Hopes that a new breed of commercial drones can be easily integrated into civilian airspace have been dashed after it was revealed that the loss of the technology likely to make it all possible - automatic GPS navigation between waypoints - led to a fatal accident last week.

Dear Mr. CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Jamie Dimon: There you are sitting with egg on your face and $2 billion plus going deep into the red on bad bets. You, the guy who fought for less and not more regulation is now in the middle of a major mess. You, the guy who hates the Volker rule named after ex-Fed Chief, Paul Volker, and says it went too far and that “if you want to be trading, you have to have a lawyer and a psychiatrist sitting next to you determining what ‘was your intent’ every time you did something.” That was some expensive exaggeration, wouldn’t you say?

There were four pivotal events on May 8. Let’s begin with the one that may have been the most telling: the Democratic primary in West Virginia. Did you know that Obama’s primary opponent there got 41 percent of the vote and actually won 10 counties?

Unless you live in West Virginia, you probably didn’t even know that the President had a primary opponent there. But here’s the most amazing part: His opponent didn’t make a single public appearance in the contest.

He didn’t because he couldn’t; he was in jail at the time!

Debris that entered the ocean after the tsunami in Japan is reaching U.S. coastlines more quickly than the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted and the Japanese government estimates about 5 million tons of debris was swept into the ocean, with about 1.5 million tons still afloat.

Iran's crown prince and the late Shah’s older son, Reza Pahlavi, urged Israel to help the Iranian people topple their regime instead of threatening to strike the country to stop its nuclear program, Al Arabiya reported.

“If Israel wages war against Iran now, this will cause a kind of tension with the Jewish people that had not existed since the time of Cyrus the Great,” he told Al Arabiya on Friday, adding that military strikes would not annihilate Iran’s nuclear development program, but would only slow it down.

I'm sorry for all of you that gave up on Dr. Paul during the homestretch. I'm sorry that many of you chose to fight amongst yourselves rather than stay unified against these phony politicians. I'm sorry that many of you are becoming complacent and are accepting defeat. I'm sorry that so many of you feel like NOW is the time to skip the last money bomb that Ron Paul may ever have. I'm sorry that many of you feel like you know how to run Paul's campaign better than he does, and you have apparently forgotten that this is the man you wanted as commander in chief...as the leader of our country.

This man can lead a country, I am sure. This man can lead a campaign for the presidency. I'm sorry that so many of you lost your faith in this unwavering statesman because the media finally beat you down.

Fitch downgraded Greece’s long-term credit yesterday evening on speculation that anti-austerity parties will force an exit from the eurozone. In an interview with a Belgian newspaper, EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht let slip that the European Central Bank and European Commission are “working on emergency scenarios in case Greece doesn't make it,” suggesting that an exit is not being ruled out. A European Commission spokesperson swiftly denied that there is a secret contingency plan in the works.

THE truism that banking is a confidence game barely needs repeating. Yet occasionally both bankers and their regulators need to be reminded of this. Two events this week show why.

The first is the possible deepening of losses incurred by JPMorgan on positions its London-based investment office had taken in credit and derivative markets. The bank has already said it may have lost some $2 billion on these positions, and forecast that losses could rise by another $1 billion or so. Yet reports have emerged, most notably one in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting they could be higher yet.

Spain's banks fell deeper into a loans crisis and Greece tottered closer to bankruptcy as markets swung wildly ahead of a Camp David summit to prevent a eurozone catastrophe.

Rating agency Moody's downgraded the debt of 16 Spanish banks last night as it questioned the government's ability to support its lenders in the face of its own escalating borrowing costs.

The exposure of the banks to bad real estate loans was another reason cited for the re-ratings, which saw the long-term debt and deposits fall by between one and three notches.

Moody's downgrades 16 Spanish banks adding to the country's economic woes as Madrid's stock market opens in red and the risk premium shoots up again.

Moody's ratings agency has downgraded 16 Spanish banks including its two largest lenders - Santander and BBVA.

It said the government's ability to support the sector has weakened.

Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog are making headway towards a framework deal on how to tackle concerns about its atomic activity, diplomats said on Friday, a potential bargaining chip for Tehran in next week's negotiations with world powers.

SPAIN has moved back into the eye of the eurozone storm, as the country’s borrowing costs rocketed to unsustainable levels and the country's banking sector was hit by mass downgrades.

Moody's slashed the ratings of 16 Spanish banks on Thursday evening, citing the reduced ability of the Spanish government to provide support to the sector, as well as the "adverse operating conditions" characterised by a renewed recession.

