China has sacked three officials for breaching Chinese laws and ethical regulations during a trial in which children were fed genetically modified rice.

The trial's legitimacy was questioned in August by the environmental group Greenpeace. A three-month investigation, led by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), culminated in the decision on 6 December to sack two members of the CDC's own staff - Yin Shi'an, the principal investigator of the Chinese arm of the project, in Beijing, and Hu Yuming at the CDC's regional office in Hunan province, where the study took place - as well as Wang Yin, head of science and technology at the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences.

The genetically modified rice strain at the centre of the controversy is engineered to produce β-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, with the aim of fighting vitamin A deficiency in developing countries. It has been dubbed Golden Rice because of its bright yellow colour.

The trial was designed to test how efficiently the β-carotene is converted to the vitamin once ingested. The US study team was led by Guangwen Tang, a nutrition scientist at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, and was part-funded by the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the US Department of Agriculture.

According to a paper published online by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on 1 August, each group of two dozen or so children aged six to eight ate meals containing Golden Rice, spinach or β-carotene capsules for lunch every week day during the three-week trial¹.

But none of the children, their parents or school teachers was aware that Golden Rice was involved, according to a 45-minute investigative news programme broadcast on 8 December on CCTV, China's state television channel.

The informed-consent form said that the rice contained β-carotene, but not that it was genetically modified or that it was Golden Rice. Nor did it highlight uncertainty around any potential risks of ingesting such rice.

It's a familiar refrain to those of us who've been paying attention the past decade or so: it's what our leaders in both parties said about Saddam Hussein by way of justifying the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and it's what they're saying now about Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who is the regime-changers' latest target.

No one denies Assad is a murderous tyrant, just as few denied the same appellation to the departed Iraqi despot, but Western outrage when it comes to these matters is extremely selective. After all, the US-supported government of Yemen is also killing its own people in air strikes that get very little attention in the Western media - but since Yemen is on the front lines of our eternal "war on terrorism," we look the other way. Indeed, air strikes by the US have often been attributed to the Yemenis, who are covering for us - and receiving goodies in return.

Regime-change in Yemen? Not on your life.

The latest hysterics from the Washington crowd involve alleged "weapons of mass destruction" in Assad's possession: chemical weapons which he is supposedly mixing up in his demonic labs and loading onto missiles for delivery against the Western-backed al-Qaeda fanatics "freedom fighters" battling the Syrian army. The inherently counterintuitive illogic of deploying such weaponry against a widely dispersed guerrilla army hasn't deterred the usual Anonymous Government Officials from making this startling claim, and our "mainstream" media - playing its accustomed role as passive purveyors of government propaganda - is spreading this "news" far and wide.

We won't be fooled again - except when we are.

Earlier this month we learned that the Obama administration is significantly expanding the number of covert Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) agents overseas. From just a few hundred DIA agents overseas today, the administration intends to eventually deploy some 1,600 covert agents. The nature of their work will also shift, away from intelligence collection and more toward covert actions. This move signals a major change in how the administration intends to conduct military and paramilitary operations overseas. Unfortunately, it is not a shift toward peace, but rather to an even more deadly and disturbing phase in the "war on terror."

Surely attacks on foreign countries will increase as a result of this move, but more and more the strikes will take place under cover of darkness and outside the knowledge of Congress or the American people. The move also represents a further blurring of the lines between the military and intelligence services, with the CIA becoming more like a secret military unto itself. This is a very troubling development.

The Obama administration is taking a calculated risk that embracing chosen leaders of Syria's fragmented rebels will speed the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, moving this week to recognize a slate of opposition figures whose pledges of democracy Washington can do little to enforce.

The administration is expected to announce the recognition of a relatively new Syrian opposition group Wednesday when American, European and Arab diplomats meet with its leaders in Morocco.

The action is part of fast-moving diplomacy to try to guard against chaos and collapse in Syria if rebel forces succeed in ousting or killing Assad. International efforts to support moderates as successors to Assad have taken on new urgency as rebels gain ground militarily.

The former Foreign Minister of the Zionist State of Israel has admitted that she murdered scholars in Europe and was protected by MOSSAD for whom she worked. She also admits to having been a prostitute targeting persons in order to record the sex and use for bribery, manipulation or to obtain secrets and cooperation. ''I'd do it again...''

