Navy medical staff at Guantanamo counted 28 of the 166 war-on-terror captives as Pentagon-defined "hunger strikers," the prison said Monday, reporting an increase over the weekend that included three men being treated at the prison hospital. A total of 10 of the hunger strikers were getting liquid nutrition, which under prison camp protocol is fed to a captive who's been shackled into a restraint chair and had a feeding tube snaked up his nose into his stomach. The three at the hospital were receiving tube feedings and intravenous drips, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, the detention center spokesman who on Friday reported 26 hunger strikers, eight on tube feedings and two hospitalized.

Ben Fox: Force Feeding Prisoners Is Disgusting, Barbaric and Inhuman

Six children from Chicago are gonna remember this night as one of their most traumatizing experiences. The kids, aged 11 months to 13 years at the time, were rehearsing songs for the church choir with their grandmother Charlene Holly when eight armed officers burst through the door and started aiming guns at them, yelling “get on the ground!”. One of the cops even asked Charlene to show the 11 month old’s hands to them at gunpoint. When she asked for the reason of the raid, she was handed a warrant for Sedgwick M. Reavers, the tenant of the apartment one floor above the Hollys. The warrant clearly stated ‘The second floor apartment located at 10640 S. Prairie Ave.

Justin Raimondo: The Militarization of American Life

(Serious Episodes Outside Parliament)

Jim Grant: The importance of the Cyprus news is an idea. And that idea is that to the authorities, your money is not necessarily yours, if it is needed for the good of the state. So, in a pinch, what has been demonstrated in Cyprus is that there will be an event over the weekend, it seems over the weekend, there will be capital controls. There will be this Orwellian and truly chilling phrase, a stability contribution. A contribution, mind you. so I think that idea is now out, and it cannot easily be put back and people ought to take the measure of this.

Reggie Middleton: Economic Depression Is The New Success - As I stated in Mainstream Media Says Cyprus Salvaged By EU Deal, I Say Cyprus Is Sacrificed By Said Deal - Thrown Into Depression, locking up a country's liquidity for an unspecified amount of time, then removing up to 40% of a nations small/medium/large business liquidity (permanently, they're catching haircuts) as well as that of your wealthy depositors, is tantamount to economic genocide! How in the hell do you calculate "The danger of Cyprus' bankruptcy is definitively overcome and the tragic consequences for the economy and society are averted”? If anything, "The danger of Cyprus' bankruptcy... and the tragic consequences for the economy and society" are just getting started!

Stephen Lendman: Cyprus Postmortems - Cyprus reflects a watershed moment. Confiscating personal wealth becomes official government policy. Eurocrats and Cypriot officials bypassed parliament. Ordinary people had no say. Euro Group head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said extracting wealth from depositors becomes a model for other troubled economies. He left no doubt what he means. He wants grand theft made official policy.

PressEurop: Merkel’s pawn considers Cypriot "haircuts" elsewhere
Daily Bail: Father Of The Euro: "Italy Is Next After Cyprus"
Cyprus Mail: Rush to quell panic over BoC
InvestmentWatch: Historic Events Are Unfolding In Europe

Though the deal still seems to be quite some way off, Israel has reportedly agreed in principle to pay tens of millions of dollars in compensation for the May 2010 attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, which led to the killings of nine aid workers. - Israel and Turkey are discussing the formation of a committee of both nations’ officials to come up with final terms for the deal, with the money to go in a “humanitarian fund” managed by Turkey’s government. Though Israel has been open to compensation for quite some time, the issue could become difficult since officials demand full immunity for Israeli commandos and the state for the killings, as well as not having to admit any wrongdoing.

An Evening With Gilad Atzmon, a short video by James Corbett. We spoke about Jewish power, Zionism, Palestine, the Lobby. Controlled opposition, history & concealment, Being & Time and more. James was very sharp and presented me with some serious questions. I hope to meet his again soon. The band was incredible: Eric Wiegmann on drums and Koichi Hara on bass. [Video]

The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are set to approve the establishment of a new development bank during an annual summit that began today in the eastern South African city of Durban, officials from all five nations say. They will also discuss pooling foreign-currency reserves to ward off balance of payments or currency crises.

A Russian oligarch who has maintained high-level influence in Moscow since the close of the Cold War resigned his seat in Russian parliament Tuesday after the National Post revealed he held dual citizenship and had extensive assets in Canada. - Vitaly Malkin tried for almost 20 years to relocate to Canada, investing millions in Toronto, but had been turned away over alleged ties to organized crime. During his failed immigration process he told Canadian officials he had Israeli citizenship and extensive foreign investments. The Post revealed his past on March 5 and the news ignited a storm of controversy in Moscow because Russian law bars lawmakers from holding dual citizenship and owning undeclared foreign investments. Mr. Malkin, once listed as one of the world’s wealthiest men, held a seat in the Russian upper house since 2004.

Pepe Escobar: Ten years after Iraq was inflicted with 'Shock and Awe', the target is now Syria. It’s Marx all over again – history repeating itself as a double tragedy and double farce. Let’s start with that Stooge Central; the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), which is nothing but a US State Department/Qatar concoction. The head of the SNC, Moaz al-Khatib, resigned this past Sunday, blaming Qatar for trying to “control” it. Al-Khatib, crucially, was in favor of civilized negotiations with Damascus, as he told Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. So he had to disagree with the new “interim Prime Minister” invented by Washington and Doha; one Ghasan Hitto, a Syrian-American IT business executive based in Texas who has not been to Syria for three decades. It’s the same old story.

Stephen Lendman: Washington Escalates War on Syria
Melkulangara Bhadrakumar: Obama Unleashes Dogs of War in Syria
Anshel Pfeffer: Jihadists, not Assad, Apparently Behind Reported Chemical Attack in Syria
Jordanian International Air Cargo, the secret airline that’s reportedly flooding Syria with weapons

A specialist school is under investigation after setting up a “controlled self harm” policy to allow a teenage pupil to cut herself with razor blades. - Teachers were told to give the female pupil access to sterilised Bic safety razor blades and to escort her to a bathroom where she could cut herself. They were ordered to wait outside the bathroom while the child was inside, checking on her every two minutes, before the wounds were dressed and cleaned by staff. The policy is understood to have been designed by the school in collaboration with the pupil’s mother. However, it was abandoned after five days after several members of staff protested and complained to the local authority. Unsted Park School in Godalming, Surrey, offers education to boys and girls aged between seven and 19 years who have Asperger's syndrome and higher-functioning autism. Principal Steve Dempsey and head teacher Laura Blair now face the possibility of being brought before a Teaching Agency hearing over allegations of unacceptable professional conduct.