Today the village of Awarta, near Nablus, is facing the second day of a severe curfew imposed by the Israeli military, following Friday morning’s murder of a settler family in the settlement Itamar. Three ISM activists–Cinda, 23, Chad, 25, from Sweden, and Cissy, 53, from Norway–are currently trapped in the village. Anyone caught stepping outside of their house is arrested. Soldiers have said that they’ll maintain the curfew until they’ve apprehended the settler family’s murderer.

The army hasn’t presented any evidence that the murderer was from Awarta, and villagers have said to the ISM that they strongly doubt the murderer was even Palestinian as the settlement is so heavily guarded it would be impossible to break in.

Soldiers are beating people and continuing their house raids: destroying houses from the inside, cutting off electricity, and polluting the drinking water by throwing mud in the water-tanks. 30 homes were occupied by soldiers last night. Computers and phones have been destroyed and money and property were stolen by the soldiers. In the last two days soldiers have been throwing sound grenades inside and outside the houses, and shooting in the air. The ISM activists may be arrested soon, but they intend to stay as long as possible because they feel their presence improves the behavior of the soldiers, and villagers have asked them to stay. As of 12:30pm the ISM activists are locked in a room with the children of the family that they’ve been staying with while soldiers search the house. They've heard an unconfirmed report that 100 village men were taken into detention at the school for interrogation a few hours ago.

Australians For Palestine: After Itamar – Exploring the cynical logic that makes everyone a target

Micheal Moore sends this letter on the horrors being imposed upon his home state of Michigan by a new governor who apparently wants to compete with Scott Walker. BTW, I will be speaking at the MoveOn Defend the American Dream rally in Boston tomorrow. Please come if you’re in the Boston area, or locate a local rally here and attend.

The forced "resignation" of State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley -- for the mortal sin of denouncing the abusive detention of Bradley Manning -- has apparently proven to be a clarifying moment for many commentators about what the President is and how he functions in these areas. Writing at Time's Swampland, Mark Benjamin identifies the real crux of the controversy:

Free speech advocates are shocked, and, as I wrote last week on TIME.com, concerned over Obama's record as the most aggressive prosecutor of suspected government leakers in U.S. history. Those advocates have wondered whether the penchant for secrecy in the Obama administration comes from the President, or those around him. Obama's statement on Manning, followed by Crowley's resignation, seem to suggest some of this comes from the President himself.

It's long been obvious that the Obama administration's unprecedented war on whistleblowers "comes from the President himself," notwithstanding his campaign decree -- under the inspiring title "Protect Whistleblowers" -- that "such acts of courage and patriotism should be encouraged rather than stifled."

Barry Grey: Obama, Private Manning and human rights
AWIP: Rep. Kucinich unable to visit accused WikiLeaks source

The Bank of America allegedly failed to engage in proper business practices in dealing with the nation's housing crisis, an information leak has shown. A group of activists released several emails on the hacker website Anonymous, most of which seemingly related to America's nationwide foreclosure problem, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday. The emails originated from Balboa Insurance, a mortgage and car insurer acquired by the Bank of America in 2008, saying that the bank could force foreclosures to reclaim property. However, a spokesman of the bank said the documents spread by the activists were stolen by a former Balboa employee, and that they had nothing to do with foreclosures, but the emails indicate that the Bank of America had approved removal of the loan numbers from the documents. While experts predict the makings of a cover-up if the issue proves to be true, Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies thinks it will influence the way people handle sensitive information.

Lew Rockwell: 'Anonymous' To Target Fed Cartel?
Daily Bail: BofA Leak Exposes Possible Force-Placed Insurance Fraud
WL Central: Anonymous-Bank of America Employee Emails Story Appears to Have Some Writers Confused

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israel on Sunday announced massive expansions to illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, a day after a five Israelis were killed in a brutal attack in Itamar settlement. The move was immediately slammed by the Palestinian Authority. Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeina said the decision was "unacceptable and wrong," in a statement. He told the official PA news agency Wafa, "the atmosphere this decision creates isn't helpful, it creates problems, and peace needs courageous decisions." Some 500 new Jewish-only housing units have been approved in the Etzion, Ma'ale Adumim, Ariel and Kiryat Sefer settlements, a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. The ministerial committee for settlements met Saturday night to okay the construction, reports said.

