UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay criticized Iraq for carrying out a large number of executions—including 34 on a single day last month. She cited “lack of transparency in court proceedings” and “concerns about due process and fairness of trials.”
Yemeni protesters gathered outside New York’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel to protest the arrival of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. With repression continuing and the vice president in seclusion, many fear Saleh is continuing to run the country from afar.
At least 200 were killed in the Syrian city of Homs as security forces pursued their campaign to take back opposition-held areas. Meanwhile, authorities tightened their grip of Hama as residents recalled the 1982 massacre of some 20,000 there.
Leon Panetta says there is “a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran” in the Spring—but the US and Israel postpone their unprecedented joint missile defense exercises in a an apparent bid to avoid further escalating tensions with Iran.
Two people were shot dead by police in Suez and more than 400 injured in protests across Egypt, as armed Bedouin tribesmen meanwhile abducted 25 Chinese workers in the Sinai Peninsula and seized control of a resort complex.
Four Hezbollah militants accused in the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri will be tried in absentia, before the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon at The Hague, given the failure of authorities to apprehend the suspects.
From Huffington Post, Feb. 1: Mind-Reading Advance Lets Brain Scientists ‘Eavesdrop’ On Thoughts Scientists already know how to see into your mind’s eye, and now they can hear the voices in your head. In a new paper published in PLoS… Read moreNeurosurgeons scream for more
“Anonymous” attacked the website of the neo-Nazi outfit American Third Position, splashing internal e-mails on the group’s homepage—to reveal that the “A3P” white supremacists are a well integrated into Ron Paul’s political machine!
In a Google-sponsored “video chat,” Obama gave the first public acknowledgment of the use of US drones in Pakistan—and said that drone strikes “enhance” US respect for the sovereignty of the target countries. (Insert Orwell reference here.)
The BBC says it has seen a “secret NATO report” that finds the Taliban continue to be heavily backed by Pakistan, are confident they can win the Afghan war, and are gaining popular support at the expense of the Kabul government.
Could everybody just stop and think, please? Rand Paul won applause from basically freedom-loving folks when he was blocked from boarding a flight by the Transportation Security Administration last week in Nashville, after refusing to submit to a full body… Read moreWe’ll say it again: Ron Paul is a bogus “libertarian”!
