Americans for financial reform call home now

Re-reported, excerpted, compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

Greed and recklessness on Wall Street caused a

global financial crisis and recession

putting millions out of their jobs and homes.

It is time to hold

banks and financial corporations

accountable.

Public Citizen fighting for

strict new safeguards to

protect consumers, investors, and workers.

Wall Street has spent tens of millions of dollars to kill reform. Wall Street likes the status quo. Thousands of bankers and lobbyists are roaming the Capitol’s halls, trying to convince your senators that reform is bad for America.

Public Citizen, the Americans for Financial Reform coalition, and thousands of concerned Americans are flooding the Senate with calls. Call your senators toll-free at (866) 544-7573. Tell them your story and make sure they pass real financial reform!

Senators need to hear the real American story ─ from YOU now! Tell your senators to vote to hold Wall Street accountable!

• Tell members of all parties you support the American Financial Stability Act of 2010. Stop blocking the bill! End back-room deals.

• Urge them to pass the American Financial Stability Act of 2010 with strengthening amendments and vote ‘No!’ on any anti-consumer (big bank-loophole) amendments.

• Break up the banks

Banks too big to fail are too big to exist.

Together with preserving preventative measures already in the bill that limit the giant financial firms’ risk, the bill should be amended also to limit financial firms’ size.

• Defend the consumer protection agency in the bill

Make it stronger and independent to protect consumers by policing credit card companies, mortgage companies and predatory lenders’ unfair and deceptive practices.

• The Federal Reserve has failed consumers repeatedly

It is the wrong place to house an effective watchdog with teeth.

• Executive pay and bonuses must be reined in to end the perverse incentive to gamble with investor and taxpayer dollars.

Amend the bill so that corporate officers are paid for long-term performance ─ not short-term illusions.

• Clamp down on the trade in exotic financial instruments such as derivatives, the instruments that threw AIG into crisis and required $180 billion in taxpayer bailout funds.

At a minimum, all such instruments must be traded openly on exchanges, backed by sufficient collateral.

Giant financial institutions should never again come to the government to make good on debts these institutions cannot pay.

Compelling evidence in the news
New evidence emerges that U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs’ senior executives made money by betting against risky mortgages as the U.S. housing market collapsed. Emails released by a U.S. senate subcommittee on Saturday reveal executives boasting about the money the firm was making as the market collapsed in 2007.

As the housing bubble burst, Goldman Sachs and a few powerful hedge funds took short positions on the market, which are bets that the market will go down.

Many of those bets required other investors to bet the market would rise, and when the market went bust, people with short positions, like Goldman Sachs, made money on their bets.

One of those bets is at the heart of civil fraud charges the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed against Goldman this month. The SEC alleges Goldman misled two investors who bought a complex mortgage-related product crafted in part by Paulson and Co, a New York hedge fund led by billionaire John Paulson [“Goldman ‘boasted as market crashed,’” http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2010/04/2010424214714529166.html].

A February 28, 2010, Sunday Times profile said John Paulson made a “big initial score betting against American mortgages” then “widened his net, betting against big banks and other financial institutions. His fund made $1 billion (£656m) by shorting UK banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and HBOS, all of which had high exposure to the mortgage market.” [“John Paulson: The man who made $4bn from the sub-prime bubble,” http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7043775.ece

World stock markets fall sharply after rating agency Standard and Poor’s downgrades Greece’s credit rating to junk status. Portugal’s debt was also downgraded [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/04/2010427184857184164.html].

Call your senators toll-free

(866) 544-7573

National Call-In for Real Financial Reform

http://www.citizen.org/call-for-financial-reform

Weekend U.S. sphere, resistance, protests abroad

Aljazeera, wire reports from
America, Middle East
Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

April 25, 2010
U.S. - OCCUPIED PACIFIC
Demonstrators are afoot in Okinawa, Japan, in protest to the United States’ 47,000-troop military occupation on the island nation. Many on the island have for years complained of noise, pollution and conflicts with U.S. soldiers. Japan is unhappy with the heavy American military presence. Al Jazeera reports that today’s rally is expected to include Okinawa’s governor Hirokazu Nakaima and more than 30 town mayors. The Kadena air base close to where the rally is taking place is the largest U.S. military facility in the Asia-Pacific region.

