Mortar shell fired from Syria strikes Tel Fares, patrol in Tel Hazeka comes under gunfire; Defense Minister Ya'alon said prior to attack on first visit to Syria border that Israel would respond to any security incident; also Tuesday, two Gaza rocket landed in western Negev.
A mortar shell fired from Syria landed in the Israeli Golan Heights on Tuesday evening, and an Israel Defense Forces patrol came under gunfire in a separate area of the northern territory.

IDF tanks fired shells into Syria in response to the gunfire, which struck near a patrol in Tel Hazeka. There was no word yet of casualties on the Syrian side. The same area has come under fire from Syria in the past, and was the site of Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon's first tour to the Golan border earlier on Tuesday.

Shrapnel from the mortar shell hit an IDF jeep touring in the central Golan Heights, near Tel Fares. The jeep sustained light damage, but no casualties were reported in either the shell or light fire incident.

A month ago we pointed out that as a result of Australia's unprecedented reliance on China as a target export market, accounting for nearly 30% of all Australian exports (with the flipside being just as true, as Australia now is the fifth-biggest source of Chinese imports), the two countries may as well be joined at the hip.

Over the weekend, Australia appears to have come to the same conclusion, with the Australian reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world's "reserve currency" in its trade dealings with the world's biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process "slashing costs for thousands of business" and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar's reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.

That said, this latest development in global currency relations should come as no surprise to those who have followed our series on China's slow but certain internationalization of its currency over the past two years. To wit: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says", "India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees", and "The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap."

And while previously the focus was on Chinese currency swap arrangements, the uniqueness of this weekend's news is that it promotes outright convertibility of the Yuan: something China has long said would happen but many were skeptical it ever would. That is no longer the case, and with Australia setting the precedent, expect many more Asian countries (at first) to follow in Australia's footsteps, because while the developed world is far more engaged in diluting its currency as a means to spur "growth", Asian and developing world nations are still engage in real, actual trade, where China is rapidly and aggressively becoming the world's hub.

The "American empire" will fall this year, the head of Iran's Basij forces claimed Sunday, a message that was approved by the Islamic regime's supreme leader.

"America should not think that with some diplomatic dialogue it can solve its dossier (problem) with the nation of Iran," Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi said. "The path of this land is directed by the martyrs. America with its hollow slogans ... thinks the Iranian nation will believe it."

The Basij commander was speaking to an audience of the 10th conference of "Journey of Enlightened Land" commemorating the "martyrs" of the eight-year war with Iraq, according to the Journalist Club, an outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards intelligence division.

Naghdi called President Obama's actions deceitful, saying, "Obama in letters sent to the Islamic Republic promised to put an end to the Iranian nuclear dossier but ... reacted in a different way."

Two F-22 fighter jets now in South Korea could allow the U.S. to support a limited counterattack if North Korea follows through on its threats of recent weeks, according to military analysts.

In 2010, South Korea responded to artillery fire from the North with its own shelling, said Bruce Bennett, a military analyst at the RAND Corp. think tank. The F-22s, the world's most advanced warplanes, could be used to destroy artillery command and control facilities deeper inside North Korea, Bennett said.

"The aircraft could reach those targets pretty securely," Bennett said. "And they could deal with it promptly. Only sending a couple says we're not starting a major war."

Nonetheless, an airstrike on North Korean soil would be a significant escalation that could trigger an even larger response by the nuclear-armed regime. The hope, Bennett speculated, is that the presence of the radar-evading jets will be enough to prove U.S.-South Korean resolve and prevent an attack from the North.

China has placed military forces on heightened alert in the northeastern part of the country as tensions mount on the Korean peninsula following recent threats by Pyongyang to attack, U.S. officials said.

Reports from the region reveal the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently increased its military posture in response to the heightened tensions, specifically North Korea's declaration of a "state of war" and threats to conduct missile attacks against the United States and South Korea.

According to the officials, the PLA has stepped up military mobilization in the border region with North Korea since mid-March, including troop movements and warplane activity.

China's navy also conducted live-firing naval drills by warships in the Yellow Sea that were set to end Monday near the Korean peninsula, in apparent support of North Korea, which was angered by ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that are set to continue throughout April.