(From yet another US atrocity)

Two Afghan teenage farmers have been killed in a US air strike in Kunar province in northeastern Afghanistan, a few days after a UN report showed a 15 percent increase in civilian fatality in the war-torn country compared to 2009.

The overnight US air strike targeted the two brothers in Chowaki district when they were coming back from the family farm, a Press TV correspondent reported Tuesday. The two brothers, aged 12 and 16, were coming back from the farm where they have been irrigating the plantation at night time, the report added.

The news comes a few days after a US-led air strike claimed the lives of nine children, aged between seven and nine, in Darah-Ye Pech district in Kunar province. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said late Tuesday it was probing the civilian casualties after its troops carried out an aerial operation in the area. Last week, the Afghan government confirmed that the US-led military alliance had killed scores of civilians during recent operations in the northeastern part of the war-torn country. The Afghan government said its probe had found that the US-led foreign forces killed 65 civilians, many of them children in Kunar province. Thousands of Afghan people have so far lost their lives as a result of military operations by the foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, have repeatedly condemned and called for an end to foreign troops' attacks on Afghan civilians.

AWIP: US airstrike kills 9 Afghan children
AWIP: UN slams US for killing Afghan children

12.32pm [UTC/GMT]: Confusing reports regarding the level of radiation at Fukushima – earlier we heard Kyodo news report that levels were too high for staff to stay in control rooms, now the International Atomic Energy Agency says that the level of radiation "has been decreasing" at the site.

Daily Mail: Japan's nightmare gets even WORSE: All THREE damaged nuclear reactors now in meltdown
Washington Post: Step-by-step visualization of what's happening at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor
Sydney Morning Herald: Fourth Fukishima reactor, #4, is on fire. That's 4/4 now
Al Jazeera: Blasts deepen Japan nuclear crisis - Video
Stephen Lendman: Coverup and Denial in Japan
Stephen Lendman: Nuclear Meltdown in Japan
Evelyn Mervine: A nuclear engineer's briefing on the emergency in Japan
Revolutionary Politics: Nuke engineer: Fuel rod fire at Fukushima reactor “would be like Chernobyl on steroids”

More than 6,000 people have been confirmed dead or missing in Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened much of the country's northeast. Japanese police said Tuesday that nearly 2,475 people were confirmed dead and 3,611 missing four days after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that wiped out entire towns in northeastern parts of the Asian country, CTV News reported. However, with hundreds of bodies washing ashore, the death toll was expected to climb much higher, possibly as high as 10,000. Thousands of bodies have yet not been recovered from under the rubble and tens of thousands are still missing. The death toll sharply rose after rescue teams recovered 2,000 bodies washed up the shores in the northeast. Officials say the death toll is expected to exceed 10,000 in one region alone. But experts believe the horrifying tide of death in Miyagi province raises fears that the figure is a massive underestimate.

WSWS: Mounting human toll and nuclear emergency in Japan
Bloomberg: Millions of Quake Victims Face Freezing Temperatures as Snow Is Forecast
TimesCast: Japan's Elderly Victims - Video

Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown emergency have begun not only to destabilise the world’s third-largest economy, but deepen the slump and financial fragility afflicting global capitalism as a whole. Widespread production halts, rising sovereign debt, disruptions to investment flows and soaring energy prices are delivering shocks to Japan’s economy, with profound international implications. With large numbers of ports, airports, highways and manufacturing plants shut down, the Japanese government predicted “considerable impact on a wide range of our country’s economic activities.” Yesterday, Japanese stocks closed down more than 7.5 percent, wiping out $US287 billion in market capitalisation in the biggest one-day fall since the eruption of the global financial crisis in 2008.

On last night's Q&A program: Julian Assange asked Ms Gillard if she had shared intelligence on its citizens with foreign powers and whether the Australian people should charge her with treason.

The broadcaster has also confirmed Ms Gillard was not aware of the hostile video question in which he questioned whether she was guilty of treason. The decision to offer a Mr Assange a question was made by the program's executive director Peter McEvoy. The ABC's communications director Michael Millett said the initial contact was made about a week ago through people connected with Mr Assange. "The ABC had no role in the making of the video and had no knowledge of what the question was,'' he told The Australian Online.

Mr Millett said the Prime Minster was not aware she would be asked a question by Mr Assange before the program went to air, but she did not object to it afterwards. It's understood the Prime Minister's office will not make an official complaint. Mr Millett defended the segment, saying it was a "newsworthy event''.

