On Wednesday Jan. 18th thousands of sites will go dark to protest SOPA & PIPA, two US bills racing through Congress that threaten prosperity, online security, and freedom of expression.

I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to vote "no" on cloture for S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act, on Jan. 24th. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. It does not deserve floor consideration. I urge my representative to vote "no" on SOPA, the corresponding House bill. Over coming days you'll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation. We hope you'll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation by voting "no" on cloture. More HERE

Andre Damon: Wikipedia shuts down to protest censorship bills
PressTV: Wikipedia joins protest against US bills
Russia Today: Wikipedia blackout: 24-hour strike against SOPA, PIPA is on

Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street activists have rallied on Capitol Hill to “Occupy Congress”, decrying corporate influence on the American government in a direct message to lawmakers.

The protesters had permission to hold a rally on the Capitol's West Lawn. However one step outside the sanctioned area brought the risk of arrest.

Demonstrators were unable to resist the temptation to test the limits of police tolerance, and RT’s crew at the scene witnessed several people being arrested.

The protesters say that when the interests of big corporations are at stake on Capitol Hill, their interests, their voice, no longer count.

They are angry at the fact that the influence of money on politics in their country is only set to grow.

Following a Supreme Court decision, corporations are now allowed to funnel as much money as they want into promoting their chosen candidates for political office. Protesters call it legalized corruption.

The admission discredits Israel's stated claims that Iran presents a threat to their existence. - A nuclear Iran might make it more difficult for Israel to attack its immediate neighbors, according to a senior Israeli military official on Tuesday. Military planning division chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said if Tehran attains nuclear weapons, that could constrain Israel from striking Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. “If we are forced to do things in Gaza or in Lebanon, under the Iranian nuclear umbrella it might be different,” Eshel said at a briefing in Jerusalem. "Concern" in the U.S. and Israel over Iran’s nuclear program has increased in recent months, bringing harsh economic sanctions and calls from both Americans and Israelis for a unilateral military strike against Iran. The latest event in the controversy came last week when another Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in a plot widely suspected as the work of Israel, the U.S., or both. Still, there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, and the opinion of the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration, and the latest IAEA report is that Iran’s enrichment is so far civilian in nature.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast has said that Iran has documents that prove certain Western countries’ support for terrorists and plans to release them in the future. - Mehmanparast made the remarks during his regular press briefing on Tuesday in reply to a question about the diplomatic efforts that Iran has made to pursue the issue of the assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, a graduate of Sharif university in chemical engineering and an official at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, who was killed in Tehran on January 11. Commenting on the assassination, he said, “The true faces of the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights and the campaign against terrorist are revealed in such scenes, and we are seeking to release documents showing certain Western countries’ support for terrorists.” “We expect the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights and the campaign against terrorism to show how serious they are about dealing with terrorism and condemning it,” he added.

The US is the only country in the world that pursues life imprisonment without parole against children, even as young as 11. Christi Cheramie of Louisiana was one of these children.

At age 16, Christi Cheramie was sentenced in 1994 to life in prison without parole. Now 33, she has spent more than half of her life in prison. It’s a violation of international law to sentence anyone to life in prison without the possibility of parole who was under the age of 18 at the time of the crime. The Louisiana Board of Pardons will soon decide whether or not to hear her clemency application, and Governor Jindal has the power to influence this decision. Please call on them to grant her clemency. Christi's warden says she's "worthy of a second chance." This month a decision will be made which could change her life -- and she needs your help. Read More» | Download the printable versions: PDF | RTF

A French judge is seeking U.S. permission to visit the prison camps here to investigate claims by former French inmates that they were tortured, the Associated Press reported from Paris on Tuesday. - The AP reported that it saw a formal international request from investigating judge Sophie Clement to U.S. authorities to see the prison here that Tuesday held 171 captives, none of them French citizens. Clement also seeks copies of all documents relating to the arrest and transfer of three Frenchmen who were held there. The three men are Nizar Sassi, now 31, Mourad Benchellali, now 30, and Khaled Ben Mustapha, now 40. They were arrested on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in late 2001 and transferred to Guantánamo. They were sent back to France in 2004 and 2005, held for a time for trial there, but then released. The men told the judge during questioning in France that they were subject to violence including torture and rape during their detention. At Guantánamo, a Pentagon spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said it was not immediately known whether U.S. officials had received the request.

