The international human rights group Amnesty International claimed Wednesday that a number of female protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square were rounded up by the Egyptian military and tortured recently. Some women even said they were subjected to a "virginity test" while soldiers looked on and took pictures. Amnesty said at least 18 different women were subjected to this treatment, first at a military prison, then inside the Cairo Museum. The women claimed they were beaten and tortured with electric shocks, and one woman who allegedly "failed" her virginity test was reportedly singled out for the worst abuse.

"20-year-old Salwa Hosseini told Amnesty International that after she was arrested and taken to a military prison in Heikstep, she was made, with the other women, to take off all her clothes to be searched by a female prison guard, in a room with two open doors and a window," the group explained. "During the strip search, Salwa Hosseini said male soldiers were looking into the room and taking pictures of the naked women."

All of them were taken on March 9, as the military cleared Tahrir Square of demonstrators.

Amnesty International: Egyptian women protesters forced to take ‘virginity tests’
Al Jazeera: Former Mubarak minister charged over deaths
AlMasryAlYoum: Egypt govt passes law criminalizing protests

The US-led military alliance escalates its aerial attacks on several strategically-important cities across Libya, killing many civilians, reports say. Residents in Misratah say Western forces have hit the city's air bases where Gaddafi's brigades are based. Water and electricity has been cut off to the city. Medical personnel say at least 90 people have died in Misratah in the past five days. Meanwhile, forces loyal to embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi reportedly killed at least 17 civilians, including five children in Misratah over the past 24 hours. Witnesses say snipers continue to target people from rooftops. This comes as US-led military operations in Libya have received negative responses from different countries and also parties within the US.

Dennis Kucinich -- a US Democrat -- has severely slammed President Barack Obama for his decision to attack Libya. He says the attack is outside the US constitution and that Obama must be impeached for the move. Other representatives including Democrats Jerrold Nadler and Michael Capuano have taken a similar stance.

The Guardian: Vilifying Gaddafi externalises evil
WSWS: US escalates military onslaught against Libya

The fighting comes as Western leaders debate who leads the intervention, with the US keen to hand over to Nato. A Misrata resident told Reuters by telephone: "This morning, air strikes twice hit the airbase where Gaddafi's brigades are based. A doctor in the city also told the BBC that snipers were continuing to shoot at civilians, and confirmed at least one person had been killed. Earlier, Col Gaddafi made his first public appearance in a week and gave a short speech to a crowd of supporters in Tripoli. He urged "all Islamic armies" to join him, saying: "We will be victorious."

At least four Afghan civilians, including a child, have been killed in US-led military operations in southeastern Afghanistan, police say. The US-led helicopters bombarded the Khost district in Khost province, leaving four dead and two others wounded, a senior police official told a Press TV correspondent on Wednesday. The identities of those killed are not yet known, the official said. The US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has confirmed the attack but did not release further details. Local sources say all those killed were civilians and that there was a child among them. The incident occurred nearly one month after the death of nine children in northeast of the country during the US-led air strikes. Thousands of Afghan people have so far been killed as a result of military operations by the foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Palestinians sit next to the bodies of three members
from the Al-Helow family during their funeral in al-
Omari mosque in Gaza City March 23, 2011. Reuters/
Mohammed Salem

[PCHR] The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has continued to commit war crimes in the Gaza Strip and intensified its artillery and aerial bombardment in populated areas. These bombing missions are clearly targeting Palestinian civilians. Yesterday, 22 March 2011, IOF killed four Palestinian civilians. Two children were killed. A man, his grandchild, his cousin and neighbor were also killed. Another eleven civilians, including eight children, were wounded, three seriously. These civilians were targeted while playing football near their houses in al-Shejaeya neighborhood in the east of Gaza city.

This morning, the Israeli radio quoted Israeli military sources as claiming that one of the shells veered off course and caused casualties. PCHR investigations refutes this IOF allegation. A populated area was targeted with four shells. Whether any of the shells veers off course or not, this targeting could reasonably be expected to cause civilian casualties.

