The Pentagon released its latest budget request outline on Thursday in what was proposed as a paring down of defense spending; however, as many are now examining, the proposal aims to make cuts in certain areas, but it would actually increase baseline spending over a 10-year period. The proposal would expand the budget for technology and major weapons systems as well as for an increase in presence in Asia.

Brazilian mining giant Vale and UK-based Barclays bank were given the dubious honor of being the top vote-getters in this year's survey asking participants to name the world's most destructive international corporations. The results of the survey are gathered by The Public Eye, an effort organized jointly by the Berne Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland, and announced annually at an awards ceremony held during the World Economic Forums's gathering in the Swiss town of Davos.

When California's SB 810 -- Single Payer Health Care for California passed through the California Senate's Appropriations Committee by a 6-2 vote last week, activists thought they had an excellent chance to get the "Medicare for All" bill passed by the full Senate.

According to leaked data from the European Commission obtained by EuroActiv, greenhouse gas emissions from some biofuels are higher than those from fossil fuels, when Indirect Land Usage Change (ILUC) is factored in.Palm oil-driven deforestation in Borneo (photo: Rainforest Action Network)

On January 15th, Israeli and American officials mysteriously postponed plans for a massive missile drill, but now the exercise, originally slated for this spring, will apparently be scheduled for October 2012.

DEBKAfile, the Jerusalem-based English language Israeli military intelligence website said of the earlier postponement:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the Town Hall meeting on the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review in Washington, DC yesterday.

Responding to a question on what the U.S. would do to ensure that Iraqi security and democracy and stability continue, Sec. Clinton said:

Social media website Twitter announced Thursday that it will begin blocking certain messages (tweets) on a country-to-country basis. Twitter has been known as a vehicle for free speech as well as a source for social and political organizing -- notably during the protests in 2011 from the Egyptian uprising to Occupy Wall Street. Governments will now request Twitter to take down certain 'illegal' tweets, which will be blocked from its citizens but may still be visible by users outside of the censored country.

"What do Nobel Prize-winning development economist Amartya Sen and IMF chief Christine Lagarde have in common?" asks Alan Wheatley today in the Cyprus Mail.

The anwser: They both think austerity-driven economic policies are incompatible with effectively fighting off the financial woes of Western countries still reeling from the global recession that began in 2008.  Wheatley reports:

Although there was a $500,000 salary cap on executives who received considerable assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Treasury Department actually approved pay packages in the millions for those execs.photo: Paris Marron / CODEPINK Women for Peace

Yesterday 22 EU member states signed the controversial trade agreement known as ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

According to the EUobserver:

EU countries sign unpopular anti-counterfeit treaty

The European Commission and 22 EU member states have signed up to a controversial trade agreement in a move marked by cyber attacks and street protests.