Two foreign soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed during an operation in eastern Afghanistan, said the alliance on Monday. - According to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement two of their helicopters crashed in eastern Afghanistan on the same day, but there were no causalities in one of the mishap. However, ISAF did not pinpoint the exact location nor revealed the nationality of the dead soldiers, in line with its policy. “The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash,” said ISAF statement. The aircrew and passengers from the first ill-fated chopper were safely transported to a nearby ISAF’s military base. The two soldiers lost their lives in the second crash.

US reports on world’s human rights but doesn’t include its own. - The US’s Department of State has released its annual report on the state of human rights around the world. A weighty document, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011 covers in detail 199 countries, though not the US. Called an ‘invaluable reference point’ by human rights activists, the report painstakingly breaks down each country’s human rights record for that year. The report is not brazen propaganda for America’s allies. [...] In Pakistan up to 659 people died in US done strikes in 2011 according to Bureau research. However in the 2011 report, the US Department of State identifies among the most serious human rights problems in the country were ‘extrajudicial killings’ committed by the government or its agents.

Despite ongoing negotiations with the Pakistani government aimed at reopening the border to Afghanistan, the rate of the US drone strikes against North Waziristan Agency seem to be increasing, not decreasing.

Today, drones followed up the late-night attack on Hasso Khel, which destroyed a house and killed seven unidentified people, with another attack in Datta Khel, which killed five more bringing the toll to 12 in the last 24 hours, and 16 over the weekend. The victims of today’s attack were not clear either, as it attacked a seemingly random vehicle and charred the bodies beyond recognition. Officials have termed all 16 slain, including the four bakery customers killed Saturday, "suspects" based purely on the fact that they got hit with the missiles.

Pakistan’s parliament has repeatedly demanded that the US end its drone campaign, and has summoned US envoys over the failure to do so. President Obama has ruled out ever ending the strikes, insisting that they are vital to his ongoing wars.

Jason Ditz: Pakistan Cancels High-Level CIA Talks

We’re joined at the NATO summit in Chicago by Scott Olsen, who survived two tours in Iraq but almost died when he was hit with a police projectile at an Occupy Oakland protest last year. Olsen returned four of his medals at Sunday’s antiwar march. When asked why he’s joined the Occupy movement and is protesting against the heavily policed NATO summit, Olsen says, "I’m going to make every effort I can to show them that we’re doing the right thing, we’re in the right, and no matter what they do to any of us, we’ve got each other’s backs, and we’re going forward." Click here to see the other parts of our 2012 Memorial Day Special: 1, 2, 4, 5. [VIDEO][includes rush transcript][H/T: The Healing Project]

Military's delay in searching through files and handing them over is denying Manning a fair trial, defence attorney argues.

Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of being behind the biggest leak of state secrets in US history, is being denied a fair trial because the army is withholding from him crucial information that might prove his innocence or reduce his sentence, his defence team is arguing. With Manning's court-martial approaching in September, his legal team has released details of what they claim is a shocking lack of diligence on the part of the military prosecutors in affording him his basic constitutional rights. The stakes are high, with Manning facing possible life imprisonment for a raft of charges that include "aiding the enemy". Manning's main civilian lawyer, David Coombs, has filed a motion with the military court in Fort Meade, Maryland, that sets out a catalogue of delays and inconsistencies in the army's handling of the case.

The Amnesty International 2012 annual report was released on Wednesday. The report is highly critical of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, charging that the Israel Defense Forces frequently uses excessive, sometimes lethal, force against demonstrators in the West Bank and civilians in Gaza. The IDF this year has killed 55 civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, including 11 children, the report said. The report charges that Israeli authorities were prolonging the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip with the continued implementation of blockade.

