Palestinians pressured not to seek international probe into Arafat's death: "The United States has put pressure on the Palestinian leadership not to seek such an investigation because it can lead to some negative consequences on the Middle East peace process". - The Palestinians' efforts to launch an international probe into the 2004 death of ex-leader Yasser Arafat face serious obstacles, a Palestinian official said Tuesday. The obstacles stem from the opposition by some countries including the United States and France, the official said on condition of anonymity. The United States has put pressure on the Palestinian leadership not to seek such an investigation because it can lead to some negative consequences on the Middle East peace process, which has been stalled since 2010, according to the official. The amount of pressure mounted on the Palestinian leaders might foil their efforts to stage an international probe into Arafat's death, the official added. The debate about ex-leader's death renewed last week after Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera aired an investigative report indicating that Arafat was poisoned with toxic radioactive polonium.

AWIP: Arafat was nuked by Israel - Video
AWIP: Yasser Arafat poisoned by polonium: Report

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in Mexico City on Saturday to protest against Enrique Peña Nieto's apparent win in the country's presidential election, accusing his party of buying votes and paying TV networks for support.

Demonstrators were angered by allegations that Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI) gave out groceries, pre-paid gift cards and other goods to voters before the national elections on 1 July.

Students, unionists and leftists in Mexico City carried signs reading: "Peña, how much did it cost to become president?" and "Mexico, you pawned your future for 500 pesos."

Officials estimated about 50,000 demonstrators gathered at the central Zocalo plaza. "The fraud was carried out before (the election), buying votes, tricking the people," said Gabriel Petatan Garcia, a geography student who carried a sign in Finnish. Protesters also carried signs in English, Japanese, French, German and other languages to call the attention of the international press.

Stephen Lendman: PRI Regains Mexican Presidency
Russia Today: Peña Nieto protesters take over Mexico City - Video
Al Jazeera: Thousands protest Mexico's president-elect - Video

The Reykjavík District Court has ruled that Valitor, formerly known as VISA Iceland, violated contract laws by blocking credit card donations to Wikileaks, according to a press release posted on the whistleblowers' Twitter account. - The court also ordered that the donation gateway should be reopened within 14 days otherwise Valitor will be forced to pay a fine of $6,200 daily. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said "This is a significant victory against Washington's attempt to silence WikiLeaks. We will not be silenced. Economic censorship is censorship. It is wrong. When it's done outside of the rule of law its doubly wrong. One by one those involved in the attempted censorship of WikiLeaks will find themselves on the wrong side of history." The blockade stripped away over 95% of donations from supporters of WikiLeaks, costing the organization in excess of $20 million.

Prisoners were interrogated while drugged in a cruel form of psychological manipulation. - Detainees inside the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay were forcibly injected with powerful “mind altering drugs” and then interrogated, according to a declassified report obtained by Truthout through a Freedom of Information Act Request. Some of the drugs, which included intoxicating anti-psychotic sedatives, ”could impair an individual’s ability to provide accurate information,” according to the report written by the Pentagon’s inspector general. The detainees were often not told what medications they were receiving and a number of them were deliberately tricked into believing they had been drugged with “truth serum,” in what Truthout calls “a form of psychological manipulation.”

The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said.

The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

Each submersible is about 4 feet long and weighs less than 100 pounds. The craft are intended to boost U.S. military capabilities as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program appear to have stalled. Three rounds of talks since April between Iran and the five countries in the United Nations Security Council plus Germany have made little progress.

Some U.S. officials are wary that Iran may respond to tightening sanctions on its banking and energy sectors, including a European Union oil embargo, by launching or sponsoring attacks on oil tankers or platforms in the Persian Gulf. Some officials in Tehran have threatened to close the narrow waterway, a choke point for a fifth of the oil traded worldwide.

