Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/03/2011331101737911390.html

The former Soviet state of Uzbekistan has become an important ally for both the US and NATO; its border with Afghanistan providing an invaluable supply route for the West's war on the Taliban. But its government, led by Islam Karimov, the country's president, has a dreadful human rights record. It is a country where political and religious expression is heavily restricted, and where security services allegedly use torture and murder indiscriminately. Thousands of Uzbeks have fled abroad - a few to Europe or the US, the majority to neighbouring countries in Central Asia. Mostly practising Muslims, they seek sanctuary from the violence and a chance to live in peace. ►President Karimov of Uzbekistan, Boils People Alive ►US Money Funding Uzbeki Torture Chambers ►Evidence of Karimov’s Crimes – and CIA Participation

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-bez9O-xmk&feature=player_embedded

If you Nationalize your Oil to help your people, America will Overthrow you and put in a Puppet Dictator (and call it "Democracy") Gaddafi's Libya has “a medium-high per capita income of 12,000, six times greater than that of Egypt”. Gaddafi used the oil revenues to raise the living standards of Libyans. Libya has the highest Human Development Index (HDI) of any country in Africa - which measures life expectancy, education and living conditions

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/2011331134947323374.html

Syria's president addressed the nation to appease growing protests - but his words failed to ease Syrian anger. They laughed when he laughed. Their hearts raced in anticipation, not over those much heralded reforms which failed to materialise - "Weren't emergency laws abolished last week anyway?' asked one - but over the excitement and grandeur of the occasion: the packed parliament, the crowds of cheering supporters and, of course, President Bashar al-Assad himself. "He is a very good man, he is very strong," said one of the young women, watching on the TV of a café in the wealthy Shaalan area of Damascus as Syria's president prepared to make his first speech to the nation in the wake of unprecedented protests against the 40-year rule of his family.

Link: http://dont-tread-on.me/fearless/

The Elite keeps all of humanity in perpetual fear. Fear of war. Fear of money. Fear of politics. Fear of status. Fear of looking stupid. Fear of being different. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of losing your soul. Fear of whatever. They keep us in fear, because only then, can we easily controlled.

Link: http://dont-tread-on.me/whats-in-your-wallet/

“The dollar is our currency but your problem”- John Connally. There is a lot of talk about the dollar losing it’s global reserve currency status and what is to replace it. A global reserve currency is a very privileged status that makes our paper fiat dollars the king of all currencies. The dollar represents the currency of the most powerful empire in the world. This dollar allows every nation access into the largest, deepest, and presumably safest markets in the world.

Link: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/03/29/gordon-duff-dictatorship-coming-soon-to-your-state/

A plot is currently in motion to overthrow the government of the United States. It has already begun and has moved forward in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin but more states are waiting to act. Shooting incidents and bombings are planned and some may already have been carried out. A major false flag terror attack on the United States is expected, followed by states openly defying the federal government, suspending the constitution and declaring a joint “state of emergency.” Michigan has already suspended most constitutional guarantees and plans are in motion to enact martial law. Police departments will be “defunded,” union contracts illegally dissolved and police powers will pass to mercenary groups derived from Blackwater International.

Link: http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/718/1/

Did you think dangerous plastic is being dealt with? Nope. "Most of a sample of 455 commercially available products tested positive for EA [estrogenic activity]." How about plant-based plastics? "PLA (polylactic acid), a newer resin derived from corn and marketed as compostable under certain conditions, ranked highest with 91 percent of PLA products showing EA."

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42305530/ns/business-oil_and_energy

Oil prices slipped below $104 per barrel Monday after Libyan rebels recaptured some key oil ports and promised to resume exports. Prices, however, remain 22 percent above what they were in mid-February, when fighting in Libya squeezed off shipments that had supplied nearly 2 percent of the world's oil. Another country has fallen to capitalist looters and warmongers and already Lieberman is talking war with Syria.

Link: http://www.healthylifestyletip.info/general/radiation-detected-in-massachusetts-rainwater-as-fukushima-crisis-worsens

Thе Fukushima crisis continues tο worsen bу thе day, wіth nuclear experts nearly thе world irrevocably realizing аnԁ admitting wе′ve аƖƖ bееn lied tο. “I rесkοn maybe thе situation іѕ much more serious thаn wе wеrе led tο believe,” ѕаіԁ Najmedin Meshkati οf thе University οf Southern California, іn a Reuters report (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/27/japan-idUSL3E7ER06020110327). Thаt same article revealed thаt contemporary radiation readings аt Fukushima ѕhοw “contamination 100,000 times normal іn water аt reactor Nο. 2 аnԁ 1,850 times normal іn thе nearby sea.”

