Standing by a pile of debris that once was an elementary school, President Barack Obama on Sunday called the destruction last week's tornado wrought in Moore, Oklahoma, "hard to comprehend" and vowed to provide long-term federal help in rebuilding.

The tornado, rated at the top of a five-step scale used to measure the destructive power of twisters, killed 24 people - including seven children at the school site Obama visited. It ripped a 17-mile-long (27-km-long) corridor of destruction through the suburb of Oklahoma City, flattening entire blocks of homes, two schools and a hospital.

"Obviously the damage here is pretty hard to comprehend," Obama said, standing on a block where piles of boards, bricks and cinder blocks that used to be buildings and houses lined the side of the street. Rare items that survived the disaster - a television set, a pink baby carriage - stood in contrast to the wreckage.

The visit to the disaster-shaken town was one in a series of responses Obama has made in recent months to tragedies, including the Boston Marathon bombings last month; a December mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut; and the destruction that Superstorm Sandy caused along the Jersey Shore in October.

Two men accused of butchering a British soldier had been investigated previously by security services, a British official said Thursday, as investigators searched several locations and tried to determine whether the men were part of a wider plot to instill terror on the streets of London.

The men, suspected of hacking the off-duty soldier to death while horrified bystanders watched, boasted of their exploits and warned of more violence in images recorded on witnesses' mobile phones. Holding bloody knives and a meat cleaver, they waited for the arrival of police, who shot them in the legs, according to a passerby who tried to save the dying soldier.

Prime Minister David Cameron vowed that Britain would not be cowed by the horrific violence, and that it would reject "the poisonous narrative of extremism on which this violence feeds." Indeed, there were few signs of alarm in the British capital, which has been hit by terrorist attacks during a long confrontation with the Irish Republican Army and more recently by al-Qaida-inspired attacks.

"It's hateful, it's horrific and upsetting. But it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference," Christian White, 43, said at King's Cross station, close to the site of a subway bomb in July 2005. "Londoners are used to living in a city where life is complicated."

Even so, security was increased at military barracks and installations in the capital, with extra armed guards added in many cases. Police said extra patrols were added at sensitive areas, including places of worship, transport hubs and congested areas.

Wednesday's attack took place near a military barracks in the Woolwich area of south London.

There was a highway banner protest today at the Fort Collins / Windsor exit and I-25. Highway patrol approached us and we told the officer we are within our rights to hold the banner as long as we don't attach it to anything, it doesn't hang over the freeway and we are not blocking traffic. After initially telling us we had to leave, he later agreed with us that we were with in our rights to be there. (He checked with his supervisor to confirm what we told him).

The protest is about the re-defining of Corporations with the same rights as human beings with the ability to flood our political system with money thereby corrupting democracy. May 10th is the 127th anniversary of the Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific Railroad decision established that a railroad corporation possessed equal protection "rights" identical to living human beings under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The 14th Amendment was a post-Civil War decision specifically intended to apply to freed slaves.

Move to amend Fort Collins will continue to organize with the aim of establishing a grass roots movement that will eventually be able to purge our political system of the corruptive / corrosive influence of money. Many people involved in Move to amend and Move to amend Fort Collins have been involved in the Occupy movement and realize that Corporate power is only one aspect of a sick and dysfunctional system that must be changed.

Pentagon Loses Court Case over Refusal to Release Names of SOA/ WHINSEC Graduates Oakland, CA – In a rare reflection of judicial independence, United States District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton from the Northern District of California ordered the Pentagon to release the names of who trains and teaches at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC), a U.S. military training school for Latin American soldiers that has been connected to torturers, death squads and military dictators throughout the Americas. Human rights activists had taken the U.S. government to court over its refusal to release the information, and won. Read the court ruling here: SOAW.org/judgment SOA Watch compiled the names, course, rank, country of origin, and dates attended for every soldier and instructor at the SOA/ WHINSEC from 1946 to 2003. After researchers exposed many cases of known human rights abusers attending the WHINSEC (despite claims that the "new" school was committed to human rights), and shared this research with Congressional decision-makers, the Department of Defense (DOD) refused to disclose any future information about students or teachers at the WHINSEC. The human rights community and the U.S. Congress did not agree with the decision. In 2008 and 2009, the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill demanding that the DOD release this information. President Obama signed this measure into law. However, SOA/ WHINSEC supporters in Congress managed to slip in the caveat that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates could issue a waiver to ignore the public's right to know and refuse to release the information, if he "determines it to be in the national interest." Predictably, Obama's Secretary of Defense used the waiver to deny human rights organizations and the public access to any more information. Rep.

