Six In The Morning

Libya rebels flee eastward by the hundreds
Kadafi's forces appear poised to take Port Brega after pushing the opposition fighters out of Ras Lanuf, another oil refinery city.
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times
March 31, 2011
Reporting from Port Brega, Libya— Dispirited rebel fighters continued their headlong retreat across eastern Libya on Wednesday, surrendering a strategic oil city they captured just three days earlier and fleeing eastward by the hundreds.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi appeared poised late in the day to seize a second oil refinery city, Port Brega, as rebels in gun trucks near the city turned and fled at the sound of exploding rockets and artillery. Kadafi's men had pushed rebels out of Ras Lanuf, site of a petrochemical complex and port, on Wednesday morning.

Japan under pressure to widen nuclear evacuation zone
High levels of radiation detected outside current 20km zone
• Prime minister plans to review nuclear energy policy
• Concerns over water contaminated by reactor cooling operation
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 31 March 2011 09.16 BST
Pressure is mounting on Japan to expand the evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, as the prime minister says he plans to review the country's nuclear energy policy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Japanese authorities should consider expanding the zone beyond its current 20km (12-mile) radius after high levels of radiation were detected at a village about twice that distance from the plant.

The government has so far resisted calls to evacuate more people from the area, but said its policy was under constant review, and that monitoring of radiation levels was being increased.

Spain's family bonds lie at the heart and soul of great healthcare
Spain leads the world in organ transplants, but its success in the operating theatre is matched by its holistic approach outside
Sarah Boseley , health editor
The Guardian, Thursday 31 March 2011
Looking tired, Adolfo Martínez Pérez, dressed in a white clinical coat, apologises for being late, saying he has been to see a judge. A difficult patient suing for compensation, perhaps? No. The surgeon and his fellow transplant co-ordinator, nurse Mercedes González González (her mother and father had the same surname), have just returned from witnessing the uncle of a five year-old girl sign a legal document in another part of Madrid's Ramón y Cajal hospital, declaring that he understands the consequences of donating part of his liver to his niece.

Spain has probably the best organ transplant system in the world. Its healthcare is highly regarded – it ranked seventh in the World Health Organisation's top 10 in 2000 (the UK was 18th) – and, like the NHS, it is free at the point of delivery. It has an excellent network of family doctors and a health centre within 15 minutes of every home. But when it comes to transplants, Spain is way out in front.

Ivory Coast war intensifies as battle for capital looms

By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent Thursday, 31 March 2011
Ivory Coast has been plunged back into civil war after a slow-burning election crisis developed into violence with forces loyal to the internationally recognised president-elect, Alassane Ouattara, poised to take the capital.

The fighting threatens to provoke a humanitarian crisis, with civilians seeking refuge in public buildings or fleeing over the border into Liberia.

Laurent Gbagbo, who has defied the international community by refusing to relinquish power, yesterday appealed for a ceasefire.

Afghan President Condemns Actions of 'Kill Team'
'They Killed for Entertainment'
Spiegel
The photographs shocked the world and led to fears of revenge attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan. Now, almost two weeks after the pictures of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of Afghans were published in SPIEGEL, Afghan President Hamid Karzai publicly commented on the "Kill Team" for the first time.

Karzai told an audience of new teachers at a graduation ceremony in the capital city of Kabul on Wednesday that he had been "shocked and hurt" by the photographs. He said he was talking about the incidents now because the world has to "finally wake up."
The Afghan leader said he had read about the story in a "German magazine," an apparent reference to SPIEGEL. "They killed our youth for entertainment," he said.

Pak intelligence arrests high value Bali bomber

ISLAMABAD
Pakistan has arrested a much sought after Indonesian al-Qaida militant suspected in the 2002 bombing of a Bali nightclub and will turn him over to Jakarta, a Pakistani intelligence official said Wednesday.

The official did not say when or where Umar Patek was arrested, but according to the Philippines army, who has also been hunting him, he was seized on Jan. 25 along with a Pakistani associate believed to have been giving him shelter.

The arrest of Patek, who has a $1 million American price on his head, is a major victory in the global fight against al-Qaida and — since he was taken alive — could provide very valuable intelligence about regional militant networks and possible future plots.

Japan nuclear crisis: evacuees turned away from shelters

Why help those most in need when you can shun them for having had the temerity to live in close proximity to the Fukashima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Instead hospitals and evacuation centers should further humiliate them just to make themselves feel better. So, for doctors in Japan: First Do No Harm is just a meaningless phrase given a lot of Lip Service

Hospitals and temporary refuges are demanding that evacuees provide them with certificates confirming that they have not been exposed to radiation before they are admitted.
The situation at the plant remains critical, with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency yesterday that radioactive iodine-131 at more than 3,350 times permitted levels has been found in a sample of seawater taken from near the facility.
The water is the most highly contaminated sample taken from the sea and indicates that radiation from the core of one or more of the reactors, where fuel rods have partly melted, is leaking into the Pacific Ocean.

Random Japan

MYSTERY OF THE DEAD MUTT SOLVED
Vets examining the preserved innards of Hachiko, the loyal dog who died in 1935 and whose statue has become a popular meeting place in Shibuya, have determined that the dogged mutt died of cancer, not from swallowing a chicken skewer, as originally thought.

Two Japanese professors from the unfortunately acronymed National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) were able to attach small cameras to Antarctic penguins near the South Pole and film their activities beneath the ice—a first in the animal kingdom. Our guess is the penguins swam around and caught the odd fish.

In Osaka, five two-legged robots took part in a marathon that saw them “run” 42km by circling an indoor track 423 times.

We’re not sure if CNN.com was going for a cheap laugh, but under the headline “Japan’s Suicide Rate for Job Seekers Jumps,” it was revealed that 424 people killed themselves in 2010 because they could not find a job, a 20 percent rise from the 2009 figure.

A new study by researchers from Japan and Germany showed that listening to music with earbuds “could cause damage to hearing that is hard to detect in standard auditory examinations at an early stage.”

Stats
35
Male nurses stationed in Japanese schools in 2010, up from 16 in 1999, according to the education ministry

90
Percent of traffic accidents involving junior high students in 2008 that happened while they were riding a bike

20
Percent of all traffic accidents in Japan in 2008 that involved a bicycle

35,000
2006-07 Honda Civic hybrids recalled due to electrical problems

TAKING A BULLET (TRAIN
Railway fans flocked to Tokyo station to witness the initial runs of the new E5 Series Hayabusa bullet train. The long-nosed green shinkansen can hit 300kph.

And just how popular was a seat on that train? Turns out someone bid ¥385,000 for a ticket to ride the rails on the Hayabusa’s debut run.

Even without the massive markup, “Gran Class” seats on the new train are not cheap—the face value of a ticket for a trip from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori? A cool ¥16,490.

Japan’s police agency revealed that investigators “took action” in 1,342 child pornography cases in 2010, up over 40 percent from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the number of reported kiddie-porn victims last year was 618, an increase of more than 50 percent from 2009.

When asked in an interview about all the non-Japanese-born players on Japan’s national rugby team, coach John Kirwan responded, “I had the same problem when I coached in Italy, but it was a bit easier to hide them.”

They Passed The Test

Despite The Governments Best Efforts

Violate Traffic Laws

You're Fired

Safe Cracked By Tsunami

Money Grows Legs Walks Off

Residents feel isolated in movement-restricted areas near nuke plant

FUKUSHIMA
While residents who live closest to the troubled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture have evacuated, those who have remained in a movement-restricted area 20 to 30 kilometers away from the plant say they are feeling increasingly ‘‘isolated.’‘

Towns were abandoned by many people apparently scared by the government’s instruction to shelter indoors for fear of radiation exposure, local people said.

