World News

Boing Boing | After Helena Drnovsek Zorko, Slovenia's ambassador to Japan, signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, she was deluged with emails from Slovenians criticizing her for signing onto the agreement, which encourages widespread network censorship and creates criminal penalties for copyright infringement. The ambassador read the agreement more closely and decided she agreed with the critics, and wrote an open letter of apology to her country for signing them up to the treaty.

American Free Press | In a ruling Tuesday, the Paris court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.

Common Dreams | Over 100,000 Pakistanis rallied in Karachi Friday afternoon to protest US drone strikes on their country. The demonstrators also demanded that the Pakistani government continue the blockade on the NATO supply route to Afghanistan.

The Sideshow, Yahoo News and CNN | 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.

VIDEO | A young American Jew quietly and calmly voices his opposition to Israel's policies towards the Palestinians, both in the occupied territories and in Israel itself, and is attacked by the Israeli police, who drag him along the road face down and throw him into a police van.

Huffington Post | The men allegedly gave out flyers titled "The Death Penalty" that showed a noose and said gay people would be punished. Two other leaflets were used to publicize a protest against a gay pride march in the central English city of Derby in 2010.

New York Times | 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.

Washington Post | Several Polish government websites appear to have been attacked by a group opposing the country’s support for a treaty aimed at protecting international intellectual property rights.  The websites, including that of the parliament and the prime minister, were inaccessible or unusually slow Sunday.

Economist | Still the case of Christopher Johnson beggars belief. Returning to Tokyo after a short trip on December 23rd he was ushered into an examination room, where his nightmare began. Over the next 24 hours he was imprisoned and harassed. Most of his requests to call a lawyer, the embassy or friends were denied, he says.

The Guardian | US customs agents are seeking his prosecution over a website O'Dwyer set up when he was 19 called TVShack, and ran until his arrest last year. This provided links to other sites hosting pirated versions of TV shows and film. It was so popular that the student earned £15,000 per month in advertising revenue, US prosecutors claim.

Reuters | The rescue operation took place on Thursday, when forces with the USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group received a distress call from the master of the Al Molai, an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel, who said he was being held captive by pirates.

Torrent Freak | In a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist . Inclusion would have left Spain open to a range of “retaliatory options” but already the US was working with the incoming government to reach its goals.

Core of Corruption: The long awaited sequel to Core of Corruption will be released on March 27th, 2012.  If you wish to help support the investigation and/or costs associated with the project or any of the other work produced by Jonathan Elinoff, New World Order Report or Core of Corruption, you can do so by securing a copy of the DVD for purchase here or wait until the DVD is released to watch it for free online. 

Devex | MSF head of mission in South Sudan Parthesarathy Rajendran told news agencies the organization believes its staff members have fled into the bushes along with thousands of civilians to escape and that their precise whereabouts are unknown. He said MSF has only been able to get in touch with 13 of its members.

Spiegel | Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups in Israel would like to see gender separation in public, and some have stooped to harassing women -- and even children -- to get their way. With thousands of Israelis protesting against the growing influence of the super-religious, the rift in Israeli society is getting deeper.

International Herald Tribune | Aarifa’s father, Lt Col (Retd) Amjad Karim Randhawa told The Express Tribune that she had suffered an epileptic attack, which caused severe brain and heart damage. Randhawa said “only a miracle will allow my brilliant, genius daughter to live now”.

BBC | A Venezuelan campaign group says the country has suffered a record number of murders in 2011.  The Venezuela Violence Observatory says at least 19,336 people have been killed this year, an average of 53 a day.  The figures suggest Venezuela's murder rate is the highest in South America and four times that of Mexico.

AM with Tony Eastley on Australia's ABC | The Indonesian Human Rights Commission has launched an inquiry into the fatal police shooting of at least two demonstrators protesting against an Australian mining operation near the port of Sape in Eastern Indonesia.

The Diplomat | As the showdown escalated between Chinese security forces and residents of Wukan, where villagers revolted against the Chinese Communist Party, you didn’t find as much discussion of the incident in Chinese social media as you might expect. And it wasn’t only because the internet was shut off in the town.

Video | David Halpin reacts after a judge refuses his case for a judicial review of the UK gov's decision to refuse to re-open the inquest into Dr David Kelly's death.

Reuters | The founder of a newspaper that investigated government corruption has been shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus region, in what an international watchdog called "a lethal blow to press freedom."  A gunman shot Gadzhimurat Kamalov as he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Chernovik in the capital of Dagestan province shortly before midnight on Thursday, the regional Interior Ministry said.

IMEMC | Member of the Jerusalem City Council’s Planning and Construction Committee, Sasson Gabai, stated that “all entrances leading to the al-Aqsa Mosque must be closed to Muslim worshipers until the Islamic Waqf Department agrees to the demolishing of the bridge”.

BBC | Iran has rejected a US call for the return of a surveillance drone captured by Iran's military earlier this month.  The unmanned aircraft was now "property" of Iran and it was up to Iran to decide what to do with it, Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said.

The Atlantic | MOSCOW, Russia -- Shortly after seven on Tuesday evening, at the protest against the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Moscow's central Triumfal'naya Square, about a mile north of the Kremlin, protesters chanted, "Down with Putin!" "Putin Get Out!" "Russia Without Putin!" and, most ominously in a country where the only real leader is a strong leader, "Putin is a Coward!"

MBL.is | Parliament adopted today a proposal for the recognition of the independence and sovereignty of Palestine. The motion was approved mótatkvæða free, but sjálfstæðismenn sat in the handling of the case. Palestinian women were in Congress platforms and watched the debate.