Miami Herald: Guantánamo commander: Contractors read inmate lawyers' mail

Just when you think you've heard it all, it gets worse. I turned on the radio late last night to hear a little soothing music but ... oops wrong station. This creepy little non-human by the name of Bill Cunningham was taking hate speech to a whole new level. He almost makes Savage and Limbaugh look like choirboys. In a quick summary here's what he was saying: "Dresden was good. Hiroshima was double good. If you're going to fight a war, kill the civilians, burn 'em, they deserve it." Expanding to Iran he says: "I'd warn the Iranians a few days in advance to get the heck out of Dodge. I would obliterate [a favorite word used at least a dozen times] the 20 largest cities. Women, children, they all need to die. 20 million killed would be a good start. Then we would go in and take all of their resources and bring them back to the US."

The bankers made a decision to move the balance of power to the East, led by China. In exchange, China has made some concessions to the bankers pet country? - "Rothschild, the more-than-200-year-old family-controlled banking dynasty, is making a big move in China, and Yu is leading the charge. It plans to add 15 merger advisers there by March, giving it 55 in all, more than any foreign investment bank, says Olivier Pecoux, co-chief executive officer of Rothschild. Today, the merger business in China is still relatively small. So far this year, China has accounted for about 9 percent of the $1.1 trillion in deals around the globe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The potential, though, is enormous. China has $2.5 trillion in untapped foreign currency reserves and is mandating that state-owned companies expand abroad to secure natural resources such as oil and metals. "The economic balance of power has already changed, and it is moving to the East," says Yu, whose title is head of greater China. "There will be an increasing number of Western companies selling assets to China.""

European University Association (EUA) has been monitoring the evolution of the economic crisis and its effects on higher education systems in Europe since its onset in 2008 and has published several reports (see below).

The monitoring is conducted in close cooperation with EUA collective members, the National Rectors’ Conferences, who report on developments within their national higher education systems on a regular basis. The continuous feedback from various sources provides up-to-date reports of the situation and highlights the evolving nature of the effects the crisis has had on university funding across Europe. The main objective of the monitoring is to look at the impact of the crisis on universities’ public funding and to identify in particular the trends in public funding across Europe. It also explores how the crisis has affected the nature of public funding and how such shifts are influencing universities at institutional level. The map compiles information on most European countries for which EUA has collected data. Figures are sometimes difficult to compare given the different methodologies used to calculate cuts in public funding and the different times when these take place; however, the comparison should give a sense of the trends in public funding and the latest developments across Europe. The map necessarily simplifies often complex situations. [Click on map to enlarge]

The Government is undertaking "extensive contingency planning" in the event of a eurozone collapse, peers have been told. - Treasury minister Lord Sassoon said the planning was aimed at dealing with "all potential outcomes of the eurozone crisis". At question time, he said Britain wanted to see a "strong and dynamic" eurozone and European economy. But he stressed it was for the eurozone countries to "take the lead in supporting the euro as a currency". Lord Sassoon also indicated that Britain would be prepared to stump up more cash to tackle the crisis if the IMF requested it. "The Government sees the role of the IMF to support individual countries and not to support currencies. "If the IMF puts forward a case, as it may well do, for an increase in its resources, if there is a strong case the UK will, as it has always done in the past, support the IMF in increasing resources as required," he said. Tory former chancellor Lord Lawson of Blaby said: "There is only one thing as worrying as the collapse of the eurozone and that's the continuation of the eurozone."

Greece is insolvent and probably won’t be able to honor a bond payment in March as the country negotiates with creditors to cut its debt burden, Fitch Ratings Managing Director Edward Parker said. - The euro area’s most indebted country is unlikely to be able to honor a March 20 bond payment of 14.5 billion euros ($18 billion), Parker said today in an interview in Stockholm. Efforts to arrange a private sector deal on how to handle Greece’s obligations would constitute a default, he said. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is scheduled to meet tomorrow with a group representing private bondholders after a five-day break to hold talks on forgiving at least 50 percent of the nation’s debt in the euro area’s first sovereign restructuring. Greece’s official creditors begin talks Jan. 20 on spending curbs and budget cuts that will determine whether to disburse additional aid.

Barely a week after presidential candidate Mitt Romney's role as former head of the private equity firm Bain Capital erupted as an issue in the Republican primary campaign, there is a concerted effort by the media to bring an end to the discussion. The Republican front-runner made an estimated $250 million during his years as the head of Bain from 1984 to 1999. - Romney's rivals, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and Texas Governor Rick Perry appear to have pulled back from denouncing Romney as a “vulture capitalist,” and testimonials defending both Romney and the leveraged buyout industry have proliferated. The major financial interests do not want a broader debate over charges, leveled by Gingrich and Perry in an attempt to revive their campaigns, that investment firms such as Bain make money by destroying jobs and robbing workers of their wages, pensions and health benefits. Wall Street rightly fears that such a discussion will only deepen the growing popular hostility toward the capitalist system itself.

AWIP: Devastating anti-Romney film surfaces - VIDEO