Spain's Eurovision entrant has denied reports she was asked not to win by her country's public television channel. Pastora Soler told the BBC she had been misquoted by a "very bad" journalist. Her comments followed a widely circulated story that quoted her as saying Spain would struggle to host the event if she were to win this weekend. Speaking on Friday, she insisted that "Spanish public television want to win and me too". "We want to win this Eurovision," Soler told the BBC World Service. "If we win, Spain will be very happy with us." It is written in the contest rules that the public broadcaster of the nation that wins must host the following year. "Spain have a lot of place to have the competition," the singer went on. "It's not a problem for us." Her remarks followed an earlier interview she gave to ABC Punto Radio in which she said Spain's TVE channel would find it "really difficult" to stage the contest.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) was formed on 12th February 1950 by 23 broadcasting organisations from Europe and the Mediterranean at a conference in Devon, United Kingdom. It was on the 6th of June, 1954, that Montreux became the venue for the first transmission by the EBU's Eurovision Network of the Narcissus Festival and its flower-bedecked procession floats. "Did you know that not only stars like ABBA, Celine Dion, Cliff Richard and Julio Iglesias took part, but also dance act Riverdance thanks its fame to the Eurovision Song Contest?" The first Eurovision viewers eagerly watched on four million television sets in homes, bars, and shop windows in Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The European Broadcasting Union is the largest association of national broadcasters in the world. We promote cooperation between broadcasters and facilitate the exchange of audiovisual content. The EBU works to ensure that- the crucial role of public service broadcasters is recognised and taken into consideration by decision-makers.

(Baku) -- The Azerbaijani authorities roughed up and arbitrarily detained at least 30 and possibly more than 70 peaceful protesters today as dozens of local and international journalists looked on, Human Rights Watch said today. The protesters were held for several hours, then released. The crackdown during the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest-is the third on the peaceful protests in less than two weeks. This is the second peaceful protest-broken up by police this week. "It is stunning that, as the world tunes in to watch performers sing their hearts out at Eurovision, the Azerbaijani government won't allow even the smallest opening for its own citizens to express themselves," said Giorgi Gogia, senior South Caucasus researcher at Human Rights Watch. "There should be an immediate investigation into the police use of force against peaceful protesters, and their arbitrary detention."

"Well, I look under the skin of countries' economies and I help them make better decisions and be stronger, to prosper and create employment." You could think of the IMF as a-global payday loan company for countries who have got into trouble and can't meet their financial commitments -- the difference being that instead of charging sky-high interest rates, it demands radical economic reforms. And if they say they don't like the sound of that? "If I'm confident that the sound of it is accurate, I say, well, I'm terribly sorry but this is the sound we are making."

"Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."

Even more than she thinks about all those now struggling to survive without jobs or public services? "I think of them equally. And I think they should also help themselves collectively." How? "By all paying their tax. Yeah."

It sounds as if she's essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe, you've had a nice time and now it's payback time.

"That's right." She nods calmly. "Yeah."

The Government is drawing up plans for emergency immigration controls to curb an influx of Greeks and other European Union residents if the euro collapses, the Home Secretary discloses today.

"Well, I look under the skin of countries' economies and I help them make better decisions and be stronger, to prosper and create employment." You could think of the IMF as a-global payday loan company for countries who have got into trouble and can't meet their financial commitments -- the difference being that instead of charging sky-high interest rates, it demands radical economic reforms. And if they say they don't like the sound of that? "If I'm confident that the sound of it is accurate, I say, well, I'm terribly sorry but this is the sound we are making."

"Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."

Even more than she thinks about all those now struggling to survive without jobs or public services? "I think of them equally. And I think they should also help themselves collectively." How? "By all paying their tax. Yeah."

It sounds as if she's essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe, you've had a nice time and now it's payback time.

"That's right." She nods calmly. "Yeah."

Robert Zubrin: Radical Environmentalists and Other Merchants of Despair - [VIDEO]

Amazon link to the book

German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said. The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.

"This shows Germany is capable of meeting a large share of its electricity needs with solar power," Allnoch said. "It also shows Germany can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants and nuclear plants."

Allnoch said the data is based on information from the European Energy Exchange (EEX), a bourse based in Leipzig.

business area Research, economic and policy consultation National and international networks Media-services product-/ service area Market studies, reports, energy scenarios International network "Renewable Energy Industry": Economics, R&D, institutes & universities, countries, regions & municipals Media services: Press services � Sending original press releases, energy job exchange, company and product marketing, marketing for commercial sites Global stock index for renewable�energies RENIXX� Wind farm yield check Biodiesel / bioethanol�price index Business climate index of the renewable energy industry

At the Group of 8 (G8) meetings this past weekend, President Obama and the leaders of the rest of the world's richest nations abandoned their governments' previous commitments to donate $7.3 billion a year to end hunger in Africa, after disbursing only 58 percent of the total pledge of $22 billion and giving less than 6 percent in new money they pledged three years ago. Instead, rich nations will leave the problem in the hands of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition where private corporations will invest $3 billion over 10 years -- Monsanto has committed $50 million -- beginning in three countries, Tanzania, Ghana and Ethiopia. (Human-rights activists have questioned the inclusion of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, noting that his authoritarian government has jailed dissidents and banned media access to hunger zones. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a letter to President Obama that the Ethiopian government "routinely downplays the extent of the crisis by denying journalists access to sensitive areas and censoring independent news coverage.")