Bikya Masr | The arrival of 7 and half tons of tear gas to Egypt’s Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackdown on Egyptian protesters.

Reuters | Less than a third of the $16 million gathered in 2010 by hip-hop star Wyclef Jean for earthquake relief in Haiti actually made it to emergency efforts in the country, the New York Post reported on Sunday.  According to the exclusive report, Jean's charity, Yele Haiti, doled out millions in questionable contracts -- in fact, $1 million was paid to a Florida firm that doesn't seem to exist.

Press TV | A secondary school in Norway has segregated students with ethnic backgrounds away from white Norwegians, sparking a dispute in the European country. The decision was made in Oslo's Bjerke Upper Secondary School, which filled one of the three general studies sets solely with pupils with immigrant parents, the British daily Telegraph reported.

Video showing the size of the protests is shown

The Atlantic Wire | Military police are using "rubber bullets, truncheons and tear gas," Matt Bradley and Tamer El-Ghobashy write for The Wall Street Journal, from Cairo. Protesters have responded by continuing their occupation of Tahrir Square and calls for the military council that has ruled the country since Hosni Mubarak was toppled to step aside.

Global Post | In August, Katsav, 65, appealed against his conviction in December, 2010, on charges of raping a former employee in the 1990s, when he was a minister, and the sexual assault of two women during his presidential tenure between 2000 and 2007.

Veterans Today - The Occupy Oakland General Strike had that many people in the plaza for most of the day, while two huge crowds were outside of it: one marching down Broadway, the other a set of people walking around various parts of downtown Oakland with protest signs.

Al Jazeera | Some Chinese seeking help from the central government against local injustices are instead ending up in secret detention centres controlled by local politicians.  The politicians are believed to arrange for petitioners to be abducted before they reach Beijing to complain, fearing central government investigations that could hurt their reputations.

Haaretz | Several Israeli government websites crashed on Sunday in what appeared to be a cyber-attack by hackers. The websites of the IDF, Mossad and the Shin Bet security services were among the sites that went down, as well as several government portals and ministries.

Press TV | Three members of the ring, which specialized in selling body organs from trafficked victims, worked at a clinic in Azerbaijan's capital city of Baku, IRIB reported on Friday.  Run by an Israeli national with no medical training, the clinic was used as a front for trafficking body organs harvested from Azeri children.

Reuters | The veteran, identified as Kayvan Sabeghi, was the second former American serviceman during the past two weeks to be badly hurt in confrontations between anti-Wall Street protesters and police in Oakland.  The group Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sabeghi was detained during disturbances that erupted late on Wednesday in downtown Oakland and was charged with resisting arrest and remaining present at the place of a riot.

The Independent | North Korea has reportedly banned 200 of its nationals in Libya from returning home amid fears that they may import the revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. Hundreds more North Korean citizens, including construction workers and nurses throughout the Middle East, have also been told to stay put, according to reports in the South Korean media.

WSWS | They provide further evidence of Britain’s lead role in the seizure, “rendition” and torture of opponents of Gaddafi’s regime. They expose as lies the claim that the seven-month US-led NATO bombing of Libya had anything to do with humanitarian concerns over the Gaddafi regime’s abuse of democratic rights.

GQ Magazine | Five years ago, a relatively unknown (and unhinged) director began one of the wildest experiments in film history. Armed with total creative control, he invaded a Ukrainian city, marshaled a cast of thousands and thousands, and constructed a totalitarian society in which the cameras are always rolling and the actors never go home

OccupyMarine.org | We were asked today by a Naysayer to explain what OccupyOMC are doing for OWS. We replied with a more accurate question to ask is what OccupyOMC are not doing. OccupyOMC are not sitting on our asses watching the 1% rip out the heart of America.

BBC | On Tuesday evening at 5pm Occupy Oakland gathered at the foot of the Oakland Library on 14th Avenue before setting off on a march past the jail and onward to Frank Ogawa Plaza. The peaceful gathering swelled as it marched through downtown, growing upwards of 1,000 people strong. Along their route were police from 17 jurisdictions in California, decked out in riot gear and weaponry.

RAW Story | In a video statement carried recently by several official channels maintained by members of the hacker activist group “Anonymous,” a digitally generated voice explains that the online collective has decided to take down the Fox News website on Nov. 5th of this year.

Think Progress | Approximately an hour ago, hundreds of Oakland police officers raided the camp. Dressed in riot gear, the police used rubber bullets, flash grenades, and gas canisters to forcibly evict and/or arrest the demonstrators who remained in the plaza. The Occupy Oakland Twitter account live-tweeted the raid:

Green Left | “More than 20 statements have been taken from individuals who have experienced police violence including eye gouging, kicks to the groin, punches to the face, knees to the face and arbitrary pepper spraying, including of minors. One incident involved an elderly woman with a walking stick who was pushed to the ground by riot police,” she said.

BBC | This followed its disclosure on the internet of hundreds of thousands of secret US government files and diplomatic cables.  Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that since last December an "arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade" had been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union.

Alternet | As far as major protests go, the United States experienced a period of relative quiet from 1980 until 2011. For 30 years after Ronald Reagan broke the PATCO strike, “class war” in America was largely one sided. America’s working class took hit after hit without much in the way of a response.

Star Observer | Denmark is the latest European nation to announce plans to introduce gay marriage, with same-sex couples to be allowed to marry on Church of Denmark premises.  The Danish coalition Government’s church minister, Manu Sareen, told local newspaper Jyllands-Posten that gay men and women will soon be able to marry when legislation is introduced early next year.

Washington Post | Libya’s transitional leader says Islamic Sharia law will be the “basic source” of all law.