against fees rises and public spending cuts. A motion tabled for the University and College Union's (UCU) conference this weekend condemns what it terms attempts to "criminalise protest" through "state surveillance of higher education and further education institutions for elicting intelligence regarding protest activities".

Scenes From THE WALL followed by discussion from Tali Atzmon on Vimeo.

Scenes from THE WALL followed by a short discussion featuring: Play writer Douglas Watkinson, producer Lesley Watkinson, Lauren Booth and Gilad Atzmon. You must check it out. It plays until Monday 6 June 2011.

New End Theatre (in Hampstead North London)
Tuesday to Saturday at 8:30pm
Saturday & Sunday at 4:45pm
Tickets: £16 (Concs £14)
To Book: The box office number is 0870 033 2733 (from within the UK) and 0044 870 033 2733 (from outside UK). The theatre's website is at www.newendtheatre.co.uk)

Gilad Atzmon: THE WALL a play by Douglas Watkinson – reviewed by Gilad Atzmon

Germany on Monday held crisis talks amid reports that at least 14 people have died and hundreds are ill in an outbreak of a highly virulent strain of bacteria found on imported cucumbers.

Belgium and Russia banned the import of vegetables from Spain, believed to be the source of at least some of the contaminated cucumbers. Madrid shot back saying it would seek financial compensation from the European Union for lost sales. More than two weeks after the food poisoning outbreak was first reported in northern Germany, the number of confirmed and suspected cases has reached 1,200, according to media reports. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease institute, said three deaths have been officially linked to the bacteria, but "in total about a dozen people have died according to regional authorities". These authorities later Monday announced two more deaths: a woman of 50 and a man of 75 -- bringing the toll to at least 14.

Die Blutspur der NATO in Afghanistan wird breiter, in der dortigen Bevölkerung wachsen Wut und Empörung: Bei Luftangriffen der Kriegsallianz sind in den vergangenen Tagen nach örtlichen Behördenangaben mehr als 30 Zivilisten und 20 Polizisten ums Leben gekommen. Bei einer Attacke in der südafghanischen Provinz Helmand starben am Samstag 14 Zivilisten, zwölf Kinder und zwei Frauen, erklärte das Büro des Gouverneurs der Provinz am Sonntag. Am selben Tag teilte der Gouverneuer der nordöstlichen Provinz Nuristan mit, daß bereits am 25.Mai 18 Zivilisten sowie 20 Polizisten von ­NATO-Einheiten getötet worden waren.

Angesichts des Aufruhrs in der Bevölkerung wies der afghanische Präsident Hamid Karsai das Kabuler Verteidigungsministerium an, Angriffe ausländischer Truppen zu verhindern, die nicht mit dem Ressort koordiniert sind. Die illegalen nächtlichen Tötungsoperationen sollten nur von afghanischen Truppen durchgeführt werden. Am Sonntag bezeichnete Karsai die beiden Aktionen der NATO als »schlimmen Irrtum« und »Mord« und richtete »eine letzte Warnung« an die US-Streitkräfte im Land, ihre »einseitigen und unsinnigen Operationen« zu unterlassen: »Die Angriffe verletzen menschliche und moralische Werte, aber wir werden anscheinend nicht gehört.« Wegen der beiden Vorfälle brach er einen Besuch in Turkmenistan ab.

AWIP: NATO Strikes Kill 32 Afghan Civilians and 20 Police
AWIP: Afghanistan: NATO Airstrike Killed 14 Civilians

BERLIN: Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador on Tuesday after his country briefly closed its airspace to Chancellor Angela Merkel's plane, foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said.

"Hindering the German chancellor's passage over Iran is absolutely unacceptable. It shows a lack of respect towards Germany that we will not accept," Westerwelle said in a statement. "That is why I have summoned the Iranian ambassador. We shall make it very plain that such a breach of international conventions will in no way be tolerated by Germany," he added. Iran denied Merkel's plane flyover rights while en route to India overnight, her spokesman said.

Der Spiegel: Iran Temporarily Denies Merkel Overflight Rights

IRIB: Mindestens 11 Tote bei Nato-Luftangriff auf Westlibyen
AWIP: NATO airstrike kills 11 civilians in Libya
AWIP: Libya: Britain prepares 'bunker buster' bombs for assaults
Ljbc.net: Cuban Foreign Minister Deputy: Nato`s aggression on Libya "an international crime"
Bill Van Auken: NATO bombing of Tripoli kills 19 civilians, wounds 150

Turkish court has ordered the arrest of the highest-ranking active-duty military officer charged with plotting to overthrow the government.