April 23, 2010
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Israel accuses Syria of supplying missiles to Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Syria denies Israel’s charges. Interviewed from the Syrian embassy in Washington, spokesperson Ahmed Salkini told Al Jazeera the reports of alleged missile transfers are part of Israel’s disinformation campaign to divert the world’s attention from Israel’s actions on the ground. The representative said Israel’s charge “showed how it was evading any responsibility for building peace in the region, by pressing ahead with its occupation of Arab land. ‘Syria is calling for a comprehensive and just peace in the region whereby Israel withdraws from all occupied territories the UN and the international community have declared illegally occupied.’”

Leading on from Israel’s charge, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Middle East Jeffrey Feltman reacted, “‘If these reports turn out to be true, we’re going to have to review the full range of tools that are available for us in order to make Syria reverse what would be an incendiary, provocative action.’” In a 34-day Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006, 1,200 mostly civilian Lebanese died and more than 160 mainly Israeli soldiers died.

April 22, 2010
Israel has deported two Palestinians to the Gaza Strip raising fears that more expulsions could follow under a controversial new Israeli military order. The action “fits into a pattern of Israel’s strategy to treat Gaza and the West Bank as separate geopolitical entities,” Al Jazeera’s Jackie Rowland reported from Jerusalem. An estimated 70,000 Palestinians could be at risk of deportation under an Israeli military order condemned by Arab politicians.

April 25, 2010
Jewish settlers marched in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem. Palestinian protesters and Israeli police clashed. Israeli settlers living in illegal housing units on occupied Palestinian land want Arabs’ homes demolished and Arabs removed from the area to make way for Israeli construction projects.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that if the Obama administration believes in and is committed to Israel’s security together with a peace settlement that gives a state to Palestinians, the American administration has a “duty to call for steps to reach the solution, impose the solution. [But] don’t tell me it’s a vital national strategic American interest, then not do anything.”

Having pulled out of talks with the Israelis during Israel’s 22-day [December 2008-January 2009] offensive in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have refused to return until all settlement activity stops.

April 24, 2010
IRAQ
Iraqis are burying their dead. An estimated 69 people died Friday when a series bombs exploded in Baghdad and Sadr City. Funeral processions set off on Saturday from Sadr City, site of the deadliest attacks, for the holy city of Najaf. Since the start of 2010, April has been the bloodiest month in the country.

April 22, 2010
JORDAN
Rockets on Wednesday landed in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba one damaging an empty storage space, the other splashing into the Red Sea. Police found remains of a Katyusha rocket. They were trying to determine the source of the attack. Five years ago, three Katyusha rockets, missing two U.S. warships docked in the port, had been fired in Aqaba. In that incident, rockets hit a warehouse and crossed a border with Jerusalem. A Jordanian soldier died.

April 24, 2010
PAKISTAN
Four police officers died when gunmen opened fire torching twelve NATO oil tankers in Talagang, a town in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The gunmen escaped after police returned fire. Fighters routinely attack routes and supplies supporting the war in Afghanistan in an effort to halt resources available to NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

April 24-25, 2010
MISSISSIPPI
As estimated 10 people including children died when tornadoes hit several southeastern/Gulf states of the United States ─ Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama among them.

Crews off the coast of Louisiana delayed cleaning up an oil spill that had followed an offshore oilrig explosion causing the platform to sink earlier in the week. Storms damaged a chemical plant tank in Tallulah, Louisiana, causing a nitrogen leak. The Mississippi governor declared a state of emergency in 17 counties.

Casualty sites reporting
April 25, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 165 dead; 31,785-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [April 17 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 95,965 – 104,682, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,393 U.S, 4,711 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,050 U.S., 1,736 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

CASUALTIES UPDATE
Monday April 26, 2010 update
Occupied Territories
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces destroyed a house owned by a Hamas commander’s relatives and assassinated the commander. Though an Israeli high court order has deemed the killing of Palestinian suspects not engaged in a firefight illegal, media reports indicate that the Israeli military pursues a policy of assassinating prominent Palestinian fighters. A previous alleged assassination carried out by Israeli forces was last December in Nablus in the West Bank; four members of Fatah’s military wing died. “Monday’s killing appeared likely to aggravate an already tense situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories” [“Israeli troops kill Hamas fighter,: April 26, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042610119512795.html].