The rating agency also downgraded Santander UK, although, at "A2," it is still rated one notch above its parent bank Banco Santander. Moody's highlighted that Santander UK has "no direct exposure to the Spanish government (or regional governments)".

Earlier in the day, shares in Bankia, the country’s fourth biggest bank, plunged by as much as 29pc amid reports that depositors had pulled out €1bn in the past week.

The credit rating agency Moody's has downgraded 16 Spanish banks along with Santander's UK arm, citing the Spanish government's reduced ability to shore up the banks.

Santander UK, whose rating was lowered to A2 – a notch higher than its Spanish parent – insisted there was no impact on its business and that it was an autonomous subsidiary with 90% of its assets held in the UK, where it is also regulated. Moody's admitted it was unlikely that the UK Financial Services Authority would allow Santander UK to substantially weaken itself in order to support the parent. increasing instability.

Earlier Moody's had also downgraded four regions in Spain.

apan’s Nikkei Stock Average JP:100000018 -2.99% fell 2.9%, South Korea’s Kopsi index KR:SEU -3.40% dropped 2.5%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index AU:XJO -2.67% skidded 2.4%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HK:HSI -2.37% fell 2.3%, and the Shanghai Composite index CN:000001 -1.46% lost 1.1%.

Published reports say Hewlett-Packard is poised to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs to help offset dwindling demand for personal computers as more people connect to the Internet on smartphones and tablets.

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Thursday it's moving forward with a $2.1 billion cost-savings plan to consolidate postal plants over the next two years, with consolidations starting in July.

The cuts will be limited in 2012, with 48 plants slated to be consolidated or closed in July and August, which will only impact 5,000 employees. However, when the plan is fully implemented at the end of 2014, 229 plants will be consolidated or closed and 28,000 jobs will be gone.

Donna Summer, the 1970s pop singer known as the Queen of Disco, has died of lung cancer, an illness she believes she contracted from inhaling toxic particles released after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York.

Thursday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) announced that her state would become the latest to devote its portion of funds from the $25 billion mortgage fraud settlement to balancing the state budget. The funds were intended to go toward relief for struggling homeowners, but Brewer and the state legislature will use $50 million of its funds elsewhere.

The House endorsed the continued war in Afghanistan on Thursday despite acknowledgment from Republicans and Democrats that the American people are war-weary after more than a decade of conflict.
By a vote of 303-113, lawmakers rejected an amendment that would have swiftly ended combat operations in Afghanistan by limiting funds only to the "safe and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops and military contractors from Afghanistan."

More than 10 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, American public support for the overseas conflict has deteriorated. An Associated Press-GfK poll released last week showed that backing for the war has hit a new low and is on par with support for the Vietnam War in the early 1970s. Only 27 percent of Americans say they support the war effort, and 66 percent oppose it, according to the survey.

Since the 1979 Iranian revolution and the downfall of the US Puppet Ruler the Shah, Iran has been an Islamic state. In that interval of time, 1979 to the present, Iran has not invaded anyone. Not once. People of all religions live in peace in Iran, even Jews, who find life so comfortable in Iran they refused an offer by the government of Israel to emigrate!

In the same period of time, Israel, a self-declared Jewish state, attacked Iraq in 1981, bombing the power station at Osirik, claiming it was a clandestine weapons factory. Subsequent examination of the ruins following the 2003 invasion proved Israel had lied. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. This led to the Massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. In February 2003 Israel staged incursions into Gaza and Nablus. In September 2007 Israel bombed Syria, again insisting they were destroying a clandestine weapons laboratory. Again there was no evidence to support Israel's claims.

The corporate media have been given their orders to throw the focus back on to Iran.
Here is a recap of what they are trying to make you forget.
1. Last Spring, Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state and Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator, asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel refused.
2. The United Nations passed a resolution calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused.

3. The IAEA asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to submit to inspections. Israel refused.

In the end, the real proof that we were lied to about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. That means that every single piece of paper that purported to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was by default a fraud, a hoax, and a lie. There could be no evidence that supported the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction because Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. In a way, the existence of any faked documents about Iraq's WMDs is actually an admission of guilt. If one is taking the time to create fake documents, the implication is that the faker is already aware that there are no genuine documents.

Spain's intelligence services are investigating the role of investors and media in debt market turbulence over the last few weeks.

The National Intelligence Centre (CNI) is looking into 'speculative attacks' on Spain following the Greek debt crisis, according to El Pais newspaper.

