An investigation has been launched into claims that a private detective firm paid thousands of pounds to serving police officers to provide information about their pursuit of a convicted Nigerian fraudster.

MPs were told yesterday that in a case of "apparent corruption right at the heart of New Scotland Yard" the detective agency Risc Management Ltd was employed by James Ibori to hand £20,000 to two detective constables at the Met and a former detective inspector for information about his case. Ibori was sentenced to 13 years in prison last month after pleading guilty to laundering millions of pounds in Britain.

Inflation slowed to 3 per cent last month due to the timing of Easter and a drop in transport prices, but is likely to stay above its 2 per cent target, fuelling controversy over the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy.

k Clegg has made a significant intervention in the row over proposals for "no fault dismissal", which are awaiting the results of a government consultation.

Speaking on Tuesday at a conference in London, the deputy prime minister appeared to hammer a decisive nail in the coffin of the plan, which has already been dismissed as "bonkers" by the Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable.

Conservatives have also indicated that Downing Street will drop the policy, which would allow employers to fire workers at will.

Christine Lagarde, of the International Monetary Fund, said the Bank should ‘reassess the efficacy’ of cutting rates below the current record low of 0.5 per cent to reduce the cost of borrowing for businesses and homeowners.

"Cut the cost of borrowing for businesses and homeowners" translates to increase bank profits.

Nato summit leaders should have been forced to watch the moving protest of the former troops chucking their medals away.

It was one of the most moving experiences many of us had witnessed in our lives. It is hard to describe in words. I couldn't get the lump out of my throat. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a woman next to me crying. Their words, their voices, crackling under the emotion of their courageous act, breaking under the weight of the pain, the trauma, their anger, sadness, and hope – theirs was a heroic and beautiful act, a moving ceremony. It was a privilege to be there with these women and men who served in our wars.

Operation Iraqi Freedom medal. Tossed. Global War on Terror medal. Thrown. National Defense medal. Pitched. Marine Corps Good Conduct medal. Flung. Navy and Marine Corps medal. Chucked.

Germany's relentless push for Eurozone-wide austerity is driving the global economy towards catastrophe. So says the British Shadow Chancellor or opposition finance spokesman Ed Balls, who argues that someone's got to persuade Berlin to change course. To discuss this in more detail, RT talks to James Meadway, senior economist at the New Economics Foundation think-tank in London.

Words that Tony Blair spoke over the phone to George Bush on the eve of the Iraq war are to be made public, a tribunal ordered today.

The Foreign Office has been ordered to release parts of the note detailing the conversation on 12 March 2003, a week before the invasion of Iraq began.

A panel chaired by tribunal judge Professor John Angel overruled objections from the Foreign Office that publishing any part of the conversation could do “serious damage” to relations with the USA

They were left angry and embarrassed as a failure in the London-based lender’s payment system led to cards being automatically rejected.

Customers bombarded the company with complaints and demands for compensation or refunds after being told they could only pay by cash.

London student Perry Kennedy posted on Twitter: ‘Nothing like trying to pay for the petrol you’ve just put in your car to have your card declined. F*** you HSBC.

David Cameron has given the green light to a new generation of Trident nuclear submarines, pitching the coalition into civil war over the future of Britain’s deterrent.

The Ministry of Defence will next week reveal the names of defence firms who have won £350million of contracts to design the new super subs.

The decision means the UK is set to replace the four giant Vanguard class boats with a new Bravo class of submarines, rather than downgrade the deterrent as the Lib Dems want.

Our biggest problem now is you and we hired you to fix things.

There is a reason for you to listen.I suspect, if you are well informed, something I am not that sure of, that you get some of what I get. More likely, I think you are lied to continually and know it very well.

We need to jail a lot of people.

You have to go on TV and tell the truth, trust the American people, even those you consider “aligned with others” and tell the truth. It is all we have and the truth can be a powerful thing.

Tony Blair could be set for a dramatic return to frontline British politics after it emerged today he recently advised President Obama on his re-election campaign.