Amnesty International: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories - Road to Nowhere
Stephen Lendman: Daily Kristallinacht in Palestine

An illegal network of organ harvesters and traffickers, which exploits both the organ donors and recipients, has been uncovered in Israel. - According to Ha’aretz, at least 10 Israeli citizens were arrested for membership in the organ trafficking gang. Investigation into the ring began after representatives of several countries contacted the Israeli authorities and provided them with the names of suspects, who are all Israeli citizens. In a November report, CNN said that the organs of the individuals trying to enter Israel from the Sinai desert had been trafficked. The Italian New Generation Foundation for Human Rights and the Everyone Group has presented evidence indicating that Sinai locals harvest the organs of the people they transfer to Israel. In this connection, a number of mass graves have been found containing the corpses of Africans who were missing some of their organs.

Police in Quebec have arrested almost 700 in the latest demonstrations against the government's plan to increase tuition fees. The protests came despite a new law restricting freedom of assembly in the Canadian province.

A growing social crisis in the Canadian province of Quebec claimed its second political victim on Thursday, when Premier Jean Charest sacked his top aide, replacing him with a former chief of staff. It's believed that Daniel Gagnier's main job will be to attempt to find a way of ending months of student unrest on Quebec's streets. The move came just hours after police arrested almost 700 demonstrators in the mainly French-speaking province's two major cities, Montreal and Quebec City, the website of Canada's public broadcaster, CBC reported.

Top Israeli officials have refused to meet the US envoy to the P5+1 group, who arrived in Jerusalem with a report on recent talks with Iran. The diplomatic démarche comes as relations between the two countries strain over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. - Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman arrived in Israel on May 25, a day after the group of six (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany) ended their unsuccessful negotiations in Baghdad. She had intended to brief Israeli officials about negotiations between Iran and the P5+1. But both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak became unexpectedly unavailable to meet her.

Russia Today: Deal or no deal, Iran may be bombed – Israeli minister

The Vatican's inquisition into the source of leaked documents has yielded its first target with the arrest of the pope's butler, but the investigation is continuing into a scandal that has embarrassed the Holy See by revealing evidence of internal power struggles, intrigue and corruption. - The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it's serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency. - The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents including correspondence, notes and memos to the pope and his private secretary. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation on Saturday Pope Benedict XVI's own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff's No 2.

"If you wrote this in fiction you wouldn't believe it," said Carl Anderson, a member of the board of the Vatican bank which contributed to the whirlwind with its no-confidence vote in its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. "No editor would let you put it in a novel."

Reuters: Vatican leakers say cardinals among plotters in scandal

Department of Homeland Security forced to release list following freedom of information request. Agency insists it only looks for evidence of genuine threats to the U.S. and not for signs of general dissent. - The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S. The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'. Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats. The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.

A number of children have been killed as well. (AFP/Scanpix)

A team of UN observers deployed in Syria to monitor a shaky truce arrived on Saturday in the town of Houla, site of a massacre "by regime forces" in which at least 90 people died, monitors said.

"A team of UN observers arrived in the village of Taldau (on the outskirts of) Houla, to document the crimes committed in the past 24 hours, in violation of the ceasefire," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "Syrian regime forces" have massacred more than 90 people, including 25 children, in Houla, in the central province of Homs, the Britain-based watchdog said. The violence caused residents to flee for safety, the monitoring group noted. "Many people are fleeing Taldau village in Houla," the Observatory said, adding that residents feared new attacks on the town, in the central province of Homs. Amateur videos posted on YouTube showed horrifying images of children lying dead on the floor, with some of their corpses badly mangled. At least one child had had part of his head blown off.

Al Jazeera: Syrian activists condemn Houla massacre

A US assassination drone strike has killed four people and injured several others in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area of North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan. - The US drone fired two missiles at a house near the city of Miranshah early Saturday, killing four people and injuring several others, security officials said. The offensive came only two days after another US drone targeted a mosque in the Hassokhel town east of Miranshah early Thursday, where at least ten people were killed. In a similar attack, five other people were killed and several more injured on Wednesday in the tribal area.

Ontario students have pledged to take to the streets in solidarity with their protesting fellows in Montreal and other cities of Quebec. The students are defying emergency laws the authorities are imposing to curb down the wave of dissent.

