As Pakistan reasserts national-sovereignty, the US responds with arming & backing Baluchi terrorists. - Quite obviously, tensions between the US and Pakistan have only further deteriorated, with the West playing victim accusing Pakistan of "double dealing" them during America's decade-long occupation of neighboring Afghanistan and frequent cross-border murder-sprees in Pakistani territory. Pakistan has more recently passed a resolution calling for the cessation of all US drone attacks on Pakistani soil. Additionally, as noted by geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser of Stop Imperialism, Pakistan has also prepared provisions to ban foreign bases on Pakistani soil and stem US covert terrorist activities inside Pakistan operating under the guise of "security contractors." The US had frequently answered the reassertion of Pakistani national sovereignty with random drone attacks on civilian populations, but seems now to be shifting into gear for a full-blown destabilization of Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Violence has notably increased in tandem with calls from Western politicians to support the "Free Baluchistan" movement and the establishment of an independent "Baluchistan" carved out of sovereign Pakistani territory. [...] The US fully plans on carving out a Baluchistan buffer-state to balk Pakistani-Chinese relations, destabilize Pakistan itself, and provide more pressure on Iran's eastern border.

PressTV: Pakistan’s parliament approves new guidelines for US ties

CCTV footage showing staff at the Judge Rotenberg Centre in
Massachusetts pumping electricity through Andre's body.

A shocking new video has surfaced showing the staff at a mental institution in the US state of Massachusetts use repeated electrical shocks on a disabled boy while laughing.

The footage shows 18-year-old Andre McCollins tied face down to a table and screaming with pain as staff at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass. applied 31 jolts of electricity over the course of seven hours. McCollins was admitted to a nearby children's hospital later that day where doctors diagnosed him with acute stress response caused by the shocks. They also said that the shocks could have killed the boy. The video, filmed in 2002, was played in a court just outside Boston on Tuesday despite the institution's attempts for years to suppress it. It was released this week after a high court judge overturned a previous ruling keeping the footage from being broadcast to the public. McCollins' mother, Cheryl McCollins, has sued the institution and three of its employees for the harsh treatment of her son ten years ago. She told the court that she had “no idea that they tortured children in the school.” Lawyers for the school said the shocks were administered as “aversive” therapy, describing McCollins as an "aggressive" student. Judge Rosenberg Center -- a school for disabled children -- was established in 1971 to help 'fix' children who are disruptive and intent on self-harm.

Daily Activist: [Horrific Video] Disabled Student Tortured
Daily Mail: Tortured, terrorised and abused
HuffPo: Tape Shows Teen Being Shocked 31 Times

In some ways, the Annan plan needs to fail — which appears most likely — to persuade Russia and China not to wield their veto on Syria resolutions as they have twice previously, diplomats and analysts said. China is basically considered to be following Russia’s lead. “They have been pushing and pushing and pushing for Annan and for mild action at the council, and it didn’t work,” said a United Nations Security Council diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity under his ministry’s guidelines.

Moon of Alabama: Diplomats And Analysts Wish For More Dead Syrians - One seldom sees blood-lust expressed so openly in a news story. "In some ways, the Annan plan needs to fail — which appears most likely — to persuade Russia and China not to wield their veto on Syria resolutions as they have twice previously, diplomats and analysts said." Meanwhile the cease-fire seems to hold for the last a few hours though there are unconfirmed reports of a rebel attack against a military airport near Aleppo. But with "diplomats and analysts" openly urging for a failure of the cease-fire one wonders how long it will take until it breaks down.

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (05 – 11 April 2012)

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 8 Palestinians, including 6 civilians, one of whom is a journalist, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. - In the West Bank, IOF wounded 5 civilians, including journalist, during the dispersion of peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. Dozens of civilians also suffered from tear gas inhalation. In the Gaza Strip, on 07 April 2012, two Palestinian resistance activists were wounded by an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. On 08 April, a Palestinian civilian was wounded by IOF while he was collecting junks in the east of Gaza City. During the reporting period, IOF opened fire at Palestinian agricultural and residential areas in the northern and southern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported. Israeli gunboats also opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in the northern Gaza Strip 3 times.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 52 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 32 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children. - In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted 3 limited incursions into Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land which they had already razed.

Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. The illegal Israeli-imposed closure of the Gaza Strip, which has steadily tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip. The illegal closure has caused not only a humanitarian crisis but a crisis of human rights and human dignity for the population of the Gaza Strip. Measures declared recently to ease the blockade are vague, purely cosmetic and fail to deal with the root causes of the crisis, which can only be addressed by an immediate and complete lifting of the closure, including lifting the travel ban into and out of the Gaza Strip and the ban on exports. Palestinians in Gaza may no longer suffer from the same shortage of goods, but they will remain economically dependent and unable to care for themselves, and socially, culturally and academically isolated from the rest of the world. IOF have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem. [Photo: Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin]

Though she has reportedly assisted in the successful delivery of more than 1,700 babies, 400 of which were born in their families' homes, 49-year-old Ireena Keeslar, a former obstetrics nurse-turned-midwife, was recently arrested on charges of practicing midwifery without a license. And at her hearing in LaGrange County, Indiana, on April 9, 2012, more than 100 supporters of all ages came out to protest her incarceration, and take a stand for women's birthing rights. Practicing midwifery in the state of Indiana without being a licensed nurse is currently illegal, which makes it extremely difficult not only for midwives like Keeslar to practice, but also for women who prefer a more personalized and natural form of childbirth to receive the proper care of their choice. Even certified practical midwifery and direct-entry midwifery are illegal in the Hoosier State, which greatly limits women's birthing options there.

