The program was broadcast for the first time in March 2003 just a few hours before Britain launched a criminal war against Iraq. Seemingly, the BBC knew who was possessing WMD in the region.

Three US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan after a bomb struck a US patrol in the Panjawi district of the country's southern province of Kandahar, Press TV reports. - The US soldiers were on patrol when the blast occurred on Thursday. The southern regions of Afghanistan, including Kandahar, are among the most dangerous parts of the war-ravaged country for the US-led foreign troops. Insecurity continues to climb across Afghanistan despite the continued presence of nearly 130,000 US-led forces in the Asian country. According to the icasualties.org website, at least 130 US-led troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year. The rising number of military casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger in the US and other members of the Western military alliance of NATO, undermining public support for the US-led war.

There have been contrasting reactions to Charles Taylor's conviction for aiding an abetting war crimes in the two countries most closely associated in the case. - As the BBC's correspondents in the region report, Taylor is a divisive figure. In Sierra Leone, where thousands were caught up in a vicious civil war, and where forces loyal to Taylor carried out widespread abuses of human rights, there was satisfaction. But in Liberia, where Taylor ruled until he was deposed nine years ago, there were some angry scenes.

A military judge refused on Wednesday to throw out the charges against Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of providing thousands of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks in the biggest leak of government secrets in the country's history. - Colonel Denise Lind, the judge presiding over Pfc Manning's court-martial, denied the defense motion to dismiss all 22 charges during a pre-trial hearing. Pfc Manning is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website run by Julian Assange. The US government says the publication of that material online aided al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The defense has filed several motions seeking dismissal of individual charges, including the most serious, aiding the enemy. The offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

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BBC: Spain's stolen babies and the families who lived a lie
Daily Mail: 50-year scandal of baby trafficking by the Catholic church in Spain
Daily Beast: Spain’s Baby-Snatching Scandal Focuses on Nun’s Alleged Role
ARGENTINA: Daughter of ‘Dirty War,’ Raised by Man Who Killed Her Parents

Russia's outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday said his job swap with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will assure a continuity of power that lasts "a long time" despite anger on the street. - Medvedev told the nation ahead of Putin's May 7 inauguration to a third term as president that he initially bristled at the idea of being viewed as the weaker link of a leadership "tandem" with his mentor Putin. But Russia's only president to serve a single term – a lawyer by training whose liberal leanings brought initial hopes of political change – said he soon got used to the idea and now felt perfectly comfortable being politically wedded to Putin.

"There is nothing unusual about this," Medvedev said in the live studio interview. "We have laid out a certain future. So you should relax. This is all for a long time," said Medvedev.

The comments will confirm suspicions among some liberals that Medvedev has only paid lip service to reform causes since entering the Kremlin in 2008, while in fact ensuring the preservation of the status quo.

With the current Administration’s Agenda 21 focus on destroying the natural food and herb industry, is it not unsurprising to see unconstitutional terrorist legislation used on innocent, law abiding citizens? - Monsanto’s Food and Drug Administration can’t close down small dairies and private food clubs fast enough, bursting on the scene with guns drawn as if the criminalized right to contract for natural foods we’ve consumed for millennia deserves SWAT attention. Now, Obama has the Dept. of Justice going after small farmers under the post-911 “Bank Secrecy Act” which makes it a crime to deposit less than $10,000 when you earned more than that.

The retired top CIA officer who ordered the destruction of videos showing waterboarding says in a new book that he was tired of waiting for Washington's bureaucracy to make a decision that protected American lives. [Sociopath] Jose Rodriguez, who oversaw the CIA's once-secret interrogation and detention program, also lashes out at President Barack Obama's administration for calling waterboarding torture and criticizing its use. "I cannot tell you how disgusted my former colleagues and I felt to hear ourselves labeled 'torturers' by the president of the United States," Rodriguez writes in his book, "Hard Measures."

