The UK is sending a nuclear submarine to the Malvinas Islands amid growing tensions between Britain and Argentina over the disputed territories. - According to media reports on Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron has personally approved the deployment of the Trafalgar-class vessel, believed to be either HMS Tireless or HMS Turbulent, in the South Atlantic. However, a British Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on submarine deployments." The heavily-armed submarine is set to be in the Malvinas waters in April for the 30th anniversary of the 1982 war which the two countries fought over the islands also known as the Falklands. The Royal Navy has already revealed it is sending HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, to the Falklands. Britain's Prince William arrived in the Malvinas on Thursday for a six-week training mission as a search and rescue pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Eastern and central Europe continue to shiver under a blanket of heavy snow Friday, with more deaths reported after bitter cold overnight temperatures.

Ukraine is probably the worst affected, with Poland, Romania, Serbia and Belarus also suffering much more severe winter conditions than usual. Thirty-eight people have died of hypothermia in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, according to the state-run news agency Ukrinform, citing government ministries. The latest deaths take the total number killed in Ukraine in the cold spell that started January 27 to 101, the news agency reported. Twenty-nine people had died in Poland as of Thursday, according to the publicly funded Polish Radio's news website. Other cold-related deaths have been reported in Serbia, Romania and elsewhere.

Joe Lowry, spokesman for the International Red Cross Europe Zone, said many people across the region are in urgent need of help. "If 163 people have frozen to death on the European streets, it is a disaster," he told CNN. The homeless and elderly are among the most vulnerable, Lowry said, as well as those who often find themselves on the margins of society, such as alcoholics or people with mental health issues. He said the Red Cross is helping people by providing warm clothing, boots, hot drinks and food, as well as shelter in heated tents and moral support. Local authorities must also react effectively to the crisis to save lives, he said. The sudden start to the bitter cold weather after what had been a mild winter for some parts of Eastern Europe caught many people unaware, Lowry said.

EuroNews: Europe’s homeless dying in arctic conditions
The Telegraph: Europe's cold spell: Death toll rises to 220 and no end in sight

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared before the UK Supreme Court Wednesday for the start of a two-day hearing to challenge his extradition to Sweden on trumped-up sexual assault charges.

The appeal to Britain’s highest court is the last legal avenue open to Assange in the UK to prevent his removal, after he was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Sweden on December 7, 2010. He has been held under house arrest ever since. However, the two-day hearing is restricted to the technical matter as to whether the fact that the EAW was issued by a prosecutor rather than a judge, or in Sweden’s case the National Police Board, makes the extradition request invalid. Any examination of the dirty tricks operation mounted against Assange, with the aim of silencing him and WikiLeaks, is out of bounds. Assange has never been charged with any offence, yet his name was released to the press as a potential rapist by Ny, triggering a campaign of vilification against him. Extradition to Sweden is widely considered to be only a prelude to Assange’s extradition onto the US, with whom Sweden has a “temporary surrender” agreement in place.

Justice for Assange - Website
WL Central: The Assange Extradition Hearing: Day 1
John Pilger: The Assange case means we are all suspects now
The Guardian: Julian Assange extradition appeal at supreme court - day two live blog

There was a moment in a report from Tunisia by the BBC’s Wyre Davies when I could not stop myself laughing. I was listening to it on the Corporation’s generally excellent World Service radio. (In my view this particular BBC service is generally excellent because unlike all other BBC news and current affairs outlets, radio and tv, it often reflects some of the truth about what is happening in and over Palestine that became Israel)....

British monarchy and government insist on their colonial stand, after planning to dispatch an advanced warship and an heir to throne to the “occupied” Malvinas Islands, fuelling speculations that it is considering a war against Argentina over the archipelago.

British government has announced that it was deploying its most sophisticated warship, destroyer HMS Dauntless, and the Duke of Cambridge to the South Atlantic to secure its last colony in Latin America.

Analysts condemned UK's decision, believing the move will also send a powerful message to the Argentina government that who acts as the “colonialist.” Argentina government expressed dismay over the war policy of the British government, condemning the deployment of the warship and the planned tour of duty of Prince William in the occupied Falklands islands while wearing “the uniform of the conqueror.”

PressTV: Argentina raps UK militarizing Malvinas

In 1994, in Trondheim, five-year-old Silje Redergard was beaten to death by two little boys. Today, the girl's family still suffers and one of the boys is in trouble again – the echoes of the Bulger case are clear. So why has the public reaction in Norway been so startlingly different? - On the afternoon of 15 October 1994, three young children, a girl aged five, and two six-year-old boys, were playing on a football field covered in freshly fallen snow. Their parents were neighbours who did not know each other, but the children had played together before. The three had been making "snow castles", until the fun stopped. Nobody knows why. A childish disagreement? A tantrum, perhaps? Whatever it was it triggered a reaction in the boys that devastated a family and the community. At some point while playing, the boys turned on the little girl, punching and kicking her and beating her with stones before stripping off her clothes. Then they ran away, leaving her to die in the snow.

