Stocks have completely erased their early gains. - Currently, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is testifying before the Senate banking committee. According to his prepared remarks, is looks like he’s maintaining his dovish slant. But during the Q& A, Fed-watchers will be looking for any clues on how the Fed plans to unwind easy monetary policy and allow interest rates to rise again.

Daily Bell: IMF: ‘World Economy Could End as We Know It …’

One of the most controversial anti-terrorism laws passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks may be beyond normal judicial review, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. In a 5-4 decision, the court's conservative justices ruled that lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and others lacked standing to challenge a law passed in 2008 that increases the government's ability to intercept international communications. The plaintiffs had contended that even the potential of government snooping -- which, they said, would violate the Fourth Amendment -- was forcing them to change the way they communicate with clients and sources. The question before the high court wasn't whether the law itself, passed near the end of the Bush administration, was constitutional. It was whether those challenging it even had the ability to find out.

Italian voters have unambiguously rejected the politics of the Monti government and the European Union. This has triggered panic and outrage in Europe's capitals and unleashed ferocious tremors on the international finance markets. Some 55 percent of the electorate voted for parties that spoke out against the EU in their campaigns. The slate headed by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, which was supported by Brussels, Berlin, the Catholic Church and numerous Italian businessmen, only received 10 percent of the vote.

Documentary about the media war and foreign terrorist war that is being waged against Syria and the government of Syria. Broadcast on June 26, 2012

In a news conference today in London, Secretary of State John Kerry slammed the Syrian government for offering peace talks to the rebels, insisting that he didn’t believe they should be taken seriously and promising to step up US involvement in the ongoing civil war. Kerry said the days of the rebels “wondering where there support is or if it’s coming” are over, and that the Obama Administration is determined to “hasten” the regime change that it has been pressing for in recent months.

Tony Cartalucci: US State Department's "Syriasly" Campaign Reaches New Level of Absurdity - While the West and its Arab partners, the brutally autocratic regimes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are now admittedly funneling heavy weapons to Al Qaeda's stronghold in Daraa, southern Syria, the US State Department and its extensive network of faux NGO's funded by the same corporate-financier interests that write its policy, have rolled-out a front organization they call "Syriasly."

Le Monde: Les Occidentaux débattent de l'opportunité d'armer la rébellion syrienne

The claim that Taliban attacks are dropping in Afghanistan, the single piece of data backing up NATO claims of “progress” in the protracted occupation and indeed the centerpiece of President Obama’s re-election campaign speeches related to foreign policy, has turned out to be completely false, Pentagon officials admitted today. The data, which seems to have formed the basis for much of NATO’s occupation strategy, was [allegedly] the ultimate result of a “clerical error” that officials attributed to the Afghan military turning in certain forms late. Officials [now claim] that the revised data shows attacks approximately flat, but they have simply removed all the old reports based on the false data and haven’t replaced them with anything since then.

Israeli officials have rejected international calls, including those from the Palestinian Authority, to allow an international probe into the killing of detainee Arafat Jaradat, who was detained by Israeli forces and died shortly after signing a “confession,” with his body showing multiple signs of torture. - The officials said that the call for an international probe was “predictable” and part of a Palestinian strategy designed at escalating the situation, noting that Palestinian officials were already reporting the torture within hours of the autopsy. The UN is calling on Israel to conduct an “independent and transparent investigation” of Jaradat’s death. Israel insists they always do so when they end up killing a detainee, but reiterated that Jaradat’s death was from a “heart attack” and not from the many broken bones, bruises and cuts on his corpse.

AWIP: UN official calls for Jaradat death probe

The first day of the Kazakhstan conference between the P5+1 and Iran has come and gone, with no signs of a deal being close and many saying it is unlikely that Iran will accept the various Western demands for what appears to amount to a very trivial easing of sanctions. Israeli officials see no need to wait for the talks to officially fail, however, and is out in front of them, condemning the talks from the start, insisting that they are an “Iranian ploy” aimed at keeping their civilian program running while diplomacy continues to stall.

Allen Ruff and I have written extensively about Kazakhstan and about the typical hypocrisy at-play in the kleptocratic country. We published an article in the aftermath of the Zhanaozen Massacre about the U.S. imperial Great Game being played in Kazakhstan and Central Asia at-large, then followed that up with an article about the nuclear double-standards, juxtaposing how the U.S. treats Iran vs. how it treats Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan, as we pointed out, provides 30-percent+ of the world’s supply of uranium fuel stock. Next came our three-part series on the World Bank’s “knowledge bank” agenda in Kazakhstan, bringing Nazarbayev University, named after its “President-for-Life,” to Astana.

Today, Allen was on The Real News Network to chat about the nuclear summit dog-and-pony show and why it’s being hosted in Kazakhstan. Check it out.

Judge Alex Kozinski said the group's "aggressive and high-profile attacks" on Japan's whaling fleet endangered lives, ordering them to stop. US-based Sea Shepherd has for many years chased the Japanese whalers, attempting to disrupt the annual hunt. The two sides have frequently clashed at sea, blaming each other for collisions and damage. Sea Shepherd has also accused the whalers of using water cannon and stun grenades against them, and says Japan has deployed a military icebreaker, the Shirase, to intimidate them - something Japan rejects.

The Star: Who owns Diaoyu Islands?
John V. Walsh: U.S. Goading Japan into Confrontation with China

[Editor:] So, in return for doing Washington's bidding in East Asia, Japan apparently has asked that Obama order the United States Department of Justice (sic) to go after the Sea Shepherd and her valiant crew of warriors. Japan could at least have demanded that their Lord & Master punish the soldiers who rape Japanese women all the time...But even this would have been a very small thing to ask in return for the belligerence vis-à vis China that the US now demands of its pathetic client state. War with China is a very dangerous proposition. There may be worse ahead for Japan than insignificant clashes at sea. There's no way for Japan to benefit from this.

ABC News: We'll never stop eating whales, declares Japanese minister

Police in Stockholm were surprised on Monday to find that a man they had arrested for buying sex from a prostitute was the duty prosecutor to whom they were obliged to report the crime. - The chief prosecutor spent Monday evening with a female prostitute in a central Stockholm hotel. A police squad, however, had been tipped off and was waiting for him in the staircase outside the room. Officers were surprised to learn of the man's status while arresting him, as he was the prosecutor on duty to whom they should report the crime. The man paid 1,500 kronor ($232) for the sex, according to the Expressen newspaper. He had allegedly found the escort online, when "surfing around on his iPhone" during a train trip, during which he consumed half a bottle of wine and a beer. "And then I did what I am suspected of - I went out into the staircase and the police arrested me there," the prosecutor told the Aftonbladet newspaper. He has confessed to the crime, and his family has been notified.

■ Even in his wild, stoned to death, easy rider cuckoo times, Jack Nicholson would never have imagined he would one day tag team with the First Lady of the United States to present an Oscar for Best Picture. ■ Those 6,000-plus Academy voters simply could not resist a plot loosely based in facts in which a patriotic and resourceful Hollywood saves the CIA. And with a certified Hollywood ending as a bonus. Thus, predictably, this was Hollywood awarding an Oscar to itself, to hyper-nationalism, to American heroes and of course to good (Americans) over evil (Iranians). ■ And how poetically towering this justice becomes when a movie about a fake movie that fooled revolutionary Iranians during the 444-day hostage crisis is crowned Best Picture just two days before the US and other members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, go back to the table to discuss whether Iran is now fooling them - and going for a nuclear weapon.