Newsfeeds

As rhetoric heats up regarding possible military action on Iran, some military officials are advocating the use of a little talked about arsenal in the military's arsenal: marine mammals. Marine mammals such as dolphins and sea lions have already been enlisted, and some are advocating the use of dolphins in the Strait of Hormuz.

Protests against the regressive Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, are flaring up across Europe, with over 100 planned for this Saturday, February 11th.

While organized opposition in the US kept SOPA and PIPA from moving forward, President Obama already signed ACTA months ago. The International Business Times reported:

In Syria, scores of people are reported to have died over the weekend in a government offensive on 'protest hubs'. The city of Homs, being the main site of violence, saw hundreds dead throughout the weekend. Today, the bombardment continues; some reports are saying up to 50 people are dead at last count.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel continue their push for Greece to accept further austerity measures in order to receive bailout funds and warned that Greece was "running out of time" to accept the deal presented to them. Today Merkel told Greece that it needed to make up its mind on taking the reform package while Greek unions announced a nationwide strike for tomorrow in protest of the austerity measures.

The temperature of Reactor #2 at Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has soared overnight and remained mysteriously high Monday, despite more water being pumped through it.

On January 27th, the reactor's internal temperature was 113º F, Monday the temperature soared to 164º F.  Japanese authorities require that the reactor temperature remain below 176º F.

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As scientists search for a plan to deal with climate change, some have pushed for a controversial approach known as geoengineering, a technological fix for climate change that involves efforts such as reflecting solar energy back into space or fertilizing the oceans.

Bill Gates is among other wealthy individuals financially backing scientists to lobby governments to push geoengineering, raising concerns that this small group may have a large impact on further decisions on geoengineering.

A week after President Obama spoke publicly for first time about the CIA's drone campaign in Pakistan, a new investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times in London reports the program has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals.

Tensions in the Middle East show no sign of abating today as Iran issued warnings to neighboring Gulf states that they would face the wrath of Iranian military retaliation if US bases on their soils were used to support an attack on their nuclear facilities or infrastructure. Meanwhile, other nations urge caution, saying that great efforts to forge negotiations must be supported to avert war and the global instability that would result.

Super Bowl Sunday, the largest single sporting event in the United States most years, is taking place today in Indianopolis and proponents of labor rights  and representatives of the Occupy movement hope to capitalize on some of the fanfare to make their voices heard.

The unusual cold weather in eastern Europe has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of vulnerable people living in areas unprepared for the freezing conditions. Extreme weather events have been increasingly evident in recent years, and now scientests are fearful that the 'feedback loops' of climate change are occurring in ways that uphold predictions made by global warming models showing how seemingly unrelated occurrences, such as the melting of ice in the arctic, are noticeably changing weather patterns in faraway regions.