Greece's financial crisis has made some families so desperate they are giving up the most precious thing of all - their children. - One morning a few weeks before Christmas a kindergarten teacher in Athens found a note about one of her four-year-old pupils. "I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her," it read. "Please take good care of her. Sorry. Her mother." In the last two months Father Antonios, a young Orthodox priest who runs a youth centre for the city's poor, has found four children on his doorstep - including a baby just days old. [...] One of the children cared for by Father Antonios is Natasha, a bright two-year-old brought to his centre by her mother a few weeks ago. The woman said she was unemployed and homeless and needed help - but before staff could offer her support she had vanished, leaving her daughter behind. "Over the last year we have hundreds of cases of parents who want to leave their children with us - they know us and trust us," Father Antonios says. "They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need." Requests of this kind were not unknown before the crisis - but Father Antonios has never until now come across children being simply abandoned. His organisation, Kivotos, tries to prevent children being separated from their parents. They currently have 30 apartments they use to house families in need.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has warned that his country faces 'the specter of bankruptcy and all the dire consequences that it entails.' - Lucas Papademos said on Sunday that Greece would default on its debts and might not be able to pay off its loans, and thus forced out of the eurozone unless the country's international creditors agreed to a new bailout. The warning comes as Greece's international lenders say the country needs EUR145 billion of public money from the eurozone for its second bailout to escape economic failure. The figure is more than the planned EUR130 billion because of the deteriorating economic situation in Greece. The European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have presented Greece with two rescue packages so far in return for specific austerity measures, which include cutting public sector salaries and pensions, increasing taxes and overhauling the pension system.

Stefan Steinberg: Berlin calls for EU-run bankers’ dictatorship over Greek economy

An Iranian lawmaker says the Majlis (parliament) Energy Committee has finalized a draft bill to stop the country's oil exports to EU member states in reaction to the bloc's recent decision to ban oil imports from Iran. - Nasser Soudani, deputy chairman of the committee, said on Saturday that the double-urgency bill for halting Iran oil exports to Europe had been finalized in four clauses. “According to one of the main clauses, the Islamic Republic of Iran will halt all oil exports to European countries as long as they continue to ban oil imports from Iran,” he added. The lawmaker said the bill may undergo further modifications as some Iranian parliamentarians believe that oil exports to EU should be stopped for five years.

PressTV: '70 EU refineries to shut for Iran oil ban'

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have poured into the streets of several cities in eastern Spain to protest against the government's austerity measures.

The protesters marched in the region's three largest cities of Alicante, Castellon and Valencia on Thursday chanting slogans and carrying large banners which read "No to cuts to public services." The rallies were organized by Spain's main labor unions. Union officials said around 200,000 people took part in the protests in the three cities. Unions' leaders called for the protests after the regional government of Valencia, Spain's most indebted region, announced deep spending cuts to health and education sectors. According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the regional government's debt to the area's roughly 400 schools is around 33 million Euros. Some of school teachers are buying chalk for blackboards and students are required to bring their own paper for exams. Hit by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, destroying millions of jobs.

Bloomberg: Unemployment in Spain Rises to 22.9%
Mike Jobson: Striking truckers, fishermen clash with Italian government

A team of salvage divers has discovered an unexplained object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden. - "This thing turned up. My first reaction was to tell the guys that we have a UFO here on the bottom," said Peter Lindberg, the leader of the amateur treasure hunters. Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it's not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have "drag marks" behind them on the sea floor, stretching back more than 400 feet.

After days of protests and hacker attacks, Poland has signed the controversial ACTA copyright protection treaty. Opponents call it an assault on online freedom, since it demands that internet service providers police user activity.

Warsaw’s Ambasador to Tokyo Jadwiga Rodowicz-Czechowska signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Japan on Tuesday. The treaty aims to harmonize international copyright protection standards in a number of industries from pharmaceutics to fashion. The agreement now has to be ratified by the parliament, which is unlikely to oppose it, reports RT’s Aleksey Yaroshevsky. The news came amid mass protests in Poland, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets, while many more joined online action against ACTA. Some 15,000 activists marched in Krakow, 5,000 in Wroclaw, and several thousand in other Polish cities. A number of websites, including that of Prime Minister Donald Tusk were attacked by hackers demanding that the country boycott the treaty. This however didn’t stop the authorities from proceeding with their plan. The agreement, which has already been signed by the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea, has been criticized by human rights groups for the secrecy, in which it has been developed, and the potential for abuse it poses. The deal has been compared to the SOPA/PIPA bills, which drew worldwide opposition and an internet strike, once the danger the posed became widely publicized. It the case of ACTA, the public remained mostly unaware of its nature, before the hacktivist group Anonymous spread the message.

Mahmoud Abbas the unelected Palestinian leader was in London last week holding discussions with David Cameron the Prime Minister at Downing Street. However, a planned meeting with British Jewish Leaders was cancelled by the Prime Minister of Israel Benyamin Netanyahu.

British Jews cancel meeting with Abbas in wake of pressure from Netanyahu

According to Haaretz British Leaders and the U.K. Israeli Embassy pushed for the meeting, however the order came from Tel Aviv saying not to go ahead. Such incidents can only add to the thorny issue of where the loyalties of The Leaders of British Jewry lie. More on this subject can be found here.

