Hundreds of millions of dollars has been wasted on Iraq reconstruction with relatively little progress to show. Apparently infrastructure failures abroad are not isolated to just Iraq either, though. A new report shows a large amount of the US government's 400 million dollar investment in infrastructure in Afghanistan in last year was wasted as well. RT's Kristine Frazao brings an analysis.

A US criminal inquiry against WikiLeaks frontman has reached an "unprecedented" size and scale, Julian Assange's lawyer told RT. Sweden, on the other hand, seems to have turned a deaf ear to all offers to interview Assange anywhere in the UK.

Sweden has turned down Ecuador's invitation to question Assange at its London embassy, WikiLeaks' Twitter reports. The news is yet to be confirmed by officials from either country.

The frontman of the whistle-blowing site has been holed up in Ecuador's diplomatic mission for over six weeks now, seeking political asylum. Assange lost an extradition appeal in the UK Supreme Court in May and will be sent to Sweden once British law enforcement manages to get hold of him.

In Sweden, prosecutors are investigating a sex crimes case against Assange. The scandal-stirring whistleblower is wanted for an interview, as no official charges have been put forward yet.

Revelations about the smuggling of arms to anti-government terrorist groups in Syria via the US Air Base in Incirlik in Southern Turkey sparked popular protests in the country.

According to FNA dispatches, Head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Parliamentary Group Oktay Vural has summoned the country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the parliament to answer questions about Turkey's cooperation with Saudi Arabia and Qatar for smuggling arms and ammunition to the Syrian terrorists from Incirlik base.

Vural pointed to media reports about a secret command center in Turkey's Adana province, home to Incirlik air base, which is operating in cooperation with Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply the terrorists in Syria with military and communications aid, and asked Ankara to answer to questions about the secret military base.

He also asked Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to provide the parliament with the exact number of the Syrian refugees in Turkey and their settlement place.

Terrorists in Syria brutally executed 15 civilians in the Northwestern city of Aleppo on charges of supporting the Bashar al-Assad government.

The terrorist members of the so-called Free Syrian Army on Tuesday attacked Al Berri family in Bab al-Neirab neighborhood in Aleppo who are famous for their pro-government stances, and kidnapped 15 family members and executed them in front of a local school.

The terrorists also kidnapped and killed Sheikh Ali Abdulaziz Al Berri, a family leader.

Syria's Documents Center has released footage of the brutal execution in Aleppo.

The latest reports said that the Syrian Army has been able to retake control of Bab al-Neirab.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

Yasser Arafat's widow and daughter have formally demanded a French judicial investigation into his death after filing a complaint of "assassination" in a Paris court.

Suha and Zahwa Arafat believe that Arafat was poisoned with polonium before his death eight years ago in a French military hospital.

Pierre-Olivier Sur, the family's French lawyer, said the request was intended to "establish the truth in memory of their husband and father."

"This complaint of assassination is directed against X - Suha Arafat does not accuse anyone: neither a state, nor a group, nor an individual," he said.

"Suha and Zahwa have complete faith in the French justice system,"

Earlier this month, Palestinian authorities gave final approval for Arafat's body to be exhumed.

First look at the pictures of what look like soldiers patrolling Iraq lined up to stop the small, 300 person march against police violence in Anaheim.

Romney aide, Rick Gorka, frustrated by questions about a series of gaffes made by Mitt Romney while in Britain and Israel, exploded on Monday.

During a visit to a memorial to Pope John Paul II in Poland, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney ignored questions from reporters about his overseas gaffes and his suggestion that Israelis were culturally superior to Palestinians.

Traveling press secretary Gorka responded with rage: "This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect."

The reporter said: "We haven't had another chance to ask some questions."

Gorka answered: "Kiss my ass. This is a holy site for the Polish people. Shove it."

If you've ever wondered how Monsanto―a company that admits it wants to own the world's food supply through its patented genetically engineered seeds―gets away with not having to label its products, all you have to do is follow the trail of money leading from their coffers into the pockets and campaign funds of well-placed politicians and regulators.According to OpenSecrets.org, Monsanto basically lives at the doorsteps of legislators in Washington, where it spent $5.3 million last year lobbying the nation's lawmakers, and has already spent $1.4 million in the first three months of this yearNeedless to say, they can afford it. According to OpenSecrets.org, Monsanto had an annual revenue of $11.8 billion last year, so a $5.3 million lobbying investment is far less than one percent of one percent of their revenues.

