The Lebanese Army announced the capture of foreign terrorists armed with different types of weapons.

The Lebanese media reported that the country's army has arrested large numbers of terrorists who carried foreign nationalities and were armed with various types of weapons.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV said in other operations the Army also arrested a number of armed people affiliated to the March 14th Coalition, an opposition to the Lebanese government, as well as more foreign terrorists in al-Qabbe district and another region where American nationals mostly reside.

The Lebanese army has deployed in the streets of Beirut and Tripoli in a bid to calm tensions.

Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a leader of the Western-backed March 14th opposition bloc, was expected to meet President Michel Suleiman to discuss the latest developments in Lebanon, especially after General Wissam al-Hassan, the intelligence chief of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, was killed in a blast on Friday.

A deadly bomb attack in the capital on Friday killed eight people, including General Wissam al-Hassan. Scores of others were also wounded.

The explosion occurred in Beirut's Eastern Ashrafiya district, which is a predominantly Christian district, and near the headquarters of the Phalange, a Maronite Christian party. Several buildings were damaged and many cars were set on fire as a result of the blast.

Regional observers blamed the US and Israel for the assassination of a Wissam in Beirut, and dismissed the western media claims against Damascus as a plot to darken the ties between Lebanon and Syria.

"The assassination of Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan was carried out due to his successes and moves against the Zionist regime's intelligence apparatus and the regime's mercenaries in Lebanon," Mohsen Saleh told FNA on Monday, adding that Wissam's stances and role in defusing the Zionist regime's seditious plots in Lebanon angered the Israeli regime and caused his assassination.

He also dismissed the western media allegations about Syria's involvement in the assassination of the Lebanese intelligence official, and said, "They seek to darken the relations between Syria and Lebanon as demanded by the US and the Zionist regime."

I have travelled this world much more extensively than either Obama or Romney, and I still do. I find everywhere, even in areas of conflict and economic difficulty, the vast majority of people are friendly, even kind, and have very similar aspirations, across cultures, to personal development and emotional fulfilment.

The striking thing about last night's US Presidential "foreign policy" debate, is when it did occasionally discuss foreign policy, the world out there was discussed not as a place of vast potential, but as a deeply disturbing place full of foreigners who are, apparently, all evil except the Israelis, who are perfect.

The vast benefits from cooperation and trade with "abroad" were not mentioned once that I noticed (though I confess the thing was so awful my attention wandered occasionally). Europe apparently doesn't exist, other than Greece which is nothing more than a terrible warning of the dangers of not being right wing enough.

One could slash private debt by 100pc of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices, and dethrone bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and painlessly, by legislative command, far more quickly than anybody imagined.

The conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank-created money -- roughly 97pc of the money supply -- with state-created money. We return to the historical norm, before Charles II placed control of the money supply in private hands with the English Free Coinage Act of 1666.

Specifically, it means an assault on "fractional reserve banking". If lenders are forced to put up 100pc reserve backing for deposits, they lose the exorbitant privilege of creating money out of thin air.

The nation regains sovereign control over the money supply. There are no more banks runs, and fewer boom-bust credit cycles. Accounting legerdemain will do the rest. That at least is the argument.

France is planning to send drones into Mali as part of an international intervention to free the west African country from al-Qaida-backed insurgents who control large swaths of its territory, according to reports.

A French defence official said the country was moving surveillance drones to the region as part of secretive plans with the US, amid increasing fears that, if left unchecked, the crisis could serve as a launchpad for terrorist attacks on its own soil.

Speaking to the Associated Press, the official said on Monday that France was discussing plans with the US for drones, intelligence-gathering and security in Africa's Sahel region. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that Germany would be prepared to train Malian security forces and would consider providing "material and logistical support".

Read part 1 here.

How did we reach our current state of decline in just eight excruciating years? Aren't we working hard enough? Was there some millennial shift in consciousness and morality? How could we elect leaders like Bush and Cheney and their minions on Capitol Hill?

Mark Crispin Miller's latest book, "Loser Take All," provides an explanation that precedes any other: election fraud. In his collection of essays, Miller shows that the losers took everything in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. That made all the difference.

We're working harder than ever. Citizens are no less concerned and compassionate than they were in 1999. But as Miller demonstrates, the way we elect leaders is inherently unreliable and corrupt. He shows how the current group of extremists who dominate public policy used a loosely regulated, unwatched election system to create the results they willed in order to achieve the power they craved.

Part 1 of this review of "Loser Take All" discussed how Miller's theme showed up in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections. In Part II, we'll take a look at Miller's explanation of events in 2006 and the system in place for the November 2008 elections.