William Hague claims blockading Iran is aimed at avoiding conflict, instead of stoking it. Columbia University Professor Gary Sick, who has a special expertise on Iran, viewed the EU oil embargo much differently. He called the efforts “the equivalent of a blockade. It’s an act of war.” - The European Union embargo on Iranian oil imports that was pushed for aggressively by the U.S. is aimed at reducing the risk of conflict and stressing the need for peace talks, according to British Foreign Secretary William Hague. “This is not a set of actions designed to lead to any conflict but to lead us away from any conflict by increasing the pressure for peaceful settlement of these disputes,” he said on Tuesday. Despite years of evidence to the contrary, Hague’s comments passed without an outburst of laughter on the world stage. Washington, and most of the EU, has approached Iran in largely the same way since the Iranian revolution in 1979. That is, with threats, sanctions, and isolation. Instead of bringing diplomacy, it has brought only more bitterness and mistrust.

PressTV: 'EU in for severe crisis due to Iran ban'
PressTV: Norway's Statoil says Iran can still repay its debt to the company despite the EU ban on the country
Peter Symonds: European Union imposes oil embargo on Iran
Chris Floyd: Pups on Parade: EU Obediently Pushes Toward War with Iran

Little known fact about Sweden, that supposed bastion of liberal idealism: If a Swedish transgendered person wants to legally update their gender on official ID papers, a 1972 law requires them to get both divorced and sterilized first. - Sweden is considered extremely gay-friendly, with one of the highest rates of popular support for same-sex marriage, and more than half the population supports gay adoption. Arguing that the current law is both unpopular and abusive, the country's moderate and liberal parties want to see it repealed. In response, the small but powerful Christian Democrat party formed a coalition with other right-of-center parties to join in upholding the requirement for sterilization. End result: a proposal for new legislation that allows trans—a preferred term for many people who undergo gender reassignment—to be married, but continues to force them to be sterilized.

Europe is considering a sweeping new law that would force Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use of their personal data, delete that data forever at the consumer’s request and face fines for failing to comply. - The proposed data protection regulation from the European Commission, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, could have significant consequences for all Internet companies that trade in personal data, whether it is pictures that people post on social networks or what they buy on retail sites or look for on a search engine. The regulation would compel Web sites to tell consumers why their data is being collected and retain it for only as long as necessary. If data is stolen, sites would have to notify regulators within 24 hours. It also offers consumers the right to transport their data from one service to another — to deactivate a Facebook account, for example, and take one’s trove of pictures and posts and contacts to Google Plus. The proposed law strikes at the heart of some of the knottiest questions governing digital life and commerce: who owns personal data, what happens to it once it is posted online, and what the proper balance is between guarding privacy and leveraging that data to aim commercial or political advertising at ordinary people.

AWIP: EU proposes 'right to be forgotten' by internet firms

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman says unilateral sanctions adopted by the European Union against Iran are "unfair" and "doomed to fail." - "The method of threat, pressure and unfair sanctions against a nation that has a strong reason for its approach is doomed to fail," Ramin Mehmanparast said Monday. He added that such measures will not "prevent Iran from achieving its inalienable right" to peacefully use nuclear energy. The spokesman further stated that the EU had adopted the decision under the political pressure of the United States, and advised the bloc to value its interests instead of bowing to Washington. "It seems the American authorities want to disrupt the energy sources of their rivals and weaken their economic rivals under the pretext of piling up political pressure on Iran," he said. Mehmanparast said the oil embargo cannot become real given the European Union's "economic crisis." He emphasized that any country that wants to deprive itself of Iran's vast energy reserves will be "immediately replaced by other countries."

PressTV: Chinese supertankers hired for Iran oil
PressTV: 'Europeans to suffer from Iran oil ban'
Jason Ditz: EU Agrees on ‘Gradual’ Iran Oil Embargo
Peter Symonds: European Union imposes oil embargo on Iran

A new law promising internet users the "right to be forgotten" will be proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday. - It says people will be able to ask for data about them to be deleted and firms will have to comply unless there are "legitimate" grounds to retain it. The move is part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the commission's 1995 Data Protection Directive. Some tech firms have expressed concern about the reach of the new bill. Details of the revised law were unveiled by the Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich. A spokesman for the commissioner clarified that the action was designed to help teenagers and young adults manage their online reputations. "These rules are particularly aimed at young people as they are not always as aware as they could be about the consequence of putting photos and other information on social network websites, or about the various privacy settings available," said Matthew Newman.

Surrey Police faces "serious questions" about whether it ignored evidence of phone hacking after it emerged that a News of the World reporter played officers a recording of Milly Dowler's voicemails within a month of her disappearance. - Instead of pressing charges against the newspaper for illegally accessing the schoolgirl's messages, a senior officer from Surrey Police invited two of the tabloid's staff to a private meeting to discuss the case. An internal investigation by the Surrey force An internal investigation by the Surrey force found that a reporter told police that the newspaper had obtained Milly's mobile number and voicemail PIN from her schoolfriends. In fact, the tabloid had paid the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to do so. The newly released report also suggested that a News of the World investigator posed as Milly's mother, Sally, in an attempt to gain information about her. Milly was abducted on her way home from school in Walton–on–Thames, Surrey, on March 21, 2002. Her body was found six months later.

