According to Syria’s official news agency, SANA, the balloon, which was equipped with US-made spying devices including cameras, was shot down over town of Maaret al-Numan on Thursday. Syrian officials say the devices have large memory storage. Syrian army units have also seized a car with a European number plate and a warehouse of ammunition and US-made rockets. Last month, Syrian authorities confiscated Israeli espionage devices along the country’s Mediterranean coast. The gadgets were found inside rocks made of fiber and were designed to film and instantly transmit live images and information. Damascus has frequently lashed out at certain Western states and their regional allies for aiding the insurgents fighting the Syrian government. The country has been experiencing unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

Police killed one suspect man in the Boston Marathon bombing during a shootout and were engaged in a house-to-house search for a second man on Friday in the Boston suburb of Watertown after a bloody night of shooting and explosions in the city's streets. - Authorities warned people in Watertown not to leave their homes and not to answer the door. During the night a university police officer was killed, a transit police officer was wounded, and the suspects carjacked a vehicle before leading police on a chase that ended with one suspect man shot dead.

"Craft International" (Military Contractors) Photographed at Bombing Location Before Attack
BREAKING: Photo surfaces of 'The Craft' mobile communications van at Boston marathon
Latest breaking news on Boston marathon bombing cover-up: Boston under militarized martial law
Naharnet: Chechnya Leader Blames Boston Bombing on American Special Services
USA Today: One "Boston bombing suspect" dead, police search for 2nd - Video
WCVB.com: Uncut: Shootout between, suspects in Watertown - Video
RedPillPhilosophy.com: Journalist to FBI: "Tell Us About the Bomb Drill!" - VIDEO
CLG: Explosions, gun battle in Watertown, Mass.
Tony Cartalucci: FBI Was Searching for Boston Marathon Suspect BEFORE Bombing
Lee Rogers: Boston Marathon Bombings Point To Government Run Terror Operation
James Corbett: How the FBI Fosters, Funds and Equips American Terrorists

Mike Adams: Total media blackout now under way on most likely suspects in Boston marathon bombing

In a story that's almost as explosive as the actual bombing itself, the mainstream media is waging a total media blackout on the photos of "The Craft" private military operatives who were present at the Boston marathon bombing. NaturalNews.com and InfoWars.com have published a multitude of photos which absolutely prove that numerous members of "The Craft" private military contractors were actively engaged in operations at the finish line of the marathon. This is photographic proof. In real police work, it's called "evidence." But astonishingly, there is not a single mention of "The Craft" in any mainstream media outlet: not NYT, not Washington Post, not LA Times, etc. Not a single word. - FBI [is] now pushing a false script rather than pursuing real evidence.

[Associated Press] Workers accused of lying to get unemployment benefits, welfare, food stamps, housing vouchers - Twenty-four current and former Internal Revenue Service employees have been charged with stealing government benefits, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The IRS employees were indicted on charges that they illegally received more than $250,000 in benefits including unemployment insurance payments, food stamps, welfare and housing vouchers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Memphis said. Prosecutors say 13 of the IRS employees face federal charges. The remaining 11 face state charges of theft of property over $1,000, a felony.

The Tennessean: Feds charge 24 IRS workers in TN with theft
The Christian Post: 24 IRS Workers' Theft Leaves State Officials Stunned: $126.000 in Benefits Stolen

Afghanistan's drugs trade is flourishing - despite the eleven years that have passed since the U.S. kicked off its Operation Enduring Freedom. Even with the Taliban forced from power, the illicit industry's still killing thousands of people around the world. Maria Finoshina examines the deadly multi-million-dollar trend, which shows no signs of slowing down.

Two separate bipartisan reports with surprising pronouncements, and a cable news debacle, highlight similar themes.

(1) It's hardly news that the US instituted and for years maintained a systematic torture regime, but the success of the Obama administration in blocking all judicial proceedings has meant there has been no official decree that this is so. A comprehensive report just issued by a truly bipartisan group of former high-level Washington officials (including military officials) is as close as we are likely to get to such an official proclamation. The Report explains that the impetus behind it was that "the Obama administration declined, as a matter of policy, to undertake or commission an official study of what happened, saying it was unproductive to 'look backwards' rather than forward." It concludes - in unblinking and definitive fashion - that "it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture".

“You better be damn sure, as sure as you can be, before you get into something, because once you’re into it, there isn’t any backing out, whether it’s a no-fly zone, safe zone, protect these — whatever it is,” Hagel said later during questioning. “Once you’re in, you can’t unwind it. You can’t just say, well, it’s not going as well as I thought it would go, so we’re going to get out.”

Gen. Dempsey said in his testimony that “before we take action, we have to be prepared for what comes next,” referring to the limited ability of the Washington to shape the reality on the ground even if the advice of people like John McCain is followed and the US military takes action to topple Assad.

“The use of force, especially in circumstances where ethnic and religious factors dominate is unlikely to produce predictable outcomes,” he said, adding that “unintended consequences are the rule with military interventions of this sort.”

Doyle McManus: Inching closer to entanglement in Syria

Does High Public Debt Stifle Economic Growth? New study refutes Reinhart and Rogoff analysis that underpins austerity policy around the world; shows no relation between debt and lack of growth

In capitals, both political and economic, across Europe, across North America, really, across the world, there's been an assumption based on a study done by two eminent Harvard professors, economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, which presented in 2010 their conclusions that 90 percent debt-to-GDP ratio means a collapse in growth. It's that conclusion that leads to policies like austerity, which says even in times of recession, debt's more dangerous than high unemployment. Now joining us to talk about their conclusions, because they've reached quite different conclusions about the same data, is, from the PERI institute, first of all, Thomas Herndon. He's a doctoral student in economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research includes political economy and finance. And he coauthored a paper: Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth?, which is a critique of Reinhart and Rogoff. And with him is Michael Ash. Michael is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on inequality and well-being in the United States. And he teaches graduate economics at UMass Amherst.

The humiliation of Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf deepened today when he was arrested by police and taken before a judge - a day after he fled from court in an apparent bid to avoid detention. Police arrested the former dictator overnight at his “farmhouse” on the outskirts of Islamabad and took him to the court of a judicial magistrate. He was later allowed to return to his residence which has been classified as a “sub-jail” and where he will be held under house arrest. In a comment posted on social media following his arrest, Mr Musharraf claimed the charges against him were politically motivated. "I will fight them in the trial court, where the truth will eventually prevail" he said. Television footage showed Mr Musharraf being led to the office of the judge, walking past lines of police and paramilitary soldiers. He was taken inside the building and then later taken back to his house in the Chak Shahzad neighbourhood in a convoy of vehicles.

The Nation: Musharraf’s fate (Op-Ed)
The Nation: Musharraf shifted to police headquarters
The Frontier Post: Nawaz says 'Musharraf committed great crimes'
The Frontier Post: Treason case: Musharraf submits plea to form full bench
The News: Pervez Musharraf arrested, granted 2-day transit remand
The News: Pervez Musharraf arrested, in government’s custody: Habib