Monday April 26, 2010 update
Gulf of Mexico – Louisiana USA
Off Louisiana’s coast 1,525 meters (5,003.2 feet or 0.9 miles) into the ocean, an oil well is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil a day. Eleven workers involved in last Tuesday’s “worst oil rig disaster in almost a decade” are missing and presumed dead. In the past nine years, 69 people have died, 1,349 have sustained injuries, 858 fires and explosions have occurred in oil-rig operations off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf off Mexico [“Engineers in race to seal oil leak,” April 26, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/201042653915904166.html].

Monday April 26, 2010 update
Yemen
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world and confronts serious political and administrative problems. The country today sustained its first suicide attack in a year. The attack by a suicide bomber occurred in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa near the British ambassador’s convoy. No one died or sustained injuries. In March 2009, a South Korean delegation sustained an attack while investigating a bombing that had occurred a few days earlier; four South Korean tourists died. In 2008, two suicide bombers set off a series of blasts outside the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Sanaa. Sixteen people died [“UK diplomat escapes Yemen attack,” April 26, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042655759873579.html].


Sources
”Japanese rally against U.S. air base,” April 25, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/04/201042554723575134.html
“U.S. tightens pressure on Syria,” April 23, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/20104223206497761.html
“Palestinians deported to Gaza,” April 22, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010422124915701529.html
“Clashes as Israeli settlers match,” April 25, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104258757856525.html
“Baghdad mourns bombing victims,” April 24, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104247396232723.html
“Rockets land in Jordanian port city,” April 22, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042210215107533.html
“NATO tankers attack Pakistan,” April 24, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010424191518201134.html
“Tornadoes hit southeastern U.S.,” April 25, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/201042545832872872.html

Hard to forget

U.S. entrenched Near East regional wars, malfeasance
Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Casualties
April 18, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 163 dead; 31,775-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [April 17 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 95,888 – 104,595, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,391 U.S, 4,709 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,044 U.S., 1,731 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

April 16, 2010
Afghanistan (Kandahar)
Three foreigners and three Afghan soldiers died and nine people suffered injuries Thursday in Kandahar after a suicide car bomb exploded. The bomb reportedly blew out windows of several buildings including in the home of President Hamid Karzai’s brother. Leading into a scheduled U.S. and NATO major offensive, this “was the second attack of the day in Kandahar, where numerous strikes have occurred in recent weeks.” An earlier explosion in the city’s center destroyed vehicles and shops and injured six people.

April 18, 2010
Afghanistan
Afghan authorities have released three Italian aid workers accused of plotting to kill the governor of an Afghan province. An investigation by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency found that the three men, who had been working as physicians, had no part in a Taliban plot to assassinate Helmand governor Gulab Mangal. Five of the Italian’s six Afghan colleagues who had been implicated in the incident also were released on Sunday.

April 19, 2010, Monday update
Afghanistan [children bombed]
Three children ages 11 to 15 died Monday in the Afghan city of Kandahar. Explosives planted in a donkey cart had been detonated. Police officers and other civilians were counted among the injured. “Children killed in Afghan blast,” April 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010419141252419585.html

[Another Earthquake destroys]
At least seven people have died and more than 34 suffered injuries when a 5.3 earthquake occurred today in Afghanistan’s highly mountainous Samangan province, northwest of the capital, Kabul. Reports said 40 houses collapsed and more than 300 homes were damaged. Neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikstan also felt the impact. Casualties are expected to rise. “Deadly earthquake hits Afghanistan,” April 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041991224700369.html

April 18, 2010
Iran
“The region has no need for alien troops and they should return home and let the regional states take care of their own affairs.” Speaking at Iran’s annual Army Day assembly, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the United States “to withdraw its troops from the Gulf region and Afghanistan.” These comments followed the president’s earlier statements at the two-day summit on civilian nuclear energy in Tehran in which he urged formation of a new international body to oversee nuclear disarmament.

The Tehran summit continuing through Sunday “is seen as a counterpoint” to last week’s Washington conference, which excluded Iran. Iran has criticized the 47-nation nuclear security summit based on U.S. domination in nuclear weaponry. The U.S. allegedly “fears Iran’s nuclear program could be a cover for the production of atomic weapons.” Iran’s leaders counter that their country “is entitled to continue [working] on its uranium enrichment” program, the country is not “seeking nuclear weapons,” and its atomic program is “for meeting civilian energy needs”

April 18, 2010
Iraq
Remembering unforgettable malfeasance
On July 12, 2007, the U.S. military responded to reports of small arms fire in a Baghdad suburb. The military stated they were unable to positively identify gunmen and responded by dispatching Apache helicopters to the area. By mid morning that day, a dozen Iraqis had died, among them two Reuters News Agency staffers. The U.S. Apache helicopter had killed all of these people.

