On a cold November night in Times Square, Officer Lawrence DePrimo was working a counterterrorism post when he encountered an older, barefooted homeless man. The officer disappeared for a moment, then returned with a new pair of boots, and knelt to help the man put them on.

The act of kindness would have gone unnoticed and mostly forgotten, had it not been for a tourist from Arizona. Her snapshot — taken with her cellphone on Nov. 14 and posted to the New York Police Department’s official Facebook page late Tuesday — has made Officer DePrimo an overnight Internet hero. By Wednesday evening, the post had been viewed 1.6 million times, and had attracted nearly 275,000 “likes” and more than 16,000 comments — a runaway hit for a Police Department that waded warily onto the social media platform this summer with mostly canned photos of gun seizures, award ceremonies and the police commissioner. Among all of those posts, the blurry image of Officer DePrimo kneeling to help the shoeless man as he sat on 42nd Street stood out. “This is definitely the most viral,” said Barbara Chen, a spokeswoman for the department who helps manage its Facebook page. Thousands of people commented on Facebook and Reddit, which linked to the post on Wednesday. Most of them praised Officer Deprimo, yet some suspected the photograph had been staged. Many debated whether the officer’s actions were representative of police officers in general, or were just unusually exceptional.

The forensic psychiatrist said that he had never experienced such an unreceptive response from his military colleagues, not even when he treated terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo. - The psychiatrist who treated the WikiLeaks suspect, Bradley Manning, while he was in custody in the brig at Quantico has testified that his medical advice was regularly ignored by marine commanders who continued to impose harsh conditions on the soldier even though he posed no risk of suicide. Captain William Hoctor told Manning's pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade that he grew frustrated and angry at the persistent refusal by marine officers to take on board his medical recommendations.

The U.N. General Assembly is set to implicitly recognize a sovereign state of Palestine on Thursday despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding much-needed funds for the West Bank government. - A Palestinian resolution that would change the Palestinian Authority's U.N. observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. Israel, the United States and a handful of other members are planning to vote against what they see as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians.

The Guardian: Palestinians set to win statehood recognition in UN vote
Jason Ditz: Win Certain, But US Keeps Trying to Persuade Palestinians to Abandon UN Bid

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced into eastern Qarara town to the east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Thursday morning.

Security sources told the PIC reporter that the soldiers in armored vehicles and tanks escorted bulldozers into eastern Qarara and bulldozed land along the security fence. The soldiers then went southwards to Farahin suburb in Abasan Al-Kabira village before turning back through the security fence. The sources said that the soldiers infiltrated 100 meters deep into southern Gaza territory. The incursion is the first of its kind since the calm agreement was signed last Wednesday between Israel and the resistance factions in Gaza under Egyptian patronage after eight days of Israeli aggression that left 176 citizens killed and around1400 others wounded. In earlier violations of the calm agreement, Israel killed a citizen and wounded more than 30 others in shooting at the buffer zone that was supposedly annulled in the agreement. The Israeli navy also kidnapped six Palestinian fishermen at sea.

Here's the full transcript of our interview with Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who has been President of Iceland since 1996, and announced last month he would be running for a fifth term. Keep reading to hear his thoughts on Iceland's recovery, and how a large financial sector can ruin a nation.

How has life in Iceland changed since the meltdown? - It’s very difficult to give a short description of how life has changed. It’s absolutely clear in Iceland, like many other countries, the financial crisis came as a profound shock, not only to the financial institutions, but also to ordinary people, the economy...So thousands of Icelanders had to struggle with fundamental change in their economic situation, loss of income, even loss of property, increased burden of loans, unemployment, and the nation as a whole also had to face -- which somehow we were fortunate to realize early on -- that the collapse of the banks was not just an economic or financial crisis, but also developed into a very profound political, social, and even judicial crisis.

Soon after the Sweden Democrats rushed to the defence of MP Lars Isovaara, who reportedly snuffled and spat in contempt at a parliamentary security guard, the bag he said was lost in the robbery that upset him was found left behind in a restaurant. - Isovaara's version of the story was put in doubt when tabloid Expressen revealed a new timeline of events. They report that Isovaara called the police at 2:30am on Wednesday to report being robbed, allegedly by two "unknown, immigrant-background men", in an encounter that made him fall out of his wheelchair. Isovaara had been on his way back to his overnight quarters at the Swedish parliament building from a restaurant. Staff there told Expressen they had found his bag at 2.10am, a full 20 minutes before the alleged robbery. Police called to the scene then witnessed Isovaar "making pig noises" and "spitting in contempt" at the guard, who reportedly had an immigrant background, prompting the officers to report the MP for racist abuse.

Since 2009 there have been 75 confirmed self-immolations within Tibet, 12 occurring in 2011 and 65 in 2012. Below is a map marking the locations of the self-immolations. Detailed information about each self-immolation can be found on our self-immolation fact sheet. Note on geography: Tibet was traditionally comprised of three main areas: Amdo (north-eastern Tibet), Kham (eastern Tibet) and U-Tsang (central and western Tibet). The Tibet Autonomous Region was set up by the Chinese government in 1965 and covers the area of Tibet west of the Dri-chu (Yangtse river), including part of Kham. The rest of Amdo and Kham have been incorporated into Chinese provinces, and where Tibetan communities were said to have 'compact inhabitancy' in these provinces they were designated Tibetan autonomous prefectures and counties. As a result most of Qinghai and parts of Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces are acknowledged by the Chinese government to be 'Tibetan.' ICT uses the term 'Tibet' to refer to all Tibetan areas currently under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China.

