Typically, comments about rising inequality refer to the stark disparities in incomes of the very highest-paid Americans and everyone. We have observed in several posts, for example, that most of the income gains over the last few decades have gone to the very richest Americans. That means the highest-paid Americans have been claiming a larger and larger share of earnings.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that an all-out "war" against the Gaza Strip is inevitable.

"If there's one thing I regret -- it's that we didn't finish the job back then -- we cannot avoid the need to complete the job," Olmert said on Wednesday, referring to the Gaza war while he was in office. "Israel cannot accept the presence of a terror entity in Gaza, which threatens the citizens of Israel, without taking action. Not random action, but controlled, precise and organized action with enough force to bring a change to the reality in Gaza," Olmert was quoted as saying by Ynetnews.

Israeli forces have carried out large numbers of ground and air attacks on Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip at the turn of 2009. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the impoverished coastal enclave. The offensive also inflicted USD 1.6 billion damage to the Gazan economy. Israel laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, after Hamas took control of the enclave. The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip. Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and the right to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education. [Cartoon © Carlos Latuff]

AztlanNet: Israel has now massacred over 300 Palestinian children in Gaza - Photos

The EF English Proficiency Index -- the first of its kind to rank English language proficiency -- pulled its results from more than two million people in 44 different countries who took a free online English test between 2007 and 2009. Norwegians were ranked as having the world's best English skills as a second language, followed by the Dutch and Danes. Swedes came in at number four, ahead of the Finns, according to the EF EPI.

At least three Afghan civilians have been killed and four others injured when US-led coalition troops opened fire on them after a road accident in Kandahar province. Foreign forces stationed in south Afghanistan opened fire on the driver and the passengers of a vehicle after the driver lost control of the car near a check post and hit several soldiers, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday.

The number of civilians killed by both militants and US-led troops in Afghanistan has largely increased since 2009. In its annual civilian casualty report, the United Nations said 2,777 civilians were killed in 2010, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly condemned the US-led forces for committing serious crimes against civilians in the war-ravaged country. Karzai also accused Western security institutions of worsening the security situation in his country by increasing civilian deaths. Insecurity is on the rise across the Asian country despite because of the presence of over 150,000 US-led forces there.

News.com.au: NATO admits Afghan civilian deaths

Palestinian establishment targeted by Israeli war-
planes this week in the north of the Gaza Strip

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (24 – 30 March 2011)

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed 3 Palestinian resistance activists and wounded 3 others in the Gaza Strip. They also wounded 5 Palestinian civilians, including two children, in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, on 30 March 2011, IOF extra-judicially executed an activist of the al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of Islamic Jihad) and wounded another one seriously in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. On 27 March 2011, IOF killed two activists of the al-Quds Brigades and wounded a third one in the northern Gaza Strip. An IOF warplanes fired at these activists after they had fired home-made rockets into Israeli towns. On 24 March 2011, a Palestinian resistance activist was wounded by a missile fired by an IOF drone in the northern Gaza Strip. During the reporting period, IOF launched a series of air strikes and artillery shelling against targets in the Gaza Strip. As a result of these attacks, two tunnels on the Egyptian border were destroyed and at least 30 houses and two schools were damaged. In the West Bank, IOF wounded 5 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. IOF also arrested 14 Israeli human rights defenders and two Palestinian civilians. On 25 March 2011, a Palestinian civilian, who suffers from a psychological disorder, was wounded by the Israeli police in Fassayel village near Jericho.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 52 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 27 Palestinian civilians, including 14 children. The widest incursions were into Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, during which IOF arrested 18 Palestinian civilians, mostly children. In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted two limited incursion into Palestinian areas, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land.

Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Israel has continuously closed all border crossings to the Gaza Strip for over three years. The illegal Israeli-imposed closure of the Gaza Strip, which has steadily tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.