The influence they're trying to buy doesn't stop in Congress, though. Monsanto's legislative agenda also includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); all of which have a say in whether or not you get to know whether the food you're eating has been genetically engineered.

Can You Trust a System Powered by Lobbying?

The power of Monsanto can be seen through its contributions to Rep. Frank D. Lucas, who's received the most money so far from Monsanto. Lucas just happens to be chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, through which every farm-related piece of legislation must pass. But he's certainly not the only one wheel getting greased by this biotech giant.

According to OpenSecrets.org:

"'...So far this election cycle, Monsanto's PAC has given $77,500 to 17 members of the House agriculture committee, or their leadership PACs.'" ...Monsanto's interests in Washington are diverse.

It lobbied bills ranging from the American Research and Competitiveness Act of 2011, which would extend tax credits for companies doing research, to several bills that would change the way the Department of Homeland Security handles security at chemical facilities -- chemicals being a big part of Monsanto's product portfolio.

... Another upcoming matter of great interest to Monsanto: the new farm bill, an omnibus piece of legislation that sets the nation's agricultural policy and deals with nearly every aspect of the country's farming and food industries. The current bill expires in 2013; when it went through Congress, Monsanto filed more lobbying reports on it than any other organization. The process of piecing together a new proposal is already well under way."

Such lobbying efforts can, and do, have a tremendous impact on the lives and health of every American, not to mention the environment. It directly impacts the food you end up with on your plate, and whether or not you're allowed to know what's in the food you eat to begin with.Monsanto and other biotech companies involved with genetic engineering of crop seeds are currently fighting tooth and nail to prevent labeling of genetically engineered foods, knowing full well that such a label has the potential to destroy their burgeoning industry.

Michael J. Potter is one of the last little big men left in organic food.

More than 40 years ago, Mr. Potter bought into a hippie cafe and "whole earth" grocery here that has since morphed into a major organic foods producer and wholesaler, Eden Foods.

But one morning last May, he hopped on his motorcycle and took off across the Plains to challenge what organic food - or as he might have it, so-called organic food - has become since his tie-dye days in the Haight district of San Francisco.

The fact is, organic food has become a wildly lucrative business for Big Food and a premium-price-means-premium-profit section of the grocery store. The industry's image - contented cows grazing on the green hills of family-owned farms - is mostly pure fantasy. Or rather, pure marketing. Big Food, it turns out, has spawned what might be called Big Organic.

Bear Naked, Wholesome & Hearty, Kashi: all three and more actually belong to the cereals giant Kellogg. Naked Juice? That would be PepsiCo of Pepsi and Fritos fame. And behind the pastoral-sounding Walnut Acres, Health Valley and Spectrum Organics is none other than Hain Celestial, once affiliated with Heinz, the grand old name in ketchup.

Over the last decade, since federal organic standards have come to the fore, giant agri-food corporations like these and others - Coca-Cola, Cargill, ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft and M&M Mars among them - have gobbled up most of the nation's organic food industry. Pure, locally produced ingredients from small family farms? Not so much anymore.

All of which riles Mr. Potter, 62. Which is why he took off in late May from here for Albuquerque, where the cardinals of the $30-billion-a-year organic food industry were meeting to decide which ingredients that didn't exactly sound fresh from the farm should be blessed as allowed ingredients in "organic" products. Ingredients like carrageenan, a seaweed-derived thickener with a somewhat controversial health record. Or synthetic inositol, which is manufactured using chemical processes.

Bankers found to have rigged Libor could face jail after the Serious Fraud Office said it will look to bring criminal charges against those who attempted to manipulate Libor, a key global borrowing rate.

David Green QC, director of the SFO, said existing legislation could be used to bring criminal actions against banks implicated in the Libor rigging scandal.

Mr Green did not specify the precise charges that could be brought but it is possible bankers found guilty of manipulation could receive prison sentences of up to 10 years.

The decision to pursue prosecutions comes just over three weeks after the SFO formally announced an investigation into Libor and in particular whether it was possible to launch criminal proceedings against individual banks and bankers found to have rigged borrowing rates.