American Jew harassed and then arrested in Jerusalem. - For what??? [H/T: Desert Peace]

BOSTON (Reuters) – A mountain lion was killed just 70 miles from New York City early on Saturday morning, and officials were trying to determine if it was the same big cat spotted a week ago roaming the posh suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut.

The 140-pound mountain lion was hit by a small SUV on a highway in Milford, Connecticut, early Saturday morning, and died from its injuries. The driver was unhurt, officials said. With no native mountain lion population in the state, "it's possible and even likely" it is the same enormous cat with a long tail spotted last weekend in the New York City suburb some 30 miles away, said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Dennis Schain. The large cat was transferred to a state environmental facility where authorities will use the photos, paw prints and other evidence collected near the three Greenwich sightings to determine if it is the same animal. Traveling between the two cities would be a jog for this large cat known to roam extensively, even up to a couple hundred miles in a day, said Schain. The eastern mountain lion was officially declared extinct earlier this year, prompting authorities to suspect the animal spotted in the urban jungle of the New York City metropolitan area, had either escaped or was released from captivity. The closest confirmed population of mountain lions is in Missouri, half way across the country.

More Libyan civilians have reportedly been killed and injured after a NATO airstrike hit a university in the capital, Tripoli.

New images have emerged showing the aftermath of an alleged NATO air raid targeting Tripoli's Nasser University. The attack reportedly left many university staff and students dead. Libyan state television says dozens of others were also injured. The UN Security Council Resolution 1973 has authorized the enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians against forces loyal to Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. NATO has carried out many airstrikes in accordance with the UN mandate. However, many civilians have been killed in the attacks. Meanwhile, clashes between revolutionary forces and Gaddafi loyalists intensified on Sunday. At least seven people were killed in the town of Dafniya, near the besieged city of Misratah, Khaled Abu Falgha of Misrata's Hekma hospital said. At least 15 revolutionaries and more than 100 Gaddafi forces were killed in the fighting in the western city of Zawiya, about 50 km (30 miles) from Tripoli, Ahmed al-Hawary, a spokesman for the revolutionary forces said.

Robert Gates blames a failure of political will and defence cuts as he warns that younger US politicians could abandon alliance.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, has warned that a new post-cold war generation of leaders in America could abandon Nato and 60 years of security guarantees to Europe, exasperated by Europe's failures of political will and the gaps in defence funding needed to keep the alliance alive. In a blistering attack on Europe - which he accused of complacency over international security - Gates predicted a Nato consigned to "military irrelevance" in a "dim if not dismal" future unless allies stepped up to the plate.

Three weeks before standing down as Pentagon head and retiring from decades at the heart of the US security establishment, Gates used a 20-minute valedictory speech in Brussels to read the riot act to a stunned elite audience of European officers, diplomats, and officials.

Patrick Martin: Gates reads the riot act to Europe

Centre-right Justice and Development party secures 49.9% of all votes, giving it 325 seats in parliament.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become the most successful prime minister in the history of Turkey's multiparty system after a landslide victory at the country's general election. His centre-right Justice and Development party (AKP), in power since 2002, won 49.9% of all votes, giving it 325 seats in parliament. The result falls short of the two-thirds majority needed to rewrite Turkey's 1982 military constitution without having to consult parliament. The Republican People's party (CHP), came second with 25.9%. The only other party to gain seats in parliament, the Nationalist Movement party (MHP), took 13%, seemingly unaffected by a sex tape scandal that caused the resignation of 10 senior party members. Thirty-six independent candidates, most of whom are backed by the Kurdish BDP, were also voted in, among whom was Kurdish campaigner Leyla Zana from Diyarbakir. Turnout was 84.79%.

PressTV: Turkey's ruling AKP wins parl. elections - Video

This column and related blog posts by Paul Krugman motivated me to poke around a bit on the subject and, lo and behold, I found the following, from May 1993, by John Kenneth Galbraith:

There are the many who live in recession with a wholly secure livelihood and with a lessened fear of price increases, of inflation. They are in no real danger of loss or diminution of income. Present here are the more secure parts of the modern corporate bureaucracy. Its members see their brethren being shed. (The corporate elite is never fired or sacked; in the interest of efficiency, in is only shed.) However, those who are truly influential have no fear. They, always in the interest of efficiency, are the ones who do the shedding.

A new post on the Gay Girl in Damascus blog includes a confession from Tom MacMaster. Andy Carvin offers independent confirmation of the confession with statements from Tom MacMaster and Britta Froelicher. MacMaster has also separately confirmed he is behind the hoax in response to an email from The Electronic Intifada asking for confirmation.

Original post - Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty write:

We have gathered compelling new evidence regarding the “Gay Girl in Damascus” blogger hoax. Those responsible for this hoax have caused a great deal of concern and anguish by posting information alleging that “Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari” the supposed “Gay Girl” blogger had been kidnapped from the streets of Damascus, possibly by Syrian authorities, and was likely in grave danger.

BBC: Syria Gay Girl in Damascus blog a hoax by US man