Kazakhstan, a human rights disaster, hosts Iran Talks. The ‘Soviets’ Liberate Poznan in 1945 Battle Reenactment. Russian billionaire nominates 1-year-old son for Aeroflot's BoD

Anti War - Kazakhstan, a human rights disaster, hosts Iran Talks - Allen Ruff and I have written extensively about Kazakhstan and about the typical hypocrisy at-play in the kleptocratic country.

The Daily Telegraph - Mexican police find 'drugs cannon' used to fire marijuana into California - A spokesman said the device was made up of a plastic pipe and a crude metal tank that used compressed air from the engine of an old car.

The New York Times - Now Gathering in Rome, a Conclave of Fallible Cardinals - The sudden resignation of the most senior Roman Catholic cardinal in Britain, who stepped aside on Monday in the face of accusations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward priests years ago, showed that the taint of scandal could force a cardinal from participating in the selection of a new pope.

Associated Press - US weighs direct aid to Syrian rebels - The Obama administration, in coordination with some European allies, is for the first time considering supplying direct assistance to elements of the Free Syrian Army as they seek to ramp up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and end nearly two years of brutal and increasingly deadly violence.

Information Clearing House - History of Iran-US Relationship - Sixty years ago, the CIA and the British SIS orchestrated a coup d'etat that toppled the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The prime minister and his nationalist supporters in parliament roused Britain's ire when they nationalised the oil industry in 1951, which had previously been exclusively controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Mossadegh argued that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves.

The Diplomat - How Demography Is Changing Japan - "The increasingly inverted structure of Japan’s population pyramid, with fewer young people than old people, means that it will be very difficult to generate the tax revenues necessary to pay for the healthcare needs of the elderly."

The Washington Post - For Chuck Hagel, confirmed as defense secretary, now the hard work starts - Chuck Hagel’s painful, prolonged and divisive nomination battle in the Senate finally ended Tuesday, but it is only a prelude to the national-security challenges that will greet him on his first day of work at the Pentagon.

RIA Novosti - The ‘Soviets’ Liberate Poznan in 1945 Battle Reenactment - Over 300 members of historical clubs in Poland took part in a reenactment of the Battle of Poznan in 1945, when the Soviet Union’s Red Army launched a massive assault on the Nazi stronghold of Poznan in occupied Poland.

Xinhuanet - DPRK says nuclear test "self-defense" measure against U.S. threat - The nuclear test on Feb. 12 was a "self-defense" measure in reaction to the United States' ever increasing threat, a diplomat of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said here on Tuesday.

Russia Today - Russian billionaire nominates 1-year-old son for Aeroflot's BoD - Aleksandr Lebedev, one of the shareholders in Russia's biggest air carrier, Aeroflot, has nominated his child to the company's Board of Directors. That's according to an official press report, released by Aeroflot. Egor Lebedev was born in November 2011.