"A new invention to poison people ... is not a patentable invention." Lowell v. Lewis, 1817

A landmark lawsuit filed on March 29 in US federal court seeks to invalidate Monsanto's patents on genetically modified seeds and to prohibit the company from suing those whose crops become genetically contaminated.

The Public Patent Foundation filed suit on behalf of 270,000 people from sixty organic and sustainable businesses and trade associations, including thousands of certified-organic farmers.

"As Justice Story wrote in 1817, to be patentable, an invention must not be 'injurious to the well being, good policy, or sound morals of society,'" notes the complaint in its opening paragraphs.

The suit points to studies citing harm caused by Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, including human placental damage, lymphoma, myeloma, animal miscarriages, and other impacts on human health.

Soldiers use live ammunition on protesters demanding removal of President Saleh, killing at least 12
Yemeni security forces and gunmen in civilian clothes have fired on protesters marching through the southern city of Taiz , killing at least 12 people amid reports that the US now wants President Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit.

Witnesses described troops and gunmen, some on nearby rooftops, shooting wildly on thousands of people in a second successive day of violence. Some of the protesters, including elderly people, were trampled and injured as the crowds tried to flee, they said.

"It was heavy gunfire from all directions. Some were firing from the rooftop of the governor's building," said one man in the crowd, Omar al-Saqqaf. He said he saw military police load the bodies of two dead protesters into a car and speed away.

Television showed a row of men, apparent teargas victims, lying motionless and being tended by medics on the carpeted floor of a makeshift hospital in Taiz, 120 miles (200km) south of Sana'a.

The violence began when thousands of demonstrators marched down the main street toward the protest camp in Freedom Square, surrounded by security forces. As the march passed the governor's headquarters, troops blocked the procession, and clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing stones, witnesses said.

Israeli soldiers have shot dead two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip near the Erez border crossing, witnesses say.

The troops targeted the Palestinians while they were collecting gravel in the area, a Press TV correspondent quoted witnesses as saying.

Medics also said that "The ambulance service was being prevented from reaching them."

The Israeli army also confirmed that its forces opened fire at "someone in the northern Gaza Strip."

The White House threatened on Monday to veto any bill from Congress that would scuttle new rules aimed at keeping internet access free and open.

"If the president is presented with a resolution of disapproval that would not safeguard the free and open Internet, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the resolution," the Office of Management and Budget said in a Statement of Administration Policy.

The House Rules Committee voted on Monday evening to send the resolution to the House floor. The resolution would repeal the Federal Communications Commission's so-called "network-neutrality" regulations, designed to prevent Internet carriers from blocking websites that use too much bandwidth. The committee voted to allow one hour of debate on the issue. House aides say a vote is expected on Tuesday but the resolution is not expected to make it past the Senate.

Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., duked it out one-on-one at the hearing on the issue.

The debate between Walden and Eshoo, who opposes the resolution, included not only familiar arguments over the merits of the rules, but also a lot of he-said, she-said disagreement over what witnesses said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted the US administration for its deceitful policies, and warned that US President Barack Obama will have to face an end far more embarrassing than what his predecessor, George W. Bush, encountered.

Speaking at a press conference here in Tehran on Monday, President Ahmadinejad stated that the capitalist system sough to save itself and its main base in the Middle-East, i.e. Israel, through entering new players into the scene under the guise of the motto of change and defending the rights of the nations.

But soon it was revealed that change means a change in nations in the interest of capitalism, he added.

Stating his interpretation of the Obama policy, Ahmadinejad said that the difference between Bush and Obama lies in the fact that the current US president uses force and at the same time deception and conspiracy unlike Bush who clearly resorted to weapon and military action to save the capitalistic system.

President Barack Obama yielded to political opposition Monday, agreeing to try the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks in a military tribunal at Guantanamo and not in a civilian court as he had promised.


Attorney General Eric Holder blamed lawmakers for the policy reversal, saying their December decision to block funding for prosecuting the 9/11 suspects in a New York court "tied our hands" and forced the administration to resume military trials.