According to an investigation conducted by PCHR, at approximately 15:10 on 22 March 2011, IOF positioned along the border line in the east of Gaza City fired four consecutive artillery shells at al-Nazzaz street in al-Shejaeya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. Al-Nazzaz street is approximately 2,000 meters from the border line. The first shell landed on a 2-storey house located on 150m2 belonging to Samer Walid Mushtaha. The second floor of the house was totally destroyed while the first floor was partially damaged. The second shell landed on vacant land located nearby vacant land which belongs to al-Helo family.

The third shell landed near a group of children and older boys who were playing football in a square near their houses in al-Nazzaz street. Mohammed Saber Harara, 19, and Mohammed Jalal al-Helo were immediately killed and their bodies were dismembered. Just few seconds later, the fourth shell landed near Yaser Hamed al-Helo, 51, and his grandchild Yaser Ahed al-Helo, 15, while they were trying to open the door of their garage and drive their car to rescue the wounded. They were immediately killed. Another 11 civilians, including eight children, sustained shrapnel wounds. The wounds of three civilians were described to be serious.

At least one critically injured following blast near bus station caused by device left in a bag, Israel police say. Scores of ambulances converged on the area near the central bus station and a city conference hall in a Jewish neighbourhood of downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday. Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from Jerusalem, said that at least one person was critically injured by the explosion. "There were around 31 people wounded, but initial reports say that no-one has died,"our correspondent said. There has been no claim of responsibility for attack, although police and other officials "concluded" that this was a Palestinian terror attack. [A Shin Beth False Flag attack more likely]

Revolt of the Plebs: Jerusalem Bombing Likely To Be A Mossad False Flag

Israel's parliament passed a measure on Tuesday enabling the denial of state funding to institutions that question the country's existence as a Jewish state, in a move criticised as targetting an Arab minority. The so-called Nakba Law, using the Arabic word for "catastrophe" which is how many Palestinians regard the founding of Israel, passed by a vote of 37 to 25 after an angry debate among right and left-wing lawmakers. Civil rights groups have denounced the measure as an effort to restrict freedom of expression to Arabs, who make up about a fifth of Israel's predominantly Jewish population.

The law would enable the withholding of funds to public institutions deemed to be involved in publicly challenging the founding of Israel as a Jewish state or any activity "denying the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state." Many Israeli Arabs, as relatives of Palestinians who remained in what is now Israel when hundreds of thousands of others were driven away or fled during a 1948 war over Israel's establishment, question whether Israel should be a Jewish state.

PalestineRemembered.com
1948 LEST WE FORGET – Palestine and the Nakba
+972: The new Nakba Law: Privatizing freedom of speech

An Egyptian committee set up to investigate violence during demonstrations that toppled Hosni Mubarak has laid charges against the former president and interior minister for intentional murder of protesters, a state newspaper said. More than 360 people died in the uprising and thousands were injured, when fired rubber bullets, live ammunition, water cannon and tear gas at peaceful protesters. The fact-finding committee submitted its charges to the Public Prosecutor's office, saying Mubarak as the head of the government was criminally responsible for the death of the protesters, Al Ahram state newspaper said on Wednesday. The former interior minister Habib al-Adli, who is also already facing trial for wasting public funds and money laundry, is accused of ordering police to open fire at demonstrators, the newspaper said. Egypt has already arrested and is investigating high-ranking police officers for ordering the killing of demonstrators during the uprising against Mubarak.

Cesium-137 concentration 1,600 times higher than normal found 40 km away from Fukushima Daiichi.

Japanese authorities have detected a concentration of a radioactive substance 1,600 times higher than normal in soil at a village, 40 kilometers away from the troubled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. The disaster task force in Fukushima composed of the central and local governments surveyed radioactive substances in soil about 5 centimeters below the surface at 6 locations around the plant from last Friday through Tuesday. The results announced on Wednesday show that 163,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium-137 per kilogram of soil has been detected in Iitate Village, about 40 kilometers northwest of the plant.