By: Rickard Ekstedt

Yesterday, two holdout vulture funds, including Paul Singer’s NML Capital, were in a New York Federal court versus Argentina. The Financial Times has dubbed the proceeding the “‘the trial of the century’ in sovereign debt restructuring.” After the hearing, judges at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that will issue their ruling in the coming weeks.

Jubilee USA Network is bringing attention to the effect that this case could have on poor countries: “If these vulture hedge funds win, it will mean they will more aggressively target poor countries in fragile financial recovery. If we win, it will mean that it will be harder for vulture funds to target the monies that develop social infrastructure in many poor countries,” said Eric LeCompte, Jubilee USA Network’s Executive Director.

The faith community and other groups, organized by Jubilee USA, held a vigil in concern for poor people affected by vulture funds during the proceeding outside the hearing. Vigils also took place in London and Buenos Aires.

In 2001, when Argentina defaulted on roughly $81 billion, NML Capital purchased some of Argentina’s debt on a secondary market. When Argentina defaulted, they restructured with some of their creditors in 2005 and 2010 but holdout creditors, led by NML Capital, rejected the proposal and sued Argentina for the full amount in NY courts – thus, naming NML Capital a holdout vulture fund. Vulture funds buy the debt of poor countries or countries in financial recovery for pennies on the dollar and then sue to make as much as a 400% profit off the backs of the poor. Jubilee USA Network introduced bipartisan legislation in 2009 to stop vulture funds from making a profit off of poor countries.

Pro-choice Production Offers New Venue for Social Justice in an Engaging Activism Based Theater Experience “Words of Choice,” a dynamic pro-choice theater piece is bringing its show to New York City this March in honor of Women’s History Month and the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In addition to the two performances, the show is available via live-streaming to audiences across the nation and the globe. “Words of Choice” weaves together dozens of stories of reproductive rights through poetry, spoken word, oral history, theater and journalism. It is performed by three actors, and showcases a variety of serious, comedic and contemplative pieces. As part of the first-ever WiredArts Fest, Words of Choice will be showcased to hundreds of activists with the shared goal of reproductive and social justice. “Women’s rights and reproductive freedoms are still under attack. As activists and ambassadors of change, everyone involved with Words of Choice is committed to moving public sentiment and influencing policy makers. We created this event because the use of theater is a way to transmit the pro-choice message, opening hearts and minds, and empowering the movement for women’s full equality and rights,” said Cindy Cooper, creator of Words of Choice. “Words of Choice” will be performed on March 1 at 7 pm EST and March 2 at 3 pm EST at The Secret Theater in Long Island City. As part of the WiredArts Fest, the live streaming audience will be able to participate simultaneously with tweeting, instant messaging, photo shots and Facebook. After the shows a panel discussion will take place to discuss the pieces and the state of reproductive and social justice.

Brazil: the perfect freedom of expression?

"I don't agree with only one of the words you say, but I will defend to the death your right to do so!"(Voltaire),

It is controversial the relationship between freedom of expression and the degree of development of societies.

Many seek to justify the repressive character of the current regimes as a price that must be paid for achieving progress.

Throughout history, however, people fought and died for the right to speak, to question, to publish.

Specifically we found, to our great relief, that the more developed societies are precisely those who managed broader and unquestioned freedom of expression.

However, there are difficulties everywhere, because everywhere there are those who use free speech as a weapon of war, war itself, political war and commercial war.

It is no coincidence that in many countries today, people debate legislation on the subject. This is the case of our neighboring republic, Argentina, to name just one instance.

In Brazil we have a history of abuse and arbitrariness: from the most vile censorship, like that practiced during the "military dictatorship*", even dishonest and virulent attacks carried out by sectors of the press, against institutions, citizens and even banks.

Who does not remember the school closed in São Paulo, for alleged sexual abuse against children? Or a known and respected politician who had his reputation soiled and took years and many slow lawsuits to reestablish the truth? And a certain large bank, labeled as "broken" by a magazine of great circulation, to then face really great difficulties caused by those malicious news and to end (badly) sold?