Members of the lower house of the US Congress have criticized President Barack Obama for continuing the Libya war without gaining congressional approval, as required by the War Powers Act.

On Friday, the US House of Representatives adopted a “non-binding” resolution that criticized Obama for failing to provide a “compelling rationale” for the operation in the African country. Both Republicans and Democrats accused Obama of violating the Constitution by not consulting Congress, a Press TV correspondent reported late Friday. The resolution also demands answers from the president in the next 14 days on the operation's objective and its cost and says US ground forces must not be used in the Libyan conflict except to rescue US servicemen. Obama ordered airstrikes on Libya in March after a UN resolution and limited consultation with Congress, in line with the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

A Russian presidential envoy for Africa, Mikhail Margelov, said he would go to Libya's Benghazi on June 6 for talks with the Libyan opposition.

At a Group of Eight (G8) meeting in France last week, President Dmitry Medvedev said he expected Margelov, who also heads the foreign relations committee of the Russian upper house, to meet both with the Libyan opposition and authorities during his visit. "We value relations with Libya and the Libyan people," Margelov said. "The Russian president firmly supports sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Libya."

It's hard to imagine the damage over-fishing is wrecking on the oceans. The effects are literally invisible, hidden deep in the ocean. But there is data out there. And when you visualise it, the results are shocking.

This image shows the biomass of popularly-eaten fish in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1900 and in 2000. Popularly eaten fish include: bluefin tuna, cod, haddock, hake, halibut, herring, mackerel, pollock, salmon, sea trout, striped bass, sturgeon, turbot. Many of which are now vulnerable or endangered. Dr Villy Christensen and his colleagues at the University Of British Columbia used ecosystem models, underwater terrain maps, fish catch records and statistical analysis to render the biomass of Atlantic fish at various points this century (see the study)[.pdf]

5-28-11 at Sky Harbor International in Phoenix, AZ my mother was sexually assaulted which brought her to tears. Multiple TSA agents claimed to know my whole family (WELCOME TO 1984) TSA then threatened to steal my luggage because I left it unattended... rather because I was 10 feet from it. I was then threatened to have my ability to fly revoked by Southwest Airlines, NOT TSA. Southwest Airlines then threatened to have me arrested for filming the event, even though TSA, Southwest, and Phoenix Police couldn't provide me with the statute or law that claims I cannot film in a public area. Here is that event. Police- Protecting and Serving??? Why is TSA asking for my father's phone number and address at the end of this ordeal, to add us to a no-fly list or spy on us?

At least seven people were killed today when US drones attacked a home in South Waziristan Agency, firing three missiles into what was termed a “suspected militant hideout.” The identities of the slain were unknown.

Pakistani officials familiar with the strike termed all of the slain “suspects,” but as usual gave no indication what they were suspected off. US officials, also as usual, did not comment at all on the attack. Pakistan’s government has repeatedly demanded that the US stop its drone attacks against the tribal areas, the continuation of which have been a major part of the rising tensions between the two nations. The drone strikes have been hugely unpopular among Pakistanis, and reports coming out of the tribal areas suggest the attacks are largely conducted on the basis of faulty intelligence, which would explain why the vast, vast majority of the victims are random, unnamed tribesmen.

Sees Upcoming Fights in Iran, North Korea, and China.

Speaking today on National Public Radio (NPR), Secretary of Defense Robert Gates addressed soaring costs for the military, saying it is vital for them to get health care and other costs “under control” so they can continue to grow in the future. Gates also said that even though he “hopes” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will eventually wind down, the US military “has never been at a loss in being told to find things to do,” seeing a number of potential conflicts on the horizon. To that end Gates tapped three nations is likely targets for the ominous “things to do” list. Two were predictably Iran and North Korea, two nations he has often discussed attacking in public comments. The other was China.

Hackers claiming to be part of protest group "Anonymous" published on Friday over 10,000 internal emails from the Iranian government's ministry of foreign affairs, as part of an ongoing campaign against the authoritarian regime.

The emails were published to torrent file sharing website The Pirate Bay, along with usernames and passwords. Members also claimed they had taken control of the government's servers. In a chat with Raw Story, members of Anonymous on the #OpIran server said they were leading the charge because they want Iranians to know they're not alone in their struggle against the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They also pointed to a declaration of intent to attack the Iranian government, which they published to YouTube in February. Apart from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the hackers said they were targeting servers containing information about the Kahrizak detention center in Iran, a notorious site human rights campaigners have raised alarms about for years.

US payrolls grew by a paltry 54,000 in May and the official unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent, an increase of 0.3 percent since March, according to the monthly employment report released Friday by the Labor Department.

The dismal jobs data were in line with recent figures on home sales and prices, manufacturing, auto sales and consumer spending, all of which reflect a sharp slowdown in economic growth and portend a further increase in joblessness. Economists had forecast a net payroll job increase of about 170,000—itself considerably below April’s already inadequate figure of 232,000—and a drop in the unemployment rate from 9.0 percent in April to 8.9 percent. The payroll gain figure was less than a quarter of the 220,000 average increase over the previous three months and the lowest in eight months. Virtually every statistic in the Labor Department report indicated a worsening jobs situation and falling living standards for broad sections of the population. The total number of unemployed rose by 167,000 to 13.9 million, the highest so far this year. Long-term unemployment surged, with the number of jobless who are out of work for more than six months jumping by 361,000 to 6.2 million.