A small town Canada is facing the consequences of being the first to witness the impact of the Tar Sands project, which may be the tipping point for oil development in Canada. Filmmaker Tom Radford describes witnessing a David and Goliath struggle.

The Center for Prisoners’ Studies in Gaza has revealed that Israel security forces has developed more than a hundred mental and physical torture methods designed to elicit confessions from Palestinians during interrogations. - Israel uses torture against the prisoners from the moment they are arrested until when they are let free, said CPS director Raafat Hamdouna, condemning Israel’s democracy and human rights claims, and calling on the world community to monitor what is happening and issue indictments against security officers involved in torturing prisoners.

Hamdouna said that everyone who has ever entered Israeli prisons has been subjected to multiple forms of torture. It begins from the time of arrest, when brutality is used to instill fear in the arrestee’s family. The residents of the targeted houses are then usually degraded and assaulted before the subject is taken as prisoner from his home, Hamdouna added. “That is followed by threats of murder, assassination, home demolition, rape or the arrest of wife, then the covering of the head with a dirty sack, sleep deprivation, the use of injuries during interrogation, placing the prisoner inside a refrigerator and standing for long periods,” Hamdouna said, listing many more torture methods.

Addameer: Torture in Israeli Prisons
Stephen Lendman: Israeli Use of Painful Shackling As A Form of Torture
Stephen Lendman: Israeli Unaccountability and Denial: Suppressing the Practice of Torture

A recent survey report, prepared by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, on the issue of Islamophobia or the everyday incidents of anti-Muslim actions across the United States of America, has noted that 45 per cent of the poll respondents believed Islam to be a religion contrary to the American values. - According to The News International, the contents of this report, compiled by the Washington DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy group having 33 chapters across the US and Canada, have been unveiled by a leading UAE newspaper ‘Gulf News’ in its June 24, 2011, edition. Quoting the Council’s survey findings, the ‘Gulf News’ stated Friday:

“The study says that Islamophobia has actually increased since the election of President Barack Obama, with right-wing Republicans feeding on anti-Muslim sentiments and fears over Sharia law. According to the report, some 45 per cent of respondents said they believe Islam is contrary to American values.”

Nahida Izzat: Demonizing Islam, Cui Bono?

More than ever, the United States is quick to charge other nations with abuse of political prisoners, and to urge indictment of heads of state for doing harm to their own citizens. Yet, the nation with the world’s highest incarceration rate and a justice system saturated with racism claims to have no political prisoners. In fact, scores have been held under cruel and unusual conditions for three and four decades.

For almost 40 years, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have been in solitary confinement at Louisiana’s infamous Angola State Prison, in what is thought to be the longest period of enforced solitude in America’s vast prison gulag. Amnesty International says their treatment is “cruel and inhumane and a violation of the US’s obligations under international law.” Woodfox is now 64 years old, and Wallace is 69. They are two of the original Angola 3, convicted of the murder of a prison guard in 1972. The other member of the trio, Robert King, was released after 29 years in solitary confinement after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

Under the conditions of solitary confinement, Woodfox and Wallace are restricted to their tiny cells for 23 hours a day. Three times a week, for an hour, they are allowed to exercise in an outdoor cage, if weather permits. For 40 years, they have not been allowed access to work or to education. And there has been no legitimate review of their cases in all that time.

PressTV: US prisoners in solitary confinement for 40 years

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi on charges of committing crimes against humanity. - The ICC also issued warrants for Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi for committing crimes against Libyan revolutionaries since the Libyan revolution in began in mid-February, AFP reported. The warrants are a response to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's call on the court to issue arrest warrants for the three influential Libyan figures. NATO is conducting airstrikes in Libya to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1973, and says that its air campaign aims at protecting civilians. However, Libyan officials say hundreds of civilians have been killed as a result of the attacks. Experts say the main motive behind the Western attack on Libya is the vast oil reserves of the North African country.

Sydney Morning Herald: Court issues arrest warrants for Gaddafi and son
Christian Science Monitor: ICC issues Qaddafi warrant: Key prosecutions of world leaders

Israel backtracked on Monday on a threat to bar foreign journalists from entering the country for 10 years if they board a new international aid flotilla that plans to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an official statement said, instructed authorities to exempt foreign reporters from "the usual policy applied to infiltrators and those who enter illegally." In an email to foreign news organisations on Sunday, the Government Press Office (GPO) said journalists' participation in the flotilla would be "an intentional violation" of Israeli law that could result in a 10-year entry ban to Israel and confiscation of their equipment.

On June 22nd, thousands of mourners gathered near the town of Surman, northwest of Libya, to bury 15 victims of the latest NATO air strikes which took place on June 20th. - On the same day, Danish Foreign Minister, Lene Espersen, announced that Denmark, a member of NATO, has acknowledged the National Transitional Council as the only legitimate body to represent Libyans. The Libyan government, on the other hand, are criticizing NATO’s mission, that the air raids are targeting civilians. Officials estimate that 700 have been killed, an amount which NATO denies. Countless lives have been claimed since the uprising began mid-February, and funerals have become a common event. Clashes between rebel forces and troops loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi are ongoing. However, Libyans are debating whether all of the deceased should be labeled as martyrs. Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Qaddafi, accusing him for killing protesters.