His announcement was an embarrassing reversal of the administration's decision in November 2009 to try September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-conspirators in a court near the site of the World Trade Center attack that killed nearly 3,000 people.

That decision had been welcomed by civil rights groups but strongly opposed by many lawmakers -- especially Republicans -- and New Yorkers, who cheered Holder's announcement that the Obama administration had reversed course.

In moving the case back to the military system, the Justice Department unsealed a nine-count criminal indictment that detailed how Mohammed trained the 9/11 hijackers to use short-bladed knives by killing sheep and camels.

Another of the five -- Walid bin Attash -- tested air security by carrying a pocket knife and wandering close to the doors of aircraft cockpits to check for reactions, said the indictment, which prosecutors asked the court to drop so the case can be handled by a military commission.

In interview with Arab newspaper, former IAEA chief says if elected as Egypt's next president he will open Rafah crossing in case of an Israeli attack

Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who had previously announced his intetions to run for the presidency of Egypt, said Monday that "if Israel attacked Gaza we would declare war against the Zionist regime."

In an interview with the Al-Watan newspaper he said: "In case of any future Israeli attack on Gaza - as the next president of Egypt - I will open the Rafah border crossing and will consider different ways to implement the joint Arab defense agreement."

He also stated that "Israel controls Palestinian soil" adding that that "there has been no tangible breakthrough in reconciliation process because of the imbalance of power in the region - a situation that creates a kind of one way peace."

Discussing his agenda for Egypt, ElBaradei said that distribution of income between the different classes in Egypt would be his most important priority if he were to win the upcoming elections.

The presidential campaign of musician Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly at first seemed like an afterthought, overshadowed by the short-lived run of the better-known star Wyclef Jean and dismissed as little more than a sideshow to an election that featured major Haitian political figures.

But Martelly, who has never held political office, turned out to be a serious, skilled and successful candidate. He captured nearly 68 per cent of the vote, defeating opposition leader and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, according to preliminary election results released Monday night.

When initial results of the flawed first round in November put him out of the race, Martelly mobilized supporters to protest as if he were a veteran of Haiti's rough politics, and a new count got him a spot in the March 20 runoff. He ran a disciplined campaign, deftly depicting himself as an outsider and neophyte even though he has long been active in politics.

Thousands of supporters danced and cheered in the streets after his victory was announced. They ran through the streets, climbed atop cars, and even fired automatic rifles in the sky. Carrying posters of his smiling face and bald crown, supporters showed up outside his gated compound in Petionville, a city in the hills above Port-au-Prince.

"Micky is a political animal, and the political establishment failed to realize how much of a phenomenon he is," said Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor and publisher of The Haitian Times, a New York-based newspaper. "This is a man who literally can get a million people to move to his groove."

Although Martelly supporters crowded outside his house, the pop-star-turned-candidate made no public statements except on Twitter, where he thanked his supporters and added: "We're going to work for all Haitians. Together we can."

When the economy imploded in 2008, how did the government respond?

Did it crack down on fraud? Force bankrupt companies to admit that their speculative gambling with our money had failed? Rein in the funny business?

Of course not!

The government just helped cover up how bad things were, used claims of national security to keep everything in the dark, and changed basic rules and definitions to allow the game to continue. See this, this, this and this.

When BP - through criminal negligence - blew out the Deepwater Horizon oil well, the government helped cover it up (the cover up is ongoing).

The government also changed the testing standards for seafood to pretend that higher levels of toxic PAHs in our food was business-as-usual.

So now that Japan is suffering the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl - if not of all time - is the government riding to the rescue to help fix the problem, or at least to provide accurate information to its citizens so they can make informed decisions?

Of course not!

Washington- The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected three appeals by Guantanamo detainees protesting their indefinite detention.

The US high court took no action on any of the three appeals, including one filed by ethnic Uighur Chinese Muslims who were arrested in error in Afghanistan in 2001, and are still being held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The three appeals asserted, among other complaints, that the inmates' rights to challenge their detention had been violated and maintained that the indefinite detentions violated international rights law.