Israeli forces have shot down a Hezbollah drone over Israeli skies, the Associated Press reports. - This is not the first time Israel shot down a Hezbollah drone, they had to target one over their skies on October 6 of last year. Most Hezbollah drones in Lebanon make their way in from Iran piece by piece, and are then assembled by local forces there. The Israeli military is largely dismissive of Iranian drone technology, finding them easy to track and then shoot down once they enter Israeli air space. "We view this incident of attempting to enter Israeli airspace very severely and we will consider our response later," said former Defence Minister Ehud Barak after last year's drone incident.

Al-Arabiya: Israel shoots down drone from Lebanon
CSM: Israel shoots down drone, Hezbollah denies it's theirs

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not have gun in boat. - Two U.S. officials say the surviving suspect in the Boston bombings was unarmed when police captured him hiding inside a boat in a neighborhood back yard. Authorities originally said they had exchanged gunfire with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for more than one hour Friday evening before they were able to subdue him. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation, say investigators recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan, from the site of a gun battle Thursday night, which injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer. Dzhokhar was believed to have been shot before he escaped. The officials tell The Associated Press that no gun was found in the boat. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat.

Russia Today: Boston bombing suspect goes silent, parents vow to seek the truth in the US

Gaye Levy: Americans Under Siege – Has Tomorrow Become a Reality? - Just a little over a year ago, President Obama signed an Executive Order titled National Defense Resources Preparedness. This act stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy – both for and against. At one end of the spectrum were those that thought this was an overt act signalizing unilateral militarization of our country. Others felt this was a ho-hum restatement of existing presidential controls. Whatever your feelings at the time, it is now a year later and events of the past couple of weeks bring more questions than answers to those who seek the truth. Sadly, it is my opinion that Americans are under siege by our own government and by the mysterious and secretive powers that control our elected officials. More and more, ordinary citizens are filled with angst as we witness the wholesale cannibalization of our freedom and of the Constitution. To echo my own words: I begin to wonder whether there is some grand plan. Perhaps there is some master puppeteer poised to pull our strings when and if the rise to elitism reaches the pinnacle. So with much personal angst, I have begun to believe that the rank-and-file citizens of the United States of America are being herded down the path to a Police State. Or, better put, will soon be running from the rising tsunami of the police state. [...] What is the truth and what are the lies? I suspect that with the abundance of disinformation being perpetuated by both the mainstream and alternate press, we may never know.

Scared that CISPA might pass? The federal government is already using a secretive cybersecurity program to monitor online traffic and enforce CISPA-like data sharing between Internet service providers and the Department of Defense. - The Electronic Privacy Information Center has obtained over 1,000 pages of documents pertaining to the United States government’s use of a cybersecurity program after filing a Freedom of Information Act request, and CNET reporter Declan McCullagh says those pages show how the Pentagon has secretly helped push for increased Internet surveillance. “Senior Obama administration officials have secretly authorized the interception of communications carried on portions of networks operated by AT&T and other Internet service providers, a practice that might otherwise be illegal under federal wiretapping laws,” McCullagh writes.

Unelected dictator to open big storage area for 'The Pet Goat,' the only book the sociopath's likely ever read Bush library event brings 5 presidents to Dallas - The nation's five surviving presidents will gather Thursday for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential [sic and sick] Center, a much-anticipated event expected to draw around 10,000 people to Southern Methodist University amid tight security from local and federal law enforcement. The invitation-only ceremony was expected to include speeches by Bush, President Barack Obama and former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, Bush's father.

Israel’s attorney general says security officials can continue to access emails of foreign tourists landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. If they refuse, they can be denied access to the country. - Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein defended the practice in a statement, saying that such searches “are performed only in exceptional instances, after other relevant incriminating indications are found.” He added that travelers were not required to give security officers their password, but instead open the accounts on their own. But Marc Grey, an attorney for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), said the situation has little to do with passwords. "Passwords are not the issue, email accounts are about as private as it gets," he told Reuters. Although Weinstein added that the traveler is given every right to object the search, he made clear that doing so “will be one of the considerations taken into account when the authorities decide whether to allow his entry into Israel.”

News Forage: Israel airport guards may ask 'suspicious' tourists to open their email accounts

Canada’s government has come under fire for exploiting the issue of a “foiled terror plot” in the country and the April 15 bombings in the US in order to pass a controversial anti-terror bill, which is deemed harmful to civil liberties, Press TV reports. - The Bill S-7 will revive two controversial provisions of Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act if it is passed. The provisions were initially instituted after the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001. Under the first provision, Canada’s police is allowed to preemptively arrest individuals and hold them without charge for up to three days only on suspicion of being involved in ‘terrorism.’ Based on the second provision that provides an investigative hearing, an individual who is suspected of having knowledge of a ‘terrorist act’ can be forced to answer questions, and the person can be subjected to up to 12 months in prison over refusing to respond.

