Prosecutors of a New York courthouse say the grand jury finds no “reasonable cause” to indict the officers, who shot dead a black man and former Marine in his apartment last November, Press TV reports. - District Attorney Janet DiFiore called the shooting of the former US Marine a “tragedy on many levels.”“It’s really hard to indict an officer, police officer in connection with the killing of a black man” US Civil Rights Attorney and Chamberlain family's lawyer, Randolph Mclaughlin said. Officer Anthony Carelli, an officer since 2004 who is also on trial in a separate police brutality case, shot 68-year-old veteran, Kenneth Chamberlain on November 19, 2011 after an hour-long standoff with police. Chamberlain was shot and killed by Carelli after he and several other officers were sent to his apartment after his medical-alert pendant went off and he failed to respond to calls from medical-alert agency operator.

PressTV: Black man's cries tell US cop brutality - Video

My father, world-renowned virtuoso violinist and teacher Roman Totenberg, whose professional career spanned nine decades and four continents, died early Tuesday morning at the age of 101.

His death was as remarkable as his life. He made his debut as a soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic at age 11, performed his last concert when he was in his mid-90s, and was still teaching, literally, on his deathbed. This week, as word flew around the musical world that he was in renal failure, former students flocked to his home in Newton, Mass., to see the beloved "maestro."

He was a caring and wise father not just to us, his three daughters, but to literally thousands of students around the world who had studied with him. I dare say there is not a major orchestra in Europe or the U.S. that does not have at least one student who studied with him. When Wang, who is 40-something with a husband and two children of her own, left our house on Sunday, she said to my brother-in-law Ralph, "Now, I finally have to be a grown-up."

Washington Post: Violin teacher Totenberg dies in Mass. at 101
Wikipedia: Roman Totenberg
Video: BU celebrates Professor Emeritus of Music Roman Totenberg's 90th Birthday.

We don't look like people who have won a war. We look like scared, fearful, losers. - The rise of this national security state has entailed a vast expansion in the government’s powers that now touch every aspect of American life, even when seemingly unrelated to terrorism. Some 30,000 people, for example, are now employed exclusively to listen in on phone conversations and other communications within the United States. In the past, the U.S. government has built up for wars, assumed emergency authority and sometimes abused that power, yet always demobilized after the war. But this is, of course, a war without end.

Glenn Greenwald: The American character

The incident did not come to light until the governor in Helmand Province made a public accusation

The U.S. military has claimed responsibility for an airstrike that killed six innocent members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan and pledged a formal apology would be forthcoming. The attack took place on Friday and was revealed publicly by the governor of Helmand Province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal on Monday. The U.S. almost immediately confirmed Mangal’s accusation, which makes it seem like they knew about it before he went public. The episode raises questions about how many such cases of civilian killings the U.S. military commits in Afghanistan that aren’t investigated and brought to light by corrupt and inept Afghan authorities. In fact, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Helmand, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton, after admitting to Mangal’s charges said American officials had been unaware of the civilian deaths and claimed an investigation had been initiated. But the people of Afghanistan and the United States were kept in the dark.

Bill Van Auken: US bombings kills dozens of Afghan civilians

At this year's Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Warren Buffett, the billionaire CEO and the world's 2nd richest man defended his call for higher taxes: "When Charlie [Munger, billionaire Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway] and I took this job, we did not decide to put our citizenship in a blind trust." No, indeed. They put their assets in trusts, so they can forever avoid taxes while preserving their own tax preferred status. Paying taxes is for suckers. But all that changed at this year's annual meeting. Buffett insists that even billionaires should pay a minimum tax. If necessary--and in his case it is--the tax should be retroactive.

Adnan Al-Daini: In Praise of Taxation

In Calcutta, she commended India for "working to lower purchases of Iranian oil" and hoped it would do more. India has been facing pressure to buy less Iranian oil amid sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, which Tehran says is for civilian purposes. She said other supplies of oil were available to India. "Saudi Arabia and others are putting more oil into the market," she said. Mrs Clinton's visit to India is the final stop on a three-nation tour which also took her to China and Bangladesh.

Iran is accepting renminbi for some of the crude oil it supplies to China, industry executives in Beijing and Kuwait and Dubai-based bankers said, partly as a consequence of U.S. sanctions aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear program.. - Tehran is spending the currency, which is not freely convertible, on goods and services imported from China. Most of the oil that goes from Iran to China is handled by the Unipec trading arm of Sinopec, China’s second-largest oil company, and through another trading company called Zhuhai Zhenrong, the oil industry executives said. The trade is worth as much as $20 billion-$30 billion annually according to industry estimates, but a share of it is in barter form. Zhuhai Zhenrong, for example, pays Iran for its oil by providing services such as drilling, these people add.

“The global financial crisis accelerated the shift from the west to the east,” said the chief executive of one bank in Dubai. “Such measures [as the U.S. sanctions against Iran] will now enhance the acceptability of the renminbi as a transaction currency.”

