Families and relatives of political prisoners, including Muslim detainees in the Unites States, have taken to the streets to demand release of their loved ones, Press TV reports. - The protest took place on Saturday in front of the US Department of Justice in the US capital, Washington. According to the report, charges of terrorism or support for terrorism were made against the fathers, husbands, and sons of demonstrators. Protesters say people were being sent to prison for crimes that they did not commit. “Unfortunately people do not know enough about what is going on in their own country. People are being imprisoned for crimes that they did not do…. They are basically being framed. They're being put into prison for feeding hungry children,” said a prisoner’s daughter during the rally. Demonstrators also say that the US officials send people to prison to justify their wars across the world. “They (the US officials) know they are innocent and they just do it for political reasons to justify their wars abroad in Muslim countries,” said father of a prisoner identified as Ferik Duka. Political prisoners are serving anywhere between a few years to life in prison. Cases against Muslims continue to be filed regularly in the US.

A secretive federal court last year approved all of the 1,856 requests to search or electronically surveil people within the United States "for foreign intelligence purposes," the Justice Department reported this week. - The report, released Tuesday to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada, provides a brief glimpse into the caseload of what is known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. None of its decisions are public. The 2012 figures represent a 5 percent bump from the prior year, when no requests were denied either. The secret court, which came to life in the wake of the Watergate scandal under the President Richard M. Nixon administration, now gets the bulk of its authority under the FISA Amendments Act, which Congress reauthorized for another five years days before it would have expired last year.

Cinq soldats de la coalition internationale ont été tués ce samedi 4 mai dans le sud de l’Afghanistan. Selon le responsable de la police locale, ces militaires sont des Américains qui ont été visés par un engin explosif dans une région largement infiltrée par les talibans. Les insurgés n’ont pas revendiqué l’attaque. C’est au passage de leur convoi qu’une bombe artisanale a explosé. C'est ce que relate l'Isaf, la coalition internationale en Afghanistan, dans un communiqué. Cette technique est l’une des plus utilisées par les talibans qui visent indistinctement civils, militaires afghans ou étrangers. L'ISAF ne donne pas les nationalités, mais ces cinq soldats « sont Américains », assure le responsable de la police de Kandahar. C'est dans cette province instable du sud du pays qu'a eu lieu cette attaque. Selon les premiers éléments, les militaires étaient en patrouille dans le district de Maiwand quand l'engin explosif, disposé sur la route, a été déclenché.

The Independent: Five American soldiers killed by roadside bomb in Afghanistan

With the Iran nuclear issue still unresolved and Iranian elections imminent, we thought it appropriate to re-visit the video we made last year - only this time it's your guide on how to become an expert in less than 4 minutes!

A political analyst has slammed the American global coffeehouse chain, Starbucks, for banning access to Press TV website at its shops since 2011, while giving free online access to obscene content and pornographic material. - “The list of pornography sites is endless that you can access from Starbucks, you can sit back and enjoy your coffee drinks and you can watch pornography, but you cannot access Press TV,” said Mike Stathis in a VIDEO published on YouTube. “Why is it that you can go to Starbucks and you can access the most vile pornography, but you cannot access Press TV which provides a much more honest uncensored view of the world events than any media outlets in the US?” he questioned.

Google.ps, which has been a thing for quite some time, has created a huge stir in Israel today when the logo for their English-language version was switched from “Google – Palestinian Territories” to simply “Google Palestine.” - Google officials say the change simply reflects the changes by ICANN and ISO, as well as the UN’s recognition of Palestine as a “non-member observer state.” The announcement was met as a “step in the right direction” by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian Authority had apparently requested the change from Google as well. Israeli officials are nowhere near so keen on this, insisting that Google’s name “pre-judges” the outcome of any future peace talks on Palestinian statehood by assuming the Palestinians will ever actually get a state.

ABC News: Danes, Finns Upgrade Palestinian Diplomatic Status

Israeli officials kept silent Saturday about reports by US officials that their occupation forces had launched an airstrike from the Lebanese skies onto Syrian soil on Friday, in violation to 1701 UN resolution and international law.