The Zionist Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (Bicom) has collaborated with the state-controlled British Office of Communications (Ofcom) to ban the alternative English-language channel Press TV in the UK, a political analyst says.

“With anti-Iran sabotage activities high on its agenda, Bicom has worked closely with Ofcom towards eliminating a critical voice: Press TV,” Ismail Salami, Iranian author and Middle East expert, wrote in an article published on Press TV on Sunday. Ofcom revoked Press TV's license and removed the channel from the Sky platform on January 20 for what it claimed to be the news network's breach of the Communications Act. The British media regulator also served Press TV's London office with an order to pay a 100,000-pound fine. “An office with intimate ties to the [British] Royal Family, Ofcom has issued the verdict under the sway of some influential parties in the government and the Bicom firm to boot,” Salami added. He went on to explain the activities and objectives of the Israeli-sponsored company, pointing out that as a “London-based” organization “tasked with inseminating the Zionist political ideology, Bicom also funds those who are in one way or another involved with anti-Iran activities.” “Apart from garnering support for the Zionist regime among Britons, the office also serves as a bridge between the Mossad and MI6,” with its current head, Lorna Fitzsimons, a member of the parliamentary lobby group Labor Friends of Israel (LFI), Salami elucidated.

The Iranian author also pointed to the October 2011 scandal over Adam Werritty -- an “influential member” of Bicom and “an unofficial chief of staff” to the former British Defense Minister Liam Fox -- and his efforts to subvert the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Werritty was financially backed by murky sources such as Bicom. And he was considered an influential member of the organization and a highly regarded agent for Mossad,” he noted.

Gilad Atzmon: Liam Fox Is Not a ‘Useful Idiot’
Gilad Atzmon: This Is How Israel Runs The British Press
Ismail Salami: Unfolding a plot: Mossad at work
Craig Murray: Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran
Jonathon Blakeley: Atlantic Bridge, Liam Fox, Adam Werritty & Israel

Stephen Lendman: UK Government Suppresses Truth
AWIP: Britain bans Iran-based TV channel

Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted -- Germany with its manufacturing base and export prowess is the U.S. of yesteryear, an economic power unlike any of its European neighbors. It has thrived on principles America seems to have lost. - Every summer, Volkmar and Vera Kruger spend three weeks vacationing in the south of France or at a cool getaway in Denmark. For the other three weeks of their annual vacation, they garden or travel a few hours away to root for their favorite team in Germany's biggest soccer stadium. The couple, in their early 50s, aren't retired or well off. They live in a small Tudor-style house in this middle-class town about 30 miles northwest of Frankfurt. He's a foreman at a glass factory; she works part time for a company that tracks inventories for retailers. Their combined income is a modest $40,000. Yet the Krugers have a higher standard of living than many Americans who have twice that income. Their secret: little debt, frugal habits and a government that is intensely focused on high production, low inflation and extensive social services. That has given them job security and good medical care as well as well-maintained roads, trains and bike paths. Both of their adult children are out on their own, thanks in part to Germany's job-training system and heavy subsidies for university education.

The planned American missile defense shield is “a copper basin” that will cover NATO states and pose a threat to neutral European countries, believes Russian Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin. - “The Americans call the deployment of the missile defense system in Europe 'an umbrella'. It's not an umbrella, it's a copper basin that will cover both NATO member countries and neutral states,” Rogozin said in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station. The Russian idiom “to get covered by a copper basin” is similar to the English expression, “to go out of the window”. In this context, what is going out of the window is national security. Rogozin, Moscow’s outgoing NATO envoy, also underlined that a defense shield should be limited to the territory for which the initiator of this shield is responsible. “But if it crawls into someone else’s territory, it’s no longer a defense, but an offense,” noted the Russian deputy PM who is in charge of the country’s defense complex. “What kind of defense system is it that spreads to the territory of states that do not want to be controlled by anyone and don’t want the range of any missiles to lie within their soil?” Rogozin asked. The planned deployment of the American-NATO defense system in Europe has long been a bone of contention in relations between Moscow and Washington. The Russian side is worried that the system, located close to Russia’s borders, may pose a threat to its national security as long as the US fails to provide any legally binding guarantees to the contrary.

TV2 Nyhetene: Denne norske spionradaren får Putin og Medvedev til å se rødt

Croatians voted Sunday in favor of joining the European Union despite a poor turnout for the referendum — a sign of how much the debt-stricken 27-nation bloc has lost its appeal within countries aspiring to join. - Croatia's state referendum commission said that with nearly all ballots counted, about 66 percent of those who took part in the referendum answered "yes" to the question: "Do you support the membership of the Republic of Croatia in the European Union?" About 33 percent were against, while the rest of the ballots were invalid. About 47 percent of eligible voters took part in the referendum, illustrating voters' apathy toward the EU. That compares to 84 percent who voted in a referendum for Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

Britain has revoked the press license of Iran-based English language broadcaster Press TV, accusing it of violating press regulations. But some say the decision was really motivated by British geopolitical interests. - The Office of Communications (Ofcom), a government-approved watchdog overseeing broadcasting and telecommunications in the UK, says the channel does not control its content. It also says the channel’s license should be held by its office in Tehran, not London, since its editorial control is clearly coming from the Iranian capital. In addition, Press TV is accused of not paying a fine of £100,000 ($156,000) for airing an interview with an imprisoned journalist in 2009. Press TV says it's being silenced, calling the withdrawal of the license “a clear act of censorship."

