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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The number of civilian casualties resulting from the conflict in Afghanistan has risen for a fifth consecutive year, according to a report (pdf) by the United Nations. The number of civilian deaths in 2011, according to the report, was up to 3,021 - an increase of eight per cent on the previous year's total of 2,790.

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Hundreds of Syrians have been killed and many more seriously injured in the Syrian town of Homs following widespread demonstrations on Friday, according to reports. Worldwide condemnation was evident at Syrian embassies around the world with anger focused on the brutal crackdown of the Assad's military and security forces.

UPDATE: (1:12 PM EST): Russia and China have vetoed a UN Security Council vote.

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Bradley Manning, the US Army Private accused of releasing nearly 700,000 US diplomatic cables and military combat material to the media organization Wikileaks, including footage of an US military assault on innocent civilians in Iraq which became known as Collateral Murder, will face a military court martial in the United States. The decision was announced late on Friday.

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Police arrived before dawn this morning in McPherson Square in Washington, DC.

UPDATE: (2:35 PM) AP reports:

Police by mid-day had arrested six people, including four protesters who refused to move from beneath a statute and two others for crossing a police line.

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Arizona State University is reportedly blocking students’ access to the petition and advocacy site Change.org and to messages from the site to ASU email addresses. A popular website that uses petitions to create social change, Change.org is hosting a petition by ASU students to lower tuition rates.

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Today, thousands of Syrians took to the streets again admist a continued government crackdown. Syrians across the country came out to mark the anniversary of the Hama Massacre, which took the lives of tens of thousands of people in the city of Hama in 1982, and to continue their campaign against the ruling Assad regime.

Security forces clashed with opposition forces leaving dozens dead so far.

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"Who's on the call right now?"

An FBI agent in the United States asked the obvious question when joining a conference call between US law enforcement agents and their Scotland Yard counterparts in the UK. 

Among those on the call who did not identify themselves, possibly, was a member (or members) of the very group that call was intended to discuss -- the hacking group 'Anonymous'.

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An upcoming study shows the future for birds and insect life around Fukushima has been badly damaged, an ominous sign of things to come.photo: SandoCap

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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released seemingly promising figures this morning -- boasting a decrease in the nation's unemployment rate to 8.3 percent, from 8.5 percent in December, totaling 243,000 jobs added.

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Town Meeting Day is held in Vermont every year on the first Tuesday in March. The day is a state holiday and it allows for each town in the New England state to come together and make legislative decisions in a traditional Town Hall Meeting format, one of the purest forms of democracy practiced in the United States. This year, in addition to setting budgets and electing local officials, more than four dozen towns will also address the role of corporate personhood and call for resolutions protesting the US Supreme Court's 'Citizen United' decision.

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