Residents said they were also troubled by a misperception prevalent among people outside the area that they live in ‘‘a contaminated area,’’ expressing discontent about what they see as slow actions for help by the central government.

'Drastic' ideas eyed for power crisis
Unpopular options before summer heat strikes include daylight-saving time, price hikes
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer　
The government will come up with a drastic plan by April to deal with a major electricity shortage expected this summer from the loss of two nuclear power plants damaged by the quake and tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture.
Options being considered include the introduction of daylight-saving time, known locally as "summer time," and a hike in electricity charges, although nothing has been decided yet.

Six In The Morning

Rebels hope tribal rifts will speed their march to Gaddafi's birthplace
Loyalists offer little resistance ahead of battle for Sirte. Kim Sengupta joins the advancing forces.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
The scale and nature of resistance from the regime's soldiers indicated how much their firepower had been devastated by Western air strikes. There was little of the heavy shelling that had made the revolutionary forces flee in the past. This was replaced instead by sporadic rockets and small-arms clashes on the ground.

The rebel commanders, nonetheless, remain worried after reports that the male population of Sirte had been armed and what remains of the regime's armour and artillery on the eastern front has been deployed to protect the city. Renewed bombing of the military positions in the city by international coalition warplanes are said to have caused some damage, but the city remains well guarded.

How Dangerous Is Japan's Creeping Nuclear Disaster?
Fukushima Fallout
Spiegel
The technicians had for days to restore electricity to the remains of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. But then it was ordinary rubber boots, of all things, that would come to symbolize their desperation, helplessness and defeat.

On Thursday, the three men had made their way into the basement of the turbine building for reactor No. 3 to examine the situation there. When they returned later, they came fully equipped with tools and protective gear that included helmets, masks, rubber gloves and raincoats on top of their radiation suits.
The one thing the men were not prepared for was that suddenly they would be wading through more than a few inches of water.

Protesters target the lobbyists willing to do business with Belarus

By Jerome Taylor and Sarah Morrison Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Belarusian dissidents held a protest last night outside the offices of Grayling, the international lobbying firm which has been criticised for leading an investment drive inside Belarus in the middle of a widespread crackdown on pro-democracy forces.

Flanked by celebrity supporters including Jude Law, Kevin Spacey and Tom Stoppard, protesters called on British businesses to stop investing in Belarus until all political prisoners are freed.

'Military declares parliamentary poll for September
The Irish Times - Tuesday, March 29, 2011
MICHAEL JANSEN
EGYPT’S MILITARY rulers are increasingly mapping out the route the country will take in the post-Mubarak period. Yesterday, they decreed the country’s parliamentary poll will be held in September.

This declaration was strategically paired with a communique stating the emergency law, imposed in 1981, will be lifted ahead of the election.

The decision on the election is certain to displease the January 25 Youth Coalition that guided the uprising which toppled former president Hosni Mubarak. The coalition seeks an interim period of one year to 18 months so that both liberal and nationalist parties, re- pressed during the 30-year reign of Mr Mubarak, and emerging parties have time to organise.

Pentagon agency set up to detect roadside bombs blows billions

Peter Cary, Nancy Youssef, Tribune Media Services
March 29, 2011
WASHINGTON: A Pentagon agency formed five years ago to defeat the threat of roadside bombs killing more and more US soldiers in Iraq has ballooned into a 1900-employee behemoth and has spent nearly $17 billion on hundreds of initiatives.

Yet the technologies it has developed have failed to improve significantly the ability of soldiers to detect roadside bombs and have never been able to find them at long distances.

The best detectors remain the low-tech methods: trained dogs, local handlers and the soldiers themselves.

China 'to overtake US on science' in two years


David Shukman
Science and environment correspondent, BBC News
That is the conclusion of a major new study by the Royal Society, the UK's national science academy.

The country that invented the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing is set for a globally important comeback.

An analysis of published research - one of the key measures of scientific effort - reveals an "especially striking" rise by Chinese science.

The study, Knowledge, Networks and Nations, charts the challenge to the traditional dominance of the United States, Europe and Japan.

Six In The Morning

Libya: coalition attacks Sirte for first time
Coalition planes launched air strikes on Sirte, Col Muammar Gaddafi's home town, for the first time on Sunday night.
2:39AM BST 28 Mar 2011
Libyan television confirmed the Gaddafi stronghold had been the target of strikes by "the colonial aggressor", as had Tripoli, and there was a large deployment of troops on the streets of Sirte.
Nato commanders say Libyan regime forces have begun digging in to make a stand in Sirte, raising the prospect that a bloody battle lies ahead as rebel forces barrel westward.
Regime forces who retreated in the face of the rebel advance have begun locating their armour and artillery inside civilian buildings in Sirte, Nato sources said, a tactic designed to make air strikes fraught with risk.
Sirte, which Col Gaddafi repeatedly tried to turn into Libya's capital, is dominated by members of his tribe, the Gaddafi, who remain largely loyal to the regime.

How a traumatised Tokyo kept calm and carried on
Touring his adopted city, David McNeill finds a people slowly adjusting to a new reality of power cuts and food shortages
Monday, 28 March 2011
Not every city boasts thousands of citizens ready to converse about safe iodine levels. But then, not every city is Tokyo.

"Your drinking water is fine," shouts Ryosuke Shibato to commuters emerging from Shibuya station, one of the capital's busiest. Beside him, his friend and fellow science student Takamasa Imai holds a handmade cardboard sign with daily radiation readings written on it in marker. "Iodine is higher than normal, but still well below danger levels," he says, smiling. "We just want people to stop panic-buying."

A few metres away, a trumpet player tunes up for the Salvation Army. "I'm too old to worry about radiation," she laughs. "I'm more worried about the refugees in the north-east. They need our help."

New Europe: fresh information uncovered in stolen baby scandal
In the headlines: speculation about whether the prime minister will run for a third term and a baby trafficking scandal are making the news in Spain
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
The Guardian, Monday 28 March 2011
The scandal of the babies stolen, trafficked, sold or given into illegal adoption after being taken from Spanish maternity clinics by a network of doctors, nurses and nuns has continued to grow with fresh revelations in several newspapers.

The most startling came in El Mundo, which revealed the case of Almudena González, who was deemed to have died aged just four days old in a hospital in Badajoz, eastern Spain, in 1990.

Her parents have done tests to match the corpse they were given with their own DNA only to discover that the baby they buried was not their daughter.

Mugabe: Foreign firms must treat Zim as 'senior partner'
President Robert Mugabe on Sunday told foreign investors to embrace Zimbabwe's equity laws and treat Zimbabweans as "senior partners" if they wanted to operate in his country.
HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Mar 28 2011 06:32
"Those whites who want to be with us, those outsiders who want to work with us fine, they come in as partners, we are the senior partner, no more the junior partner," Mugabe said on Sunday at the burial of a party cadre at the national shrine.

"We are taking over. Listen Britain and America: this our country. If you have companies which would want to work in our mining sector, they are welcome to come and join us, but we must have our people as the major shareholders," he added.

The equity laws took effect in March last year and requires large foreign corporations to give majority stakes to local shareholders.

