TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi raised the prospect of more cutoffs in oil sales to the European Union if the bloc failed to show some flexibility toward Iran ahead of a second round of nuclear talks next month. - Qassemi said that while Iran has cut sales to Britain and France, it continues selling crude to "other countries" in the world. In the last days of 2011, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran to penalize countries for importing Iranian oil or doing trade with its central bank. The US extraterritorial laws and pressures forced the EU member states to ratify in their meeting on January 23 and after months of debates to sanction oil imports from Iran and freeze the assets of Iran's Central Bank within the EU. The Iranian oil ministry in a statement in late January downplayed the effects of the US and EU's unilateral oil sanctions against Tehran, and said such embargoes will merely harm the European economies and oil consuming countries.

A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites. - Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created in their names, along with a Wikipedia entry and dozens of message board postings and blog comments. Websites were registered in their names. The timeline of the activity tracks USA TODAY's reporting on the military's "information operations" program, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan — campaigns that have been criticized even within the Pentagon as ineffective and poorly monitored.

Menwith Hill, the largest intelligence gathering and surveillance center outside the US, in the heart of the UK's Yorkshire Dales, is surrounded by protesters demonstrating against America's planned missile defense system. The local residents, often camping outside, have been joined by members of the global Occupy movement, supporting ongoing local efforts.

"It’s completely unaccountable, run by the NSA [National Security Agency], which is one of the most shadowy organizations in the world. It’s not even accountable to the UK government. The capabilities at Menwith Hill are worrying for our civil liberties. There’s whistleblower testimony that shows that what goes on there isn’t just political espionage, but commercial espionage too. And that’s before you even consider its implications on our civil liberties, that they can listen to our phone calls, intercept our emails," said Helen Alexander of the Occupy Leeds branch.

To keep up with new types of warfare, billions of dollars has been invested in Menwith Hill over the last decade. It has enabled the base to remain a vital component of the global US surveillance network. Comprised of 33 satellite dishes housed inside large golf-ball structures, the site has the technology to intercept telephone calls, faxes and emails from around the world. Menwith watcher and author of the 65-page report "Lifting the Lid on Menwith", Dr Steve Schofield believes it is providing information for special operations in around 100 countries – which he dubs an “unprecedented level of intervention.”

"The UK’s providing a facility here that’s involved in drone attacks that we know, from independent assessments, are killing and injuring thousands of civilians, and because of the covert nature of that warfare, it’s very difficult to provide information and accountability through the UK parliament. And yet these are acts of war. And normally when we have war, parliament should normally inform people that we’re involved in those. And we’re not being informed. We’re kept entirely in the dark about them."