'The (CNI's) Economic Intelligence division... is investigating whether investors' attacks and the aggressiveness of some Anglo-Saxon media are driven by market forces and challenges facing the Spanish economy, or whether there is something more behind this campaign,' the newspaper added.

The report comes days after Public Works Minister Jose Blanco protested 'somewhat murky manoeuvres' were behind financial market pressure on Spain.

The Ron Paul campaign is “hoarding cash” to make big play in California and Texas—and ready to go all the way to the convention, campaign manager Jesse Benton said on Friday.

Right now, the campaign is holding a “Give Me Liberty” money bomb campaign on its website, with the hopes of reaching eight figures this quarter—$10 million.

“We’re hoarding cash so we can go ahead and run hard in Texas and California,” Benton said on MSNBC.

Employers in the private nonfarm sector initiated 1,077 mass layoff events in the first quarter of 2012 that resulted in the separation of 182,101 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the year, total extended mass layoff events and associated worker separations were down from 1,490 and 225,456, respectively. (See table A.) Total events reached their lowest first quarter levels since 2006, while manufacturing sector events and separations declined to their lowest levels in program history (with data available back to 1995.) First quarter 2012 layoff data are preliminary and are subject to revision.

Long before GM pulled its $10M in advertising from Facebook, I lost my faith in the platform. As an online media buyer for American Apparel, I had cut the majority of my spend each month for the preceding 12 months. From the time that Facebook stopped serving banner ads through Microsoft to now, the spend I oversaw fell from nearly $1M per year to a few thousand dollars a month.

As I told Direct Marketing News in March 2012: “The return is not there. Unless you’re selling apps or lead generation, I think Facebook ads are underwhelming. I see bad things ahead for the Facebook IPO and perhaps, rising dissatisfaction among clients.”

The proposed scanners would go up in Washington and Beaver counties. The scanners would not take pictures of the car: Rather, it would record the plate numbers and store that information for two years and be available to the sheriff's office in those counties as well as the feds.

High on the list of ideas of group of high-profile Republican strategists working with a conservative billionaire Joe Ricketts on a 'super PAC'-funded attack on President Obama is this, the New York Times reports: Hire as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American” who can argue that Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

Yep, that was what they came up with. So many things about that snippet of the plan are funny -- from the racially loaded "extremely literate" qualifier, to the picture it conjures of a black Abe (read Jezebel's hilarious take on that bit here), to the questions it raises about how unstylish you have to be to deem someone who wears the same conservative suit pretty much every day and "mom jeans" on his off "metrosexual."

In this startling new memoir, Sibel Edmonds—the most classified woman in U.S. history—takes us on a surreal journey that begins with the secretive FBI and down the dark halls of a feckless Congress to a stonewalling judiciary and finally, to the national security whistleblowers movement she spearheaded. Having lived under Middle East dictatorships, Edmonds knows firsthand what can happen when government is allowed to operate in secret. Hers is a sobering perspective that combines painful experience with a rallying cry for the public’s right to know and to hold the lawbreakers accountable. With U.S. citizens increasingly stripped of their rights in a calibrated media blackout, Edmonds’ story is a wake-up call for all Americans who, willingly or unwillingly, traded liberty for illusive security in the wake of 9/11.

The steep fall in rupee may put some inflationary pressures on the economy as the cost of imports would go up, experts said today.

We are thrilled to announce the Gaza’s Ark project and the participation of those in the United States who support the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

If you would like to know more about Gaza’s Ark and how you can support the project, join us on a conference call,

Tuesday, May 22 at 11pm Eastern. Please call

712-432-3900, access code 481417#.

Ann Wright and Jane Hirschmann are the US points of contact on the international steering committee.

Please email Ann if you are planning on calling in for the conference call– gazaarkus@gmail.com

Gaza’s Ark

Puzzling break-ins over the last month at the offices of at least three House members and several committees have U.S. Capitol Police gumshoes working to find a pattern and the culprits, with missing items ranging from cash and expensive computer equipment to autographed baseballs and alcohol.

In at least four of the cases, thieves broke into the offices at night when doors were locked, leading some staffers to believe they were victims of an inside job.

A protest of Iraq war veterans at the NATO summit being held in Chicago this weekend is intended to send a strong message to Washington and the European alliance.

Some members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War plan to return their medals to NATO generals on Sunday, claiming they were given their honors for bravery or suffering for "a war based on lies and failed policies."

An as yet undiscovered planet might be orbiting at the dark fringes of the solar system, according to new research.

Too far out to be easily spotted by telescopes, the potential unseen planet appears to be making its presence felt by disturbing the orbits of so-called Kuiper belt objects, said Rodney Gomes, an astronomer at the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.