U.S. cables show grand calculations underlying 2005 defence framework
Six years on, a mixed record of implementation, but military sales hold the key
SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
Most observers of the Indo-U.S. relationship remember 2005 for the civil nuclear initiative that was launched during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington in July. But the ‘New Framework for the U.S.-India Defence Relationship,' which was signed at the end of June 2005, was just as path breaking — at least for the U.S. government, which saw expanding military cooperation as central to the growing ties between the two countries.

Leaked U.S. Embassy cables, accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, provide an unparalleled insight into the military and strategic considerations that drove – and continue to drive – U.S. administrations towards seeking closer ties with India. There is the sheer size of the Indian market for weapons imports, estimated by U.S. diplomats to be worth more than $27 billion in the ‘near term' alone. There is also the promise of a closer working relationship with the Indian armed forces in the Asian region.

Frenzy in Washington grows over nation's debt
There are signs of bipartisan efforts to tackle deficits, but how will they fare in the partisan heat of the 2012 election cycle?
By Lisa Mascaro, Washington Bureau
March 28, 2011
Reporting from Washington—
Not since Ross Perot unleashed his wonky charts has the nation's heavy debt load received so much attention.

Suddenly, it seems, Washington is consumed with the urgent task of lowering the annual deficit and preventing a European-style debt crisis, which experts warn could be but a few years away.

Six senators, meeting behind closed doors, have spent months drafting a bipartisan blueprint that would propose substantial changes to the way the federal government taxes, spends and provides such core services as Medicare and Social Security — all aimed at trying to reduce the nation's annual $1.4-trillion deficit.

Six In The Morning

22:18 This is the fourth town retaken by rebel forces in the last 24 hours. The have also captured a large cash of weapons

22:17 The Libyan rebel forces have retaken Ras Lanuf. There is a Al Jazeera reporting live from the city.

Japan nuclear: Workers evacuated as radiation soars
Radioactivity in water at reactor 2 at the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has reached 10 million times the usual level, company officials say.
The BBC 27 March 2011
Workers trying to cool the reactor core to avoid a meltdown have been evacuated.

Earlier, Japan's nuclear agency said that levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the plant had risen to 1,850 times the usual level.

The UN's nuclear agency has warned the crisis could go on for months.

It is believed the radiation at Fukushima is coming from one of the reactors, but a specific leak has not been identified.

Leaking water at reactor 2 has been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/hour - 10 million times higher than when the plant is operating normally.

In Tunisia, act of one fruit vendor unleashes wave of revolution through Arab world

By Marc Fisher
SIDI BOUZID, TUNISIA — On the evening before Mohammed Bouazizi lit a fire that would burn across the Arab world, the young fruit vendor told his mother that the oranges, dates and apples he had to sell were the best he’d ever seen. “With this fruit,” he said, “I can buy some gifts for you. Tomorrow will be a good day.”
For years, Bouazizi had told his mother stories of corruption at the fruit market, where vendors gathered under a cluster of ficus trees on the main street of this scruffy town, not far from Tunisia’s Mediterranean beaches. Arrogant police officers treated the market as their personal picnic grounds, taking bagfuls of fruit without so much as a nod toward payment. The cops took visible pleasure in subjecting the vendors to one indignity after another — fining them, confiscating their scales, even ordering them to carry their stolen fruit to the cops’ cars.

Chernobyl 25 years on: a poisoned landscape
As Japan struggles with its nuclear plant crisis, the site of the biggest atomic disaster in history remains a grim, radioactive monument
Robin McKie in Chernobyl
The Observer, Sunday 27 March 2011
Yuri Tatarchuk has a disconcerting way of demonstrating Chernobyl's grim radioactive legacy. An official guide at the wrecked nuclear power plant, he waves his radiation counter at a group of abandoned Soviet army vehicles that were used in the battle to clean up the contamination created by the reactor explosion in 1986.

"Some of these trucks are quite clean, but some of them not," he announces. A sweep of his counter reveals only a few clicks from their doors and roofs. Then he passes the device over one vehicle's tracks. A sudden angry chatter reveals significant levels of radiation.

Children pose as IRA terrorists at EU-funded centre
Former Provos show off weapons to youngsters who are then photographed brandishing AK-47s
By Jonathan Owen and Kunal Dutta Sunday, 27 March 2011
Photographs showing children dressed as IRA terrorists and brandishing weapons provoked fury among victims' groups in Northern Ireland yesterday and prompted investigations by the police, the Children's Commissioner and the European Union.

The controversy involves a community centre in South Armagh that has received millions of pounds from the European Union, including funds intended to promote peace and social cohesion.

Describing itself as "the jewel in the crown of South Armagh tourism", the Ti Chulainn Centre, near Mullaghbawn, hosted a youth event organised by Sinn Fein at which scores of children listened to talks by former IRA terrorists.

Revolving door for Taliban suspects

Tom Hyland and Bette Dam
March 27, 2011
A SENIOR Taliban leader accused of killing Australian troops has been released from jail and rejoined the insurgents, just two years after the Australian army claimed his capture as a major coup.

Influential Afghan figures are believed to have pressed for the release of Mullah Bari Ghul, who was described as the Taliban's ''shadow governor'' in Oruzgan province when he was captured by Australian special forces in August 2008.

He was accused of organising roadside bombings that killed two Australians - Signaller Sean McCarthy and Trooper David Pearce - and a suicide bombing that killed 21 Afghans.

Stay period for PoK visitors to J&K increased

Mar 27, 2011 - RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN | Age Correspondent | New Delhi

India has unilaterally decided to increase the period of stay for persons visiting Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to six months with multiple entries.
The decision comes the day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan to join him at the Mohali cricket stadium on Wednesday to watch the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan.
India’s overture is in keeping with its belief that people-to-people contacts across the Line of Control should not be allowed to be hostage to Pakistan’s wavering and inconsistent attitude toward pursuing a course of rapprochement and détente with India.

Libyan Woman Struggles to Tell Media of Her Rape

TRIPOLI, Libya — A Libyan woman burst into the hotel housing the foreign press in Tripoli on Saturday morning and fought off security forces as she told journalists that she had been raped and beaten by members of the Qaddafi militia. After nearly an hour, she was dragged away from the hotel screaming.
“They say that we are all Libyans and we are one people,” said the woman, who gave her name as Eman al-Obeidy. “But look at what the Qaddafi men did to me.” She displayed a broad bruise on her face, a large scar on her upper thigh, several narrow and deep scratch marks lower on her leg, and marks that seemed to come from binding around her hands and feet.

A wild scuffle ensued as journalists tried to interview, photograph and protect her. Several journalists were punched, kicked and knocked on the floor. A television camera belonging to CNN was destroyed in the struggle, and security forces seized a device that a Financial Times reporter had used to record her testimony. A plainclothes security officer pulled out a revolver.

Of course this poor woman was stuffed into a security vehicle and taken away screaming they are taking me to prison not to a hospital.

Six In The Morning

Fear and devastation on the road to Japan's nuclear disaster zone
Daniel Howden travels through a post-tsunami wasteland to the gates of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power station
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Once this road was thronged with traffic: an expressway, one of the arteries of a nation's economic life, as familiar and modern a sight as you would find anywhere in Japan. The only barriers on the route to Fukushima Daiichi were the other people heading in the same direction.

Today the journey is different. It is a journey to the heart of a catastrophe. About 10 kilometres beyond the half-deserted city of Iwaki, the coastal road is blocked not by commuters but by landslides; the satellite navigation system that might once have flashed up traffic jams shows clusters of red circles that denote barred roads.

