The Washington Examiner – Aubrey Whelan

The National Park Service is asking Occupy DC protesters in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza to remove all camping material from the parks by Monday – and protesters who do not comply could be arrested, according to a flyer distributed at the camps Friday.

Starting at noon Monday, U.S. Park Police who see camping violations in the park could arrest “individual violators” and seize their property, the flyer says.

NPS regulations have long prohibited camping – defined as sleeping or preparing to sleep in the park – but the Park Service has not enforced the ban until now.

Read more »

The Washington Examiner – AP

An international rights group on Friday called on Romanian authorities to investigate allegations of police violence against demonstrators during two weeks of anti-government street protests.

Amnesty International said video footage showed police beating two people who were not behaving violently. It also claimed police hit and sprayed chemicals on a man lying on the ground.

In a statement, the group urged authorities to conduct “a prompt, independent, thorough and effective investigation.”

Read more »

The Washington Times -  Paige Winfield Cunningham

After public support for President Obama’s health care law took a dive and then rose again over the fall, it fell again in January, according to the latest poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Thirty-seven percent of Americans said they feel favorable toward the Affordable Care Act, down from 41 percent in December. At times, support for the bill has spiked as high as 50 percent but has been on a downward trajectory over the past six months, according to Kaiser polls taken every month since the law was passed in March 2010. Read more »

World Net Daily - Reza Kahlili

Iran is taking several steps to help Syria’s beleaguered President Bashar Assad, assassinate opposition figures and attack Israeli and American interests worldwide, sources have confirmed.

After the recent assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, deputy director of the first uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered retaliation. Read more »

World Net Daily – Aaron Klein

To pressure the U.S., Syrian President Bashar Assad has reopened his country’s borders with Iraq, allowing more jihadists to get into and out of Iraq, according to informed Egyptian security officials.

The security officials said the move already has produced an increase in violence in Iraq at the hands of jihadists who transit through the country via Syria.

Previously, Assad acceded to U.S. requests to work harder to close his country’s porous borders with Iraq. The U.S. has long accused Assad of turning a blind eye to Iraqi insurgents using Syria as a refuge.

Assad has been locked in a bitter dispute with the U.S., which accuses him of using violent tactics to crack down on a months-long insurgency targeting his regime. Read more »

World Net Daily – Jerome R Corsi

Georgia citizens delivered sworn testimony to a court that Barack Obama is slam-dunk disqualified from having his name on the 2012 presidential ballot in the state, because his father never was a U.S. citizen, which prevents him from qualifying as a “natural-born citizen” as the U.S. Constitution requires for a president.

The historic hearing was the first time that a court has accepted arguments on the merits of the controversy over Obama’s status. His critics say he never met the constitutional requirements to occupy the Oval Office, and the states and Congress failed in their obligations to make sure only a qualified president is inaugurated. His supporters, meanwhile, argue he won the 2008 election and therefore was “vetted” by America.

The hearing was before Judge Michael Malihi of the Georgia state Office of State Administrative Hearings. In Georgia, a state law requires “every candidate for federal” office who is certified by the state executive committees of a political party or who files a notice of candidacy “shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.” Read more »

World Net Daily – Michael Carl

For 25 years, math teacher Bradley Johnson at Poway High School near San Diego took advantage of a 30-year school policy and hung patriotic posters with sayings such as “God bless America” in his classroom.

But then school officials ordered Johnson to take down the banners, even though other teachers were allowed to keep anti-religious slogans such as John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Buddhist prayer flags and images of Black Muslim leader Malcolm X. Read more »

FoxNews.com – AP

Detractors say the F-35 stealth fighter, the costliest military plane ever, is destined to go down as one of the biggest follies in aviation history. But it may have found a savior: deep-pocketed U.S. allies hungry to add its super high-tech capabilities to their arsenal.

The program marked a major success last month when Japan chose it over the Boeing F/A-18 and the Eurofighter Typhoon as a replacement for 42 aircraft in its aging air force. It was the F-35′s first victory in an open-bidding competition, though countries from Britain to Israel previously made commitments and others are expected to follow.

