Syrian state TV says two bomb attacks have been carried out in the capital, Damascus, killing at least 55 people and wounding nearly 400 others.

The “terrorist attacks” were carried out in the al-Qazzaz district of Damascus early on Thursday, the state TV said. On May 9, a bomb attack also targeted a Syrian military truck escorting a convoy of UN observers near the southwestern city of Dara’a. Six Syrian soldiers were wounded in the attack. Head of the UN mission Major General Robert Mood was also in the convoy, but neither he nor any of the other monitors sustained injuries. The latest attacks in Damascus were conducted ten days after the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 people were killed and scores of others injured in two bomb attacks against the Air Force Intelligence headquarters and the Military Intelligence building in the northwestern city of Idlib on April 30. The latest attacks in Damascus were conducted ten days after the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 people were killed and scores of others injured in two bomb attacks against the Air Force Intelligence headquarters and the Military Intelligence building in the northwestern city of Idlib on April 30.

Webster Griffin Tarpley/PressTV: 'NATO-backed death squads basic cause of Syria unrest'‎ - VIDEO

Speaking at a press conference today, Philippines Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said that the US was obliged to provide full military protection to all of the Philippines’ territorial claims in the South China Sea. - Gazmin said that both Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had recently pledged that the US would honor the 1951 military pact. The treaty obliges both sides to fight wars to protect whatever either of them considers a part of their “territorial integrity,” which would include disputed islands in the South China Sea. A number of unpopulated islands in the South China Sea are disputed, mutually claimed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and/or Indonesia. In general, the US has been supporting the claims of the last three, while accusing China of provocation with their own claims.

Paul Craig Roberts: Brewing a Conflict with China
Peter Symonds: US-Philippine military exercises directed against China

Reports in the Israeli media claim that the US Congress has agreed to allocate an extra $1 billion for the development of Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defence system. Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth pointed out that the total American defence budget is around $608 billion. - The newspaper added that Congressman Steve Rotman announced the allocation while claiming that the Iron Dome system will enable Israel "to defend its citizens" against a missile threat. At the same time, he said, Israeli leaders will have the necessary strategic space to carry out appropriate operations "to fight and eliminate terrorism". Rotman drew attention to the fact that this is the largest amount of US aid to be approved this year under the heading "bailouts". Last month Congress approved a bill to double US aid for the Iron Dome system to $680 million. This was approved by the Armed Services Committee in the Senate, and was added to the $250 million approved by President Obama.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has warned that the strategic pact with the US will be meaningless if the US continues killing Afghan civilians. Political analyst Ahmed Quraishi told RT that Karzai is learning the hard way he cannot trust US forces.

RT: Just a week after Obama visited Afghanistan to confirm his future commitment to the country, we have yet more news of civilian deaths at the hands of the US military. Just how strong do you think this partnership really is?

Ahmed Quraishi: I think president Karzai will have to learn the hard way that he cannot trust commitments by the US military and the CIA. And when we talk about President Karzai, let’s talk about someone else in Kabul who was complaining quietly about the latest attacks that killed Afghan civilians. I’m talking about American diplomats who actually negotiated the instituted partnership agreement and memorandum of understanding last week that enabled Obama to say that he is moving forward in Afghanistan. Now, the American diplomats in Kabul are complaining quietly the CIA and the US military by taking actions such as the ones that kill Afghan civilians are undermining the entire body of work, a very hard work over several months that led to the partnership agreement. And today we have the news that the American ambassador here in Pakistan has actually cut short his assignment here and flown back to Washington because basically the American diplomats here too are complaining that the US military and the CIA are out of control. They do the hard work; they try to work with the Afghan government and the Pakistani government. But when it comes to the US military and the CIA, they destroy everything. So basically what you see happening right now in Kabul is that President Karzai is in the same position as the US State Department and the US diplomats are in Kabul, which is basically: they cannot trust the US military, they cannot trust the CIA.

RT: You are blaming or these Americans who are working in Afghanistan are blaming the military and the CIA. I was under the impression that the most recent deaths and the most recent trouble were due to unilateral drone strikes. But you are saying it is much bigger equation than just that?

AQ: You have to understand one thing: NATO probably has not much to do with these civilian Afghan deaths. It is the US military and the CIA that is running the drones program. And basically actions by the US military and the CIA drag the entire NATO and also the American diplomats and their allied Afghan government into trouble with the Afghan people. So basically the main problem, the major problem in Afghanistan and also in Pakistan by the ways is the US military and the CIA. They are out of control.

