Specifically, Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution reserves for Congress alone the power to declare war, a restriction that has been sorely tested in recent years, including Obama’s authorization of military force in Libya. In an exclusive WND column, former US Representative Tom Tancredo claims that Jones introduced his House Concurrent Resolution 107 in response to startling recent comments from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

“This week it was Secretary of Defense Panetta’s declaration before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he and President Obama LOOK NOT TO THE CONGRESS for authorization to bomb Syria but to NATO and the United Nations,” Tancredo writes.

“This led to Representative Walter Jones, introducing an official resolution CALLING FOR IMPEACHMENT SHOULD OBAMA TAKE OFFENSIVE ACTION BASED ON PANETTA’S POLICY STATEMENT, BECAUSE IT WOULD VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION.”

This raises pressure on the West to intervene militarily. Whereas, Middle East experts are urgently advising that an engagement of the armed forces be avoided and all arms deliveries to the insurgents be halted, an expert in "security policy," on the other hand, is calling for German participation in an armed conflict. In combination with diplomatic steps, a "military engagement" would not be "the conclusion or even the breakdown of politics, but rather its essential component."

In the midst of this ongoing debate over another eventual combat mission in Syria, a former "German government Coordinator of German-American Cooperation" has substantiated that the West and Russia's current dispute over the policy toward Syria, is not at all about "human rights versus dictatorships," but geostrategic interests.

When UN representatives declared that the Syrian government's operations are "crimes against humanity," they, in principle, opened the way for taking action without a UN Security Council mandate. The author assumes that "NATO member countries are rhetorically preparing for this eventuality." Even though "all western countries show basic signs of war fatigue," their "readiness" to go to war could be "reactivated" if the humanitarian situation deteriorates - as the West's interventionist mood has shown during the war on Libya.

An official review into what caused last summer's riots is expected to highlight the lack of good male role-models in the lives of many of the young people arrested for taking part in the disturbances, the Telegraph reported. Last night Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said these 'troubled families' were in 'total breakdown'. He said: 'The absence of a positive father figure is a huge problem and often fathers who are present have severe drug and alcohol addictions and are not working.'

'Clearly we want to work towards a situation where the fathers in these families provide stability, which means getting them back to work, so they can bring money in and be a positive role model to their children.' The Telegraph reported that another problem the study identified among the troubled families was the large number of children, which can lead to a lack of parental attention. In December David Cameron launched a £448 million initiative for squads of ‘troubleshooters’ - a mix of charity, council and private sector workers, to help 120,000 problem families turn round their lives.

The new troubleshooters are working with each family individually, drawing up detailed plans with targets such as returning parents to work, stopping them drinking or taking drugs, and ensuring the children attend school and do not behave anti-socially. Britain's worst-behaving families are estimated to cost taxpayers £9 billion a year – or £75,000 each, in benefits and the costs of other public services.

The government wants to introduce gay marriage by 2015, but says churches would not have to perform weddings. Last week Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, said the "grotesque" plans would "shame the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world" if implemented. And on Friday, in a speech to visiting US bishops, Pope Benedict XVI warned of "powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage", in the wake of the US states of Washington and Maryland legalising same-sex marriage.

The event began late Tuesday with a series of explosions on the Sun that sent charged particles hurtling toward Earth, but the storm appeared to fizzle on arrival Thursday, causing no power outages or problems with GPS navigation systems as expected. Conditions changed late Thursday that boosted the ferocity of the storm, raising it to the initially forecast G3 level of "strong" on a scale of one to five, said Bob Rutledge who heads the space weather forecast office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"We ended up getting some of the strong storming that was expected," he said explaining that change was due to a flip in the magnetic field inside the coronal mass ejection that burst off from the Sun. "When you look at the storm overall for length and strength, it is arguably the strongest storm since November 2004," he said. People across the northern US states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Washington reported seeing the night time light show caused by the aurora borealis when highly charged particles interact with the Earth's magnetic field, creating a colorful glow.

