US-NATO air strikes on Tripoli and other Libyan cities have claimed growing numbers of civilian victims, according to the Vatican’s top representative in the Libyan capital. The report represents a severe blow to the attempts by Washington and its NATO allies, backed by the overwhelming majority of the Western media, to dismiss the Libyan government’s claims of civilian casualties as “propaganda” and portray the continuous air raids as a “humanitarian” defense of the population. “The so-called humanitarian air raids have taken the lives of dozens of civilians in various areas of Tripoli,” Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli told Agenzia Fides, the Vatican news service.

PressTV: US-led airstrikes kill dozens in Libya
AWIP: At least 40 civilians dead in Tripoli strikes: Vatican official

Already forced to admit that a US air strike in Sangin District, Helmand Province over the weekend had in fact killed a number of civilians (Helmand’s governor says 7, NATO admits at least 4), another attack in nearby Kandahar City added to the toll. According to reports, NATO troops opened fire into traffic in Kandahar after a civilian car’s brakes failed near a checkpoint, which they assumed was a suicide attack. The hail of NATO bullets killed two teenage boys and wounded at least two others. Such attacks are becoming increasingly common under Gen. David Petraeus’ watch, and hardly a week goes by in which at least one incident of civilian killings by coalition troops is not reported. This comes as several reports affirm that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Petraeus’ predecessor, had actually reduced the number of killings by a measurable amount, even as the Obama Administration escalated the war to new heights.

[Yagawahama in Miyagi (Oshika Peninsula)] Aerial photos taken over Japan have revealed the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Hover over each satellite photo to view the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

Natural News TV: Dr. Michio Kaku says three raging meltdowns under way at Fukushima - VIDEO
Fox News: Japan's Nuclear Rescuers: 'Inevitable Some of Them May Die Within Weeks'
The Telegraph: Fukushima 50 'expect to die'

The United States has been trying to rope in India for its plans to build a global missile defence system threatening Russia and China, the Komsomoloskaya Pravda, a popular Russian daily published from Moscow reported on Thursday. In a story based on the WikiLeaks releases, the report said the U.S. has not only been planning to deploy a missile shield against Russia in Europe, but had also been negotiating with countries along Russia's borders, such as Japan and India, to jointly build missile defences that would also target Russia.

“The noose [around Russia] is tightening,” the newspaper said. “Thanks to WikiLeaks, it has become known that Washington has been simultaneously conducting talks with countries in other parts of the world for building U.S. missile defences on their territories. Those are different countries, but they form a chain around Russia.”

Libya has played down the resignation of Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, saying it was a personal decision driven by health problems not a sign that the embattled regime is cracking at the highest levels. Mr Kusa flew to the UK from Tunisia on Wednesday and the British government said he had resigned. Mr Kusa, a trusted Gaddafi adviser who has been blamed for some of Libya's brutality and credited for some of its diplomatic successes, is privy to all the inner workings of the regime. His departure could open the door for some hard intelligence, though Britain refused to offer him immunity from prosecution.

PressTV: Former Libyan FM collaborated with US
The Hindu: U.S. looking at various options to support Libyan opposition

Bernie Sanders: Why Did the Fed Bail Out the Bank of Libya? - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today questioned why the Federal Reserve provided more than $26 billion in credit to an Arab intermediary for the Central Bank of Libya. The total includes at least $3.2 billion in loans that the Fed was forced to make public today in addition to earlier revelations under a Sanders provision in the Wall Street reform law. Sanders also asked why the Libyan-owned bank and two of its branches in New York, N.Y., were exempted from sanctions that the United States this month slapped on other Libyan businesses to pressure Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s government.

CorrenteWire: Obscene Hypocrisy of US Humanitarian Imperialism
CorrenteWire: The Libyan Fiasco: "Neo-Colonialism with a Facelift" says Pepe Escobar

A court has sentenced a former army general to life in prison and three ex-agents to 20 and 25 years for crimes against humanity in a notorious torture centre during Argentina's military dictatorship. Eduardo Cabanillas was convicted of illegal imprisonment, torture and homicide involving 65 people held at Automotores Orletti, a car body shop that served as an operations centre for Operation Condor. Condor was a co-ordinated effort by South America's dictatorships to eliminate dissidents who sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The crimes took place in 1976. Prosecutors says about 300 people passed through Automotores Orletti, including Uruguayans, Chileans, Bolivians and Cubans, most of whom were killed or disappeared.

Marie Trigona:
Landmark Human Rights Case in Argentina Puts Torture on Trial
Memory and Justice: A Photo Essay on Argentina's Human Rights Movement

Implementation of a law signed by US President Barack Obama last year to provide aid for caregivers of US war veteran has been slow or severely limited.

Caregivers to US war veterans thus do not receive the benefits promised to them by law, a Press TV correspondent reports. The Department of Veterans Affairs missed a January 31 deadline to kick off the so-called Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act. The program would have provided financial assistance, healthcare and counseling to qualified veterans.

The United Health Foundation and the National Alliance for Caregiving recently released a survey of those who care for the disabled veterans, according to which nearly all the caregivers are women. Primary caregivers of veterans are usually spouses or parents, which is not the norm for ordinary caregivers in America. “Some of the injured can be as young as 19 years old. And you could be doing this for quite a long period of time,” says Barbara Cohoon, from the National Military Family Association. Two-thirds of the caregivers to war veterans find themselves in “high-burden” situations, which involve helping the veterans with such basic activities as dressing, bathing and feeding, and many have been in that role for a decade or more. Experts say the burden of being a longtime veteran caregiver has serious negative effects.

At least 10 NATO oil tankers have been damaged in an attack in Pakistan's Khyber area bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani officials have said. The incident happened at the NATO supply vehicle hub in Landi Kotal, where the bulk of supplies destined for US-led troops in Afghanistan pass through. "The attackers damaged 10 oil tankers with mortars and small arms fire, but there was no blaze as the tankers were empty and had returned from Afghanistan after delivering supplies," tribal administration official Iqbal Khan Khattak told AFP. The drivers had parked up at the terminal on their return journey to stay overnight in nearby hotels, he added. NATO vehicles routinely deliver supplies to their forces in Afghanistan using the routes in the region. "Militants" have managed to destroy hundreds of NATO tankers and containers in different parts of northwest and southwest Pakistan in the last three years.