Israeli diplomats are once again pushing vigorously today following the news that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), frustrated by the lack of peace talks, will go to the United Nations in September seeking recognition as a member state. - Israeli officials have been railing against the notion of statehood for years, insisting it poses a grave threat to Israel and that the Palestinians are “not ready” to be independent of the military occupation. In recent months they have insisted Palestinian statehood would end all peace talks. Which is an increasingly meaningless threat, given the peace talks have been stalled for nearly a year and Israeli officials have repeatedly ruled out returning to talks over various other perceived slights in the meantime. Palestinian officials, rather, say they believe statehood would make talks easier, as the two sides would go into the matter on a more equal footing. This assumes, of course, that statehood is even possible.

Kabul - Four NATO soldiers have been killed in separate attacks by Afghan insurgents over the weekend, the military alliance said Sunday. - Two International Security Assistance Forces soldiers died in a roadside bomb attack in the west of the country, while another member died as result of a similar attack in the south, coalition forces said in a statement. Both incidents took place on Sunday. The military did not reveal the nationalities of the deceased nor the exact location of the attacks. On Saturday, another ISAF soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in the south. More than 50 United States and NATO soldiers have been killed so far this month in Afghanistan, according to iCausalities.org, an independent website that tracks military fatalities in Afghanistan.

PressTV: Taliban shoot down US drone

VIENNA (Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros thinks a country will eventually exit the euro zone and urged policymakers on Sunday to come up with a "plan B" that could rescue the European Union from looming economic collapse. - Soros, famous for making $1 billion by betting against the British pound in 1992, did not name any country he thought might exit the currency, but speculation is mounting about the fate of Greece as its politicians struggle to agree more austerity measures demanded by international lenders as the price for staving off bankruptcy. Soros reiterated his view in a panel discussion in Vienna that the euro had a basic flaw from the start in that the currency was not backed by political union or a joint treasury. "The euro had no provision for correction. There was no arrangement for any country leaving the euro, which in the current circumstances is probably inevitable," he said.

This video could show you an example of what is happening in Syria everyday....these are peaceful protesters getting bitted brutally bye the Syrian Security forces and armed militias....and that is nothing compared to what happens to those people after they get to the dark rooms where the regime keeps them for days and nights of brutal torture....some of them would come back alive with signs of torture covering their bodies...to set an example for others so they would think again about protesting against the regime...others will be brought back to their families but as dead bodies put in bags....covered with signs of monsters torture.....!!!

The United States spends $20.2 billion annually on air conditioning for troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan — more than NASA's entire budget, NPR reported. - In fact, the same amount of money that keeps soldiers cool is the amount the G-8 has committed to helping the fledgling democracies in Tunisia and Egypt. The necessary cooling costs so much because of the remote locations and danger involved in delivery equipment and fuel, Steven Anderson, a retired logistician who served under Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq.

"When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we're talking over $20 billion," Anderson told NPR. "You've got risks that are associated with moving the fuel almost every mile of the way."

And it's a long way to move the fuel: 800 miles of "improved goat trails" separate Karachi, where the fuel is shipped in, to Afghanistan. The transport takes 18 days.

Floodwater from Missouri River has breached a berm at the Nebraska nuclear power, Fort Calhoun, allowing water to reach containment buildings and transformers. - The plant's officials were forced to shut down electrical power when water surrounded the main electrical transformers, but the flooding had no impact on reactor shutdown cooling or the spent fuel pool cooling, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Sunday. The NRC added that the Fort Calhoun Station shut down in early April for refueling, and there is no water inside the plant, Huffington Post reported. Head of NRC Gregory Jaczko visited the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday.

In a similar incident in Japan, Fukushima power plant was damaged when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country's northeastern coasts on March 11. As a result of the flooding, partial meltdowns occurred at the nuclear power plant when the cooling systems for three reactors failed. Thousands of Japanese people living within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant were evacuated and the government has declared a state of nuclear emergency for the five reactors. The Japanese government initially attempted to play down the incident by not releasing accurate radiation data.

The People's Voice: Midwest Floods: Both Nebraska Nuke Stations Threatened

Talks on slashing trillions in domestic social spending are set to resume Monday at the White House, with President Obama meeting separately with the top Democrat and Republican in the US Senate, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. The White House announced Friday that Obama would intervene personally in the budget talks, after negotiations headed by Vice President Joseph Biden broke down Thursday. The two Republican negotiators, Congressman Eric Cantor and Senator Jon Kyl, walked out of the talks, demanding that the Democrats drop all proposals for tax increases on the wealthy.

Such is the anti-democratic and unrepresentative state of the US political structure that even such slight impositions on the wealthy are considered completely unrealistic, while the two parties debate whether Medicare and Medicaid, which underwrite healthcare services for 100 million people, should be abolished, or “merely” cut by half a trillion dollars.