Forget it; the Global War on Terror (GWOT) is not becoming more "democratic" - or even transparent. US President Barack Obama now pledges to transfer the responsibility of the shadow 'Drone Wars' from the CIA to the Pentagon - so the US Congress is able to monitor it. Until virtually yesterday the Obama administration did not even recognize in public the existence of the shadow 'Drone Wars'. The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at the Pentagon - which would then be in charge of the 'Drone Wars' - is bound to remain secret. And the Pentagon is not exactly yearning to retouch its definition of a "militant", a prime candidate to be 'target-assassinated'; "any military-aged male in a strike zone". "Muslim" male, it goes without saying. Obama's rhetoric is one thing. His administration's 'Drone Wars' are another thing entirely. The President now insists GWOT is no longer a "boundless global war". That's rhetoric. For the Pentagon, the "entire globe is a battlefield".

Bank lobbyists have a direct influence on financial legislation drafted in Congress, and are in some cases even writing the measures themselves. Citigroup this month drafted a regulation bill that has already passed through a House committee. To soften financial regulations, bank lobbyists frequently 'assist' lawmakers in writing draft legislation that serves to benefit them at the expense of American taxpayers, according to a New York Times investigation. Lobbyists working for Citigroup Inc., a multinational financial services corporation, wrote 80 percent of a regulation bill that was approved by the House Financial Services Committee this month. Citigroup wrote 70 lines of 85-line bill, which exempts "broad swathes of trades" from new regulation, the Times reported based on e-mails it obtained. Two paragraphs of the bill were copied "nearly word for word" from what Citigroup drafted. The only difference between the versions were two words, which lawmakers changed to make plural. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law in 2010, inflicted heavy financial regulatory reform following the most recent recession. The bill was pushed into law by Democrats, but now, both Democrats in the House and Senate are siding with bank lobbyists to roll back parts of the regulation overhaul.

The theme of the summit is “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance,” and many events took place this week to debate and review the past and the future of the Union. These include an African Youth Forum, a Pan-African Business Conference, and several ...
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Soldiers from the European Union are helping train Malian troops to fight insurgents linked to al-Qaida terrorists. The deployment of a regional intervention force to replace French and Chadian troops in Mali is a central security issue for the African ...
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There was a lot of distraction in the news last week, particularly the flank attack moves on Obama that obscured a huge development in the Mid East... the first return of the Russian Pacific Navy for Mediterranean deployment since 1992. The first big part of the news is the active word 'permanent.' Corporate media decided to ignore the strategic shift consequences of that, and the West may be looking back soon at the wisdom their aggressive regime change military moves, despite the extensive use of proxies. The recent Israeli attacks on Syria, particularly the use of a nuclear bunker buster gave the Russians a gift from heaven, opening the door to make a defensive deployment to protect their longtime ally in Syria. The Russians are back in the Med to stay, and this might be a good lesson to the folly of the Western slow motion aggression policy in the region, which has put a match to the whole place. Russian Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov has announced that a permanent staff was being set up, and the present force might eventually include their nuclear submarines. In speaking to RIA: "Overall, already from this year, we plan to have five or six warships and support vessels [in the Mediterranean Sea], which will be replaced on a rotating basis from each of the fleets - the Black Sea, Baltic, Northern and, in some cases, even the Pacific Fleet. Depending on the scope of assignments and their complexity, the number of warships in the task force may be increased."

Whenever one of our cities gets a star turn as host of some super-sparkly event, such as a national political gathering or the Super Bowl, its first move is to tidy up - by having the police sweep homeless people into jail, out of town, or under some rug. But Houston's tidy-uppers aren't waiting for a world-class event to rationalize going after homeless down-and-outers. They've preemptively outlawed the "crime" of dumpster diving in the Texan city. "I was just basically looking for something to eat," he told the Houston Chronicle. But, unbeknownst to both this indigent tourist and the great majority of Houston's generally generous citizens, an ordinance dating way back to 1942 says that "molesting garbage containers" is illegal. In March, James Kelly, a 44-year-old Navy veteran, was passing through Houston on his way to connect with family in California. Homeless, destitute, and hungry, he chose to check out the dining delicacies in a trash bin near City Hall. Spotted by police, Kelly was promptly charged with "disturbing the contents of a garbage can in the [central] business district." Seriously.

Woolwich machete attack is a result of the policy of British government that continues wars abroad despite security services' warnings that this would increase the danger of terrorism in the UK, Lindsey German from Stop the War coalition has told RT. The investigation is ongoing into the Wednesday's killing of the British soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby by two alleged Islamist terrorists in south-east London. According to Lindsey German this attack could have been influenced by the British government's foreign policy: the country has been involved in foreign military interventions in Afghanistan and then Iraq for over a decade.

