At least 1,500 Egyptian workers from the Suez Canal Authority protested for better pay Thursday in three cities straddling the strategic waterway, one of the world's major transit routes for shipping and oil transport.

Though the action raised concerns that labor unrest along Suez could escalate, the workers vowed their protest would not disrupt traffic through the waterway - the only direct passage linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. About 7.5 percent of world sea trade passes through the canal, the shortest route between Europe and Asia. Suez is a major source of revenue for Egypt, used to transport more than one million barrels of crude oil daily, or almost 6 percent of world oil supply.

The Suez protests are part of growing labor unrest rekindled by the 18-day uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak on Friday. Strikes and protests are deepening economic malaise, compounded by weeks of bank closures that are hampering business operations and the drying up of tourism - a major money earner for Egypt.

"It is hard to overstate the political significance of the anthrax attacks. For reasons I've described at length, that event played at least as much of a role as the 9/11 attacks in elevating the Terrorism fear levels which, through today, sustain endless wars, massive defense and homeland security budgets, and relentless civil liberties erosions."

"Yesterday, Rep. Holt re-introduced his legislation to create a 9/11-style Commission, complete with subpoena power, with a mandate to review the entire matter. "

For years, the FBI believed that it had identified the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks -- former Army researcher Steven Hatfill -- only to be forced to acknowledge that he wasn't involved and then pay him $5.8 million for the damage he suffered from those false accusations. In late July, 2008, the FBI announced that, this time, it had identified the Real Perpetrator: Army researcher Bruce Ivins, who had just committed suicide as a result of being subjected to an intense FBI investigation. Ivins' death meant that the FBI's allegations would never be tested in a court of law.

From the start, it was obvious that the FBI's case against Ivins was barely more persuasive than its case against Hatfill had been. The allegations were entirely circumstantial; there was no direct evidence tying Ivins to the mailings; and there were huge, glaring holes in both the FBI's evidentiary and scientific claims. So dubious was the FBI's case that even the nation's most establishment media organs, which instinctively trust federal law enforcement agencies, expressed serious doubts and called for an independent investigation (that included, among many others, the editorial pages of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal). Mainstream scientific sources were equally skeptical; Nature called for an independent investigation and declared in its editorial headline: "Case Not Closed," while Dr. Alan Pearson, Director of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation -- representative of numerous experts in the field -- expressed many scientific doubts and also demanded a full independent investigation. I devoted much time to documenting just some of the serious flaws in the FBI's evidentiary claims, as well as the use of anonymous FBI leaks to unquestioning reporters to convince the public of their validity (see here, here,here, and here).

On the Move: Power to the People Coming in Waves of Justice Seeking Humanity

There is much talk about who and what is behind the popular revolts in the Arab world and I find such talk as interesting as anyone. But more than talk I am interested in action. Indeed that is why tears of joy streamed down my face as I watched the Egyptian people cleansing themselves of the shame brought upon them by Mubarak and his fellow thieves and traitors. Clearly however, the job is far from complete.

The Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions are not actually Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions as much as they are part of a Global Revolution. For no matter how much effort is exerted by the powers that be to divide the masses, we are all connected. And within the Western nations lie the very same justifications for revolution. The truth is we are hard pressed to find a government that honours its people; the real question is to what degree does a government disrespect and violate it's people? And does it confine it's crimes to it's own population? Or does it export these crimes as well? I am obliged to mention that in this latter category the world champion of global oppression is of course, my birth nation, the United States of America.

And they have junior partners in the global tyranny business, and Egypt has been, and remains at this moment, one of them. Ever since the so-called peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, Egypt has become a key partner in America's greatest export, terror. For more than 30 years Mubarak was little more than a pimp and a prostitute, ordering the people of Egypt to bend over while the American imperialist machine penetrated the Egyptian people as a rapist does his victim.

Dhahran: Retired Saudi Aramco senior executive Sadad I. Al-Husseini was surprised recently to be thrust into the international spotlight when newspapers picked up a story about a WikiLeaks release of a US State Department cable that attributed comments to him purporting to dispute Saudi Arabia's oil reserves.

The former executive vice president and veteran geologist was disappointed by the news stories, asserting that the American diplomat in Dhahran who sent the cable had not understood the technical industry terminology and that the press had sensationalized the communique in the interest of selling newspapers.

Al-Husseini consented to an exclusive interview with Arab News in order to set the record straight and assure the world that he had no doubt that Saudi Arabia will continue to be the world's largest supplier of crude oil for many decades to come.

"It is clear to me that the consulate official who approached me did not understand the technical distinctions I was making and that several subsequent news articles took my comments out of context for their own purposes," Al-Husseini said. "The reality is I have full confidence in Aramco's reserves estimates and have never questioned them in any case. How could I say Aramco's reserves are overstated by 300 billion barrels when Aramco's entire published reserves were only 260 billion barrels at that time?"

Philadelphia- Police in Delaware remained tight lipped on Wednesday about why they returned to the home of John P. Wheeler III, the former Pentagon official whose body was found in a landfill on December 31.