North Korea, meanwhile, is mobilizing missile forces, including road-mobile short- and medium-range missiles, according to officials familiar with satellite imagery of missile bases.

This 80-minute documentary focuses on the growing "wealth gap" in America, as seen through the eyes of filmmaker Jamie Johnson, a 27-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. Johnson, who cut his film teeth at NYU and made the Emmy®-nominated 2003 HBO documentary Born Rich, here sets his sights on exploring the political, moral and emotional rationale that enables a tiny percentage of Americans - the one percent - to control nearly half the wealth of the entire United States. The film Includes interviews with Nicole Buffett, Bill Gates Sr., Adnan Khashoggi, Milton Friedman, Robert Reich, Ralph Nader and other luminaries.

Nine killed including seven police officers as insurgents blow up oil tanker packed with explosives inside government compound

At least nine people have been killed and 17 wounded after insurgents detonated an oil tanker packed with explosives inside a government compound in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, police said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Sunni Muslim insurgents linked to al-Qaida have been increasing their efforts this year to undermine Iraq's Shia-led government and foment inter-communal conflict.

The attack took place in central Tikrit, 150km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, 15 minutes after insurgents dhad driven the tanker inside a compound housing governmental administrative offices. It killed nine people, including seven police officers.

Buoyed by its meteoric domestic success, the far right party is planning to expand 'wherever there are Greeks'

Emboldened by its meteoric rise in Greece, the far-right Golden Dawn party is spreading its tentacles abroad, amid fears it is acting on its pledge to "create cells in every corner of the world". The extremist group, which forged links with British neo-Nazis when it was founded in the 1980s, has begun opening offices in Germany, Australia, Canada and the US.

The international push follows successive polls that show Golden Dawn entrenching its position as Greece's third, and fastest growing, political force. First catapulted into parliament with 18 MPs last year, the ultra-nationalists captured 11.5% support in a recent survey conducted by polling company Public Issue.

The group - whose logo resembles the swastika and whose members are prone to give Nazi salutes - has gone from strength to strength, promoting itself as the only force willing to take on the "rotten establishment". Amid rumours of backing from wealthy shipowners, it has succeeded in opening party offices across Greece.

It is also concentrating on spreading internationally, with news last month that it had opened an office in Germany and planned to set up branches in Australia. The party's spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, said it had decided to establish cells "wherever there are Greeks".

A hunger strike is spreading at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp. The main reason, as the military has acknowledged, is the growing sense of frustration and despair among the detainees. As Gen. John Kelly, the head of U.S. Southern Command, explained to the House Armed Services Committee last week, detainees "had great optimism that Guantanamo would be closed. They were devastated . . . when the president backed off. . . . He said nothing about it in his inauguration speech. . . . He said nothing about it in his State of the Union speech. . . . He's not restaffing the office that . . . looks at closing the facility."

The hunger strike is the Guantanamo detainees' cry for attention. Why should Americans care? After all, haven't members of Congress told the public that the detainees are terrorists who would kill us in our sleep if they got the chance? That is the reason lawmakers have given for enacting legislation that has made it virtually impossible to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo, to the United States or anywhere else. The American people have been led to believe that the detainees are all too dangerous to release or transfer, and that we must keep them at Guantanamo to protect our security.

That line may play well politically, but it is simply not true, and it is costing us dearly.

Last week marked one decade since the invasion of Iraq, a time for sober reflection. Do we understand the folly of wars of choice, or could we make the same mistake? A bill moving in the Senate that makes war with Iran more likely reveals that Congress may not have learned the lessons of Iraq.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who voted against war in Iraq, has joined 76 senators in co-sponsoring a bill that would put the Senate on record urging military, diplomatic and economic support if Israel were to decide to attack Iran. (As of this writing, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., has not co-sponsored the bill.) This bill is the most egregious in a string of congressional actions that could form the building blocks for a war that could make Iraq look like a walk in the park.

History teaches us that the run-up to war is often not one dramatic event, but a slow burn that suddenly turns into a blazing fire. History is now repeating itself on Capitol Hill.