A large military drone crashed into Lake Ontario on Tuesday, prompting a search that later had to be stopped due to weather.

So, if you've seen this unmanned aerial vehicle used by various government agencies for surveillance and reconnaissance in the lake near central New York, the Air National Guard would probably like to know.

The MQ-9 Reaper went down about 20 miles north of Port of Oswego, 12 miles from the shoreline, around 1 p.m. after about three hours of flight, according to WSYR-TV.

Col. Greg Semmel, commander with the 174th Attack Wing, told the local news station there is "probably a combination of parts that may be floating and not floating." According to NBC News, Semmel said the cost of the drone is between $4 million to $5 million.

The drone flight was part of pilot trainings allowed over three area counties, which an advocacy group has fought against.

Iranian FM calls nuclear program talks with Western powers "difficult" but believes progress is being made.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned on Thursday against an agreement with Iran that stops short of getting it to halt its uranium enrichment, amid reports that just such a deal was in the works.

"Israel understands that there are proposals on the table in Geneva today that would ease the pressure on Iran for concessions that are not concessions at all. This proposal would allow Iran to retain the capabilities to make nuclear weapons," he said during a speech to the Jewish Agency.

A former chief economic policy adviser to President Obama is the latest to weigh in on NSA spying and the person who brought it to light -- former government contractor Edward Snowden.

Larry Summers, a one-time head of the National Economic Council and a past president of Harvard University, spoke with Jorge Ramos this Thursday on "AMERICA with Jorge Ramos."

JR: Talking about speaking up, do you think Edward Snowden really spoke up? That he's not a traitor, that he's just a whistle blower?

LS: No, he is a traitor. I think that when you take on a commitment, you don't have to take on that commitment, but he did take on a commitment to keep secrets, to not disclose information.

PEN American Center's report "Chilling Effects," officially released Tuesday morning, offers some disturbing data about the effect of government surveillance on free expression and self-censorship in the literary world. Of more than 520 American writers surveyed, 16% have avoided writing or speaking on what they consider controversial topics, and 11% "have considered doing so."

The percentages are even higher when it comes to phone or email conversations and social media, which is increasingly part of the writers' toolbox.

But while I have no doubt that surveillance by the National Security Agency and other entities has cast a chill on free expression, or that our communications are routinely monitored, the real issue raised by "Chilling Effects" has to do with courage. What, in other words, is the matter with these writers?

A spy whose naked, decomposing body was found in a padlocked gym bag at his apartment likely died in an accident with no one else involved, British police said Wednesday.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said the death of Gareth Williams, whose remains were found inside a bag in his bathtub in August 2010, was "most probably" an accident.

"I'm convinced that Gareth's death was in no way linked to his work," Hewitt told Reuters.

But he conceded that the facts could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt, and Williams' family members said they still believe he was killed.

It seems there are still plenty of parties who would prefer that Arafat's death continues to be treated as a mystery rather than as an assassination.

It is hard, however, to avoid drawing the logical conclusion from the finding last week by Swiss scientists that the Palestinian leader's body contained high levels of a radioactive isotope, polonium-210. An inconclusive and much more limited study by a Russian team published immediately after the Swiss announcement also suggests Arafat died from poisoning.

It is time to state the obvious: Arafat was killed. And suspicion falls squarely on Israel.

Israel alone had the means, track record, stated intention and motive. Without Israel's fingerprints on the murder weapon, it may not be quite enough to secure a conviction in a court of law, but it should be evidence enough to convict Israel in the court of world opinion.

Israel had access to polonium from its nuclear reactor in Dimona, and it has a long record of carrying out political assassinations, some ostentatious and others covert, often using hard-to-trace chemical agents. Most notoriously, Israel tried to quietly kill another Palestinian leader, Khaled Meshal of Hamas, in Jordan in 1997, injecting a poison into his ear. Meshal was saved only because the assassins were caught and Israel was forced to supply an antidote. Israeli leaders have been queuing up to deny there was ever any malign intent from Israel's side towards Arafat. Silvan Shalom, the energy minister, claimed last week: "We never made a decision to harm him physically." Shalom must be suffering from a memory lapse.