The former prime minister is preparing a new push to re-enter British politics alongside current Labour leader Ed Miliband, who recently suggested space could be found for Mr Blair on his team.

Former Labour leader Mr Blair 'has things to say' and has even offered Barack Obama private advice on renewal in office and re-election, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Blair is expected to launch his comeback as he appears on a joint platform with Labour leader Ed Miliband in July at an event to celebrate the Olympics.

The House bill basically provides Israel with a blank check drawn on the U.S. taxpayer to maintain its “qualitative military edge” over all of its neighbors combined. t requires the White House to prepare an annual report on how that superiority is being maintained. The resolution passed on May 9 by a vote of 411–2 on a “suspension of the rules,” which is intended for non-controversial legislation requiring little debate and a quick vote.

Living in America is becoming very difficult for anyone with a moral conscience, a sense of justice, or a lick of intelligence.–Paul Craig Roberts

“The new tyranny is arising in the West, not in Russia and China. The danger to humanity is in the nuclear button briefcase in the Oval Office and in the brainwashed and militant American (sic) population, the most totally disinformed and ignorant people on earth.”

It’s well-worth following what Roberts has to say. He’s one of the most informed thinkers and writers in America.

Britain's economy may suffer “permanent” damage and “never quite get back up” if the euro collapses in a chaotic way, the Government’s chief economic forecaster has said.

Robert Chote, the head of the Office of Budget Responsibility, issued the warning amid fears of financial shockwaves across Europe if Greece crashes out of the single currency.

The senior Government economist, who has access to the most up-to-date Treasury data, said this could cause a recession as bad as the last one and “lingering, long-lasting effects” for Britain’s public finances.

He said it could “permanently hamper the economy” in the worst case scenario, raising the prospect that Britain may never again see the same high growth it has had in recent decades.

All the major Western Central Banks will print to infinity in an attempt to prevent financial Armageddon.

Once the policy is underway, QE cannot be removed from the economy without economic collapse until the system is reset. QE to Infinity…AND BEYOND!!!

The war in Afghanistan will end up costing taxpayers £20billion, it emerged last night.

At a Nato summit in Chicago, David Cameron and other world leaders will tomorrow draw up a firm timetable for pulling combat troops off the frontline against the Taliban.

But official figures show that the war had already cost £17.3billion by the end of March this year on top of regular defence spending since 2001.

Our new National Anthem!

Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post

The UK Home Office (UKHO) has British officials surveying its citizens as part of the government’s annual legislative program.

This is an extensive expansion of the current laws to allow the MI5 data securitization.

UKHO claims they are not snooping through private emails and messages, but rather deciphering where the communications are originating from, who sent it, its length and format.

The 4 billion hours of phone calls, 1 million emails and 130 billion text messages that are expected to be prime source information.

The proposed bill, if passed would place massive amounts of personal data into the hands of the British government. How they use that data is purely at their discretion...

There is no such thing as neutrality in a military-enforced occupation.

Each year, the western media continues to follow the Israeli narrative slavishly, pushing May 15 as Israel’s Independence Day, an act of “collective amnesia” that ignores the Palestinian commemoration of May 15 as Al-Nakba, the day Palestinians remember the forced expulsion or deaths in 1948, of almost 70% of the Palestinian population living then in what has become the state of Israel.

Meanwhile, Neve Gordon refuses to stand down. He continues to register his witness on the importance of the Nakba, fully aware of how long it took for the Nakba to penetrate the collective consciousness of the Israeli peace community.

Amanda Warren
Activist Post

As an employee, what kind of scenario would you have to witness before intervening and enforcing your authority? What about calling the police?

UK kids like to have birthday parties at Rumble Tumble play center much like American kids at Chuck E. Cheese and other play stations.

However, as Natasha Bent tried lighting her son Oscar's candles in celebration of his third birthday, staff intervened...

As the run on the banks spread in Europe, with 30% of customers pulling cash out of UK branches of Spain's Santander bank, the Euro spikes on absolutely no news.

