سوريا ومدينة درعا مجدداً في مشهد لم يسبق له مثيل الا في احداث الثمانينات الدامية قام مرتزقة النظام الاسدي الغاشم بالاعتداء على المتظاهرين العزل الذين خرجوا من بيوتهم يطالبون بالحرية وينادون الله سورية حرية وبس ،، وقتلوا العشرات وجرحوا المئات.

Indiscriminate shootings in Syrian city of Deraa - 24_03_2011 (You Tube)
Martyrs of the massacre in Daraa - syria 24-3-2011 شهداء مجزرة درعا سوريا (You Tube)
Killings of demonstrators in Syria in cold blood by the dictatorial regime 23-3-2011 (You Tube)

We've seen Camp Lejuene Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and now they are joining the fight against Libya. About 2,200 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit will take part in support operations based aboard USS Kearsarge at sea. Those support operations have thus far included air strikes and one rescue operation. The overall mission is to help end the violence directed at the Libyan people to control Libya's oil & gold.

Daily Mail: Squadron of SAS and SBS troops have been in country for a month
Antiwar: 10 Reasons the US Should Leave Libya NOW

The Federal Bureau of Investigations announced recently that it is dedicating up to $1 billion for a Lockheed Martin-developed system that will enable on-the-fly analysis of detailed identification information that can be instantaneously shared with law enforcement all around the world. It's called the "Next Generation Identification System" (NGIS), and if you're a fan of television dramas like the CBS crime drama NCIS, it may sound pretty familiar.

The FBI says their forthcoming system is an "incremental" upgrade to their currently-existing "Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System" (IAFIS), but it's more than just an upgrade: it's a revolution in law enforcement technology that's bound to draw comparisons to the "Total Information Awareness" (TIA) project Congress ostensibly shut down in 2004.

A boy watches as pro-democracy supporters gather
in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Feb. 18. (Mohamed Abd
El-Ghany/Reuters)

The new decree-law issued by the cabinet yesterday draws the ire of activists and labourers who plan to take their objections to the street in massive protests on Friday.

The Egyptian cabinet approved yesterday a decree-law that criminalises strikes, protests, demonstrations and sit-ins that interrupt private or state owned businesses or affect the economy in any way. The decree-law also assigns severe punishment to those who call for or incite action, with the maximum sentence one year in prison and fines of up to half a million pounds.

Many labourers have expressed their shock at the decree. “We really had hopes that the new government will support us and look into our demands. We expected them to say we have all of your legal demands on our desks and there is a timeline of a month or two within which they will be achieved,” said Ali Fotouh, a driver in the public transportation sector. “I don’t understand what they mean by protests that affect the traffic and the business. This is not fair, why don’t you solve our demands so that we don’t go on strikes. This tone reminds me of the old days of Mubarak, threats and oppression used by the regime. This is no longer valid after January 25 Revolution.” Many agree with Fotouh that this decree will incite even more protests and create even more distrust between the new government and the army on one side, and the people on the other.

AhrahmOnline: Egypt cabinet criminalises strikes that affect economy, enraging activists

Warplanes are skimming the skies over Manama in anticipation of anti-regime protests in the Bahraini capital amid heavy military presence. Military forces have been deployed in Manama over fears of anti-government protests as the opposition in the tiny Persian Gulf state has pledged to rise again in another "Day of Rage." Bahraini opposition activists announced plans for the Friday protests in defiance of a martial law imposed since last week. Nine demonstrations -- whose plans were circulated by email and internet -- are arranged to be held across crisis-hit Bahrain on March 25. One of the rallies is expected to be heading toward the airport and another aims for Manama's Salmaniya hospital. Government crackdown on peaceful demonstrations in Bahrain has recently been aided by troops from Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Press TV has learned through reports that the Saudi forces have forcefully taken about 100 people out of the hospital and shot them dead.

The four strikes were launched on Gaza on Thursday evening and injured three Palestinians, AFP reported. It follows three airstrikes carried out on Gaza early Thursday morning, targeting the city as well as a tunnel near the Egyptian border at Rafah. On Tuesday, at least 10 Palestinians, including four children, were killed and dozens injured after an Israeli tank fired shots at a home in the Gaza Strip. Adham Abu Selmiya an emergency services spokesman said the deaths occurred when Israel "opened fire on young people who were playing football in Shejaiya on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City.

PNN: Continued Airstrikes Wound Three in Gaza City; Civilians Targeted in Deir Balah and Beit Hanoun

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (17 – 23 March 2011).

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed 6 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, and 4 Palestinian resistance activists in the Gaza Strip. They also wounded 28 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 11 children. In the Gaza Strip, on Saturday evening, 19 March 2011, IOF killed two Palestinian children who were nearly 300 meters away from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. It is worth noting that on 17 March, Israeli aircrafts dropped fliers on border areas warning Palestinians from getting as close as to 300 meters from the border. On 22 March 2011, IOF killed 4 Palestinian civilians, including two children, and wounded 11 others, including 8 children, with artillery shells in the east of Gaza City. IOF claimed that a shell went astray and killed and wounded these civilians. PCHR's investigations refute this claim as the area was targeted by 4 successive artillery shells. On the same day, IOF killed 4 members of the al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of Islamic Jihad) in Gaza City. During the reporting period, IOF launched a series of air strikes on a number of Palestinian civilian facilities and a police station. The targeted facilities were destroyed and a number of houses and other property were damaged. Additionally, 15 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, were lightly injured. On 19 March 2011, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israeli fired a number of artillery shells at Palestinian areas. As a result, 6 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded, and a mosque was damaged. In the West Bank, IOF and Israeli settlers wounded 9 Palestinian civilians, including two children. During the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, 4 Palestinian civilians, including two children, were wounded, and dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation. During the reporting period, a Palestinian civilian was wounded and two others sustained bruises by IOF that intervened to protect Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinian civilians and property. On 23 March 2011, two Palestinian civilians were wounded and arrested in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, when IOF attacked Palestinian civilians participating in the funeral procession of a dead woman.