CNN: Iran accepts yuan for crude oil

Greece's commitment to austerity is no longer valid because voters have rejected those deals, a left-wing party leader declared Tuesday as he tried to form a new coalition government. - Alexis Tsipras, head of the Radical Left Coalition that came a surprise second in Sunday's tumultuous election, called upon Greece's two main party leaders to renege on their support for the multibillion-euro international bailout that is keeping Greece afloat. "There is no way we will sneak back in again what the Greek people threw out" in the election, he said, referring to resented austerity measures that have slashed incomes since early 2010 and led to record high unemployment.

If and when there ever comes a time when Libyan rebels face charges for their own crimes against humanity, it will be muted, to some degree, by a protective new law issued by Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council (NTC). It was issued on May 3rd, alongside new laws punishing officials of the former government and barring anyone from “glorifying” the old order. Jordan Times, among other media outlets, have reported on this:

“There is no punishment for acts made necessary by the February 17 revolution,” read the law published on the National Transitional Council’s (NTC) website. The immunity covers “military, security or civilian acts undertaken by revolutionaries with the aim of ensuring the revolution’s success”, the NTC added.

I wanted to link right to the NTC’s posting, but all I could find was their old abandoned site without a single update for a year now. I even tried Arabic translations, site-specific searches, and found nothing, though I’ll trust the Jordan Times and others here and move on.

Yeah, that might have something to do with it. Maybe. In the wake of the financial disaster in 2008, which is still unfolding in case you haven’t noticed, federal prosecutions of financial crimes are at a 20 year low. That is a remarkable stat. Could the fact that financial firms dumped piles of $100 bills on Obama’s head in 2008 have anything to do with the lack of prosecutions? No way. Attorney General Eric Holder says simply that though Wall Street may have acted stupidly, he just can’t seem to find any fraud. And that all the big banks are clients of Holder’s law firm—a law firm that at least partially specializes in financial crime defense? That has nothing to do with the lack of prosecutions either. There are just too many pot dispensaries in California to bust, and Mexican drug lords to arm, for the American people to expect the enforcement of financial crimes from their attorney general. I mean wasn’t Maddoff enough to placate you hicks in the hinterlands? You don’t expect us to throw Corzine under the bus too do you? Because that ain’t gonna happen.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said her country would go after "terrorists" in Pakistan if they posed a threat to America, Afghanistan or their allies in the region. - At a joint press conference with Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna after their meeting on the last day of her three-day visit to India, Clinton said the US was committed to going after terrorists in Pakistan.

PressTV: 'Terror drones violate Pakistan’s sovereignty’
PressTV: US ambassador to Pakistan says will step down

The U.S. government has issued an arrest warrant for an American citizen who is seeking asylum in Sweden after he went public with allegations of illegal detention and torture while in the United Arab Emirates – which he believes was carried out at the behest of the FBI. In newly filed documents, the U.S. government charges that Yonas Fikre, 33, an Ethiopia-born resident of Portland, Ore., was involved in money transfers set up to avoid U.S. reporting requirements. Two weeks ago, Fikre went public with his story of alleged mistreatment by the FBI, and claims that he was detained and tortured in the UAE at the behest of the U.S. government.

An American author says Israel is a threat not only to the innocent people of the Middle East but the entire world and “if this evil is not stopped, all will be lost.”

“Christianity has been corrupted by Zionist interests and is now being used as a tool in infecting the rest of the world,” Mark Glenn, from the Crescent and Cross Solidarity Movement, wrote in a letter addressed to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Glenn said the Zionists are trying to pit the Christians and Muslims against each other, in what has become the “clash of civilizations,” through corrupt media, corrupt culture, immorality, war, economic exploitation, and a whole host of other diseases. “Their goal is obvious - to see these two peoples destroy each other so that like some vulture she can pick the carcasses clean for herself,” Glenn said. He further asked for an extensive interview with the Iranian president on issues ranging from the Israeli plots for the Middle East and how it is trying to bring its “evil desires” about, such as war and terrorism etc., to the conspiracies that the US and Israel have committed against Iran since 1953 to the commonalties between Islam and Christianity. Israel is widely known to be the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Tel Aviv began building its first plutonium and uranium processing facility, Dimona, in the Negev desert in 1958.

The Ugly Truth (Mark Glenn's website)

GAZA (PIC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross expressed, on Monday, its worry about the health conditions of the hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails, especially those striking since twenty-one days. - Ayman Shihabi, the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, told "AFP" of the committee’s concern for the hunger strikers’ health conditions, especially those striking since a long time. Shihabi also confirmed that “the International Committee of the Red Cross visit these detainees to check on their health condition and to ensure that they are receiving necessary medical care -according to international standards applicable in the case of the hunger strikes”. He added that the “Red Cross regularly holds non-publicized bilateral meetings with the concerned [Israeli] authorities to discuss the results of those visits.” He further explained, "The International Committee communicates with the hunger strikers’ families to reassure them about their sons," adding that "the International Committee of the Red Cross reminds the Israeli authorities with their obligations and duties in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention."

Daily Mail: 1,600 on hunger strike and the world doesn’t even bat an eyelid
PIC: Haneyya calls for sending international fact-finding committee on prisoners
Khalid Amayreh: We must not betray our imprisoned martyrs