Greece leaving the euro could plunge Britain into a recession that would cause lasting damage to the economy, the chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Robert Chote, has said.

It could be as bad as the recession caused by the credit crunch and there would be a possibility that "you go down and you never quite get back up to where you started", he said.

"Austerity", banker style.

A new privacy row has engulfed the Met Police after it unveiled a device to copy and store data from the mobile phones of suspects held in custody – whether charges are brought or not.

Detectives will be able to access details of contacts, call history and texts, within minutes after plugging the phone into a device being used in 16 London boroughs.

But the technology, which could soon be used by police across the entire country, has sparked concern from civil rights groups who have threatened to challenge it under human rights law.

What exactly is the “New World Order”?

by Kevin Barrett

There is talk in conspiracy circles about a bankster plot to reduce the world to slavery.

Unfortunately, the conspiracy theorists are right. John Perkins, in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and subsequent books, offers convincing first-hand testimony of his exploits in service to the New World Order bankster conspiracy.

Listen to Economic Hotman, John Perkins

The most important thing we can do as we hover on the horizon of One State is to shed the old language rapidly. None of it was real anyway – it was just the parlance of that particular “game.” Grow a new vocabulary of possibilities – the new state will be the dawn of humanity’s great reconciliation. Muslims, Christians and Jews living together in Palestine as they once did.

by Sharmine Narwani

Britain is colder than winter as the country faces a late spring washout weekend - as it emerged parts of the Arctic and Antarctic are warmer than Britain.

Homeowners should brace themselves for sharp increases in the cost of their mortgages, the Bank of England warned yesterday.

It is a bitter blow for Britain’s 11.2million mortgage holders and comes as a direct result of the chaos in the eurozone.

The crisis is driving up the cost of borrowing for high street lenders in this country – and they aim to ‘restore’ their profit margins by passing on that cost.

Britain's Prime Minister says the Eurozone must make up or break up. David Cameron told business leaders that the beleagured single currency countries are at a crossroads which demands urgent action to avoid sparking a global depression.

Schools are being forced to gain parental permission if they want to use pupils' fingerprints or other biometric data, the government has confirmed.

Some schools and colleges have already been using facial scanning and fingerprint identification to record attendance and allow pupils to access facilities like the school library.

But under new rules schools will be required to gain written permission from parents who will be given the right to veto the use of such sensitive data.

"I have heard from many angry parents after they have learned that their children's personal data was being used by schools without their knowledge," said schools minister Nick Gibb.

"The new legislation gives the power back to parents, as it requires parental consent before the information can be collected.

"Biometrics in schools is a sensitive issue. We want schools to be in no doubt of their responsibilities when it comes to young people's personal data."

Chris Martenson is warning everyone to get ready because we’re about to have another 2008-Style crisis, but this time on a global level

Greeks withdraw billions of euros from banks as the country's president warns of 'panic' over Euro exit that will be 'somewhere between catastrophic and Armageddon'.

The news coming out of Europe just keeps getting dire as the run on Greek banks continues prompting the nation's banks to warn of a complete banking collapse as an exit from the EU appears to be inevitable.

At the same time, the a report on the Telegraph warns a Greek exit will be somewhere between 'somewhere between catastrophic and Armageddon' as European leaders warn of civil widespread civil unrest as a result of the fallout.

The bank runs that we are watching right now in Greece are shocking, but they are only just the beginning. Since May 6th, nearly one billion dollars has been withdrawn from Greek banks. For a small nation like Greece, that is an absolutely catastrophic number. At this point, the entire Greek banking system is in danger of collapsing.Meanwhile, banks in other troubled European nations are already on shaky ground. The Spanish banking system is an absolute disaster zone at this point and on Monday night Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 26 Italian banks.

The situation in Italy is especially worth keeping a close eye on. As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard recently noted, things are not looking good for Italy at all....

Sorry, but if we've no money for the NHS or schools, then we definitely have no money for massive police pensions.

Motorists could face a 50 per cent rise in fuel duty in future years to cover a £13 billion hole in Treasury coffers caused by the increased use of environmentally friendly cars, according to a report.

