Libya's new leaders vowed on Thursday to bring Moamer Kadhafi's killers to justice in a sharp break with their previous insistence he was caught in the crossfire with his own loyalists.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to end the mandate for international military action in Libya, ending another chapter in the war against Kadhafi's toppled regime.

"With regards to Kadhafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us," Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), told a news conference in Benghazi.

"We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. There were some violations by those who are unfortunately described as revolutionaries. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army," the top interim official said.

"We had issued a statement saying that any violations of human rights will be investigated by the NTC. Whoever is responsible for that (Kadhafi's killing) will be judged and given a fair trial."

Ghoga, who spoke in Arabic and whose remarks were translated by an official interpreter, was responding to specific questions about Kadhafi's death and potential abuses.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe says pressure of protests and sanctions will eventually oust Bashar Assad from power but process will take time due to complexity of internal and regional politics.

The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad will almost certainly fall under the pressure of protests and sanctions, but it will take time due to the complexity of internal and regional politics, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday.

With a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Syria now seven months old, Western powers including France are relying on a combination of sanctions and diplomatic pressure to weaken Assad's hold on power.

It's official. Federal goons squads from the TSA are now operating unconstitutional checkpoints on US highways in Tennessee.

From AntiWar.com...

If you thought the Transportation Security Administration would limit itself to conducting unconstitutional searches at airports, think again. The agency intends to assert jurisdiction over our nation's highways, waterways, and railroads as well. TSA launched a new campaign of random checkpoints on Tennessee highways last week, complete with a sinister military-style acronym - VIPR - as a name for the program.

As with TSA's random searches at airports, these roadside searches are not based on any actual suspicion of criminal activity or any factual evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever by those detained. They are, in effect, completely random. So first we are told by the U.S. Supreme Court that American citizens have no 4th Amendment protections at border crossings, even when standing on U.S. soil. Now TSA takes the next logical step and simply detains and searches U.S. citizens at wholly internal checkpoints.

The slippery slope is here. When does it end? How many more infringements on our liberties, our property, and our basic human rights to travel freely will it take before people become fed up enough to demand respect from their government? When will we demand that the government heed obvious constitutional limitations and stop treating ordinary Americans as criminal suspects in the absence of probable cause?

Homeland security set to seize television and radio airwaves. FEMA will now have the power to shut down communications. The same tactic is used by 3rd world dictators around the world.

As a P.T. (often referred to as perpetual traveller, permanent tourist or prior taxpayer), I have travelled to nearly 100 countries. During those travels there has always been one defining moment, upon entry into a country, which shows that the country is what is generally thought of as a "third world country".

It is the moment when, upon arrival, you are charged a fee to enter the country. The reason generally being that the government of the country has so destroyed the economy and/or they have so little understanding of what creates wealth that they think that the way to make their country prosperous is to charge a fee upon entry rather than allowing people to enter freely and transact, trade and spend their money in the economy. Either that or the government is so desperate for money that it uses this as a significant source of revenue.

They have this in Cambodia, Indonesia, Bolivia and numerous other similar countries. And now, they have it in the US.

The US has long-used "visa application fees" to bilk money from people in countries like Thailand as a way to raise money but now the US has announced that they are going to charge a $5.50 fee to Canadians upon entering the US.

The fee is ludicrous and counterproductive for many reasons. Not least of which is making it five dollars and fifty cents, ensuring that payment of the transaction will take twice as long as normal to make the extra change. Canadians who are one of the only large groups of people still bringing some economic activity into the US will both be turned off by having to pay to enter the US but also by the extra long lines to enter as they make change for this fee.

Not to mention the hilarity of calling it an "inspection fee". Does this mean that if we would not like to be inspected then we don't have to pay?

Economic and monetary affairs commissioner to get wider remit to monitor national fiscal policies.

Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, is to get expanded powers to oversee the eurozone's economy and the euro, Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced today.

Barroso said that Rehn to will be appointed vice-president within the Commission in charge of the euro and will be given a wider remit to more effectively monitor national fiscal policies.

Barroso announced the plans just hours after the end of a European Council and summit of eurozone leaders that led to agreement on a package of measures to tackle the eurozone's debt crisis.

The Commission president said the change to Rehn's position was to reflect the endorsement of his plans by EU leaders at their talks on Wednesday (26 October). A statement issued by leaders of eurozone countries issued this morning welcomed the intention of the Commission "to strengthen ... the role of the competent commissioner for closer monitoring and additional enforcement".

MEPs press for additional, faster steps to stabilise the eurozone, following EU deal on debt management.

MEPs today broadly welcomed EU's latest package of measures to contain the eurozone crisis as a step in the right direction.

However, the parliamentary debate in Strasbourg, held just hours after the conclusion of two emergency summits in Brussels, made clear that MEPs feel that the measures - the EU's most comprehensive response yet presented - need to be followed by further, significant steps to stabilise the euro and forge a closer economic union.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, spent much of the debate on the defensive.

'More fiscal integration'

Joseph Daul, the leader of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest bloc in the Parliament, urged Van Rompuy and Barroso to push for more fiscal and economic integration to address shortcomings in the current system of economic governance.

Portland, Tennessee - You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).


"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.

Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.

The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter at the fastest pace in a year as gains in consumer spending and business investment helped support a recovery on the brink of faltering.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a 2.5 percent annual rate, matching the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and up from a 1.3 percent gain in the prior quarter, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Household purchases, the biggest part of the economy, increased at a more-than-projected 2.4 percent pace.

Americans last quarter cut savings to boost purchases as incomes dropped by the most in two years, calling into question the sustainability of the acceleration in sales. With the lack of jobs holding back wages, the Obama administration and Federal Reserve policy makers have proposed additional measures aimed at stimulating growth and hiring.

European stocks rallied to the highest in 12 weeks after the region's leaders agreed to expand a bailout fund to halt the sovereign debt crisis.

BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, and Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest, surged at least 15 percent as policy makers boosted the firepower of the European rescue fund to 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion). PPR SA, the French owner of the Gucci luxury-goods brand, jumped 5.4 percent after third-quarter sales surpassed analyst estimates.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 3.5 percent to 249.25 at the close in London, the highest since Aug. 3. The index has rallied 16 percent from this year's low on Sept. 22 amid growing speculation that policy makers would agree on a solution to the region's debt woes.

"Some of the fear, which has been the dominant factor in the market, has been removed," said Pierre Mouton, a fund manager who helps oversee $7.5 billion at Notz Stucki & Cie. in Geneva. "Europe came to an agreement and has a plan. This allows financial stocks to rise because there is no longer the specter of nationalization. There is a sense of relief for the banking sector."

The technology giant's biannual transparency report reveals a 70% rise in takedown requests from US government or police

Google faced down demands from a US law enforcement agency to take down YouTube videos allegedly showing police brutality earlier this year, figures released for the first time show.

The technology giant's biannual transparency report shows that Google refused the demands from the unnamed authority in the first half of this year.

According to the report, Google separately declined orders by other police authorities to remove videos that allegedly defamed law enforcement officials.