Spending a week in Israel these days is like being trapped within a scene from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Like Jack Nicholson in the lead role of that classic film, you might not be insane but the doctors and nurses who run the psychiatric ward manufacture every few minutes a collective hysteria to keep everyone in the grip of fear and hatred. Everyone is an enemy, every a visitor an existential threat.

A retired French activist in her sixties - part of the most recent Welcome to Palestine fly-in - is met in the airport by a military brigade and massive police force that left much of Israel at the mercy of its petty criminals who had a field day while the officers of the law went to arrest the invading aliens who came from Europe.

A week earlier, a poem by an 85-year-old honest and noble Nobel laureate, Günter Grass, which warned against an Israeli attack on Iran and pleaded with the Israelis to show compassion towards the occupied Palestinians, was depicted as a text that is not only worse than Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf but one that could have a similar impact on history. Hence, the national response was entrusted to the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai who banned the entry of the ageing bard.

When Barack Obama took office, he was the civil liberties communities' great hope. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, pledged to shutter the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and run a transparent and open government. But he has become a civil libertarian's nightmare: a supposedly liberal president who instead has expanded and fortified many of the Bush administration's worst policies, lending bipartisan support for a more intrusive and authoritarian federal government.

It started with the 9/11 attacks. Within a week, Congress, including many liberals, gave the White House blanket authority to wage a war on the terrorists. A month after that, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, authorizing many anti-terrorism measure including expanded surveillance. By mid-November, the White House ordered creation of military tribunals to try terrorists who were not U.S. citizens.

Bush quickly expanded covert operations, creating a shadow arrest, interrogation and detention system based at Guantanamo that violated international law and evaded domestic oversight. While the Supreme Court eventually ruled that detainees have some rights, the precedent that the Constitution does not restrict how a president conducts an endless war against a stateless enemy was firmly planted. In response, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union proposed reforms the newly elected president could make. What few anticipated was how he would embrace, expand and institutionalize many of Bush's war on terror excesses.

President Obama now has power that Bush never had. Foremost is he can (and has) order the killing of U.S. citizens abroad who are deemed terrorists. Like Bush, he has asked the Justice Department to draft secret memos authorizing his actions without going before a federal court or disclosing them. Obama has continued indefinite detentions at Gitmo, but also brought the policy ashore by signing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which authorizes the military to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone suspected of assisting terrorists, even citizens. That policy, codifying how the Bush treated Jose Padilla, a citizen who was arrested in a bomb plot after landing at a Chicago airport in 2002 and was transferred from civil to military custody, upends the 1878's Posse Comitatus Act's ban on domestic military deployment.

Anders Breivik, the admitted mass murderer in Norway who slaughtered 69 people amid a sudden attack and bombing last year, said in court Thursday that he played Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to sharpen his aiming skills ahead of the attack, adding that he was previously a 16-hour-a-day World of Warcraft fanatic.

The game itself did not inspire his attack. However, according to CNN, Breivik said that Modern Warfare 2 helped him improve his "target acquisition" skills when combined with what he called a "holographic aiming device." It's not clear what device in particular he was referring to.

"In reality [a gun with a holographic sight] requires very little training to use it in an optimal way," Breivik said, according to The Guardian. "But of course it does help if you've practised using a simulator."

Eleven million French people live in poverty. France is going through its biggest crisis since 1929. At least 13.5 percent of the population in France has to exist with less than 954 Euros per month, 3.3 percent with less than 640 Euros.

Their monthly income would be just enough for 13 plates of lobster ravioli at Fouquet's, the posh restaurant on Champs-Elysées in Paris, where the incumbent president Sarkozy and his cronies like to dine out.

He has used his mandate to serve the rich, giving them fiscal gifts of tax exemption, for example his special friend, the notorious billionaire, Liliane Bettencourt (Oréal), who financed his election campaign in 2007. One hand washes the other, of course. "You'll finance my election campaign and I'll give you a nice tax gift in return."