Israeli warplaneA military spokeswoman declined to comment on reports by CNN, the Associated Press and others that Israel had hit a weapons warehouse in Syria. U.S. officials told several U.S. news media organizations that Israel was believed to have sent warplanes over Lebanon on Thursday or Friday and fired into Syria without entering its airspace. The U.S. officials were quoted as saying they did not believe the target was chemical weapons. An Israeli spokesman in Washington said that the Zionist entity would not comment specifically on the reports but said that “Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, especially to Hezbollah in Lebanon.” The Lebanese army released a statement on Friday saying Israeli warplanes had flown over Lebanese airspace for hours. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman denounced the flights and accused the entity of breaking international law.

The Daily Star: Israeli jet shot down over Damascus: Hezbollah TV
The Daily Star: 8 Israeli warplanes fly over Lebanon
The Daily Star: Israel strikes Syria, targeting missiles: security source
PressTV: Israel launches new strike on Syria
Stephen Lendman: America and Israel: Imperial Partners in Crime
Tony Cartalucci: Israeli Airstrikes Signal Western Desperation in Syria
Al Jazeera: Israel confirms airstrike inside Syria
Russia Today: Israel bombs missile shipment in Syria - reports
PressTV: Israeli officials confirm Syria strike
PressTV: Sixteen Israeli fighter jets violate Lebanese airspace

Norway is taking steps to tackle websites like The Pirate Bay to eliminate online copyright infringement by amending the Copyright Act. The revisions are popular in parliament and if passed will grant authorities the right to block sites at the ISP level. - The proposed amendments make it easier to locate both website owners and end-users of unauthorized material online. Thus, the new legislation would allow rights-holders to take to court site owners involved in illegal content sharing and order the internet service providers (ISPs) to “prevent or impede access” to sites that have “extensively made available material that clearly violates copyrights”, Torrenfreak quotes the amendments. And if the website owner is unknown or cannot be located “the case can be decided without the person concerned being given an opportunity to comment.” This would make it very easy to block off sites whose owners wish to remain anonymous. Also, the introduced amendments exempt pursued individuals in question from the protection of Electronic Communications Act when a legal claim is underway.

After the “Arab springs” and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration. - The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the medium or long term. The same three European countries that headed the index last year hold the top three positions again this year. For the third year running, Finland has distinguished itself as the country that most respects media freedom. It is followed by the Netherlands and Norway. [United States: number 32] Although many criteria are considered, ranging from legislation to violence against journalists, democratic countries occupy the top of the index while dictatorial countries occupy the last three positions. Again it is the same three as last year – Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

The Boston Marathon bombing, horrific in and of itself, is made far worse by our response to it. For one thing, hate is on the march. Listen to the conversation between a Washington, D.C. cabbie – a Muslim from Somalia – and his crazed passenger, who rants that the Koran mandates death for unbelievers and demands the poor guy “denounce 9/11.” The passenger then assaults the cabbie, who reportedly suffered a fractured jaw.

Terror, such as we saw in Boston, is our doorway into Bizarro World, where up is down and everything is stood on its head. Sen. Rand Paul, leader of the GOP’s libertarian wing, responded to the Boston bombing by writing a letter to Harry Reid averring we ought to forget about immigration reform and suggesting “We suspend student visas, or at least those from high-risk areas, pending an investigation into the national security implications of this program” And, of course, the response of law enforcement was to shut down an entire city, ordering people to stay in their homes and imposing what amounted to martial law. Luckily for the cops, someone violated that order, went out to get a breath of fresh air, and saw Dzhokhar’s blood trickling out of a boat parked in the back yard.