Several officers from the Delaware city of Newark, the lead investigative force in the case, went to the New Castle home Tuesday, said Lt. Mark Farrall. He said the search warrant was sealed and declined to provide any details.

At this point there are no suspects in the case and no crime scene, Farrall said. Police were hopeful that a $25,000 reward established by the Wheeler family would result in helpful information. A tip line that police established at the time of the disappearance has been silent, Farrall said.

The 10 economic charts that you are about to see are completely and totally shocking. If you know anyone that still does not believe that the United States is in the midst of a long-term economic decline, just show them these charts. Sometimes you can quote economic statistics to people until you are blue in the face and it won't do any good, but when those same people see charts and pictures suddenly it all sinks in. What is great about charts is that you can very easily demonstrate what has been happening to the economy over an extended period of time. As you examine the economic charts below, pay special attention to what has been happening to the U.S. economy over the last 30 or 40 years. The truth is that what is wrong with the U.S. economy is not a great mystery. All of the economic problems that we are experiencing now have taken decades to develop. Hopefully the charts in this article will help people realize just how nightmarish our economic problems have become, because until people start realizing how incredibly bad things have gotten they will never be willing to accept the dramatic solutions that are necessary to fix our financial system.

The sad fact of the matter is that we have been living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world over the last 40 years. All of this debt has purchased a wonderful standard of living for the vast majority of us, but all of this debt has also destroyed the economic future of our children and our grandchildren. Someday future generations will look back on what we have done in absolute horror.

The 10 economic charts posted below are meant to shock you. Most Americans today need to be shocked before they will be motivated to take action. Please share these charts with as many people as you can. Hopefully we can wake enough people up that something will be done about all of these problems while there is still time.

Arpad Pusztai

Biologist Arpad Pusztai had more than 300 articles and 12 books to his credit and was the world's top expert in his field. But when he accidentally discovered that genetically modified (GM) foods are dangerous, he became the biotech industry's bad-boy poster child, setting an example for other scientists thinking about blowing the whistle.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Pusztai was awarded a $3 million grant by the UK government to design the system for safety testing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). His team included more than 20 scientists working at three facilities, including the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, the top nutritional research lab in the UK, and his employer for the previous 35 years. The results of Pusztai's work were supposed to become the required testing protocols for all of Europe. But when he fed supposedly harmless GM potatoes to rats, things didn't go as planned.

Within just 10 days, the animals developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, smaller brains, livers, and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and damaged immune systems. Moreover, the cause was almost certainly side effects from the process of genetic engineering itself. In other words, the GM foods on the market, which are created from the same process, might have similar affects on humans.

With permission from his director, Pusztai was interviewed on TV and expressed his concerns about GM foods. He became a hero at his institute - for two days. Then came the phone calls from the pro-GMO prime minister's office to the institute's director. The next morning, Pusztai was fired. He was silenced with threats of a lawsuit, his team was dismantled, and the protocols never implemented. His Institute, the biotech industry, and the UK government, together launched a smear campaign to destroy Pusztai's reputation.

Eventually, an invitation to speak before Parliament lifted his gag order and his research was published in the prestigious Lancet. No similar in-depth studies have yet tested the GM foods eaten every day by Americans.

A sharp rise in food prices since June has pushed 44 million people in developing countries into extreme poverty - having to live on less than $1.25 a day - according to a new study by the World Bank.

The bank's price index soared 29 percent from January 2010 to January 2011 (15 percent just from October to January). Wheat, maize, sugar and edible oils have seen the sharpest price increases in the last six months, with a relatively smaller increase in rice. The rising prices have increased the vulnerability of economies, particularly those that import a high share of their food and have limited capacity for government borrowing and spending.

"In the immediate term, it is important to ensure that further increases in poverty are curtailed by taking measures that calm jittery markets and by scaling up safety net and nutritional programs," the World Bank said in the report, released Tuesday. "Investments in raising environmentally sustainable agricultural productivity, better risk-management tools, less food intensive biofuel technologies, and climate change adaptation measures are all necessary over the medium term to mitigate the impact of expected food price volatility on the most vulnerable."

The French woman imprisoned in Mexico for being part of a kidnapping gang has lost her final appeal against her sentence. Judges have decided to uphold the 60 year sentence given to Florence Cassez in 2006, despite several requests by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to let her return to her home country. As a result, relations between France and Mexico are becoming increasingly strained.

London - An Iraqi man whose testimony the United States used as a key evidence to build a case for war in Iraq says he is proud that he lied about his country developing mobile biological warfare labs.

The Guardian newspaper published an interview Wednesday with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, who has been identified as the informer called "Curveball," whose claims about weapon labs formed part of then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the U.N. Security Council in 2003, shortly before the war began.

The Guardian quoted al-Janabi as saying: "I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that."

Although some intelligence agents were skeptical of Curveball's story, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee reported in 2004 that the Central Intelligence Agency "withheld important information about Curveball's reliability" from analysts dealing with the case.