A leading epidemiologist says that the Department of Veterans Affairs, charged with caring for millions who have served their country, neglected assisting suicidal veterans who participated in longitudinal studies and never released important research data on the exposure of Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to toxins, inhalational hazards and burn pits.

Dr. Steven S. Coughlin, a former principal investigator at the VA's Office of Public Health, is testifying before Congress today that supervisors threatened to remove him from a study when he asked for mental health providers to contact the suicidal veterans. Some veterans were eventually contacted, but others were not, according to Coughlin.

"I urge this Committee to direct VA to immediately identify procedures to ensure that veterans who participate in VA large-scale epidemiologic studies receive appropriate follow-up care so that this tragedy is not repeated," he said in testimony provided to me.

The hearing, held before an investigative and oversight panel of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, is taking a broad look at the care provided for Gulf War veterans. In addition to Coughlin, among those testifying are experts on Gulf War Illness, a chronic multi-symptom condition that is characterized by headaches, fatigue, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems and cognitive difficulties. It is estimated to affect as many as 200,000 Gulf War veterans, and critics of the VA argue that the agency has focused on stress-related causes for the illness instead of wartime environmental exposures.

In a statement, the VA said that it "has a decades-long history of conducting world-class research studies that meet accepted and rigorous scientific standards. Research on the health of Gulf War Veterans has been and continues to be a priority for VA. The Department depends on this research to inform our decisions and guide our efforts in caring for Gulf War Veterans. All allegations of malfeasance are taken seriously and are investigated fully."

The Obama administration is providing the Syrian opposition with $114 million in aid, more than previously revealed, to help topple Bashar Assad, U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford told Congress on Wednesday.

Ford briefed House appropriators in a closed-door hearing following Secretary of State John Kerry's announcement last month that America would provide $60 million in direct food and medicine assistance to the Syrian Opposition Coalition. The aid, Ford said, is in addition to $54 million in communications gear and other aid already offered to "disparate Syrian opposition groups across the country to build a network of ethnically and religiously diverse civilian activists."

"Preserving national unity and laying the foundation for a free Syria that respects the rights of all its citizens is essential if we are to secure a Syria that helps rather than threatens stability in the heart of the Middle East," Ford told the committee, according to his opening statement, which was obtained by The Hill. "Collapse and fragmentation of the Syrian state or its takeover by extremists would worsen the risks associated with chemical weapons security, terrorist bases, and new refugee flows inundating neighboring states. Those outcomes would directly threaten our interests."

A leading French anti-terror judge has told French media he is worried about the implication of large numbers of French Muslims heading to Syria to fight a holy war against the Damascus regime.

As many as 80 French citizens are fighting with rebel groups in Syria, according to a report in French daily Le Figaro published Wednesday.

The number is far higher than the "handful" said by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls to be operating alongside Islamists in Mali, or the estimated number of Frenchmen who went to Bosnia, Iraq or Afghanistan to wage "jihad", or Muslim holy war.

Le Figaro quoted two such fighters. One, named only as Djamel, said he was fighting the "infamy" of the Bashar al Assad regime in a conflict that the United Nations estimates has claimed more than 70,000 lives in two years.

The second, Abdel Rahman Ayachi, had "returned to the land of his ancestors to spread Islam ahead of the anticipated collapse of the [Assad] regime," the newspaper said.

Chinese-made missiles have been used to shoot down two Syrian army helicopters, state media reported on Thursday, adding their performance could boost the international sales appeal of Chinese weapons.

The Global Times, a tabloid with close links to the ruling Communist Party, said a pair of videos posted on the internet by Free Syrian Army rebels showed two Mi-8/17 helicopters being shot down by Chinese shoulder-launched missiles.

The paper said it was not known how the rebels, who have been fighting to topple the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad for the past two years, obtained the missiles.

But it said the success of the FN-6 weapons, which it said were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, could lift the overall image of China's defence products.

"In regards to export prospects, Chinese weapons need to engage in more conflicts to prove their value," Daniel Tong, identified as the founder of the Chinese Military Aviation website, told the newspaper.

Afghanistan's president is warning that any further delay turning over a key U.S.-run detention facility to full Afghan control would harm relations.

