(From an earlier attack on the occupants)

A mortar attack has rocked a US military base in southern Iraq, with the number of possible casualties still unknown. This is the third such attack on US forces in Iraq over the past week. On Sunday, three rockets targeted a US camp in Diwaniyah, a city south of the capital Baghdad. In August 2010, the United States declared an end to its combat mandate in Iraq but left 50,000 of American troops in the country for what it called "advising and training" purposes. The United States and its allies invaded Iraq in 2003, citing concerns over alleged weapons of mass destruction wielded by the executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government.

No such weapons were ever found in Iraq. However, nearly 50,000 American troops still remain in the country.

The US forces, however, are expected to fully withdraw from the Iraqi soil by the end of 2011 despite a recent plea by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for further extension of their troop's deployment in the war-torn country. American troop presence in Iraq is widely unpopular in the country. Iraqi politicians were quick to reject the American request for a longer stay of its forces.

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican investigators have found a total of 116 bodies in pits near the U.S. border, 28 more than previously reported, Attorney General Marisela Morales said Tuesday. Morales said a total of 17 suspects tied to the brutal Zetas drug gang have been detained in relation to the killings in the northern state of Tamaulipas, some of whom have purportedly confessed to abducting passengers from buses and killing them. President Felipe Calderon said a 19-year-old man who is among the detained confessed to killing more than 200 people. Calderon gave no other details.

Egypt's prosecutor general has ordered the detention of former President Hosni Mubarak, ahead of an investigation into corruption and abuse allegations. He is reported to be in an "unstable condition" a day after being admitted to hospital with heart problems. He has been ordered detained for 15 days. His sons Alaa and Gamal have also been detained amid allegations of corruption and violence, police say. Mr Mubarak stood down in February after a popular uprising against his rule.

The debris strewn along the coastal neighbourhoods of Minamisoma should be proof enough of the devastation wrought by the tsunami that hit Japan's north-east coast on 11 March. But for the past month this sprawling town in Fukushima prefecture has been confronted by a second, more insidious threat: radiation. Minamisoma is a town living in a state of nuclear limbo. Its southern reaches lie just inside the 20km (12 mile) radius from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that has been declared an evacuation zone. Farther north, residents have been told to remain indoors or consider leaving. Thenon Tuesday the government announced that five additional communities, possibly including more neighbourhoods inside Minamisoma, are to be included in an expanded evacuation zone amid fears over the long-term effects of radiation seeping from the Fukushima plant. Even before that advice was issued, the majority of Minamisoma's 71,000 people had voted with their feet. The first hydrogen explosion at the plant prompted an exodus that saw the population plummet to just 10,000. Petrified residents barely had time to mourn the 1,470 local people listed as dead or missing before abandoning their homes.

Al Jazeera speaks to some of the relatives of the young men who have been killed in fighting.There are growing concerns in Libya that the battle has reached a stalemate, and many are calling for NATO to do more. As the fighting continues, African Union (AU) leaders say they are determined to end the fighting and have met with both Muammar Gaddafi and rebel leaders. The European Union has sent out an appeal to Gaddafi supporters, asking them to join the democracy movement in the country. But with no signs of an immediate ceasefire, the human cost of the battle continues to rise. Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid spoke to some of the relatives of the young men who have been killed.

At least eight people were killed in two drone attacks in the Angoor Ada area of South Waziristan Wednesday. According to reports, the first drone attack was on a house and in the second attack a car and a motorcycle were targeted. So far eight people have been killed in the two attacks. The number of casualties is expected to rise. This was the first drone attack since March 17, in which at least 50 people were killed in the strikes that took place in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan. After the drone attack of March 17, Pakistan protested against the United States and reports were circulating that the drone attacks would not be taking place for some time.

The degrading and inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking classified cables to WikiLeaks, has been denounced as "illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture".

Pte Manning, who has been charged on 34 counts, including illegally obtaining 250,000 US government cables and 380,000 records related to the Iraq war, is being held in solitary confinement in a maximum security military prison. He is shackled at all times.

In a letter signed by more than 250 of America's leading legal scholars, published in the New York Review of Books, the signatories claim his alleged treatment is a violation of the US constitution, specifically the eighth amendment which forbids cruel and unusual punishment and the fifth amendment which prevents punishment without trial.

"The administration has provided no evidence that Manning's treatment reflects a concern for his own safety or that of other inmates," the letter states. "Unless and until it does so, there is only one reasonable inference: this pattern of degrading treatment aims either to deter future whistleblowers, or to force Manning to implicate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a conspiracy, or both."