And although power industry operators have "certainly seen these disturbances on their systems... it should all be well within what they are capable of handling," Rutledge added. Geomagnetic and radiation storms are growing more frequent as the Sun leaves its solar minimum period and moves into a solar maximum over the coming years, but people are generally protected by Earth's magnetic field. However, some experts are concerned that because the world is more reliant on GPS and satellite technology now than it was during the last solar maximum, more disruptions to modern life are likely.

Guido Westerwelle said the bloc's Lisbon treaty, drafted after Dutch and French voters rejected a proposed constitution in 2005, was not enough to keep European decision-making structures effective. "We have to open a new chapter in European politics," Westerwelle told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen. "We need more efficient decision structures."

The German minister presented the idea to his counterparts at the Copenhagen meeting, during which they also discussed plans to run foreign policy more cheaply. He said discussions on the issue of a new constitution should continue in Berlin. "I think we have to reopen the debate about a European constitution again," he said. "We have a good treaty, but we need a constitution ... There are new centers of power in the world."

German government sources said representatives of several EU member states would likely meet in the next few weeks for talks.

But with the government having fiddled around with the limit three times in the past seven months, and a measure still in place requiring that buyers reveal their identity for transactions over 3,600 euros in an industry that values discretion, he remains shaken and uneasy. "When I learned about the news I celebrated," said Cielo, whose diamond jewellery sells at between 1,000 and 60,000 euros, with foreigners accounting for about 75 percent of his clientele.

The use of cash common throughout Italy has long been a focus of Italian authorities in their fight against rampant tax evasion, which is estimated to cost the government 120 billion euros a year in state revenues. Cash is not traceable on either side of the transaction and can be a channel to launder illegal income as well as avoid paying taxes.

In response to the euro zone sovereign debt crisis that brought Italy to the brink of financial disaster in November, Rome appeared ready to implement the most stringent rules ever. The new government of Prime Minister Mario Monti tightened the screws to allow a maximum of 1,000 euros cash for both Italians and foreigners from January 1, only to scrap the limit on foreigners altogether on February 24 after an outcry from retailers.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a wall of water that hit Japan's northeast coast, killing nearly 16,000 and leaving nearly 3,300 unaccounted for, and the country is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs. In the port of Ofunato, hundreds of black-clad residents gathered at the town hall to lay white chrysanthemums in memory of the town's 420 dead and missing.

"We can't just stay sad. Our mission is to face reality and move forward step by step," said Kosei Chiba, 46, who lost his mother and wife in the disaster. "But the damage the town suffered was too big and our psychological scars are too deep. We need a long time to rebuild."

Residents of Ofunato gathered before a makeshift altar with a calm, sun-flecked sea behind them. Ofunato paused again 33 minutes later - the time when a year ago a 23-metre (75-foot) tsunami engulfed the town of 41,000. Just a kilometer (half a mile) from Tokyo Electric Power Company's (Tepco) wrecked Fukushima plant, where reactor meltdowns triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, residents of the abandoned town of Okuma were allowed back for a few hours to honor the dead.

"It was a wonderful place. If it wasn't for all that has happened, I'd be able to come back. But thanks to Tepco, I wasn't even able to search for the bodies of my relatives," said Tomoe Kimura, 93, who lost four members of her family in the tsunami, two of whom were never found.

Authorities have imposed a 20-km (12 mile) no-go zone around the plant and residents may never be allowed back. Slow progress in drawing up plans for the tsunami-damaged and radiation-contaminated region is deepening the misery of survivors, about 326,000 of whom are still homeless, including 80,000 evacuated from the vicinity of the Fukushima plant.

It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work. A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so.

The Government’s position received an angry response last night from prominent figures including Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. He accused ministers and the courts of “dictating” to Christians and said it was ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CHRISTIANITY BECOMING SIDELINED IN OFFICIAL LIFE.