Tzipi Livni, former Israeli foreign minister, revealed that she practiced sex with several Arab personalities while working as an agent of Mossad, "in order to engage in sex scandals, to reveal and extract secret information and political concessions in favor of Israel." She even confessed to having committed murder in European countries, whose victims were Arab scholars, adding that the Israeli secret service agency Mossad intervened and saved the day.

In a recent meeting with the British newspaper "The Times", supported by Israeli and Arab press, Livni said she sees "no disadvantage" in using sex and murder for the sake of Israel ". She said she was "proud" of what she did, indicating that she would again resort to the same practices for Israel.

Confessions ofTzipi Livni came in the aftermath of a notice issued by the Chacham Israeli Ari Shaphat, which authorized Israelis "to use sexual practices with enemies in exchange for important information", claiming that "Jewish religion tolerates this."

Armed clashes in Tripoli between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad have left 17 people dead since they began Tuesday, with no end to the violence in sight.

Fears of the continuation of violence mounted Sunday when an Army unit stationed on Syria Street was hit with a hand grenade wounding two soldiers and one local resident, the military said.

Meanwhile, a rocket-propelled grenade hit a school between Jabal Mohsen and Al-Qibbeh, causing material damage. No causalities were reported.

Many residents of the city fled their homes and hid in shelters after a message spread via social media said Tripoli would face heavy shelling Sunday night.

Belgium has heightened its terror alert level ahead of the release of another highly provocative film exploring Islam, reportedly made in cooperation with the notorious Koran-burning US pastor Terry Jones.

­The film's creator is Pakistan national Imran Firasat, a former Muslim who now lives in Spain. Firasat said he aims to expose the truth of the life of the Prophet Muhammad with The Innocent Prophet: Life of Muhammad from the Point of View of an Ex-Muslim.

"If we want to know the truth of Islam, we must go deep into the life of Muhammad to find out whether he was a genuine profit sent by God or was he simply a child molester, assassin and a self-proclaimed prophet," he said in the film's trailer.

Firasat also hailed pastor Terry Jones as his inspiration. Jones wrote on his website, "It is our hope and desire that we can present a picture of Muhammad that has possibly not been revealed in the past, that will help people in the Western world, and even Muslims, to better understand this person called Muhammad, his life and teachings."

Jones is infamous for his incendiary anti-Islam speeches, and for staging a 'Koran-burning day' on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Germany yesterday expelled four Syrian diplomats in a drive to further cut ties with the president, Bashar Al Assad, as gun battles erupted in Damascus and jets bombed city suburbs.

"With the expulsion of the four embassy employees announced today, we are sending a clear message that we are reducing relations with the Assad regime to an absolute minimum," the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said.

During the day, Syrian troops fought rebels in Sheikh Mohiuddin, a Damascus neighbourhood on the slopes of Qassiun Mountain.

Sana, the state run news agency, said 10 "terrorists" were killed there, with another 45 killed in operations on the outskirts of Damascus.

Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.

The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.

The use of the equipment raises serious questions about eavesdropping without a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and used by law enforcement agencies.

It also raises questions about security, since the IP audio-video systems can be accessed remotely via a built-in web server (.pdf), and can be combined with GPS data to track the movement of buses and passengers throughout the city.

According to the product pamphlet for the RoadRecorder 7000 system made by SafetyVision (.pdf), "Remote connectivity to the RoadRecorder 7000 NVR can be established via the Gigabit Ethernet port or the built-in 3G modem. A robust software ecosystem including LiveTrax vehicle tracking and video streaming service combined with SafetyNet central management system allows authorized users to check health status, create custom alerts, track vehicles, automate event downloads and much more."

New technologies, dwindling resources and explosive population growth in the next 18 years will alter the global balance of power and trigger radical economic and political changes at a speed unprecedented in modern history, says a new report by the U.S. intelligence community.

The 140-page report released today by the National Intelligence Council lays out dangers and opportunities for nations, economies, investors, political systems and leaders due to four "megatrends" that government intelligence analysts say are transforming the world.

Those major trends are the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a rising middle class whose demands challenge governments, and a Gordian knot of water, food and energy shortages, according to the analysts.