Libya rebels 'recapture key town'

Libyan rebels backed by allied air raids say they have seized control of the frontline oil town of Ajdabiya from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
The BBC 26 March 2011
The BBC's Ben Brown in Ajdabiya says there are scenes of jubilation among the insurgents.

Gaddafi loyalists seized the town last week as they advanced east to quell an uprising now in its fifth week.

Saturday's breakthrough came after a seventh night of bombardment by allies enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone.

There were a series of massive coalition air strikes around Ajdabiya overnight, targeting Gaddafi forces.

Gaddafi 'promotions'
Our correspondent counted about 20 Libyan government tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces which have been either abandoned or destroyed.

20 reported killed as Syrian troops open fire on protesters
The Irish Times - Saturday, March 26, 2011
MICHAEL JANSEN
SHOTS WERE fired yesterday in the southeastern Syrian city of Deraa after funerals of people killed on Wednesday passed off peacefully. Security forces reportedly shot at youths trying to set fire to a statue of former president Hafez al-Assad. In nearby Sanamein village a witness told al-Jazeera 20 people were killed when villagers tried to reach Deraa.

In Damascus, Hama and Homs security forces broke up protests while pro-government demonstrators brandishing portraits of current president Bashar al-Assad rallied.

Rescuers battle to reach Burma quake areas

March 26, 2011 - 5:00PM
Rescuers today struggled to reach remote Burmese towns hit by a powerful earthquake that killed 75 people as rare images from the area showed roads torn apart and wooden homes reduced to piles of timber.

The 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the east of the country near the borders with Thailand and Laos and was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

The towns of Tarlay, Tachileik and nearby villages in Burma's Shan state appear to have been most severely affected by the quake, which flattened hundreds of houses and toppled monasteries and government buildings.

Madonna's Malawi charity 'squandered millions'

Mar 26 2011 07:02
The damning audit came as Raising Malawi confirmed it has scrapped plans for a $15-million elite academy for girls.

The charity's executive director Philippe Van den Bossche, the boyfriend of Madonna's former trainer, left in October after criticism of his management style and spending at the school, according to the New York Times.

"These included what auditors described as outlandish expenditures on salaries, cars, office space and a golf course membership, free housing and a car and driver for the school's director," the paper said.

Patients suffer as doctors strike wor

Pratibha Masand, TNN | Mar 26, 2011, 01.38am IST
MUMBAI: Patients were left in the lurch on Friday, when resident doctors and medical interns struck work at all medical colleges across the state, stating that their charter of demands be fulfilled.

Besides asking for a better security as well as health condition for doctors in public hospitals, the medics demanded that the government should reconsider the fee hike for post-graduate courses. "We also want new rules for the compulsory rural postings at the end of the degree course. Sometimes, they do not have a post vacant and ask the doctors to complete the assignment later," said Dr Pankaj Nalawde, president of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD).

China Isn't A Paradox

Since the opening of China with Nixon's visit in 1972 western governments have always felt they could deal with a government that suppressed dissent with a brutality that only a masochist would love. Following the Tienanmen square crackdown western governments pretended like they opposed what the Chinese government had done: killing its citizens because they simply wanted some small freedoms. No matter what the Chinese government does to its people western governments always come crawling back because its never about human rights or some other high minded idea. No, money was the Pavlov's dog and it always will be.

A Chinese democracy activist has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for inciting subversion of state power.

Liu Xianbin was charged after writing a series of articles calling for democratic reforms.

He was convicted after a trial lasting only a few hours; the third time he has been sent to jail for his activism.

Dozens of lawyers and activists have been arrested or detained in China recently following calls for Middle East-style protests.

'Not guilty'

Liu Xianbin's trial, in Suining in Sichuan Province, lasted just a few hours, according to his wife, who attended the hearing.

Chen Mingxian told the BBC that her husband shouted, "I'm not guilty" in the courtroom.

Six In The Morning

Nato takes over Libya no-fly zone

Nato says it has agreed to take over responsibility from the US for enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya.
The BBC 25 March 2011
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said talks would continue on giving Nato a "broader responsibility", with a decision possible in the coming days.

There have been differences of opinion about whether attacks on ground troops should form part of the action.

British jets have launched missiles at Libyan armoured vehicles near Ajdabiya during a sixth night of allied raids.

The UK government said Tornado aircraft fired missiles at Libyan military units close to the town, where there has been fierce fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Gov't asks people within 20-30 km of nuke plant to leave voluntarily
Friday, March 25, 2011
Kyodo News
The Japanese government has encouraged people living within 20 to 30 kilometers of the troubled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture to leave voluntarily, with concerns over access to daily necessities rather than resident safety prompting the advice, top government spokesman Yukio Edano said Friday.
The chief Cabinet secretary told a news conference that the government told heads of affected municipalities within 20 to 30 km of the plant that it is encouraging people to voluntarily move farther away and will give its full support in helping them relocate.

Portuguese turmoil looms over European summit

By Sean Farrell Friday, 25 March 2011
Portugal was left hanging in financial limbo yesterday as an international bail-out loomed ahead of a meeting of European leaders intended to draw a line under the eurozone's debt crisis.

An international bail-out looked inevitable as markets battered the value of Portugal's debt. José Sócrates offered his resignation as prime minister on Wednesday after the parliament rejected his latest programme of austerity measures designed to help the country's fiscal crisis. The yield on Portugal's two-year government bonds surged to 6.89 per cent during yesterday's trading, the highest since the euro's launch. The cost of insuring the country's sovereign debt also came close to January's record high.

Bin Laden sets alarm bells ringing

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - After a prolonged lull, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has launched a series of covert operations in the rugged Hindu Kush mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan following strong tip-offs that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been criss-crossing the area in the past few weeks for high-profile meetings in militant redoubts.

The US has been on Bin Laden's trail ever since he fled Afghanistan when the US invaded the country in 2001 to oust the Taliban, but the 54-year-old with a US$50 million reward on his head has always remained several steps in front.

Canadian TV producers: We don't really hate America
US diplomatic cables suggested Canadian TV seeks to “twist current events to feed long-standing negative images of the US." Not really, say Canadian producers and officials.
By Colin Woodard, Correspondent / March 24, 2011
Montreal
Watching state-run television here, you might get the feeling that Canadians seriously loath their big southern neighbor. At least, that's the impression that some US diplomats got.
Sitcoms and dramas aired by the taxpayer-financed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) show “insidious negative popular stereotyping” and “anti-American melodrama,” the US embassy in Ottawa warned in a 2008 diplomatic cable published in December by WikiLeaks. Washington should boost its public diplomacy programs in Canada “at all levels and in all parts of the country … to make it more difficult for Canadians to fall into the trap of seeing all US policies as the result of nefarious faceless US bureaucrats anxious to squeeze their northern neighbor.”

Hanford Nuclear Waste Still Poses Serious Risks
America's Atomic Time Bomb
By Marc Pitzke in New York
The lambs were born without eyes or mouths. Some had legs that had grotesquely grown together; others had no legs at all. Many were stillborn. Thirty-one were lost in a single night.

On a pasture nearby, a cow was found dead, stiff and with its hooves bizarrely stretched up into the whispering wind. Down by the river, men of the Yakama tribe pulled three-eyed salmon from the Columbia. Trout were covered in cancerous ulcers.
And then the babies started getting sick.

It was in the spring of 1962 that farmer Nels Allison first noticed something was ominously wrong.