PressTV: 'Taking Press TV off air: UK censorship'
PressTV: Ofcom fines Press TV after ban in UK
PressTV: How to watch Press TV in UK

The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public. - A government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979. Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being told. The report reveals that military personnel were briefed to tell any 'inquisitive inquirer' the trials were part of research projects into weather and air pollution. Asked whether such tests are still being carried out, she said: 'It is not our policy to discuss ongoing research.'

After an Afghan soldier turned on French troops, killing four, Sarkozy has doubt about efficacy of NATO mission. - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that he was suspending training operations in Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four French soldiers and wounded a dozen more in a shoot out. Sarkozy also said the shooting raises serious doubts about the efficacy of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan and could possibly lead France to withdraw its 3,600 troops from the mission sooner rather than later. The attack that killed the French troops is just one in a long line of similar attacks that have been occurring in recent weeks. U.S. Marines and other coalition troops are being killed and attacked by Afghan army soldiers that are receiving training from NATO. The government has been mum about the rising number of such incidents because it flies in the face of, for example, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s comment last month that the U.S. is “winning” in Afghanistan. A central goal of the mission is to train an Afghan army, but so far the army is made up of illiterate criminals and drug addicts who sometimes attack NATO soldiers and quit in droves.

AWIP: Four French troops shot by Afghan soldier
PressTV: Another US-led soldier killed in S Afghanistan
PressTV: US army base attacked in Afghanistan

Scientists who created a potentially more deadly bird flu strain have temporarily stopped their research amid fears it could be used by terrorists.

In a letter published in Science and Nature, the teams call for an "international forum" to debate the risks and value of the studies. US authorities last month asked the authors of the research to redact key details in forthcoming publications. A government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists. Biosecurity experts fear an altered, more contagious form of the virus could spark a pandemic deadlier than the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak that killed up to 40 million people. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) recommended key details be omitted from publication of the research, which sparked international furore.

Russia Today: Bird flu mutation study stopped in fear of deadly global outbreak

Two legal rights groups on Thursday asked the United Nations to investigate allegations that Spanish and U.S. officials collaborated to quash criminal probes into whether the Bush administration authorized illegal killings and torture of terrorism suspects. The request, made to the U.N.'s special rapporteur for judicial independence, accused the United States of interfering with Spain's justice system in three different criminal cases. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights asked that the U.N. demand that both governments refrain from meddling in court cases.

Russia has accused Nato countries of trying to start a war with Syria and foment unrest in Iran - claims backed up by some Western security analysts. - Its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov at a press briefing in Moscow on Wednesday (18 January) said: "Our partners in the West are in fact discussing a no-fly zone ... There are other ideas being realised, including humanitarian convoys, in the hope they could provoke a response from [Syrian] government forces." He added - without naming names - that foreign powers are supplying arms to Syrian "extremists."

Israeli drones have been detected spying on Turkish military units in southern Turkey for the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party), according to Today’s Zaman, Turkey's English version of the mass-circulation Turkish daily Zaman. The PKK is considered by the US and EU to be a terrorist organization. The Jerusalem Post is also on the story. First, TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL

Turkish intelligence agencies prepared a report after the detection of two Israeli Herons in Hatay and Adana roughly two months ago, claiming that the Herons are collecting intelligence on Turkish military units in order to aid PKK operations in those regions. The report asserts that the PKK's training camps in northern Syria, near Turkey's Hatay border “where Turkish military border posts are relatively weak,” were established in those locations based on intelligence collected by the UAVs. The report also claims that Kenan Yıldızbakan, a PKK member who commanded an assault against a Turkish naval base in İskenderun in 2010, has made repeated trips into Israeli territory, reinforcing suspicions of a possible link between Israel and the PKK.

Norway's head of intelligence Janne Kristiansen has handed in her resignation because she said too much during a parliamentary hearing. - Justice Minister Grete Faremo told reporters that a "potential breach of confidentiality is a very serious matter". According to a transcript, Ms Kristiansen told the hearing that Norway had agents working in Pakistan. Reports say Pakistan has asked Norway to explain her remarks. Ms Kristiansen resigned late on Wednesday night after meeting the justice minister. A ministry spokesman told the BBC News website that the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) chief had "drawn her own conclusions".

