Several hundred people are feared to have drowned off Libya, after a boat carrying some 600 refugees trying to reach Europe broke up at sea on Friday.

The UN's refugee agency said 16 bodies, including two babies, had been found. UNCHR has said all ships using the Mediterranean should be ready to assist such vessels, as thousands continue to flee North Africa in inadequate boats. Nato has denied claims that its naval units left dozens of migrants to die aboard another boat in distress. It said it was unaware of the plight of the boat, which reportedly was adrift for more than two weeks. The Guardian newspaper said 61 of the 72 people on board the boat died of hunger or thirst, despite being spotted by a military helicopter and Nato ship.

LONDON: The head of the CIA has admitted that there was no live video footage of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound as further doubts emerged about the US version of events. Leon Panetta said there was a 25-minute blackout during which the live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off. A photograph issued by the White House appeared to show the President and his aides in the situation room watching the action as it unfolded. In fact they had little knowledge of what was happening for long periods.

Stephen Lendman: False Flags: An American Tradition
Larry Chin: The Growing Coverup: Osama and "The Big Lie"
Stephen Lendman: Media Lies and Misinformation on Bin Laden
Stephen Lendman: New Bin Laden Tapes Appear Fake Like Earlier Ones
Michael C. Ruppert: Osama and the Ghosts of September 11: "Proof that Obama is Lying"

Iran's intelligence minister says the country has reliable information that former head of the al-Qaeda terrorist group Osama bin Laden died of disease some time ago.

“We have accurate information that bin Laden died of illness some time ago,” Heidar Moslehi told reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting on Sunday. He questioned Washington's claim that bin Laden was killed by American troops in a hiding compound in Pakistan on May 1. “If the US military and intelligence apparatus have really arrested or killed bin Laden, why don't they show him (his dead body) why have they thrown his corpse into the sea?” Moslehi asked.

The U.S. government is interested in "accessing" al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s three widows and any intelligence material left behind at bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan compound, U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said on Sunday. His three widows and several children, who remained in the compound even after U.S. commandos killed bin Laden on May 2, are believed by the United States to now be in Pakistani army custody.

In an interview today with the Associated Press, Afghan War Commander General David Petraeus suggested that the death of Osama bin Laden would harm putative ties between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He estimated “between 50 and 100 al-Qaeda” members were in Afghanistan. At the same time, Petraeus said the death wouldn’t end the war, and fighting would continue with the massive Taliban insurgency. He also warned that other “transnational terror groups” might set up in Afghanistan.

The government is facing calls for an official apology after documents showed that Asian women were subjected to humiliating “virginity tests” when they tried to move to Britain in the late 1970s.

At least 80 women from India and Pakistan hoping to emigrate to Britain to marry were intimately examined by immigration staff to “check their marital status”, according to confidential Home Office files. The files show the practice was more common than previously thought. The technique was banned in February 1979 after a national newspaper revealed that a 35-year-old Indian woman was examined by a male doctor at Heathrow to check whether she was in fact a virgin. The Home Office initially denied that any internal examination had taken place. The woman was offered £500 “in recognition” of distress caused but there was no apology.

Refugees from Libya reach Lampedusa. A Nato ship failed
to rescue a boat in trouble – leaving 63 people on board to
die. Photograph: Francesco Malavolta/EPA

Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised.

Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned. A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted. All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days, we didn't know ourselves … everyone was either praying, or dying."

MANAMA, Bahrain — In the ancient Bahraini village of Aali, where some graves date to 2000 B.C., the Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque had stood for more than 400 years - one of the handsomest Shiite Muslim mosques in this small island nation in the Persian Gulf. Today, only bulldozer tracks remain. In Nwaidrat, where anti-government protests began Feb. 14, the Mo'men mosque had long been a center for the town's Shiite population - photos show it as a handsome, square building neatly painted in ochre, with white and green trim, and a short portico in dark gray forming the main entrance. Today, only the portico remains.

The president of Malawi has explained his decision to expel the British High Commissioner for the first time. Fergus Cochrane-Dyet was told to leave after he was quoted in a leaked cable as saying President Bingu wa Mutharika does not tolerate criticism. President Mutharika said he would not accept insults just because Britain was the country's largest aid donor. Britain ordered the acting High Commissioner of Malawi to leave the UK in response to the move last month. According to the diplomatic cable published by the local Weekend Nation newspaper last month, Mr Cochrane-Dyet described President Mutharika as "becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism". He said local civil society activists were afraid after a campaign of threatening phone calls and said the government was restricting the freedom of the media and minorities.

As well as ending the killing of bulls in the ring, voters in a referendum held on Saturday outlawed cockfighting and casino gambling. More controversially, President Rafael Correa won approval for new controls on the country’s media and financial sectors.

Voters backed all 10 constitutional reforms backed by the popular Mr Correa, who campaigned hard in favour of the new measures. Provisional results though from electoral authorities show the margin of victory was tighter than expected. The president’s opponents had claimed the referendum was the latest moves in his campaign since taking power in 2007 to strengthen the power of Ecuador’s executive. However, at a victory rally on Saturday night, Mr Correa called the result a victory for his “citizens’ revolution”, saying voters had not been scared off by a “ferocious opposition” and a corrupt press. “We have beaten them all,” he told supporters.

Panel event- 'Zionizm, Jewishness and Israel' from Tali Atzmon on Vimeo.

I am very proud to announce that our last week panel event is now online (see bellow). In spite of the pathetic attempts by Zionists and their Jewish ‘anti Zionist’ allies to crash the event, the panel was a great success. The room was packed. We explored some of the most complicated issues to do with current world affairs. Some of London Jewish activists broke away from their segregated 'Jews only cells' and marched with us. Interestingly enough, our detractors who promised to picket the event didn’t dare showing up. I believe that the panel was a crucial contribution to this movement and freedom of thought. I vow to do it again and again and again. I will keep you posted. (Uprooted Palestinians)

Israeli officials have criticized ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan for calling a possible attack on Iran "a stupid idea," saying he should not share his personal views with others.

In his first public appearance since leaving office in early January, Dagan publicly argued against an airstrike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Addressing the Hebrew University on Friday, he described the possibility of a future Israeli airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities as “the stupidest thing I have ever heard.” Dagan noted that any military strike may prompt a regional war and missile attacks from several fronts on Israel, adding that any attack on Iran would have no advantage for Tel Aviv. On Sunday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Dagan's statement was not correct, and that he should not have shared his personal thoughts with everyone, Ynetnews reported. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz also said that Dagan should have kept the remarks to himself.

AWIP: Former Mossad chief: Israel air strike on Iran 'stupidest thing I have ever heard'