[Nov 16, 2008] Civilians in Afghanistan have paid the heavist price for the conflict in their country, caught up almost daily in both Taliban attacks and air raids by US force. Al Jazeea's David Chater has been to the main hospital in the Afghan city of Kandaha , where he heard some of their stories.

AWIP: US-led attack kills 4 Afghan civilians
PressTV: Afghan civilian killed by US army vehicle [Feb 17, 2011] - A US army vehicle in Afghanistan has killed an Afghan pedestrian in the capital, Kabul, amid rising anti-US sentiments in the Asian country over US-led forces' night-raids, abductions, rapes, and tortures.

AWIP: Lindsey Graham: Permanent U.S. Presence In Afghanistan Would Be 'Enormously Beneficial'
Kavkaz Center: Robert Gates: 'We're not ever leaving' Afghanistan
AWIP: Poll: 63 Percent of Americans Oppose Afghan War
Yahoo: Senator proposes permanent US bases in Afghanistan
James Cogan: US, NATO commit to indefinite occupation of Afghanistan

The case for the illegality of conquering territory, depopulating it, and building government subsidized, religiously exclusive cities over the ruins does not appear to be in serious doubt over much of the world, but of course it is a topic of debate in Israel, and like any good topic of debate in Israel the most ignorant and hawkish position has become law of the land in the US, to the point that suggestions to the contrary are considered outrageous. Which has left the administration offering to support a watered-down draft calling the settlements “not legitimate” instead, but skirting the question of legality.

Palestine Monitor:
Palestine Monitor factsheet: Israeli settlements

If Americans Knew:
International law is clear: Israeli settlements are illegal

Jews For Justice in the Middle East:
The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict (Part I)
The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict (Part II)

Financial markets the world over are in turmoil and Brent North Sea Crude has reached a new short-term high today after Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Iran of planning to send two warships through the Suez Canal later this evening and suggested this could provoke an Israeli attack on the nation. The plans hadn’t been widely publicized until today, and Iran’s state media is so far mum on the allegation, but Lieberman insisted that two Iranian warships would pass through the canal later this evening on their way to Syria. The ships are reportedly planning to remain docked in Syria for one year. Which is unusual, but not entirely shocking since Iran and Syria are allies.

Daily Star: Israel: Iran warships to cross Suez
Daily Star: Israeli Army video hints at Syria, Iran attacks: report

The United States currently has 200 nuclear warheads in six bases in five European countries without an all-out accord from Europe, a report says. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany host 10 to 20 US nuclear weapons each, while a total of over 100 US warheads are stocked in Italy and Turkey. Some European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, are calling for an end to the storage of the US weapons in the continent.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – A Pakistani court on Thursday delayed until next month a hearing into the diplomatic immunity of an American who killed two local men, a case that has pushed ties between Islamabad and Washington toward breaking point.

The postponement to March 14 will likely be met with exasperation in Washington, where the Obama administration has urged Pakistan to free consular employee Raymond Davis and avoid a precedent being set for trials of U.S. officials abroad. The High Court in the city of Lahore granted a government request to postpone the hearing on whether Davis, a former Special Forces soldier who shot and killed two men on January 27, is protected by diplomatic immunity. Davis, who is assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, has said he was acting in self-defense during an armed robbery in the city.

Pakistan is an important U.S. ally in the fight against Islamist militants along the border with Afghanistan. Yet the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, battling its own insurgency and struggling to hold together a fragile political coalition, is reluctant to ignite popular fury in a case that has galvanized anti-American sentiment. Pakistani officials, in asking for a delay, may be trying to buy time so tensions can ebb and officials can work behind the scenes to broker a way out of their dilemma.

Jason Ditz: Threats of Revolt in Pakistan Over Possible ‘Pardon’ of US Official
AWIP: US Suspending High Level Contacts With Pakistan Over Murder Case
AWIP: American CIA agent kills Pakistani in ‘self defence’: police

Our analysis of cables from US embassies and consulates provides an insight into what the US ambassadors have found interesting. This interactive wordle visualizes a word count of more than 200,000 messages between the US State Department and its embassies and consulates from 1966 though February 2010. You may perform your own queries and compare how objects of interest vary between the individual embassies. If you see patterns or information worth exploring, please inform us.

