Five US-led soldiers have been killed in different incidents in southern Afghanistan amid increasing attacks by militants in the spring offensive.

Two foreign soldiers were killed in separate explosions while two others were killed in direct attacks by militants, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday. The fifth soldier was killed in another incident, the report added. NATO announced that the incidents took place on Friday but did not provide any information about the nationalities of the victims and the places where the incidents occurred.

Tom Judd: As Afghanistan Rises in Revolt, America Sinks Further into Grave of Empires - The United States is not winning the battle for “hearts and minds,” that much is clear. In addition, the hearts and minds of the military occupying Afghanistan are being lost as well. The psychological and physical damages of the occupation and Obama’s troop surge are deep: soldiers facing mental health problems are at an all-time high - around twenty percent, and around eighty percent have seen a friend die in combat. The toll on soldiers is grim, and those who survive carry physical and mental wounds through multiple tours and back home.

"The United Nations warned on Wednesday [25 May 2011] of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a 'collapse' of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline . . . the U.N. economic division said such a development . . . would imperil the global financial system."

The report, an update of the U.N. "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2011" report first issued in December, noted that the dollar exchange rate against a basket of other key currencies had reached its lowest level since the 1970s. This trend, it said, had recently been driven in part by interest rate differentials between the United States and other major economies and growing concern about the sustainability of the U.S. public debt, half of which is held by foreigners. "As a result, further (expected) losses of the book value of the vast foreign reserve holdings could trigger a crisis of confidence in the reserve currency, which would put the entire global financial system at risk," it said.

Spanish police yesterday fired rubber bullets and beat protesters with truncheons in a vicious attempt to clear anti-austerity demonstrators from the Plaza de Cataluna square in Barcelona.

The Catalan riot police attacked at around 6.45 am, after protesters staged a sit-in to stop a convoy of cleaning trucks leaving the square after dismantling their encampment, under police supervision. Demonstrators chanted, “They shall not pass!” Without warning, police moved in after firing tear gas canisters. Protesters were dragged away by police, and there are numerous reports of rubber bullets being fired. An official denied this, stating that police fired compressed-air guns that shoot blanks. Demonstrators reported that police officers were not wearing their identification numbers.

Around 100 protesters regrouped in the square, while hundreds more were prevented from doing so by police cordons. “We will return,” they chanted. In the face of determined resistance, the police eventually retreated and thousands flooded the square, though numbers later dwindled. A report in the Financial Times gave a glimpse of the police brutality. “Protesters described a crowd of several hundred slowly walking towards a group of police hitting a woman with a baton. The crowd clapped and chanted ironically: 'This is your democracy!’”

20MinutosTV: Brutalidad en la Plaza de Cataluña - VIDEO
Real News: Anti-riot police clear Cataluña square - VIDEO

Pakistan has rebuffed an appeal by visiting US officials not to shut down military intelligence liaison centres in the country, US and Pakistani officials have said.

Pakistan had recently told the United States to reduce its military presence in the country, and also moved to close three military intelligence liaison centres, setting back American efforts to eliminate insurgent sanctuaries in largely lawless areas bordering Afghanistan. The liaison centres- also known as intelligence fusion cells- are the main conduits for the US to share satellite imagery, target data and other intelligence with Pakistani ground forces conducting operations against militants, including Taliban fighters who slip into Afghanistan to attack US and allied forces.

AWIP: Pakistan shuts down U.S. 'intelligence fusion' cells

Egypt has reopened its Rafah border with the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, allowing people to cross freely for the first time in four years following the downfall of ex-President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt opened the border crossing where many Palestinians gathered on Saturday in eager anticipation of the move to head southward. Cairo says the Rafah crossing will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. local time every day except Fridays and holidays. Jubilant Palestinians also expect Cairo to allow the importation of services and goods including construction materials into the impoverished coastal sliver, a Press TV correspondent reported. Women, children as well as men aged over 40 will be allowed to enter Egypt freely, but men aged between 18 and 40 will still require a permit.

Gulf News: Gaza gets gateway to the world
Yahoo: Opening Its Gaza Border, Egypt Pulls the Plug on Israel's Failed Strategy
Al Jazeera: Egypt opens Rafah border with Gaza - Video

Two weeks ago it was Admiral Mullen. Last week it was Sen. Kerry (D – MA). This weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried her hands at “improving” the increasingly strained relationship with Pakistan. Once again, it has ended the same.

Instead of reconciliation, Secretary Clinton’s visit was full of warnings and demands, She noted that US and Pakistani relations are at a “critical point,” then proceded to demand “decisive steps” from the Zardari government. Which, as with all steps the Obama Administration is keen on, means killing people. According to US and Pakistani officials, Secretary Clinton delivered a “list” of people that the Obama Administration wants the Zardari government to immediately attack.

AWIP: Clinton lands in Pakistan

Libyan officials have directed phone calls to a number of NATO member nations urging a ceasefire in a ongoing NATO war. The call was immediately spurned by the US, who said the offer was “not credible” and vowed the war would continue.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the US was absolutely opposed to the ceasefire because the Gadhafi-led government is “not complying with UN demands.” It is so far unclear if other NATO member nations may be more open to the idea. Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Ali Mahmoudi insisted that the offer was sincere and that Libya is “serious about a ceasefire.” He said the offer was to be based on an African Union road map for peace in the nation, which Libyan officials endorsed previously.

PressTV: NATO bombs rain on Tripoli for 5th night
Freeman: Lawless Government - Obama flouts the War Powers Resolution

Leftwing-Christian.net: 30 standing ovations...as Joplin digs itself out of the rubble - Do members of the U.S. Congress know any shame? Is it possible for them to even feel such? On Friday, authorities in Joplin raised the death toll to 132. It is clear that our "leaders" in Washington have misplaced their priorities. Their love for a foreign head of state and their attachment to a nation which violates international law and practices apartheid seems genuinely to outweigh their concern for Americans coping with a major disaster. [Video source]

Uprooted Palestinians: A refutation of some of Netanyahu's assertions courtesy of Aadel M Al-Mahdy
AWIP: Protester who heckled Netanyahu in Congress beaten, arrested at hospital [She yelled, "stop Israeli war crimes."]

In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate. The latest example is You Tube’s compliance with a request from the British government to censor footage of the British Constitution Group’s Lawful Rebellion protest, during which they attempted to civilly arrest Judge Michael Peake at Birkenhead county court.

“Between July 1 and Dec. 31 (2009), Google received 3,580 requests for user data from U.S. government agencies, slightly less than the 3,663 originating from Brazil,” reports PC World. “The United Kingdom and India sent more than 1,000 requests each, and smaller numbers originated from various other countries.” With regard to search terms, one struggles to understand how a specific combination of words in a Google search can be considered a violation of any law. This is about government and Google working hand in hand to manipulate search results in order to censor inconvenient information, something which Google now freely admits to doing.

In their efforts to keep a lid on the growing populist fury that has arrived in response to rampant and growing financial and political tyranny in every sector of society, governments in the west are now mimicking Communist Chinese-style Internet censorship policies in a bid to neutralize protest movements, while hypocritically lecturing the rest of the world on maintaining web freedom.

Alternet: Turning the Camera: Why Are Cops Allowed to Film Citizens, But Citizens Not Allowed to Film Police Brutality?