Last night, Channel 4 in the UK aired a chilling program on the final days of Sri Lanka’s long civil war, and thankfully, they have made it available for viewing worldwide for the next few days.

"Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" is disturbing. It is revolting. It is horrific. It is also without question one of the best pieces of television journalism on conflict I have ever seen. And I’ve seen a fair bit over the years. What shines through in the piece is how much time and effort the Channel 4 team have put into this. They have been working on this story for more the two years, and it shows: finding witnesses willing to talk and verifying their accounts, and obtaining video evidence -- including "trophy videos" taking by Sri Lankan soldiers. None of that is easy, quick or cheap. For those, like me, who often lament the scaling back of quality foreign news operations in recent years, this is a reminder that there are still people out there doing fantastic work.

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has filed a lawsuit against President Barack Obama in federal court for taking military action in Libya without authorisation from Congress.

Ten members of the House of Representatives signed the lawsuit, saying Mr Obama violated the constitution in bypassing Congress. The War Powers Resolution, passed after US withdrew from the Vietnam War, rules that involvement in combat operations unauthorised by Congress must be terminated after 60 days. The suit, which also targets Defence Secretary Robert Gates, challenges "policy that any president can take the US to war unilaterally", Democratic lawmaker Dennis Kucinich said. "We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies," he added.

NYT: War Powers Act Does Not Apply to Libya, Obama Argues

The week-long 2010 United Nations General Assembly conference is set to begin Sept. 23 and will continue until Sept. 30 at the UN headquarters in New York. Many believe that the UNGA is nothing more than theatrics and that nothing substantial will be accomplished there. Including Paul Craig Roberts who says that the UN is a showcase for US propaganda and allows the US to attempt to extend its influence and reach.

David Baldinger: Today, I received a letter containing bad news from Majed Badra, a young Palestinian cartoonist. He was very excited to be coming to the USA to learn about political cartooning and the culture of the USA. This program includes stops in New York City, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Maryland, Portland, Oregon and finally St. Petersburg, Florida. Many events are planned that include meeting with professional US political cartoonists and seminars about press freedom, journalism, Human rights and ethics. Majed encountered a slight problem, however. He had the audacity to criticize the state of Israel for its occupation of the Palestinian territories and the inhuman treatment of the Palestinian people in his cartoons.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Terrorist United States is building a secret CIA air base in the Persian Gulf region to target people in Yemen, preparing for the possibility that an anti-American faction may take over Yemen and ban U.S. forces from hunting a lethal al-Qaida faction people resisting the US empire in their own country.

The "anti-al-Qaida effort" in Yemen is being run by the Joint Special Operations Command, the top U.S. military counterterrorism outfit, and the CIA provides intelligence support. JSOC forces have been allowed by the Yemeni government to conduct limited strikes there since 2009 and have recently allowed expanded strikes by U.S. armed drones and even war planes against "al-Qaida targets" who are taking advantage of civil unrest to grab power and territory in their own country. The new CIA base provides a backstop, if "al-Qaida" or other "anti-American rebel forces" gain control, one senior U.S. official explained. The White House has already increased the numbers of CIA officers in Yemen, in anticipation of that possibility. And it has stepped up the schedule to construct the base, from a two-year timetable to a rushed eight months.

Jason Ditz: Yemeni Deputy Governor: 130 Killed by US Drones This Month

An albino rabbit born with no ears has prompted new concerns in Japan about radiation levels from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The rabbit was born on May 7 in the town of Namie, which is just outside the 18-mile exclusion zone that has been imposed around the crippled plant, its owner, Yuko Sugimoto, said. The discovery has triggered new concerns in Japan about the levels of radiation released into the atmosphere since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. "I have been raising rabbits for more than 10 years and this is the first time something like this has happened," Miss Sugimoto told a magazine. The rabbit appears to have clear signs of albinism - a pure white coat and red eyes - that are the result of mutations in several genes. Experts said that it was uncommon for rabbits to be born with no ears, but not unheard of.

"It can happen when the doe tries to pull her young out during birth and the ears can come away from the head," said Susan Mason, secretary of the British Rabbit Council. Images of the rabbit have inevitably caused concern, however, and coincide uncomfortably with the announcement by Tokyo Electric Power that levels of radioactive strontium around 240 times the legal limit have been detected in seawater samples taken near the plant.

Madison - Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the reinstatement of Gov. Scott Walker's controversial plan to end most collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers.

