If liberal demonstrators try to crash this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, the largest annual gathering of conservatives, attendees here say they'll be ready. For weeks before the conference, conservative activists donned old jeans and hooded sweatshirts and went "undercover" at Occupy DC's downtown encampment. They sat in on meetings where Occupiers discussed plans to disrupt CPAC. Each day, the infiltrators posted what they heard to a private Google group of CPAC attendees and bloggers. Those who attended the meetings said they heard plans to cause "mayhem" at the upcoming conference and even threats of physical violence. Lachlan Markay of the conservative Heritage Foundation documented the reports and now conference attendees and organizers say they have made preparations to absorb any demonstrations. At the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, where the conference is running until Saturday, security agents are stationed across the campus. Each entrance is manned by guards wearing ear-pieces, with others outside near the metro station. "Let's just say we've adapted to everything," CPAC Security Director Floyd Resnick told Yahoo News Thursday, adding that he was not able to provide details about the conference security. Mark Indre, a spokesman for the hotel, confirmed that Marriott was taking security precautions.

NASA's budget for the next fiscal year is likely to include deep cuts to planetary science programs, forcing the space agency to withdraw altogether from an international effort to send two new missions to Mars, experts say. President Barack Obama is slated to submit his administration's federal budget request for fiscal year 2013 on Monday (Feb. 13), and NASA will hold a series of briefings to discuss its share on the same day. While exactly how much money is allocated to NASA is unknown, insiders expect a significant reduction in the portion slotted for robotic exploration of Mars and other solar system bodies. The cuts probably will compel NASA to bow out of the European Space Agency-led ExoMars missions, which aim to launch an orbiter and a drill-toting rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively, says one space policy expert. "NASA has, I think, already told ESA it's not going to be able to provide a launch vehicle in 2016," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University. "So that is going to cause a big international uproar on one dimension. And the planetary community in the U.S. is going to be very unhappy about the fact that there's no money for major new planetary missions."

Belgrade - Thick ice closed vast swathes of the Danube on Thursday, crippling shipping on Europe's busiest waterway, as the death toll from bitter cold across the continent rose to at least 460. As it has every day for nearly two weeks, the brutal cold claimed lives in several countries and killed dozens more in weather-related accidents. The 2,860-kilometre (1,780-mile) Danube, which flows through 10 countries and is vital for transport, power, irrigation, industry and fishing, was wholly or partially blocked from Austria to its mouth on the Black Sea.

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel's secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran's leaders. The group, the People's Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980. The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims' cars. The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible - Israel and the People's Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI. Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describes what Iranian leaders believe is a close relationship between Israel's secret service, the Mossad, and the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

Although it resembles stone circles made by humans, scientists believe that an unusual ring of stones in British Columbia is a natural feature. Scientists investigated an unusual ring of stones that was discovered in the Chilcotin Range of British Columbia and concluded that the stone circle was likely deposited by glacial activity and is not of human origin. The results of their research were published in the December 2011 issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. The ring of stones is composed of white colored felsite rocks that are high in silica. The stones are arranged in circle nearly 50 meters (164 feet) in diameter above the tree line along the Chilcotin Range in British Columbia, Canada. The white rocks stand out in stark contrast to the other darker rocks in the region, which are composed of granitoid gneiss and grandodiorite. The circle can be seen easily from the air and by viewing the terrain on Google Earth. Many stone circles were created by humans during prehistoric times (approximately 3700 BC to 1500 BC). Archeologists believe that these circles were created either for use in religious ceremonies or as an aid in making astronomical observations. Europe contains a high number of stone circles of human origin, but examples of these structures can be found in other regions of the world as well.

Cell phones - an incredibly convenient device that make our lives infinitely easier. While these phones have created great steps forward in communication, talking on them comes at a price. The massive increase in cellular phone use in our current society has resulted in a large degree of research examining the potential negative health effects they have on humans. Very recent research has shown that microwave radiation emitted by cellular devices negatively influences fetal brains. The experiment took 32 pregnant rats and divided them into 4 different groups, with one of them receiving no exposure to microwave radiation. The other three groups were exposed to different intensities of microwave radiation from cellular phones, with each of them being subjected for different amounts of time.

While the mainstream media is going to great lengths to convince the world that events in Syria are the result of yet another 'people's revolution', the facts point clearly to yet another US government-sponsored bloody 'regime change'. Given that the US has been a de facto global empire for at least 60 years, with all of the power, infrastructure and influence that entails, how difficult do we think it would be for agents of the empire to manufacture a 'revolution' in any given country? The answer, surprisingly, is 'not so easily'. But it is doable, as long as the empire is willing to murder innocent civilians to create the impression of a brutal regime in need of removal. And the USA has never balked at murdering a few hundred, a few thousand, or even a few million civilians to ensure it gets its geo-political way, to the delight of psychopaths in power everywhere.

