Somalia's hunger crisis could become as bad as the famine of the early 1990s, in which more than 200,000 people died, unless relief efforts are stepped up, Britain's international development minister said on Wednesday during a visit to the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Andrew Mitchell warned that up to 400,000 children are at risk of death through starvation without immediate action by donors and aid agencies.

"Evidence of malnutrition is not just in the camps and feeding centres but on every street corner," he said in a statement. "The stark fact is that in southern Somalia the situation is deteriorating by the day. We could face deaths on a similar scale to those seen in 1991-2 if we do not act urgently now. This is a race against time."

Several areas in the south and the capital have been classified as in a famine situation, and the United Nations said in early August famine would likely spread across the whole of the south within six weeks, lasting until December at least. Tens of thousands of deaths have already occurred. Overall, at least 3.7 million Somalis - around half the population - are judged to be suffering an acute food and livelihood crisis, including some 3.2 million who are in extreme need of immediate, lifesaving assistance.

Syrian troops continue to attack civilian areas across the northern port city of Latakia today, and reports are growing that the soccer stadium which they ordered civilians into earlier this week has become a makeshift prison camp. According to one resident, the military has been bussing dissidents arrested across the city, including people detained at random, to the Sports City complex. What happens once they are inside is unclear. The regime’s navy attacked the port this weekend, killing at least 31 people, and on Monday troops ordered everyone out of a key protest neighborhood, saying it was going to be destroyed and that they should all relocate to the stadium. Since then the stadium has gotten more and more full.

Uruknet: Syrian forces kill 16 in Homs, thousands protest in Aleppo (Warning: Graphic Videos)

“We’ve invested a lot of blood in that country,” Panetta insisted, adding that Iraq now has a “relatively stable democracy.” The comments come just days after the deadliest attacks of the year.

Despite the soaring levels of violence across the nation, the US still seems keen on keeping troops in the nation in an open-ended fashion, reiterating yesterday their hope for an Iraqi government “request” to keep troops there. But a growing number of Iraqi officials, including Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, are warning that they believe keeping US troops will only make matters worse, and that the best thing the US could do for Iraq’s security is, quite simply, to leave.

A powerful explosion has rocked a US military base in eastern Afghanistan and reportedly killed at least 27 American soldiers and left dozens wounded. - Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, saying the huge explosion left at least 27 American troops killed and 34 others wounded, a Press TV correspondent reported. The incident occurred early Thursday when a truck bomb went off inside the US military base in Gardez city, the capital of Afghanistan's Paktia province. According to the Taliban spokesman, the truck contained hundreds of kilos of explosives. Witnesses say the explosion was very powerful and a US helicopter was also destroyed in the blast. On August 6, at least 31 US Special Forces were killed after Taliban militants shot down an American helicopter belonging to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan's eastern province of Wardak. The death toll was the biggest in a single incident for foreign forces since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began in 2001. In another attack on August 11, ISAF said in a statement that six US-led soldiers lost their lives following the explosion of a roadside bomb in volatile southern Afghanistan. The security situation remains fragile in Afghanistan despite because of the presence of about 150,000 US-led foreign forces in the war-torn country.

Gunmen killed six people in attacks on vehicles in southern Israel today, and a senior Israeli official said they had infiltrated from the Gaza Strip through Egypt's Sinai desert. - Israel's military said the incident began when "terrorists shot at a bus on its way [to the city of] Eilat and then fired an anti-tank rocket at another vehicle. At the same time, a military patrol hit an explosive device". The Magen David Adom ambulance service said six people were killed along the road, just metres from the porous border with Egypt. The military put the number of wounded at around 25. Israeli special forces were called in and engaged the gunmen as police and military closed roads around Eilat, a popular Red Sea resort. The military said between two and four gunmen were killed. Israeli media reports said up to seven attackers were killed.

Alan Sabrosky, US Marine Corps veteran on 9/11 - In this edition of the show Susan Modaress interviews Alan Sabrosky, US Marine Corps Veteran. Alan Sabrosky a writer and consultant, specializing in national and international security affairs discloses intriguing facts on the implication of Israel in 9/11 events that are by and large unheard of in mainstream media.

Stephen J. Sniegoski: The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel
Oded Yinon: A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties

Eyewitnesses claim a second aircraft fired at the plane raising questions of British cover-up over the 1961 crash and its causes. - New evidence has emerged in one of the most enduring mysteries of United Nations and African history, suggesting that the plane carrying the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld was shot down over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) 50 years ago, and the murder was covered up by British colonial authorities. A British-run commission of inquiry blamed the crash in 1961 on pilot error and a later UN investigation largely rubber-stamped its findings. They ignored or downplayed witness testimony of villagers near the crash site which suggested foul play. The Guardian has talked to surviving witnesses who were never questioned by the official investigations and were too scared to come forward.