Mark Crispin Miller's new book, "Loser Take All," identifies and analyzes election fraud, the foundation of extremist power in the United States since 2000. Manipulated elections have enabled everything we've experienced from the Iraq war to the current economic meltdown. None of that would have been possible without the ongoing series of "surprise" wins for extremists and their enablers following the outright theft of the 2000 presidential election.

Miller illustrates his overarching analysis with a collection of carefully chosen essays. They map the rise of what key figures on the right and left refer to as tyrannical rule by the Bush - Cheney administration. Through a sequence of critical elections from 2000 on, Miller shows the particular outrages in each that enabled the retention and expansion of power. In doing so, he defines the basis for our current troubles.
A Sequence of Outrages

"Loser Take All" is organized sequentially beginning with the critical election of 2000 through 2006. In addition, we're given predictions of anticipated problems in 2008. Just part of what we learn is how: Gore lost Florida 2000 even before election day; key Georgia voting machines were modified before the stunning losses by Gov. Barnes and Sen. Cleland in 2002; and, Bush won 2004 in the big cities, if you believe the national exit poll. Part 1 of this series covers the 2000, 2002, and 2004 federal elections.

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has said much of Africa's violence is due to foreign meddling, pointing the accusing finger at Israel.

Gaddafi, who is also chairman of the African Union (AU), was speaking on Monday at a special summit of the group, which is coinciding with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power.

Israel is "behind all of Africa's conflicts", Gaddafi told about 30 African leaders gathered under a huge tent at Tripoli airport.

"As African brothers, we must find solutions to stop the superpowers who are pillaging our continent," he said.

Forward policy

He demanded the closure of all Israeli embassies across Africa, describing Israel as a "gang" and saying it uses "the protection of minorities as an excuse to launch conflicts".

Israel has acknowledged operating what it called a forward policy in Africa between the 1960s and 1980s, intervening in wars in Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan.

Gaddafi claimed that a Darfur rebel group had opened an office in Tel Aviv while its leader lives under French protection, a reference to Abdelwahid Mohammed Nur, the head of the Sudan Liberation Army who lives in exile in Paris, France.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says Arab states, as well as Palestinians, should be allowed to have nuclear weapons, as long as Israel retains its nukes.

"If the Israelis have the nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities, then it is the right of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Saudis to have the same,"Gaddafi told the British Sky network on Sunday night.

"Even the Palestinians should have the same because their counterparts, or their opponents, have nuclear capabilities," the Libyan leader added.

He stressed that the only way to prevent proliferation of nuclear arms in the Middle East is to disarm Israel of its nuclear weapons.

How Fear of Cyber Attack Could Take Down Your Liberties and the Constitution

First the financial system collapses and it's impossible to access one's money. Then the power and water systems stop functioning. Within days, society has begun to break down. In the cities, mothers and fathers roam the streets, foraging for food. The country finds itself fractured and fragmented -- hardly recognizable.

It may sound like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie or the first episode of NBC's popular new show Revolution, but it could be your life -- a nationwide cyber-version of Ground Zero.

Think of it as 9/11/2015. It's Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's vision of the future -- and if he's right (or maybe even if he isn't), you better wonder what the future holds for erstwhile American civil liberties, privacy, and constitutional protections.

Last week, Panetta addressed the Business Executives for National Security, an organization devoted to creating a robust public-private partnership in matters of national security. Standing inside the Intrepid, New York's retired aircraft-carrier-cum-military-museum, he offered a hair-raising warning about an imminent and devastating cyber strike at the sinews of American life and wellbeing.

Yes, he did use that old alarm bell of a "cyber Pearl Harbor," but for anyone interested in American civil liberties and rights, his truly chilling image was far more immediate. "A cyber attack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups," he predicted, "could be as destructive as the terrorist attack of 9/11."

Pro-government militias intercept food, fuel and medicine and use grad rockets and gas weapons against Bani Walid, a man whose family remains in the town told RT. He claims the daily shelling of the town is Misrata militias' attempt to eliminate it.

Several hundreds of Bani Walid natives marched to the seat of the national parliament in Tripoli on Sunday to protest the assault on their home town, which has been continuing for over two weeks. The protesters demanded a peaceful solution to "the tribal war that is happening in the town." The demonstrators, however, failed to enter the parliament, being dispersed by guards firing rounds into the air.

Pro-government forces and militias besieged the hilltop town of Bani Walid following the death of former rebel Omran Shaban. Shaban is credited for capturing the country's ex-leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in October 2011. The Warfalla tribe controlling Bani Walid has been accused of kidnapping and torturing the former rebel.