Sir William Patey, the British ambassador to Afghanistan, has spoken frankly about what he sees as the errors and failings in the country over the past decade. Principal among them is the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, taken less than two years after Britain, America and an alliance including Australia and France went into Afghanistan to depose the Taliban.

Sir William told The Sunday Telegraph that both Washington and Downing Street wrongly assumed that the war was “won and the Taliban had run away”. But that led to a long-running problem: “years of missed opportunity” followed because the focus was on Iraq instead of Afghanistan.

The 58 year-old said the opportunity to train and equip the Afghan National Security Forces to fill the power vacuum was missed, allowing the Taliban to return. “We were too focused on Iraq and we took our eye off the ball. We thought we had won [in Afghanistan] and the Taliban had run away and we just sort of left it to the Afghans to get on with it and we very quickly switched our focus to Iraq. You don’t normally write history so quickly but I’m pretty clear that we won’t have to wait too long for history to make that judgment.”

Asked if foreign troops were now part of the problem, Sir William responded: “Could be”, adding: “Afghans have never been comfortable with foreigners and there comes a point — no matter how benign the intentions, and how much you explain that this [ISAF] is not an occupying force, that we are here under a UN mandate agreed with the Afghans — when you just outstay your welcome.” But he said that ISAF now had a transition plan which, once complete in 2014, would mean the Afghans will be fully responsible for the security of Afghanistan.

Speaking to Channel 10 News in a special interview in his office in New York, Prosor said that Israel’s diplomatic efforts in regards to the Iranian nuclear threat are like a train “traveling from London to Paris at a very fast speed,” whereas the international community’s efforts regarding Iran are like “a slow running train which stops at every station.”

Prosor said, however, that he is seeing reasons for optimism in what he described as the awakening of the European countries regarding Iran, a fact which is reflected in the latest rounds of sanctions on the Iranian oil industries. “Especially in light of what is happening today in the Arab world, there is an understanding that this issue will change the Middle East, not just militarily,” Prosor said, noting that countries such as Britain and France and even China and Russia are becoming aware of the danger of a nuclear Iran. “The recent sanctions against the Iranian central bank and its oil industry show that Europe has awakened to the Iranian nuclear threat.”

Prosor also noted the importance of Arab countries speaking out against Iran and its nuclear program. “An interesting thing is happening here,” he said. “We saw here the Saudi ambassador speaking out against Iran, you see the Gulf states speaking out against Syria. The Syrian representative is speaking against the Bahrainis and against the Saudis. These are things that did not happen before. There are common interests between countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel and we need to find a way to promote them, but I won’t elaborate further.” When asked whether he has heard Arab diplomats saying behind closed doors that they support an attack on Iran, Prosor responded with “Yes.”

Though it isn't easy, we can check the power of corporations — and citizens around the world are stepping up to do it. Global Exchange developed this list of some of the world’s worst corporate abusers to illustrate that on issues as diverse as assassination, torture, kidnapping, environmental degradation, abusing public funds, violently repressing political rights, releasing toxins into pristine environments, destroying homes, discrimination, and causing widespread health problems, familiar companies like Dow Chemical, Coca Cola, Caterpillar, Lockheed, Philip Morris, and Wal-Mart play a big role. Now we need you to take action!

Several of the companies below are being sued under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that allows citizens of any nationality to sue in US federal courts for violations of international rights or treaties. When corporations act like criminals, we have the right and the power to stop them, holding leaders and multinational corporations alike to the accords they have signed. Around the world — in Venezuela, Argentina, India, and right here in the United States — citizens are stepping up to create democracy and hold corporations accountable to international law.

This list of “MOST WANTED” corporate criminals gives you information about the abusive behavior of this year’s top fourteen worst corporations and tells you who is responsible.

