China's environment ministry has acknowledged the existence of "cancer villages", several years after widespread speculation first began that polluted areas were seeing a higher incidence of the disease. - The use of the term in an official report, thought to be unprecedented, comes as authorities face growing discontent over industrial waste, hazardous smog and other environmental and health consequences after years of rapid development. "Poisonous and harmful chemical materials have brought about many water and atmosphere emergencies... certain places are even seeing 'cancer villages'," said a five-year plan that was highlighted this week. The report did not elaborate on the phenomenon, which has no technical definition but gained prominence in domestic and foreign media after a Chinese journalist posted a map in 2009 pinpointing dozens of such "cancer villages".

GOP Rep refers to reporters who seek info as 'jackals' - 1 Feb 2013 [Note: This is a summary of an article, written by Christopher Keating and William Weir, that appeared in Thursday's Hartford Courant. A Newtown official's distress over reporters' requests for death certificates after the Dec. 14 schoolhouse shootings has led to a bill that would restrict public access to the records for any children younger than age 18. State Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, a freshman Republican lawmaker from Newtown, testified to a committee Wednesday that legislators "need to do something." "I was shocked, dismayed and deeply disturbed when, on Dec. 17, I got a call from the town clerk about the prospect of having a reporter standing beside her during one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the United States in Newtown looking for death certificates of children," Bolinsky said. Bolinksky said he felt "the outrage, the pain of observing the jackals descend upon my town clerk's office at a time of great, great community loss."

Amid a growing call for new cybersecurity protections in the United States, the US government has issued a report that reconfirms Washington’s interest in shutting down WikiLeaks and other underground information-sharing organizations. - In Washington, DC on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder unveiled a new White House report that is meant to address further the growing threats "malicious hackers" are posing on America’s computer networks and the information stored therein.

Stephen Lendman: Targeting Jeremy Hammond
Russia Today: Hacker Jeremy Hammond attacks US cyberwars from behind bars

legitgov: Jeremy Hammond on Aaron Swartz and the Criminalization of Digital Dissent - The following is a statement written by Jeremy Hammond, currently written from solitary confinement at The Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York City. - The tragic death of internet freedom fighter Aaron Swartz reveals the government's flawed "cyber security strategy" as well as its systematic corruption involving computer crime investigations, intellectual property law, and government/corporate transparency. In a society supposedly based on principles of democracy and due process, Aaron's efforts to liberate the internet, including free distribution of JSTOR academic essays, access to public court records on PACER, stopping the passage of SOPA/PIPA, and developing the Creative Commons, make him a hero, not a criminal. It is not the "crimes" Aaron may have committed that made him a target of federal prosecution, but his ideas -- elaborated in his "Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto" -- that the government has found so dangerous. The United States Attorney's aggressive prosecution, riddled with abuse and misconduct, is what led to the death of this hero. This sad and angering chapter should serve as a wake up call for all of us to acknowledge the danger inherent in our criminal justice system.[...]

The armed militant groups in Syria say they have started to attack the positions of Hezbollah resistance movement in neighboring Lebanon since February 21. - The self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army said its militants launched the attack less than a day after they accused Hezbollah of shelling militant bases in Syria’s Homs province on February 20. “We have bombed the territories of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. The Free Syrian Army will continue bombing these positions,” Hisam al-Avvak, a commander of the armed group, told Turkey's Anatolia News Agency on Thursday. The assaults took place while the militants had given Hezbollah 48 hours to halt the alleged shelling, threatening to attack after two days.

Russia Today: Syrian "rebels" too weak to target Hezbollah sites
Naharnet: Phalange Party MP Sami Gemayel Demands Suspension of Ties with Damascus

[Editor's Comment:] Still at it: Samy Gemayel - the latest addition to the Gemayel family now betrays Lebanon for Israel, like his father Amine did and his grandfather (Pierre) before that. The Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalangist Party) is fascist through and through, just like all the Israeli governments. What the Gemayel family still seem tragically unaware of in this dog-eat-dog world is that they are insignificant in the larger context of Zionist regional politics and will fare no better than anyone else co-operating with Israel. Samy's uncle Bachir knew too much for his own good and was assassinated by the Israelis when no longer as useful to them. Young Samy will undoubtedly meet the same fate at some point. - They never learn, do they?

A flyer designed by the FBI and the Department of Justice to promote suspicious activity reporting in internet cafes lists basic tools used for online privacy as potential signs of terrorist activity. The document, part of a program called “Communities Against Terrorism”, lists the use of “anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address” as a sign that a person could be engaged in or supporting terrorist activity. The use of encryption is also listed as a suspicious activity along with steganography, the practice of using “software to hide encrypted data in digital photos” or other media. In fact, the flyer recommends that anyone “overly concerned about privacy” or attempting to “shield the screen from view of others” should be considered suspicious and potentially engaged in terrorist activities.

Washington's Blog: Scorecard: How Many Rights Have Americans REALLY Lost? - How Many Constitutional Freedoms Do We Still Have? - While a lot of people talk about the loss of our Constitutional liberties, people usually speak in a vague, generalized manner … or focus on only one issue and ignore the rest. This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right.

Guitarist Magic Slim, a mainstay of the Chicago blues scene who followed in the footsteps of such greats as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, died on Thursday at age 75, his manager said. - Slim, the son of Mississippi sharecroppers, gave up the piano and turned to guitar after losing his right pinky finger in a cotton gin accident at age 13. He died at a Philadelphia hospital where he had been under treatment for various ailments, manager Marty Salzman said. A heavy smoker who suffered from emphysema and heart problems, Slim was forced by illness to cut short a tour with his band, the Teardrops, in late January. Born Morris Holt in Torrence, Mississippi, Slim grew up on a farm and made his first trip to Chicago in 1955, starting off as the bass player for a friend and mentor known as Magic Sam, who lent the younger musician his nickname. Slim cut his first record in 1966 and became a Chicago blues fixture in his own right, developing a guitar style that blended a distinct vibrato with a slide-guitar-like sound formed with his bare fingers against the strings. Known for playing with picks on both the thumb and index finger of his right hand - a somewhat unusual technique, according to Salzman - the guitarist was recognized as much for his powerful, gruff vocals as his musicianship. With more than 30 albums to his credit, Slim also was known for an encyclopedic mastery of the blues, Salzman said.

Alex Lantier: Amid a wave of attacks on Syrian government facilities in Damascus yesterday, a massive car bomb hit a security checkpoint in the central Damascus neighborhood of Mazraa. It killed at least 53 people and wounded 235, according to both Syrian state media and US-backed Syrian opposition sources. This is the latest in a series of terrorist atrocities against Syrian civilian or government targets, many of which have been openly claimed by US-backed armed opposition groups and hailed in the US media as victories in Washington’s proxy war to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

PressTV: Iran condemns terror bombing in Damascus
AWIP: At least 31 killed in Damascus car bomb – activists

JTA (The Global News Service of the Jewish People) reported yesterday on a new legal defense fund for Jews seen as being held wrongfully "because of their Jewishness". The fund will help cover the defense of Jews in the United States and throughout the world who the Jewish Community Relations council believes have been wrongfully charged or imprisoned. Funds also will be used to cover costs associated with advocating for the prisoners. And I think that time is ripe for the Jewish Community Relations council to launch a fund that will help cover the legal defense of millions of Palestinians who have been wrongfully imprisoned by the Jewish State in the name of the Jewish people.