Agents of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration will be stationed at British airports during the Summer Olympic Games, British media reported Tuesday — the latest indication that authorities are scrambling to shore up security before the games open in 11 days. Sky News, citing security sources, reported that the agents would begin arriving at Heathrow and other major UK airports next week. Olympic organizers have come under withering criticism after G4S, the private contractor coordinating security preparations, said last week that it might not be able to supply enough guards. In response, the British military was asked to provide 3,500 extra personnel last week, government sources told NBC News.

The widespread killings of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar - have received only passing and dispassionate coverage in most media. What they actually warrant is widespread outrage and decisive efforts to bring further human rights abuses to an immediate halt.

The relatively little media interest in Myanmar’s ‘ethnic clashes’ is by no means an indication of the significance of the story. The recent flaring of violence followed the raping and killing of a Rhakine woman on May 28, allegedly by three Rohingya men. The incident ushered a rare movement of unity between many sectors of Myanmar society, including the government, security forces and so-called pro-democracy activists and groups. The first order of business was the beating to death of ten innocent Muslims. The victims, who were dragged out of a bus and attacked by a mob of 300 strong Buddhist Rhakine, were not even Rohingyas, according to the Bangkok Post(June 22). Not all Muslims in Myanmar are from the Rohingya ethnic group. Some are descendants of Indian immigrants, some have Chinese ancestry, and some even have early Arab and Persian origins. Myanmar is a country with a population of an estimated 60 million, only 4 percent of whom are Muslim. Regardless of numbers, the abuses are widespread and rioters are facing little or no repercussions for their actions.

A Jerusalem teenager, identified only as “A,” was given a perplexingly short 8- year sentence after a plea bargain for the stabbing death of a Palestinian, Hussam Rawidi, following a brutal and apparently unprovoked attack. The charge was reduced from “murder” to” killing, (manslaughter)” which enabled the court to impose the lenient sentence. The crime occurred on February 11, 2011. Rawidi was 24-years-old when he was killed. In addition to the prison term, the defendant was ordered to pay a sum of 5000 shekels (approx. 1200 US dollars) to the family of the victim. This sum was described by Ha’aretz as minuscule. The father of the victim, Hussain Rawidi, told the newspaper, “This is not worth anything, that he serves eight years for what he did…. Those are the courts, I can’t do anything. He murdered my son just because he is an Arab.”

Top Israeli Air Force commanders voiced dismay over a violent assault on a senior officer perpetrated by a gang of soldiers. - Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot on Monday identified the victim as Maj. A., deputy commander of a squadron at the northern Ramat David Airbase. A military source said three soldiers, who serve in a technical support unit, assaulted the officer over the weekend after he criticized them for their reckless driving on base premises, in violation of strict military regulations. The three soldiers, apparently outraged by the pilot's decision to lodge a complaint with their commanding officer, initially threatened to kill him at the presence of his children. They later attacked him outside his home, located on base, with wooden clubs until he nearly lost consciousness.

Gilad Atzmon: The Disintegration of The Jewish State Has Begun

Israel said on Monday it had started rounding up African migrants in the first stage of a controversial “emergency plan” to intern and deport thousands deemed a threat to the Jewish character of the state. - Israel Radio reported that dozens of Africans, mainly from South Sudan, had already been detained in the Red Sea resort of Eilat, including mothers and children. The Israeli government wants to get rid of “60,000 African migrants, whose numbers are seen by many Israelis as a law and order issue and even a threat to the long-term viability of the Jewish state,” according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For some in Israel, built by immigrants and refugees, internment and deportation are bad solutions that may damage the international image of the country needlessly. In Israel, Sudanese immigrants “are caught up in a wave of hostility towards Blacks in general, focused on a poor area of south Tel Aviv where they are forced to live.” An opinion poll last week showed 52 percent of Israelis agree that the Africans are “a cancer.” They’ve come here to rape and steal,” an Israeli woman shouted during an anti-migrant demonstration earlier this month in south Tel Aviv. “We should burn them out, put poison in their food,” an elderly man suggested.

Egyptian geologist Khaled Odeh says Israel has "taken over" [stolen] two natural gas wells located in Egypt’s territorial waters.