What definition of the term includes this horrific act of violence but excludes the acts of the US, the UK and its allies? Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using what appeared to be a meat cleaver to hack to death a British soldier. In the wake of claims that the assailants shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the killing, and a video showing one of the assailants citing Islam as well as a desire to avenge and stop continuous UK violence against Muslims, media outlets (including the Guardian) and British politicians instantly characterized the attack as "terrorism". That this was a barbaric and horrendous act goes without saying, but given the legal, military, cultural and political significance of the term "terrorism", it is vital to ask: is that term really applicable to this act of violence? To begin with, in order for an act of violence to be "terrorism", many argue that it must deliberately target civilians. That's the most common means used by those who try to distinguish the violence engaged in by western nations from that used by the "terrorists": sure, we kill civilians sometimes, but we don't deliberately target them the way the "terrorists" do.

Women at a particular stage in their monthly menstrual cycle may be more vulnerable to some of the psychological side-effects associated with stressful experiences, according to a study from UCL. The results suggest a monthly window of opportunity that could potentially be targeted in efforts to prevent common mental health problems developing in women. The research is the first to show a potential link between psychological vulnerability and the timing of a biological cycle, in this case ovulation. A common symptom of mood and anxiety problems is the tendency to experience repetitive and unwanted thoughts. These 'intrusive thoughts' often occur in the days and weeks after a stressful experience. In this study, the researchers examined whether the effects of a stressful event are linked to different stages of the menstrual cycle. The participants were 41 women aged between 18 and 35 who had regular menstrual cycles and were not using the pill as a form of contraception. Each woman watched a 14-minute stressful film containing death or injury and provided a saliva sample so that hormone levels could be assessed. They were then asked to record instances of unwanted thoughts about the video over the following days.

A 'dead' woman has given birth to a healthy baby - and been brought back to life herself. Erica Nigrelli was 36 weeks pregnant when her heart stopped and she collapsed at work, reports Click2Houston. Three co-workers at Elkins High School in Missouri City kept Erica alive by using CPR and a defibrillator until paramedics arrived to take her to hospital.

Comment: Godfrey Bloom, member of European Parliament for the UK Independence Party (Yorkshire & Lincolnshire constituency), and Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group, explains some of the basics of how banking works to other MEPs at the European Parliament in Strasbourg earlier this week.

Ansari to represent India at 50th African Union Summit New Delhi: Vice President Hamid Ansari will address the golden jubilee Summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa on Saturday, joining around ten select non-African partners of the 54-member ...
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Vice President Hamid Ansari will on Friday night fly to Ethiopia to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of African Union to be held in Addis Ababa on on May 25. He will address the event and is expected to some meet prominent leaders of Africa to ...
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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - African nations have backed a request by Kenya for charges of crimes against humanity by its president to be referred back to the east African country, African Union documents show. President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, ...
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It is difficult to know what to think of the African Union, just as it is hard to assess the performance of the United Nations. Both institutions sometimes seem particularly ineffective, much like our own Congress has become, but both also seem ...
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U.S. News & World Report (blog)

Cold fusion has been called one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs that might likely never happen. On the surface, it seems simple - a room-temperature reaction occurring under normal pressure. But it is a nuclear reaction, and figuring it out and getting it to work has not been simple, and any success in this area could ultimately - and seriously - change the world. Despite various claims of victory over the years since 1920, none have been able to be replicated consistently and reliably. But there's buzz this week of a cold fusion experiment that has been replicated, twice. The tests have reportedly produced excess heat with roughly 10,000 times the energy density and 1,000 times the power density of gasoline. The names involved are familiar: Italian entrepreneur Andrea Rossi has been claiming for several years that his E-Cat device produces heat through a process called a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR), and puts out more energy than goes in. In the past, Rossi didn't allow anyone to verify his device because he claimed his device was an "industrial trade secret."

The staffs of the state's top prosecutor and the governor's office have been working in secret with General Assembly leaders on legislation to withhold records related to the police investigation into the Dec. 14 Newtown elementary school massacre - including victims' photos, tapes of 911 calls, and possibly more. The behind-the-scenes legislative effort came to light Tuesday when The Courant obtained a copy of an email by a top assistant to Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, Timothy J. Sugrue. Sugrue, an assistant state's attorney, discussed options considered so far, including blocking release of statements "made by a minor." "There is complete agreement regarding photos etc., and audio tapes, although the act may allow the disclosure of audio transcripts," Sugrue wrote to Kane, two other Kane subordinates and to Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky, who is directing the investigation of the killings. The bill that's being crafted has not been handled under routine legislative procedures - it hasn't gone through the committee process, which includes a public hearing, for example. Sugrue's email Tuesday indicated that a draft of the bill was being worked on by leaders in both the House and Senate, and might be ready as soon as the end of the day.

The 47th meeting of the NEPAD Steering Committee Meeting has commended the Agency for its innovative approach to managing and disseminating ...
www.polity.org.za/.../nepad-statement-by-the-new-partnership...

WHO: Heads of State who make up the 21 members of the NEPAD HSGOC; AUC Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson; NEPAD Chief Executive Officer; AUC ...
summits.au.int/.../invitation-media-official-opening-nepad-hea...

The 47th meeting of the NEPAD Steering Committee Meeting has commended the Agency for its innovative approach to managing and disseminating ...
www.polity.org.za/.../nepad-statement-by-the-new-partnership...