So the foreclosure settlement is through. A few weeks back, I was optimistic about it - I had been worried that it was going to contain broad liability waivers for all sorts of activities, and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that its scope had essentially been narrowed to robosigning offenses. However, now that the settlement is finalized, and I've had time to think about it and talk to people who know far more than I do about this, I'm feeling pretty queasy. It feels an awful lot like what happened here is the nation's criminal justice honchos collectively realized that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources they simply do not have, or are reluctant to deploy, and decided to accept a superficially face-saving peace offer rather than fight it out. So they settled the case in a way that reads in headlines like it's a bite out of the banks, but in fact is barely even that. There will be little in the way of real compensation for stuggling homeowners, and there are serious issues in the area of the deal's enforceability. In fact, about the only part of the deal we can be absolutely sure will be honored in full is the liability waiver for the robosigning offenses.

Sources: President Promised Dolan That He Would 'Get Most Of What He Wanted' Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan says President Barack Obama hasn't kept his promise, when it comes to the new White House policy on contraception. Sources told CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer that Archbishop Dolan feels betrayed after his meeting with the president on the issue late last year. A Catholic group in Alabama filed the first lawsuit against the Obama administration's new birth control regulations as the controversy got even more heated Thursday.

The LAPD is fighting crime from a high-tech war room that gives it eyes all over the city. The surveillance hub is now a model for police forces around the world and KCAL9 got an exclusive tour inside from Chief Charlie Beck. "We are targets on our own soil," says Beck. "We have to be ready." What began as a grass roots idea following the 9/11 terrorist attacks is now a state-of-the-art real-time analysis critical response center. It's called RACR, and it's located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. "This is a system that cuts through the red tape, that gets information to the people that need it," says Chief Beck. He calls it "the brains of the department, twenty-four/seven." Police in the activity center monitor live feeds of city and traffic cameras, counter-terrorism information, and real-time crime mapping, with cutting edge software.

Missouri mother Bradie Simpson 'assaulted baby' Found in woods holding her nine-month-old girl Ex-boyfriend found in same woods in September Told church pastor she's 'possessed' in October A mother allegedly slashed her nine-month-old baby's throat just months after telling a pastor she could be possessed and might hurt the girl. Bradie Simpson, 39, of Camdenton, Missouri, was found in woods 225ft from her home as she held the baby covered in blood with a neck wound. It comes months after the body of her ex-boyfriend, the baby's father, was found in the same woods last September, reported ABC affiliate KSPR.

Mikhail Gorbachev, a man who knows something about losing control of Russia, met with students today and warned of swelling protests against Vladimir Putin if he retakes the presidency. It may be time to add a familiar old face to the gallery of fresh pro-democracy leaders that's been created by Russia's growing anti-Putin street protest movement: the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr. Gorbachev, now an octogenarian, was one of the first Russian political figures to start warning - more than a year ago - that Vladimir Putin's autocratic, top-down Kremlin-centric regime risked repeating many of the errors that led to the downfall of the USSR and could face a mass challenge from the streets if it failed to implement democratic reforms. Now that protest movement has materialized and Gorbachev, who faced a popular groundswell of opposition in the dying days of the Soviet Union, is advising Mr. Putin to drop his bid for election to a third presidential term in March 4 polls and leave. With society turning against him, Putin is no longer able to handle the burdens of the presidency, Gorbachev said during a meeting with students at Moscow's International University today.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reached agreements with China to facilitate uranium exports and air travel as part of efforts to deepen ties. Harper and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced a pact that will give Canadian uranium producers more access to China's civilian nuclear power industry, according to a joint statement released by Harper's office. Canada is home to the world's largest uranium producer, Cameco Corp. No details of the agreement were provided. "This agreement will help Canadian uranium companies to substantially increase exports to China, the world's fastest growing market for these products," Harper said in a statement. "It will generate jobs here at home while contributing to the use of clean reliable energy in China." Harper, who is on a four-day visit to China, is seeking to attract Chinese investment in Canada's natural resources and sell more energy to Asia, while winning business in China for Canadian companies. The two countries announced an investment protection pact Feb. 8. "I think Canada-China relations are continuing along a very positive route," Harper said after meeting President Hu Jintao yesterday. "We are reaching a new level." Wen, who met Harper in Beijing on Feb. 8, called for discussions on a possible free trade agreement, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. He said China is "ready to expand imports of energy and resource products from Canada" and boost cooperation in areas including renewable energy and the peaceful use of nuclear power, according to Xinhua.