The gap in public finances will come from increasing use of more fuel-efficient cars and a switch to electric vehicles, the RAC Foundation-commissioned report claims.

It added that while the fuel duty collected by the Exchequer stands at 1.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), this rate will tumble to 1.1 per cent of GDP by 2029, leaving the Treasury with a big shortfall.

The Government must explain if Andy Coulson was the only Prime Minister's press adviser in recent times not to undergo the highest level of security vetting, Lord Justice Leveson has said.

Questions have been raised about why the former News of the World editor did not undergo checks so he could have unsupervised access to the most secret files.

“We dance round in a ring and suppose/ But the secret sits in the middle and knows.” – (Robert Frost)

May 14 and 15 are paradoxically days of celebration and catastrophe; victors “dance round in a ring and suppose,” caught in a never ending quest to know if indeed this celebration is for victory or for defeat, while those vanquished understand “the secret that sits in the middle and knows.” Are the secrets Truth that we are afraid to delve into, too ashamed to acknowledge, or fear of a pending Nakba for the victor signaled by a merciful and just God?

Brit Dee, Contributor
Activist Post

Yet another potential danger has been added to the ever-growing and increasingly absurd list of supposed terror threats - the "E-Bomb".

An "E-bomb" is a weapon designed to be detonated in the upper atmosphere, and which emits a strong electromagnetic pulse. British Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond, speaking today at a conference in London attended by the US Assistant Defence Secretary, warned that terrorists or "rogue states" could use such a device to devastate Britain's infrastructure.

The E-bomb, if detonated some 500 miles above the Earth, would apparently take out satellites, radar and the National Grid with 'devastating' results. Key military installations, transport systems, power and water supplies would also be hit...

Moody's announced, after the bell, they downgraded 26 Italian banks which has sent the Euro sliding following its fall below the $1.30 psychological barrier.

The media had been hyping up the ramifications of Spain failing to find investor's to buy its sovereign bonds over the last several weeks.

Following Europe's Bear Stearn's moment, Spain fell far short of raising funds they needed in their bond offering this morning, sending Spanish sovereign debt rates soaring while the story was barely a hiccup on the media radar, who instead diverts the attention of the masses to the JP Morgan debacle.

As the global financial markets continue on their downward spiral mass anti-austerity protests sweep across Europe as a financial disaster looms.

Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money has been spent forcibly sterilising Indian women. Many have died being mistreated, causing outrage from those who suspect Britain simply wants to curb the country's population for alterior motives.

You can see something happening with a Bill for Internet snoopery. How long before details of what websites I have been looking at are passed on to ‘interested parties’? Of course the Internet itself is quite capable of doing this already, to great effect (the ability of Google to read the contents of emails and suggest linked ads based on this content is as impressive as it is disturbing) but the imprimatur of national security agencies and the police will add a certain sting to this loss of privacy.

How long before local councils (which have already been caught out using ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation to justify actions that have nothing to do with terrorism) are given the same powers as the police to see what we are up to online?
**Councils used Terrorist laws to ensure your rubbish bins were put out on the right day.

The ease with which private investigators can access highly personal and sensitive information stored in secure government databases has been exposed by a report that will intensify calls to regulate the industry.

An investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches programme reveals how a London firm of private detectives sold personal data on individuals, including details of bank accounts, benefit claims and even a national insurance number.

Undercover reporters also recorded Stephen Anderson, director of private investigators Crown Intelligence, disclosing medical details including the name of one of the volunteers' doctors, recent appointments with a GP and, in one instance, confirmation of a medical condition. On several occasions, the investigator provided information for payment that appears to be covered by the Data Protection Act, which makes it an offence to "obtain or disclose data without permission or procure the disclosure to another person

Military chiefs are planning to give armoured vehicles worth an estimated £1billion to Afghan forces when it withdraws from Afghanistan in two years time.

Officials believe that more than half of the UK’s protected vehicles in the country will be left behind with the Afghan National Army and security forces rather than transported back to Britain.