Full article - http://www.globalexchange.org/corporateHRviolators

Two questions jump out regarding this surveillance program. How effective is it? And more importantly, is this an invasion of our privacy? The effectiveness question is hard to answer. When you look at all the words on the watch list, it's hard to believe that any terrorist or criminal would tweet or post them unless they wanted to get caught. For example, the watch list contains words such as dirty bomb, hostage, al Qaeda and ammonium nitrate. What terrorist in his right mind would tweet, "Looking for ammonium nitrate, please direct message me if you have leads?"

There are also terms under the category "Southwest border violence" that seem ridiculous, such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, meth lab and drug war. If a drug dealer mentioned on his Facebook wall, "Great deal today on heroin and methamphetamine, and it's all organically made in my own meth lab," I would hope that people would turn that person in - or at the very least, not "like" his post. But it's the long list of innocent words on the watch list that raises more concerns. Words such as subway, delays, infection, San Diego, cloud, pork, wave and Mexico are monitored. If you posted on Twitter, "I'm going on vacation to San Diego, hope no clouds because want to catch some waves," your tweet would be considered suspicious because you used three words on the watch list.

Since 9/11, we have far too often willingly forfeited privacy in the name of security, be it the Patriot Act, the New York Police Department's spying of Muslim Americans, body-scanning machines, intrusive pat-downs at airports and who knows what else is out there that we have yet to find out about. If it were not for the Electronic Privacy Information Center's lawsuit, we would be unaware of the details of this latest program.

Benjamin Franklin famously warned us, "ANY SOCIETY THAT WOULD GIVE UP A LITTLE LIBERTY TO GAIN A LITTLE SECURITY WILL DESERVE NEITHER AND LOSE BOTH." The Department of Homeland Security's surveillance program - and our acceptance of programs like it - is just another step in the direction that Franklin so wisely cautioned us to guard against.

Brazil's total output last year was worth £1.56 trillion - compared with £1.53 trillion in Britain, think-tank Cebr said. The UK economy grew by just 0.8 per cent last year and contracted by 0.2 per cent in the final quarter, leaving the country on the verge of a double-dip recession. In contrast, economic output rose by 2.7 per cent in Brazil, which has a population of around 200 million.

Tim Ohlenburg, senior economist at Cebr, said: 'It's a natural enough movement. Brazil has a large population, has massive natural resources and strong local industry. It's just a country set for higher growth.' Britain fell one place to seventh in the world economic rankings while Brazil closed the gap on France and Germany. Despite the UK's relative decline, money continues to be poured into wealthy and fast-growing countries such as India, and even aid to China, second in the world economic league, was ordered to come to an end only this year.

According to figures on the website of the Department For International Development, £13.6 million worth of taxpayer-funded development schemes for Brazil remained ‘operational’. They include a scheme to work up environmental projects billed at almost £9 million, another to ‘improve flexibility, agility and responsiveness in the implementation of DFID regional objectives’ worth more than £1.2 million, and unidentified schemes costing more than £2.4 million.

WORLD ECONOMIC LEAGUE

(2010 positions in brackets)

1. United States (1)

2. China (2)

3. Japan (3)

4. Germany (4)

5. France (5)

6. Brazil (7)

7. Great Britain (6)

8. Italy (8)

9. Russia (10)

10. India (9)

Ahead of the first anniversary of the disaster this weekend, the Red Cross said the Japanese government had dithered over how to rebuild the affected areas, failing to come to any agreement with local officials. "Without reaching any agreement on a master plan, it is very difficult even to start a reconstruction process," said Taduteru Konoe, the president of the Japanese chapter of the international aid organisation. "That should be the very start of everything. So one year has been wasted in that sense because they have not been able to reach any consensus," he added.

Across the tsunami-affected region, the figure is 260,000, according to Japan's Reconstruction agency. Officials now believe it could be at least four more years before they can move into proper housing. Abe Mikio, one of the managers of the shelter where Mr and Mrs Sawato live, said that survivors are beginning to lose hope as they face years of limbo before being able to rebuild their lives. He estimated it would be five or six years before the people in his compound can return to their homes and at least ten years before Ishinomaki returns to normal.