This case could have been a slam dunk for the NYPD, had it not been for one thing: the video showing police claims of disorderly conduct during an OWS protest to be completely untrue. - Hundreds have been arrested during the Occupy Wall Street protests, but photographer Alexander Arbuckle’s case was the first to go to trial – and after just two days, the Manhattan Criminal Court found him not guilty. Supporters of the OWS protest movement have already hailed the ruling as a major legal victory. Arbuckle was arrested on New Year’s Day for allegedly blocking traffic during a protest march. He was charged with disorderly conduct, and his arresting officer testified under oath that he, along with the protesters, was standing in the street, despite frequent requests from the police to move to the sidewalk. But things got a little embarrassing for the NYPD officer when the defense presented a video recording of the entire event, made by well-known journalist Tim Pool. Pool's footage clearly shows Arbuckle, along with all the other protesters, standing on the sidewalk. In fact, the only people blocking traffic were the police officers themselves. His lawyers said the video proving that testimony false is what swayed the judge, and the verdict a clear indication that the NYPD was over-policing the protests.

Obama's drone war in Yemen is fast resembling the one in Pakistan. - Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed up to 12 civilians in southern Yemen on Tuesday, as the Obama administration’s escalated drone war in the unstable Gulf state begins to resemble the one in Pakistan more and more. Reports say up to 15 people were killed in a double air strike in the southern city of Jaar. Up to a dozen civilians were killed, along with 21 injured. The strikes were initially reported as a botched airstrikes by Yemeni airplanes, but Yemen officials later told the media that they had been U.S. drones. The initial strike allegedly targeted two suspected militants somehow associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The second strike was launched once rescuers and onlookers gathered around the impact site and was the source of most of the civilian casualties. This practice of “follow-up strikes” resembles policies in the drone war in Pakistan, apparently a hallmark of the so-called “signature strikes” President Obama recent approved for use in Yemen. Signature strikes are those that target unidentified individuals in unidentified groups that are not engaged in direct hostilities with the U.S., nor are they presenting any imminent threat the administration is willing to establish.

Ratko Mladic is appearing on trial in The Hague for the massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, the first act of genocide on European soil since the Nazi Holocaust.

• Detention camps 'part of system' of ethnic cleansing
• Video shown of Mladic boasting about snipers
• Notebooks reveal plan to 'divide or raze' Sarajevo
• UN prosecutor says sexual crimes were endemic
• Mladic makes throat-slitting gestures to woman in gallery

10.05am: Mladic made throat-cutting gestures to Munira Subasic, a woman who lost 22 relatives to Bosnian Serb military forces when the enclave of Srebrenica was overrun in July 1995, as she watched the trial from the glassed off public gallery. The UN judge warned Mladic that he would screen off his view of the public gallery after he responded with the provocative gesture to Mrs Subasic, aftre she had shaken her finger at him. "This is the biggest butcher of the Balkans and the world,” she said earlier. “I'll look into his eyes and ask him if he repents.”

[This video] shows an attack on a car of UN observers in Syria which is seemingly wounding or killing some civilians standing in front of the car. When the observers speed away to save themselves they seem to drive over some of those wounded or dead. The incident is said to have happened in Khan Sheikhun, a town in Idlib province said to be under opposition control.

The scenes of this low quality video will be controversial. One side will claim that it shows that some seemingly anti-Syrian government forces are trying to sabotage the UN mission by attacking the observers. The other will claim that some government agent did this. But the worst issue is that it will enrage both sides against the observers for panicking and driving over the wounded. There are four UN marked white cars in a city street with a dozen people around mostly in front of the first car holding it up. The observers are within the cars and ready to drive away. There are a lot of shoes lying in the street probably from an earlier demonstration against these observers. Suddenly a bang and smoke is coming from the front of the first car. As the smoke retreats on can see that the cars hood is partially blown up and that some people are now lying in front of the car likely wounded or dead. The first car tries to back up twice to turn but can not move much as the second car is immediately behind it. It then speeds forward and over the people lying on the ground. The second car follows. The third car which was standing a few yards behind follows too but manages to drive around the corpses. The fourth car which was standing immediately behind the third is speeding to overtake the third car and, probably not seeing them, also overruns the bodies.