The Washington Post: Head of Norway’s intelligence service resigns after disclosure gaffe
Montreal Gazette: Norway security chief quits in Pakistan agents row
The Foreigner: Norway PST director resigns

AMSTERDAM, (PIC)-- Palestinians in Holland have declared their intention to seek a court order for the arrest of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit to the Netherlands scheduled to start on Thursday. - The Palestinian home, a society formed by Palestinians living in the Netherlands, said in a statement on Wednesday that it would seek the court order in view of the Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity during the latest war on Gaza. It said that Netanyahu’s visit to Amsterdam, the headquarters of the International Criminal Court, posed as a blatant challenge to this court and to what it represents. The statement recalled that the Israeli war machine killed 1400 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and innocent civilians, in the course of three weeks of “genocide” against Gaza in 2008-2009 that also devastated the Strip’s infrastructure, places of worship, and hospitals. It pointed to the Goldstone report that condemned Israel for committing war crimes in that war, calling for reactivating the report and prosecuting the Israeli leaders for involvement in crimes against humanity. The society drew the attention to the new Israeli threats of waging a fresh and more brutal aggression Gaza within the few coming months, adding that the lack of concrete legal steps against Israel encouraged it to commit more crimes.

Syria's powerful allies in Russia vowed Wednesday to block any Western attempts to intervene militarily in Syria as Damascus fights off an increasingly chaotic 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad. - The support came as Assad was showing fresh confidence that he can ride out the uprising with the help of a small — but influential — set of friends in Russia, China and Iran. Iran also gave Syria another boost Wednesday. According to Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency, with the commander of Iran's Quds Force, Brig. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, said Assad's government enjoys public support and won't collapse.

A controversial inquiry into allegations of wrongdoing by the UK's security services is being scrapped. - Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the inquiry into the treatment of detainees could not continue because of a new Metropolitan Police investigation. These follow fresh allegations that officials assisted the rendition of men to Libya, where they were tortured. Mr Clarke said the government was committed to holding a judge-led inquiry once these were investigated. The Detainee Inquiry, headed by retired judge Sir Peter Gibson, was launched by the prime minister to get to the bottom of claims that MI5 and MI6 had aided and abetted the rendition and ill-treatment of terrorism suspects in the wake of 9/11. In July 2010 when he announced the "fully independent" inquiry, David Cameron had said that to ignore the claims of wrongdoing would risk secret operatives' reputation "being tarnished". But the inquiry had been widely criticised by campaign groups and lawyers representing detainees who were refusing to take part, saying it lacked transparency and credibility.

As the 30th anniversary of the war between Britain and Argentina over the Malvinas Islands nears, the dispute over the territory is heating up once again. - Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota says all Latin American nations back Argentina against Britain over the disputed Malvinas islands, which Britain claims as its own, calling it Falklands. Latin America and the Caribbean "back Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas and back the UN resolutions calling on the Argentine and British governments to hold talks on the issue," Patriota said in a meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in Brazil.

BBC: Argentina outraged at Cameron's 'colonialism' remarks - Argentine leaders have reacted with fury after UK Prime Minister David Cameron accused Argentina of "colonialism" for continuing to claim sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Intelligence officials claim Israeli drones collected data that helped Kurdish rebels set up training bases in Syria-Turkey border, Today's Zaman reports. - Turkish intelligence officials accuse Israel of aiding the Kurdish rebel group PKK, Turkish daily Today's Zaman reported on Tuesday. The paper quoted intelligence officials as saying that Israeli drone activity has been detected in the Hatay and Adana provinces in recent months, and that the unmanned aerial vehicles collected intelligence for the Kurdish rebels. Turkish intelligence officials have drafted a report detailing the activity of the drones, after two were recently detected flying over the country. According to the report, PKK training bases in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, "Were set up in areas that are known to be weakspots for the Turkish military, after they obtained intelligence collected by the drones." The intelligence report also charged that Kenan Yıldızbakan, a senior PKK member who commanded the 2010 attack against a Turkish Navy base in Iskenderun, visited Israel several times.

The UK has admitted for the first time it was spying on Russia six years ago with the help of a fake rock. The adviser to the then British PM Tony Blair called the incident embarrassing. - “They had us bang to rights,” Jonathan Powell told the BBC in an interview. He added that Russians must have known about the spying hardware for some time and exposed it at a politically opportune moment. In January 2006, a report on Russian television claimed there was proof British spies used electronic equipment hidden inside a fake rock to exchange information between agents and embassy staff. An agent would pass by and download data from his portable computer, while a diplomat would later collect it in a similar way. Four Britons involved in the spy ring have been identified by the Federal Security Service. Christopher Pierce, the diplomat who was said to have installed the secret link, was also responsible for financing Russian non-governmental organizations with British grants, and so was one of the other alleged spies, Mark Doe. The report implied that there may have been further links between the two sides of their jobs in Russia, and said the spy scandal “discredited the fine idea of NGOs.”

The Guardian: Britain admits 'fake rock' plot to spy on Russians

European University Association (EUA) has been monitoring the evolution of the economic crisis and its effects on higher education systems in Europe since its onset in 2008 and has published several reports (see below).