New report shows global death penalty use is shrinking Countries that use the death penalty are increasingly isolated following a decade of progress toward abolition, Amnesty International has said today (28 March), as it published its annual assessment of the global use of the death penalty. In its Death Sentences and Executions in 2010 report, Amnesty officially recorded 527 executions in 23 countries - down from at least 714 executions in 2009. However, these minimum figures do not take full account of China, where thousands are believed to be executed every year and where the authorities remain highly secretive about its use. In 2010, says Amnesty, capital punishment was carried out in the following countries: China (1,000s), Iran (252+), North Korea (60+), Yemen (53+), USA, (46), Saudi Arabia (27+), Libya (18+), Syria (17+), Bangladesh (9+), Somalia (8+), Sudan (6+), Palestinian Authority (5), Egypt (4), Equatorial Guinea (4), Taiwan (4), Belarus (2), Iraq (1+), Malaysia (1+), Bahrain (1), Singapore (unknown number) and Vietnam (unknown number).

The Obama administration has sent teams of CIA operatives into Libya in a rush to gather intelligence on the identities and capabilities of rebel forces opposed to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, according to U.S. officials. The information has become more crucial as the administration and its coalition partners move closer to providing direct military aid or guidance to the disorganized and beleaguered rebel army. Although the administration has pledged that no U.S. ground troops will be deployed to Libya, officials said Wednesday that President Obama has issued a secret finding that would authorize the CIA to carry out a clandestine effort to provide arms and other support to Libyan opposition groups. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, insisted that no decision has been made.

Patrick Martin: American media silent on CIA ties to Libya rebel commander

NYT: C.I.A. Agents in Libya Aid Airstrikes and Meet Rebels - A "shadow force" of clandestine CIA operatives are meeting with rebels, aiding airstrikes in concert with RC-135 V/W aircraft and global hawk weapon systems in order to "help bleed Colonel Qaddafi's military."

Antiwar: CIA Ground Forces Operating in Libya for ‘Several Weeks’

At least 40 civilians have been killed in air strikes by Western forces on Tripoli, the top Vatican official in the Libyan capital told a Catholic news agency on Thursday, quoting witnesses. "The so-called humanitarian raids have killed dozens of civilian victims in some neighborhoods of Tripoli," said Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli. Western powers say they have no confirmed evidence of civilian casualties from air strikes, which they have carried out under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians caught in conflict between Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces and rebels. "It's true that the bombardments seem pretty much on target, but it is also true that when they hit military targets, which are in the middle of civilian neighborhoods, the population is also involved," Martinelli said.

New York Daily News: 40 civilians reportedly killed in NATO air strikes on Tripoli; Defense Secretary to address congress

At least 15 people have been killed in heavy flooding in southern Thailand. The government says nearly 1m people have been affected by more than a week of unseasonably heavy rain. Tens of thousands of tourists are also stranded on Thailand's many islands. The BBC's Jonathan Josephs reports.

● Radioactivity levels in the ocean 4,385 times above regulatory limit
● Fisherman warned not to operate within 12 miles of plant
● Compensation claims could top $12bn
● Power firm's shares lose 80% of value - may need government bailout
● President still recovering in hospital recovering from 'fatigue and stress'
● U.S. sends specialist Marine unit to assist in decontamination
● Traces of radioactive particles found in U.S. milk

Japan has finally conceded defeat in the battle to contain radiation at four of its crippled reactors and they will be closed down. Details of how this will be done are yet to be revealed, but officials said it would mean switching off all power and abandoning attempts to keep the nuclear fuel rods cool. The final move would involve pouring tonnes of concrete on the reactors to seal them in tombs and ensure radiation does not leak out. It comes after Japan's nuclear safety agency revealed levels of radiation in the ocean near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant had surged to 4,385 times the regulatory limit. The dramatic announcement that the four reactors are out of control and will have to be decommissioned was made yesterday by the chairman of the electric company operating the Fukushima plant.

Japan Today: Up to 1,000 bodies left untouched near nuclear plant due to radiation fears

AllThingsNuclear: The IAEA has found cesium-137 concentrations of up to 3.7 megabecquerels per square meter, 40km from Fukushima Dai-ichi. After Chernobyl, the deposition level triggering compulsory relocation was 1.48 MBq/sq.m