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Palestinians laborers work at a construction site in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem.

David Cameron Calls Israel’s Continued Settlement Expansion ‘Shocking’

Archives for February 2016

Cops Mistake Innocent Man’s Seizure for a Crime, Beat Him So Bad He Was Hospitalized For Days

To add insult to injury, the man was charged with DWI resisting arrest, evading arrest and interfering with public duties.

John Vibes
By John Vibes
Javier Ortega Jr. suffered bruises on his arms, his legs, his feet, his back, had two Taser shots on his stomach and his head, and broken bones in fingers after a run-in with police.

El Paso, TX – A man who was beaten by police while he was having a seizure is now facing charges from the incident. Javier Ortega Jr. was driving home one night when he had a seizure behind the wheel and crashed his vehicle. Ortega stopped at a gas station just before the crash but doesn’t remember anything after that. “I stopped at the Circle

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Disney Wants Employees To Chip In To Pay Copyright Lobbyists

The letter boasts of beating Aereo, getting TPP—and wants workers’ help in 2016.

Joe Mullin | Ars Technica
By Joe Mullin | Ars Technica

The Walt Disney Company has a reputation for lobbying hard on copyright issues. The 1998 copyright extension has even been dubbed the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” by activists like Lawrence Lessig that have worked to reform copyright laws. This year, the company is turning to its employees to fund some of that battle. Disney CEO Bob Iger has

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US Airstrikes In Afghanistan Killing Civilians At Greatest Rate In Seven Years

The rate at which civilians are being killed by US airstrikes in Afghanistan is at its highest point since 2008, an analysis of newly published UN data reveals.

Jack Serle
Payenda Sargand
By Jack Serle
And Payenda Sargand
Mourners after alleged US drone strike kills 14 in Khost, June 2015 (Photo: Gul Marjan Farooqzoi)

Research by the Bureau shows that on average a civilian was killed every fourth drone or jet strike in 2015 – up from one in 11 attacks the year before and the first time the casualty rate has risen since 2011. The rate was last at such levels at the height of the Afghan war in 2008. The rates are calculated by using civilian death tolls

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Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower Renews Push For Presidential Pardon

The renewed push came just over four months after Holly Sterling, Jeffrey’s wife, wrote a formal letter to Obama seeking her husband’s pardon.

Kevin Gosztola
By Kevin Gosztola
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, left, leaves the Alexandria Federal Courthouse Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, in Alexandria, Va., with his wife, Holly, center, after he was convicted on all nine counts he faced of leaking classified details of a operation to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions to a New York Times reporter. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Published in partnership with Shadowproof. CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling, an African American who is serving a prison sentence after he was convicted of multiple violations of the Espionage Act, renewed his campaign for a pardon from President Barack Obama. The renewed push came just over four months after Holly Sterling, Jeffrey’s wife,

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‘Mercenaries Unleashed’: Report Highlights Threats Posed By Booming Private Security Industry

‘For too long this murky world of guns for hire has been allowed to grow unchecked. In letting the industry regulate itself, the government has failed,’ the executive director of War On Want tells MintPress.

Billy Briggs
By Billy Briggs
Private military firm, European Security Academy, carries out a training exercise. Britain's $560 million a year mercenary industry is booming as governments and corporations seek to 'evade responsibility for the use of violent and often deadly force.’ (Photo: YouTube Screenshot)

LONDON --- In a new report, a British anti-poverty charity puts Britain at the center of a growing global mercenary industry worth around $560 million to companies in the United Kingdom alone. In its report, “Mercenaries Unleashed: The brave new world of private military and security companies,” War On Want names a number of major military and

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Poll: Most Americans Believe The Rest Of World Still Views The US Favorably

Slightly more than half of Americans, or 54 percent, say they think people in other nations have a positive view of the United States, which represents an improvement from the years marking the transition from the Bush to Obama administrations, a Gallup poll revealed on Thursday.

Sputnik News
By Sputnik News
Alice Butler-Short, a supporter of Virginia Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie displays her American flag shoes while she waits for poll results at the election night party at Embassy Suites hotel in Springfield, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

WASHINGTON — The increase in perceived favorability may be related to decisions by President Barack Obama to open relations with longtime adversaries Cuba and Iran, the poll suggested. Obama’s push for a major new free trade deals, as well as his popularity abroad may also be factors. "This is consistent with how Americans have perceived the

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