It's a practice more closely associated with third world countries, but in bleak times in a Chicago-area suburb, 30 people were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday. - The pauper's burial section at Homewood Memorial Gardens was established for those who could not afford to pay for a burial plot. And it is a problem that's sweeping America as tough economic times have led to an increase in the number of indigent burials the morgue must perform. No mourners were present for the burial at the cemetery, which lies 25 miles south west of Chicago. The gruesome discovery of the pauper's burial section at Homewood was made last year, sparking a call for more strict federal regulations for cemeteries. Sheriff's officials had found caskets stacked on top of one another - some buried eight at a time - at Homewood. And the morgue has been accused of missing markers and poor record keeping. But coroners have said the practice is shared in other cities and states across the U.S.

A staple of Washington’s war missions, targeted assassinations and spying operations overseas, unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones, are now being used by US police in the domestic arena, stirring up privacy concerns among Americans. - According to John Whitehead, a constitutional attorney from the Rutherford Institute, US police departments have been authorized to use drones extensively in pursuit of their duties on home soil. “There have been, I think, almost 266 applications that have been approved for police departments to use drones as aerial surveillance devices,” he said. Drones can be armed with a wide range of surveillance technology, including high-powered zoom lenses and infrared and ultraviolet imaging. As the US government flies prying eyes through the sky, lawmakers have neglected to create any privacy protections for American citizens.

Secrecy News: Army Foresees Expanded Use of Drones in U.S. Airspace

At least three civilians have been killed after US military forces attacked a residential area in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nagarhar, Press TV reports.

Local residents told Press TV that the victims, among them a teacher, died in the Achin district of the province, located some 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the country's capital Kabul, on Friday morning when American forces launched a raid in the area. Local officials argued the deceased had no connection with the Taliban or any other militant group. However, the US military figures in the provincial capital city of Jalalabad claimed that the trio had initially offered refuge and assistance to a bomber, who was responsible for an assault on a US airbase in eastern Afghanistan a few days earlier. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan took place in 2001. The move removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence there of some 130,000 US-led troops.

Four French soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan after a serviceman from the Afghan National Army opened fire, officials say. - Another 16 French soldiers were injured, some seriously, in the incident in Kapisa province. An official told the BBC that an Afghan non-commissioned officer got into a "verbal clash" and opened fire. President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was suspending its training programmes in Afghanistan following the attack. He was sending his defence minister, Gerard Longuet, to the country immediately, he said. A Taliban spokesman said it was not clear if the attacker was a member of their group but described him as a "conscientious Afghan soldier".

PressTV: France mulls early Afghanistan pullout
International Business Times: France Hints at Early Afghan Exit after Gunman Kills Four Soldiers
Global Post: France suspends training ops after Afghan soldier shoots dead 4 French troops

Hacktivists with the collective Anonymous are waging an attack on the website for the White House after successfully breaking the sites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America. In response to today’s federal raid on the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers with the online collective Anonymous have broken the websites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA, Motion Picture Association of America and Warner Music Group. “It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org,” Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon.

One day after thousands of websites temporarily shut-down to highligt the dangers of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), federal prosecutors have pulled the plug on Megaupload.com, a website that was at one time among the top 20 most popular sites in the world. American authorities helped issue arrests on Thursday for four people in New Zealand that they say are responsible for the website. According to the official indictment, unsealed the same day, Megaupload is being accused of costing copyright holders upwards of $500 million in lost revenues because of content illegally uploaded to its servers.

TorrentFreak: MegaUpload: What Made It a Rogue Site Worthy of Destruction?

The vote on the Protect Intellectual Property Act has been postponed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. - Pressure from protests and blackouts held by internet giants such as Wikipedia may have influenced Reid's decision, reported Politico. Reid said, "In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT IP Act." In his statement, printed by The Washington Post, he added, "There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices."

Andre Damon: SOPA, PIPA and the freedom of the Internet

Under house arrest in England, the WikiLeaks founder opens up about his battle with the 'Times,' his stint in solitary and the future of journalism.

It's a few days before Christmas, and Julian Assange has just finished moving to a new hide-out deep in the English countryside. The two-bedroom house, on loan from a WikiLeaks supporter, is comfortable enough, with a big stone fireplace and a porch out back, but it's not as grand as the country estate where he spent the past 363 days under house arrest, waiting for a British court to decide whether he will be extradited to Sweden to face allegations that he sexually molested two women he was briefly involved with in August 2010.

