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Syrian People Outraged Over Government Shootings in Deraa

Katherine Marsh
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:42 UTC
Human rights groups say that more than 100 people may have been killed when troops opened fire on a mosque

protesters in daraa
© Reuters
Protesters drag away a body as it lies among others in a street during a demonstration in Daraa.
Syria's government pledged to consider protesters' "legitimate demands" after thousands took to the streets for the funerals of nine people killed by the military.

Rights activists described Wednesday's shootings in the southern city of Deraa as a massacre, claiming that more than 100 people may have been killed when troops fired on a mosque in the early hours and throughout the day.

With protests called for after Friday prayers, Buthaina Shaaban, adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, announced that the government would consider ending Syria's emergency law and revise legislation for political parties and the media. Similar reform pledges have been announced in the past, and are unlikely to satisfy protesters.

In Deraa, funeral-goers chanted "God, Syria, Freedom" and "The blood of martyrs is not spilt in vain!", Reuters news agency reported. Some reports said that up to 20,000 people attended, but this could not be verified. The city has been cordoned off .

Deraa's hospital reported receiving 37 bodies from Wednesday's violence. YouTube videos apparently showed bloody scenes at the mosque.
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Radar

Japan Requests U.S. To Block Popular Websites?


Hosting News
Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:19 UTC
Image
© Unknown
In a recent effort to improve recovery efforts from the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, the military has decided to block the use of certain websites from its network. Japanese military has reported that these sites are not being blocked due to any content reason but solely to improve the bandwidth necessary for militaristic needs. On Monday the U.S. Pacific Command received a request to block the 13 highest traffic usage sites commonly used on military networks such as YouTube, Google Video, Amazon, eBay, Myspace, and MTV.com.

On a more interesting note to the bandwidth control is the continuing use of Facebook in Japan. The site is considered one of the highest bandwidth usage portals in the region, but it will stay up and running due to its growing use by deployed military personnel. Facebook is the most common way to stay in contact with loved ones and was decided to be an important tool in the recovery of the disaster.
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Green Light

Whistling Past the Graveyard: China to Sell Outdated Nuclear Reactors to Pakistan

Stephanie Ho
voanews.com
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:23 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responds to questions during a press briefing in Beijing, March 22, 2011
China is pressing ahead with nuclear energy cooperation with Pakistan, despite concerns that it is shipping decades-old technology to its South Asian neighbor. This comes as China suspended approvals for new nuclear power plants within China to review safety standards following the recent earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan.

Chinese authorities have already suspended approvals of new nuclear plants within the country because of safety concerns sparked by the disasters in Japan.

But when Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu was asked Thursday about whether Beijing is similarly concerned about exporting outdated nuclear technology to Pakistan, she dismissed it as unrelated.

Jiang says there are no direct links to the two issues. She says the Chinese government wants to see "orderly and reasonable" nuclear development in China, and is especially concerned about safety.

As for Pakistan, though, she said only that China and Pakistan's nuclear cooperation has been under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Comment: Even after the illusion of safety in nuclear power has been torn down, with consequences yet to be seen, the powers that be will continue to build nuclear reactors.

With the accelerating Earth changes we are all witness to, these power plants equate to over-sized 'dirty bombs', just waiting for an environmental trigger to set them off.

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Light Sabers

Canada: Opposition Lines Up Against Government


CBC News
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:14 UTC

With the government unwilling to amend its budget, all three opposition leaders said they are prepared to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government on a motion of non-confidence Friday.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Wednesday his party was giving notice it would introduce the motion. NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe both said they would support it.

Ignatieff said Harper has shown a "flagrant disregard" for democracy and failed on its economic agenda, and as a result, "the moment has come" for Canadians to make a choice between the Liberals and Conservatives.

Following a busy morning of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper and all three opposition leaders speaking to the media about their intentions over the coming days, the Conservatives and opposition parties squared off over the budget and other matters during a lively question period.
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War Whore

Israeli warplanes strike 4 Gaza targets


Press TV
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:11 UTC
Image
© unknown
Israeli fighter jets
Israeli fighter jets have struck four targets in the Gaza Strip, injuring several Palestinians, security sources and witnesses said.

The four strikes were launched on Gaza on Thursday evening and injured three Palestinians, AFP reported.

It follows three airstrikes carried out on Gaza early Thursday morning, targeting the city as well as a tunnel near the Egyptian border at Rafah.

On Tuesday, at least 10 Palestinians, including four children, were killed and dozens injured after an Israeli tank fired shots at a home in the Gaza Strip.