Manufacturer Lockheed Martin also is looking to bring F-35s to South Korea in a deal that could be Seoul’s biggest single defense outlay ever — 60 top-of-the-line fighters worth more than $7 billion. A decision could come as soon as October. Read more »

theblaze.com – Billy Hallowell

Atheists have a way with billboards. In fact, it’s one of the primary methods many non-believers use to communicate with the public at large. This is exactly the method a Denver, Colorado-based group, called Boulder Atheists, is using to spread its message. Reaction to the group’s newest billboard, which targets those who hold a belief in God, has ranged from giggles to anger.

Boulder Atheists has erected three billboards that each read, “God is an imaginary friend. Choose reality, it will be better for all of us.” This statement, which will clearly offend the religious, is not intended to start problems, the group says.

Read more »

cnsnews.com – Elizabeth Harrington

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) held its first “Creating Change Lobby Day” on Capitol Hill on Thursday, where activists met with lawmakers to call for legislation to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues.

Other groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) also joined the Task Force to advocate for employment nondiscrimination, pay equity, anti-bullying, and safe school laws for the LGBT community.

When approached by CNSNews.com, however, the activists said they could not talk to the media and directed all questions to their communications director.  Calls to the press contact were not returned.

Read more »

cnsnews.com – Penny Starr

The new U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said that in dealing with the former Soviet Union, he and the Obama administration would be advocating “universal values” and “not American values.”

McFaul was sworn in as ambassador to Russia by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Jan. 10. He made his remarks on Tuesday’s Morning Edition on NPR. The show’s host, David Greene, had asked McFaul about Russia’s “evolution towards demoracy,” and McFaul said “there is no single path to democracy” and that his job was to support universal values.

“And we — as President Obama has said many, many times — we’re not going to get into the business of dictating that path,” McFaul said. “We’re just going to support what we like to call ‘universal values’ – not American values, not Western values, universal values.”

Read more »

cnsnews.com – Fred Lucas

Vice President Joe Biden viewed an electric car that used Ener1 batteries as he toured the Ener1 battery factory in Greenfield, Ind., on Jan. 26, 2011. (White House photo/David Lienemann)

Ener1–a company that manufactures batteries for electric cars, and that received $118.5 million in federal stimulus money, and that Vice President Joe Biden visited last year the day after President Obama’s State of the Union Address—announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In last year’s State of the Union Address, delivered Jan. 25, 2011, President Obama set a national goal of having a million electric vehicles on the road in the United States by 2015—a goal that would be achieved, Obama said, by taking money out of the oil industry and “investing” it in new technology.

“With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015,” said Obama.

Read more »

The Telegraph – Rowena Mason, Davos

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne

Europe needs to “show the colour” of its money before Britain will stump up more cash to bail out its struggling countries, George Osborne has said.

The Telegraph – Jeremy Warner

In any case, I take some heart from the feeling of resigned despair which is the prevalent mood this time around, at least among Western participants. It probably means that economic prospects can’t be quite as bad as everyone thinks.

Reuters -  Rob Taylor and Hamid Shalizi

Senior Afghan peace negotiators believe the Taliban are willing to significantly soften past hardline ideologies, with its leaders already laying the ground for possible peace talks in the Gulf state of Qatar.

Former Taliban minister Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, a member of the High Peace Council set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with insurgents, said that after a decade of fighting with NATO, the Taliban were ready to moderate on reimposition of fundamentalist positions.

And despite the assassination only last September of former president and leader of the peace process Burhanuddin Rabbani, secret discussions that began in Germany in November 2010 between U.S., Taliban, German and Qatari representatives had a good chance of success, Rahmani said. Read more »

Reuters – John Whitesides

Less than a week after a stinging setback in South Carolina, Romney moved ahead of rival Newt Gingrich again in Florida polls on Thursday and turned in his strongest debate performance yet in a seesawing Republican presidential race.

Three new polls showed Romney taking a solid 7- or 8-point lead in Florida hours before his confident and aggressive debate performance put Gingrich on the defensive repeatedly in their final showdown ahead of Tuesday’s state primary.

“This was his best debate exactly when he needed it. Romney won the debate and he may well have won the primary,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said.

Read more »

BBC

Amnesty International has called for an investigation into what it says is the misuse of tear gas by Bahraini security forces.

