Canadian officials confirmed Monday that the nation is preparing to include the North Pole as part of its Arctic Ocean seabed claim in the multi-country push to prove jurisdiction over further territory in the resource-rich area. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Arctic Council chair Leona Aglukkaq officially announced Monday Canada’s claim to the extended continental shelf in the Arctic. It was reported by The Globe and Mail last week that Prime Minister Stephen Harper requested a government board charged with assessing Canada’s claims beyond its territorial waterways, per United Nations rules, to seek a more expansive stake of Arctic area to include the North Pole. The preliminary application outlines complete scientific evidence regarding Canada’s Atlantic Ocean requests and a portion of its Arctic claim all while reserving the nation’s right to make further submissions at a later date. Canada’s application was due based on UN requirements that a country that has ratified the Convention make its claim within ten years. Canada ratified the UN Convention in 2003.

The Economist: Suddenly, a wider world below the waterline

Boy with asthma dies at school because he wasn't allowed to keep his inhaler with him. Instead it was locked up in the principal's office where no one could get it while he lay dying. ● Ryan Gibbons died Oct. 9, 2012 when he suffered a severe asthma attack during recess at school in the village of Straffordville, in southwestern Ontario. Sandra Gibbons says her son told his friends he wasn't feeling well and probably started panicking when they had to carry him to the office where the inhaler was kept. "So as he was going to the office to get his inhaler, he kind of was having a hard time and had to be carried into the office, and by the time he got there he had blacked out," she said. "To this day I really don't know how exactly the whole day unfolded for him."

NSA whistleblower's victory, for exposing the scale of internet surveillance, follows that of Chelsea Manning last year. ● Edward Snowden, who leaked an estimated 200,000 files that exposed the extensive and intrusive nature of phone and internet surveillance and intelligence gathering by the US and its western allies, was the overwhelming choice of more than 2,000 people who voted. The NSA whistleblower garnered 1,445 votes. In a distant second, from a list of 10 candidates chosen by Guardian writers and editors, came Marco Weber and Sini Saarela, the Greenpeace activists who spearheaded the oil rig protest over Russian Arctic drilling. They received 314 votes. Pope Francis gained 153 votes, narrowly ahead of blogger and anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe, who received 144. Snowden's victory was as decisive as Chelsea Manning's a year earlier.

Nelson Mandela was memorialized in a boisterous stadium ceremony here Tuesday as a teacher and a healer, an iconic figure who changed history and touched hearts in his native country and around the world. Scores of thousands of South Africans braved a pouring rain to join dozens of world leaders, including President Obama and many other heads of state, for a tribute filled with emotional tributes and joyous song. People from all walks of life, from businessmen to nurses to the unemployed, danced and clapped and sang in the hours leading up to the memorial service, their voices echoing across the stadium as if they were cheering at a soccer match. The rich mingled with the poor, children with the elderly, all there to remember Mandela, the former South African president who died Thursday at the age of 95.

Stephen Lendman: Mandela Eulogies: Reinventing His Disturbing Legacy
Patrick O’Connor: Former South African President Nelson Mandela dies
Washington Post: Obama’s speech at Mandela memorial
PressTV: Mourners gather for Mandela memorial in Johannesburg - Video

More than 500 renowned authors – including five Nobel laureates - from across the globe have signed a petition demanding an end to ‘mass surveillance’. It follows the revelations over the last few months of the US and other countries spying. Their open appeal is called ‘A Stand for Democracy in the Digital Age’. Among the signatories are Nobel laureates Orhan Pamuk, JM Coetzee, Elfriede Jelinek, Günter Grass and Tomas Tranströmer. Others who signed the letter include Björk, Umberto Eco, Yann Martel, Ian McEwan and many others. “WE DEMAND THE RIGHT for all people, as democratic citizens, to determine to what extent their personal data may be collected, stored and processed, and by whom; to obtain information on where their data is stored and how it is being used; to obtain the deletion of their data if it has been illegally collected and stored. WE CALL ON ALL STATES AND CORPORATIONS to respect these rights,” the open appeal read. It adds that “a person under surveillance is no longer free; a society under surveillance is no longer a democracy. To maintain any validity, our democratic rights must apply in virtual as in real space.” The letter also calls for the creation by the UN an International Bill of Digital Rights. Everyone is invited to sign the open appeal at change.org

The Guardian: World's leading authors: state surveillance of personal data is theft

UK students are rallying together against a ‘police crackdown’ after a week of protests led to violence and a ban on demonstrations at a London university. Activists claim the police and universities are using intimidation tactics to gag protesters. The student protest movement in the UK has taken social media by storm under the hashtag #copsoffcampus to call for an end to student repression. Students have organized a ‘Day of Action’ for Wednesday and asked students around Britain to join together in mass protest.

Planet Ivy: #copsoffcampus: Student anger boils over as police campus crackdown intensifies

A debate between Jewish Settler politician David Rubin and jazz artist Gilad Atzmon on Richie Allen Show /PVT (3/12/13). It doesn't take too long before the settler runs away. All it takes is just a bit of 'in your face' truth...

A special unit operating under cover and protected by diplomatic immunity, assigned to a very sensitive mission: to spy on the communication of the Italian leadership. That is what top secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden and published in Italy exclusively by l'Espresso in collaboration with "la Repubblica" reveal. A file mentions the "Special Collection Service " (SCS) sites in Rome and in Milan, the very same service which, according to the German weekly "Der Spiegel ", spied on the mobile phone of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. "Special Collection Sites", reads the file published today by l'Espresso, "provide considerable perishable intelligence on leadership communications largely facilitated by site presence within a national capital". These documents are very important because they contradict recent statements by the Italian Prime Minister reassuring the Italian Parliament. Speaking to the Chamber of Deputies four weeks ago, Enrico Letta said: "Based on the analysis conducted by our intelligence services and our international contacts, we are not aware that the security of the communications of the Italian government and embassies has been compromised, nor are we aware that the privacy of Italian citizens has been compromised". These top secret documents tell a different story, however.