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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta appeared at a Senate Armed Services Committee congressional hearing, where he said “legal basis” was needed to initiate a no-fly zone over Syria. (video at link)

In the early 20th century, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. While Great Britain's maritime power and its far-flung empire had propelled it to a dominant position among the world's industrialized nations, only the United States challenged Argentina for the position of the world's second-most powerful economy. It was blessed with abundant agriculture, vast swaths of rich farmland laced with navigable rivers and an accessible port system. Its level of industrialization was higher than many European countries: railroads, automobiles and telephones were commonplace. In 1916, a new president was elected. Hipólito Irigoyen had formed a party...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy Isaac Molho will meet with top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman Tuesday for preliminary talks aimed at setting an agenda for peace negotiations, even as the Palestinians are preparing a diplomatic campaign that aims to put Israel under "a real international siege." (Snip) The diplomatic offensive the Palestinians are planning to launch later this month could include pushing the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning settlement construction and urging the International Criminal Court to try Israel for war crimes related to its 2008-2009 incursion into the Gaza Strip.

A growing number of Americans is thinking about turning expat, according to a survey by America Wave and Zogby International. The share of Americans planning to relocate increased to 2.5 percent from 0.8 percent in 2009. If this number describes the entire population, that means around 6 million Americans are planning on leaving the country. America Wave's Bob Adams (a Business Insider contributor) found that single people, political conservatives and men were more likely to be in this group.

(Machine Translation from German to English) -- ("Perry' s Debatten-Desaster : "Ähm, oops, sorry"): "There should be a settlement with the intra-party rivals Herman Cain, but then Rick Perry catapulted out of the presidential race in the U.S. Republicans. In a televised debate of the candidates had the Texans a highly embarrassing blackout. It is exactly 21.20 clock in Michigan, as Rick Perry 's presidential ambitions. For almost one and a half hours, the top eight candidates debated the U.S. Republicans already in the north gym of Oakland University in Detroit.

"...John Christensen, director at Tax Justice Network said "You are definitely better off not being American" when it comes to offshore income. President Obama’s historically low approval ratings have been attributed in part to the divisive class-warfare rhetoric he is known to employ. Critics say that not only does his divisive speech exacerbate problems in the US but large amounts of potential revenue are lost because of tax payers sheltering their income from excessive taxation..."

Starting with the "top of the fold" Japanese Version of the daily "Wall Street Journal", the Japanese vernacular press is brimming full of articles mentioning Herman Cain is the new front runner in the GOP race for the party's nomination for 2012. This news seems to have exploded overnight.It will be quite a task to translate all these in full. Here are some representative samples from today I saw, using "Google Japan (News)". I shall endeavor to provide a URL link and title translation for just a segment of them, which have all appeared in the last 48 hours, particularly...

It’s tough times for the solar power “industry” in the United States and Down Under. How tough? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports, “The only Australian company which manufactures solar cells is closing the operation. Ilex Solar has announced it will stop making the cells at its western Sydney facility, with 30 jobs to be lost. The company will continue to make solar panels, using imported components.” “In other words, solar isn’t viable unless solar-equipped households get lots of money from other taxpayers,” responds writer and blogger, Tim Blair of The Daily Telegraph, Sydney. More bad news from The Australian: “Industry...

The U.S. has apologised after a diplomat told Indian school children that she looked like them when her 'skin became dirty and dark' after a long train journey.

So much for president perfect eh libs? I thought this was the guy that was going to restore our standing in the world! From the conservative standpoint his trip to Britain was a smashing success. A shorter way to put that is, "we told you so!"He should open up a business... The menu would be pretty robust: France: Enough already! If I wanted red "whine" I'd go to my local party meeting. India: "I'm not going anywhere near those dots, I've never had to connect any and I ain't starting now!" Japan: "Seriously? Just because I'm bowing in this gay...

The White House on Thursday is expected to unveil its proposal to enhance the nation's cybersecurity, laying out plans to require industry to better protect systems that run critical infrastructure like the electrical grid, financial systems and nuclear power plants. The Obama administration also is insisting that companies tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. According to cybersecurity experts familiar with the plan, the administration's proposed legislation also would instruct federal agencies to more closely monitor their computer networks. Several House and Senate committees have been working on cybersecurity legislation for the past two years, while waiting for...