Tony Cartalucci: US-Canada Claim Iran-Al Qaeda Ties Despite US Funding Al Qaeda in Iran for Years

Keith Jones: Canadian government unveils “terror plot” as it adopts draconian new law - Canadian authorities boasted Monday afternoon that working in concert with the FBI and other U.S. national security agencies they had broken up a terrorist conspiracy involving an Iranian-based al-Qaeda cell. The announcement, made at a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) press conference, came just as the House of Commons was set to debate new anti-terrorism legislation that would give the state draconian new powers. [...] The little that has been revealed leaves no doubt that the timing of the arrests was a calculated political decision, made in close consultation with the highest levels of the U.S. government, and with the aim of stampeding the public on both sides of the border into accepting police-state measures.

The controversial but popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has moved to Iceland. The website had moved from Sweden to Greenland but the Pirates were not welcome in Greenland and have now moved to Iceland. The website thepiratebay.is is now up and running. Are the pirates welcome in Iceland? - "Well done, go Iceland" an Icelander said on Facebook. Many Icelanders have expressed their opinion on this unexpected pirate visit and many seem to be extremely happy about this. Whether the authorities will take any action still remains to be seen. General elections will be held on April 27th, or in only two days. The Icelandic Pirate Party has been gaining support and now has close to 10% support and it is extremely likely that they will make it into parliament. The party only has to pass the 5% election threshold to get MP's elected. The party will likely get 3 - 5 MP's, out of 63. It will be interest to see the party's reaction to the Pirate Bay's movement to Iceland.

I was brought up in a country that believed itself to be open and tolerant. Indeed after the Second World War Germany undertook to transform guilt into responsibility. For me, it was always clear that our commitment to those "inviolable and inalienable human rights (1)" as well as freedom of speech (2), were the most precious values and lessons to be drawn from our problematic past. This is why, three months ago, I was dismayed to discover that Freiburg University, one of our oldest German universities, banned an event hosting renowned Paris University Professor Christophe Oberlin who was scheduled to talk about plastic surgery in Gaza.

Freiburg University hosts all kinds of political events, especially and regularly events organized by notorious Israeli Hasbara outlets such as the German Israeli Society and the Zionist Anti-Deutsche. And, if this is not enough, invitations to German Israeli Society events are often publicised by the university, its official bodies and its departments. But for some reason, for Freiburg University, freedom of speech and tolerance seems to end when it comes to the plight of the Palestinian people. The same university, which provides a platform for the German Israeli Society and the Zionist Anti-Deutsche will not provide a platform for Freiburg Cafe Palestine – a humanitarian non-political organization dedicated to the suffering of the Palestinian. In fact, the same university banned Cafe Palestine’s event hosting a prestigious French academic. The official motto of the university,‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ is engraved in shiny gold letters above one of the university's entrances, yet the university itself is clearly terrified of the truth being told within its walls.

Peter Lloyd is suing his gym over banning men at certain times. Men and boys are banned for a total of 442 hours every year. The gym say it is to make women more comfortable. 'I'm suing the gym for gender bias. Not simply because their policy is unfair, but because it pathologises masculinity while simultaneously repressing it.' - When I became a member of my local gym, it was to exercise my body - not my human rights. But that's exactly what I'm doing with the Kentish Town Sports Centre in north London. The venue, owned by fitness company Better in association with Camden Council, attracts hundreds of people from all sections of society: religious, atheist, male, female, young and old. There is no dominant demographic. Everybody is welcome and everybody gets on. But not everybody is equal. Because, in an age of political over-correctness, they ban all men and boys for 442 hours every year - simply because they are male. Adding insult to injury, they still charge them the same full-price membership fee as women, but refuse to offer the equivalent option of male-only sessions. Not only is this an outrageous business model, but it's also sexist. Especially given that council officials base it almost solely on women's needs. Fair? I think not.

Mike Adams: In a police state, citizens have no rights and can be ordered around at the whims of a militarized police force whose goons run around in black uniforms, terrorizing the populace. Welcome to Boston, 2013. The police state is running wild in this city, and it has reached the point where innocent families are being ordered out of their own homes by screaming, aggressive, 'roid-head SWAT teams armed with overwhelming firepower. This is what has emerged from a secret YouTube video that had to be covertly filmed while ducking behind a window. Click here to watch the shocking video.

Lee Rogers: Many Bostonians Love And Worship The Militarized Police State

The parents of the two brothers accused of detonating explosives near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last week are expected to come to the United States to assist with an investigation into the terrorist attack. The mother and father of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been cooperating with US authorities from their native Russia in the days since a pair of homemade bombs blew up in Boston last Monday, killing three and injuring more than 200 others. Now according to the latest reports, Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev are slated to soon come stateside in order to answer more questions about their children as authorities search for answers.