The organisation says that more than a dozen deaths may have resulted from the heavy use of tear gas in residential areas.

Police are struggling to contain a growing wave of protests in the gulf island kingdom.

The most recent death attributed by activists to tear gas was on Wednesday.

Saeed Ali Hasan al-Sakri, 65-yars-old, is said by his family to have collapsed after a heavy volley of tear gas was unleashed near their home in a Shia village on Tuesday.

Read more »

BBC

A suicide car bomber has killed at least 32 people and injured about 60 in a predominantly Shia Muslim district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The bomb went off in a market place as a funeral procession was passing in the city’s Zafaraniya district.

A security official told Reuters the bomber had initially attempted to attack a police station.

Attacks in Iraq have risen since US troops left last month, with 16 people killed in attacks on Thursday.

Read more »

BBC

The Syrian army has launched renewed assaults on the restive central cities of Homs and Hama, killing about 40 people, activists say.

They also allege that a massacre took place in Homs on Thursday. The Arab League says there has been a “high escalation” of violence in recent days.

A BBC reporter in Damascus says the regime appears to be losing control of rebellious areas of the capital.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss a possible resolution on Syria.

The BBC’s Jeremy Bowen in Damascus says opposition fighters have set up checkpoints and appear to move around freely in the suburbs of Douma and Saqba.

Read more »

BBC

The pace of US economic growth increased in the three months to December, according to new figures.

The economy grew at an annualised rate of 2.8%, the Commerce Department said.

This was up from the 1.8% annual rate recorded in the previous quarter, although it was slightly lower than the 3% rate predicted by analysts.

The growth rate was the fastest in 18 months, helped by more businesses stockpiling goods, but pointed to a slower rate in the current quarter.

Read more »

BBC

Mr Dallara, representing Greece's private creditors, wants a higher interest rate than Athens is willing to pay

Key talks between Athens and its private creditors have resumed, with “some progress” made towards agreeing a deal to reduce Greek debt.

The Institute of International Finance, representing creditors, said talks had focused on “legal and technical issues” and would continue on Friday.

The two parties have so far failed to agree an interest rate on new bonds that would replace existing debts.

If a deal can be reached Greece should be in line for extra bailout funds. Read more »

BBC

BP must cover some but not all of oil rig owner Transocean’s liabilities for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a US judge has ruled.

US District Judge Carl Barbier said that Transocean was shielded by its contract with BP from having to pay many pollution claims.

But Transocean must cover its own legal fees and is not exempt from paying punitive damages and civil penalties.

A trial on damages from the oil spill will begin next month.

Read more »

CNN

The federal government Thursday announced plans to sell off oil and gas leases on 38 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico seafloor in a new domestic energy push by the Obama administration.

The leases could yield as much as 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the Interior Department estimates. The scheduled sale in June will be the second since the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 when nearly 5 million barrels of crude spewed into the Gulf.

President Barack Obama, who touted plans to develop more U.S. energy resources in his State of the Union address this week, announced the sale Thursday. Speaking at a UPS natural-gas refueling facility in Las Vegas, Obama said he wants to encourage the use of the cleaner-burning fuel as an alternative to gasoline or diesel. Read more »

CNN - Rachel Streitfeld and Adam Aigner-Treworgy

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sparred Thursday with Mitt Romney over immigration policies as tempers flared in the CNN/Republican Party of Florida debate in Jacksonville.

Gingrich charged Romney’s immigration policy would result in the deportation of grandmothers who are in the country illegally. Romney has advocated for “self-deportation,” a policy that involves making economic conditions so difficult for undocumented workers that they choose to leave the country to find better opportunities.

Read more »

BBC

The president of Nigeria has challenged the Islamist militant group Boko Haram to identify themselves and state their demands as a basis for dialogue.

Goodluck Jonathan said there was no doubt that Boko Haram had links with other Jihadist groups outside Nigeria.

He said if they did not identify themselves, talks were impossible.

It comes as the leader of Boko Haram denies killing civilians in last week’s Kano bombings, in which 185 people died.

In an interview with Reuters, Mr Jonathan said: “If they clearly identify themselves now and say this is the reason why we are resisting, this is the reason why we are confronting government or this is the reason why we destroyed some innocent people and their properties, why not.