Up to 34 Dead in US-Aided Yemen Offensive -- News from Antiwar.com

BBC News - Ban Ki-moon says Al-Qaeda behind Damascus bombings

Can we start with Iran and the IAEA? As I'm sure you've seen in the IAEA, at least, the new report that says, among other things, that the Iranians have installed hundreds more centrifuges at Fordo, and that IAEA inspectors found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 percent. Apparently, the Iranians said that that sometimes happens inadvertently. What do you think about the addition of --

The International Atomic Energy Agency says in a report that its experts have found particles enriched up to 27 percent at the Fordo nuclear facility. That is higher than the 20 percent declared by Iran and closer to the weapons-grade material used in the fissile core of such missiles. The restricted report says Iran explains the find as a technical glitch. The agency says it is assessing that explanation and has asked for more details, while analysts and diplomats say Iran's version sounds plausible. Low enrichment is used to fuel reactors. The higher the enrichment level, the easier it is to reach the 90-percent threshold needed to make nuclear arms.

One, who called it the "worst party ever" described how "angry people" were waiting in the queue outside while high-profile guests were admitted, and another condemned the event as "unpleasant". The evening had been intended as a fundraising event for the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network, which was set up to "encourage the next generation to address global challenges". Hosted by Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea, the night was attended by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, model Lily Cole, performer Will.I.Am and Princess Beatrice. Glamorous photographs of the event document Clinton's short speech addressing the issue of climate change, as well smartly-dressed attendees enjoying themselves.

The BBC has learned that nearly a third of the Olympics tickets which went on sale earlier this month remain unsold. The London 2012 organisers had expected that the 928,000 tickets would all be snapped up quickly by eager buyers, but that has not proved to be the case. There are still more than 20 sessions with availability for sports like boxing, basketball, beach volleyball and weightlifting. In total there are nearly 300,000 tickets remaining on sale.

In an updated version of its advice for websites on how to use cookies -- small text files that are stored on the user's computer and can identify them -- the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said that websites can assume that users have consented to their use of them. The advice was only updated on Thursday, 48 hours before the deadline for implementing the new rules, and published the next day. "This is a striking shift," said Stephen Groom, head of marketing and privacy law at the law firm Osborne Clarke. "Previously the ICO said that implied consent would be unlikely to work. Now it says that implied consent is a valid form of consent." The use of "implied consent" shifts responsibility to the user rather than the website operator, and will come as a relief to thousands of website operators who have been struggling to comply with new EU directives which came into law a year ago.

May 24, 2012: Secretary Clinton and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Posner release the 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices at the State Department.

China criticized a "woeful" human rights record in the United States on Friday, a day after a U.S. report said Beijing's own record is getting worse, with harsh crackdowns on dissidents. "The United States' tarnished human rights record has left it in no state -- whether on a moral, political or legal basis -- to act as the world's 'human rights justice,' " China said in an annual report on U.S. human rights. The report cited the arrests of protesters participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States. Many protesters, it said, accused police of brutality. It also said the United States has "fairly strict restrictions" on the Internet, saying the U.S. Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act both have clauses about monitoring the Internet, giving the government or law enforcement organizations power to monitor and block any Internet content "harmful to national security."

That's why our non-profit partner WITNESS, a global leader in the use of video for human rights, and Storyful, a social newsgathering operation, are joining forces to launch a new Human Rights channel on [VIDEO] , dedicated to curating hours of raw citizen-video documenting human rights stories that are uploaded daily and distributing that to audiences hungry to learn and take action. The channel, which will also feature content from a slate of human rights organizations already sharing their work on [VIDEO] , aims to shed light on and contextualize under-reported stories, to record otherwise undocumented abuses, and to amplify previously unheard voices. The project was announced today at the Internet at Liberty conference, and will live at [VIDEO] .com/humanrights. Storyful will source and verify the videos, and WITNESS will ensure the channel features a balanced breadth of issues with the context viewers need to understand the rights issue involved.

Storyful's team of professional journalists separate actionable news from the noise of the real-time web, 24/7. We unearth the smartest conversations about world events and raise up the authentic voices on the big stories. We work with professional news clients, acting as a social media 'field producer'. We provide news organisations with early warning of big stories, discovering and verifying content and contacts through a combination of good journalism and pioneering technology. We work hard to identify new, credible sources close to every story - freelance journalists, activists, talented amateurs, aid workers and others - and connect them with our clients. Storyful's professional tools make journalists smarter and more productive. It is the first tool-kit for newsrooms who want to blend social media into their newsgathering operations. Storyful.com, our public site, is a window onto the kind of stories that we find for news clients every day, curated by Storyful's editorial team.

