A U.S. Predator drone missile strike killed up to 40 innocent civilians in Pakistan’s tribal area on Thursday, outraging Pakistani government and military officials. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the “irrational” attack and said it will “only strengthen [the] hands of radical and extremist elements.” Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, two renowned experts on Afghanistan, see this as yet another illustration of waning American power, reminiscent of another empire that tried to once dominate the region.

Gould and Fitzgerald have authored two books on Afghanistan and have written extensively about the CIA’s covert drone program - which they refer to as “extrajudicial executions”. Shortly after today’s incident, the couple said to me:

"The US and Pakistani military are walking a very thin line that has been tested before but has never been under such pressure. Like the British before them, the US is no longer the overwhelming authority in South Asia but continues to act as if it is. The Cold War monologue still reigns supreme in Washington but continues to fail when faced up against the new and very hard realities of resolving its legacy inherited from the British."

Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was also irate, denouncing the act as a complete violation of human rights and one which hinders their efforts to eliminate terrorism. According to Dawn.com, it was a rare public statement by Kayani - the first during his second term in office. Kayani also said in his statement:

"It is highly regrettable that a jirga [meeting] of peaceful citizens including elders of the area was carelessly and callously targeted with complete disregard to human life. It has been highlighted clearly that such aggression against people of Pakistan is unjustified and intolerable under any circumstances."

The timing of American negligence couldn’t have been worse.

Atlantic Wire: U.S. Drone Attacks Resume After Release of CIA Contractor
Drone Wars UK: Pakistan protests after deadly drone strike and release of CIA Agent
AWIP: US drone strike kills 41 killed in Pakistan (North Waziristan)

"It looks like to me if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found (a solution) to our illegal immigration problem,” The Daily Mail quoted Kansas state legislator Virgil Peck as saying on Tuesday. (Source)

On Monday, during a committee meeting to monitor the state's wild hogs' growing population, Peck said, “If shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a (solution) to our illegal immigration problem.” Following the meeting, Kansas State Senator Sam Brownback denounced the remarks as being “completely inappropriate.” Under intense pressure, Peck later said he was joking and that he "was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person." “My statements were regrettable. Please accept my apology,” Virgil Peck said in a signed statement on Thursday.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has declared a state of emergency across the country as the out-of favor regime intensifies its crackdown on anti-government protesters. Yemen's defense ministry announced on Friday that President Saleh made the decision following a meeting with the country's higher National Defense Council. The announcement came shortly after pro-regime loyalists and security forces opened fire on protesters in the capital, killing at least 40 people. Hundreds of protesters were also injured in the clashes. According to medical sources, most of the injuries were to the head, neck and chest. Witnesses say vigilantes also opened fire on demonstrators from nearby houses. Protesters are calling for an end to President Saleh's three-decade rule.

CSM: At least 30 killed in Yemen, raising fears of a broader conflict At least 30 were killed in Yemen Friday as government loyalists opened fire on opposition demonstrators gathered at Sanaa University, according to medical workers at the scene. Just after Friday prayers, men armed with semiautomatic weapons began firing on protesters from rooftops of buildings overlooking the area. Massive clouds of black smoke could be seen billowing from the edge of the demonstration area. “As soon as we got up from prayer they started firing from the tops of multiple buildings in the area,” said Essam al-Maqtary, a Sanaa resident who was shot in the leg. “The baltageya [thugs] lit tires on fire so nobody could see exactly where they were and so they couldn’t be recorded on video.”

PressTV: Snipers shooting Yemeni civilians - With a state of emergency already in place, snipers deployed by the Yemeni government are still targeting civilians from rooftops. At least 50 people were killed on Friday alone, when protesters took to the streets to call for an end to the three-decade rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Press TV correspondent reported. Following the peaceful protests, the Saleh regime launched a massive crackdown on Yemeni people before ordering a state of emergency. However, the state of emergency did not stop snipers from targeting the protesters.

AN AWFUL realisation is setting in for those trapped in the vicinity of the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex: people are afraid to help them. Residents describe spooky scenes of municipal cars driving down near-empty streets telling people to stay indoors, but they have seen few other signs of outside help. Aid agencies are reluctant to get too close to the plant. Shelters set up in the greater Fukushima area for "radiation refugees" have little food, in part because nobody wants to deliver to an area that might be contaminated. And with little or no petrol available, not everyone who wants to leave can get out. Radiation fears are mingling with a sickening sense of abandonment.

Boston.com: Japan: One week later - PHOTOS

It is one of the great cities of the world, home to 13million and as advanced as any metropolis on the planet. Now Tokyo, usually so full of life by day and night, has the aura of death about it. Its lights have been cut, supermarket shelves are empty, there are queues for everything and aftershocks come every day.

Police killer brutality. They are massacring the peaceful protesters . This happened today Sitra 16th March

PressTV: US opposes democracy in Arab world - The US does not desire any form of democracy in the Arab world and only favors a kind of democracy that it can control, says Chairman of the Committee against Torture in Bahrain. “For all their talk about democracy, they (the US) support the cold, torturing, oppressive regimes around this world,” Rodney Shakespeare told Press TV on Wednesday. Shakespeare also described Wednesday's attacks by Bahraini riot police and Saudi forces on pro-democracy demonstrators in Bahrain as a “deliberate, organized, large-scale massacre of unarmed people.” “These are people who for decades have made moderate demands and have protested in a non-violent way,” Shakespeare said. He held the US responsible for the killing of the protesters, saying that the signal for the brutal crackdown came when US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Saudi Arabia.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she does not want to stay in her job if President Barack Obama wins a second term in 2012. The nation's top diplomat also firmly said she neither has plans to mount another White House bid nor interest in other posts, such as vice president or defense secretary. Clinton, visiting Cairo, was asked whether she would stay on in a second Obama term. She also was asked if she would like the jobs of president, vice president or defense secretary. She offered single word responses to each: "No." Speculation about Clinton's future is always high and she has been mentioned as a possible successor to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has told Obama he is stepping down. In an interview with CNN, Clinton made clear she has no interest in running the Pentagon or repeating her 2008 presidential run.