Mr Maley told Mr Hunt during the meeting last September that he handed more than a dozen packages containing cash to police officers while working for the company.

He also told Mr Hunt that his lawyers had a ‘black book’, which had been held by News International drivers and contained the names of the allegedly corrupt officers. He said it was being kept under ‘lock and key’ in a secret location.

Mr Maley claimed in the meeting that since passing his information to the police he had become the target of a ‘campaign of intimidation’ designed to deter him from identifying the officers who took the payments – including threatening phone calls, damage to his car and even dog excrement posted through his letterbox.

A millionaire City trader known as the "London Whale" for the vast size of his bets on the markets, has emerged as the culprit behind a $2bn (£1.25bn) trading loss at one of the world's biggest investment banks.

Bruno Iksil was also known in City circles as Voldemort – the Harry Potter bogeyman who is referred to in the fantasy novels as "He who must not be named" – due to the awed regard he was held in. Until this week.

Mr Iksil built up his huge losses by betting on the creditworthiness of big companies. The size of his losses only emerged after the bank took one of its regular snapshots of the current state of its trading books.

Jeremy Hunt stood accused last night of conspiring with News International to prevent a public inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.

The revelations at the Leveson Inquiry implicate Downing Street for the first time in a potential cover-up and heap further pressure on the Culture Secretary as he prepares to give evidence to the Inquiry later this month.

A damning email released to the Inquiry yesterday suggests Mr Hunt asked the company to "privately advise" and "guide his and No 10's thinking" on the unfolding scandal. The existence of the previously secret email emerged during more than five hours of questioning of News International's former chief executive Rebekah Brooks at the Leveson Inquiry.

Some 16 per cent of shareholders refused to back the deal, which will see chief executive Sam Laidlaw receive pay and perks of £4.1million for last year’s work.

He was also awarded shares worth an additional £5.05million which he could be entitled to receive in 2014 depending on the company’s performance.

His perks include a £684 discount on his annual energy bill – more than half the amount paid by the average family.

And there was about 50 Greek people here and there was a fascinating noise. And they kept going back to a very interesting point – we are in Third World War and it’s an economic war and the weapon is debt.

If you look at Iceland – now they are something that is quite inspiring in a sense that they absolutely ignored what they have been told to do. They didn’t go for being bailed out in any way. In fact at the moment they are crowdsourcing their constitution themselves. They dispense with all the leaders they believe to be corrupt and they were banging their saucepans just like in Argentina until they have a leader they believed in. And they are going much further. They are now actually chasing and wanting to bring to court those bankers that brought the country to debt in the first place. So they are taking control themselves and they are doing right.

The pound's been rising again this morning, which is plainly good news if you are planning on a foreign holiday this summer, but pretty much rubbish if you are a struggling exporter, or indeed trying to set monetary policy at the Bank of England. Take a look at the pound euro chart beneath. Sterling has now regained getting on for half of the depreciation it suffered in the wake of the banking crisis.

As Europeans rush to get their money out of the collapsing euro, one of the places they are opting for is the UK, and particularly London property.

Mi self esteam cudn't bea bettur. Pitty I carn't spel.

Jeremy Hunt apparently conspired with the Murdoch empire to try to prevent a full inquiry of phone hacking, a bombshell email claimed today.

The email presented to the Leveson inquiry into media standards alleged the Culture Secretary, whose career is hanging in the balance after previous email revelations, asked News Corporation to ‘guide his and Number Ten’s thinking’ on the unfolding scandal.

The message, from News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel to then News International boss Rebekah Brooks, claimed Mr Hunt had asked the company to ‘advise him privately’.

It suggested Mr Hunt ‘wants to prevent a public inquiry’ into the culture of hacking at the News of the World.

HM the Queen, in her first speech to the British Parliament in two years, announced albeit briefly the U.K. government’s plan to monitor all Web activity in the country.

It puts the U.K. en par with the United States, Russia, and China in how it monitors its citizens’ Web activity.