Kuiper belt objects are small icy bodies—including some dwarf planets—that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune.

The United States has said it considers military force a last resort to prevent Iran using its uranium enrichment to make a bomb. Iran insists its nuclear programme is for purely civilian purposes.

But remarks by ambassador Dan Shapiro were the bluntest warning so far to Tehran that its refusal to cooperate could lead to the use of military force by the US or Israel.

"It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than to use military force," Ambassador Dan Shapiro said in remarks about Iran aired by Israel's Army Radio.

"But that doesn't mean that option is not fully available - not just available, but it's ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it's ready," he continued.

Papanicolaou and his predecessor, Christoforos Sardelis, revealing details for the first time of a contract that helped Greece mask its growing sovereign debt to meet European Union requirements, said the country didn’t understand what it was buying and was ill-equipped to judge the risks or costs.

“The Goldman Sachs deal is a very sexy story between two sinners,” Sardelis, who oversaw the swap as head of Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency from 1999 through 2004, said in an interview.

When her case was called about an hour later, Ms. Gonzalez attempted to reenter the courtroom, not knowing that the Judge had not intended for her to return at all. Without warning, the Judge immediately ordered for her to be handcuffed. She became indignant at what appeared to be an arbitrary abuse of power in the courtroom and asked another defendant to call her employer since she “was being arrested by a white racist pig.” With court still in session, Judge Wilson demanded that she apologize. Ms. Gonzalez refused, stating that in good conscience she could not. The Judge abruptly found her in contempt, and immediately had her taken into custody. A bystander in the courthouse who filmed the incident was also arrested. Ms. Gonzalez is currently serving her sentence on Rikers Island.

Three years ago, President Obama cut a secret deal with pharmaceutical company lobbyists to secure the industry’s support for his national health care law. Despite Obama’s promises during his campaign to run a transparent administration, the deal has been shrouded in mystery ever since. But internal emails obtained by House Republicans now provide evidence that a deal was struck and GOP investigators are promising to release more details in the coming weeks.

“What the hell?” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, who is now Obama’s campaign manager, complained to a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) in January 15, 2010 email. “This wasn’t part of our deal.”

North Korea appears to be moving ahead with the building of a light-water reactor that could be used to support its nuclear weapons program, according to satellite images released Wednesday.

The signs of progress come amid fears that the secretive communist state is planning a new nuclear test, although experts said that the new reactor is likely still years away from being operational.

Commercial satellite images, taken on April 30 and analyzed by Johns Hopkins University’s US-Korea Institute, showed advances at the site of a new reactor at the Yongbyon complex with added concrete, steel and roof work.

“It appears that the North may now be nearing completion of the reactor containment building,” said a blog entry on the institute’s website, 38north.org.

Nations have reached their limit in subsidizing the United States’ military adventures. During meetings in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, world leaders such as China’s President Hu Jintao, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation took the first formal step to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The United States was denied admission to the meetings. If the world leaders succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value; the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket; and interest rates will climb.

Wednesday's shooting death of a man at a house on Labadie Avenue was justified because he was breaking into the home at the time, police said Thursday.

No charges are being filed against the resident who fired the fatal shot. Police say the case has been classified as a justifiable homicide.

A recent change in San Onofre’s cooling system – done uner the radar to avoid government approval – has also put the plant at risk:

J Street founder and President Jeremy Ben-Ami stated that many congressmen and senators refuse to criticize Israel because they "live in fear" of retribution from pro-Israel groups, Haaretz reports.

Did you know that for every 100,000 Americans, 743 of them reside behind bars? That is nearly 1 out 100 Americans! Today, the United States has the highest prison population in the world with more than 2 million people either incarcerated in prison or in jail awaiting trail. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world, surpassing China, North Korea and Russia. A study conducted by the Bureau of Justice in 2005 showed that a record 33-year continuous rise in the number of inmates in the United States despite falling crime rates.

The major myth associated with our Prison Industrial Complex is that the rise in incarceration rates reflects a commensurate rise in crime. The fact is that crime rates have fallen.

Another big driving force behind our massive prison system is cheap labor.

Amid fragile global economic recovery and its impact on India, Congress member and former Planning Commission member Bhalchandra Mungekar on Tuesday warned that if government does not take "urgent" steps, the country could face a bigger crisis.

Like all former French presidents, 57-year-old Sarkozy, whose fondness for the symbols of wealth led to him being nicknamed President Bling Bling, is to receive Euros 6,000 every month as "pension".