The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, who worked as a legal adviser in the US justice department until three months ago, and was writer by Bruce Ackerman from Yale University and Yochai Benkler of Harvard.

Chinese authorities have made their biggest move against dissidents and activists for years, including artist Ai Weiwei. The crackdown followed an anonymous online call for protests inspired by Middle Eastern uprisings, although it is unclear if any of those held or missing were connected to the appeal. Information is from human rights groups and inquiries by the Guardian

Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified. Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday. Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. "His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people," said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor.

Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces, while another video shows the funeral of Muhammad Awad Qunbar, who sources said was killed for refusing to fire on protesters. Signs of defections will be worrying to Syria's regime. State media reported a different version of events, claiming nine soldiers had been killed in an ambush by an armed group in Banias.

Yahoo: In new protest, Syrian women block main highway
You Tube: Today protest by Syrian women and children demanding the release of their loved ones arrested at night - Video

The recent move by France to impose a ban on burqa, a cover-all headdress some Muslim women choose to wear, has come in contrast with the country's tolerance of public nudity. The ban came into force on Monday and was followed by immediate arrest of nearly 60 women that defied the ban by walking outside the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, reported a Press TV correspondent from the French capital. A recently-surfaced video, meanwhile, featured a naked male running around the country's streets while trying to cut a figure as a pole vaulter. Kenza Drider, a young Muslim that left the southern city of Avignon for Paris to participate in a television program on the day the ban became law, was among the detainees.

"This law infringes my European rights; I cannot but defend them, that is to say my freedom to come and go and my religious freedom," she said. "This law breaches these rights," said the mother of four.

There are fewer than 2,000 women wearing a full-face veil in France, which is home to five million Muslims -- the largest Muslim community in the EU.

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on American household wealth declining by 23% while billionaires see their wealth rise by 25%. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Dmitry Orlov for an update on the state of economic collapse in America.

Remember Paul Ceglia? He's the fellow in upstate New York who sued Mark Zuckerberg last July, claiming that, way back in 2003, Zuckerberg had agreed to give him a 50% ownership in the project that became Facebook. That claim seemed preposterous at the time, not least because Ceglia had waited 7 years to file it. And there was also the fact that Ceglia was a convicted felon, having been charged with criminal fraud in connection with a wood-pellet company he operated. In the weeks following the filing of the lawsuit, Ceglia produced what Ceglia said was a copy of the contract he and Mark Zuckerberg had signed covering two projects on which the two were working together--a Ceglia project called "StreetFax" and a Zuckerberg project called "the face book." He also produced a canceled check for $1,000. He also explained why he waited 7 years to file the claim.

Ceglia has produced more than a dozen of what he says are emails between him and Mark Zuckerberg from July 2003 to July 2004, the year in which Facebook was created. In these purported emails, which we have included below, Zuckerberg and Ceglia discuss "the face book" project in detail. They discuss how Ceglia will fund the project. They discuss how Ceglia has funded the project (proof of payment). They discuss how Zuckerberg has met some upperclassmen--the Winklevosses, presumably--who are pursuing a similar project, and how Zuckerberg is "stalling" them. They discuss how Zuckerberg has failed to complete the "face book" project on time. They discuss the launch of the face book, which Ceglia agrees looks great.

Everyone likes to think they work harder than everyone else, but the latest OECD data may surprise some Europeans and Americans who expected to be at the top of the world's hard work list. The latest data from the OECD sheds light on not just paid work, but also unpaid work such as cooking and other housework. Notable absentees from the top 14 include Germany, France, and the UK. All of the countries listed have a work day longer than the OECD average.

OECD: Who’s busiest: working hours and household chores across OECD

London High Court has released documents confirming horrific torture and abuse of revolutionary Kenyans by the British soldiers during the 1950s and '60s.

Four Kenyans, all in their eighties, claim that they were tortured during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising and suffered “unspeakable acts of brutality, including castrations and severe sexual assaults.” The documents show how British officers burned Kenyans alive. They also reveal how the officials had told the ministers in 1953 that "if therefore we are going to sin, we must sin quietly."

Some of the documents such as reports by the then Police Commissioner of Kenya Colonel Arthur Young who describes slaughtering in detention camps have been posted online. "In the majority of cases the death has been caused by willful violence and ill treatment on the part of staff, which classifies the matter as murder," he wrote.