Russia has dispatched eleven warships to the eastern Mediterranean, some of which will dock in Syria, in Moscow’s latest attempt to display Russian power in the region and ward off a Western intervention in Syria. - About half of the ships are capable of carrying hundreds of Russian Marines, although its unknown if any forces are set to go ashore after docking at Russia’s naval base in Tartus. The announcement came just one day after Russia officially said it would halt all new weapons sales to Syria. Russia has provide arms and backing to the regime of Bashar al-Assad throughout the 16-month long conflict. Sending naval vessels, as Russia has done periodically throughout the past, seems an attempt to reassure the US and its allies that Moscow still plans to block any attempt to intervene militarily against the Assad regime. Russia’s main concerns regarding Syria is that Washington will try to usher in regime change, and possibly military intervention, and exploit any political transition for their benefit, thus stamping out Russia’s valuable Middle Eastern ally.

The extra personnel, the equivalent of an infantry brigade, means that 20,000 servicemen and women will be on duty - that is a fifth of the Army. - Pressure is growing on the Home Secretary to explain how a blunder over security at the Olympic Games has caused thousands of military personnel to be drafted in at the last minute. The armed forces have been told to find an extra 3,500 personnel to protect the London Olympics to cover a shortfall in recruitment by a private security firm just a fortnight before the opening ceremony.

The US says it has been worried by a Russian bill that would force non-governmental organizations (NGOs) financed by other states to register as "foreign agents." - "The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to be heard and have a voice in government. That's why we've raised our concerns about the potential passage of this new NGO legislation," said Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the US Department of State. The comments came after Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has passed the bill in its first reading. The bill, if passed in the second reading of the state Duma on Friday, would force the NGOs to publish a report of their activities twice a year and carry out an annual financial audit. The founders of the non-governmental organizations would face four-year jail sentences and/or fines of up to 300,000 rubles (USD 9,200) if they failed to comply with the law. The legislation is expected to be reviewed by the Federation Council upper house on July 18.

At least 76 people have been injured in Madrid as clashes flared up between protesters and police, the latter using rubber bullets. Thousands of Spaniards turned out against new cuts introduced by the government.

Those injured include 33 police officers and 43 protesters – miners and their supporters. Minor arrests have been made so far, with eight people being detained. Three of those arrested reportedly threw bricks at police, local El Pais newspaper reported. The police have confirmed that there were no miners among the arrested.

Protesters panicked and sought shelter as police began to disperse the crowd, Olvidio Gonzalez, 67, a retired miner from the northern Asturias region told AP.

“We were walking peacefully to get to where the union leaders were speaking and they started to fire indiscriminately,” said Gonzalez, who was also struck by a rubber bullet. Witnesses and demonstrators claim that police started the attack without any warning. "We were eating quietly when they began to appear with several police vans. Then we started to shout and some threw a few bottles, which gave rise to the charge," Hermann, a miner from the small town of Langreo in northern Spain, told El Pais.

About 200 people remained surrounded by dozens of police in front of parliament, Twitter user Danips posted on his microblog.

American security wants to deploy laser scanners, which would discretely screen people for traces of explosives, drugs and gunpowder without their consent. They would even look through clothes from up to 50 meters away. - The device is being developed by Genia Photonics, producer of advanced picosecond fiber-based laser systems for spectroscopic applications, reports Gizmodo. The work is funded by the Department of Homeland Security through the non-profit venture capital firm In-Q-Tel and may result in a workable product as early as two years’ time. The rack-mounted scanners may be installed at airports, stadiums and other locations as soon as available. The machine shoots very short pulses of laser beam to cause vibration in molecules and detects the signature of the optical signal it produces. The technique allows detection of trace amounts of the chemicals it is adjusted to find.

European Jewish and Muslim groups have joined forces to defend circumcision for young boys on religious grounds after a German regional court ruled it amounted to bodily harm. - A joint statement says the practice is fundamental to their faiths and calls for it to be awarded legal protection. The ruling by the Cologne court - also criticised by the Israeli parliament - does not apply to the whole of Germany. But Germany's Medical Association told doctors not to perform circumcisions. Thousands of Muslim and Jewish boys are circumcised in Germany every year. The unusual joint statement was signed by leaders of groups including the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, the European Jewish Parliament, the European Jewish Association, Germany's Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs and the Islamic Centre Brussels. "We consider this to be an affront (to) our basic religious and human rights," it said.