GENEVA (Reuters) – An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people have been killed on both sides in four months of fighting in Libya, according to Cherif Bassiouni, who led a U.N. Human Rights Council mission to Tripoli and rebel-held areas in late April.

His panel found evidence of war crimes by Gaddafi forces, including attacks on civilians, aid workers, and medical units. Aircraft, tanks, artillery, Grad rockets, snipers were used. It also found some evidence of crimes by opposition forces. Libya has denied the charges and accused rebels of butchery and cannibalism.

After Months of Denials, NATO Confirms It Will Try to Kill Gadhafi

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, a top NATO official confirmed that the alliance considers Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi a “legitimate target.” Officials had previously denied targeting Gadhafi and were vague about whether or not he might be targeted in the future. But of course, after the past two months of escalations, NATO has destroyed virtually all of Gadhafi’s compound as well as assassinating one of his sons and several grandchildren in their home. NATO denied targeting residences.

Speaking today at the US Senate, incoming Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta insisted that Iraq was already preparing to request the continuation of the US occupation beyond the end of 2011. He insisted the Iraqi government would submit a request soon. Such a “request” would be the culmination of months of US demands for such a request, which would allow them to continue the military presence beyond the 2011 deadline of the Status of Forces Agreement.

And Panetta appears to see no shortage of enemies to fight, claiming there are upwards of 1,000 al-Qaeda inside Iraq. He offered no evidence to back up this claim, but the figure likely refers to all militant figures within the Sunni umbrella organization in the country, not literal members of al-Qaeda itself.

On the occasion of the Human Rights Day, which also marks the 62nd Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Al-Haq is pleased to launch its short documentary film entitled “Beyond Words: Palestinian Voices in Search of Justice”. Through this documentary, Al-Haq is giving voice to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Their stories are but an example of the human rights violations committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on a daily basis and remain unpunished.

PCHR: Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in Occupied Palestine

No presidential statement, no congressional resolution, no mainstream media coverage, no surprise. June 8 is the 44th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty and as usual there's a few who remember and care and who try to keep the memory alive. From the less well known Manitq al-Tayr, NTS, and Jody to some more 'prominent' bloggers such as Eileen Fleming and Paul Craig Roberts, the word is being told. A few opinion pieces on the Liberty get buried in the Gannett chain of propaganda such as here and here but no major media front page remembrances are to be found. The Jerusalem Post has an article but they still spin the "it was a mistake" angle and only those with anti-Israel sentiments bring up that poor little Israel would have done such a thing deliberately. Silence on any subject of importance means complicity. It is not an acceptable option. It is part of our undoing.

Paul Craig Roberts: USS Liberty: Government Betrayal and Cover-up Finally Exposed

More than 300 Tibetan monks have disappeared after being rounded up by Chinese security forces at a monastery for "re-education."

China on Thursday defended its treatment of Tibetan monks it says are undergoing "re-education", responding to a U.N. inquiry about what exiled Tibetans have called the forced disappearance of hundreds of monks. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the monks had not been detained illegally, and urged U.N. human rights investigators to act without prejudice.

Significant advance in battery architecture could be breakthrough for electric vehicles and grid storage.

A radically new approach to the design of batteries, developed by researchers at MIT, could provide a lightweight and inexpensive alternative to existing batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid. The technology could even make “refueling” such batteries as quick and easy as pumping gas into a conventional car. The new battery relies on an innovative architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a carrier liquid and pumped through the system. In this design, the battery’s active components — the positive and negative electrodes, or cathodes and anodes — are composed of particles suspended in a liquid electrolyte. These two different suspensions are pumped through systems separated by a filter, such as a thin porous membrane.

One important characteristic of the new design is that it separates the two functions of the battery — storing energy until it is needed, and discharging that energy when it needs to be used — into separate physical structures. (In conventional batteries, the storage and discharge both take place in the same structure.) Separating these functions means that batteries can be designed more efficiently.

Federal prosecutors will withdraw key documents from their case against a former National Security Agency manager charged with mishandling classified material, a move that experts say could signal the unraveling of one of the Obama administration’s most prominent efforts to punish accused leakers.

Prosecutors informed U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett this week that they would withhold documents they had planned to introduce as evidence to keep from disclosing sensitive technology. Former NSA executive Thomas A. Drake is charged with unlawfully retaining classified information at a time when he was in touch with a Baltimore Sun reporter who later chronicled mismanagement at the agency.

Raw Story: NSA whistle-blower Thomas Drake to plead guilty in plea deal
G.A.P.: Over 4,100 Citizens Stand Up for Tom Drake

It appears that one of the media's major "Middle East experts," Jeffrey Goldberg, is a member of the Israeli military. If so, news outlets should identify him as such whenever he speaks or is cited in reports or analyses -- which is often.

[Goldberg] is all over the media as a Middle East commentator – CNN, CBS, the Washington Post, New Yorker, Atlantic (his current post) -- you name it, he’s there. In addition, numerous reporters, columnists, etc, cite him in pieces on Israel-Palestine. He is the journalist who, by happenstance, wrote the Washington Post’s review (i.e. hatchet job) of Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. He also smeared Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s book The Israel Lobby. Today, Goldberg comments on the Gaza situation and, as usual, he gives many of the Israeli talking points.

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