The French working classes find their president's lifestyle indecent, even obscene. Sarkozy loves the bling-bling of France's nouveau riche Zionist elite, wearing expensive suits, stylish sunglasses and adorning himself with a wife who is much taller and much younger than him, ex-model and singer Carla Bruni, who recently had a new face lift and a new baby.

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul revealed this week that he would support moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a surprising position that contradicts conventional wisdom about Paul's stance toward the Jewish state.

Paul first made this position known Wednesday night, during a private meeting with evangelical leaders interested in helping the Texas Congressman reach out to the conservative Christian community.

According to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider, the leaders started off the meeting by asking Paul whether he would sign an Executive Order to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a major policy objective for Israeli hardliners and many leaders in the Christian Right.

"The real issue here is not what America wants, but what does Israel want," Paul told evangelical leaders, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider. "If Israel wants their capital to be Jerusalem, then the United States should honor that."

In this Sott Report, Joe Quinn delves into the story of Mohamed Merah, who allegedly shot 7 people in Toulouse and Montauban in mid March 2012. A little digging unveils disturbing evidence that points to Merah being a French intelligence asset who was sacrificed so that Sarkozy could have his "9/11" moment and, he hopes, win another term as President.

"The corruption of science is one of the biggest problems our world has ever faced; it may, indeed, bring about the extinction of the human race. That prospect scares me and it should scare you. But more than being scared, my heart has been broken by the realization that the best hope of the human race - Truth, beautiful Truth - has been savaged and spoiled by the very guardians of the temple: scientists themselves under the influence of a ramified network of mutual pathological conspiracies that are divorced entirely from the body of normal humanity." - Laura Knight-Jadczyk, The Dot Connector Magazine, Issue 14, P.1

As many of our regular readers will know, Sott.net's sister publication, the Dot Connector Magazine, has been taking a cold hard look at the extent of the corruption of science over the past two issues. There is corruption in the way scientific papers must run the gauntlet of the peer review process; there is corruption in the way grant money is awarded to researchers; there is corruption in the way scientific breakthroughs are used by big business; and of course, there is corruption in the way awards are selectively given for ulterior motives. The following investigative report will shine a light on several of these areas of the Corruption of Science.

Several weeks ago, on the eve of the Siege of Toulouse, theoretical/mathematical physicist Arkadiusz Jadczyk was invited to attend an awards ceremony held at Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. The awards were organised and funded by an organisation called the 'Telesio-Galilei Academy of Science' (TGA) which was holding its fifth awards event, hosted in conjunction with one of Toulouse University Paul Sabatier's own awards events and a pure scientific workshop.

This year, the Telesio-Galilei Academy of Science honoured the 'Center CAIROS' of Toulouse University Paul Sabatier, awarding some of the friends of the Principal Coordinator of the Center CAIROS, (as well as some other scientists) with "gold" medals in recognition of their contributions to science. In turn, Toulouse University Paul Sabatier awarded its own gold medals to the self-proclaimed 'founding father' of the 'Telesio-Galilei Academy of Science' - 'Professor' Francesco Fucilla and Professor Waldyr Alves Rodrigues Jr., the Chairman of the 'Telesio-Galilei Academy of Science'.

Past TGA awards events have been held in various locations, but this was the first time a major university had accommodated the event. Former French government minister and philosopher Luc Ferry gave a lecture during the three day event for the Philosophical Society of Toulouse. According to unconfirmed reports on the TGA website, Ferry has accepted the Telesio Galilei Academy of Science Award 2013, and will later receive the 2013 Gold Medal Award for Philosophy from the Telesio Galilei Academy. For the schedule of events of the ceremony, see this link.

