UN's silence over Syrian opposition terrorism lays bare "international law's" illegitimacy. - Since 2011, reports of arsonists and gunmen amongst Syria's opposition have been included in reports regarding the unrest in Syria, albeit buried under sensational headlines of the Syrian government's "brutality." More recently, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has conceded that indeed the Syrian opposition "Free Syrian Army" is conducting widespread, systematic abuses including the kidnapping, torture, and murder of both security forces and civilians. The HRW report titled, "Syria: Armed Opposition Groups Committing Abuses," is broken into three parts; kidnapping, torture, and executions. And while the report attempts to focus mainly on atrocities carried out against security forces and government supporters, the mention of civilian victims is made as well.

Former PM Ehud Olmert and the recently-resigned Kadima leader Tzipi Livni have joined the chorus of past and present senior Israeli politicians criticizing the government and its warmongering policy against Iran. - Livni announced her resignation as leader of the centrist liberal Kadima party on Tuesday, saying in her speech that Netanyahu’s government is putting the existence of the Jewish state “in mortal danger” by ignoring growing international discontent. “Israel is on a volcano, the international clock is ticking and you should not be the ‘chief of Shin Bet’ to understand that. The real danger is a politics that buries its head in the sand,” Livni said.

A probe into the ‘Israeli’ Occupation Forces (IOF) airstrike that killed 21 members of a family in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead claimed on Tuesday that the bombing was not intentional and that civilians were not targeted during the operation.

The inquiry into whether the Zionist IOF committed criminal negligence and intentional targeting of civilians during the bombing that destructed the building in which the Samouri (Samouni) family lived in January 2009, resulted in the acquittance of those involved, according to a press release from the ‘Israeli’ rights group B' Tselem.

Military prosecutors responded in a letter to claims made by B' Tselem, saying that, during the probe, they had not found any evidence of negligence on the IOF's part.

"It is unacceptable that no one is found responsible for an action of the army that led to the killing of 21 uninvolved civilians, inside the building they were in under soldiers' orders, even if not deliberately," B'Tselem's head of research, attorney Yael Stein said.

■ The Samouni Family Response to Goldstone's Reversal
■ The Samouni Family Children – Survivors of the Israeli Massacre
■ Samouni Family Community Centre & Classroom
■ Family who lost 29 members in Gaza war: We envy the dead

VIDEO: Samouni Family Responds to Goldstone Backtrack on Israeli War Crimes
Haaretz: IDF closes probe into Israeli air strike that killed 21 members of Gaza family

1. Do you all enjoy sitting back and watching Americans kiss Israeli ass as much as I do? What amazes me is that after all these years they find new ways to do it. Of course the tried and true way to show that one has joined the caravan, so to speak, is to make a pilgrimage to Israel and openly support Israeli destruction of Palestinian society, Israeli ethnic cleansing and just about anything else that is immoral that Israel does. It’s a long list. Just ask Chris Christie. And now the serious Israeli ass-kissing is going to go into high gear to see who gets to be Romney’s partner at the big dance. We are in for a long, hot, Zionist-Bullshit-filled summer. Have fun.

François Hollande l’emporterait avec 54% (-0,5 point) des voix contre 46% à Nicolas Sarkozy, selon un sondage Ifop-Fiducial pour Europe 1, Paris Match et Public Sénat. - A la question: «au second tour de l'élection présidentielle, dimanche 6 mai, pour lequel des candidats suivants y a-t-il le plus de chances que vous votiez?», 54% des personnes interrogées répondent François Hollande et 46% Nicolas Sarkozy, dans cette enquête réalisée du 26 au 29 avril. Dans un précédent sondage réalisé le 20 avril, 54,5% des gens se prononçaient pour le candidat socialiste, et 45,5% pour celui de l’UMP.

Tourists puffed on spliffs in the streets of southern Dutch cities and defiant coffee-shops sold joints to visitors in protest against a ban on selling cannabis to foreigners which took effect on Tuesday. - In Maastricht, a short drive from both the German and the Belgian borders, protesters waved banners decorated with marijuana leaves and slogans such as "Dealers Wanted" and "Stop discrimination for Belgium". In the main square, a few hundred demonstrators staged a sit-in and about 50 openly smoked joints alongside a two-meter-(6 ft)-long fake spliff. The new law rolls back the Netherlands' traditionally relaxed attitude to narcotics and clamps down on the millions of foreign "drugs tourists" who flock each year to coffee shops, famed for dispensing soft drugs. From Tuesday, the cafes in three southern provinces close to the German and Belgian borders can only sell cannabis to registered members. Authorities say the move will reduce crime.

The Japanese owner of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was washed out to sea in the tsunami of March 2011 says its discovery on a remote beach on the West Coast of B.C. last week is a miracle.

The owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, a 29-year-old resident of the town of Yamamoto, in Miyagi Prefecture, was tracked down by a Harley-Davidson representative in Japan who saw the story, first reported by CBC News, in the media. A company spokeperson told CBC News they are now hoping to pay for the return of the bike to Yokoyama and to see if they can restore it for him. Yokoyama told Japanese television station NHK that the discovery of the motorcycle was miraculous and he wished to thank the B.C. man who found it personally, but so far he has only been able to do so on TV. He said he lost his home and three family members in the tsunami and is now living in temporary accommodation. The motorcycle was being kept at his house in the back section of a cube van that he was using as a storage shed when the tsunami struck.

Barack Obama has pledged America's continued support for Afghanistan as he flew to the country to sign a deal outlining the commitment after US combat troops leave in 2014. - The president's unannounced trip took place on the first anniversary of the alleged & unproven killing by US special forces of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Mr Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed the US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement in Mr Karzai's palace in the capital Kabul. The deal sets out the US relationship with Afghanistan beyond 2014, covering security, economics and governance. It is limited in scope but means Afghanistan is guaranteed its sovereignty, with a promise that it will not be "abandoned".

CBS News: Obama, Karzai ink partnership deal

Pakistan’s foreign minister says her country will not give in to foreign pressure from the United States which aims to make Islamabad give up Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. - Addressing a student gathering at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Hina Rabbani Khar emphasized that Islamabad will not give in to US pressures to mothball the project and will finish the huge pipeline project at any cost, the Urdu-speaking Nawa-e Waqt newspaper reported on Tuesday. Meanwhile, another Pakistani newspaper, The Express, quoted Rabbani Khar as saying that the completion of the IP pipeline project is in line with Islamabad’s national interests. She added that Pakistan is bent on pursuing its independent policies at international level and will finish the IP pipeline project “at any cost.”