Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the Florida Republican presidential primary Tuesday, defeating his closest rival, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, by 47 percent to 32 percent. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum received 13 percent while Texas Congressman Ron Paul trailed with 7 percent. - Voter turnout in the state was likely to fall below the predicted level of two million. With 96 percent of the precincts reporting, just over 1.6 million votes had been counted, suggesting the final total would be around 1.7 million. That would be a drop of about 15 percent from the approximately two million who voted in 2008, when Romney lost the state to the eventual Republican nominee, John McCain.

NYT: Romney Wins Big in Florida Primary, Regaining Momentum
LA Times: Mitt Romney's savage attack machine wins Florida primary

A review by Tasmania Police has exonerated the actions of officers who twice strip-searched a 12-year-old girl during a drug raid. - Deputy Commissioner Scott Tilyard has finished a review of police actions during the raid on Wednesday at Rokeby on Hobart's eastern shore. The girl was searched in a bedroom of her house with her mother present. No drugs were found on her. Mr Tilyard says a review was conducted rather than an internal investigation because the facts did not suggest any of the officers involved had acted unlawfully. The review found both searches were justified based on the behaviour of the girl and others in the house at the time. Mr Tilyard says the officers involved have his full support.

One 'Wanted Militant' Slain, Rest Termed 'Al-Qaeda'. - At least 12 people, and by some accounts as many as 15, were killed today in Yemen after being attacked by US drones. The attack targeted vehicles in the nation’s contested Abyan Province. Preliminary reports indicate that one of the slain was a “wanted militant” named Abdel-Munem al-Fatahani, while local tribesmen said four of them were “al-Qaeda leaders” in the area. The targets were apparently affiliated with either the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) or the Ansar al-Sharia. Reports termed everyone suspects.

Pakistan dismissed claims made in a classified NATO report that it is aiding Taliban guerrillas in neighboring Afghanistan, a study that also said the militants may again take power in Kabul once foreign troops leave in 2014. - “For me this is old wine in an even older bottle,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said at a press conference in Kabul today. “I don’t think these claims are new. I can just disregard this as potentially strategic leak.” A report by senior NATO officers in Afghanistan says the Taliban are unbeaten and “its strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remain intact,” the London-based Times said today. The report, entitled “State of the Taliban,” was based on 27,000 interviews with detainees and has been reviewed by the newspaper, according to the Times.

During a broadcasted meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA Director, panel Chairperson indicate they met Tamir Pardo in Washington this week; U.S. official: [allegedly] Iran willing to attack U.S. targets if threatened. - The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel. During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors.

The Independent: Israel sets up elite command unit to strike behind 'enemy' lines

The ANSWER Coalition is calling on everyone to join a demonstration or to organize one on the National Day of Action on Saturday, February 4, to demand: “No War on Iran, No Sanctions, No Intervention, No Assassinations.” The call is sponsored by scores of progressive organizations. - In Washington, D.C., we will gather at the White House on Feb. 4 at 12 noon. A list of events taking place on or around Feb. 4 in cities across the country can be found here. If you or someone in your area is organizing an event on or around Feb. 4, please provide us with the event details so we may publicize it on our website and future emails. Below is an instructive fact sheet developed by the ANSWER Coalition that breaks down the propaganda campaign against Iran carried out by Washington and the corporate media. Please share this with friends, family and co-workers via email and social networking sites.

UK, London: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange attends a debate on the subject of whistle-blowing with prominent public figures on secrecy and transparency issues at Kensington Town hall in central London on April 9, 2011.

Russia Today: Sweden unbiased? Assange appeals extradition [01 February, 2012]

The Western-backed overthrow of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi likely provided huge stocks of heavy weapons to terrorist groups and criminal organizations operating in the Sahel region of North Africa, the United Nations confirmed January 26 in a report. Among the groups benefiting from the arms are al-Qaeda and the deadly Islamic terror organization Boko Haram, which is currently on a killing spree in Nigeria. The UN report explained that “due to the Libyan upheaval ... governments in the region are faced with the return of millions of economic migrants, the smuggling of weapons from Libyan stockpiles, terrorist activities, youth unemployment, trafficking in drugs and human beings, and a surge in criminality,” the international body summarized in a press release on its findings.

The Israeli prison service (IPS) carried detained Islamic Jihad leader Sheikh Khader Adnan to hospital after deterioration of his health condition, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement on Tuesday night. - It recalled that an IPS committee told the prisoner that in the event he continued to refuse liquids it would force feed him, after which Adnan opted to drink water and a potassium pill. Adnan is expected to appear in court on Wednesday to look into his lawyer’s demand for his release or to endorse an administrative detention ruling. Lawyer of the association said that the prison administration told her that Adnan decided to refrain from having liquids in protest against depriving him of meeting his lawyer. She added that the administration decided to force-feed the detainee if his condition worsened.

