British efforts to help topple Colonel Gaddafi were not limited to air strikes. On the ground - and on the quiet - special forces soldiers were blending in with rebel fighters. This is the previously untold account of the crucial part they played.

The British campaign to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi's regime had its public face - with aircraft dropping bombs, or Royal Navy ships appearing in Libyan waters, but it also had a secret aspect.

My investigations into that covert effort reveal a story of practically minded people trying to get on with the job, while all the time facing political and legal constraints imposed from London.

In the end, though, British special forces were deployed on the ground in order to help the UK's allies - the Libyan revolutionaries often called the National Transitional Council or NTC. Those with a knowledge of the programme insist "they did a tremendous job" and contributed to the final collapse of the Gaddafi regime.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16573516

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused a leading liberal radio station of constantly disparaging him and serving foreign interests.

At a regular meeting with editors-in-chief of leading media, he told Moscow Echo radio's Alexei Venediktov: "You pour diarrhoea over me day and night."

He singled out a discussion of Russia's opposition to US missile defence plans in Europe as an example of Echo's bias.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16627415

Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring, the Guardian can reveal.

In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers – whom they have not seen in decades – were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children's mothers for many years.

One of the spies was Bob Lambert, who has already admitted that he tricked a second woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an intricate attempt to bolster his credibility as a committed campaigner.

The second police spy followed the progress of his child and the child's mother by reading confidential police reports which tracked the mother's political activities and life.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists

Australian comedy performer Barry Humphries has won the title of Australian of the Year in the UK.

He opened his acceptance speech by quoting Rupert Murdoch's comments in front of a British parliamentary committee on phone hacking last year.

"This is the most humble day of my life," he said.

After mocking Prime Minister Julia Gillard's voice and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd's first name, Humphries revealed he had an inkling he was up for the award.

"I had a friend very high up in the world of media who has been tapping the phones in Australia House for many years," he said.

"He told me, I can't tell you his name, he is married to a Chinese girl.

"He said it was between me and Julian Assange and it turned out to be me."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-22/humphries-named-aust-of-the-year-in-uk/3786618?WT.svl=news1

Of course, Julian Assange would have been a much better choice than the self appointed glady's queen from moonee ponds...

He stands accused of funding rebels who hacked the arms off small children, smuggling blood diamonds, keeping sex slaves and torturing his opponents, but former Liberian President Charles Taylor also had another career - providing information to US intelligence agencies, according to information obtained by the Boston Globe newspaper. 

Today, Taylor is jailed in The Hague as the first former African leader to face international prosecution from the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. In the 1990s, he was allegedly responsible for wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, which killed more than 250,000 people. 

“It’s an intriguing development,” Will Reno, a professor at Northwestern University who studies political violence in Africa, told Al Jazeera. “Was the US still supporting him when he was responsible for all of these human rights abuses? Did the US contribute to that?”

While the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon’s spy arm, confirmed its agents and CIA agents worked with Taylor in the 1980s, they would not reveal details of the relationship on national security grounds.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/01/2012120194243233526.html

Most people would know that tinpots who last more than two weeks in any African "country" (usually a jumble of various tribes who hate each others) would be supported by MI6, the DGSE (formerly the SDECE) or the CIA... "Democracy" is not the aim of the game... the main square on the board is RESOURCES... itself cut in wedges like diamonds, oil, more oil, rare earths, or as in the Congo's past : RUBBER......