WITNESS is an international nonprofit organization that uses the power of video and storytelling to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. It was co-founded in 1992 by musician and human rights advocate Peter Gabriel, Human Rights First and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation.

Alberdingk Thijm has nearly two decades of experience in media and new technology. Most recently, she served as Executive Vice President of Content Strategy & Acquisition at Joost, the global online video platform formed by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype and Kazaa. Prior to joining Joost, Alberdingk Thijm was Executive Vice President of Business Affairs for MTV Networks International (MTVNI), where she oversaw business affairs for all of its branded businesses and channels worldwide (outside the U.S.A.), including digital media initiatives, audiovisual co-productions, new business development, strategic partnerships and joint ventures.

Sandy Dahl: I'm disappointed at the FBI report, because I heard something other than what they reported. And I don't understand how they came up with it. For instance, they talk about passengers indicated that the pilots were dead and laying in the first-class section. I heard evidence to the contrary on this tape. And I don't understand why they would report that. Wolf Blitzer: Tell us exactly what you heard. Sandy Dahl: Oh, I can't do that. I have signed papers with the FBI saying that I wouldn't. I just wish that they would come out and tell the truth, the FBI, with the evidence they know. I'm not saying that they're deliberately trying to he deceive. I would just like the evidence out, so that people can know what really happened. It is kind of a folktale at this point. There was a riot of passengers and crew at the end. And they did crash into the cockpit.

Although aviation experts dismissed Russian intelligence's suspicions of a US hand in the May 9 plane crash in Indonesia, the many unanswered questions about the crash fuel conspiracy theories.

Yet since Ghanem died, dozens of conversations with family friends, neighbors, former colleagues in Tripoli and officials who knew Ghanem through the three decades he was a senior figure at OPEC headquarters in Vienna, have built up a picture of man who was under mounting stress and concerned for his wellbeing.

"It was a professionally executed crime," concluded Noman Benotman, a prominent Libyan analyst and long-time opponent of Gaddafi who conceded he lacked any hard evidence. "It is the global energy mafia. It's to do with corruption, secret deals. People wanted to make sure he is not around anymore to talk."

When unmanned drones deploy in the United States, as they inevitably will, I think the predominant consideration will be privacy concerns, rather than Constitution. -In the end, the Constitution's Fourth Amendment prohibitions on unreasonable search and seizure will not determine the domestic rules on drones. -In part, that is because I think the Fourth Amendment will not pose much of an obstacle to drones for surveillance purposes. -Cameras, for example, are already permitted to constantly photograph public spaces -- think of the cameras in government buildings, airports, public squares, and streets. -They can be used at the borders and at sensitive installations. -If New York City can cover much of its downtown with video surveillance, should it matter whether it is a drone or a stationary camera? I predict that private drones will prove a bigger invasion of privacy. -I met an inventor a few months ago who showed me a drone that could be made for a few hundred dollars and controlled by an iphone. -The Constitution only limits what the state can do, not what private parties can do. -And it is private parties who will be the principle users of domestic drones. -I predict that these drones will be used mostly by suspicious spouses and parents, not to mention celebrity gawkers. -So more important than worrying about whether the NYPD or DHS uses drones, are what rules our society will choose to govern and constrain the private use of drones. -It may ultimately be difficult to control; as drone technology allows for smaller and cheaper drones, the government will have less and less ability to regulate them. -

At least three people were killed in a drone attack in Miranshah area of North Waziristan near Afghan border on early Saturday, officials said. - The attack took place at a house near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district. It was third drone attack in as many days in the region. - According to officials, a US drone fired two missiles at a house and at least three people were killed. The identities of the dead in the drone strike were not immediately known. - -"Fear prevailed in the area as almost five drones were flying in the air," they said adding that the rescue process was also delayed due to drones flying in the air. It is to be mentioned here that during the last 48 hours, two drone strikes hit Miranshah and Mir Ali areas of North Waziristan, killing at least 15 people. Pakistan says the missile attacks are counter-productive, violate its sovereignty, kill civilians and fuel anti-US sentiment.

NATO forces in southwestern Afghanistan will implement a total ban on soldiers' taking personal photos during military operations. This comes in the wake of major scandals involving US servicemen being pictured with dead Taliban fighters. The ISAF command in Helmand province announced only official photos will be allowed to be taken. The restriction is going to affect 36,000 troops, including 15,800 US Marines.

Organizers with the charity that Jerry Sandusky founded filed papers in Centre County court asking for approval to disband the nonprofit and turn its assets and mission over to Arrow Child and Family Ministries. That Houston-based organization works with children who have already been abused or neglected and removed from their homes. Arrow officials say the move will allow them to provide support to children at all risk stages. If the plan gets court approval, the organization will take over direction of The Second Mile's summer camps, child-adult mentorships and skill-building workshops -- programs the agency's leaders say remain strong.

In what may be a ground-breaking decision, the Italian Court of Rimini has ruled that causation between an MMR vaccine and the resulting autism in a young child "has been established."

May 24, 2012: Secretary Clinton and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Posner release the 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices at the State Department.