Obama The 5 Second Rule And Libya

Six In The Morning

Tokyo radiation fears spark run on bottled water
More countries impose curbs on imports of Japanese food
msnbc.com news services
TOKYO — Workers doled out bottled water to Tokyo families Thursday after residents cleared store shelves because of warnings that radiation from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant had seeped into the city's water supply, while more countries imposed curbs on imports of Japanese food.
Engineers are trying to stabilize the Fukushima nuclear facility nearly two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami battered the complex and devastated northeast Japan.
Japan's nuclear safety agency said Thursday that three workers have been exposed to radioactive elements and injured while laying electric cables. Two of the workers were taken to a hospital for treatment, spokesman Fumio Matsuda said.
Tokyo's 13 million people have been told not to give infants tap water because of contamination twice the safety level.

Students graduate after passing the toughest test

Michael Wines
March 24, 2011
SCHOOLS begin in April and hold graduation ceremonies in March; like spring, they represent renewal and rebirth.

On Tuesday morning, in a school meeting hall in the tsunami-ravaged seaport of Kesennuma, it became something else: an act of defiance.

Gathering in the shadow of the tsunami disaster zone, two solemn and often tearful crowds met to award diplomas to the year 6 and 9 classes of Hashikami Elementary and Junior High schools. Inside the junior high auditorium, hundreds of refugees from the March 11 tsunami rolled up their blankets and moved to the rear to make way for a ritual that any parent would instantly recognise: the strains of Pachelbel's Canon; the students' march to the podium; the singing of school songs; the snapping of mobile phone photos.

West African leaders under pressure over Côte d'Ivoire

SUSAN NJANJI ABUJA, NIGERIA - Mar 24 2011
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the current chairperson of West African bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), said the two-day summit would consider whether to urge the United Nations to take further action on the crisis, but did not provide specifics.

"I believe we can pass a resolution to request the UN to take a little more serious steps on the Côte d'Ivoire situation," Jonathan said of the 15-nation Ecowas, whose summit ends Thursday.

He also said at the summit opening: "I have no doubt we have the will, the commitment and the collective resolve to bring to an end the unfortunate crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, hopefully without resort to use of legitimate force.

Syrian regime launches crackdown by shooting 15 activists dead
Some were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters surrounding the Omari mosque; others were shot at a funeral
Katherine Marsh
The Guardian, Thursday 24 March 2011
Violence escalated in the southern Syrian city of Deraa as protests entered a sixth day. At least 15 protesters are known to have been shot dead on Wednesday and scores more injured.

In a sign that the Syrian regime is using a brutal crackdown rather than concessions to quell protests, security forces opened fire on people in three separate incidents, according to human rights activists.

At 1am on Wednesday morning, at least six people were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters surrounding the Omari mosque, after cutting electricity and communications to the site that has become the focus of demonstrations.

Row over role of Nato splits coalition forces

By Oliver Wright, Whitehall Editor, Rupert Cornwell in Washington and John Lichfield in Paris Thursday, 24 March 2011
Attempts to reach an international consensus on a new command structure for military operations in Libya stalled last night after a row between Turkey and France over the role of Nato in the coalition.

Under a draft plan being discussed by ambassadors in Brussels, Nato commanders would have been guided by a political committee featuring representatives from not just the West but also, crucially, the Arab world.

But the talks broke up after a third day of wrangling after a row between Turkey and France over the precise role Nato would play.

Relatives sue banana firm over killings in Colombia
The Irish Times - Thursday, March 24, 2011
TOM HENNIGAN in São Paulo
FAMILIES OF victims in Colombia’s civil war are suing the biggest banana importer in the United States for its role in funding illegal armed groups in the country’s conflict.

Relatives of 931 people killed by left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries want compensation after Chiquita Brands admitted paying the groups at various times during the conflict to protect its banana plantations in the Caribbean Urabá region.

One of the filings made with a US federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday relates to 254 murders by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc.

Six In The Morning

U.S.-Led Assault Nears Goal in Libya

By ELISABETH BUMILLER and KAREEM FAHIM
Published: March 22, 2011
WASHINGTON — An American- led military campaign to destroy Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s air defenses and establish a no-fly zone over Libya has nearly accomplished its initial objectives, and the United States is moving swiftly to hand command to allies in Europe, American officials said, despite some fighting reportedly continuing on Tuesday.
But the firepower of more than 130 Tomahawk cruise missiles and attacks by allied warplanes have not yet succeeded in accomplishing the more ambitious demands by the United States — repeated by President Obama in a letter to Congress on Monday — that Colonel Qaddafi withdraw his forces from embattled cities and cease all attacks against civilians.

Opposition to Libya assault grows as allies battle to protect united front

By David Usborne, US Editor, and John Lichfield in Paris Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Serious fractures emerged in the international community yesterday over the military intervention in Libya, with some nations asking such basic questions as what the end-game is and how long it will take.

Just days after forsaking its chance to veto the United Nations resolution that authorised the air strikes, Russia offered the most jarring commentary, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saying: "The resolution is flawed. It allows everything and is reminiscent of a medieval call for a crusade. In fact, it allows intervention in a sovereign state."

Afghan troops to begin takeover from coalition forces from July
Hamid Karzai criticises international security effort while announcing transition to Afghan control in seven areas starting in July
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 March 2011 08.16 GMT
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has said his forces will soon take charge of security in seven areas around the country, the first step towards his goal of having Afghan police and soldiers protecting the entire nation by the end of 2014.

In a speech in Kabul, Karzai said control of the provincial capitals of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan, Herat in the west, Mazer-e-Sharif in the north and Mehterlam in the east is to be transferred from Nato-led forces to Afghan soldiers and police from July.

In addition, all of Bamiyan and Panshir provinces, which have had little to no fighting, are on the transition list.

Trend towards rising global temperatures

March 22, 2011 - 4:52PM
Global temperatures are on the increase, with a new study showing a rise of about half a degree Celsius over the past 160 years.

An Australian National University (ANU) report on global temperature found a trend towards a rise in worldwide temperatures since 1850, with a steeper increase since the mid 1970s.

Professor Trevor Breusch, of the Crawford School of Economics and Government at ANU, studied three series of recorded global temperature data to look for clear evidence of a trend in global temperatures.

Did Dawood men fix Australia-Zimbabwe match?

Prashant Dayal , TNN | Mar 22, 2011, 07.11am IST
AHMEDABAD: The Mumbai crime branch busted a match fixing racket from a hotel in Ahmedabad involving three Dawood men, who sneaked into the hotel where the Australian team was put up to play Zimbabwe in the World Cup game on February 21.

The tip-off from Mumbai police exposed Gujarat police's tall claim that foolproof security has been provided for the quarterfinal match to be played here on March 24. Sources told TOI that the three D-company men stayed with the Aussie team in a five-star hotel in Satellite area and met them in the lobby where the deal was struck for spot fixing. Australia won the match.

Six In The Morning

Western warplanes, missiles hit Libyan targets

REUTERS | Mar 20, 2011, 10.08am IST
TRIPOLI: Western forces hit targets along the Libyan coast on Saturday, using strikes from air and sea to force Muammar Gaddafi's troops to cease fire and end attacks on civilians.

Libyan state television said 48 people had been killed and 150 wounded in the allied air strikes. It also said there had been a fresh wave of strikes on Tripoli early on Sunday.

There was no way to independently verify the claims. French planes fired the first shots in what is the biggest international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles in the region of the rebels' eastern stronghold, Benghazi.