Students in Quebec have been protesting for more than 100 days now, with violent clashes between police and protesters reported on several occasions. The latest demo on Wednesday night resulted in a police crackdown on demonstrators. About 700 people were detained throughout the province, which pushed the total number of detentions over the months over 2,500. That is at least five times more than during the 1970 crisis, when martial law was declared in Quebec in response to the actions of radical nationalists. The protest against the hike of tuition fees was mainly focused in the province’s largest city Montreal, but it is now spreading outside of Quebec. A group of students the neighboring province of Ontario pledged their support of the movement Friday.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is speaking out against Bill 78 which restricts the freedom of expression and association of all students and citizens of Quebec.

■ This bill violates democratic traditions both in Quebec and Canada. Premier Charest will only succeed in aggravating the situation, by provoking students and their allies who oppose tuition fee hikes.
■ The Bill violates the fundamental rights of Quebec citizens to peaceful public demonstration and to free association. The Bill will prevent all well-intentioned citizens from participating in demonstrations for fear of committing an illegal act. Bill 78 will effectively make every protestor legally responsible for illegal acts committed by a small number of individuals during a legitimate protest. This approach in no way resolves the crisis but rather inflames an already tense situation throughout Québec.
■ As well, Bill 78 abolishes any presumption of innocence afforded to citizens and thus violates the right to due process. Under Bill 78, if criminal acts are committed by individuals during legal demonstrations, organizers will be presumed guilty of those offences. In other words, protest organizers will have to prove their innocence before a court of law.

Stephen Lendman: Social Justice on Trial in Canada
Keith Jones: Quebec police mount mass arrests in bid to break student strike
Keith Jones: Quebec: Huge protest supports striking students, denounces Bill 78
Andrew Gavin Marshall: 10 Things You Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement

As Greece prepares for elections on June 17 amid an overwhelming popular rejection of austerity, the ruling class is making secret preparations for a military crackdown against the workers. - What has been imposed in Greece, under the diktat of the “troika”—the European Union, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—is barbarity on a scale unseen since the Nazi occupation. An official at Greece’s official statistics bureau said last week: “By the close of 2012, we estimate the economy will have shrunk by a total of 27 percent since the start of the recession five years ago... That’s almost a third. It’s completely unprecedented for an advanced Western economy.”

In the run-up to new elections in Greece, the German elite is discussing various scenarios involving the use of force to ensure control over Athens, including the establishment of a protectorate or the deployment of "protection forces" in that southern European country. The German austerity dictate, pushing Greece into destitution, is provoking growing popular resistance, which, apparently, can no longer be suppressed with democratic means. Berlin has failed in its efforts to force Athens into subordination by threatening to withdraw the Euro, as much as with its demand that Greece combines its parliamentary elections with a referendum on the question of remaining in the Euro zone. Berlin categorically rejects the option of retracting the austerity dictate and replacing it with stimulus programs, as is being demanded by leading economists world wide, even though the exclusion of Greece form the Euro zone threatens to push the currency, itself, into an abyss. A Greek government spokesman confirmed that Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Greek President Karolos Papoulias last Friday to implement the German plan for a Greek referendum, whereas in November 2011, Berlin briskly rebuffed the Prime Minister at the time, Giorgos Papandreou, when he publicly announced his proposal to hold a referendum. This led to his demise. Berlin's open interference is met with outrage in Athens.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother...

A leather-bound religious text, thought to date from the fifth century but discovered only 12 years ago, will cause the collapse of Christianity worldwide, claims Iran. The book, written on animal hide, apparently states that Jesus was never crucified and that he himself predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, according to the the Iranian press. Written in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the gospel even predicts the coming of the last Islamic messiah, the report adds. Turkish authorities believe it could be an authentic version of the Gospel by Jesus's disciple Barnabas, and the Iranian press report has claimed that its contents will trigger Christianity's downfall by proving that Islam is the final and righteous religion. Others have dismissed the Iranian claims as 'laughable' anti-Christian propaganda. The Basij Press claims the text was written in the 5th or 6th century and it predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad and the religion of Islam. It says the Christian world denies the existence of such a gospel. Turkish authorities seized the text in 2000 in a crackdown on a gang who were charged with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations and the possession of explosives. But excitement at the find only peaked in February this year, when it was reported that the Vatican had made an official request to view the book. It is not known whether the request was granted.