Aftenposten: George W. Bush offered Turkey over 4,2 billion dollars to join the war against Iraq [Cf. the “Northern Option Plan”]

OSLO, Norway – A Norwegian shipping magnate was strongly criticized Wednesday for suggesting that pirates captured off the Horn of Africa should be sunk with their skiffs or executed on the spot. In a newspaper op-ed, the 79-year-old founder of the Stolt-Nielsen shipping group, Jacob Stolt-Nielsen, said history shows that fighting piracy requires a gloves-off approach. The article drew sharp criticism in Norway, a seafaring nation known as a peace broker in many of the world's armed conflicts and as the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dagens Næringsliv: Vil skyte piratene på stedet

The budget U.S. President Barack Obama submitted to Congress on Monday proposes to slap a $5.50 fee on every visitor from Canada who travels to the U.S. by air or by sea. The fee would not apply to visitors arriving in private vehicles. Currently, visitors from Canada, Mexico and a number of Caribbean countries are exempt from "passenger inspection fees." It's an exemption these countries have enjoyed since 1997. But Obama's 2012 draft budget includes a legislative proposal to lift those exemptions — a move that a supporting document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates would bring in an extra $110 million a year.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continued Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

Shootings: During the reporting period, a Palestinian civilian was killed by Jewish young men in Jerusalem. IOF also wounded 6 Palestinian civilians, including two children, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. On Friday morning, 11 December 2011, Hussam Hussein al-Rwaidhi, 24, from Jerusalem, was killed by a number of Jewish young men, when he was on his way back home. Al-Rawaidhi was on his way back home in East Jerusalem from his work in West Jerusalem. While he was walking with his friend, Khader al-Joulani, on a street in West Jerusalem, a Jewish young man stabbed him in the face. Soon after, other Jewish young men gathered and violently beat him. He died of his injuries a few hours later. During the reporting period, 4 Palestinian workers, including a child, were wounded when Israeli soldiers positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials. During the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, two Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded, and dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation or sustained bruises. Additionally, IOF arrested 3 Palestinian civilians.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 47 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 19 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children and a woman. In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted one limited incursion into the southern Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land.

Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Three killed as they worked on the shore, but Israeli army says they were trying to plant bomb near security fence. Israeli soldiers have killed three Palestinian fishermen along the Gaza-Israeli border, Palestinian medics have said. Gaza's ministry of health said on Thursday that the men were killed overnight in the north of Gaza, near Beit Lahiya, while they were working with their nets on the shore. The medics said that the victims were shot by Israeli forces before dawn. Abu Selmiya identified the men as Jihad Khalaf, 20, Talaat al-Awagh, 25 and Ashraf al-Kteifan, 29. But the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in a statement said the men were "militants".

Jerusalem Post: IDF shoots three "terrorists" near Gaza border
PressTV: Israeli troops kill 3 Palestinians in Gaza

Yesh Din: Only nine percent of investigations into Israeli citizen violence against Palestinians and their property result in indictments. The organization explained that over the last five years, it had followed 642 investigations by Judea and Samaria police into West Bank incidents of Israeli violence against Palestinians. It added that the actual number of incidents was higher, but it did not have that number.

Out of the 642 investigations, 539 were completed, said Yesh Din in a report issued on Wednesday. In 48 of those cases, 9%, indictments were filed. Three cases were lost and never investigated. And 488 cases, 91%, were closed without indictment, either for lack of evidence and/or because investigators failed to find the suspects, Yesh Din said. It added that in 11 of the 488 closed cases, the investigation was abandoned for “lack of public interest,” and two were closed because the suspect was “exempt from liability.”

In looking at the 642 incidents, 246 involved violence, 249 were about property damage, and 110 were instances where land was seized, Yesh Din said. Most of the incidents of Israeli citizen violence against Palestinians involved beatings, stonethrowing and assaults with clubs, knives and rifles butts, as well as threats and other offenses, according to Yesh Din.

Riot police firing tear gas and wielding clubs stormed a landmark square in Bahrain occupied by anti-government protesters before dawn Thursday, driving out demonstrators and destroying a makeshift encampment. The main opposition group Al Wefaq said at least two people were killed in the assault on Pearl Square in central Manama, which was littered with flattened tents, trampled banners and broken glass. There was no official word on deaths or injuries, but hospitals treated dozens of people with serious gaping wounds, broken bones and respiratory problems from the tear gas. Hours after police retook control of the plaza, the tiny island nation was in lockdown mode.

Al Jazeera: Killing two people and injuring many, Bahrain police carry out a surprise, nighttime attack on square where protesters camp out Video -Sporadic clashes have broken out in the Bahraini capital of Manama, hours after riot police attacked a makeshift encampment of pro-reform protesters in the centre of the city, killing at least three and injuring dozens of others.

