Human activity can cause destructive harm. Columbia University geophysical hazards research scientist, Christian Klose, studies how, including from mining. In a recent paper, he said:

"mining activities disturb the in-situ stress in the upper continental crust and can trigger earthquakes (human-triggered seismicity)."

By William John Cox
 
¿Plata o plomo? Colombian and Mexican drug gangs ask government officials, judges and police officers which they prefer, "silver or lead," when offering bribes and threatening violence.

By David Swanson

Those are the words used in Article II Section 3 of the US Constitution.  The president is also to "recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."  Why does this not come up in Article I with all the other supreme powers of our Commander in Chief?  Well, because only the military has one of those, and Article I is devoted to the most powerful branch of our government, the Congress.

by Jacob G. Hornberger

It’s amusing to watch U.S. officials protest the Chinese government’s surveillance of its own citizens. After all, isn’t it the U.S. government that secretly and illegally conspired with private telecom companies to record telephone conversations of private American citizens? And isn’t it the U.S. government that secured both civil and criminal immunity for the telecoms’ decision to sell out the privacy of their customers to the feds?

Holocaust Exploited

The following is the full text of Barack Obama's first State of the Union speech to Congress:

Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union.  For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty.  They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility.  And they have done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle.

Barack Obama has vowed that jobs will be his administration's "number one focus in 2010".

Al Jazeera has denied allegations made by the US state department regarding its coverage of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

French rescuers have pulled a teenage girl out of the rubble of a school in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, 15 days after an earthquake devastated the city.

Bill Clinton, the former US president, has urged global corporate bosses to help rebuild earthquake-hit Haiti, saying it should be seen as a business opportunity and not aid.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said his country must reach out to its "disenchanted brothers" in an effort to stabilise the war ravaged nation.

Iran has hanged two men over widespread protests that followed the country's disputed presidential election in June last year, an Iranian news agency has said.

Toyota, the world's number one carmaker, has said it is recalling another one million vehicles sold in the United States, a day after suspending the sale of eight models amid worries over a potentially faulty accelerator pedal.