The official military inquiry that year cleared all U.S. military personnel involved of wrongdoing but Wikileaks shows a different light. The Sweden-based organization that publishes anonymous submissions and [whistleblower] leaks of sensitive documents from governments and other organizations, posted a video online, now widely in the public arena, that captures the moments leading up to the shootings, the aerial attacks and the audio of the pilots and ground forces communicating. Al Jazeera considers the question of “Collateral Murder” Thursday-Sunday, April 15-18, http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/general/2010/04/20104159123873370.html

April 17-18, 2010
Pakistan and India
Seven people died and 21 suffered wounds today when a suicide car bomb exploded in the northwestern Pakistani city of Kohat. Police sources said the attack targeted a police station in response to military operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas.… The attack follows yesterday’s suicide bombings in a nearby camp. This explosion struck a crowd of internally displaced people ─ mostly, according to Al Jazeera reporters, from the Orakzai agency where the military has launched a new offensive ─ collecting aid. Forty-one people died and more than 60 suffered injuries.… This month’s UN reports has found a deteriorating security situation in Orakzai and neighboring Kurram district since last November causing 200,000 civilians to leave their homes.

April 17, 2010 (India)
Ten people suffered injuries and fears rose that the country’s most prestigious cricket league, the Indian Premier League, was the target of two bombs set off at a crowded stadium in southern India …The Saturday incident was the second bombing in India since the 2008 three-day assault in Mumbai where 166 people died. The explosion in February hit a restaurant in the western city of Pune. Seventeen people died.

April 19, 2010, Monday update
Pakistan [protesters bombed]
An estimated 25 people died, 30 suffered injuries when a bomb exploded during a protest in old city Peshawar known as Storytellers’ Bazaar. This attack in Pakistan came hours after an eight-year-old boy died and at least 10 people suffered wounds when another bomb exploded outside a high school in Peshawar. Students were ending their school day. Peshawar is close to the border with Afghanistan where hundreds of people have died over the past year. “Bomb blast hits Pakistan protests,” April 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041914959513554.html


Sources
“Many dead in Afghan blasts,” April 16, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041518611497590.html
“Afghans free Italian aid workers,” April 18, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010418154831591773.html
“Iran demands U.S. troop withdrawal,” April 18, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201041854124873989.html
“Collateral Murder?” Thursday-Sunday, April 15-18, http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/general/2010/04/20104159123873370.html
“Deaths in Pakistan suicide attacks,” April 18, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041844327780903.html
“Bombs hit India cricket match,” April 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041714273045362.html

Destructive mindset changes with greater equality

Equality, trust, cooperation over excessive consumption yields wellbeing yields trust yields cooperation yields equality yields trust yields wellbeing
Edited excerpt for Today’s Insight News by Carolyn Bennett

More-equal countries ─ those with a narrower gap between rich and poor ─ in the developed world have markedly fewer health and social problems and are already more sustainable says new evidence published by Pickett and Wilkinson in their book The Spirit Level: why equality is better for everyone. Equality Trust co-founder and director Bill Kerry engages the debate for furthering equality.

More-equal countries’ flatter, less competitive social hierarchies dampen the demand for conspicuous and excessive consumption and encourage a shorter working-hours culture.

Recycling rates are higher in more-equal countries; their business leaders are more likely to support international environmental treaties.

More-equal countries give more in overseas aid to developing countries, which are the ones most immediately threatened by climate change.

Greater equality is conducive to further moves towards sustainability.

More-equal countries have higher levels of trust; it is this bedrock of trust that is needed if we are to make real progress towards sustainable economic models.

However, the present zero-sum seems to rule political discourse in too many countries. Too many people are distrustful and feel they can only win if someone else loses. They are unwilling to contemplate any changes to their lifestyle as they think others will not do the same.

This destructive mindset changes, though, when there are substantive moves toward greater equality, both in terms of fostering more cooperative and community-minded attitudes and maintaining high levels of well-being such that the transition to sustainability does not seem so difficult or unrealistic. Progressives, together with focusing on equality as our core value, must also set out new, popular and transformative ways of achieving that greater equality. …

Transformative routes to equality in the twenty-first century will … need to be innovative and, if they are to be adopted, capable of seizing the popular imagination.