The People's Voice: The Murder of Count Folke Bernadotte

The [Irish] State is about to sign away almost all our resources on terms by far the worst in the developed world. - Sometimes you have to consider extraordinary things. I want to suggest two of them at one go. The first is that the State is simply incapable of dealing with one of the key challenges and opportunities facing Irish people: getting the best for the Irish people from the potentially huge resources of oil and gas off our shores. The second is that we should therefore split those resources with a state that has proven its ability to manage this challenge for the maximum public benefit. That state is Norway. I am suggesting, in all seriousness, that we should give joint ownership of our oil and gas to the Norwegian state.

The first part of this proposition is the easiest to grasp. The official estimate of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is that there are reserves of 6.5 billion barrels of oil and 20 trillion cubic feet of gas off the western seaboard – enough to meet our energy needs for a century. (This does not include southern waters, where significant gas fields already exist, or onshore resources.) Whatever the reason, the outcome is obvious: the State is on the brink of signing away almost all of the resources we have left on terms that are by far the worst in the developed world. The election has done nothing to change this. Hence my second proposal. The State lacks the psychological, financial and political strength to make a decent deal. We need to get that strength from somewhere. As it happens, there’s a small, friendly state that knows how to do this stuff: Norway.

Two men facebook about riot that didn't take place; given prison sentences twice as long as actually participating in a riot.

When Judge Elgan Edwards, the recorder of Chester, handed his four-year exemplary sentences to two men for using Facebook to incite riots that never happened, he said he hoped it would be a deterrent to would-be rioters. The judge justified the sentences for the two men, who had pleaded guilty and who had no previous convictions, by saying the pair had caused "a very real panic" in their Cheshire towns "at a time when collective insanity gripped the nation". The four-year sentences are the longest passed so far relating to the riots, and the fact that no one turned up to the riots in those locations, apart from the police, has sparked fierce controversy.

PressTV: Briton charged with planning water fight

Futile Democracy: #realbrokensociety - I think it’s about time the Prime Minister instilled a sense of humanity and moral decency in his own household before he continues this ironic moral crusade.

Robert Stevens: Youth sentenced to years in jail for posting Facebook notices during British riots - A 22-year-old man appeared before a magistrates’ court in Manchester charged with stealing two scoops of ice cream and a cone from a patisserie during disturbances in the city. He has been referred to crown court after the judge warned, “I have a public duty to deal swiftly and harshly with matters of this nature”. These kangaroo courts make a mockery of an “independent” judiciary. Imprisoning four defendants to sentences of between 16 months and two years at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Andrew Gilbart QC said that “the offences of the night of 9 August … takes them completely outside the usual context of criminality. … For those reasons, I consider that the sentencing guidelines for specific offences are of much less weight in the context of the current case and can properly be departed from.” Two of the victims of his sentencing had not stolen anything; one was convicted of handling stolen goods and the other of “theft by finding”.

James Murdoch was told to stand down as chairman of BSkyB today as he faces being hauled back before a parliamentary committee examining new 'smoking gun' phone hacking revelations. He is likely to appear before MPs again as they examine remarkable claims that knowledge of phone-hacking was widespread at the News of the World. Ofcom is also investigating whether BSkyB is a 'fit and proper' company to have a broadcasting licence while James Murdoch is in charge, the Evening Standard reported. Labour MP Chris Bryant said it is time for the chairman to stand down following a bombshell new letter claiming that phone-hacking was ‘widely discussed’ at the News Of The World and was condoned by editor Andy Coulson. The politician, who has led the campaign against phone hacking, told the Standard: 'If I were a shareholder in News Corp or BSkyB, I would be urging James Murdoch to step aside.

When a wave of revolution crashed over the Middle East this spring, many said what ended in the streets began with 140 characters or less — through social media like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Hoping to harness the people power of online communication, the US State Department is providing $2 million in grants for the “Internet in a suitcase” to help dissidents circumvent repressive regimes’ Internet censorship with mobile Web technology. The suitcase is part of the $70 million the US State Department will spend on Internet circumvention technology in 2011. The suitcase is designed to give dissidents a mobile web with mesh technology that can run through cell phones and other devices, and that doesn’t have to travel through centralized servers that are easily shut down by governments.

Japanese citizens have shown incredible honesty in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that brought the country to its knees. - It emerged yesterday that the Japanese returned almost $78million in cash found in the quake rubble. In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets and purses found in the debris, containing nearly $30 million in cash. More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along the coastline have also been hauled to police stations by volunteers and rescue crews. Inside the safes officials found about $30million in cash. In one safe alone, there was the equivalent of $1,000,000. Other contained gold bars, antiques and other valuables. Japan’s National Police Agency said nearly all the money found in the areas worst hit by the tsunami has been returned to its owners. Most people kept bankbooks or land rights documents with their names and addresses in their safes.