Police agencies worldwide are turning up the heat on a loosely organized group of WikiLeaks activists. On Thursday U.K. police arrested five people, and U.S. authorities said they'd executed more than 40 search warrants in the U.S. in connection with last month's Web-based attacks against companies that had severed ties with WikiLeaks. Acting on information from German authorities, the FBI raided Dallas ISP Tailor Made Services last month, looking for evidence relating to one of the chat servers used by Anonymous. Another server was traced to Fremont, California's Hurricane Electric.

The actions come after Anonymous knocked websites for MasterCard, Visa and others offline briefly by recruiting volunteers to target them with a network stress-testing tool called LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon). LOIC flooded the sites with data, making them unable to serve legitimate visitors. This type of attack is called a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

Here’s one story you won’t see going viral on a geek blog near you: the Obama administration is going to make torrent streaming, also known as P2P (peer to peer) sharing of music, a felony. A felony. This means, according to the Administration’s White Paper, recommending an upgrade to the act of illegal streaming of music to one of “financial espionage,” carrying prison time of up to 20 years.

Wall Street cost of 15 million jobs. So who do the Republicans go after? The one woman who warned us that a crisis was coming. Last week, at a House hearing on financial institutions and consumer credit, Republicans lined up to grill and attack Elizabeth Warren, the law professor and bankruptcy expert who is in charge of setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ostensibly, they believed that Ms. Warren had overstepped her legal authority by helping state attorneys general put together a proposed settlement with mortgage servicers, which are charged with a number of abuses.

A 32-year-old from the south Hebron hills told Ma'an he was stabbed in the chest on Monday by settlers from the Ma'on settlement. Speaking by phone from hospital, Mahmoud Ibrahim Ali Awad said he was treated for moderate stab wounds. The father of two lives in Khirbet Toubeh. Family members told the Palestinian Authority shortly after the incident that he was attacked while riding his donkey toward the nearby town of Yatta, where he was to receive treatment for kidney problems. As he passed by the Havat Maon outpost settlers accosted him and one stabbed him several times in the chest, head and left arm, a PA statement said. He was moved to Alia hospital in Hebron. Medical sources said Awad was scheduled for surgery Monday afternoon.

This video shows an elderly blind man being arrested by riot police in front of the gates of the Quantico Marine Corps base. Free Bradley Manning.

Counting is underway in Haiti, after the delayed second round of the country’s Presidential election. UN peacekeepers monitored the polling stations in Port-au-Prince, on hand in case of fighting between rival supporters. The first round last November was marred by violence and allegations of fraud. There had also been fears that the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after seven years in exile in South Africa would destabilise the vote. But election officials say this time it passed off peacefully and many of Haiti’s 4.7 million voters turned out. The head of the electoral council told reporters the definitive result is due on April the16th and would reflect the wishes of the Haitian people.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa says the US-led invasion of Libya violates a UN Security Council resolution adopted to protect Libyan civilians. Moussa made the remarks at joint press briefing with UN chief Ban Ki-moon in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Monday. Moussa criticized the US-led airstrikes on Libya and said the UN resolution was meant to only impose a no-fly zone over Libya. "What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians," he said.

“This is unacceptable. The Security Council has an authority and bears responsibility in this matter -- so we gave this matter over to the Security Council as the authority for international peace and security and for this reason we requested a resolution and supported this resolution," Moussa said.

PressTV: Russia calls for end to Libya invasion

The head of UK armed forces, Gen Sir David Richards, has said Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi is "absolutely not" a target for military action.

The Guardian: Gaddafi compound hit by coalition air strikes on Tripoli

The human and financial cost of the tsunami continues to rise, after police estimates showed more than 18,000 people have died in the disaster and the World Bank said it may cost Japan as much as £145bn to repair the damage. The figures came as emergency workers were evacuated from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after smoke or steam was seen rising from one of its reactor units. The smoke raised concerns that water in the spent fuel pools at the No 3 unit was running low, but officials said there was no immediate spike in radiation levels. "We are checking the cause of the smoke," Hidehiko Nishiyama, a nuclear safety agency official, told reporters. Earlier, engineers finally succeeded in connecting power cables to three of the plant's reactors and said they planned to test the pumps soon.

The No. 5 and No. 6 reactors at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant went into stable condition on Sunday, local media reported. The two reactors went into cold shutdown following restoration of cooling functions late Saturday, thanks to successful resumption of electricity supply, authorities said. Earlier in the day the defense ministry said that it succeeded in putting water into the No. 4 reactor at the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

In a separate move, the Tokyo Fire Department shot over 2,000 tons of water into a spent fuel pool of the No. 3 reactor in an overnight mission that lasted more than 13 hours until 3:40 a.m. local time Sunday. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), owner and operator of the plant, was also trying to restore electricity to the No. 1 and 2 reactors to restart the cooling system. The plant, about 220 km northeast of Tokyo, was stricken by the twin disasters of the catastrophic March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Radioactive leaks were detected after a series of explosions and fires at four of its six reactors following the failure of their cooling functions due to the damaged power supplies. The authorities advised residents living within 20-30 km radius of the plant to stay indoors and set the area 20 km around the plant as an exclusion zone where residents have been evacuated.

Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar said today his soldiers would protect the protesters. Several other generals and diplomats have announced their resignation. Ali Mohsen is the half brother of President Saleh and is described by commentators on Al Jazeera as the most influential army officer. Ali Mohsen controls 60% of the military. Tanks and army vehicles are protecting the presidential palace, according to AJ. Other troops and vehicles are guarding the protesters in the capital.

BBC: Yemen: Beginning of the end?
AJC: Commander of the army's powerful 1st Armored Division has defected and joined the Yemini opposition

Private security guards are gaining limited policing powers under a Government scheme to relieve the petty crime burden on forces. They will be legally allowed to combat under-age drinking, begging and anti-social behaviour around one of Britain's busiest transport hubs. Scotland Yard is accrediting 15 security guards from Ultimate Security Services with limited powers to operate around Victoria coach and train stations in central London. Officers hope the scheme will relieve the strain on both the Met and British Transport Police services. The security guards now have the power to request a name and address for a string of offences including criminal damage, begging and anti-social behaviour; confiscate alcohol being consumed within a designated public place or by a person under the age of 18 years; and confiscate cigarettes from under 16s. The security guards will also be able to stop cyclists riding on footpaths.