An innocent man who had legally been raising a few dozen chickens and other small birds in the backyard of his suburban Atlanta home is now dead, following a crusade of terror perpetrated against him by the City of Roswell in Georgia. Andrew Wordes, who died during a recent raid on his property in which county marshals tried to illegally evict him, was the obvious victim of a rogue state gone mad -- and his blood is now on the hands of the Roswell City Administrator, the Roswell City Council, and the Roswell Police Department, all of which robbed from Wordes his property, his livelihood, and ultimately his life. See the NaturalNews infographic timeline of events that documents the escalation that ultimately led to Mr. Wordes' death:

ADX Florence Supermax Facility – Colorado

On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling permitting the United Kingdom to extradite to the United States six men suspected by the U.S. of committing acts of terrorism.

The principal issue in the case and the one that attracted the attention of civil rights groups around the world is whether reports of harsh conditions and physical deprivation of suspected terrorists at prisons in the United States would influence the court’s ruling. Apparently, it did not. Specifically, the Court informed the government of the United Kingdom that there would be “no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights as a result of conditions of detention at ADX Florence (a “supermax” prison in the United States)....”The case at bar involved six alleged terrorists: Babar Ahmad, Haroon Rashid Aswat, Syed Tahla Ahsan, Mustafa Kamal Mustafa (known more commonly as Abu Hamza), Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled Al-Fawwaz, all of whom were being detained in the U.K. pending the European court’s ruling. Between 1999 and 2006 each of the six men was indicted on various terrorism charges in the United States. Ahmad and Ahsan are accused of several criminal acts, including providing material support to terrorists and “conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure” people or property in a foreign country.

Bill Van Auken: European court’s extradition ruling and Guantanamo’s global reach

Pipes has written an aggressive and confused jumble of half-truths and misunderstandings about the Arabs citizens of Israel in an article published in the Washington Times. - Middle East expert Daniel Pipes was in Israel recently and subsequently published an article entitled “Israel’s Arabs, living a paradox” in the Washington Times. Pipes’s main point in the article is that as Israel overcomes “external threats,” the Arab citizens of Israel will become an “ever-greater concern” and will be the “ultimate obstacle to establishing the Jewish homeland…” (and I thought the Jewish homeland was established in 1948). He claims that the Arab citizens of Israel are a threat to the existence of the State and bases this claim on an unsubstantiated accusation that “Israeli Arabs have increasingly resorted to violence against their Jewish co-nationals.” This malicious statement is false and the facts are exactly the opposite. Based on all indicators, violence against Jews or other actions against the State by Arab citizens of Israel has decreased significantly in recent years.

A tense standoff between Philippine naval vessels and Chinese marine surveillance ships is currently unfolding in the South China Sea. - On April 16, US troops will be conducting joint war games with the Philippines in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. The exercises are pointedly targeted at China and involve the storming of oil rigs. The annual war games will include 4,500 US and 2,300 Philippine troops. Usually only involving Manila and Washington, this year’s joint exercises have been expanded to include forces from Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea and Japan. If the standoff is not resolved in the next two days, these war games will be conducted while Philippine and Chinese vessels sit within gunshot of each other. During a meeting in Washington on April 4, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen reached an agreement for the United States to deploy more of its littoral combat ships to Singapore. All these moves on Washington’s part are designed to encircle and contain China.

Julian Assange's show "The World Tomorrow" coming up

You've been waiting and we've been teasing. Julian Assange. The World Tomorrow. Arguably the most anticipated news show of 2012 premieres next week on RT. Dateline – Tuesday, April 17. Timeline – 15:30 Moscow time, 11:30 GMT, 07:30 am in New York and 21:30 in Sydney. The world will be watching "The World Tomorrow". In the spirit of WikiLeaks we'll be publishing exclusive trailers, sneakpeaks, previews and behind-the-scenes content to bring you Assange's show in-full on "The World Tomorrow" official video-page. The announcement that RT would host Assange's show created a global media stir, with many questioning the RT/Assange link-up. In a pre-show interview (details TBA) Assange explained his rationale. "A lot of the things that we have been trying to report have not been carried accurately in the mainstream press. There are many, many fine exceptions but when we look at international networks there’s really only two that are worth speaking about, and that’s RT and Al Jazeera." The 10-episode series features Assange in conversation with "iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders". But what brought Assange, under house arrest for 492 days without charge, to the RT screen? "First of all, being under house arrest for so long, it’s nice to have an occasional visitor and to learn more about the world. And given that the conversations we were having are quite interesting, why not film them and show other people what was going on."