PIC: Israel to break Adnan’s hunger strike by force
Stephen Lendman: Khader Adnan Mohammad Musa: Israeli Prisoner of Conscience

Electronic Intifada: Protesters attacked, injured during commemoration for Palestinian teen murdered by Israeli settlers

In an effort to appeal to right-wing sentiments ahead of an election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has reinstated subsidies for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and appointed a panel in an attempt to legalize illegal settlements. [...] These latest moves are helping to break down recent low-level peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials. ”They are adding obstacles at a time when everyone is intensifying efforts to try to resume peace talks,” said Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib. “I think with every additional settlement activity, the feasibility of having two states is diminished.”

More news on the progress of 'the Machine', this time about the British visitors to the United States who were arrested and deported for some previous joking tweets:

"If the story is true (and, given that it comes from the Daily Mail, which never lets the facts get in the way of marshalling popular outrage, that is a considerable 'if'), it implies two things:

a. The US border control agency (not the CIA or NSA or some other super-elite agency that hunts threats through the shadows, but the guys who scan passports) has a feed of intelligence gathered from the public Twitter feeds of anyone seeking to enter the US (and possibly other social media connected to their identities). This has a number of implications: where does the data come from? Is it just what is publicly linked to the poster's profile online, or does it come from clandestine sources (i.e., a list of user-generated content sites posted to from the visitor's home internet connection, as hoovered up by ECHELON)? Is there some NSA supercomputer quietly building up profiles on several billion internet users, with parts of these being sent to border security if some other part of the surveillance apparatus detects a keyphrase (say, the words "destroy America") in a feed linked to a particular individual?
b. Given the nature of the tweet (which any reasonable person, had they overheard it in a pub, would conclude was a joke), it implies that, as far as the US Department of Homeland Security is concerned, the entire internet is an airport security zone, where joking about, say, carrying bombs or even an absurdity such as destroying America (how exactly would one go about accomplishing this?) is a punishable offence. There is a reason why joking about bombs at airport security screening lines is prohibited; namely that constraining the allowed range of behaviours whilst passing through a security checkpoint allows the checkpoint to operate. This rationale doesn't extend to applying the same rules to any idle banter uttered by a traveller within earshot of electronic intelligence gathering apparatus, and immediately punishing wisecracks."

They've developed a cover story to protect 'the Machine', as we're not supposed to know about it until the enslavement is complete.

Russia Today: British tourists imprisoned and deported from US… for Twitter jokes

British monarchy and government insist on their colonial stand, after planning to dispatch an advanced warship and an heir to throne to the “occupied” Malvinas Islands, fuelling speculations that it is considering a war against Argentina over the archipelago.

British government has announced that it was deploying its most sophisticated warship, destroyer HMS Dauntless, and the Duke of Cambridge to the South Atlantic to secure its last colony in Latin America.

Analysts condemned UK's decision, believing the move will also send a powerful message to the Argentina government that who acts as the “colonialist.” Argentina government expressed dismay over the war policy of the British government, condemning the deployment of the warship and the planned tour of duty of Prince William in the occupied Falklands islands while wearing “the uniform of the conqueror.”

PressTV: Argentina raps UK militarizing Malvinas

Pfizer Inc. is recalling 1 million packets of birth control pills because of a packaging error that could leave women with an inadequate dose of the hormone-based drugs and raise the risk that they will get pregnant accidentally. - The problem affects 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer and marketed in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products under the Akrimax Pharmaceuticals brand. Pfizer found that some packets of the drugs had too many active tablets, while others had too few. Oral birth control products use a series of 21 drug tablets and 7 inactive sugar tablets to regulate the menstrual period while providing contraception. A company spokeswoman said the problem was caused by both mechanical and visual inspection failures on the packaging line. She said the problem has been corrected.

In 1994, in Trondheim, five-year-old Silje Redergard was beaten to death by two little boys. Today, the girl's family still suffers and one of the boys is in trouble again – the echoes of the Bulger case are clear. So why has the public reaction in Norway been so startlingly different? - On the afternoon of 15 October 1994, three young children, a girl aged five, and two six-year-old boys, were playing on a football field covered in freshly fallen snow. Their parents were neighbours who did not know each other, but the children had played together before. The three had been making "snow castles", until the fun stopped. Nobody knows why. A childish disagreement? A tantrum, perhaps? Whatever it was it triggered a reaction in the boys that devastated a family and the community. At some point while playing, the boys turned on the little girl, punching and kicking her and beating her with stones before stripping off her clothes. Then they ran away, leaving her to die in the snow.