Wholesale embrace of cooperative economics and related campaigns for pay justice – narrowing the ratios between high and low pay within all sectors of the economy – are concrete proposals on the way to narrowing the gap between rich and poor ….

Sources
“Sustainability will not be delivered without Equality” (Bill Kerry), April 04, 2010, Social Europe Journal, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/04/sustainability-will-not-be-delivered-without-equality/
Bill Kerry is co-founder and director of The Equality Trust and works for the Trust as a part-time consultant. He speaks regularly for the Trust and has written and blogged for various organizations including Oxfam and the pressure group Compass. He is the commissioning editor for the March and April 2010 series of equality articles in the Good Society debate.
The Spirit Level: why equality is better for everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett was published in hardback (Penguin) in March 2009 and in paperback in February 2010, http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resource/the-spirit-level
Kate Pickett is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of York and a National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist. She studied physical anthropology at Cambridge, nutritional sciences at Cornell and epidemiology at Berkeley before spending four years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. Her work, with Richard Wilkinson, on The Spirit Level was shortlisted for Research Project of the Year 2009 by the Times Higher Education Supplement. The New Statesman chose their book as one of the Top Ten Books of the Decade, http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000075945,00.html
Richard Wilkinson has played an influential role in international research. His work has been published in 10 languages. Wilkinson studied economic history at the London School of Economics before training in epidemiology. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School and Honorary Professor at University College London, http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000075944,00.html

Adopt, dump, murderous cruelty USA

Re-reported with commentary by Carolyn Bennett
Americans last year adopted an estimated 1,600 Russian children. Russian children, after Chinese and Guatemalan children, are number three in the nationality of children taken by U.S. citizens. These children suffer battering, death and dumping in the hands of violence-prone Americans of throwaway consumerist character.

Peggy Hilt of North Carolina adopted a two-year-old Siberian girl. A few months later, July 2005, Hilt beat this child to death. She then pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Nina Victoria. The court handed down a sentence of 25 years. On appeal, a Prince William County (Virginia) Circuit Court judge suspended 16 years of Hilt’s original sentence.

Fyodor and Kimberly K. Emelyantsev of Tooele, Utah, adopted in February 2008 a 14-month-old Russian boy, Nikolai. Shortly after the adoption, Kimberly Emelyantsev confessed to killing the “15-month-old child she and her husband had just adopted.”

Last week came news of 8-year-old (his age has also been given at 7) Artem Saveliev and the U.S. adoptive mother Torry Ann Hansen, who dumped him.

News reports said a confused and upset-looking Artem Saveliev arrived on Thursday unaccompanied in Moscow on a flight from Tennessee via Washington. The boy had a rucksack containing coloring pens, sweets and biscuits. “On his arrival, he gave immigration officials a typed note from his adoptive mother, Torry Ann Hansen, a nurse from Shelbyville, Tennessee, explaining in two succinct paragraphs why she no longer wanted this boy she had adopted in September of last year.”

Russian Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said he was unable to recall such an act of cynicism ─ a little child returned alone across the ocean.

Before being dumped by Torry Ann Hansen, Artyom Savelyev had lived for 6 months in the United States under the name Justin Hansen. Before being brought to the States, he had been in an orphanage in Partizansk in the Maritime Territory in Russia. Likely he will return to the orphanage.

There seems no end to cruelties, compounded, murderous cruelties, human beings inflict on one another ─ often in the name of their “religion” or “family values.” So many issues connect with the case of U.S. foreign adoptions but all seem rooted in a deeply flawed American character. Life really does not have to be this way.


Sources
“Peggy Hilt’s sentence reduced,” http://www.russiancarolina.net/en/news/crime-law-enforcement/413-peggy-hilt-sentence-reduced; Russian North Carolina, http://www.russiancarolina.net/
“U.S. couple charged with first-degree murder of helpless and sick Russian baby,” March 23, 2008 (Pravda.ru translation by Dmitry Sudakov), http://english.pravda.ru/society/family/104643-russian_baby-0
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7572387/Adopted-Russian-boy-7-returned-by-US-mother-on-one-way-flight-to-Moscow...-alone.htmlTelegraphNewsRussia
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7572387/Adopted-Russian-boy-7-returned-by-US-mother-on-one-way-flight-to-Moscow...-alone.html
Daily Telegraph: “Russia Adopted Russian boy, 7, returned by U.S. ‘mother’ on one-way flight to Moscow... alone. [The] U.S. nurse put the seven-year-old Siberian boy she had adopted from a Russian orphanage on a one-way flight to Moscow with a note saying ‘I no longer wish to parent this child,’ when she found she could no longer cope with him.”
“Another scandal over adopted Russian child in U.S.,” April 9, 2010, The Voice of Russia, http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/09/6214514.html

Washington at war heads into Nuclear Summit sans Israel

Re-reported, compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett
A nuclear-powered state imposing overwhelming intimidation, taking liberty to proliferate, bomb and slaughter at will, has the brazen audacity to summon other states to Washington for its own photo-op on nuclear nonproliferation.