The plight of the elderly: Japan's forgotten victims of the tsunami
Chiya Yamane, 84, survived the tsunami but is struggling in its aftermath. Andrew Buncombe reports on the plight of the nation's frailest citizens
Sunday, 20 March 2011
When the tsunami tore towards the home of Chiya Yamane, the 84-year-old woman was saved by strong arms and sturdy legs. But they were not her own. A fireman picked her up, put her on his back and raced up a hillside to the safety of higher ground. Without his intervention she is not sure she would have survived. "Arigatai," she says. "I feel blessed."

The plight of Mrs Yamane, a slight but lively woman now passing the days in an evacuation centre set up among the classrooms and corridors of a primary school in the coastal town of Miyako, is far from unique. Japan's elderly population has been confronted by extraordinary challenges by this disaster, not just from the earthquake and tsunami, but in the struggles that have followed.

Chechnya's hardman Ramzan Kadyrov hires football big guns to take the offensive against Russian giant
Ramzan Kadyrov hopes former international players and Ruud Gullit as coach can help improve his country's image
Miriam Elder in Moscow
The Observer, Sunday 20 March 2011
Russian football – and international sport – is about to be confronted with one of its most unlikely success stories. FC Terek Grozny, the newly energised team based in the troubled Caucasus republic of Chechnya, is hoping a slew of high-profile international acquisitions will help it make waves in the Russian premier league, which kicked off last weekend.

The ambitions of Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's leader, however, do not stop there. He is optimistic that the club's footballing glory will help the world forget about his country's bloody past. Chief among the names crucial to Terek's success is Ruud Gullit, the Dutch football legend who signed on for an 18-month contract as coach earlier this year. "The team has started to play more offensively," said club spokesman Kazbek Khadzhiyev. "Gullit likes discipline on the pitch, and for every player to know what he has to do."

Bahrain and Yemen declare war on their protesters
With 42 killed in Sanaa, regimes show they will keep power at any cost
By Patrick Cockburn Sunday, 20 March 2011
Abrutal counter-revolution is sweeping through the Arabian Peninsula as Bahrain and Yemen both declare war on reform movements and ferociously try to suppress them with armed force.

In Yemen police and snipers on rooftops opened fire on Friday on a mass demonstration outside the main university, killing at least 42 people. The government has since declared martial law and set up checkpoints throughout the capital, Sanaa.

In Bahrain repression began a few days earlier, when King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa called for military support from other Gulf monarchs and 1,000 troops from Saudi Arabia crossed into the island kingdom.

Moonlighting now a way of life for Zim workers

FANUEL JONGWE HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Mar 20 2011 07:52
He's skilled at both, but neither is his real job.

"I work as a driver for a local company, but the salary is too little," he says. "I come here on my off-days to earn a little extra."

"Municipal workers simply mark out where the grave should be and leave the rest for the mourners, who then hire me to dig for them."

Chimbira charges $5 for a grave sign, and $5 to $10 to dig a grave, money that he says affords one decent meal a day for his wife and four children.

It's a common scenario in Zimbabwe, where unemployment is estimated at 85%, and the lucky few who have jobs often need to moonlight to survive.

Three Mile Island’s residents remain on alert three decades after nuclear crisis

By Carol Morello and Steven Mufson
MIDDLETOWN, PA. — Almost 32 years after America’s worst nuclear crisis at Three Mile Island, people who live in the shadow of the reactor’s cooling towers can instantly distinguish among sirens designating three different levels of alert.
Many residents stock potassium iodide pills, and the borough of Middletown maintains a “disaster room” lined with evacuation route maps that are updated to reflect every road repair. The local phone book publishes the routes. It also offers a primer on nuclear fission and a map with a 10-mile radius drawn around Three Mile Island, which still generates electricity for 800,000 households along with a certain amount of anxiety.

The crisis here on March 28, 1979, led to “changes throughout the world’s nuclear power industry,” as a state historical plaque on Route 441 notes.

Palin The Non Foreign Policy Genius Goes To India

You may remember Sarah Palin the former Republican Vice Presidential Candidate who famously said she could see Russia from here back-garden making her in her mind a Foreign Policy expert. In press interviews Sarah Palin showed little or no interest in actual policy development or implementation. She contently uses coded racism to express her "concerns" about President Obama's foreign policy moves. This is especially true when speaking of those who come from predominantly Muslim nations. Yesterday she gave a speech in New Delhi

"We're going to need each other, especially as these other regions rise," she said, in an apparent reference to China, during a Q&A that followed a keynote speech titled "My Vision of America."
"Free people that make up a free country don't wage war on another free country," she said. "I want peace on Earth."
She questioned the Chinese military's ascent, saying the Communist country's stockpiling of ballistic missiles, submarines and "new-age, ultramodern aircraft" seemed unjustified when it did not face an outside threat.
"What's with the military buildup?" she said. "China's military growth can't just be for defensive purposes."

For idiots like Sarah Palin its OK that a America has a huge military presence in all corners of the world but that other nations may feel threatened by that very presence. Just what values to America and India share? As they couldn't be two countries that are vastly different from each other on almost all levels.

Libyan No Fly Zone Is A Joke

Nicolas Sarkozy is holding a news conference stating that French and other forces will intervene to protect the people of Benghazi not only from aircraft but from tanks as well. A letter warning Col. Gaddafi to stop his aggression against his people but it was ignored. So we a coalition of western and Arab nations will as I stated protect the people of Libya.

French military jets over Libya


For weeks the international community wavered and dithered over what action should be taken in Libya to protect those fighting against the 42 year rule of Col. Gaddafi. So, the UN Security Council passes a No Fly Resolution. Gaddafi then announces a Cease Fire which is meant to placate the UN but it was just a ruse as right now pro Gaddafi attack the rebel held city of Benghazi. So, what has been done to protect this city nothing. Why was this resolution passed if the worlds governments had no intention of intervening in is this conflict.

Pro-Gaddafi forces enter Benghazi

A jet also appears to have been shot down over the city despite a declared ceasefire and a UN no-fly resolution.

World leaders are meeting in Paris to discuss military action.

The rebel's leader has appealed to the international community to stop the pro-Gaddafi bombardment, but the government denies it is attacking.

Reports suggest hundreds of cars packed with people were fleeing the city eastwards as fighting spread.

"Now there is a bombardment by artillery and rockets on all districts of Benghazi," rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil told Al Jazeera television. "There will be a catastrophe if the international community does not implement the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

One Week Ago Today

Last Friday afternoon as I sat quietly in my apartment watching a movie the earth was ab out to move. It would move so violently that if would alter the coast of Japan and the axis of the earths rotation would be changed. Yet there I sat watching a movie not knowing that it would change Japan forever.

When the earthquake began it all seemed so normal, like a thousand previous jolts 10 or 20 seconds of shaking and it would all be over. As the shaking continued one began to realize that normal no longer applied. Suddenly as if a booster rocket had been fired my apartment started shaking like it was placed in the middle of a tornado yet still on the ground. Without realizing it I was on my feet and heading for the door not because I feared for my own safety but for that of my neighbors most of whom are retired.

As I ran down the stairs looking for damage my thoughts focused on what might be needed to help my neighbors. As my feet touched the ground if felt as though I had suddenly been transported to a ship riding the swell of the ocean. Because people here have always lived with earthquakes they don't panic when they occur; meaning fleeing their homes and workplaces in fear isn't the usual practice. But, there they were on the street watching the world shake so violently that it always be seared into their memories.