Qasim Khan waged the unlikeliest of battles with Pakistani authorities Thursday over the right to charge hundreds of curious visitors the equivalent of 22 cents each to see a roughly 40-foot whale shark he bought from a fisherman. Khan is in the business of buying fish, albeit usually much smaller ones, and jumped at the chance on Tuesday to pay about $2,200 for the 20-ton behemoth, which was discovered dead in the Arabian Sea off the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Business was brisk Wednesday, as several thousand people paid to see the brown and white-spotted shark, which Khan set up under a cloth tent next to the harbor. People crowded around to put their hands on the massive fish, and families snapped their picture with it - ignoring the pungent smell as it began to rot. But police cracked down Thursday, saying fishery authorities had decided people should be allowed to see the shark for free. Khan resisted and hid his prize attraction under the giant piece of green cloth he had previously used as a tent.

Reported concerns among some U.S. officials that Iran may have essentially freed a group of al Qaeda militants held for almost a decade under house arrest in the Islamic Republic are adding Friday morning to the escalating war-rhetoric pouring out of Washington and Israel. According to The Wall Street Journal, some government officials believe Iran's move to allow the men greater freedom - which may include permission to leave the country - suggests the nation's hardline rulers are trying to bolster a link between themselves and the radical Muslim terror group as Western pressure mounts on both entities. Comment: In other words, unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources. Aka propaganda.

As tensions mount between Western nations and Syria, the German authorities said Thursday that they had ordered the expulsion of four Syrian diplomats after arresting two men accused separately of spying on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad. The police here arrested the two men on Tuesday, saying they were "strongly suspected of investigating Syrian opposition members in Germany for a Syrian intelligence service over a period of years." The men were identified, under standard German procedures, only as Mahmoud El A., 47, of Lebanese descent, and Akram O., 34, a Syrian. State and federal police officers searched the homes of six other suspects "believed to be involved in espionage," prosecutors said. In a statement on Thursday, Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, said the four diplomats - three men and a woman who were not identified by name - had been given three days to leave Germany. Mr. Westerwelle did not go into detail about the expulsions, but officials said the embassy personnel were suspected of carrying out activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, a formulation that usually refers to espionage.

The superstar Spanish judge who won global fame for aggressively taking on international human rights cases was convicted Thursday of overstepping his jurisdiction in a domestic corruption probe and barred from the bench for 11 years, marking a spectacular fall from grace for one of the nation's most prominent citizens. Baltasar Garzon was unanimously convicted by a seven-judge panel of the Supreme Court. Because he is 56, the punishment could end his Spanish judicial career. Hours after the verdict, hundreds of Garzon supporters braved freezing weather in Madrid's central Sol plaza shouting "Shame! Shame!" in protest. It was just one of three cases pending against Garzon, who is still awaiting a verdict in trial on the same charge - knowingly overstepping the bounds of his jurisdiction - for launching a probe in 2008 of right-wing atrocities committed during and after the Spanish civil war of 1936-1939 even though the crimes were covered by a 1977 amnesty. In Thursday's verdict, the court ruled that Garzon acted arbitrarily in ordering jailhouse wiretaps of detainees talking to their lawyers, the court said, adding that his actions "these days are only found in totalitarian regimes." Ironically, Garzon is best known for indicting a totalitarian ruler, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, in 1998, and trying to put him on trial in Madrid for crimes against humanity. He also indicted Osama bin Laden in 2003 over the Sept. 11 attacks.

The nation's first new nuclear power plant in a generation won approval Thursday as federal regulators voted to grant a license for two new reactors in Georgia. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 4-1 to approve Atlanta-based Southern Co.'s request to build two nuclear reactors at its Vogtle site south of Augusta. The vote clears the way for officials to issue an operating license for the reactors, which could begin operating as soon as 2016 and 2017. The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania raised fears of a radiation release and brought new reactor orders nearly to a halt. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko voted against the Vogtle license, saying he wanted a binding commitment from the company that it would make safety changes prompted by the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan.

A father's harsh parenting has aroused wide controversy after a video was circulated online showing his nearly-nude four-year-old son running in snow. The boy, Duo Duo, was running with only a pair of pants and trainers to combat the morning temperature of minus 13 degrees Celsius in New York, where the family from the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing spent their Spring Festival holiday. The 44-year-old entrepreneur trained his son to run in the freezing weather for five minutes and do push-ups despite the boy's trembling and cries for a hug. He uploaded the training footage online and dubbed it the "eagle dad" parenting approach, the Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.

State and federal officials on Thursday will announce a landmark settlement with five of the nation's banks over their flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices. The $26 billion deal, which officially will be unveiled at a 10 a.m. Department of Justice news conference, aims to help troubled borrowers by reducing the amount they owe on their mortgages, lowering their interest rates and paying restitution to homeowners who suffered mortgage-related abuses. Long-running negotiations over the settlement received a major boost Wednesday when California ­Attorney General Kamala Harris agreed to back the effort after withdrawing her support last fall, according to three people with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.