Adham Abu Selmiya an emergency services spokesman said the deaths occurred when Israel "opened fire on young people who were playing football in Shejaiya on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City.
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Attention

NATO to Take Command of Libya Operation: Report


CBC News
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:53 UTC
Image
© Stringer/Reuters
Turkish parliament convenes Thursday in Ankara to debate the government's decision to participate in a NATO naval operation to enforce an arms embargo to Libya.
NATO appeared on Thursday to move closer to assuming command of the military operation in Libya when Turkey's foreign minister was quoted as saying an agreement has been reached.

The alliance needs the approval of all 28 of its members in order to co-ordinate the operation, and Turkey had set conditions on that role for NATO.

"The coalition that was formed following the Paris meeting will abandon the mission and hand it over entirely to a single command system under NATO," Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying by Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency.

"All of Turkey's concerns, demands on the issue have been met," he said, and NATO has promised to complete the work needed to take over the Libya mission "within one or two days."
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Bad Guys

Mossad being lazy on homeground, or please excuse the blatant Zionist propaganda: Mystery Deepens over Deadly Jerusalem Bus Bomb

Karl Vick and Aaron J. Klein
Time
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:07 UTC
Image
© Bernat Armangue / Associated Press
Two buses damaged in an explosion, center and right, are seen in this general view in Jerusalem, Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The package bomb that exploded at a busy Jerusalem bus stop Wednesday, killing a 60-year-old British woman and wounding 39, was exceptional in more ways than one. The holy city hasn't had a terrorist attacks since 2008, so the homemade explosive sent a charge through a sprawling metropolis that, in a matter of minutes, became clogged with impromptu checkpoints and rush hour traffic funneling into single lanes to pass them.

But the nature of the strike was exceptional, too. Police say only about four pounds of explosives were tucked into a bag leaning against a telephone pole - suspiciously enough that the owner of a nearby kiosk phoned it in moments before it exploded. David Amoyal named his stand, "A Blast of a Kiosk" after it was all but destroyed in 1994 by a Palestinian wearing a suicide vest. It's the kind of detonation Israelis learned to expect during the first years of the 21st Century, when suicide attacks became almost routine.
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People

Egypt Government Passes Law Criminalizing Protests and Strikes

Mohamed Abdel Ghany
Uruknet
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:50 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Egyptian workers on strike, 2010

The Egyptian government on Wednesday passed a law criminalizing protests and strikes. Under the new law, anyone organizing or calling for a protest will be sentenced to jail and/or a fine of LE500,000.

The new law will be enforced as long as the current Emergency Law is in place, said the Council of Ministers in a statement on Wednesday. The Emergency Law has been in force since 1981 following the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat.

The new law will apply to anyone inciting, urging, promoting or participating in a protest or strike that hampers or delays work at any private or public establishments.
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War Whore

Libya: Gaddafi compound attacked after air force 'destroyed'

Victoria Ward, Alex Spillius and Nick Squires
Telegraph.co.uk
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:24 UTC
Col Muammar Gaddafi's Tripoli compound was targeted by coalition air strikes on Wednesday night as a senior British commander said the Libyan air force had been destroyed.

Five loud blasts were reported at Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound, where he had made an address on Tuesday night and which had been first attacked on Sunday night.

There were eight further large explosions heard in the east of the capital and at a military base in Tajura, 20 miles to the east of the city.

State television reported "a large number of civilians" had been killed.

In the eastern city of Misurata, rebels have been besieged by Gaddafi's forces for weeks, but said allied air strikes had offered much-needed respite.
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Bad Guys

Obama Starts Another Illegal War, Rangel Calls For Draft

Eric Blair
Activist Post
Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:16 UTC
missing peace illus
© Anthony Freda Illustration
What balls! What hubris! What hypocrisy! What happened to America?

Once again, America has preemptively attacked a sovereign nation that posed no threat to her without a declaration of war from the people's representatives. Apparently the U.S. president now gets permission from the U.N. to spend U.S. taxpayer dollars on unprovoked wars and outright murder. Isn't it still called murder when killing is not done in self-defense? Okay, just checking to make sure I haven't lost my mind.

Nobel Peace prince Obama launched his liberation of the good people of Libya with his own shock-and-awe bombing campaign appropriately on the eighth anniversary of Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq. This tyrannical intervention is so naked, so brazen in its hubris that whatever shred of goodwill America had left is completely gone. America is officially the most murderous, anti-democratic, terrorist nation the world has ever known.
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