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55017

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman and former Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen has announced a proposal for a "2025 Non-Nuclear Home Plan" that will allow Taiwan to eliminate reliance on nuclear power by the end of 2025.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/28/us-china-death-penalty-amnesty

China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen and the US carried out the most executions last year, bucking a global trends towards abolition of the death penalty, a report has said .

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/03/201132722346939687.html

Anti-nuclear Greens likely to form coalition with Social Democrats in Baden-Wuerttemberg, preliminary results show. Germany's anti-nuclear Green Party has scored a remarkable state election victory, dealing a blow to the party of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, according to preliminary poll results. "This is a day that has strongly changed the political landscape in Germany," Claudia Roth, the Greens party chairwoman, said in Berlin.

Link: http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/nova-inside-chernobyls-sarcophagus/

Never. Those who think Japan’s Fukushima disaster is today’s headlines and tomorrow’s history need to take a good look at the Chernobyl disaster, which to this day is a continuing threat to the people of Ukraine. It will be hundreds of years before the area around the destroyed reactor is inhabitable again and there are disputes over whether or not Chernobyl’s nuclear fuel still poses a threat of causing another explosion. There is also a teetering reactor core cover and the deteriorating sarcophagus itself that may collapse and send plumes of radioactive dust in all directions.

Link: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/1119163/1/.html

BENGHAZI, Libya: Oil fields in rebel-held territory in Libya are producing between 100,000 and 130,000 barrels a day, and the opposition plans to begin exporting oil "in less than a week", a rebel representative said on Sunday. "We are producing about 100,000 to 130,000 barrels a day, we can easily up that to about 300,000 a day," said Ali Tarhoni, the rebel representative responsible for economy, finance and oil, at a news conference. He said the rebel government had agreed an oil contract with Qatar, which would market the crude, and that he expected exports to begin in "less than a week".

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/27-2

The world has anxiously watched the events in Japan unfolding this past two weeks after the horrific earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. The feelings are magnified out of a sense of helplessness in aiding the victims in Japan mixed with concerns for potential effects and implications to our own health and communities. In assessing the devastating effects of natural disasters, we must pause as we consider the potential for catastrophic effects of man made disasters, specifically from nuclear power plants.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27771.htm

Ever since the rebel opposition forces in Libya have taken control of the cities, there have been reports that have surfaced regarding torture, racial violence and repression. Coming across some recent articles regarding Benghazi, the last rebel stronghold in Libya, I can’t say that I’m amazed at the police state that they have designed and who is in power in Benghazi. It was no doubt a complete error on the part of so-called “progressives” to take the side of these rebel forces (never mind those who hailed them as “revolutionaries”).

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27768.htm

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/03/201132621447396828.html

Levels of radioactive iodine in seawater 30km from Fukushima nuclear plant have spiked 1,250 times higher than normal. Japanese engineers have struggled to pump radioactive water from a crippled nuclear power station after radiation levels soared in seawater near the plant more than two weeks after it was battered by a huge earthquake and a tsunami. Engineers trying to stabilise the plant had to pump out radioactive water on Sunday after it was found in buildings housing three of the six reactors. Tests on Friday showed iodine 131 levels in seawater 30 km from the coastal nuclear complex had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal, but it was not considered a threat to marine life or food safety, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Now let me try to understand this. If I eat fish contaminated with iodine 131 which causes thyroid cancer, I will somehow not get thyroid cancer? What incredible immoral liars.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201132681812362552.html

Rebels Mercenaries and traitors claim to have reached oil port town, while Gaddafi's guns fell silent in Misurata after coalition strikes. Libyan rebels Al kida mercenaries, traitors, malcontents, and opportunists are advancing westwards after recapturing the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya from government controls the Libyan people with the help of coalition air strikes. Reports late on Saturday suggested rebels mercenaries and traitors had already pressed onto the key oil-port town of Brega, 80 kilometres to the west. "We are in the centre of Brega," Abdelsalam al-Maadani, a rebel traitor fighter, told the AFP news agency by telephone. But Reuters said rebels mercenaries were only on the outskirts of Brega. Al Jazeera's James Bays, who reached Ajdabiya on Saturday, said that while it appeared that rebels mercenaries had taken over the town of Brega, it remained unclear who controlled the nearby oil port.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/26/canadian-government-no-confidence-vote