The court found that a committee of lawmakers was not subject to the state's open meetings law, and so did not violate that law when it hastily approved the collective bargaining measure in March and made it possible for the Senate to take it up. In doing so, the Supreme Court overruled a Dane County judge who had halted the legislation, ending one challenge to the law even as new challenges are likely to emerge. The changes on collective bargaining will take effect once Secretary of State Doug La Follette arranges for official publication of the stalled bill, and the high court said there was now nothing to preclude him from doing that. La Follette did not return a call Tuesday to say when the law would be published. The ruling came on lines that have become familiar in recent years for the often divided court. The majority opinion was by Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler. The other three justices - Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and N. Patrick Crooks - concurred in part and dissented in part. Abrahamson's dissent was particularly stinging as she upbraided her fellow justices for errors and faulty analysis.

Stephen Lendman: Reactionary Extremism in Wisconsin and Ohio
Stephen Lendman: Waging War on Working Americans

[May 29, 2011: Fourteen women and children have been killed after Nato warplanes bombed their homes in south-west Afghanistan. Six others were wounded in the attack, according to local reports, after the airstrike in Nawzad district, in the country's volatile Helmand province. Photo: PAN / RAWA]

May 2011 found to be deadliest month for Afghan civilians since 2007; UN attempts to cover up NATO role.

A 11 June press statement from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan slates May 2011 as the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since at least 2007. However this big-hearted announcement conceals a grossly pernicious attempt to cover up US-NATO killings of civilians in occupied Afghanistan. In its report, UNAMA documents 368 conflict-related civilian deaths and 593 civilian injuries in May 2011. Georgette Gagnon, Director of Human Rights for UNAMA states that, “More civilians were killed in May than in any other month since 2007 when UNAMA began documenting civilian casualties”. The UN’s disgusting attempt at whitewashing US-NATO’s killing of civilians is revealed in UNAMA’s breakdown of the causes of the deaths:

Anti-government elements were responsible for 301 civilian deaths (82 per cent of all civilian deaths in May). Forty-five civilian deaths (12 per cent of all civilian deaths in May 2011) were attributed to pro government forces. Twenty-two deaths or six per cent of civilian deaths in May 2011 could not be attributed to any party to the conflict as most of these deaths were caused by crossfire.

So according to this statement from the UN, 94% of Afghan civilian deaths are caused by other Afghans, and 6% could not be attributed to any party. The press release contains no mention of the terms “US” or “NATO” whatsoever.

RAWA: Nato airstrike kills 14 women and children in Afghanistan

Tripoli: Libya's state-run television said on Tuesday that a Nato air strike on the town of Kikla, south of the capital Tripoli, killed a number of civilians and members of the police force.

"A bombardment by the crusaders' colonial aggression struck members of the public security force in charge of organising road traffic and checking identities," the Al Jamahiriya channel said in a written newsflash. "All the security force members as well as a number of children, women and men were martyred in the attack."

Kikla lies more than 100km south of Tripoli. Al Jamahiriya gave no details on the number of casualties in the incident on Monday. Journalists have not been allowed to report freely in western Libya, making it difficult to verify accounts from both warring sides. Earlier, an African Union plan to halt Libya's civil war collapsed, and rebels said the increasingly bloody siege of the city of Misrata by Muammar Gaddafi's troops made talk of a ceasefire meaningless. The Red Cross said it was opening a Tripoli office and would send a team to Misrata to help civilians trapped by fighting, but one of Gaddafi's ministers warned any aid operation involving foreign troops would be seen as a declaration of war. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif quickly dismissed the idea of his father stepping down. "If the West wants democracy, a new constitution, elections, well, we agree. We agree on this point but the West must help us to provide a propitious climate. But all these bombings, this support given to rebel groups, all that is counter-productive."

BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhuanet) -- In Libya foreign media representatives were taken to a factory near Zawiya, hit by NATO airstrikes two days earlier. According to Libyan government officials, the factory produces crucial medical supplies that could help save lives. Damaged military vehicles in a site next to the factory were seen through holes around the perimeter, leading to speculation that it WAS the target of the attack. Meanwhile on Monday, government artillery fire rained down on rebel forces but failed to stop their advance into key grounds, west of their stronghold of Misrata, which they control as well the eastern third of Libya. The rebels also claim to have taken parts of the oil port of Zawiya, 30 kilometers west of the capital Tripoli.

Alexander Cockburn: Where’s the evidence of Gaddafi’s war crimes in Libya?

BELARUSSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko said he would personally "whack" activists calling for protests on the internet, after a growing economic crisis prompted rare demonstrations.

The opposition "in Minsk is using social networks to call for strikes," Lukashenko said yesterday while visiting a farm in the Minsk region, as reported by state television. "I will watch and observe, and then whack them in such a way that they won't even have time to run across the border," the strongman added.