Iraq has condemned a visiting US lawmaker's suggestion that Baghdad should repay billions of dollars Washington has spent on the war since 2003.

US Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher arrived in the Iraqi capital on Friday for a one-day visit to Iraq along with five other congressmen. Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesperson, on Friday labeled Rohrabacher's comments “irresponsible,” saying that he is “not welcome” in the country, Reuters reported.

Jason Ditz: Iraqi Officials: US Congressional Delegation ‘Not Welcome’

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned the Israeli forces' killing of pro-Palestinian protesters in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Naksa Day, June 5, 2011.

The rights group said on its website on Friday that Israeli soldiers once again used unnecessary lethal force against protesters who posed no imminent threat to them. Some witnesses have informed HRW that Israeli troops entered Quneitra and the Druze town of Majdal Shams in Syria from the occupied Golan Heights, and then began targeting protesters. Many demonstrators were shot dead by live ammunition, before Israeli forces even began firing tear gas at them, eyewitnesses told the rights group. Over 20 protesters were killed and some 325 others were injured in the Israeli attack, medics told the Associated Press. "Israeli forces quickly resorted to live fire against protesters who entered the demilitarized area … The protesters never posed an imminent threat," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

Chris Floyd: The Impossible Distance: A Choice to Kill

Many have asked for it, so here it is: the full list of gentlemen (and ladies) attending this year's Bilderberg conference. Some wonder if like in previous years, when following the group's 2009 and 2010 meetings in Greece and Spain, the host countries have subsequently had to deal with some sad episodes of sovereign insolvency, if 2011 host Switzerland, despite its ironclad Swiss National Bank (except for all those dollars on the balance sheet of course) may be next...Venue location: Suvretta House, St. Moritz.

Wikipedia: Bilderberg Group - The Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 140 guests, most of whom are people of influence in the fields of politics, banking, business, the military and news media. The names of attendees are made available to the press, but the conferences are closed to the public and the media, and no press releases are issued.

Syrian helicopter gunships fired machineguns to disperse pro-democracy protests, witnesses said, in the first reported use of air power to quell unrest in Syria's increasingly bloody three-month-old uprising. The use of the aircraft came on a day of nationwide rallies against President Bashar al-Assad, as unrest showed no sign of abating despite the harsh crackdown by his authoritarian state.

Barry Grey: Syria slides toward civil war

Responding to a recent report from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization condemning Anonymous, the online "hacktivist" group has issued a public response warning the global organization not to challenge it.

Claiming that the NATO report singled it out as a threat to "government and the people," Anonymous defended some of its recent actions in the name of freedom and dissent. In its message (Google cached version), it also asserted that NATO fears the group not because it's a "threat to society," but because it's a "threat to the established hierarchy." Issued last month by Lord Joplin, general rapporteur of NATO, the report warned member nations about the rising threat of "hacktivism," or carrying out cyberattacks for political purposes. Singling out Anonymous, NATO described several of the group's most recent actions, including the distributed denial-of-service attacks against MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Amazon, and others that had cut off services for WikiLeaks.

Swiss banks to pay billions of dollars in fines and hand over account info of thousands of wealthy tax evaders to US.

The United States and Switzerland are in advanced talks on a multibillion-dollar deal that would let several Swiss and European banks join a common settlement and avoid potential U.S. prosecution for helping wealthy Americans dodge taxes, senior persons briefed on the matter said. As part of the agreement under discussion, known as a global resolution, U.S. government agencies would invite the banks to pay a fine, exit their undeclared offshore banking businesses for Americans, and turn over client names to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Justice Department. In exchange, the agencies would drop an ongoing investigation into the banks.