An Al Jazeera correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, said on Thursday that "clashes were no longer limited to one place...they are now spread out in different parts of the city". Another Al Jazeera online producer said that booms could be heard from different parts of the city, suggesting that "tear-gas is being used to disperse the protesters in several neighborhoods". There were also reports of dozens of armoured vehicles moving towards the Pearl Roundabout, the protest site that was raided by the riot police. Heavily-armed police stormed the traffic circle while the protesters camping overnight were asleep. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Salmaniya hospital, the main medical facility in Manama, Maryama Alkawaka of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said that she saw dozens of injured demonstrators being wheeled into emergency rooms early on Thursday morning. Nazea Saeed, a journalist with Radio Monte Carlo, said hundreds of people had gathered at the hospital. Speaking to Al Jazeera from the scene, she said the crowd is chanting: "Down with Al-Khalifa", in reference to the country's ruling family. "People are also chanting that the blood of the victims will not be in vein," she added. [Photo: Getty/AFP]

BBC: Bahrain's protests gathering pace. Thousands of people now occupy the centre of the Bahraini capital
NYT: Crackdown in Pearl Square: Bahrain police rain tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets on protesters. At least 2 dead
Desertpeace: REVOLUTION FEVER ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST [Foreign Policy]

An unprecedented cyber attack on the Canadian government from China has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information. An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government, apparently from China, has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information and forced at least two key departments off the internet, CBC News has learned. The attack, first detected in early January, left Canadian counter-espionage agents scrambling to determine how much sensitive government information may have been stolen and by whom.

Highly placed sources tell CBC News the cyberattacks were traced back to computer servers in China. They caution, however, that there is no way of knowing whether the hackers are Chinese, or some other nationality routing their cybercrimes through China to cover their tracks. So far, officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government have been all but mum on the extraordinary breach of security. The government initially issued a terse statement, passing it all off as merely an "attempt to access" federal networks. It has refused to release any further information.

Ellen Hodgson Brown explains the rationale behind state owned banks. Due to the collapsing credit bubble which in turned popped the housing bubble, leading to recession, and perhaps, economic depression, there is not enough money and credit to keep the economy running. Three possible solutions are that the federal government issue debt-free money directly, that communities create alternate or community complementary currencies, or that a state create its own state owned bank, similar to the Bank of North Dakota. For example, a state owned bank in Michigan could provide credit to the state itself for infrastructure projects, help provide the capital for local banks, so they could in turn provide low interest loans to home owners, small and medium sized businesses, and students. In addition, a state owned bank could be used to help fund state expenses during tough times by providing loans. A major advantage of a state owned bank is that the state could borrow money from the bank at zero interest, for projects, saving between 50% and 100% of the cost of the project, since there would be no interest burden when repaying the loan. For Michigan, California, Florida, and other states looking to solve their economic problems, the state owned bank model, and the Bank of North Dakota in particular, should be studied in depth, as such a bank could provide the credit needed within that state economy during depressions and other tough economic times. Thanks to Local Future for producing this video. Ellen's articles @ Another World Is Possible

[November 13, 2010, New York, NY] At approximately 4:00 PM local time today, armed gunmen broke into the home of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's family in Karachi, Pakistan. The incident was apparently a failed attempt to kidnap Dr. Siddiqui's two minor children - both of whom are US citizens, but now reside with relatives in Pakistan. It is unknown how the gunmen gained entry to the Siddiqui family home - which has been under 24-hour armed guard by Pakistani police since her eldest son, Ahmed, was returned to the family and came to live with his grandmother and aunt in Karachi in August, 2008.

The two gunmen, who were hiding in the children's bedroom, were discovered by Dr. Siddiqui's mother - Ismat. Upon opening the door of the room, Mrs. Siddiqui saw the two men, who were each armed and holding large sacks. One of the men aimed a handgun at her, and said "where are the kids?". Mrs. Siddiqui was startled and jumped back from the entryway and began to scream. Other members of the family then heard the screams and alerted the policemen who were posted outside the entry gate of the house, but who appeared to be unaware of what was happening inside. Hearing the commotion, the two gunmen then fled the scene. They were assisted by a third armed man parked in a get-away car nearby -- which allowed all three men to escape before they could be apprehended. The International Justice Network (IJNetwork), attorneys for the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, expressed outrage and concern over the continued safety of their clients.

Stephen Lendman: Important New Information on Aafia Siddiqui's Case