An Israeli defense official on Thursday denied a Kuwaiti report that Israel's Mossad spy agency had foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Defense Minister Ehud Barak during a visit to Singapore this week. "We have no knowledge of this," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Citing senior Israeli officials, Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper said Mossad agents uncovered the Iranian plot and tipped off Singapore's security service, which arrested a number of suspects.

DNA India: Indian bomb squad not permitted to examine bombed Israeli diplomatic vehicle
Haaretz: Mossad chief visited New Delhi days before attack on Israeli officials
Stephen Lendman: Iran Falsely Charged with India and Georgia Attacks
Bill Van Auken: US, Israel invoke terror to ratchet up war threats against Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias signed a search and rescue agreement on Thursday. According to the agreement, in the event of a disaster Israeli aircraft will be authorized to enter Cyprus's airspace, and vice versa. While in Nicosia, Netanyahu also addressed the Iranian nuclear threat, saying the sanctions imposed by the international community on the Islamic Republic "are not working." According to Netanyahu, the regime in Tehran violates every resolution and has no respect for international norms. [In psychology, we call that 'projection'.]

Today the systematic dispossession of the Palestinian people continues unabated and largely unchallenged by the United States and the European Union. Barriers to Palestinian mobility, social and political development are visible everywhere.

While Jewish-Israeli citizens pass freely, more than 500 police and military checkpoints regulate Palestinian movement between the occupied West Bank and Israel. Passing through these checkpoints on a recent fact-finding tour organized by the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, we witnessed Palestinians endure a daily ritual of subordination, humiliation and suspicion.

Abutting the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem, the massive Israeli separation wall annexes Palestinian land for the expanding settlement of Gilo. For Palestinian families who find themselves on the “wrong” side of the wall, what had once been a short walk to school now takes several hours.

Since 1992, Jewish-Israeli settlement within the West Bank has increased by more than 50 percent; some 500,000 Jewish settlers now live among 2.5 million Palestinians. Walled, gated and connected by a sophisticated road network that bypasses the dilapidated infrastructure used by Palestinians, these illegal settlements maintain privileged access to the most fertile lands, water and energy resources. [Mahfouz Abu Turk / APA images]

Uruknet/Mondoweiss: ‘A level of racist violence I have never seen’
Haaretz: After Jerusalem crash, racist comments appear on Netanyahu's Facebook page
PIC: Report: Israel killed 114 Gazans, wounded 467 others in 2011
PCHR: Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian lands, appealed on Thursday to Israel to release Palestinian prisoner Khader Adanan, who has been on hunger strike for two months. - Falk expressed deep concern over the life of prisoner Adanan and urged the international community to intervene.

"I call on the international community, especially the states with close relationship with Israel, to urge the Israeli government to fulfill its responsibilities under international law, most urgently with regard to Mr. Adnan," the UN official said. "In view of the emergency of his situation, the government of Israel must take immediate and effective action to safeguard Mr. Adnan's life, while upholding his rights," he added.

Falk also called on Israel to respect its legal obligations pertaining to thousands of Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

■ Murdering Khader Adnan
■ Khader Adnan: Day 60 and Counting
■ Khader Adnan's Heroic Struggle for Justice
■ Khader Adnan: Israeli Prisoner of Conscience
■ Israeli Political Prisoner Khader Adnan Near Death
■ Israeli Hanging Judge Sentences Khader Adnan to Death

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am Greek. [You may want to turn down the sound...]

Stephen Lendman: Financial Oligarch Power Raping Greece
Chris Floyd: Greek Fire: Extremist Elites Gone Wild in Democracy's Cradle