April 9, 2010
Palestine
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled plans to attend this week’s Washington conference on nuclear security.

It is “an open secret that Israel has nuclear weapons” though the country refuses to talk about its nuclear capabilities, said Dr Rebecca Johnson, director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, speaking with Radio Netherlands. “For a long time,” she said, Israelis have been “free riders on the nuclear Non-Proliferation regime,” benefiting from the fact that all their Arab neighbor states and Iran joined the NPT and pledged not to acquire nuclear weapons. “But now the fact that they’re refusing to engage on this nuclear security summit that India and Pakistan are both engaging in demonstrates that Israel is not prepared to take even the first step. I think that’s going to leave them much more politically vulnerable than they’re calculating.” The Nuclear Security Summit opens on Monday in Washington D.C.

NUCLEAR-POWERED LEADS INTO WASHINGTON SUMMIT sans Israel

The five nuclear weapon States ─ thus defined under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since they all conducted nuclear tests before 1968 ─ are China, France, the Soviet Union/Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Beyond the five Nuclear Weapon States as defined by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, there are three or four others: India (first tested in 1974); Pakistan (first tested in 1998), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (announced it had conducted a nuclear test in 2006); and Israel. Though Israel fails to report nuclear testing, it is assumed a nuclear-armed state as reported by research institutions such as the Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

The United States was the first country to start testing in 1945. The second was the former Soviet Union in 1949; the third the United Kingdom in 1952; the fourth France in 1960; the fifth China in 1964.

The only time nuclear bombs have been used was when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan during World War II: one on August 6, 1945, on the city of Hiroshima and one on August 9, 1945, on the city of Nagasaki. These bombs killed an estimated 220,000 people in Japan by the end of 1945, roughly half that number on the days of the bombings themselves.

Of the five nuclear weapon States, all but two have ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. France and the United Kingdom both ratified the CTBT on April 6, 1998. The Russian Federation ratified it on June 30, 2000. Both China and the United States signed the CTBT on September 24, 1996, but neither has ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Nuclear weapons in arsenals of nuclear states as of 2007 reached an estimated 10,000 nuclear warheads held by the United States; 15,000 held by Russia; 350 by France; 200 by China; and fewer than 200 by the United Kingdom [figures by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)]. In estimated arsenals of other nuclear-armed states not parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty were India (50-60 nuclear warheads), Israel (100-200), and Pakistan (60). Total nuclear weapons arsenals amounted to more than 26,000 nuclear warheads for the five “nuclear weapon States” and the “other” nuclear-armed states.

April 5, 2010
Afghanistan
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan has admitted the killing five Afghan civilians among the dead three women. The killing occurred during a February 12 botched night raid on a home in the Gardez district of Paktia province.…

Two newspaper reports, the Times in Britain and the New York Times in the U.S., said the foreign troops involved in the shooting were members of U.S. special forces; and there had been signs of evidence tempering “including the removal of bullets from walls near where the women had died.” Moreover, “victims’ wounds had been washed with alcohol after the bullets were removed, presumably to erase forensic evidence.”

April 9, 2010
Afghanistan
Three U.S. soldiers and one civilian employee died Thursday when a U.S. helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan… The crash raises this year’s total of foreign troop deaths during the war in Afghanistan to 151. Also among last week’s reported dead in Afghanistan were three Taliban fighters; two were injured in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz. In the neighboring province of Takhar, two more fighters died and three Afghan police officers suffered injuries.

April 11, 2010
Afghanistan
Nine people, including three Italian medical workers, have been arrested in Afghanistan for allegedly plotting to kill a provincial official.… Suicide bomb vests, hand grenades, pistols and explosives were found in a hospital storeroom run by the Italian charity Emergency where the three worked. The head of Emergency, Cecilia Strada, speaking from Milan told Al Jazeera that the claim that medical workers had plotted to kill a Helmand official was “completely groundless.”