The monitoring is conducted in close cooperation with EUA collective members, the National Rectors’ Conferences, who report on developments within their national higher education systems on a regular basis. The continuous feedback from various sources provides up-to-date reports of the situation and highlights the evolving nature of the effects the crisis has had on university funding across Europe. The main objective of the monitoring is to look at the impact of the crisis on universities’ public funding and to identify in particular the trends in public funding across Europe. It also explores how the crisis has affected the nature of public funding and how such shifts are influencing universities at institutional level. The map compiles information on most European countries for which EUA has collected data. Figures are sometimes difficult to compare given the different methodologies used to calculate cuts in public funding and the different times when these take place; however, the comparison should give a sense of the trends in public funding and the latest developments across Europe. The map necessarily simplifies often complex situations. [Click on map to enlarge]

The Government is undertaking "extensive contingency planning" in the event of a eurozone collapse, peers have been told. - Treasury minister Lord Sassoon said the planning was aimed at dealing with "all potential outcomes of the eurozone crisis". At question time, he said Britain wanted to see a "strong and dynamic" eurozone and European economy. But he stressed it was for the eurozone countries to "take the lead in supporting the euro as a currency". Lord Sassoon also indicated that Britain would be prepared to stump up more cash to tackle the crisis if the IMF requested it. "The Government sees the role of the IMF to support individual countries and not to support currencies. "If the IMF puts forward a case, as it may well do, for an increase in its resources, if there is a strong case the UK will, as it has always done in the past, support the IMF in increasing resources as required," he said. Tory former chancellor Lord Lawson of Blaby said: "There is only one thing as worrying as the collapse of the eurozone and that's the continuation of the eurozone."

Greece is insolvent and probably won’t be able to honor a bond payment in March as the country negotiates with creditors to cut its debt burden, Fitch Ratings Managing Director Edward Parker said. - The euro area’s most indebted country is unlikely to be able to honor a March 20 bond payment of 14.5 billion euros ($18 billion), Parker said today in an interview in Stockholm. Efforts to arrange a private sector deal on how to handle Greece’s obligations would constitute a default, he said. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is scheduled to meet tomorrow with a group representing private bondholders after a five-day break to hold talks on forgiving at least 50 percent of the nation’s debt in the euro area’s first sovereign restructuring. Greece’s official creditors begin talks Jan. 20 on spending curbs and budget cuts that will determine whether to disburse additional aid.

UK Owner of TVShack, a linking only website, is to be extradited to the US and faces up to 10 years in prison for supposed copyright infringement. - The website did not itself host unlawful downloads or video streams, but acted as a directory of links to others that did, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard. American authorities allege that Mr O’Dwyer made more than $230,000 by selling advertising on TVShack in three years until December 2010. District Judge Quentin Purdy rejected all three of the defence’s arguments against extradition, including claims Mr O’Dwyer would not get a fair trial in the United States and that if a crime was committed he should be prosecuted in Britain. O'Dwyer's mother Julia said she was: "Very disappointed, in fact disgusted," with the verdict. She also expressed disappointment towards the government: "for signing us up to this treaty which has opened the flood gates to America to come and seize British citizens without even having set foot outside of this country."

A BRITISH scientist has stumbled upon a treasure trove of Charles Darwin's work in a gloomy corner a building where it lay undiscovered for more than 150 years. - Dr Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said today that glass slides containing important Darwin fossils were in an old wooden cabinet that had been shoved in a "gloomy corner" of the massive, drafty British Geological Survey. Using a flashlight to peer into the drawers and hold up a slide, Falcon-Lang saw one of the first specimens he had picked up was labelled "C. Darwin Esq". "It took me a while just to convince myself that it was Darwin's signature on the slide," the paleontologist said, adding he soon realised it was a "quite important and overlooked" specimen. He described the feeling of seeing that famous signature as "a heart in your mouth situation," saying he was wondering "Goodness, what have I discovered". Falcon-Lang's find was a collection of 314 slides of specimens collected by Darwin and other members of his inner circle, including John Hooker - a botanist and dear friend of Darwin - and the Rev John Henslow, Darwin's mentor at Cambridge, whose daughter later married Hooker.

A Spanish judge on Friday re-launched an investigation into the alleged torture of detainees held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one day after a British authorities launched a probe into CIA renditions to Libya. - The twin developments demonstrated that while the Obama administration has stuck to its promise not to investigate whether Bush administration officials acted illegally by authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques, other countries are still interested in determining whether Bush-era anti-terror practices violated international law. In Madrid, Judge Pablo Rafael Ruz Gutierrez handed down a 19-page decision Friday in which he said he would seek additional information — medical data, a translation of a Human Rights Watch report, elaboration on material made public by WikiLeaks, and testimony from three senior U.S. military officers who served at Guantanamo — in the case of four released Guantanamo captives who allege they were humiliated and subjected to torture while in U.S. custody.

Another 100 hundred days and the French presidential campaign will come to a head. Never far away from the political disputes among the top contenders is immigration. And the Roma, along with irregular migrants, are once again centre stage.

On Tuesday (10 January), France's interior minister Claude Gueant boasted to reporters France had surpassed its deportation quota for 2010 by 4,000. Around 32,000 people were forced to leave last year. Among them were a couple thousand Roma, rounded up and shipped primarily to Romania and Bulgaria.

The Roma round-up drew fire from the United Nations and EU justice and fundamental rights commissioner Viviane Reding - "Discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin or race has no place in Europe," she said at the time. France, however, is quietly continuing its deportation policy of the disenfranchised EU citizens. President Sarkozy's hard-line against one of Europe's most maltreated minorities appeals to the sensibilities of the country's far right voters.