Assange sits on a tattered couch, wearing a wool sweater, dark pants and an electronic manacle around his right ankle, visible only when he crosses his legs. At 40, the WikiLeaks founder comes across more like an embattled rebel commander than a hacker or journalist. He's become better at handling the media – more willing to answer questions than he used to be, less likely to storm off during interviews – but the protracted legal battle has left him isolated, broke and vulnerable. Assange recently spoke to someone he calls a Western "intelligence source," and he asked the official about his fate. Will he ever be a free man again, allowed to return to his native Australia, to come and go as he pleases? "He told me I was fucked," Assange says. "Are you fucked?" I ask. Assange pauses and looks out the window.

Russia has accused Nato countries of trying to start a war with Syria and foment unrest in Iran - claims backed up by some Western security analysts. - Its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov at a press briefing in Moscow on Wednesday (18 January) said: "Our partners in the West are in fact discussing a no-fly zone ... There are other ideas being realised, including humanitarian convoys, in the hope they could provoke a response from [Syrian] government forces." He added - without naming names - that foreign powers are supplying arms to Syrian "extremists."

The tale of the DC Five – the five Beltway bloggers at two prominent Democratic Washington thinktanks who have been smacked down (and one fired) for being insufficiently pro-Israel – is hardly a shock to those who know their history. But before we get into that, a few details on what is only the latest chapter in the story of how the War Party operates in this country. [...] The Isra-bots will “argue” that since Iran represents an “existential threat” to Israel’s very existence, anyone who opposes a war with Tehran is calling for a replay of the Holocaust. If you’re for peace, and see no vital US interest in going to war with Iran, well then you’re a “Holocaust-denier.” [...] The case of the DC Five is meant to sow fear among the policy analysts and thinktankers who inhabit the Washington Beltway: “do not cross the line,” they are telling them – and the closer we get to war with Iran, the faster the boundaries of the impermissible are growing. There is a method to this madness: it is a preemptive strike aimed at opponents of US intervention, and on the left as well as the right it is turning out to be quite effective.

Allawi's allegations were the second major broadside this week against detention practices under Maliki, who's been the prime minister since May 2006. London's Guardian newspaper reported Monday on an extortion racket involving Iraqi state security officials who systematically arrest people on trumped-up charges, torture them and then extort bribes from their families for their release. The wave of arrests of Maliki political opponents began in October, around the time it was becoming clear that talks on a continued U.S. presence in Iraq would fail.

Iran is suspicious that UN agencies may have given away information which aided the murder of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan on January 11. - Iranian deputy UN ambassador Eshagh Al Habib told the UN Security Council on Thursday that there was “high suspicion” that, in order to prepare the murder, terrorist circles used intelligence obtained from UN bodies. According to him, this included interviews with Iranian nuclear scientists carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the sanction list of the Security Council, Reuters news agency reports.

Israeli drones have been detected spying on Turkish military units in southern Turkey for the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party), according to Today’s Zaman, Turkey's English version of the mass-circulation Turkish daily Zaman. The PKK is considered by the US and EU to be a terrorist organization. The Jerusalem Post is also on the story. First, TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

Turkish intelligence agencies prepared a report after the detection of two Israeli Herons in Hatay and Adana roughly two months ago, claiming that the Herons are collecting intelligence on Turkish military units in order to aid PKK operations in those regions. The report asserts that the PKK's training camps in northern Syria, near Turkey's Hatay border “where Turkish military border posts are relatively weak,” were established in those locations based on intelligence collected by the UAVs. The report also claims that Kenan Yıldızbakan, a PKK member who commanded an assault against a Turkish naval base in İskenderun in 2010, has made repeated trips into Israeli territory, reinforcing suspicions of a possible link between Israel and the PKK.

US authorities say former Liberian leader Charles Taylor worked for its intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the Boston Globe reports. - The revelation comes in response to a Freedom of Information request by the newspaper. A Globe reporter told the BBC this is the first official confirmation of long-held reports of a relationship between US intelligence and Mr Taylor. Mr Taylor is awaiting a verdict on his trial for alleged war crimes. Rumours of CIA ties were fuelled in July 2009 when Mr Taylor himself told his trial, at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Hague, that US agents had helped him escape from a maximum security prison in Boston in 1985. The CIA at the time denied such claims as "completely absurd". [!]

Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said Friday that Thailand has informed the Palestinian delegation and all member states at the United Nations in New York that it “has given recognition to the state of Palestine.” - The move comes as Palestine pushes for full membership at the U.N., a bid Washington opposes because it says a political settlement with Israel must be reached first. Thailand has friendly ties with Israel and is a major tourist destination for Israeli travelers. Thai officials have expressed concern that the recent arrest of a Lebanese man allegedly linked to Hezbollah and plotting an attack in Bangkok could hurt ties with Middle Eastern countries.