Hamid Karzai's statement comes after he and U.S. commander Gen. Joseph Dunford met Wednesday but failed to resolve the impasse that derailed a scheduled handover last Saturday.

The Argentinian pope has made strident comments about the church's problems - and has come in for some fierce criticism

On need for the church to evangelise:

"We need to avoid the spiritual sickness of a church that is wrapped up in its own world: when a church becomes like this, it grows sick. It is true that going out on to the street implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to any ordinary man or woman. But if the church stays wrapped up in itself, it will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded church that goes out on to the streets and a sick, withdrawn church, I would definitely choose the first one."

On using technology:

"We also try to reach out to people who are far away, via digital means, the web and brief messaging."

On unmarried mothers:

"In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don't baptise the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today's hypocrites. Those who clericalise the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it's baptised!"

On vanity:

"An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it's beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth ... Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them."

Today, lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) urged a federal judge to reject California's attempt to dismiss a class action lawsuit challenging prolonged solitary confinement in California prisons. The case was filed on behalf of prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison who have spent between 10 and 28 years in solitary confinement and who staged two widely publicized hunger strikes in 2011. It alleges that prolonged solitary confinement violates Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, and that the absence of meaningful review of SHU placement violates the prisoners' right to due process. CCR lawyers argued today that nominal, temporary reforms by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), which the defendants cited as grounds for dismissing the case, have had little to no effect on the conditions challenged in the lawsuit and, thus, the case must proceed.

"The CDCR's reforms are nothing more than window dressing. They are riddled with the same constitutional problems challenged in this lawsuit, they have had no effect on any of the plaintiffs and, in any event, they are set to expire in two years," said Center for Constitutional Rights President Jules Lobel, who argued today. "The most important similarity, however, is that this pilot program is the third time the CDCR has promised meaningful reforms and failed to deliver. At this point it is clear that a court must intervene."

Little-known US resident Ghassan Hitto chosen as head of government for regions held by opposition coalition

Syria's rebel coalition has elected as its prime minister Ghassan Hitto, a little-known American-educated IT manager and Islamic activist who will head an interim government to administer the areas seized by opposition forces from the regime troops of President Bashar Assad.


Hitto received 35 votes out of 48 ballots cast by the opposition Syrian National Coalition's 63 active members during a meeting in Istanbul. The results were read aloud by coalition member Hisham Marwa to applause from a few dozen of his colleagues who had waited until after 1am to hear the results.

"I miss my wife and children and I look forward to seeing them soon," said Hitto, who has lived in the United States for decades and recently moved from Texas to Turkey to help co-ordinate aid to rebel-held areas.

Baghdad was convulsed by a deadly wave of explosions as terrorists detonated up to nine explosions in the course of a few hours over the morning on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.

Early reports suggested that at least 34 people were killed and dozens more wounded as car bombs hit Shia areas, including a mosque and a restaurant across the city.

At the Ministry of the Interior in central Baghdad, the Guardian heard one explosion in the distance, followed by a rising plume of smoke. Helicopters could be seen hovering above the scene.

An hour later, in another part of the city, a second blast was audible and another column of smoke a half a mile or so away, this time from an attack in Karrada,.

The first bombing took place near a small restaurant in Baghdad's Mashtal neighbourhood, killing four people and wounding 15 at 8am.

Eighteen have been arrested in Brooklyn's East Flatbush neighborhood as New Yorkers came out for a third night of protest over the police killing of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, police reported.

The demonstration began at Brooklyn's 67th Precinct in East Flatbush, the part of New York's Brooklyn section where Gray was shot to death by police on Saturday. Witness and police accounts differ on whether Gray was brandishing a weapon before he was killed.

According to autopsy results, Gray was shot seven times - four times in the front of his body, and three times in the back.

Brooklynites were heard shouting "murderers!" at the massive police presence Wednesday as officers prohibited people from even stepping onto the street in one of New York's poorer neighborhoods while police helicopters circled overhead.

The event has been marked by a near-absolute lack of commercial media coverage, with most of the slack being picked up by activists livestreaming from the rally or reporting via Twitter.