Glenn Greenwald: Crime boasting for profit

PETE SEEGER’S MUSIC TO BE FEATURED AT OSLO HATE TRIAL

Thousands of Norwegians will take to the streets of Oslo on Thursday to sing a children’s song calling for peace and fraternity, in a protest against mass killer Anders Behring Breivik who has called it Marxist brainwashing. They plan to sing arm-in-arm a few blocks from the courthouse where Breivik is on trial for the killings of 77 people in a gun and bomb rampage last year. “I grew up with this song and have sung it to my child,” said Lill Hjoennevaag, one of the organizers of the demonstration. “Everybody I know feels strongly about this song and we need to take it back,” she told public broadcaster NRK. Lillebjoern Nilsen’s “Children of the Rainbow”, a Norwegian rendition of American folk singer Pete Seeger’s 1971 “My Rainbow Race”, is a popular song in Norway. “Breivik has used it as an example of brainwashing, but it is rather an example of the opposite,” said Christine Bar, another organizer, who launched the event on Facebook. (Junge, Heiko/NTB scanpix)

The first story was shaky from the start, that Sgt. Robert Bales "sneaked" off a combat outpost into hostile, landmined territory in the middle of the night, walked north a little over a half mile to a village, engaged in bloody murder, then walked back that half mile, past the base, and another mile south, killed more people, then turned himself in at the gate, all within an hour. Sharp-eyed bloggers did the math and recalled from other reports that Bales has part of a foot missing from a wound in Iraq, making the feat all the more remarkable. Among the dead were a number of children, including a two-year-old.

Following last week's eviction of the Palestinian Natcheh family from their Beit Hanina home, Israeli Knesset members Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad visited the house now inhabited by some eight settlers. To mark the occasion they posted a picture of themselves lounging on the Natcheh's sofa on Facebook.

"We are at the start of the establishment of a new Jewish neighborhood in the area, which will create a continuous sequence of Jewish neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem," said Eldad to the settler online mouthpiece, Israel National News. "Only the stubbornness of the Jewish landowners and Aryeh King of the National Land Redemption Fund ultimately led to the achievement of the day and we are confident law enforcement agencies will be required from now on to remove Arab squatters from all the properties of the Jews in the area." Ben-Ari and Eldad "affixed mezuzahs" inside of the house, rituatlistically marking the takeover.

The Knesset ministers hope to judaize Beit Hanina, though historically there have never been Jewish residents in this East Jerusalem neighborhood. On Facebook, Ben-Ari said the settlers will build 50 new housing units on the property. Ben-Ari and Eldad are both members of the right-wing National Union party. Previously, Ben-Ari was a member of the now illegal Kach party.

Army major's despair at our 'pointless war': Senior officer's damning emails reveal plummeting morale at heart of Afghan campaign that has cost 409 British lives. - They are stark words that reveal the despair of our forces fighting in Afghanistan. Emails sent to a former military chaplain paint a damning picture of sinking morale among Servicemen who feel the human cost of the conflict can no longer be justified. Dr Peter Lee, a university lecturer who spent seven years as an RAF padre, has released the emails to highlight the extent of disillusionment within the ranks. The correspondence includes two emails sent by a major on the brink of a fresh deployment to the region. He likens the prospect to ‘being put on for the last two minutes of a lost game’ of rugby.

Britain’s economy is “deeply dependent upon debt” as no money is used in any kind of production, business or job creating activity, a British economist tells Press TV. - The comment comes as Britain's economy has slumped back into recession after its gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Britain's GDP has fallen 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012, adding to a 0.3 percent contraction at the end of 2011. A recession is defined as two straight quarters of contraction, and these new figures will be a deep blow for Britain's Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition, which has slid in opinion polls. Press TV has conducted an interview with the CEO of Bank of the Future, Simon Dixon, to discuss the issue further. The program also provides the opinions of two additional guests: international economist with Fundacion Alternativas, Manuel De La Rocha and the director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Larry Birns.

Great news: Connecticut has become the 17th US state to abolish capital punishment. Thank you Connecticut for joining the majority of countries in the world in rejecting the death penalty! - Killing prisoners is not justice; it is an abuse of basic human rights. It also does nothing constructive for the victims of violent crime, their families or their communities. By abolishing the death penalty, Connecticut has become a leading example of respect for human rights in the US. Globally, Connecticut joins 141 countries (over two-thirds of the world’s nations) in rejecting the death penalty. Express your gratitude to Connecticut’s leaders, including Governor Dannel Malloy, who fought hard for this bill to pass. Sign on to our letter of thanks! Read More