Read more »

BBC

The Socialist presidential candidate in France has set out his election policies, saying he would target the rich to tackle the country’s budget deficit and fund spending plans.

Francois Hollande pledged to create 60,000 jobs in education, 150,000 for young people, a tax bracket for high earners and a 15% bank profit surtax.

He currently has a strong lead over President Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls.

The president’s camp called the manifesto unrealistic and unaffordable.

Read more »

Reuters

When he got in the taxi, the Syrian worker unwittingly walked into the hands of kidnappers. Dumped blindfolded in a graveyard eight days later, he was glad to be alive.

Abu Ahmed, a 35-year-old house painter, is one of hundreds in the Syrian city of Homs who have fallen prey to a growing sectarian kidnapping trade fuelled by increasing unrest.

State security forces are focused on trying to crush an insurgency in Homs, heart of the 10-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, residents say Homs has become a lawless place where people are dragged away at gunpoint almost daily, targeted solely for their religious identity. Read more »

The Telegraph - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Portugal is fighting a losing battle to contain its public debt and may be forced to impose haircuts of up to 50pc on private creditors, according to a top German institute.

BBC

Argentina’s Senate has condemned a statement by the UK prime minister in which he criticised Argentina’s attitude towards the Falkland islands.

David Cameron told MPs Argentina had a “colonialist” attitude to the islands.

Senators said they wanted a “peaceful” end to the dispute over the islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas.

Argentina has demanded talks over the South Atlantic territory’s sovereignty but the UK says it will remain British for as long as its inhabitants want. Read more »

BBC

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that the aim is to shape an "agile and flexible military force"

The US will cut almost 100,000 troops as part of its plans for a “smaller, leaner” military, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has announced.

Unveiling a restructure of the armed forces, Mr Panetta said the US would boost special forces and retain the ability to defeat “any enemy on land”.

The Pentagon is facing cuts of $487bn (£310bn) over the next 10 years.

In five years, the Army will drop from a peak of 570,000 to 490,000, and the marines be cut by 20,000, to 182,000.

Read more »

The Telegraph - Robert Winnett

Argentina does not have the military capability to invade the Falkland Islands, Gerald Howarth, a Defence Minister, has claimed.

The Huffington Post – Matthew Lee

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she wants to step off the “high wire of American politics” after two decades and is again tamping down speculation that she might stay in government if President Barack Obama wins a second term.

Clinton told State Department employees on Thursday that she is ready for a rest and is paying no attention to the Republican presidential candidate debates. She said she wants to find out just how tired she is after working flat out as first lady, senator, aspiring presidential candidate and finally the top U.S. diplomat.

Read more »

theblaze.com – Billy Hallowell

The design for the Temple for Atheists (Image Credit: Dezeen.com)

We’ve already reported about the fact that some atheist scientists bring their children to church and that skeptics are also advocating to install atheist military chaplains. These developments may seem quite odd, especially considering non-believers’ sometimes intense rhetoric against faith and religion. But now — there’s another more bizarre project in the works, as a new “atheist temple” is being planned in London, England.

For years, atheists have denied that their lack of belief actually follows religious structure. But as time goes on, new developments seem to indicate that non-believers are embracing some of the same strategies and parameters that are championed by those who hold religious views. The temple, which was announced by author Alain de Botton, seems to be reflective of a worship center of sorts. Read more »

BBC

The Arab League is to ask the United Nations Security Council to back its plan to end the violence in Syria.

On Sunday, the League called for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to step down and hand power to his deputy.

The organisation’s chief Nabil al-Arabi and the Qatari prime minister are to travel to New York on Saturday to seek support for its proposals.

Meanwhile, there are reports of renewed clashes between security forces and protesters near the capital Damascus.

Read more »

BBC

Several people have died after being tortured by militias in Libyan detention centres, human rights group Amnesty International has said.

It claimed to have seen patients in Tripoli, Misrata and Gheryan with open wounds to their head, limbs and back.

Meanwhile, charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has suspended operations in Misrata after treating 115 patients with torture-related wounds.

The UN says it is concerned about the conditions in which patients are held.

Read more »