Yes, one week ago today Japan changed as the fifth largest earthquake ever recorded struck causing a 10 meter Tsunami which wiped-out entire villages and cities killing untold thousands and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. History was made here but its not the kind of history any country wants to make.

Six In The Morning

US charters planes to help its citizens leave Japan
State Department authorizes voluntary evacuations; meanwhile, Japanese official says 'there is absolutely no reason to leave Tokyo'
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
Airlines scrambled to fly thousands of passengers out of Tokyo on Thursday as fears about Japan's nuclear crisis mounted and the United States joined other nations urging their citizens to consider leaving.
The U.S. authorized the first evacuations of Americans out of Japan and warned U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to any part of the country as unpredictable weather and wind conditions risked spreading radioactive contamination.
The State Department said the government had chartered aircraft to help Americans leave Japan and had authorized the voluntary departure of family members of diplomatic staff in Tokyo, Nagoya and Yokohama — about 600 people.

Rebels slow Gadafy army advance

irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 07:04
Libyan rebels have fought back against Muammar Gadafy's troops around the eastern town of Ajdabiyah, hampering their push towards the insurgent capital Benghazi.

Government forces captured Ajdabiyah, 150km south of Benghazi on the Gulf of Sirte, on Tuesday after most of its rebel defenders retreated from a heavy artillery barrage.

One rebel officer said yesterday the town had been lost and the fighters who remained had handed over their weapons. But some apparently refused to surrender or flee.

By last night, residents said the rebels held the centre of town while forces loyal to Col Gadafy were mostly on its eastern outskirts.

Bahrain 'arrests six opposition leaders'

AP Thursday, 17 March 2011
Authorities detained at least six prominent opposition activists today as the crackdown on dissent widened under martial law-style rule in the tiny Gulf nation, a rights group and relatives of the arrested said.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said those taken into custody in the pre-dawn raids include Hassan Mushaima and Abdul Jalil al-Sangaece — who were among 25 Shia activists on trial on charges of trying to overthrow the nation's Sunni rulers.The case was dropped in a bid to calm tensions after political unrest began last month, but the latest sweeps suggests authorities have abandoned efforts at dialogue and are trying to silence the opposition leaders.

Bahrain has imposed a three-month emergency rule that gives the military wide powers to battle the pro-democracy uprising that began in mid-February in the strategic nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Brussels Eyes a Halt to SWIFT Data Agreement
Problems with Transparency
By Christoph Schult
Only with great reservations did the European Parliament agree last year to the SWIFT agreement with the United States. The agreement allows the transfer of data pertaining to European bank customers to US investigators in accordance with strict guidelines. But many provisions of those guidelines have been widely ignored.

One week ago, a critical report from the Europol Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) noted that the written requests received by Europol, the EU-wide law enforcement organization, from the US are too vague to decide on their validity. Yet despite the shortcomings, Europol has agreed to every request. The auditors complained this is making oversight of data privacy "impossible."

Quake images can shake a young child's psyche

Julie Robotham
March 17, 2011

THE acres of rubble and splintered wood that have replaced entire Japanese towns may leave children unmoved. But add an abandoned toy to the picture, or an image of someone in pain, and the result can be a devastating assault on a child's sense of personal security.

News images that enter homes so casually can have lasting effects on even the youngest children, says a professor of population mental health and disasters at the University of Western Sydney, Beverley Raphael.

US to investigate killings by Davis Rallies against release, protest day tomorrow Tahir Khan

ISLAMABAD:
The US ambassador Wednesday thanked families of the two men, shot dead by CIA contractor Raymond Davis in Lahore in January. “The families of the victims of the January 27 incident in Lahore have pardoned Raymond Davis. I am grateful for their generosity. I wish to express, once again, my regret for the incident and my sorrow at the suffering it caused,” US ambassador, Cameron Munter said. “I can confirm that the United States Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the incident in Lahore ,” the US ambassador said in a statement “I wish to express my respect for Pakistan and its people, and my thanks for their commitment to building our relationship, to everyone’s benefit.

Rush Limbaugh Launches Attacks In The Wake Of Natural Disasters In Japan

Rush Limbaugh is an American radio presenter who is also a racist

CALLER: I need some of your wisdom. I'm confused. If -- at the top of the first hour, you played a clip -- Diane Sawyer, I believe -- about the recycling that's still going on in Japan.

LIMBAUGH: I did. You're right.

CALLER: If these are the people that invented the Prius, have mastered public transportation, recycling, why did Mother Earth, Gaia if you will, hit them with this disaster?

LIMBAUGH: Well, that's an interesting question. Let's go back and grab Diane Sawyer -- audio sound bite number nine. This is her report on a shelter for refugees in Japan and how they're handling their waste management.

[begin clip]

DIANE SAWYER: This is a shelter. Some of these people here for days, and look, it's recycling -- organized for recycling.

GUEST: Plastic, combustible, burnable, canes.

[end clip]

LIMBAUGH: Did I really hear this? Did I really hear -- Diane Sawyer is in a refugee camp in Japan. Play this again. This is almost like a kindergarten teacher talking to the 4 year olds. That is how old you are in kindergarten, right? Five? Five? Four? All right. This is -- some of these people here for days, and look, look, it's recycling -- organized for recycling.

[begin clip]

SAWYER: This is a shelter. Some of these people here for days, and look, it's recycling -- organized for recycling.

GUEST: Plastic, combustible, burnable, canes.

[end clip]

LIMBAUGH: My god, she sounds like she saw her husband for the first time in six months there. Oh, it's recycling, look, organized for -- these people are in the midst of earthquake devastation and the credit they're getting is for recycling and our caller Chris with a great question.

The Japanese have done so much to save the planet. He's right. They've given us the Prius. Even now, refugees are still recycling their garbage. And yet, Gaia levels them; just wipes them out. Wipes out their nuclear plants, all kinds of radiation. What kind of payback is this? That is an excellent question. They invented the Prius.

In fact, where Gaia blew up is right where they make all these electric cars. That's where the tsunami hit. All those brand new electric cars sitting there on the lot. I like the way this guy was thinking. It's like -- it's like Gaia hit the Prius in [inaudible]. It's like they were in the crosshairs -- if we can use that word. It does. What is Gaia trying to tell us here? What is the mother of environmentalism trying to say with this hit? Great observation out there, Chris.

Six In The Morning

Death toll surges in Japan quake aftermath
Thousands of bodies found in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday
msnbc.com news services
TAKAJO, Japan — Rescue workers used chain saws and hand picks Monday to dig out bodies in Japan's devastated coastal towns, as Asia's richest nation faced a mounting humanitarian, nuclear and economic crisis in the aftermath of a massive earthquake and tsunami that likely killed thousands.
Millions of people spent a third night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the devastated northeastern coast; the containment building of a second nuclear reactor exploded because of hydrogen buildup while the stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.

Tribal loyalties have power to divide Libya or help unite it after Gadafy

MARY FITZGERALD Foreign Affairs Correspondent in Benghazi, eastern Libya
Machinations of tribes are part of the uprising and will play a key role in the country’s future

AMONG THE thousands of revolutionary slogans daubed on walls across eastern Libya, there are some that refer to the tribal dynamics that have underpinned the region’s social fabric for centuries. “No to tribalism,” says one in the town of al-Bayda. “Tribes are history. We are all Libyans,” reads another in Benghazi, the city where the uprising that has shaken Muammar Gadafy’s 42-year rule began almost a month ago.

