US warship fired on a boat after it ignored "warnings" off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. - The USNS Rappahannock fired on a vessel after it ignored warnings and rapidly approached the ship, the US Navy says. There is no confirmation of casualties although a UAE official said an Indian fisherman had been killed and three more wounded. The US has increased its presence in the Gulf after Iran renewed threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz. In a statement, the US Navy in Bahrain said that a security team on board the refuelling ship fired on a small motor boat after it disregarded "warnings" and "rapidly approached" the US ship off the coast of Jebel Ali, near Dubai, UAE. "In accordance with navy force protection procedures, the sailors... used a series of non-lethal, preplanned responses to warn the vessel before resorting to lethal force," the statement said.

Russia Today: US Navy ship opens fire in Gulf killing one

Do you want to see where this country is headed? If so, don't focus on the few areas that are still very prosperous. New York City has Wall Street, Washington D.C. has the federal government and Silicon Valley has Google and Facebook. Those are the exceptions.

The reality is that most of the country has been experiencing a slow decline for a very long time and once thriving cities such as Gary, Indiana and Flint, Michigan have become absolute hellholes. They are examples of what the rest of America will look like soon. 60 years ago, most Americans were decent, hard working people and there were always good jobs available for anyone that was willing to roll up his or her sleeves and put in an honest day of work. But now all of that has changed. Over the past decade, tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities have shut down and millions of jobs have left the country. Cities such as Cleveland, Baltimore and Detroit were once shining examples of everything that was right about America, but now they stand out like festering sores. The "blue collar cities" have been hit the hardest by the gutting of our economic infrastructure. There are many communities in America today where it seems like all of the hope and all of the life have been sucked right out of them. You can see it in the eyes of the people. The good times are gone permanently and they know it. Unfortunately, the remainder of the country will soon be experiencing the despair that those communities are feeling. The following are 12 hellholes that are examples of what the rest of America will look like soon....

Turkish PM Brands Massacre That Didn't Happen 'Genocide'. - This biggest news this weekend has been out of the village of Tremseh, in Hama Province, where claims of a massacre by the regime and “pro-govt militias” has been solidly discredited, with the death toll dramatically lower than what was claimed and all but a handful of the dead combatants. Which ruins the story of war enthusiasts, who within moments were calling the deaths a “massacre” and were citing it as proof of the need for an immediate regime change, installing the rebels in place of the regime. Or at least you’d think so, but despite the massacre having been discredited, stories of a “terrible bloodbath” continue to be pumped out, as do calls for using Tremseh as a justification for intervention. The news that the “massacre” didn’t happen appears to have been entirely lost on Turkish Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan, who is still railing on about it and calling it “genocide” and vowing to see Assad “pay” for it.

Stephen Lendman: Strategically Timed Syrian Massacre
Niall Green: Washington seizes on alleged massacre in Syria to promote war
Justin Raimondo: Syrian 'Massacre': Another Tall Tale

New fighting was reported in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Monday, a day after the government denied that it had used heavy weapons to attack a small farming community, where United Nations monitors documented substantial destruction in an assault that left scores dead and drew sharp international condemnation. - On Sunday, some of the heaviest fighting yet experienced in Damascus erupted in a neighborhood about a 20-minute drive southwest of the city center, with activists calling it the first time government forces have shelled rebel holdouts in the capital. The fighting continued on Monday, residents and activists said, while inconclusive diplomatic efforts to find a way out of the crisis seemed certain to run into renewed Russian resistance to any outcome that aimed at pressuring President Bashar al-Assad to leave office. In advance of a visit by Kofi Annan, the special Syria envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow that there were “elements of blackmail” in the Western approach to the crisis, news reports said. His remarks suggested that there had been no softening in Moscow’s stance as Mr. Assad’s most important international sponsor.

Xinhua.net: Severe clashes rage in Syrian capital
Jason Ditz: Reports of Heavy Fighting in Southern Damascus
Michel Chossudovsky: SYRIA: NATO's Next "Humanitarian" War? (February 2012)

The CIA and U.S. military officials appealing their convictions before the Italian Supreme Court on charges of kidnapping a terrorist suspect in Milan must wait until September for a possible final verdict in the long-running case. The Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome on Saturday "postponed" until Sept. 19 its highly anticipated ruling, which will determine the fates of two Washingtonians, Sabrina De Sousa, a former CIA operative, and Col. Joseph L. Romano III, a retired Air Force commander. The case is considered significant because a foreign country - an ally - prosecuted and convicted U.S. officials for the practice of rendition, in which a terrorist suspect is flown against his will to another country for interrogation to be tortured.

AWIP: Italian judge convicts 23 in CIA kidnap case
AWIP: Looking back: Italy judge clears way for CIA "rendition" trial
John Foot: The Rendition of Abu Omar
Steve Hendricks: Torture: Benighted Americans
Fausto Giudice: ”Extraordinary rendition” -The hunt for ”Mister Bob” and the 18 bastards
John Goetz and Matthias Gebauer: CIA Rendition Case: US Pressured Italy to Influence Judiciary

[PUKE READ:] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Monday, saying that the transformations which the Middle East is undergoing require "friends like us to think together and act together." - Arriving in Israel Sunday night for a 24-hour visit, Clinton said that the region was in the midst of a "time of uncertainty, but opportunity." She posited that the changes in the Middle East have given the US and Israel the chance to advance their shared goals of security, stability and democracy.

Clinton praised Peres, saying no other individual had done so much to build the alliance between Israel and the US. "Few people know the inextricable link between security and peace," she stated. Peres was also complimentary of Clinton, referring to her as "a constant friend" who is "blowing the wind of freedom all over the world."

The bodies of more than 500 penguins have washed up on beaches in southern Brazil over the past week. - Marine biologists are investigating what caused the deaths of the 512 penguins found on beaches of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The cause of death should be known in about 30 days. The penguins were migrating north from Argentina in search of food in warmer waters. The birds appeared well-fed, unhurt and without oil stains. Thirty samples from the penguins were being analysed at Porto Alegre University. Veterinarians were puzzled by the large quantity of animals found and by the fact that they appeared not exhausted and without injuries. The Magellanic penguins, named after the Magallanes region in which they breed, mate in large colonies in southern Argentina and Chile. They traditionally migrate north between March and September along the Rio Grande do Sul coast to head up to Sao Paulo. Their diet consists mainly of small fish and marine crustaceans and their chief enemy is the southern sea lion.

Warships, ground-to-air missiles and drones - Britain is not gearing up for war, but for London's summer Olympics. The preparations are calling on all corners of the nation's defences. But as RT's Ivor Bennett reports, many fear the measures will pose serious risks to privacy.

Patrick Martin: The police state 2012 Olympics
Finian Cunningham: London’s Militarised Olympic Games Conjures Up Orwell’s 1984
Reuters: UK could use "lethal force" to protect airspace