Jason Ditz: Battles in Northern Syria: Rebels Capture UN Monitors
Fars News Agency: Syrian Terrorists Funded by Persian Gulf Arab States, Assisted by US
Russia Today: Syrian rebels bask in new guns

Gulf states are sending more weapons to Syrian rebels battling President Bashar Assad's regime with coordinated assistance from the United States, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. Obama administration officials denied the claims accusing the United States of supplying or funding lethal material, which includes antitank weapons, the report said. (Reuters, Al-Akhbar) - Instead, they claimed that the administration had expanded contacts with armed rebels to provide the Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure, the Post said. "We are increasing our non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing," said a senior State Department official. Material is being stockpiled in Damascus, in Idlib near the Turkish border and in Zabadani on the Lebanese border, according to the Post. Opposition activists who two months ago said the rebels were running out of ammunition reported this week that the flow of weapons — most still bought on the black market — has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other autocratic Gulf states to provide monthly funding amounting to millions of dollars. Syria's Muslim Brotherhood – based in Turkey – also said it has opened a supply channel to the rebels, using resources from wealthy individuals and money from Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

PressTV: Foreign states behind Syria terror acts: Russian deputy FM

[Source] The House panel that controls military expenditures proposed a net increase of $874 million for weapons over the Pentagon's budget plans for the year starting Oct. 1. The largest amounts that the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee added in producing a $102.4 billion procurement request were $562.4 million to buy 11 additional Boeing Co. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets and $447 million to buy seven more Lockheed Martin Corp. C-130J transport planes, according to the defense panel's report obtained today... The panel recommended adding $848.9 million for Israel's missile defense, including $680 million for the Iron Dome system and $111.4 million for a system called David's Sling.

AWIP: Panetta, Barak to Announce More US Military Aid to Israel

On the 8th May 1987, Eight Volunteers of East Tyrone Brigade Oglaigh na hEireann were executed by British State Forces while on active service at Loughgall. As part of a number of events to mark the 25th anniversary, friends and comrades of those brave volunteers gathered at the Republican memorial in Cappagh Co.Tyrone to remember their sacrifice in the cause of Irish Freedom.

Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks and her husband, Charlie, are two of six people charged yesterday in connection with the News of the World phone hacking scandal. - The six face prosecution over conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, with charges relating to hiding material from Scotland Yard detectives that include seven boxes from the archives of News International, other documents, computers and electronic equipment in July last year. The maximum penalty for perverting the course of justice is life, but generally involves sentences of several years.

The Guardian: Rebekah Brooks charged with perverting the course of justice - Video

Under the spotlight again, Greece is now at the brink of an exit from the European Monetary Union (EMU). Breakdown in coalition talk further puts pressure on the euro. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is calling the vote a "referendum on whether the country stays in the euro" as noted in Bloomberg.com. If the re-election puts an anti-bailout parilament leader in charge ie. Evangelos Venizelos of the socialist Pasok party, we can expect direction of a Greek Exit (Grexit). Greek bank run fears are surfacing as well. According to President Karolos Papoulias's website, "Anxious Greeks have withdrawn as much as 700 million euros ($893 million) from the nation's banks since the inconclusive May 6 election". Just the prospect of a Grexit can cause a run on the banks because the exit would shut out funding except from the ELA as noted on ZeroHedge.

The Telegraph: Greece on brink of collapse
TEC: The Bank Runs In Greece Will Soon Be Followed By Bank Runs In Other European Nations

El portavoz del primer ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ofir Gendelman, ha informado a la agencia de noticias Maan de que el Gobierno hebreo ha aceptado entregar los cuerpos en un gesto de buena voluntad hacia la Autoridad Palestina, ya que su papel ha sido clave para acabar con la huelga de hambre. - Israel tiene cientos de cadáveres de palestinos en lo que llama el Cementerio de los Combatientes Enemigos, conocido por los palestinos como el Cementerio de los Números. Anteriormente, un miembro de Hamás apuntó que, como parte del acuerdo, Israel también se ha comprometido a presentar cargos en contra de los presos palestinos o liberarlos, a terminar con su confinamiento en solitario y a permitir a los gazacíes que reciban visitas de sus familiares. A cambio, ha explicado Gendelman, los presos palestinos se han comprometido a deponer la huelga de hambre, a no planear ningún ataque contra Israel y a no reclutar a otros para que lo hagan. El portavoz de Netanyahu ha advertido de que, si los presos palestinos incumplen alguna de las condiciones, el acuerdo se cancelará inmediatamente. El acuerdo es fruto de las negociaciones entre el Shin Bet –el servicio secreto israelí para su territorio y los territorios ocupados–, las autoridades egipcias y la Autoridad Palestina, según ha informado el diario ‘Yedioth Aharonoth’.

Police Brutality has always been taboo in the United States and the rest of the world. It is our job as the law abiding citizens of the nation to shed light on this subject and put an end to its abuse. Slides includes images of victims

He was the spitting image of the killer, had the same first name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour: Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price and was executed in place of someone else in Texas in 1989, a report out Tuesday found. - Even "all the relatives of both Carloses mistook them," and DeLuna was sentenced to death and executed based only on eyewitness accounts despite a range of signs he was not a guilty man, said law professor James Liebman. Liebman and five of his students at Columbia School of Law spent almost five years poring over details of a case that he says is "emblematic" of legal system failure. DeLuna, 27, was put to death after "a very incomplete investigation. No question that the investigation is a failure," Liebman said.

Los Tocayos Carlos: Did Texas execute an innocent man?