The controversial government proposals to increase digital surveillance were announced in the Queen's Speech on Wednesday, British media reported. The Home Office wants powers to monitor internet traffic, known as communications data, to keep track of "serious criminals and terrorists". - However, the measures were described by civil liberties campaigners as a "Snooper's Charter" and a "dangerous" invasion of privacy:

"We're really worried about these new plans for internet snooping, they represent a huge increase in the amount of surveillance government has that are really not appropriate”, said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group. "People need to be suspected before they're surveilled - that's how the law should work, but what the government's saying is: 'Were going to treat you all as suspects, and ask you to trust us not to abuse that data”, added Killock. "These are very dangerous measures - they cross a line, they take us from targeting people that we suspect, to targeting everybody and really lowering the barriers of what the government can find out about you without going through a court."

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (03 – 09 May 2012)

Shooting: In the West Bank, IOF wounded 12 Palestinian civilians, including two children, in the West Bank. Eleven of these civilians, including a child, were wounded during the dispersion of peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank, and in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who have been on hunger strike. Dozens of civilians also suffered from tear gas inhalation. On 04 May 2012, a Palestinian child was wounded when IOF fired at a funeral procession in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron. In the Gaza Strip, on 05 May 2012, Israeli naval troops arrested two Palestinian fishermen in Gaza City, but released them later. During the reporting period, Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in Khan Yunis on 5 occasions. On 05 May 2012, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast of Khan Yunis opened fire at Palestinian agricultural land in al-Qarara village. As a result, a camel was killed.

Portugal has taken austerity measures to a new level with the decision to scrap four of its 14 public holidays. - Two religious festivals and two other public holidays will be suspended for five years from 2013. The decision over which Catholic festivals to cut was negotiated with the Vatican. Portugal has already cut public sector wages and raised taxes to reduce its budget deficit and deal with its economic crisis. The country agreed a 78bn euro bailout deal with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund last year and recently passed the latest review of its spending cuts.

Underwear bomb edition. If 'al Qaeda' in Yemen has a bomb undetectable by airport security devices, the joke that we'll all have to strip down completely to get on a plane has become a reality. Thanks go out yet again to the War For The Jews known colloquially as the 'War On Terror'.

■ "Did Another Saudi Double Agent “Tip” Us Off to a “Plot” Against America?"
■ "Plot Shows War On Terror Failure"
■ "Guess which one"
■ "The double agent"

Yahoo: U.S. to resume military training in Yemen
Yahoo: FBI chief urges US Congress to renew wide-ranging surveillance power in "counterterror probes"
Jason Ditz: FBI: Fake Underwear Bomb Plot Proves Need for Warrantless Surveillance

Stephen Lendman: Another Foiled False Flag - Big lies substitute for truth. Stories are fabricated. Media scoundrels promote them. At issue is heightening fear for planned policies. Pretexts are needed for militarism, imperial wars, and homeland repression. If and when people learn they were duped, it's too late to matter. It's an American tradition. Incidents are strategically timed. Innocent victims suffer. So does everyone living under heightened national security state conditions. Threats are manufactured. States of emergency are declared. Rule of law principles are discarded. Unchallenged dominance alone matters. Wars on humanity follow. Big lies facilitate them. False flags play their part.

Bill Van Auken: The political uses of the latest “terror plot” - One day after publicly announcing that the CIA had foiled an Al Qaeda plot to bomb a commercial airliner, US officials revealed Tuesday that the would-be bomber was in fact an informant working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence. This turn of events is in line with so many domestic terror plots “disrupted” by federal authorities, which—in the overwhelming majority of cases—have featured confidential informants acting as agent provocateurs, instigating stage-managed plots and providing targeted patsies with money, dummy bombs and fake weapons before they are rounded up. Thus, the “war on terror”, in the form of the reported bomb plot, is being utilized to justify yet another US war, this time in Yemen. The country is of great strategic concern to the US, as it commands the choke point between the Red and Arabian Seas, a key oil shipping route, and borders Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer.

New report criticises Western forces for bombing civilian targets in Sirte during conflict. - An independent report published by Middle Eastern human rights groups says there is evidence that war crimes and human rights violations were committed by all the participants – Nato, rebel forces and those loyal to Colonel Gaddafi – in last year's Libyan uprising. The report, published today by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights together and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights with the International Legal Assistance Consortium, follows extensive fact-finding work carried out by law and war crimes experts. While the document stresses that findings are not conclusive, it adds weight to growing concerns about violations committed by all sides in the conflict.