AFTER about 15 hours of negotiation, 520 dogs were saved early yesterday in Beijing after animal lovers paid 115,000 yuan (US$16,420) to buy the dogs from vendor, Beijing Evening News reported yesterday. The canines were thus saved the chop and avoided ending up on restaurant tables.

The dogs were being transported in a truck from central China's Henan Province to northeast Jilin Province yesterday. The truck was held up on the highway after volunteers learnt about it and the rescued dogs were later sent to a stray animals care center in Beijing. The newspaper reported that some of them died on the way to Jilin.

The truck had an iron cage that was 2 meters high. It was divided into four layers with each layer of the cage crammed with more than 100 dogs. Most of them were street dogs but there were some pet dogs as well, including Siberian huskies and golden retrievers. Some of the pet dogs had the patch of a strap around their neck, the newspaper reported. More photos here (Dagbladet)

Under a White House plan, the Homeland Security Department will have far-reaching oversight over all civilian agency computer networks. The proposal would codify much of the administration's memo from July 2010 expanding DHS's cyber responsibilities for civilian networks. The White House, however, is taking those responsibilities further, according to a source familiar with the document. The administration drafted a legislative proposal to give DHS many, if not all, of the same authorities for the .gov networks that the Defense Department has for the .mil networks.

A growing chorus of voices is urging the Greek government to restructure its debt as fears grow that a €110bn bailout has failed to rescue the country from the financial abyss and is forcing ordinary people into an era of futile austerity. "It's better to have a restructuring now … since the situation is going nowhere," said Vasso Papandreou, whose views might be easier to discount were she not head of the Greek parliament's economic affairs committee.

On March 17, Ibrahim Shareef, the head of the anti-government activist movement Waad, was snatched from his home at gunpoint by what his family describes as Bahraini security forces. Thrown into a waiting sport utility vehicle, he was driven off into the night. Today he's still missing, whereabouts unknown.

As the island kingdom's Sunni regime continues to crack down on anti-government activists and prominent Shi'ites, Shareef and more than 460 others are believed to be in government custody. New arrests happen daily in the country, which is home base of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. Bahrain was designated an official Non-NATO ally in October 2001, after the 9/11 attacks on America.

The Guardian: Bahrain braced for new wave of repression

A senior US congresswoman says the Palestinian Authority (PA) could face an aid cut if it pushes ahead with its unilateral statehood demand to the United Nations. “That [demanding unilateral statehood] would be a very very bad thing to do. It will affect US aid to the Palestinian Authority. It would be a very serious step. It also could affect our funding at the UN,” said Texas Republican Representative Kay Granger, who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over foreign aid, the Jerusalem Post reported on Saturday. An aide to a Democratic member of Granger's subcommittee has also echoed the threat.

"We are there to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas"
– William Hague

"I was watching ABC News last night and, lo and behold, there was a DU impact. It burned and burned and burned."
- Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon’s Depleted Uranium Project commenting on Libya attack.

"Depleted uranium tipped missiles fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way… I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people."
– Marion Falk, chemical physicist (retd), Lawrence Livermore Lab, California, USA

In the first 24 hours of the Libyan attack, US B-2s dropped forty-five 2,000-pound bombs. Did any of these massive bombs, along with the Cruise missiles launched from British and French planes and ships, contain depleted uranium? Doug Rokke joins others such as Conn Hallinan, of Foreign Policy in Focus, in believing that the answer is yes.

PressTV: West using depleted uranium in Libya
A. Bult Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'

The people of Gaza were in mourning yesterday for a pro-Palestinian peace activist found hanged a day after he was abducted, apparently by "Islamist militants inspired by al Qa'eda" [?]. Hamas police discovered the body of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, an Italian member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), when they raided an apartment in Gaza City where he was being held. The apartment was otherwise empty. Two people have been arrested in connection with the murder and a third is being sought, Hamas officials said yesterday.

Ma'an News Agency: Hamas holds 4 suspects over Italian's murder
AWIP: A Beautiful Soul, a Big Heart - Video

Israeli soldiers detained a child from Hebron's Old City after settlers attacked the boy's home Saturday. Mu'taz Al-Muhtaseb was beaten by soldiers and arrested, locals told Ma'an. They added that Israeli forces came to the area after settlers from the illegal outpost Beit Hadasa attacked Mu'taz's home.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that soldiers arrested a Palestinian but said that the army was unaware of any beating or unusual incidents since his arrest. He also told Ma'an that the incident came after several Israeli civilians hurled rocks at a Palestinian house. "When an IDF force arrived at the scene, they dispersed," the official said.

A senior Iranian military official says the United States and Israel unleashed the destructive computer worm Stuxnet in order to sabotage Iran's industrial facilities. The head of the Iranian Passive Defense Organization told IRNA on Saturday that the German engineering company Siemens AG provided the information on the software used at Iranian industrial sites. “The research and inquiry into the matter indicates that the Stuxnet worm had been disseminated from sources in the US and Israel," Gholam-Reza Jalali stated. He said that the malware could have caused tragic accidents and loss of life if Iranian experts had not discovered and dealt with it in due time.

Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in Budapest against the new Constitution and the austerity package of the conservative government of Prime Minister Orban. As the Hungarian agency MTI reported Heroes' Square was occupied by police officers, soldiers, firemen, customs officers and prison guards fully, who came from all parts of the country to Budapest, to demonstrate for their rights.