There is plenty of evidence that Israel wanted Arafat - in the euphemism of that time - "removed". In January 2002, Shaul Mofaz, Israel's military chief of staff, was caught on a microphone whispering to Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, about Arafat: "We have to get rid of him."

Lobbying is the least of it: corporate interests have captured the entire democratic process. No wonder so many have given up on politics

It's the reason for the collapse of democratic choice. It's the source of our growing disillusionment with politics. It's the great unmentionable. Corporate power. The media will scarcely whisper its name. It is howlingly absent from parliamentary debates. Until we name it and confront it, politics is a waste of time.

The political role of business corporations is generally interpreted as that of lobbyists, seeking to influence government policy. In reality they belong on the inside. They are part of the nexus of power that creates policy. They face no significant resistance, from either government or opposition, as their interests have now been woven into the fabric of all three main political parties in Britain.

Most of the scandals that leave people in despair about politics arise from this source. On Monday, for instance, the Guardian revealed that the government's subsidy system for gas-burning power stations is being designed by an executive from the Dublin-based company ESB International, who has been seconded into the Department of Energy. What does ESB do? Oh, it builds gas-burning power stations.

On the same day we learned that a government minister, Nick Boles, has privately assured the gambling company Ladbrokes that it needn't worry about attempts by local authorities to stop the spread of betting shops. His new law will prevent councils from taking action.

Supporting the troops is increasingly used as a substitute for supporting unpopular wars, and the poppy appeal is part of that process.

One day this week I carried out a little experiment as I travelled around. I went by train from London to Hertfordshire and back, then journeyed on the tube across central London and later to my home in Hackney. I did a rough count and I reckon that no more than 1 in 20 of my fellow passengers were wearing red poppies. Contrast that with the pervasiveness of the poppy from virtually every 'official' source.

Everyone on television is wearing a red poppy. The BBC must get through boxes of them every day. Sports reporters, foreign correspondents, studio guests appearing for one minute, all magically wear a poppy.

It isn't just the media. The defendants in the News of the World phone hacking trial sport a fresh poppy every day. The train on which I travelled was decorated on the outside with appeals for the poppy. The station where I bought a ticket had collecting boxes on the counter. So do the supermarkets, so do university cafes and canteens. Today all the mainline railway stations in London will have service men and women selling poppies, blessed by the Tory mayor of London. The bar of one of London's most radical theatres has a poppy appeal box on its counter.

The discrepancy between this barrage of poppy selling and the actual take up has become more noticeable in recent years. It has ceased to be a symbol which people could choose to wear, but where there was no obligation to do so, to one where remembrance (as defined by the red poppy) is de rigeur, and anyone who chooses not to is deemed to be dishonouring the dead.

The president of Poland apologized to Russia on Wednesday for the attack by a nationalist mob on the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, calling the episode outrageous and unjustifiable.

"We need to apologize on behalf of the Polish state," President Bronislaw Komorowski told privately owned broadcaster Radio Zet.

Thousands of people paraded through Warsaw on Monday to mark the 1918 reunification of Poland after more than a century of being partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

A crowd of youths splintered away from the previously approved route and attacked the Russian Embassy, pelting it with rocks and firecrackers and setting alight the guards' booth.

Moscow called for an immediate apology from Poland and demanded that Warsaw pay for the damages and ensure that those responsible were brought to justice.

The incident in Warsaw drew an immediate reaction in Moscow, where a group of young men threw firecrackers and smoke pellets at the Polish Embassy.

Three men have been detained by Russian police.

Unregistered nationalist opposition party The Other Russia, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said in a statement that their actions were intended to show that "Russia should be treated with respect."

Russian authorities have not yet commented on the incident in Moscow.

The flagship of Russia's Pacific Fleet, the Varyag missile cruiser, docked on Monday at the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, making it the first Russian warship to visit Egypt since 1992.

The Varyag's arrival comes two days ahead of a visit by a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to bolster military and political ties with Egypt.

During the six-day stay, the warship's crew will exchange visits with local government and naval officials and take part in a series of cultural and sports events, said the Pacific Fleet's spokesman, Capt. 1st Rank Roman Martov.