From the Trenches World Report

ABC News- by JAKE PEARSON

A 10-year-old boy picked up a gun that was dropped in his home by a would-be robber dressed as a deliveryman and fired a shot, helping to chase away the intruder and a partner, police said Tuesday. No injuries were reported.

Two men in disguise knocked on the door to the Brooklyn house on Monday evening, and two teenage sisters opened the door, police said. In video released Tuesday, one man is seen carrying an open cardboard box and pushing his way into the home; a second man quickly follows.   Continue reading “NY Boy, 10, Grabs Home Intruder’s Gun, Shoots Wall”

New York Times – by JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

CARSON CITY, Nev. — John W. Griffin is a fast-talking, whiskey-loving, fifth-generation Nevadan who spends his days as a lobbyist courting lawmakers in Stetsons. He advocates for luxury casinos, once brokered a dispute between a brothel and a nightclub, and has helped feuding families resolve tussles over cattle crossings.

New Statesman- by Ece Temelkuran

“Well, we are just filling light bulbs with paint,” said my friend, a cafe owner in Cihangir, the Soho of Istanbul. Speaking to me on the phone, she sounded as relaxed as if she was baking an apple pie. “You know,” she continued, “the only way to stop a TOMA is to throw paint on its window so that the vehicle loses orientation.”   Continue reading “People Have Killed Their Fear of Authority – and the Protests are Growing”

Yahoo News

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia is looking at Steven Seagal to be the face of its weapons industry as it guns for first place on the world arms market.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the action movie star may head up an international marketing campaign to promote the Degtarev arms plant, Russian news agencies reported. He accompanied Seagal on a visit there Tuesday.   Continue reading “Russia wants Seagal to be face of weapons industry”

Activist Post – by Stephen Lendman

In 2001, Recep Tayyip Erdogan established the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In November 2002, it won nearly two-thirds of parliamentary seats. It did so with 35% of the vote.

Earlier dominant parties were rebuffed. Hard times aroused public anger. Voters rejected corrupt political rule. At the time, Istanbul newspaper Sabah called AKP’s triumph a “revolution by impoverished Anatolia against the old political guard.”   Continue reading “Anti-Government Protests Rock Turkey”

The Diplomat – by Zachary Keck

India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is expected to approve a proposal to deploy 40,000 additional troops along the 4,057-km line of actual control (LAC) that acts as the border between China and India, theTimes of India reported Saturday morning.

“The Army has proposed a mountain strike corps, two independent infantry brigades and two independent armored brigades to plug its operational gaps along the entire line of actual control (LAC) with China, as well as to acquire offensive capabilities,” the newspaper report said.   Continue reading “India to Approve Troop Buildup on China Border?”

Investment Watchblog

White House again calls for federal employee raise

With the House set to start voting over the next several days on the first of the spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year, the White House has again called for a federal employee raise to be paid in January. “The Administration urges the Congress to provide the proposed 1.0 percent pay increase for Federal civilian employees. As the President stated in his [fiscal year] 2014 Budget, a permanent pay freeze is neither sustainable nor desirable,” the administration said in policy statements on pending bills to fund the Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs departments.   Continue reading “SHOCKING: White House Wants ANOTHER Raise!?!”

Snippits and Snappits – by Noor al Haqiqa

QUESTION:

You’re on duty by yourself walking on a deserted street late at night. Suddenly, an armed man with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and lunges at you. You are carrying a Glock 40 and you are an expert shot, however you have only a split second to react before he reaches you. What do you do?   Continue reading “Police Dilemma: Joke (or maybe not)”

RT News

Monsanto claims it has no idea how its herbicide-resistant strain of wheat made its way onto an Oregon field. The global biotech giant based in Missouri says it abandoned research on it in 2004 and is mystified by its emergence nearly a decade later.

Monsanto tested the GMO varieties in 17 US states between 1998 and 2004. Although it also tested the GM wheat in Oregon, the company claims it destroyed all of the material upon the conclusion of the program and that it never grew the wheat strain on the farm where it was found last month.   Continue reading “Monsanto can’t explain how GMO wheat survived”

Bloomberg – by Hans Nichols

President Barack Obama is targeting Iran’s currency for the first time under sanctions authorized yesterday as the U.S. increases economic pressure on the Islamic Republic to halt its nuclear program.

Obama signed an executive order that would impose penalties on “foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct or facilitate significant transactions for the purchase or sale of the Iranian rial,” according to a statement yesterday from White House press secretary Jay Carney. It was the ninth executive order that Obama has signed sanctioning Iran, which will hold presidential elections June 14.   Continue reading “Obama Authorizes New Iran Sanctions Targeting Currency”

McClatchy – by Sheera Frenkel

Lew Rockwell – by William Norman Grigg

Nearly twenty years ago, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh – still basking in his agency’s residual glory from the Mt. Carmel Massacre of April 1993 – visited Moscow to sign a joint cooperation accord with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). After touring the Lubyanka Square headquarters of the Russian secret police, Freeh observed that “Our nations have more in common than ever before.”   Continue reading “The FBI: An American Cheka”

Newsmax – by Lisa Baron

Secretary of State John Kerry says that the U.S. will sign a controversial United Nations treaty on arms control in spite of bipartisan opposition from lawmakers.

Kerry released a written statement on Monday saying the U.S. “welcomes” the next phase for the treaty, which the U.N. General Assembly approved on April 2 but which gun rights advocates on Capitol Hill fear could lead to new gun control measures domestically, reports Fox News.   Continue reading “Kerry Says US Will Sign UN Arms Treaty, Ignores Congressional Opposition”

RT News

After spending 24 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, a Chicago man has filed a lawsuit claiming that police subjected him to violent torture methods that made him urinate blood to force him to make a false confession.

James Kluppelberg was released from a southern Illinois prison in May 2012 after his case was dismissed, 24 years after he was convicted and locked up for an arson-murder. The man was charged with setting a March 1984 fire that killed a woman and her five children – a felony crime that Kluppelberg confessed he committed.   Continue reading “Exonerated Chicago man claims police tortured him into confession”