The above video is the short section of a much longer video, click the header link to view the entire movie.

Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, yesterday increased its rates, despite the Bank of England keeping the base rate at 0.5 per cent for the 38th month in a row.

The bank increased mortgage rates by up to 0.3 percentage points, adding £27 a month to a typical £150,000 loan.

...

Meanwhile, the country’s largest building society, Nationwide, was among those to reduce leading savings account rates. The moves have prompted accusations of profiteering.

Brit Dee, Contributor
Activist Post

British intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6 were ultimately behind this week's contrived underwear bomb plot, it has been alleged by sources spoken to by London's The Telegraph.

MI5 reportedly recruited a British passport holder of Saudi origin with the mission to infiltrate Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and gather intelligence which could be used to kill purported master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri in a drone strike...

London School of Economics:

This argument relies on a fundamental misconception. Despite any superficial similarities between old and new communication technologies, it is both disingenuous and dangerously simplistic to consider access to phone records as a useful analogy for making policy about combined access to email, web, social media and other internet traffic. The extent to which we use these new services is vastly greater, the information that they reveal about our habits and interactions greater still. This is further amplified by the ease with which these separate records can be correlated and cross-referenced. A closer analogy than logging telephone calls is the noting of every conversation we have, every book or newspaper article that we read, every shop that we visit and what we buy, as well as a host of other interactions that together make up a frighteningly detailed picture of our life and habits.

That leaves open the question of who the government – more precisely, the police and security services, since they are the ones who have been pushing for this measure – think they are going to catch with this scheme.

Clearly, they must have an idea. Here's what a Home Office spokesman said by way of explanation: "It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public.

Let's be more precise. It's going to be useful against the less well-organised groups, gangs and rings, where some or all of the members aren't well-schooled in the computing field. That effectively means "the older ones" or those who are operating at the bottom of the ladder, because anyone further up the rungs of criminality or terrorism will already be familar with swapping sims, disposable phones, encryption services, and so on.

The bill to track everyone's email, Facebook, text and internet use has proved to be one of the most controversial within the coalition and has been slow-streamed in the government's legislative timetable after last-minute coalition talks.

The measure, criticised by civil liberty campaigners as a "snooper's charter", has been taken out of a more general Home Office- and Ministry of Justice-sponsored crime and courts bill, which ministers need to get on to the statute book as fast as possible.

The decision to have a standalone bill follows Nick Clegg's insistence that it must be accompanied by the "strongest possible safeguards". These are expected to include oversight case by case by a surveillance commissioner, a review of existing measures to protect the security of everyone's data and the publication of a privacy impact statement.

The government has changed its mind over the type of fighter planes it is ordering for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the F35-C had hit development problems and it would be cheaper in the long term to order F35-B jump jets, as originally planned by Labour.

The cost of the U-turn is likely to be about £100m, he told BBC News.

The State Opening of Parliament and the Queen's Speech in pictures (31Pics)

David Cameron was facing growing criticism from business leaders who claimed that the Queen’s Speech contained too few measures that would boost the economy.

Just a day after he and Nick Clegg declared that economic growth was the Coalition’s first priority, the Prime Minister said that “tough, long-term” policies had been unveiled to “return our country to strength”.

Mr Cameron lauded proposed laws to overhaul the pension system, toughen criminal justice procedures and offer more flexible parental leave for young families.

The Queen’s Speech confirmed that the Government will introduce legislation allowing the police and intelligence agencies “to access vital communications data under strict safeguards to protect the public.”

The proposed laws, to be published in draft form, have been branded a “snooper’s charter” by critics including Conservative backbenchers.

David Cameron told MPs that the contentious changes are necessary to ensure the security agencies can keep up with terrorists and criminals using modern communication technology.

MP Nigel Farage warns a rebellion is underway and like communism the EU is now one large economic prison besieged by bankers and sinking like the Titanic.

In this short video clip EU MP Nigel Farage gives a striking warning a rebellion has already began in Europe and delivers a riveting speech about the gloomy future of the European continent that has been besieged by bankers.