April 12, 2010 [update]
Afghanistan (Kandahar)
Four civilians (estimated) died and 18 suffered wounds before dawn today when NATO forces opened fire on a bus in the Zhari district of Kandahar province. Though NATO authorities failed to identify the attacking forces by nationality, several Afghans said the attackers were American. Angry anti-American protests ensued on the streets of Kandahar city. Afghans blocked the main highway out of the city with burning tires. They called for the downfall of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. They chanted ‘Death to America.’

Also from Afghanistan, the Taliban have renewed threats to kill two French journalist kidnapped at the end of last year near Kabul unless a prisoner exchange is organized.… The Taliban are calling on France to arrange an exchange of the journalists for prisoners held by U.S. and Afghan authorities.

April 7, 2010
Iraq
Twelve people died. Among them were two employees of the Reuters news agency. A whistleblower website publishing anonymously sourced documents has released a video showing the U.S. military firing at a group of civilians in Baghdad three years ago and families of Iraqi civilians seen being shot and killed by U.S. forces in the leaked video are seeking justice for the deaths. The website WikiLeaks said it obtained the video from a number of ‘military whistleblowers.’ International law expert, director at the FAFO Institute for International Studies (Norway) Mark Taylor tells Al Jazeera the evidence so far ‘indicates that there’s a case to be made that a war crime may have been committed.…

‘There are precedents of U.S. soldiers being prosecuted for crimes in Iraq, for crimes of murder, rape and manslaughter so it’s not unprecedented that this could go forward both in military courts as well as in civilian criminal courts in the U.S. The case also raises larger questions about the laws of war. …’

April 11, 2010
Pakistan
An estimated 100 people died Saturday when the Pakistani military conducted air raids in the country’s northwest tribal areas. The Orazkai and Khyber regions sit close to the border with Afghanistan… The security situation in Orakzai and Kurram, deteriorationg since November of last year, according to Friday reports from the United Nations, has forced the displacement of 200,000 civilians.

Casualty sites reporting
April 11, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)
• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003 ─ [Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 162] Wounded 31,762-100,000; U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000; Suicides 18 a day [April 10 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count figures documented civilian deaths from violence: 95,822 – 104,529, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,390 U.S, 4,708 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,041 U.S., 1,721 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

People and nations will not forever follow leaders who point where they themselves will not go nor will people in their hearts believe slick words of leaders whose brute force pounds them into the ground.

 Sources and notes
“Israel turns its back on nuclear talks,” April 9, 2010, Radio Netherlands-Worldwide, http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/israel-turns-its-back-nuclear-talks
http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/CTBT.shtml
http://www.ctbto.org/
http://www.ctbto.org/faqs/
“Italians arrested over Afghan plot,” April 11, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041171211170120.html
“U.S. troops killed in Afghan crash,” April 9, 2010 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010497356793401.html
“NATO admits Afghan civilian deaths,” April 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010453435608194.html
“Iraqi outrage over U.S. killing video,” April 7, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104782857326667.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/20104520036138869.html
“‘Scores dead’ in Pakistan air raid,” April 11, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201041014445747250.html

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Status: countries that have signed, countries signed but not ratified
Total States 195
Total signed 182
Latest signatory: Trinidad & Tobago October 8, 2009
Total ratified 151
Not signed: 13
Latest ratified: Marshall Islands October 28, 2009
Not ratified 44
http://www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/status-of-signature-and-ratification/