A court in Argentina has begun a large trial of the so-called Dirty War crimes that were committed during the country’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. - The trial of 68 former officials, who are facing some 800 charges of kidnap, torture and murder associated with an elite naval college, began on Wednesday in the capital Buenos Aires, AFP reported. During the seven-year junta period, almost 5,000 people were sent to the infamous Naval School of Mechanics (ESMA), which served as a secret detention camp in Buenos Aires. Only a fraction survived the camp’s horrors, and most of the bodies of those who perished have never been recovered. Other victims were sedated, put on airplanes and tossed into the Atlantic Ocean.

The new Syrian opposition coalition is now seeking official recognition from abroad, and aims to administer the flow of funds and potentially arms to rebels. But the anti-Assad forces may see direct assistance from foreign troops, as a British top soldier has said hundreds of UK troops could be deployed to Syria if 'the humanitarian situation worsens'. Meanwhile, fears are mounting that rebel fighters are increasingly targeting civilians for simply showing allegiance to the government, as Maria Finoshina explains.

The Obama administration is considering a deeper intervention in Syria, including direct supply of arms to militants and planting CIA and NATO intelligence agents in the country, in efforts to overthrow the Damascus government. - The most urgent decision, expected to come next week, is the deployment of NATO surface-to-air missiles in Turkey, supposedly to shield the neighboring country from what US officials are increasingly publicizing as ‘incoming Syrian missiles,’ US daily The New York Times reports Thursday, quoting “officials involved in the discussions.” According to the report, while there is a broader debate within the Obama administration on “how heavily America should intervene in another Middle Eastern conflict,” no decision has yet been taken. However, following Obama’s reelection, the White House is “more willing to take risks” on a bolder intervention. The report further quotes a “senior administration official” as claiming that “recent tactical successes” by anti-Damascus militants “have given this debate a new urgency, and a new focus.”

[Editor's Comment:] The CIA/Mossad have been arming their "militants" for months already. So arming them is nothing new. They've been "deeply" involved in Syria for the same stretch of time too, so nothing new there either. Less known to the general public however, is that the CIA/Mossad also have carried out terror attacks in Syria, maiming & killing a number of people, to create mayhem & chaos and to put the blame for this on the regime there. The international press has been very helpful in this respect. The CIA/Mossad clearly intend to continue with their terrorist activities (“recent tactical successes”). They couldn't care less about the system of international law. Never did. Nothing new about that either. What is new however, is that they now are saying they're “more willing to take risks” on "a bolder intervention". - So, translating their euphemisms, we now may realize that 'bolder' means more reckless, and that 'deeply' means more overt and on an even broader scale than before. This probably means using NATO for their aggression in this region. This certainly would be something new. What remains the same however is that they're all very, very depraved and that their agenda for conquest & empire is deeply criminal in character. - Syria has every right to resist this, like any other nation would.

BBC: Syria: Internet and mobile communication 'cut off'
Russia Today: Total blackout: Syria goes offline nationwide
Russia Today: US accelerates intervention in Syrian war
Christian Science Monitor: Syrian rebels cut off Damascus airport in critical step
Jason Ditz: Over 100 Slain as Car Bombs Strike Damascus
Washington Post: Officials: Syrian rebels’ arsenal includes up to 40 antiaircraft missile systems

Americans might once again be guaranteed the right to trial: a clause in the most recent draft of next year’s defense spending bill ensures that United States citizens aren’t stripped of their right to habeas corpus. - Lawmakers have included provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 that relieves those worried with how last year’s bill allows for the indefinite detention of Americans without trial. Under the 2012 NDAA, any person considered a substantial supporter of a group alleged to have committed hostilities against the US can be held in a military prison until essentially the end of time without ever being brought to court. In the latest draft of next year’s NDAA, Congress is reminded of the writ of habeas corpus and told any legal American resident must be awarded a fair trial.

The TSA has refused to attend a House Transportation hearing this week, with agency head John Pistole personally refusing to appear and declaring that the Congressional Committee has “no jurisdiction over the TSA”. - The hearing, schedule for Thursday, will be held by the Subcommittee on Aviation, a part of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (TIC). It is titled How Best to Improve Our Nation’s Airport Passenger Security System through Common Sense Solutions. Headed by Rep. Thomas Petri, it will “examine the impact that the regulations and policies of the Transportation Security Administration have on aviation passenger experience and the free flow of aviation commerce,” according to a brief on the subcommittee’s website. House Republicans on the TIC have made it clear that they believe the TSA is in dire need of reform. A section on the Committee’s website describes the TSA as “a massive, inflexible, backward-looking bureaucracy of more than 65,000.” The TIC is currently headed by Rep. John Mica, a consistent critic of the TSA, who has pushed for airports to ditch the agency and replace it with private security screeners. Mica, who wrote the legislation that established the TSA, recently declared the agency to be a miserable failure. With public backlash against the TSA at an all time high, and given the scrutiny that the TSA has faced at the hands of the TIC and its subcommittees, it is somewhat unsurprising that agency head Pistole is no longer willing to face the music as it were.

Meet Robocod, the latest weapon in Homeland Security's increasingly high-tech underwater arsenal, a robotic fish designed to safeguard the coastline of America and bring justice to the deep. Well almost.

The new robot, named BioSwimmer, is actually based not on a cod but a tuna which is said to have the ideal natural shape for an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). Its ultra-flexible body coupled with mechanical fins and tail allow it to dart around the water just like a real fish even in the harshest of environments. And while it does have a number of security applications, this high maneuverability makes it perfectly suited for accessing hard-to-reach places such as flooded areas of ships, sea chests and parts of oil tankers. Other potential missions include inspecting and protecting harbors and piers, performing area searches and military applications. BioSwimmer uses the latest battery technology for long-duration operation and boasts an array of navigation, sensor processing, and communications equipment designed for constricted spaces. It is being developed by Boston Engineering Corporation's Advanced Systems Group (ASG) basesd in Waltham, Massachusetts.