The opposition parties held the prime minister in contempt of parliament in a 156-145 vote for failing to disclose the full financial details of his tougher crime legislation, corporate tax cuts and plans to purchase stealth fighter jets.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03252011.html

The war on Libya now being waged by the US, Britain and France must surely rank as one of the stupidest martial enterprises, smaller in scale to be sure, since Napoleon took it into his head to invade Russia in 1812.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/03/20113266558960317.html

About 230,000 people have been displaced and about half of them may have taken refuge in the US, says a new study. More than 34,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since December 2006. About 230,000 people have been displaced in Mexico because of drug violence, and about half of them may have taken refuge in the United States, a new study has revealed.

Link: http://euobserver.com/9/32064

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned all Arab rulers that they risk Libya-type intervention if they cross a certain line of violence against their own people. But what about Israel's ongoing mass murder of the Palestinian people? The president told press at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday (24 March) that UN Security Council resolution 1973 authorizing air strikes on Libya has created a legal and political precedent on the "responsibility to protect." Why isn't there also a 'responsibility to protect' Palestinians? Israel continues to violates more than sixty UN resolutions and the Geneva Conventions while using banned weapons to murder thousands of Arab men, women, and children every year. Referring to deadly violence in Syria, he explained: "Every ruler should understand, and especially every Arab ruler should understand that the reaction of the international community and of Europe will from this moment on each time be the same: we will be on the side of peaceful protesters who must not be repressed with violence." But it's OK for Israeli Jews to shoot Palestinian protesters, women, and children?

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/03/25/an-empire-of-lies-the-cia-and-the-wester

Last week the Guardian, Britain’s main liberal newspaper, ran an exclusive report on the belated confessions of an Iraqi exile, Rafeed al-Janabi, codenamed “Curveball” by the CIA. Eight years ago, Janabi played a key behind-the-scenes role -- if an inadvertent one -- in making possible the US invasion of Iraq. His testimony bolstered claims by the Bush administration that Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein, had developed an advanced programme producing weapons of mass destruction.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/chru-m25.shtml

The ongoing bombing of Libya by the US and its European allies has provoked increasingly strident criticisms from Russia and China. While pointing to the underlying American and European strategic interests involved, the objections are not driven by any genuine humanitarian concern or principled opposition to neo-colonial war. Rather Moscow and Beijing are concerned that Washington is once again using its military might to advance its strategic ambitions at their expense.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/liby-m25.shtml

Air strikes by French, British and American warplanes continued to expand in Libya Thursday, but despite the massive firepower deployed by the imperialist powers against the forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, anti-Gaddafi rebels remained stalemated in the ground warfare. The air strikes were supplemented by more than a dozen cruise missiles, launched by US warships in the Mediterranean Sea, each of them delivering a warhead of as much as 2000 pounds.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27759.htm

Two documents suggest northeast Libya, centre of rebellion, is an al-Qaeda hotspot. The war on Libya now being waged by the US, Britain and France must surely rank as one of the stupidest martial enterprises, smaller in scale to be sure, since Napoleon took it into his head to invade Russia in 1812.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney03252011.html

The housing market is now in full retreat. This week, the Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes plunged nearly 17 percent in February to a 250,000 annual pace.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/2011324221036894697.html

Secretary-general says the military alliance's 28 countries have agreed to enforce no-fly zone "to protect civilians". NATO countries have agreed to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya "to protect civilians" against Muammar Gaddafi's forces, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters. During a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, Rasmussen said the military alliance's mandate did not go beyond the no-fly zone, but that NATO could act in self-defense. The world will protect these so-called civilians-mercenaries armed with artillery and other advanced weapons, but does nothing to protect the Palestinian civilians from the murderer state of Israel. Israel violates more than sixty UN resolutions and the Geneva Conventions while using banned weapons to murder civilians by the thousands and the world is silent. Gaddafi tries to protect his country from a well planned attack involving forces from outside his country, and the world pounces on him. Twenty thousand children starve to death every day on this planet and the United Nations and America ignore it, so ignore America's fake selective morality which only sees social injustice in countries with oil. Libya is being attacked and looted just like Iraq. It's all about oil.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/25/100th_anniversary_of_the_triangle_shirtwaist

Today marks the centennial anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history and a seminal moment for American labor. On March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers, mostly young immigrant women, died after a fire broke out at the factory. Many of them leaped to their deaths when they tried to escape and found the emergency exits locked. "I saw people throwing themselves from the window. As soon as we went down, we could not get out because the bodies were coming down" says the last survivor of the fire in a 1986 interview with Amy Goodman. Denied any collective bargaining rights, the Triangle workers were powerless to change the abysmal conditions in their factory: inadequate ventilation, lack of safety precautions and fire drills--and locked doors.

