Early Friday, several websites owned and operated by the US government were defaced as part of latest protest against online censorship. Anonymous, the elusive hacktivist group known for masterminding similar assaults, is taking credit. - At least half a dozen federal websites belonging to the United States government were disrupted in the latest Anonymous-led assault this week. The US Federal Trade Commission was the primary target of the infiltration, and along with it Anonymous managed to take down the sites for National Consumer Protection Week as well as the Consumer Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission and others. In place of the websites’ traditional homepages, Anonymous operatives left a message to the US government and other international bodies: world leaders should rethink the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA — an in-the-works agreement between more than a dozen major nations. Should ACTA pass, a new series of laws could crackdown on Internet freedom by internationally imposing sanctions on ISPs and casual web surfers who are alleged to engage in copyright infringement. In a missive posted on the homepages of the government sites, Anonymous warns that the passage of the bill would bring forth a firestorm of opposition from the hacktivists, who make claims to have already compromised a trove of data from federal employees linked to ACTA, including personal correspondence, passwords and bank account info.

Banner in Arabic, top, reads: "The prisoners were and
still are a symbol of steadfastness and tenderness, let
us stand by their side.". (M. Ballas/AP/SeattlePI)

Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya said he gave instructions to the ministry of foreign affairs to carry out intensive contacts with different Arab and European official parties to help get hunger striker Khader Adnan released from Israeli jails.

Following the Friday prayers in the Omari Mosque, Haneyya affirmed he delegated the foreign ministry in Gaza to contact and send letters to the Arab League, the organization of Islamic cooperation, the UN, the Arab and Islamic ministers of foreign affairs, and some European officials to urge them to intervene with regard to the issue of prisoner Adnan. He stated that the Palestinian government cannot forsake its prisoners from the Palestinian people who go on hunger strike to protest the injustice inflicted upon them by the occupation.

Stephen Lendman: Solidarity with Khader Adnan

Jason Ditz: 62 Days in: Palestinian Hunger Striker in Failing Health - Khader Adnan Being Held Without Charges - His hunger strike protest has moved into the 62nd day today, and reports say that Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan is wheelchair bound and in increasingly failing health. Doctors say he could die at any moment. Adnan was captured by Israeli forces on December 17 and ordered into four months of “administrative detention” in a prison. There are no charges against him, nor are any expected, as the Israeli policy does not require any.

In Pakistan’s tribal areas, the sight of US drones flying overhead has been an ongoing source of anger, with Pakistan’s central government insisting they never authorized them. Recently in Iraq, the US has come under criticism for using the existence of an embassy to justify nationwide drone surveillance. Now, attention has turned to Syria, where US officials admit that military and spy drones are operating in Syrian airspace, presumably without Assad government permission, and with not even an embassy as a pretext. Officials say that the drones are being used to gather evidence to “make the case for a widespread international response” against the Assad government. So far that effort seems to be going very poorly for them, as the UN Security Council resolution was vetoed by Russia, and the Arab League’s calls for invasion are unlikely to even secure a vote at all.

PressTV: Report: US military drones operating over Syria

Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel. - "Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces," a source in the canal authority said Friday. The destroyer and a supply ship could be on their way to the Syrian coast, the source added. Iran and Syria agreed to cooperate on naval training a year ago, and Tehran has no naval agreement with any other country in the region.

PressTV: Iranian naval ships dock at Syria’s Tartus port: Report
Jason Ditz: US Officials: Military Action Against Iran Likely

The industrial street in Fallujah District is subject to a radioactive contamination resulting from military operations that were carried out in the past years, a source told Alsumaria stressing that health authorities fear the outbreak of cancer diseases as a result of this contamination. - “Two metal pieces were the reason behind closing all shops in the industrial street of Fallujah District,” the source revealed. Regardless of how much the aforementioned statement sounds weird, it actually occurred when health groups in Anbar Province carried out a scan operation, in cooperation with the provincial Environment Department, where they discovered radioactive materials. This contamination is the result of military operations led in 2003 and 2004 by US forces, authorities in charge of the scan declared.

AWIP: Fallujah babies: Under a new kind of siege

German President Christian Wulff has resigned over claims he abused his position before becoming head of state. - The country's opposition party had called on Mr Wulff to step down from the largely ceremonial role after state prosecutors asked parliament to end his legal immunity over accusations he accepted undue privilege. Installed in the post in 2010, he has been criticised over the past two months in a scandal over money, power and political favours. It has been alleged he accepted favours when he was premier of the state of Lower Saxony.

Security forces arrested 20 key Islamist figures in Baku in a new wave of intensifying repression of the opposition, specially Islamists, in the Caucasian state. - According to FNA dispatches, in the latest wave of arrests, Azeri security forces arrested 20 prominent Islamist activists and scholars in Nardaran neighborhood in the capital, Baku. The move by the Azeri government is aimed at exerting pressure and intimidating opposition figures. The Azeri government has also raised fabricated allegations to arrest Islamist figures and decrease Islamic activities by the overwhelmingly Muslim nation. The Baku government claims that a majority of those arrested have been involved in drug-related activities and keeping narcotics in their homes.

PressTV: Azerbaijan safe haven for Mossad terrorists: Report

America has become crazed with Islamophobia, many politicians have come out and used Islam as a scapegoat. All of this hate has produced an outburst of arson attacks on mosques, campaigns to stop their construction, and the branding of the Muslim-American community, overwhelmingly moderate, as a hotbed of potential terrorist recruits.

PressTV: Muslims suffer abuse, monitoring in US - VIDEO