It is not the first time the ABC has used a video question in such a way. After releasing his recent biography, former prime minister John Howard appeared on the program, where he was asked an antagonistic question by former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks. He had a shoe thrown at him by a disgruntled audience member during the same program.

The protests across the tiny island nation of Bahrain continue to grow on Monday but face the prospect of a particularly brutal crackdown amid news that over 1,000 mostly Saudi Arabian troops have been dispatched across the bridge to help the regime end the protests. Bahrain’s protest movement is largely a function of its majority Shi’ites complaining about discrimination by the Sunni royal family. The opposition condemned the invasion as an “undeclared war” and vowed to resist the occupation. The Bahrain government has yet to confirm the invasion, but Saudi state media has and insists that the force is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry also confirmed that their forces were playing something of a role. The other member nations, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, have yet to comment. The Bahrain protests have mostly been peaceful, though the regime has cracked down on them violently on a few occasions over the course of the past several weeks. A group of pro-regime MPs (which are all that is left, as every single opposition MP resigned weeks ago) is calling on the king to declare martial law to crush the dissent.

When Adlène Hicheur, a French-Algerian physicist working on antimatter at CERN’s enormous particle collider outside Geneva, was arrested on Oct. 8, 2009, on suspicion of conspiring with an Algerian branch of Al Qaeda, fears of doomsday plots rippled through the tabloid press. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, felt obliged to reassure the public that Dr. Hicheur did not have access to anything dangerous and that antimatter bombs as featured in the Dan Brown novel “Angels and Demons” were for all practical purposes flights of fancy.

Last fall, the Swiss government closed its investigation of Dr. Hicheur, saying it had found no evidence of wrongdoing, but in France, Dr. Hicheur’s detention was extended. Last month, it was extended again, by four months. Press officers for France’s interior minister, Claude Guéant, did not respond to telephone and e-mail requests for comment on the case. So, more than 500 days after his arrest, Dr. Hicheur, now 34, remains in preventive detention in a Paris prison without having been charged with any crime. Nor, say his lawyers and his family, has any evidence been produced that he did anything more than browse Islamic political Web sites. No trial has been scheduled.

Germany's new boom: making money by making stuff; UK and US increasingly relied on the financial sector, Germany concentrated on manufacturing. Now – following the most successful year for Europe's biggest economy since the euphoria that followed reunification two decades ago – that looks like the sort of prediction English football fans make ahead of each World Cup: premature, based on little more than wishful thinking – and wrong. "We will have a golden decade now," says Hans-Werner Sinn, president of Munich's Ifo Institute, one of the country's leading thinktanks. Sinn wrote a book early in the last decade, when unemployment was high and pessimism rampant, called Can Germany be Saved? His view then was that it could be. Now he says it has been.

The phrase "crisis, what crisis" also springs to mind outside the Audi plant an hour up the autobahn in Ingolstadt, where a happy band of German motorists have turned up to pick up their new cars, fresh off a one-kilometre production line churning out 2,500 vehicles a day, six days a week. "2010 was our best ever year," says Jurgen de Graeve, Audi's head of communications. "At the beginning of last year it was clear the market was about to turn up but we didn't expect it to happen so fast."

More than 100,000 demonstrators turned up in more than 400 cities in Germany demand closing of nuclear plants. Thousands of German demonstrators urged their leaders Monday night to shut down nuclear power plants in their country. The protests were staged in Berlin and other cities days after a powerful earthquake damaged nuclear plants in Japan and spurred fears of radiation there. Thorben Becker of the Federation for Environmental Protection, an environmental group, said the movement had received a major boost from the crisis in Japan. Becker said more than 100,000 turned up in more than 400 cities. There were hundreds of people at the Berlin protests and shouts of "turn them off," a reference to Germany nuclear reactors, rang through the demonstration. On Saturday, protesters formed a 45-kilometer human chain between Stuttgart and the nuclear power plant Neckarwestheim. Police said around 60,000 people showed up for the protest, organized by various anti-nuclear organizations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced a three-month moratorium on the extension of the operation periods for German nuclear plants.

The refurbished Grant Museum of Zoology in London opened recently, allowing visitors a peek into a variety of their archived materials — including a the bones of a number of now-extinct species, including the dodo. Watch the video above, first aired on the BBC on March 14, 2011.