Obama turns to Chicago again and picks another Jew for commerce job. - Nomination of Hyatt heiress and Democratic fundraiser likely to upset unions who oppose hotel giant's treatment of workers. Barack Obama made a controversial choice as commerce secretary Thursday when he nominated top fundraiser and Hyatt hotel heiress Penny Pritzker, in spite of her long-running dispute with unions over workplace conditions and school closures. Pritzker is the latest in a long line of friends and supporters from the president's hometown of Chicago that he has rewarded since taking office in 2009, among them former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, now Chicago's mayor. The appointments have led to accusations of cronyism. Obama, urging speedy confirmation of the appointment by the Senate, portrayed Pritzker as pro-worker. Pritzker was by his side along with long-time aide Mike Froman, the deputy national security adviser on international economics whom he nominated as a US trade representative.

Police 'Disappear' En Masse After Recent Fighting. - Several days of fighting in the northern Faryab Province have seen a major incident of apparent Taliban kidnapping, with local MPs claiming that at least 33 police are believed to have been taken prisoner. Gunbattles were reported over the past week and a half, with a local Taliban leader reportedly killed by Afghan security forces that were trying to drive them from the area. Officials say the “disappearances” are likely related to the fighting. Locals initially reported the “missing” police on Tuesday, but it did not get to officials until today. Taliban have yet to issue any statements on kidnappings, which is unusual for them.

The presence of the 86-year-old Queen Elizabeth ll and her 92-year-old husband in former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral may be understood as the Queen’s attachment to the Thatcher era and her controversial policies during her 11-year premiership. Regarding the importance of Thatcher’s position and policies suffice it to say that the old British Queen during her reign of more than sixty years did not attend any funeral ceremony of her Prime Ministers except Thatcher’s.Many ask themselves, isn’t it the case that the Queen should be the guardian of Britain’s national values? So, while most people consider Thatcher era as the worst contemporary political period in their country, how could the Queen pour scorn on people and their values, holding a state-funded funeral and attending the event. The answer is simple. Thatcher was the British Queen’s Prime Minister and the guardian of Her Majesty’s values. War, suppression of social movements, close relations with racist regimes such as South Africa and Israel and many other counter values were basically the Queen’s acceptable values, to which Thatcher remained loyal and this time was the master’s turn to appreciate protection of such values in her servant’s death.

John Pilger: Dance on Thatcher's grave, but remember there has been a coup in Britain - Denying milk to poor kids was one of the first of her many acts to save England...The corruption and inhumanity under Thatcher knew no borders. When she came to power in 1979, Thatcher demanded a total ban on exports of milk to Vietnam. The American invasion had left a third of Vietnamese children malnourished. I witnessed many distressing sights, including infants going blind from a lack of vitamins. "I cannot tolerate this," said an anguished doctor in a Saigon paediatric hospital, as we looked at a dying boy. Oxfam and Save the Children had made clear to the British government the gravity of the emergency. An embargo led by the US had forced up the local price of a kilo of milk up to ten times that of a kilo of meat. Many children could have been restored with milk. Thatcher's ban held.

Thatcher offers one of the most egregious cases in recent history of a sociopath in power. - The legend of Thatcher portrays her as a self-made woman, a greengrocer’s daughter from Grantham. In reality, the emergence of Thatcher was the work of a formidable political syndicate. One of Thatcher’s most important handlers was by any measure Lord Victor Rothschild (1910-1990), the third Baron Rothschild. Lord Vic was nominally a Labour peer in the House of Lords, but much of his influence derived from his work between 1963 and 1970 as worldwide head of “research” - meaning intelligence - for Royal Dutch Shell, the policy flagship of the seven sisters oil cartel. During much of this time, Lord Vic was a key security adviser to Thatcher. For a number of years Lord Vic also ran the Central Policy Review Staff, the de facto think tank of the British government. Lord Vic was also closely associated with Sir Keith Joseph, a Tory government minister and Thatcher’s top political brain truster. Thatcher was for many years elected to parliament from the safe Conservative seat of Finchley. However, intelligence reports from the 1980s sometimes noted that Thatcher’s hold on this rotten borough or pocket borough had been consolidated with decisive help from Lord Vic.