BBC: Why is Palestinian blood cheaper than Israeli blood?

The Israeli legislature has passed a bill that will require the state to fine local authorities or state funded bodies that commemorate the Palestinian Nakba Day. The bill has been reworked since its proposal in May 2009; originally the bill authorized a three-year prison sentence for anyone seen commemorating the Nakba. Now it imposes a fine on any group or authority that hosts an event acknowledging the Palestinian Nakba. Any such state-funded body will be forced to pay three times its cost in fines for violating the new bill. The legislation was drafted by MK Adam Miller of Israel Beiteinu and saw a vote with 37 in favor and 25 opposed. MK David Rotem, also of Israel Beiteinu, justified the passage of the law, stating, "I am not ashamed for wanting to protect this state as a Jewish and democratic state."

The bill was criticized heavily by MK Isaac Herzog of the Labor Party, as well as MKs Dov Khenin and Hanin Zoabi, of Hadash and Balad, respectively. MK Herzog, claiming that the bill had been drafted against the recommendations of the attorney general, told the Knesset, "on this day the thought police is being established in Israel." MK Hana Sweid of Hadash argued that the bill is inherently incongruent with free expression.

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

Tens of thousands of people are attending rival mass rallies in Yemen's capital Sanaa, a week after some 50 people were shot dead at a protest. Protesters predicted their biggest rally yet to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Mr Saleh told a rally of his own supporters he was ready to hand over power, but only to "safe hands". Soldiers fired in the air to hold back Saleh loyalists when they tried to march on the opposition rally. In his speech, the president - who has been in office for more than three decades - condemned bloodshed but also urged his supporters to "stand firm". He earlier denied that government forces had played any part in the shooting of demonstrators last week. Amnesty International has warned the government against any further use of "deadly force", saying: "The government cannot just shoot its way out of this crisis."

PressTV: Yemen pres. to cede power to "safe hands"

NATO has agreed to take command of enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya. A council of ambassadors from 28 NATO member countries agreed on Thursday that the alliance would take over the no-fly mission from US-led coalition forces. Negotiations for the handover had been stalled, with the United States and Britain pushing for the move while France and Turkey opposed it. France is reluctant to relinquish its leading role in the UN-mandated operation. Turkey, meanwhile, wants the campaign limited to the protection of civilians. NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen told reporters that, for the moment, there will still be a coalition operation and a NATO operation. He suggested that ongoing attacks on ground troops will continue to be handled by the coalition forces. He added that NATO is debating whether it should take on the broader responsibility. The world will protect these so-called civilians-mercenaries armed with artillery and other advanced weapons, but does nothing to protect the Palestinian civilians from the murderer state of Israel. Israel violates more than sixty UN resolutions and the Geneva Conventions while using banned weapons to murder civilians by the thousands and the world is silent. Gaddafi tries to protect his country from a well-planned attack involving forces from outside his country, and the world pounces on him. Twenty thousand children starve to death every day on this planet and the United Nations and America ignore it, so ignore America's fake selective morality which only sees social injustice in countries with oil. Libya is being attacked and looted just like Iraq. It's all about oil. [Editor/The People's Voice]

The Guardian: Nato to control no-fly zone after France gives way to Turkey

Air strikes by French, British and American warplanes continued to expand in Libya Thursday, but despite the massive firepower deployed by the imperialist powers against the forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, anti-Gaddafi rebels remained stalemated in the ground warfare.

A bitter war of words erupted between two other NATO “allies,” France and Turkey, after the French interior minister Claude Guéant, declared that President Nicolas Sarkozy was “leading a crusade” to stop Gaddafi massacring Libyans. Prime Minister Reçep Tayyip Erdogan, who has opposed the attack on Libya, blasted the use of “utterly inappropriate terms” such as “crusade.” He then made remarks that laid bare the imperialist appetites behind the US-European military intervention.

“I advise our western friends, when they look at this region, to see the hungry children, the suffering mothers, the poverty,” Erdogan said. “I wish they would not only see oil, gold mines or underground wealth.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gül followed suit, declaring that “The aim is not the liberation of the Libyan people. There are hidden agendas and different interests.” [Photo: 9GAG]

Revista Amauta: Stop Bombing Libya

The federal government is expected to fall from power Friday afternoon, with opposition MPs saying they'll vote to show they've lost confidence in the Conservatives. The Liberal Party gave notice earlier this week they'll put forward a motion of non-confidence in Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government. If it passes, the government will fall and Canadians will head to the polls. The motion says the House agrees with a committee report tabled earlier this week that found the government in contempt of Parliament, "which is unprecedented in Canadian parliamentary history, and consequently the House has lost confidence in the Government." It comes after Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said their parties wouldn't vote in favour of the federal budget tabled Tuesday. The government can fall if they lose either vote.

A suspected breach in the core of a reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday, as the prime minister called the country's ongoing fight to stabalize the plant "very grave and serious." A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials announced what could be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the plant from leaking radiation, two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami disabled it.

NHK: No.3 reactor at Fukushima No.1 likely be damaged
CBC News: Japan plant water radiation may be from core
NYT: Japan Quietly Evacuating a Wider Radius From Reactors
The Guardian: Japanese nuclear officials fear crack in reactor core
BBC: Reflections on a fortnight in Fukushima