US pledges to provide transparency on bank data monitoring are not being fulfilled. Transparency was supposed to be a major element in the controversial US-European data agreement SWIFT. But an effort by one European parliamentarian to determine if US officials had accessed his personal account information failed. Now, Brussels is considering a suspension of the deal.

The long-running 'Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions' campaign against Israel is in retaliation against Tel Aviv's treatment of Palestinians. Groups in France stepped up their activities after the war in Gaza just over two years ago, and in some instances, they have entered supermarkets to try to discourage shoppers from buying Israeli products.

The United States has closed its embassy and all consulates in Pakistan, as protests against the release of a CIA contractor charged with killing two Pakistanis intensify. A statement issued by the US embassy in Islamabad said on Thursday that the diplomatic mission and US consulates will shut down to avoid any mishaps, as Pakistanis vow to continue the protests on Friday, a Press TV correspondent reported. Hundreds of outraged people took to streets in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Hyderabad and Peshawar on Thursday and chanted slogans against the US-backed government of Pakistan, calling it a “slave of the US.” The protesters also chanted anti-US slogans, saying the United States is an enemy and wants to destabilize Pakistan. They asked the government not to destroy the country for their own interests.

AWIP: Riots in Pakistan after double murder-accused Davis ‘buys’ freedom

In a historic move, opposition MPs on a House of Commons committee have produced a draft report declaring the Harper government in contempt of Parliament. Opposition parties have agreed they will find the Harper government in contempt of Parliament and have begun efforts to put the matter to a vote in the Commons – a move that would set the stage for an election call as early as next week. The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois confirmed Thursday they have made up their minds and will work via a committee they control to produce a report for the Commons saying the government’s failure to divulge sufficient cost details about its crime bills “constitutes a contempt of Parliament.” It’s not clear which day the opposition will be able to deliver the report to Parliament, where they outnumber the Tories, but once they do it clears the path for a vote that officially censures the Harper government. If this happens this will be the first time in Canadian history a government’s been found in contempt of Parliament.

After wondering for some time whether it was possible to image the sky from one morning to the next where I live in Athens Greece, I decided to give it a try. After hours of planning and preparation, and a full day of shooting, the image above is the result of this labor of love. It took me about 12 hours to pull together and process a single image that included over 500 star trails, 35 shots of the Sun and 25 landscape pictures. My plan was to make the image on the day of the solstice (December 21) when the Sun’s stay in the sky was short (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the star trail durations were long. Of course, trying to find clear weather for a given 24-hour period is not an easy chore. However, I was patient, and the weather eventually cooperated (on December 30-31, 2010). I had to stay at the same place for approximately 30 hours. In addition, I was on location 2-3 hours before sunrise in order to make the preparations and test shooting. I also needed to stay an extra 2-3 hours the second day so as to shoot part of the Sun's sequence that I lost the first morning due to clouds. I chose Sounion (Temple of Poseidon) as the setting for this project.

I began the shooting the morning of December 30, 2010, taking photos with my camera on a tripod facing east. The day portion of this shoot is composed of a dozen shots covering the landscape from east to west as well as the Sun's course across the sky, from sunrise to sunset. I recorded the Sun's position exactly every 15 minutes using an intervalometer, with an astrosolar filter adjusted to the camera lens. In one of the shots, when the Sun was near its maximum altitude, I removed the filter in order to capture a more dramatic shot that showed the Sun's “glare.” After sunset, I took various shots with the camera facing west-northwest in order to achieve a more smooth transition from the day portion to the night portion of the image. The night portion is also composed of a dozen landscape shots but this time from west to east. After the transition” shots, I took a short star trail sequence of approximately half an hour duration, with the camera facing northwest. At 7:30, I turned the camera to the north and started taking the “all-night” star trail shots -- lasting almost 11 hours. After accomplishing this, I then turned the camera to northeast and shot another short half an hour star trail sequence, and then finally, with the camera now facing east-northeast, I took a series of night-to-day transition shots.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has voted on a resolution authorising a no-fly zone over Libya and "all necessary measures" - code for military action - to protect civilians. Ten of the council's 15 members voted in favour of the resolution on Thursday, while Russia, China, Germany, India and Brazil abstained.

Despite choosing not to use its veto to block the resolution, China on Friday expressed serious concerns about imposing the no-fly zone. "We oppose the use of military force in international relations, and have serious reservations about some of the content of the resolution," Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement. But no votes were recorded against the resolution, which was co-sponsored by France, Britain, Lebanon and the United States. Under the no-fly zone, only military aircraft are forbidden to fly in Libyan airspace. It exempts commercial and humanitarian flights. In Benghazi, the main opposition stronghold, a large crowd watching the vote on an outdoor TV projection burst into celebration and green and red fireworks filled the air.

PressTV: Libya vows to halt attacks on civilians
BusinessInsider: Security council Passes No Fly Zone resolution

Norway plans to join the international military intervention in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi's forces, the country's defence minister said Friday. Military action against Libya will come within "hours" and France will participate in the strikes, government spokesman Francois Baroin said Friday. The UN Security Council Thursday cleared the way for air strikes to halt Moamer Kadhafi's offensive against embattled rebel forces in Libya, setting the stage for imminent bombing raids.

Daily Mail: RAF could be in action in days after UN votes to protect Libyan rebels