Libya has as many as 140 tribes but only 30 are held to have any particular significance.

Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes
Crown Prince of Bahrain expected to invite Saudi support following anti-government demonstrations in capita
Ben Quinn
The Guardian, Monday 14 March 2011
Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighbouring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island's royal family since demonstrations began a month ago.

The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council.

Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain's financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital's central square, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university

Southern Sudan accuses north of planning genocide

By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent Monday, 14 March 2011
Southern Sudan has broken off talks with the north after accusing Khartoum of arming and directing militia attacks that have killed hundreds of people in the south in recent weeks.

The leadership of what will become the world's newest country in July has accused Omar al-Bashir's government of deploying Darfur-style tactics and planning a genocide to reclaim power in southern Sudan.

A serious escalation of violence across the south has seen hundreds of people killed in large-scale attacks by rebel militias and skirmishes across the future north-south border.

Rival forces face-off in Abidjan's tense Abobo district

THOMAS MORFIN ABIDJAN, CôTE D'IVOIRE - Mar 14 2011
At the other end, troops backing strongman Laurent Gbagbo stand guard.

In between lie two bodies, the latest casualties of a bloody stand-off between the rival camps.

"We don't know how this story is going to finish," said a worried young man seeking relief from a blazing sun in the shade of a shack.

Coming from downtown Abidjan, the road leads to Plateau-Dokui in the south of Abobo, a populous suburb which is home to 1,5-million people and is an Ouattara stronghold.

China's ethanol binge and corn hangover

By Peter Lee
America heedlessly exports revolution with its corn to the world. China, on the other hand, obsesses about the danger of shipping revolution with its corn from the country to the city.

To a large extent, communist China's economic policy has been predicated on a divergence of interests between rural producers (good prices for agricultural products) and urban consumers (cheap, stable prices for food).

The pendulum has swung back and forth from city to countryside, depending on where the most pressing national priorities - and problems - appear to reside.

Six In The Morning

Japanese nuclear plants' operator scrambles to avert meltdowns

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 13, 2011; 12:29 AM
Japanese authorities said Sunday that efforts to restart the cooling system at one of the reactors damaged by Friday's earthquake had failed, a major setback in the struggle to contain what has become the most serious nuclear power crisis in a quarter century.
Officials said utility workers released "air containing radioactive materials" in an effort to relieve pressure inside the reactor, even as they raced to bring several other imperiled reactors under control.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said officials were acting on the assumption that a meltdown could be underway at that reactor, Fukushima Daiichi's unit 3, and that it was "highly possible" that a meltdown was underway at Fukushima Daiichi's unit 1 reactor, where an explosion destroyed a building a day earlier.

Gaddafi's men poised to strike at Benghazi
Rebels' failings and lack of support have sent them into retreat.
By Kim Sengupta in El Agheila, Libya Sunday, 13 March 2011
A strategic town is lost in the east with another expected to follow soon. In the west, a symbolic centre of resistance is about to suffer an onslaught that it is unlikely to survive. With no international action to stop Muammar Gaddafi's fierce offensive, the survival of Libya's revolution hangs in a precarious balance.

Just four days ago the picture was very different: the rebel fighters were seemingly on a march to the capital, Tripoli, and the enemy was in disarray and retreat. But a series of misjudgements, and chronic lack of planning and organisation, have resulted in a dramatic reversal. The regime's troops are poised to strike at Benghazi, the capital of "Free Libya''.

Quake shifted rotation of the Earth

Cameron Houston
March 13, 2011
AS THE task of rescuing survivors moves into top gear, scientists and geologists are struggling to comprehend the scale and impact of Friday's earthquake that destroyed large areas of northern Japan.

The 8.9-magnitude earthquake shifted the Earth's rotation axis by about 25 centimetres, which could literally change time.

Only after centuries would a second be lost as each day is shortened by a millionth of a second, according to University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall.

Advertisement: Story continues below
''Ten inches [25 centimetres] sounds like quite a lot when you hold a ruler in front of you.

Egypt to lift restrictions on political parties

CAIRO, EGYPT - Mar 13 2011 07:53
It is the latest political reform push following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last month in a popular uprising.

A military official said on Saturday that the restrictions on establishing political parties would be lifted after a referendum next week on constitutional changes to allow for fair parliamentary and presidential elections.

The official said new political parties will only need to notify authorities. Under Mubarak, they had to apply to a committee dominated by the ruling party, which ensured his control over rivals.

The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

Venice residents claim victory in battle to preserve the city's heritage
Activists defeat development that would have shut Rialto bridge fish market – and pledge to reverse decline of city in thrall to tourism
Tom Kington Rome
The Observer, Sunday 13 March 2011
After a remarkable week, Michela Scibilia is breathing a sigh of relief. The Venetian activist has been at the forefront of a successful battle to safeguard the future of one of the city's best loved institutions, the fish market at the foot of the Rialto bridge where locals have shopped for their food for 1,000 years.

"If the people who still live here are going to protect this city, we have to pull together, and I think that's finally happening," said the head of the growing residents' association 40xVenezia.

It was a victory that will pass unnoticed by the millions of tourists who visit Venice every year, but that does not diminish its significance for locals. "They understood we were serious," said Scibilia, 44, a graphic designer and mother of two. "We are standing firm against all choices made without consulting Venetians first." And last week's victory was just a start, they claim.

SDF in full disaster deployment; U.S. military pitches in
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Kyodo News
The Self-Defense Forces swung into full action Saturday, less than 24 hours after the most powerful earthquake in the nation's recorded history caused devastating tsunami in northeastern Japan.
All available SDF resources, including personnel, vehicles, aircraft and vessels, were mobilized for rescue and other efforts in areas hit by the quake and tsunami.

At a meeting of the government's antidisaster countermeasure headquarters, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the government would increase the number of SDF personnel detailed for rescue efforts to about 50,000.

Earthquake in Japan

Saturday March 12

23:53 10.000 people in the city of Minamisanriku are missing according to NHK. That is half of the cities population.



Japan quake: 'Explosion heard' at nuclear power plant

Reports said smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima and several workers were injured.

Japanese officials fear a meltdown at one of the plant's reactors after radioactive material was detected outside it.

A huge relief operation is under way after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 600.

Hundreds more people are missing and it is feared about 1,300 may have died.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan declared a state of emergency at the Fukushima 1 and 2 power plants as engineers try to confirm whether a reactor at one of the stations has gone into meltdown.

0:41 Over 300 people are confirmed dead. An area of 4km is on fire in Miyagi.

23:57 The roof at the Costo store in Machida in Tokyo has collapsed

23:32 There is a huge fire burning out of control in Miagi in the city of Kasunami.

23:01 There have been so many aftershocks one wonders when they will stop

22:59 If you could see the pictures of the destruction in the effected areas you would be stunned.

22:37 3.5 million homes in the Tokyo area are without electric power.

22:35 NHK is reporting that a several villages in the Tohoku region have been completely washed away.

22:32pm Mobile phone service is being severely restricted. There are 1,300 people stranded a the Sendai airport after it was hit by the Tsunmai.

22:29pm
I live in Japan: As of right now all train service in the Tokyo Metropolitan area has been stopped. All Shinkansen service has been stopped. There is an oil refinery on fire in Ichihara a city in Chiba Prefecture. There are a large number of petrochemical plants in Chiba. The government has ordered the evacuation of those living near the Tokyo Electric Powers Fukushima nuclear power plant.