Of the five countries listed below, four, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and China are led by current, or former communists – in the case of Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, former communist terrorists. From Cuba’s Prensa Latina. Beijing, Apr. 14 China repeated its call for reform of the international financial and monetary system, with better representation of emerging economies and developing countries. Fair, inclusive, and well-managed systems must be established to support global economic development, President Hu Jintao sid during a summit meeting of the BRICS bloc in Sanya, on the southern island of Hainan. The meeting...

How dishonest has the left/media spin about The One’s alleged diplomatic triumph been? Go look at the sentence Jeffrey Goldberg pulled from Reuters’s latest excrescence. Somewhere Tony Blair is reading these comparisons of Obama’s League of Justice to Cowboy George having “gone it alone” and wondering if he hallucinated those years of endless screeching about him being “Bush’s poodle” for sending thousands of British troops to hold southern Iraq together. Anyway, here’s how triumphant our coalition-building triumph is: The Cable compiled a chart listing all the countries that contributed at least some military assets to the five major military operations...

It seems that Mexico violated international law by illegally entering into the United States.  The incursion has been caught on video at the Anzalduas International Bridge. You will see the international boundary that separates the United States from Mexico and what authorities on this side of the border seem to think is a truck packed with armed men crossing into the United States. The video clearly shows a large military-transport vehicle drive north on the Anzalduas bridge over the international boundary. There were at least a dozen armed military men in the back  of the truck which was traveling...

MISSION - CHANNEL 5 NEWS is exposing what appears to be a Mexican military incursion into the United States. It was all caught on camera. We froze surveillance video taken at the Anzalduas International Bridge. What you see is the international boundary that separates the United States from Mexico and what authorities on this side of the border seem to think is a truck packed with armed men crossing into the United States. The video clearly shows a large military-transport vehicle drive north on the Anzalduas bridge over the international boundary. We counted at least a dozen armed men in...

Given the contentious relationship between his followers and many in the conservative movement, it’s safe to say that Rep. Ron Paul’s address to CPAC this year was one of the more anticipated speeches of the political holiday weekend. And Rep. Paul delivered: railing against the “neo-Jacobins” that passed the PATRIOT Act, calling for drastic cuts in military spending, and a passionate repudiation of the Federal Reserve. Opening with a jubilant recognition of the results of last November’s midterms– and, especially, the election of his son Rand to the Senate– the tenor of Paul’s speech was mostly combative towards the more...

Is Queen Rania the Next Target of Middle Eastern Violence? Posted by Sasha Brown-Worsham on February 9, 2011 at 1:25 PM Comments (4)| Likes (5) Share 18 Queen Rania of Jordan is undoubtedly an international celebrity. Most of this is due to her marked beauty and taste for fine things. But her lavish lifestyle may soon come to end as Jordan is showing some signs that it could be the next Egypt or Tunisia. Recent revolts, like the ones that took out Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and currently threaten Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, have been played out on...

A German company is in high-level talks to acquire the New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street's most recognizable institution. According to reports published in both the German and American financial press, Deutsche Borse, a Frankfurt-based stock exchange is seeking to take a 60 percent ownership interest in the NYSE. The merger would create the world's largest financial exchange. News of the deal sent both NYSE and Deutsche Borse stock soaring Thursday. If US and European regulators sign off on the plan, the new parent company would have dual headquarters in Germany and America. The merger is not expected to result...

To be honest, some of the proposals are long overdue and need international agreement. There are more and more satellites up there and issues like frequency interference, space debris, and other problems associated with the explosion in space technology need to be addressed by the international community. But as with everything this administration does, they go way beyond reasonable and enter the absurdly optimistic realm of trusting Russia and China to play by the rules without much in the way of verification. Washington Times: The administration has signaled that it is preparing to accept the European Union's draft Code of...

Today the FCC voted to regulate the internet, but that’s only part of the story. Behind the scenes, President Obama has been working with the international community, not Congress, to institute government control of the internet. Under the banner of cyber security, Melissa Hathaway, Obama’s former White House official, urged that the power of three regulatory agencies (SEC, FCC and FTC) be harnessed to bring about a “comprehensive solution set.” The plan to take control of the internet was devised through the Atlantic Council’s Program on International Security. That’s right… the Obama administration has been working closely with other countries...