A former BP contractor who claims that the oil giant’s Atlantis production platform in the Gulf of Mexico is unsafe is gaining attention on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are pressurisng the federal government to shut it down. Claims by Kenneth Abbott, who was fired by BP in 2009 allegedly after raising persistent claims about lax engineering documentation on the platform, have fuelled the... 

Phillip Giraldi is a former CIA & DIA Case Officer and Ray McGovern, is a former CIA Analyst/Presidential Daily Briefer that served under 7 presidents over 27 years. Ray McGovern was a mid-level officer in the CIA in the 1960s where his focus was analysis of Soviet policy toward Vietnam. McGovern was one of President Ronald Reagan’s intelligence briefers from 1981-85; he was in charge of... 

China is set to become the world's biggest manufacturer next year The US remained the world’s biggest manufacturing nation by output last year, but is poised to relinquish this slot in 2011 to China – thus ending a 110-year run as the number one country in factory production. The figures are revealed in a league table being published on Monday by IHS Global Insight, a US-based economics consultancy. Last... 

Hours after the Israeli government announced that it was intending to issue a new “banned goods” list for the Gaza Strip, focused on placating international demands to allow more food and humanitarian goods into the tiny enclave, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a pledge that the move would actually “tighten” the blockade. “Our friends around the world are getting behind our... 

German Development Minister Dirk Niebel Germany on Sunday slammed Israel for preventing Development Minister Dirk Niebel from entering the Gaza Strip to meet with Palestinian refugees during his current visit to the region. “I believe that Israel has a need for transparency to render credible the idea that it is changing its political strategy towards Gaza, and my visit would have created that... 

“President” of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko Arguments by the Belarusian ruler are surprising as usual: how can we owe to Russia, if we fought together in 1941? Alyaksandr Lukashenka called today to show the Russian leadership a Belarusian-Russian film about the Brest Fortress to remind about the unity of the two peoples, Interfax news agency reports. “The film has made a storm of impressions... 

A collective of the Franco-Chinese called to protest Sunday in Paris. He denounced the violence reported against members of this community. The event will be the main slogan “security for all, solidarity with the Chinese in Paris. Organizers expect about 10,000 people in the Belleville district, according to AFP. Organizers spoke of a “climate of growing insecurity.” For them, “people... 

'Tanorexic': Mrs Cobb with, from left, Alfie, Jack, Harry and Archie She once used sunbeds up to five times a week because she thought her tan ‘made her look healthy’. But Joanne Cobb’s obsession with having a golden glow has left her facing a possible death sentence. She has found herself battling nodular melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, and has had to accept... 

Professor Frank Fenner has warned that the human race can not survive As the scientist who helped eradicate smallpox he certainly know a thing or two about extinction. And now Professor Frank Fenner, emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, has predicted that the human race will be extinct within the next 100 years. He has claimed that the human race will be unable... 

AMD has been trying to crack their Fusion technology, combining a CPU and a powerful GPU in the same chip, for years now. Today, they showed off working Fusion chips in a demo that got Intel and Nvidia’s attention: If the Fusion APU (accelerated processing unit) amounts to everything that was promised, it’ll be an extremely appealing alternative for OEMs. And it seems as though they’re... 

A U.S. warship. More than twelve United States Naval warships and at least one Israeli ship crossed the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea on Friday, British Arabic Language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Saturday. According to the report, thousands of Egyptian soldiers were deployed along the Suez Canal guarding the ships’ passage, which included a U.S. aircraft carrier. The Suez Canal is a... 

Government would have “absolute power” to seize control of the world wide web under Lieberman legislation The federal government would have “absolute power” to shut down the Internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Jewish senator Joe Lieberman, legislation which would hand President Obama a figurative “kill switch” to seize control of the world wide web in response... 

Weirdest story of the week: The New York Times today ran a piece on some schools and some school officials discouraging students from having a “best” friend. Being friends with everyone is supposed to, well, put an end to bullying. I was bulled in middle school and I have written a seminal article on school bullying for Brain, Child magazine a few years ago (well before the topic became... 

It was on a terrace between two paddy fields like this that Balinese teenager Ngurah Alit was caught having intercourse with a cow, who he claimed had flirted with him. It was reported that a Balinese teenager, Ngurah Alit, 18, was caught having intercourse with a cow. Because of the act of bestiality, Alit was forced to marry the cow. Alit ended up passing out on Friday during the ceremony which was... 

Israel Navy ship and 'Rachel Corrie' aid ship Kuwaiti paper says Egypt denied Israeli request to prevent Gaza aid ships from passing through Suez Canal. Egypt rejected Israel’s request not to assist the Iranian ships slated to sail to the Gaza Strip in the coming days, Kuwaiti paper al-Dar reported on Friday. The report was not confirmed by any official Egyptian elements. Facts regarding...