Streets of London, 1876-1877 (35 pics)

Queen's Diamond Jubilee: London, then and now (20Pics)

"In some cases it is no longer possible to obtain data about the sender and recipient of an email," said Charles Farr, the head of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism. "Communications data from internet-based services is not always available; for some internet-based services it is not generated, collected and stored by the internet service provider. Many service providers are based overseas," he said.

"About 25% of requests for communication data by the police and agencies can no longer be met. This has a direct impact on the investigation of crime in this country and our ability to identify and then prosecute criminals and terrorists."

Home Office sources say that the "traffic data" – who was in contact with whom from what location and at what time – now provides evidence in 95% of serious organised crime investigations and has "played a significant role in every major security service counterterrorist investigation over the past decade".

An elderly woman was ordered to find a new GP because the “carbon footprint” of her two-mile round trips to the surgery where she had been treated for 30 years was too large.

"The nuclear power Israel is endangering the already fragile world peace," Grass wrote in his poem titled:

"What must be said"

The 84-year-old Grass said he had been prompted to put pen to paper by Berlin's recent decision to sell Israel a submarine able to "send all-destroying warheads where the existence of a single nuclear bomb is unproven."

"The nuclear power Israel is endangering the already fragile world peace," he wrote. His poem specifically criticized Israel's "claim to the right of a first strike" against Iran.

Al Jazeera’s Shaping of the Syrian Story

Of all the myths obstructing the honest portrayal of events in Syria this past year, none has been more fiercely guarded by regime-change advocates than this one stark falsehood:

Myth – the Syrian regime has only been shooting unarmed, peaceful protestors until very recently when opposition groups finally decided to arm themselves in self-defense.

The best and cheapest way of protecting our national security is simply to eject the madmen from the Foreign Office and stop pimping for the US and its mad-dog protegé.

Let’s see how quickly the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), with Mr Bellingham’s help, can get their skates on and straighten out the simple matter of Palestine’s status so that Israel’s strutting psychopaths can finally be brought to book.

Helen Thomas’s recent request to purchase a table at the upcoming White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) annual dinner has been rejected.

In a comment on that story I said, “It’s hard to imagine anything more wrong than this.”

I base my opinion on the fact that the 91-year-old Thomas, a former WHCA president, is unique among American journalists, having covered 10 different presidential administrations in a career stretching back to Dwight Eisenhower.

It is because of Thomas as much as anyone else that women were first included at the WHCA dinner since, as the WHCA’s website mentions:

Stuart Littlewood highlights Britain's double standards and contradictory policies in the Middle East: on the one hand irrational belligerence and warmongering towards Iran even though this is contrary to British national interests, and on the other cosying up to and taking its cue from Israel, a criminal, aggressive state whose behaviour contradicts British values and interests.

London From Above (63 Pics)

Two men accused of being disruptive on a plane were arrested at Heathrow Airport, police said today.

The pair, who are believed to be Israeli, were passengers on a British Airways flight from Las Vegas to London, flying into Terminal 5.

The men, aged 28 and 33, were alleged to be making repeated comments about Iran.

Theresa May has approved the extradition of a British student to the United States for running a website that provided links to pirated films and television shows.

Richard O’Dwyer, 23, a computer science student at Sheffield Hallam University, faces up to 10 years in a federal prison for operating TVShack for three years until December 2010.

Mr O’Dwyer’s mother, Julia, said her son had been “sold down the river by the government” in comments designed to embarrass David Cameron as he arrives in Washington for talks with President Barack Obama.

She warned that Britain’s extradition treaty with the United States meant American authorities could come for the young, the old and the ill “and our government is paving the way”.

A teenager has been arrested for allegedly making comments on Facebook about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan last week.
According to Sky News, Azhar Ahmed of Ravensthorpe (19) posted comments on his profile page, criticizing the level of attention British soldiers who died in a bomb blast received, compared to that received by Afghan civilians killed in the war.
He was arrested on Friday and charged over the weekend.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "He didn't make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother."