The United Nations has strongly condemned the US-led forces for killing several children in a recent airstrike in the troubled northeastern Afghanistan.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, called for a review of air strikes launched by foreign forces in the war-ravaged country. "Children killed in Afghanistan by airstrikes is a cause of serious concern," Coomaraswamy said in a statement released in New York.

The call comes days after nine children were gunned down by a NATO-led helicopter while collecting firewood in Kunar Province. The incident has drawn widespread condemnation inside and outside the country. US president Barak Obama [the one ultimately responsible for these killings] has expressed his "deep regret" over the deaths. The high number of civilian casualties caused by US-led forces has become a major source of friction between Kabul and Washington. Over the past two weeks at least, four attacks in eastern Afghanistan have claimed around eighty lives.

Joseph Kishore: Another war crime in Afghanistan: US massacres nine children in air strike
Jason Ditz: NATO’s Growing Civilian Toll Sparks Anger in Afghanistan

Thousands of union protesters and their supporters are continuing to hold rallies surrounding Wisconsin's state capitol building, in protest to Governor Scott Walker's new proposal. About 100 protesters have occupied the state Capitol building, while thousands others have been locked outside of the “People's House”, as the governor's office has refused to keep the state Capitol open to the people, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Walker has offered no compromise and has threatened to issue nearly 1,500 layoff notices if the 14 Senate Democrats who left the state to Illinois in efforts to avoid voting for the budget bill, fail to return for the final vote. Governor Walker has ordered the arrest warrants of the 14 Senate Democrats, now called the FAB 14. “He's acting like a dictator; he's not willing to negotiate. He wants the Democrats who have fled the state to come back, but he's already said that he's not going to negotiate with them,” a protester said.

Protests have been on the rise for more than two weeks since the newly elected Walker set forth a proposal rescinding almost all collective bargaining rights for most public employee unions.

Stephen Lendman:
Spreading Activism for Change
Waging War on Working Americans
Reactionary Extremism in Wisconsin and Ohio

Bradley Manning kept naked "as precaution"

To follow-up on yesterday's observations about the prolonged forced nudity to which Bradley Manning has been subjected the last two days: brig officials now confirm to The New York Times that Manning will be forced to be nude every night from now on for the indefinite future -- not only when he sleeps, but also when he stands outside his cell for morning inspection along with the other brig detainees. They claim that it is being done "as a 'precautionary measure' to prevent him from injuring himself."

Has anyone before successfully committed suicide using a pair of briefs -- especially when under constant video and in-person monitoring? There's no underwear that can be issued that is useless for killing oneself? And if this is truly such a threat, why isn't he on "suicide watch" (the NYT article confirms he's not)? And why is this restriction confined to the night; can't he also off himself using his briefs during the day?

Let's review Manning's detention over the last nine straight months: 23-hour/day solitary confinement; barred even from exercising in his cell; one hour total outside his cell per day where he's allowed to walk around in circles in a room alone while shackled, and is returned to his cell the minute he stops walking; forced to respond to guards' inquiries literally every 5 minutes, all day, everyday; and awakened at night each time he is curled up in the corner of his bed or otherwise outside the guards' full view. Is there anyone who doubts that these measures -- and especially this prolonged forced nudity -- are punitive and designed to further erode his mental health, physical health and will? As The Guardian reported last year, forced nudity is almost certainly a breach of the Geneva Conventions; the Conventions do not technically apply to Manning, as he is not a prisoner of war, but they certainly establish the minimal protections to which all detainees -- let alone citizens convicted of nothing -- are entitled.

The treatment of Manning is now so repulsive that it even lies beyond what at least some of the most devoted Obama admirers are willing to defend. For instance, UCLA Professor Mark Kleiman -- who last year hailed Barack Obama as, and I quote, "the greatest moral leader of our lifetime" -- wrote last night:

The United States Army is so concerned about Bradley Manning’s health that it is subjecting him to a regime designed to drive him insane. . . . This is a total disgrace. It shouldn't be happening in this country. You can't be unaware of this, Mr. President. Silence gives consent.

Ray McGovern: Army’s Mafia Abuse of Pvt. Bradley Manning
War Is A Crime: Is this Quantico or Abu Ghraib? Kucinich Renews Demand to Visit with Pfc. Manning, Releases Reponses from Secretaries of Defense and Army

Francisco Madariaga is blunt about how most of his life has been until now. "I spent 32 years living a lie," he says. Mr Madariaga, 33, used to be called Alejandro Ramiro Gallo, the name given to him by his adoptive parents. Last year he came face-to-face for the first time with his real father and confirmed his fears. He is the son of one of thousands of left-wing activists who were tortured and killed during military rule in Argentina between 1976 and 1983, a period known as the Dirty War.

“The footage shows a new Israeli military method to intimidate the children of Nabi Saleh: soldiers enter homes in the middle of the night, wake the children over the age of 10, photograph them and leave.”

A fan of Israel's Beitar soccer club, his favorite chant is "mavet la'aravim" (death to Arabs). The teen who allegedly killed a 24-year old Arab resident of east Jerusalem told his mother that he hates Arabs and wants to kill them, Ynet learned Thursday. Four teens were arrested after the lethal fight that took place in early February. Of them, the alleged stabber was charged with manslaughter while his three friends have been charged with aggravated assault.

Israel and the United States created the Stuxnet worm to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme, a leading security expert has claimed. Ralph Langner told a conference in California that the malicious software was designed to cripple systems that could help build an Iranian bomb. Mr Langner was one of the first researchers to show how Stuxnet could take control of industrial equipment. It is widely believed that its target was machinery used to enrich uranium. Speaking at the TED conference in Long Beach, California, Mr Langner said:

"My opinion is that Mossad [Israel's intelligence agency] is involved." [However he speculated that Israel was not the main driver behind the creation of Stuxnet.] "There is only one leading source, and that is the United States," said Mr Langner.

In a recent report on Stuxnet, the security firm Symantec said that it would have taken a team of between five and 10 developers, six months to create the worm. Mr Langner said that the project would have required "inside information", so detailed that "they probably knew the shoe size of the operator." Stuxnet first came to light in July 2010. Nearly 60% of reported infections were inside Iran.

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would ban all protests and marches after minority Shi'ites staged small protests in the oil-producing eastern province. Security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state television. The ban follows a series of protests by Saudi Shi'ites in the kingdom's east in the past weeks mainly to demand the release of prisoners they say are long held without trial. Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority mostly live in the east, which holds much of the oil wealth of the world's top crude exporter and is near Bahrain, scene of protests by majority Shi'ites against their Sunni rulers. Saudi Shi'ites they complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens. The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies these charges.

Thousands of Jordanians have taken to the streets of the capital, Amman, after Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit rejected calls for a constitutional monarchy. Inspired by the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, Jordanians have been holding protest rallies for the past two months, demanding political reforms, including a constitutional monarchy. Protesters want King Abdullah to relinquish some of his powers, including the right to appoint prime ministers. On Thursday, Bakhit told lawmakers that the constitutional monarchy would unbalance Jordan's political system and violate the constitution.