War Academies Commander Gen. Bilgin Balanlı, who testified for three hours in front of the prosecutor before being sent to court and then testified in court for another four hours Monday, is the first active-duty top general arrested in connection with the alleged coup plans. Gen. Balanlı was arrested as a suspect in the ongoing “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) case, which is based on documents reportedly seized in February from a house that belonged to Col. Hakan Büyük. A member of the intelligence branch of the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, Col. Büyük has already been arrested on charges of plotting a military coup. The new evidence regarding the case, according to police reports, consists of written documents, video files and digital material on a flash disk, and includes plans to be put into action if the alleged coup attempt were to fail. Eight active-duty officers were released early Saturday after providing 12 hours of testimony in Istanbul on the same charges.

A 40-year-old Bangladeshi woman cut off the penis of a man she said was trying to rape her and brought it to the local authorities as evidence, the local police said Monday.

The incident took place in the Jhalakathi district, a remote area 120 miles south of the capital, Dhaka, AFP reported. Monju Begum, 40, a married mother of three, told police that her neighbor, Mozammel Haq Mazi, forced his way into her home and attacked her. Mazi has denied the allegations. Begum has filed an attempted rape case against Mazi, saying that the married father of five had been harassing her for six months. Mazi, who has been hospitalized, said that he had been having an affair with Begum but had refused her request to leave his wife and children and go to Dhaka with her, and that she had cut off his penis in anger, BBC reported. A surgeon at the hospital said it had not been possible to reattach the penis.The severed penis has been kept at the police station.

Dramatic footage filmed from a helicopter by Australia's Channel 7 shows a series of powerful waterspouts near the coastal suburb of Terrigal, on Australia's New South Wales coast. Several powerful columns of swirling air could be seen blasting along the water's surface near the coastline. Channel 7 claimed the spouts reached heights of up to 600 metres (nearly two thousand feet), but dissipated as they neared land. The natural wonders came as strong winds and heavy rain also lashed other parts of the state, causing flash flooding and traffic chaos in Sydney.

Australia Suspends Live Cattle Exports to Indonesia After Cruelty Exposed on Film, Which Shows Them Being Beaten, Whipped & Kicked Prior to Slaughter - '...it was taking 4 throat cuts to kill an animal instead of 1.'

The Federal Government is considering banning live animal exports to some countries after ABC TV broadcast disturbing footage of Australian cattle being mistreated in Indonesian abattoirs. Last night's Four Corners program featured footage of Australian cattle being beaten, whipped and kicked prior to slaughter in Indonesia. According to analysis of the footage by RSPCA chief scientist Bidda Jones, some animals show signs of possible consciousness when they are dismembered.

At least 100 individuals have reportedly been killed in southern Yemen as security forces clashed with protesters that were calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Protest organizers and opposition figures reported on Monday that Yemeni forces have killed at least 100 demonstrators in Taizz, according to wire and broadcast reports. The reports also indicate that government forces set protest camps at Freedom Square on fire as well, injuring scores of protesters in the process. Witnesses said Yemeni Republican Guard forces, backed by tanks, moved in during the early hours of Monday to disperse demonstrators at the square. Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for near daily demonstrations in Yemen's major cities since late January, calling for an end to corruption and unemployment as well as demanding the ouster of Saleh, who has been ruling the country since 1978. Observers believe that Saleh is trying to spread fear that Yemen will plunge into chaos without him.

In a humiliating display of servility, members of Congress in essence threw U.S. sovereignty out the window last week—and the verdict coming in from a good many American bloggers is one of hot anger. What took place in a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, May 24, was very similar in conduct to a coronation—of Benjamin Netanyahu as King of America—with the tone being set from the start by House Speaker John Boehner, who in his introduction referred to the Israeli prime minister as “His Excellency.”

This program is about the claims, when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the BBC is biased to Israelis. The edition of InFocus provides some examples as proof and raises the question whether the bias is an internal agenda or an external pressure. However, the BBC management dismisses the claim and says the network has always followed professionalism. Experts on this program say otherwise.

NATO warplanes have dropped bombs on a key Libyan town, killing at least eleven civilians and wounding several others, Libyan sources say.

Libya's state television said on Monday that the airstrike targeted Zlitan, west of the city of Misratah. NATO has conducted hundreds of sorties over Libya since it assumed control of a military campaign to impose a no-fly zone over the country and save civilian lives in late March. The US and NATO have unleashed a punishing, UN-mandated offensive against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to pressure him into giving up power. However, the airstrikes by the military alliance have killed dozens of civilians as well as revolutionary fighters.

Paveway bombs weighing 2,000lbs to be loaded onto RAF jets for possible strikes on Gaddafi command centres.

Paveway bombs, weighing 2,000lbs, the largest in the RAF's arsenal, have been dispatched to Gioia del Colle in southern Italy where RAF Tornado and Typhoon jets are based. While the Apache's cannon and Hellfire missiles are used against small or moving targets, the Paveway bombs are expected to be used against bunkers underneath the Gaddafi regime's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli and elsewhere.