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/putins-crusade-4318/

In the lead-up to the 2012 Russian presidential election, conflict has erupted within the Russian ruling tandem over Libya, but can it dent Putin’s seemingly unassailable position? A long-awaited event has at last come to pass on the Russian political scene. Putin and Medvedev have crossed swords, and it was over Muammar Gaddafi.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/03/25-3

Institute Calls for More Intensive Contingency Planning by Japanese Authorities; U.S. Should Move as Much Spent Fuel as Possible to Dry Storage to Reduce Most Severe Risks, Suspend Licensing and Relicensing During Review

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/25-13

If the deficit hawks in Congress are serious about righting our economic ship and reducing deficits in the federal budget and many state capitols, it would we worth listening to the voices rising from the streets suggesting a very different solution than more cuts in safety net programs, education, pensions, and worker’s rights.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/25-0

"We are not in a position where we can be optimistic." The situation at Japan's crippled nuclear complex in Fukushima 240km north of Tokyo remains “grave and serious,” prime minister Naota Kan said today.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insidestory/2011/03/2011325134310617768.html

How will Japan recover from the disaster? Will it be able to regain the world's confidence, and how long will it take? It's two weeks since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 10-metre tsunami struck the northeast coast of Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless, more than half a million households do not have water, and workers are still battling to gain control of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Fears of contaminated food are spreading overseas as officials report traces of radiation in milk products, seawater and 11 kinds of locally-grown vegetables.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/2011325112137360914.html

Japan has been studying its seismic foe for years, but subsequent generations often forget the lessons of past quakes. RIKUZENTAKATA The town of 23,000 is accustomed to quakes and tsunamis, so when the twin natural disasters hit the community hugging Japan's jagged northeast coast, everyone knew what to do. "We know we have 30 minutes to move after an earthquake," said volunteer fireman Akio Kin, 51. "People who left immediately made it. And those who were late didn't." Indeed, not everyone made it - so mighty were the waves that eight of the 11 emergency evacuation points in the city were taken out by the tsunami.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/540426/ge%2C_world%27s_largest_corporation%2C_paid_zero_dollars_in_u.s._taxes_last_year/

How can that be, you ask? Actually, it's pretty simple. You know how we've been covering the efforts of U.S. Uncut, the growing campaign to stop corporate tax dodgers from exploiting overseas tax havens? Well here's an excellent example of why such efforts are desperately needed, from the front page of the New York Times: General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010.

Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/03/24/obama-doj-loosens-miranda-restrictions-further/?mod=google_news_blog

The rule established in the 1966 Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona has never been overturned. In theory, law enforcement still needs to tell every suspect they arrest all that business about the right to remain silent, that anything they say can and will be used against them, yadda yadda yadda. But in reality, for better or worse, the Miranda rule is a shell of its former self. Over the years, courts have consistently chipped away at it, providing exceptions here and there. It seems that police forces these days would practically need a law professor on hand to keep them updated on when it applies.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/24/pf/financial_crisis_outcome/index.htm?section=money_mostpopular&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_mostpopular+%28Most+Popular%29

The average American family's household net worth declined 23% between 2007 and 2009, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. A rare survey of U.S. households, first performed in 2007 but repeated in 2009 in order to gauge the effects of the recession, reveals the median net worth of households fell from $125,000 in 2007 to $96,000 in 2009.

Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/151657-nuclear-storm-warnings

White House Science Advisor John Holdren and Sir John Beddington, Science Advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a recent joint article "Celestial Storm Warnings" published in the New York Times, warned that a solar flare from the Sun could cause a great geomagnetic storm, with catastrophic consequences for the United States and the world. A great geomagnetic storm would generate a powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could destroy electronic systems and collapse all the critical infrastructures--power grids, communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water--that sustain modern civilization, and the lives of millions. Holdren and Beddington write reassuringly that "work to protect our societies is well underway."