The Telesio-Galilei Academy of Science, originally named the Santilli-Galilei Academy of Science, was established in 2007 with the goals of "promoting openness in all branches of scientific endeavour" and "to champion the true scientifc [sic] spirit, and encourage rational and scientific discourses for no reward other than the betterment of science". These are admirable goals, no doubt. The principal activity of Telesio-Galilei Academy of Sciences however, appears to be the selection and nomination of scientists for 'gold' medals and membership of the academy's 'hall of fame'. Scientists, some famous in their field, others less so, are listed on their website as members of the academy's board, as honorary members or members. It's quite an impressive list, and includes some high-profile names. But it also includes a lot of names whose work mainstream scientists would probably feel rather uncomfortable being associated with.

Here is TGA's President, Jeremy Dunning-Davies, speaking about TGA's origins and aims at their awards ceremony in London last year:

Cartagena, Colombia - A Secret Service agent preparing for President Obama's arrival at an international summit meeting and a single mother from Colombia who makes a living as a high-priced escort faced off in a room at the Hotel Caribe a week ago over how much he owed her for the previous night's intercourse. "I tell him, 'Baby, my cash money,' " the woman said in her first public comments on a dispute that would soon spiral into a full-blown scandal.

The disagreement over her price - he offered $30 for services she thought they had agreed were worth more than 25 times that - set off a tense early morning quarrel in the hallway of the luxury hotel involving the woman, another prostitute, Colombian police officers arguing on the women's behalf and American federal agents who tried but failed to keep the matter from escalating.

On Wednesday, in a setback to the reputation of those who protect the president, the Secret Service prepared to fire one supervisor tied to the alleged misconduct with prostitutes on the Cartagena trip, the agency said in a statement. Another supervisor has decided to retire, and a third employee will be allowed to resign, the statement said. Eight other employees remain under investigation.

"These guys have the clearest cases," said a government official briefed on the investigation, referring to the three who are being pushed out.

US defence secretary Leon Panetta has apologised for gruesome, newly revealed photographs that show US soldiers posing with the bloodied remains of dead insurgents in Afghanistan.

He said war can lead young troops to "foolish decisions" and expressed concern the photos could incite fresh violence against Americans.

The White House called the two-year-old photos "reprehensible", joining Mr Panetta and other top military officials in expressing regret for the latest in a string of embarrassing missteps by the US military in a war that is built on earning the trust and confidence of ordinary Afghans.

In recent months, American troops have been caught up in controversies over burning Muslim holy books, urinating on Afghan corpses, an alleged massacre of 17 Afghan villagers and other misdeeds.

"This is war. I know that war is ugly and it's violent, and I know that young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions," Mr Panetta said. "I am not excusing that behaviour, but neither do I want these images to bring further injury to our people or to our relationship with the Afghan people.

New Delhi - India announced the successful test launch Thursday of a new nuclear-capable missile that would give it the ability to strike the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai for the first time, a significant step forward in its aspirations to become a regional and world power.

The Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), still requires a battery of tests and must clear other bureacratic hurdles before it can be inducted into India's arsenal. But officials hailed the launch as proof the country has taken its place among the world's most powerful and scientifically advanced nations.

"The nation stands tall today," Defense Minister A.K. Antony said, according to the Press Trust of India.

The test came just days after North Korea's failed rocket launch, but sparked none of the same global condemnation aimed at Pyongyang, an internationally isolated regime that has been banned by the U.N. from testing missile technology.

China is far ahead of India in the missile race, with intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching anywhere in India. Currently, the longest-range Indian missile, the Agni-III, has a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,100 miles) and falls short of many major Chinese cities.

"At the moment there is a huge assymetry in China's favor," said C. Uday Bhaskar, the former head of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses. After it adds the missile to its arsenal, however, "India's deterrent profile in the region would be appropriately burnished."

Video released by the government showed the Agni-V taking off from a small launcher on what appeared to be railroad tracks at 8:07 a.m. from Wheeler Island off India's east coast. It rose on a pillar of flame, trailing billows of smoke behind, before arcing through the sky.