THE World Bank has announced it's ready to provide Indonesia with a $2 billion loan, a backstop against a potential debt crisis in one of Asia's fastest growing economies.

The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) on Wednesday suspended trading in the shares of 31 listed firms, a majority of them investment companies, for failing to report financial results on time.

A statement posted on the KSE website said the companies violated a rule that requires them to announce financial results for the first quarter within 45 days.

A new study finds that a widely used antibiotic, azithromycin, may increase the likelihood of sudden death in adults, especially those who have heart disease or are at high risk for it.

An Italian court has ruled there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

In what may be a ground-breaking decision, the Italian Court of Rimini has ruled that causation between an MMR vaccine and the resulting autism in a young child “has been established.”

The unnamed child received the vaccine in March of 2004 and on returning home immediately developed adverse symptoms. During the next year the child regressed, receiving the autism diagnosis one year later and is now 100% disabled by the disease.

Recently reported in “Brookings Announces Next Move in Syria: War,” it was stated that “by the US policy think-tank Brookings Institution’s own admission, the Kofi Annan six-point peace plan in Syria was merely a ploy to buy time to reorganize NATO’s ineffective terrorist proxies and provide them the pretext necessary for establishing NATO protected safe havens from which to carry out their terrorism from.” It was also examined in detail, how in 2007, US, Saudi, and Israeli officials admitted they were creating a militant front of extremists for the sole purpose of causing the destabilization of Syria we see today, and ultimately overthrowing the Syrian government. It was noted how these extremist militants had direct ties to Al Qaeda.

Nearly two years after Troy Peissig aced an $18,000 hole-in-one contest at a charity tournament, the Montana golfer has yet to see a dime.

Now state authorities are issuing an arrest warrant against the operator of an insurance company they say failed to pay up on a policy purchased by the tournament.

Despite what Israeli Jews believe, on Nakba Day, this country’s Arab citizens aren’t mourning Israel’s creation, but rather what it cost them.

From Union Square, the Nakba group walked to the OWS General Assembly which was massed at Times Square. There they addressed the Assembly about the Palestine, Gaza and the Nakba.

Two U.S. Navy ships collided off the coast of California on Wednesday due to a steering malfunction during a refueling operation, damaging both vessels but causing no injuries, the Navy said in a statement.

The cars were immediately flanked – people desperate to talk. To show us their videos of what had been happening and to show us their injuries – and there were many.

One man had his eye shot out.

The trading losses suffered by JPMorgan Chase have surged in recent days, surpassing the bank’s initial $2 billion estimate by at least $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the losses.

A 6-foot-long inactive training missile accidentally fell from a military helicopter into field near a Texas military post, causing the brief evacuation of nearby homes but not harming anyone, officials said.

The major difference is that California has an even bigger budget deficit than its Balkan cousin.

The death toll is listed as four; two men and two pregnant women. I guess the AP leaves it up to the reader to decide if the babies that the murdered women were carrying should be counted.

People in Honduras’ predominantly Indian Mosquito coast region burned down government offices and demanded that U.S. drug agents leave the area, reacting angrily to an anti-drug operation in which a local mayor said police gunfire killed four innocent people, including two pregnant women.

Local officials said the two men and two pregnant women killed weren’t drug smugglers. They said the victims were diving for lobster and shellfish.

“These innocent residents were not involved in the drug problem, were in their boat going about their daily fishing activities … when they gunned them down from the air,” Lucio Vaquedano, mayor of the coastal town of Ahuas, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

At a news conference this morning, Sens. Schumer and Bob Casey, D-Pa., will unveil the “Ex-PATRIOT” – “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” – Act to respond directly to Saverin’s move, which they dub a “scheme” that would “help him duck up to $67 million in taxes.”

The senators will call Saverin’s move an “outrage” and will outline their plan to re-impose taxes on expatriates like Saverin even after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country. Their proposal would also impose a mandatory 30 percent tax on the capital gains of anybody who renounces their U.S. citizenship.

The British government is making urgent preparations to cope with the fallout of a possible Greek exit from the single currency, after the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, warned that Europe was 'tearing itself apart'.

Some €700 million have been withdrawn from Greek banks on Monday, President Carolos Papoulias said, warning that the situation would worsen in coming days.

The former Secretary of Defense to the George W. Bush and Obama administrations Robert Gates said in an interview on CBS aired this morning that getting Iran to give up any potential ambitions to nuclear weapons was the “only good option” for dealing with the nuclear standoff with the West. He warned that an Israeli attack on Iran could spark a regional war.

Nationalized Spanish Bank Plummets On News Of Bank Run.