DOCUMENTS RAISE AWKWARD QUESTIONS FOR WASHINGTON, IMF & BERLIN - A written document giving firm dates and detailed actions for a planned Greek default has been in the possession of two top Wall Street bank currency trading bosses since the second week in January. The Slog has separate but corroborative sources affirming the existence of the document, and a conviction among senior bank staff that – at least at the time – the plan represented “a timetable, not a contingency”. The plan gives a firm date of March 23rd for default to be announced after the close of business. Senior bankers on Wall Street have been given detailed documentation setting out a timetable to Greek default, including firm dates and technical ‘orders’ about last use of the euro as a currency there. The revelation arrived at Slogger’s Roost last Monday, since when I have been trying to obtain corroboration. This arrived in the early hours of today (Thursday). One of the banks is Barclays Capital (Barcap) run by controversial figure Bob Diamond. The other must remain anonymous for the time being, in order to protect sources. The document asserts that Greece will officially be declared in default by all the ratings agencies after the close of business on Friday march 23rd . At the weekend all Greek bank accounts will be frozen, with emergency measures detailed to prevent the flight of capital. Included in the paperwork is a list of very limited exceptions to the ‘no withdrawals’ order. All major banks ‘are instructed not to deal with euro exchange as of open of business in Greece on Monday 25th march. All Greek markets will close for one day ‘at least’.

The Slog: GREEK DEFAULT PLAN: JP Morgan also possesses it

Mounting confusion over whether Greece will get vital bailout cash to avoid defaulting next month is rekindling fears that Europe's debt crisis will spread to bigger countries like Italy. - As stocks and the euro fell sharply on Thursday, borrowing rates rose for Italy and Spain, an indication of renewed investor concerns that they will eventually be dragged back into the crisis that had shown some signs of easing over the past couple of months. The pressure on the two countries had eased substantially in recent weeks, primarily because the European Central Bank offered super-cheap long-term loans to banks. But new jitters were creeping into markets as worries grew about a default in Greece next month. The country has yet to clinch deals for a bailout worth euro130 billion ($170 billion) and an accompanying euro100 billion ($131 billion) debt writedown by private bondholders.

A report from Amnesty International details widespread torture in the prisons and makeshift detention facilities in Libya, under the auspices of the regime established by the US-NATO war that overthrew and murdered Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. In at least 12 cases, prisoners were tortured to death, the group found. - The preliminary findings by Amnesty were reported late last month, while the investigation was being conducted. Amnesty delegates interviewed detainees and torture victims throughout January and early February, with the detailed results released February 15. The savage practices documented by Amnesty investigators include beatings with whips, cables, metal chains and wooden sticks, electric shocks, extraction of fingernails, and rape. Militia fighters conducted these attacks brazenly, in some cases continuing to abuse prisoners while human rights advocates were present.

Stephen Lendman: Out of Control Violence in Libya

Unemployment in Britain stands at a 16-year high of 8.4 percent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced Wednesday.

The figure, based on the government’s preferred International Labour Organisation measure, shows that the number of people out of work rose by 48,000 on the previous three months to 2.67 million. While the increase was the slowest since June, this is largely due to rise in those forced into part-time employment due to the lack of an alternative. The number of part-time workers in the UK now stands at 1.35 million—the highest figure on record. Youth unemployment also rose to a new record again, by 22,000. Some 1.04 million 16- to 24-year-olds are out of work—a rate of 22.2 percent, or more than one in five. Women workers accounted for two-thirds of the increase in jobless. Female unemployment rose by 32,000 with the number of women claiming unemployment benefits now at 531,700—the highest level since 1995.

More than 1 million women are now out of work. The rise is attributable to the government’s austerity measures, which have seen tens of thousands of jobs lost in the public sector. Wages, meanwhile, continue to stagnate. Average earnings rose by just 2 percent on the year, well below the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation, despite its relatively sharp fall to 3.6 percent.[Photo: PHOTOFUSION]

Adnan Al-Daini: Orthodox Economics Gone Mad

Poachers have slaughtered at least 200 elephants in the past five weeks in a patch of Africa where they are more dangerously endangered than anywhere else on Earth, wildlife activists said. - The money made from selling elephant tusks is fueling misery throughout the continent, the International Fund for Animal Welfare warned. Many elephant calves orphaned by the recent killings have been spotted in Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida National Park, and activists fear the animals may soon die of hunger and thirst. "Their deaths will only compound the impact of the poaching spree on the Cameroon's threatened elephant populations," the organization said Thursday in a statement. It is not known how many elephants remain in the West African nation. The latest figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated there were only 1,000 to 5,000 left in 2007.