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement, wrote in his book “The King’s Torah” that even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation. - Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs.

“It is permissable to kill the Righteous among Nations even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” he wrote, adding: “If we kill a Gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments – because we care about the commandments – there is nothing wrong with the murder.”

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that the footprints of "established terrorist groups" can be seen in the recent bomb attacks in Syria. - In a letter to the Security Council on Friday, the UN chief said that the size and sophistication of some recent bombings in the Middle Eastern country suggest the involvement of terrorist groups. "The (Syrian) Government asserts that such groups are active in the country, as do some opposition groups. The al-Nusra Front has claimed responsibility for at least six of the recent bombings," Ban said. He urged member states not to supply arms to the government or armed groups in Syria. He also added that supporting any side with weapons and military training jeopardizes a sustained cease-fire.

MEK winning support in Congress – but questions raised over whether lobbying campaign amounts to support for terrorism.

Among those under investigation are the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Hugh Shelton, the former FBI director, Louis Freeh, and Michael Mukasey, who, as attorney-general, oversaw the prosecution of terrorism cases. The heavyweight political backing for the MEK has surprised some US officials because of the organisation's past as a Marxist-Islamist group responsible for the killing of Americans. At one time the MEK supported the Islamic revolution in Iran. Later it allied itself with the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The group was banned in 1997.

PressTV: Israel funds terrorist MKO: Investigation - The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986 where it enjoyed the support of the executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp, known as Ashraf, near the Iranian border. The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and carrying out massacre of Iraqi Kurds. The terrorist group has as well conducted numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials. Israel has been funding the MKO for the past two decades in return for the organization’s providing Tel Aviv with intelligence, security and, if required, operational services.

Even if President Obama wanted to, it would be almost impossible for his administration to come to an agreement with the Iranians on this issue in a presidential election year. The big campaign money is vehemently pro-Israel, and so is the core leadership of the Democratic party. Being "pro-Israel," in this context, doesn’t merely mean wishing the Jewish state well, or even sending billions in "aid" money at a time when our budget deficit is measured in the trillions. It means using US military forces to fight Israel’s wars. It means spilling American – and Iranian – blood. It means a war that will spread throughout the Middle East, send oil prices skyrocketing, and send the global economy – already reeling from instability – hurtling into the abyss of a worldwide depression.

Stephen Lendman: Iran Nuclear Talks in Baghdad
PressTV: Iran: Nuclear energy for all, atomic weapons for no one

Last night I had to flee a raging mob not too far from my home in south Tel Aviv. After long speeches of incitement by right-wing parliamentarians, the masses stormed after me and a fellow journalist, and then turned on African asylum seekers, their businesses and their homes. This is how it happened. - It started out as a fairly quiet demonstration – or demonstrations, to be precise. One small demonstration took place in Shapira, my neighborhood, where several weeks ago an Israeli young man threw Molotov cocktails into asylum seekers’ homes. The dominant discourse here was, as is typical of the neighborhood, more moderate, and focused on blaming the government (and not the asylum seekers) for local hardships in south Tel Aviv.

The continuously expanding Surveillance State in the United States is easily one of the most consequential and under-discussed political developments. And few are doing more to ensure it continues than top-level Obama national security officials. - Perhaps worst of all, the Obama administration is aggressively seeking to block any efforts to have federal courts rule on the constitutionality of [the] new FISA law. Immediately after its 2008 passage, the ACLU, on behalf of journalists, activists, and writers, sued to invalidate the law on the ground that it violates the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans by subjecting them to warrantless eavesdropping. As they always do in such cases, the Bush and Obama DOJs demanded dismissal of the suit on the ground of “standing”: namely, they asserted the definitively Kafkaesque claim that because the list of Americans who have their conversations intercepted is kept secret, the plaintiffs cannot prove they were eavesdropped on under the law, and thus lack “standing” to challenge it.