In January, the 82 year old neo-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen resigned as leader of the far rightist National Front party and was succeeded by his youngest daughter Marine. At the beginning of March, the French political system underwent a major shock. A Louis Harris poll showed that Marine Le Pen would score highest in the first round of the 2012 presidential elections. She would receive 23% of the votes as opposed to 21% each for President Nicolas Sarkozy of the right of center UMP and the socialist leader Martine Aubry.

This shock is not due to the fear that the younger Le Pen will become France's president. This is highly unlikely. What caused it was that this would mean either Sarkozy or a socialist candidate would not be present in the second round of the election, as only the two candidates with the highest score in the first round participate. It reminded the French of April 2002 when Jean-Marie Le Pen confronted President Jacques Chirac in the second round of the presidential elections. Le Pen was heavily defeated and got only about 20% of the votes.

Outright lies by the international media: Bombs and missiles are presented as an instrument of peace and democratization...

This is not a humanitarian operation. The war on Libya opens up a new regional war theater.

There are three distinct war theaters in the Middle East Central Asian region. Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.

What is unfolding is a fourth US-NATO War Theater in North Africa, with the risk of escalation.

These four war theaters are functionally related, they are part of an integrated US-NATO military agenda.

The bombing of Libya has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for several years as confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark.

Operation Odyssey Dawn is acknowledged as the "biggest Western military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq began exactly eight years ago." (Russia: Stop 'indiscriminate' bombing of Libya - Taiwan News Online, March 19, 2011).

This war is part of the battle for oil. Libya is among the World's largest oil economies with approximately 3.5% of global oil reserves, more than twice those of the US.

The underlying objective is to gain control over Libya's oil and gas reserves under the disguise of a humanitarian intervention.

The geopolitical and economic implications of a US-NATO led military intervention directed against Libya are far-reaching.

"Operation Odyssey Dawn " is part of a broader military agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia which consists in gaining control and corporate ownership over more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas, including oil and gas pipeline routes.

With 46.5 billion barrels of proven reserves, (10 times those of Egypt), Libya is the largest oil economy in the African continent followed by Nigeria and Algeria (Oil and Gas Journal). In contrast, US proven oil reserves are of the order of 20.6 billion barrels (December 2008) according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves).

The TUC-led protest march in London yesterday was the biggest I've seen. The attendance was significantly larger than the massive pre-Iraq war London protest (that was duplicated in cities across the UK leading to an estimated 2 million participants).

As the newspapers report, the march was good-humored and almost entirely peaceful.

This morning however, as usual, front pages are filled with images of young men slamming poles through shop windows and fires blazing on the streets. This is the image of 'protest' that is intended to settle into the minds of the complacent, the merely curious and those that might be considering doing something to challenge power in society.

The violence is blamed, again as usual, on 'Anarchists'.

The presence of this group is easily identifiable at any large protest. They dress mostly in black and often carry red-and-black pennants on poles. Most cover their faces below (and normally but not always above) the eyes with black scarves. They move as one and stick together.

The Stop the War Coalition says the bombs and missiles that the US-led military alliance has dropped on several Libyan cities contain depleted uranium (DU).

The report recently published on the Coalition's website said that in the first 24 hours of the war on Libya, dozens of bombs and cruise missiles were launched by US, British, and French forces -- all with depleted uranium warheads.

US B-2 aircraft dropped forty-five 2,000-pound bombs on key Libyan cities, it added.

DU munitions are controversial because they raise long-term health concerns like kidney damage, cancer, skin disorders and genetic defects.

"[Depleted uranium tipped missiles] fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way... I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people," said Marion Falk, chemical physicist (retd.), Lawrence Livermore Lab in California.

The report comes as the Western forces claim the operation in Libya is aimed at protecting civilians.

At least 13 people have been killed after a massive bomb explosion targeted a construction company in eastern Afghanistan.

"An explosive-laden car went off near a compound of a local construction company in Barmal district in Paktika province late on Sunday," a Press TV correspondent quoted spokesman for provincial administration Mukhlis Afghan as saying on Monday.

The spokesperson further added that the majority of those killed in the terror attack were local workers.

More than 50 people were also injured in the explosion. Many of the wounded are said to be in critical conditions in hospital.

Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the attack.

This is with reference to the recent acts of terrorism that have been perpetrated in Israel.

The first was the murder of a settler family and the other the bus bombing in Jerusalem. One has to wonder about the timing of these two supposedly unconnected events for which no Palestinian faction has taken responsibility and no suspects have been arrested. Although the Israeli government has accused Palestinian "terrorists" of being responsible, they have no proof or evidence to substantiate their claims.

Can these be false flag operations committed by the Israeli government, or Mossad to deflect attention from Israel's illegal settlements that are inviting mounting international condemnation? A globally isolated Israeli leadership is desperate to win some measure of sympathy from the world community. For a long time, the world was turning a blind eye to the Israeli crimes because of the Nazi crimes against the Jews. However, after Operation Cast Lead and the brutal attack on the Mavi Mara, world opinion has tilted in favor of the Palestinian cause.

The agreement covers observation, navigation, medicine and biology in space, advanced materials and launchings.

The Israel Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency today signed a framework agreement in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.

The agreement, which was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, enhances cooperation between the Israeli and Russian space agencies in the fields of space research, observation, navigation, medicine and biology in space, and research in advanced materials and launchings.

Tripoli, Libya -- Moammar Gadhafi's snipers and tanks are terrorizing civilians in the coastal city of Misrata, a resident said, and the U.S. military warned Tuesday it was "considering all options" in response to dire conditions there that have left people cowering in darkened homes and scrounging for food and rainwater.


The U.S. is days away from turning over control of the air assault on Libya to other countries, President Barack Obama said. Just how that will be accomplished remains in dispute: Obama spoke Tuesday with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in hopes of quickly resolving the squabble over the transition.

Biloxi - The Obama administration has issued a gag order on data over the recent spike of dead dolphins, including many stillborn infants, washing up on Mississippi and Alabama shorelines, and scientists say the restriction undermines the scientific process.

An abnormal dolphin mortality this year along the Gulf coast has become part of a federal criminal investigation over last year's BP oil spill disaster and as a result, has led the US government to clamp down on biologists' findings, with orders to keep the results confidential.

The dolphin die-off, labeled an "unusual mortality event (UME)," resulted in wildlife biologists being contracted by the National Marine Fisheries Service to record the recent spike in dolphin deaths by collecting tissue samples and specimens for the agency, but late last month were privately ordered to keep their results under wraps.

Iman al-Obeidi is overcome by security officials

It was just another breakfast time at Tripoli's smart Rixos Al Nasr hotel, sleepy foreign journalists helping themselves to cereals, rolls and terrible coffee in the restaurant, looking out over a neat garden unusual in the dour capital city.

But the Groundhog Day conversations - more overnight coalition air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi's forces, rebel advances in the east, how to escape the minders - were suddenly interrupted when a distraught woman burst in to describe how she had been repeatedly raped by government militiamen.