Odeh said in Cairo on Monday that the wells are located in the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Cyprus, IRNA reported. He added that Israel took advantage of Egyptian officials’ inaction and started drilling operations in the area in April 2012. Odeh also stated that the wells are over gas fields containing about $100 billion worth of gas reserves. One of the wells is 19 kilometers north of the Egyptian city of Damietta and 235 kilometers west of Haifa in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the other well is 114 kilometers north of Damietta and 237 kilometers from the shores of Palestine. The issue of supplying gas to Israel has always been a contentious topic for Egyptians, who view Israel as an enemy and oppose engaging in any form of business with it. According to a $2.5 billion export deal with Tel Aviv, signed in 2005, Israel receives around 40 percent of its gas supply from Egypt at an extremely low price. [Apparently not low enough...] Relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv have deteriorated since last year's revolution that overthrew former dictator Hosni Mubarak, a long-time and staunch ally of Israel.

Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts. Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized ALL drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:

Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked. “There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law. The number of addicts considered “problematic” — those who repeatedly use “hard” drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said. Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added. “This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies.”

UPI: Canadians favor decriminalizing marijuana

Lake County, Florida sheriff's deputies who failed to identify themselves when knocking on a man's door at 1:30AM at night immediately shot and killed the homeowner after he allegedly opened his door with a gun in hand. The man who was murdered, 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott, was described by neighbors as a good person and "very nice guy." The deputies realized later they got the wrong house, but for good measure they searched the man's apartment and "found" drugs, which apparently justifies their murdering him randomly. The police are entirely unapologetic. Lt. John Herrell said of the incident, "The bottom line is, you point a gun at a deputy sheriff or police office [sic], you're going to get shot." For police who refuse to identify themselves to point their guns at you is A-OK, yet for you to do the same in self-defense is grounds for summary execution. In contrast with this gang of criminals, a 92-year-old Toledo woman who found herself in the same situation just the other day actually shot an officer in the side of his head, yet the Toledo police chose not to press any charges against her, as Police Sgt. Joe Heffernan said, "I don't think it meets all the culpability standards for felonious assault on a police officer." Indeed, 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott had ever right to open his door fully armed, and, at least if he was in a state where the Castle Doctrine was recognized, he may have even had the right to use deadly force in defending himself from the police's illegal armed invasion.

The US Navy Fifth Fleet says the sailors on the ship that launched a deadly attack in the Persian Gulf had warned the fishermen on the targeted boat before they opened fire.

The Bahrain-based fleet issued a statement on Monday saying that the USNS Rappahannock only attacked a small motor boat near the Dubai port of Jebel Ali, killing one and injuring three Indian fishermen, after they "ignored the warnings and came too close," Xinhua reported. The statement added that the US ship used a series of non-lethal, preplanned responses to warn the vessel's operators to turn away from their "deliberate" approach before resorting to lethal force. Jebel Ali port, one of the largest ports in the Middle East, is the most frequently visited port by ships of the US Navy outside the United States. Washington recently expanded its military presence in the Persian Gulf, sending an unspecified number of F-22 stealth fighters and warships to the region.

AWIP: US Navy ship opens fire in Gulf killing one

For half a decade, American taxpayers unknowingly spent millions of dollars every year to fund private security agency Blackwater’s so-called “democracy building” missions in Iraq. A new report completed by the US State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors Office of Inspector General shines light on a travesty involving the massive misuse of public funds.

Between 2004 and 2009, millions of dollars in taxpayer monies could have been saved had the International Republican Institute — a bipartisan, nonprofit organization chaired by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — used their federal funding more efficiently. Instead, however, the IRI handed over massive sums of money to the Blackwater security group so that they could send armed guards to Iraq. While Blackwater’s presence overseas has not gone unnoticed, the latest report shows that contract were made without the IRI considering any competitors’ bids and in the end cost millions of extra dollars, all the while funding the same agency proved responsible for the massacre of Iraqi civilians.

After a gap of almost a decade, India bagged a gold medal at the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held at Amsterdam, Netherlands. - The six-member team of Indian students, who participated in the week-long 52nd IMO since July 16, bagged one gold, one silver and two bronze medals, Director of Dr Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) Dr Jayashree Ramadas said in a release today. Akashnil Dutta from Kolkata bagged the gold medal, Akashdeep Dey from Nadia won silver, while Debdyuti Banerjee from Hoogly and Mrudul Thatte from Pune won Bronze medals. Another two students from Pune Indraneel Kasmalkar and Prafulla Dhariwal had Honorable Mention (equal to participation certificate), Ramadas said. Last year, the six-member team bagged two silver and one bronze medals, while three students had got Honourable Mention, she said. A total of 564 students from 102 countries participated in the world event for the young meritorious students in Mathematics, she said.

Isibang: Problems [.pdf]
Isibang: Results of IMO 2012 [.pdf]
Global Times: Eastern Indian boy wins gold in global maths event
Forum Geometricorum: Alhazen’ s Circular Billiard Problem [.pdf]