Jason Ditz: NATO Threatens Further Escalations Amid Gadhafi Exit Talks

To mark the first anniversary of the arrest of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the alleged whistleblower responsible for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, the Guardian has produced a 19-minute film, “The madness of Bradley Manning?” telling his story, and including elements that have not been reported before.

Arrested in Kuwait on May 26, 2010, after computer hacker Adrian Lamo, with whom he had apparently been communicating about his activities downloading confidential material and handing it on to WikiLeaks, reported him to the FBI, Manning was held in solitary confinement in a military brig in Quantico, Virginia, for nine months from July 2010 to April 2011, when he was moved to Fort Leavenworth in Texas, where some social interaction is allowed.

The film is available [here], as are cross-posts of two Guardian stories published to accompany it, Bradley Manning: the bullied outsider who knew US military’s inner secrets and Bradley Manning: fellow soldier recalls ’scared, bullied kid’.

Scott Horton: Daniel Ellsberg: Bradley Manning is Not Guilty - AUDIO

This week the program marks the one year anniversary of Bradley Manning's arrest. Joining the weekly podcast is Kevin Zeese, who is a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee. In the past week, there were two documentaries (or films) that went public, which portrayed Bradley Manning. One was the PBS FRONTLINE documentary (which I had much to say about and even went on RT's "The Alyona Show" to discuss). Another was an investigative short film put together by The Guardian. Zeese addresses both of those.

At least 20 people have been killed in southern Yemen as security forces clashed with protesters that were calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Protest organizers reported on Monday that Yemeni forces have killed at least 20 demonstrators in Taizz, according to wire and broadcast reports. The reports also indicate that government forces set protest camps at Freedom Square on fire as well, injuring scores of protesters in the process. Witnesses said Yemeni Republican Guard forces, backed by tanks, moved in during the early hours of Monday to disperse demonstrators at the square. Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for near daily demonstrations in Yemen's major cities since late January, calling for an end to corruption and unemployment as well as demanding the ouster of Saleh, who has been ruling the country since 1978. Observers believe that Saleh is trying to spread fear that Yemen will plunge into chaos without him.

NATO air strikes have killed at least 52 Afghans over the past 24 hours, including 32 civilians and 20 members of the police. The deaths came in two strikes, one in the Helmand Province and another in Nuristan.

The Helmand strike, late Saturday, saw NATO attack helicopters destroy a pair of homes, killing 2 women and 12 children. The strikes also wounded six other civilians. Helmand’s governor’s office said the attack came after a nearby US Marine base was struck by insurgents.

The other strike came on Sunday, in the Nuristan Province. Here, US warplanes responded to reports of a battle between insurgents and security forces by opening fire on a group of people they assumed were insurgents. The people turned out to be a group of 18 civilians and 20 police.

The deaths, which Nuristan Governor Jamaluddin Badr termed “friendly fire,” came after the Taliban reportedly ran out of ammunition and fled the clashes in the district. NATO has promised to "investigate" both series killings.

PressTV: NATO vows longer stay in Afghanistan
Jason Ditz: As Karzai Issues ‘Last Warning,’ NATO Strikes Continue
Patrick O’Connor: Twelve children killed in another US massacre in Afghanistan

Germany's coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country's nuclear power plants phased out by 2022.

The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy. Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks. Chancellor Angela Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan. There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March's Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.

Der Spiegel: Germany to Phase Out Nuclear Power by 2022
NYT: Germany to Halt Nuclear Power Production by 2022
The Local (Sweden): Sweden critical of German nuclear decision

A senior Iranian military figure says US President Barack Obama is just a mouthpiece for the Zionists when he talks about Middle East issues.

“Obama is not a decision-maker and cannot have a say,” said Brigadier General Nasser Arasteh, the military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. The general said accusations that Iran is meddling in the internal of affairs of the regional countries are in fact the word of the Zionist lobby in the United States.

Desert Peace: THE FBI KNOWS WHO AIPAC IS ~~ WHY DON’T YOU MR. PRESIDENT?

North Korea is one of the most secretive countries in the world. Most images of life in this state that are released in the mainstream media display military exercises and grandiose parades. British photographer Charlie Crane traveled to Pyongyang, the capital city, and obtained permission to photograph daily life in North Korea. Despite being chaperoned by a guide, Crane was allowed to photograph passers-by during their daily routine -- a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary North Koreans. Crane says that the people living in this reclusive country are especially proud of the machinery manufactured in the state (watch out for the photo of a woman posing in front of a digger), and their buildings (the guide was especially excited about the shopping centers and sports arenas Crane photographed.)

More than 7,170 soldiers will deploy to Iraq beginning in mid-summer — despite a security agreement that requires U.S. forces to depart the country by Dec. 31. The deployments are part of the regular rotation of forces and will include a division headquarters of 775 soldiers and two brigade combat teams totaling 6,400 soldiers, according to a Defense Department announcement Tuesday. The soldiers will begin deploying in mid-summer and continue through the fall.