The plight of the Roma in Romania
Stop this state persecution of Roma
Roma woman dies following deportation to Kosovo
The persecution of Roma—under the Nazis and today
Conflict erupts between EU and France over Roma expulsions
European leaders disavow criticism of France’s Roma deportations
Roma Ultimatum: France Pledges to Comply With EU Migration Rules
The Roma People: Matt Lutton building upon a legacy of wandering photographers

Critics last night voiced concern after the EU’s attempts to raise their profile spread to classrooms across Britain. - A council staged an EU event encouraging teachers to link up with schools on the Continent. Brightly coloured pencil cases bearing its 12-star logo have also been handed out to pupils across the country. The EU Commission denies such initiatives amount to “propaganda’’ but some fear the aim is to brainwash schoolchildren into backing the EU. Andrew Allison, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be shocked to read the cash they pay to Brussels is being spent in this way. If schools want children to know about the EU, there are plenty of unbiased resources. “Teachers don’t need to go to expensive conferences, and schools don’t need to buy books from the EU bookshop.’’ Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall said: “It is utterly wrong that so-called neutral information be provided to our children by an organisation which represents a highly controversial political position.”

Romanian police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters during an anti-government rally Saturday, the third consecutive day of demonstrations against austerity cuts and falling living standards. - The protests were the most serious since President Traian Basescu came to power in 2004 and were the result of pent-up frustration against public wage cuts, slashed benefits, higher taxes and widespread corruption. In 2009, Romania took a two-year €20 billion ($27.5 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, the EU and the World Bank, as its economy shrank by 7.1 percent. Romania imposed harsh austerity measures under the agreement, reducing public wages by 25 percent and increasing taxes. The unlikely catalyst for the protests, however, was the resignation of popular health official Raed Arafat, a Palestinian with Romanian citizenship who opposed health reforms proposed by the government. On Friday, Basescu told the government to scrap the reforms, but public anger had already risen against Basescu and the government.

According to a January 13, 2012 Reuters news report, Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to NATO who has been appointed deputy prime minister in charge of Russia’s defense sector, told news reporters at a Brussels press conference that Russia would regard any military attack on Iran as a “direct threat to our security.” Will the crazed neocon warmongers and the Washington morons listen?

Reuters: Russia says would be threatened by Iran military action
Russia Today: Any conflict on Iran is a direct threat to Russia’s security – Rogozin
Reuters: Russia fears Israel is pushing U.S. toward Iran war

Alex Salmond's disclosure of when he wants to hold the referendum was unexpected but his preferred date was less so. - So Alex Salmond has named the day he wants to see Scotland vote for divorce; well, if not the day, then the season. The referendum on Scottish independence will be staged in autumn 2014, he suddenly declared on Tuesday night. His announcement, while long-awaited, was still unexpectedly sudden. Many suspect the disclosure was forced on the first minister. Salmond was desperate to check-mate David Cameron's government in London, just as it warned in the Commons that a Holyrood-run referendum would be illegal without explicit powers from Westminster. Why autumn 2014? Salmond insists it is the date which allows all sides the time to deliver the strongest campaigns, both for and against. As Wednesday's splash headline in the Scotsman loosely has it, this means "1,000 days to decide our future".

[Editor's Comment:] Now that England (London, really) has wasted Scotland's oil fortune and poverty comes in the door, England all of a sudden considers a referendum to be convenient. Now why is that? - After all these years of dragging it's feet, why just now?

Greeks Go Back To The Land --- University graduates become snail farmers. A nuclear physicist trains to become a ship engineer. Not such unusual stories when urban employment is so high. Many are returning to rural areas, others are going to sea. - Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha, both 31 and trained as agriculturalists, were frustrated working on poorly paying, short-term contracts in Athens, where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is high. So last year, they decided to start a new project: growing edible snails for export. As Greece’s blighted economy plunges further into the abyss, the couple are joining with an exodus of Greeks who are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation’s rich rural past as a guide to the future. They acknowledge that it is a peculiar undertaking, with more manual labor than they, as college graduates, ever imagined doing. But in a country starved by austerity even as it teeters on the brink of default, it seemed as good a gamble as any.

Turkey has arrested and imprisoned its former army chief, in one of the most dramatic moves in the decade-long struggle between the country’s Islamist-rooted government and the once unassailable military. - Prosecutors allege that Ilker Basbug, who retired as chief of staff in August 2010, led a terrorist organisation and plotted to overthrow the government. High quality global journalism requires investment. At the heart of the accusations are claims that Mr Basbug ordered the army to operate a series of websites issuing anti-government and anti-Islamist propaganda as part of a self-styled “Action Plan Against Reactionary Forces”. Mr Basbug dismissed the allegations as “tragicomic”. In a court appearance before his overnight incarceration, he added: “Accusing a Chief of the General Staff of setting up an armed terrorist organisation is the greatest punishment that could be given to me.”His detention pending trial is perhaps the most striking indication to date of the decline of the army’s power since the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, came to power in 2002. Until now no former chief of the country’s military had been arrested.