Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/12/report_health_insurers_hold_billions_in

A new report in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals US, Canadian and British health and life insurance firms hold at least $4.4 billion of investments in companies whose subsidiaries manufacture cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and related products. We speak with the co-author of the report, Dr. Wesley Boyd. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/39843prs20090612.html

The Justice Department today argued that the victims of the "extraordinary rendition" program should not have their day in court, asking a federal appeals court to block a landmark case the court had earlier ruled could go forward. In April, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen DataPlan Inc., for its role in the Bush administration's unlawful "extraordinary rendition" program could proceed, but today the government asked the appeals court's full panel of judges to rehear that decision.

Link: http://www.voltairenet.org/article160100.html

Following in the footsteps of well over 1,000 scientists and other professional groups who have already gone on record questioning the official theory, more than 40 U.S. Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Agency veterans have come forward to challenge the Government’s rendition of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Link: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/06/12/ill-treatment-and-torture-of-palestinian-1

[RAMALLAH, 11 June 2009] – Today, DCI-Palestine is releasing a report which documents the widespread ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children at the hands of the Israeli army and police force – Palestinian Child Prisoners: The systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities. PressTV: Hezbollah slams silence over Judaization.

Link: http://americansjourney.blogspot.com/2009/06/public-outcry-in-america-sound-of-one.html

A friend of mine posed a question to the American public this evening: When will you get ANGRY? This question baffles me as well as I reflect on current events in the U.S...I don't know if my answer carries any more weight than yours so instead I'm going to type out a list as quickly as possible from memory of things that have NOT moved the public to action. American Journey: Cop Tasers 72-year old Grandmother. If that doesn't get you angry, then nothing will. You must be fuckin' dead. Full cardiac arrest. Some of you don't even have a heart. You're zombies.

Link: http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2009/06/10/starvation-at-gtmo-an-untold-story/

Andy Worthington, the renowned expert on Guantanamo, has just released a report he prepared for the British NGO CagedPrisoners on the shocking weight loss occurring among many Guantanamo detainees. Here is Andy’s announcement:

“Guantánamo’s Hidden History: Shocking Statistics of Starvation” is a report I’ve compiled for Cageprisoners analyzing the weight records for prisoners at Guantánamo (released by the Pentagon in March 2007), which demonstrate that, from January 2002, when the prison opened, until February 2007, when these particular records came to an end, one in ten of the total population — 80 prisoners in total — weighed, at some point, less than 112 pounds (eight stone, or 50 kg), and 20 of these prisoners weighed less than 98 pounds (seven stone, or 44 kg).

Link: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10591.shtml

The small Palestinian village of Bilin will face-off this month against two Canadian corporations accused of aiding and abetting the colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Bilin case is one of a growing number of civil and criminal motions filed abroad that attempt to hold Israel and its corporate agents responsible for breaches of international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97825&sectionid=351020403

"Violence" in Afghanistan last week reached its highest level since the US overthrow of the Taliban Afghan government in 2001, General David Petraeus says. "There is no question that the situation has deteriorated" in Afghanistan, said Petraeus, head of US Central Command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia. "This has to be reversed." -Absolutely! Take the troops home. And remember to bring the US team of assassins with you. The violence would drop immediately. AlterNet/TPV: The Rise of Private Armies -- Mercenaries, Murder and Corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-groove11-2009jun11,0,533655.story

Reporting from Tehran -- The streets are clogged with traffic so we get on the highway, the windows down and music blaring. I am with two friends, driving through Tehran after midnight, enjoying the cool air with no particular destination. One of them grabs a poster for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from a passing motorcyclist and begins waving it at the other drivers, most of them stunned that a fashionable woman wearing hijab lite would support the hard-line Iranian president. PressTV: Iranians start heading to polls on Super Friday.

Link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,629773,00.html

In the case of the Arctic region, the major players use scientific data and the somewhat vague rules of international law. Increasing their territory means a gain in prestige for these countries, and serves to provide energy security as well. But which of the nations around the polar region will emerge as the winner of this Arctic Monopoly game? Is there even such a thing as a winner here?

Link: http://www.incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/06/peru-police-use-snipers-to-kill-in.html

No commentary necessary, really. And you guys up there think that Chávez is the thug. Madness. As for jawdroppingly racist, fascist and arrogant quote of the day, that goes to Alan García: "They (Amazon indigenous) are not first class citizens." RESIGN YOU MOTHERFUCKER! The People's Voice: PETRAS: "START LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ALAN GARCÍA, THE BUTCHER OF THE AMAZON » News of the Restless: This picture is what capitalism looks like when the gloves come off. Catapa: Pictures Peru killings.

Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2219840/

They call them "enfants mauvais souvenirs," children of bad memories. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi women were systematically raped and forced into sexual servitude by members of extremist Hutu militia groups. Many of these women became pregnant. Since abortion is illegal in Rwanda, some resorted to back-alley procedures or traveled to the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo to terminate their pregnancies. Others gave birth and abandoned the babies or gave them away to orphanages. Still others kept their children and are now struggling to raise them alone in post-genocide Rwanda.

Link: http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/06/inheriting-bushs-smoke-and-mirrors.html

Republicans on Capitol Hill think they've finally found Barack Obama's Achilles' heel: rising public concern about government spending and the federal deficit.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55A1U720090611?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

The World Health Organization declared an influenza pandemic on Thursday and advised governments to prepare for a long-term battle against an unstoppable new flu virus. The United Nations agency raised its pandemic flu alert to phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 is under way.