At a short but contentious congressional hearing on Wednesday, former IRS official Lois Lerner repeatedly invoked her 5th Amendment right not to testify about the IRS targeting of tea party groups. This was the second time Lerner has declined to answer questions put to her by the House oversight committee.

Asked if he was considering a contempt citation against Lerner, Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said, "that's certainly something that has to be considered." He said he hoped to get answers from Lerner, and the committee will continue to seek answers in other places.

Issa adjourned the hearing while the ranking member, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), was speaking. Issa said Cummings was recognized to ask a question but instead "went into an opening statement," and therefore his microphone was turned off.

"The fact is, Mr. Cummings came to make a point of his objections to the process we've been going through," Issa said outside the hearing room. "He was actually slandering me at the moment that the the mics did go off -- by claiming that this has not been a real investigation.

"This has been a bipartisan investigation by multiple committees in which we had testimony in multiple hearings...in which it was very clear there was targeting of conservative groups -- in which there were people acting outside the norm," Issa said.

One of Britain's most senior judges actively campaigned to support a vile paedophile group that tried to legalise sex with children, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Lord Justice Fulford, named last year as an adviser to the Queen, was a key backer of the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) which police suspect of abusing children on an 'industrial scale'.

An investigation by the Mail on Sunday has discovered that Fulford was a founder member of a campaign to defend PIE while it was openly calling for the age of consent to be lowered to just four.

It can also be revealed that the Appeal Court judge and Privy Counsellor:

• Planned demonstrations outside courts where defendants - described by prosecutors as 'sick' and a 'force for evil' - were on trial.

An Alabama lawmaker said his Republican colleagues would change their position on abortion if their daughters were carrying black babies.

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a Montgomery Democrat, emphatically made the comments Tuesday during a debate on a bill that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat was detected.

The bill passed Tuesday by a 73-29 vote but is certain to face a legal challenge.

The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, an Indian Springs Republican, compared the measure to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling that overturned segregation.

That apparently offended Holmes, who is black, and he accused abortion opponents of racist hypocrisy.

"Ninety-nine percent of the all of the white people in here are going to raise their hand that they are against abortion," Holmes said. "On the other hand, 99 percent of the whites who are sitting in here now, if their daughter got pregnant by a black man, they are going to make their daughter have an abortion. They ain't going to let her have the baby."

Ukraine's interim prime minister, Arseniy "Yats" Yatsenyuk, may prove to be arsenic to the beleaguered nation.

"Recall the phone exchange between the Ukraine ambassador and Victoria Nuland (Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs) that got leaked out, where she basically said 'we want Yats in there.' They like him because he's pro Western," says Vladimir Signorelli, president of boutique investment research firm Bretton Woods Research LLC in New Jersey. "Yatsenyuk is the the kind of technocrat you want if you want austerity, with the veneer of professionalism," Signorelli said. "He's the type of guy who can hobnob with the European elite. A Mario Monti type: unelected and willing to do the IMFs bidding," he said.

Mario Monti was a centrist Italian technocrat who passed an austerity package that called for increased taxes, pension reform and measures to fight tax evasion.

Over the past several weeks, Ukraine has been battling political infighting between pro-Russian Ukrainians and pro-Europeans. The fight stepped into high gear in the fall when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided to tilt towards Moscow instead of Brussels in a trade deal. Last week, Yanukovych left Kiev and headed to an undisclosed location, believed to be holed up in a Russian Naval base.

NSA chief Keith Alexander says journalists who air the U.S. government's dirty laundry "have no standing" and "should be stopped".

NSA chief Keith Alexander has a knack for blundering his way into the headlines. Perhaps that's why now he's pushing for new laws to stifle journalist who leak information about the government's underhanded dealings.

This Tuesday the he following statement:

"Journalists have no standing when it comes to national security issues, They don't know how to weigh the fact of what they're giving out and saying, is it in the nation's interest to divulge this."

He then went on to say:

"I think we are going to make headway over the next few weeks on media leaks. I am an optimist. I think if we make the right steps on the media leaks legislation, then cyber legislation will be a lot easier,"

It stands to reason that Mr. Alexander's eagerness to get laws on the books to muzzle journalist is related to the latest round of leaks released by Snowden that revealed that the U.S. government has trained teams of internet trolls to disrupt conversations, divide political movements and discredit dissidents in the United States. Of course he is presenting this in terms of "national security" but keep in mind that this is the same NSA chief that was forced to admit that he had intentionally misled the public regarding terror plots in order to bolster public support for domestic surveillance.