Gakushuin University Professor Yasuyuki Muramatsu, an expert on radiation in the environment, says that normal levels of radioactive cesium-137 in soil are around 100 becquerels at most. The professor says he was surprised at the extremely high reading, which is 1,630 times higher than normal levels. He warns that since radioactive cesium remains in the environment for about 30 years it could affect agricultural products for a long time. He is calling on the government to collect detailed data and come up with ways to deal with the situation. [Photo: Gregory Bull/AP/ScanPix]

Bloomberg/BusinessWeek: Tokyo Says Infants Face Health Risk From Radiation in Tap Water

According to the New York Times, the U.S. fighter jet that just crashed in Libya was an F-15E Strike Eagle. The Air Force says each F-15E cost $31.1 million in 1998 dollars (not including fuel, pilot training or anything else). Adjusted for inflation, that's $42.23 million today. Wisconsin teachers are paid an average of $49,816 in salary plus $25,325 in benefits, for a total of $75,141. Therefore, the money spent on the F-15E that just crashed could have paid the salary and benefits of about 563 teachers in Wisconsin for one year. As Dwight Eisehower said in 1953: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people."

Glenn Greenwald: The manipulative pro-war argument in Libya

The senator, who met with Moammar Gadhafi in 2009, now complains the dictator has "American blood on his hands". In August 2009 [McCain] led a delegation of senators, including fellow hawks Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, on a trip to visit the Libyan leader in Tripoli. Discussed during the visit was delivery of -- get this -- American military equipment to Gadhafi (a man with American blood on his hands no less).

The reserves are substantial, ranking in the global top 25, according International Monetary Fund (IMF) data. They could potentially be used to finance Colonel Gaddafi's government at a time when it is subject to international financial sanctions. It might be possible to transport the gold to other African countries and sell it.

The IMF data show Libya's reserves to be 4.6 million ounces, a figure of nearly 144 tonnes. At current market prices the value is over $6bn. There are twenty countries with larger gold reserves. But, with the exception of Lebanon, they are all much richer or much larger in population. Britain for example has twice as much gold, but ten times the population and an economy more than 30 times the size. A closer comparison is Algeria, which is, like Libya, a North African oil producer - it has 20% more gold reserves, but more than five times the population. So why does Libya have such a large holding of the precious metal?

Swedish Wire: Sweden freezes a billion euros

If anyone wonders whether the Chinese government has tightened its grip on electronic communications since protests began engulfing the Arab world, Shakespeare may prove instructive. A Beijing entrepreneur, discussing restaurant choices with his fiancée over their cellphones last week, quoted Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The second time he said the word “protest,” her phone cut off. He spoke English, but another caller, repeating the same phrase on Monday in Chinese over a different phone, was also cut off in midsentence.

A host of evidence over the past several weeks shows that Chinese authorities are more determined than ever to police cellphone calls, electronic messages, e-mail and access to the Internet in order to smother any hint of antigovernment sentiment. In the cat-and-mouse game that characterizes electronic communications here, analysts suggest that the cat is getting bigger, especially since revolts began to ricochet through the Middle East and North Africa, and homegrown efforts to organize protests in China began to circulate on the Internet about a month ago.

The International Center for 9/11 Studies has posted four new videos on its YouTube page. All of the videos were discovered in the materials received by the Center in response to its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for all of the photographs and videos it used or received during its investigation. The first video is an excerpt of an interview with 9/11 survivor Paul Lemos. It was extracted from Release 25 (42A0106-G25D16). Mr. Lemos describes what he believes are bombs exploding at the World Trade Center, well below the area where the airplane impacted the building. Interestingly, he refers to an architect "they [the authorities?] pulled in" who explained to Mr. Lemos that it wasn't explosions he was seeing. - And then there is this old video of the FDNY describing in the exact same way the demolition explosions in the WTC that day as well...