Dozens of military trucks transporting heavily armed soldiers rumbled over Crimea's rutted roads Saturday as Russia reinforced its armed presence on the disputed peninsula in the Black Sea. Moscow's foreign minister ruled out any dialogue with Ukraine's new authorities, whom he dismissed as the puppets of extremists.

The Russians have denied their armed forces are active in Crimea, but an Associated Press reporter trailed one military convoy Saturday afternoon from 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Feodosia to a military airfield at Gvardeiskoe north of Simferopol, over which a Russian flag flew.

Some of the army green vehicles had Russian license plates and numbers indicating that they were from the Moscow region. Some towed mobile kitchens and what appeared to be mobile medical equipment.

The strategic peninsula in southern Ukraine has become the flashpoint in the battle for Ukraine, where three months of protests sparked by President Victor Yanukovych's decision to ditch a significant treaty with the 28-nation European Union after strong pressure from Russia led to his downfall. A majority of people in Crimea identify with Russia, and Moscow's Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol, as is Ukraine's.

Vladislav Seleznyov, a Crimean-based spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces, told AP that witnesses had reported seeing amphibious military ships unloading around 200 military vehicles in eastern Crimea on Friday night after apparently having crossed the Straits of Kerch, which separates Crimea from Russian territory.

"Neither the equipment, nor the paratroopers have insignia that identify them as Russian, but we have no doubt as to their allegiance," Seleznyov said.

The amphibious operation appeared to be one of the largest movements of Russian military forces since they appeared in Crimea a week ago.

When three journalists for Al Jazeera's English service were brought into an Egyptian court Wednesday, they were held in cages, a shocking image that prompted reactions including "disturbing," "heartbreaking" and "rocked."

Al Jazeera tweeted this photo showing their staffers in court, not only held in cages, but also separated from the legal teams by rows of security personnel.

They are facing charges of allegedly being members of and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and endangering national security. Getty Images published more photos of the scene:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday there was still no agreement between Moscow and Washington over the crisis in Ukraine where the regional parliament of Crimea voted to become part of Russia.

Speaking in Rome after meeting his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry, Lavrov said Washington's order to freeze assets and ban visas to Russians responsible for an incursion into Crimea was unconstructive.

"For now we cannot tell the international community that we have an agreement," Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying after his second meeting with Kerry in two days.

Lavrov said talk of blacklisting some Russians from entering the United States was complicating talks: "He (Kerry) assured me there are no such lists for now. There is only the order but that doesn't change facts, this is still a threat."

The West has pushed Moscow to agree to international mediation to resolve the crisis in Ukraine but Lavrov said he would now report to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the proposal before any decisions were made.

A US guided-missile destroyer is en route to the Black Sea but naval officials said Thursday it was a "routine" deployment that was planned before the crisis unfolded in Ukraine.

The USS Truxtun departed the Greek port of Souda Bay Thursday to carry out joint training with Romanian and Bulgarian forces, the US Navy said in a statement.

"While in the Black Sea, the ship will conduct a port visit and routine, previously planned exercises with allies and partners in the region," it said.

The mission was "scheduled well in advance of her departure from the United States," it said.

Although portrayed as unrelated to tensions in Ukraine, where pro-Russian forces have taken de facto control over the Crimean peninsula, the presence of a US naval destroyer in the Black Sea sends a symbolic message to Moscow.

The move comes a day after the Pentagon sought to reassure anxious allies in Central and Eastern Europe over Russia's actions in Ukraine, announcing plans to send more F-15 fighter jets to patrol the skies over Baltic states and stepping up aviation training in Poland.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s (XOM) biggest international exploration opportunity may be imperiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin's Ukrainian foray.

U.S.-based companies could face restrictions on doing business in Russia if Putin's regime is slapped with sanctions by western governments or the United Nations for its intervention in Ukraine's Crimea region.

Exxon, under the terms of a 2011 contract with state-controlled OAO Rosneft, owns drilling rights across 11.4 million acres of Russian land, its biggest exploration holding outside the U.S. Sanctions could stall Exxon's plans to begin drilling in the Russian Arctic later this year in partnership with Rosneft, and threaten the lucrative Sakhalin-1 oil license off Russia's Pacific Coast.

Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson agreed to invest billions of dollars and allow Rosneft to buy stakes in premier North American projects in exchange for access to Russia's vast Arctic, deep-water and shale resources.

The 61-year-old University of Texas-trained engineer is seeking to reverse sliding oil and natural gas output at the world's biggest energy producer by market value. Since assuming the leadership post of Exxon in January 2006, the company's stock has increased 65 percent, lagging the 77 percent advance in the price of crude, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.