State Party – Signed - Ratified
Afghanistan 24-SEP-2003 24-SEP-2003
Albania 27-SEP-1996 23-APR-2003
Algeria* 15-OCT-1996 11-JUL-2003
Andorra 24-SEP-1996 12-JUL-2006
Angola 27-SEP-1996
Antigua and Barbuda 16-APR-1997 11-JAN-2006
Argentina* 24-SEP-1996 04-DEC-1998
Armenia 01-OCT-1996 12-JUL-2006
Australia* 24-SEP-1996 09-JUL-1998
Austria* 24-SEP-1996 13-MAR-1998
Azerbaijan 28-JUL-1997 02-FEB-1999
Bahamas 04-FEB-2005 30-NOV-2007
Bahrain 24-SEP-1996 12-APR-2004
Bangladesh* 24-OCT-1996 08-MAR-2000
Barbados 14-JAN-2008 14-JAN-2008
Belarus 24-SEP-1996 13-SEP-2000
Belgium* 24-SEP-1996 29-JUN-1999
Belize 14-NOV-2001 26-MAR-2004
Benin 27-SEP-1996 06-MAR-2001
Bhutan
Bolivia 24-SEP-1996 04-OCT-1999
Bosnia and Herzegovina 24-SEP-1996 26-OCT-2006
Botswana 16-SEP-2002 28-OCT-2002
Brazil* 24-SEP-1996 24-JUL-1998
Brunei Darussalam 22-JAN-1997
Bulgaria* 24-SEP-1996 29-SEP-1999
Burkina Faso 27-SEP-1996 17-APR-2002
Burundi 24-SEP-1996 24-SEP-2008
Cambodia 26-SEP-1996 10-NOV-2000
Cameroon 16-NOV-2001 06-FEB-2006
Canada* 24-SEP-1996 18-DEC-1998
Cape Verde 01-OCT-1996 01-MAR-2006
Côte d'Ivoire 25-SEP-1996 11-MAR-2003
Central African Republic 19-DEC-2001
Chad 08-OCT-1996
Chile* 24-SEP-1996 12-JUL-2000
China* 24-SEP-1996
Colombia* 24-SEP-1996 29-JAN-2008
Comoros 12-DEC-1996
Congo 11-FEB-1997
Cook Islands 05-DEC-1997 06-SEP-2005
Costa Rica 24-SEP-1996 25-SEP-2001
Croatia 24-SEP-1996 02-MAR-2001
Cuba
Cyprus 24-SEP-1996 18-JUL-2003
Czech Republic 12-NOV-1996 11-SEP-1997
Democratic People`s Republic
of Korea*
Democratic Republic
of the Congo* 04-OCT-1996 28-SEP-2004
Denmark 24-SEP-1996 21-DEC-1998
Djibouti 21-OCT-1996 15-JUL-2005
Dominica
Dominican Republic 03-OCT-1996 04-SEP-2007
Ecuador 24-SEP-1996 12-NOV-2001
Egypt* 14-OCT-1996
El Salvador 24-SEP-1996 11-SEP-1998
Equatorial Guinea 09-OCT-1996
Eritrea 11-NOV-2003 11-NOV-2003
Estonia 20-NOV-1996 13-AUG-1999
Ethiopia 25-SEP-1996 08-AUG-2006
Fiji 24-SEP-1996 10-OCT-1996
Finland* 24-SEP-1996 15-JAN-1999
France* 24-SEP-1996 06-APR-1998
Gabon 07-OCT-1996 20-SEP-2000
Gambia 09-APR-2003
Georgia 24-SEP-1996 27-SEP-2002
Germany* 24-SEP-1996 20-AUG-1998
Ghana 03-OCT-1996
Greece 24-SEP-1996 21-APR-1999
Grenada 10-OCT-1996 19-AUG-1998
Guatemala 20-SEP-1999
Guinea 03-OCT-1996
Guinea-Bissau 11-APR-1997
Guyana 07-SEP-2000 07-MAR-2001
Haiti 24-SEP-1996 01-DEC-2005
Holy See 24-SEP-1996 18-JUL-2001
Honduras 25-SEP-1996 30-OCT-2003
Hungary* 25-SEP-1996 13-JUL-1999
Iceland 24-SEP-1996 26-JUN-2000
India*
Indonesia* 24-SEP-1996
Iran (Islamic Republic of)* 24-SEP-1996
Iraq 19-AUG-2008
Ireland 24-SEP-1996 15-JUL-1999
Israel* 25-SEP-1996
Italy* 24-SEP-1996 01-FEB-1999
Jamaica 11-NOV-1996 13-NOV-2001
Japan* 24-SEP-1996 08-JUL-1997
Jordan 26-SEP-1996 25-AUG-1998
Kazakhstan 30-SEP-1996 14-MAY-2002
Kenya 14-NOV-1996 30-NOV-2000
Kiribati 07-SEP-2000 07-SEP-2000
Kuwait 24-SEP-1996 06-MAY-2003
Kyrgyzstan 08-OCT-1996 02-OCT-2003
Lao People's
Democratic Republic 30-JUL-1997 05-OCT-2000
Latvia 24-SEP-1996 20-NOV-2001
Lebanon 16-SEP-2005 21-NOV-2008
Lesotho 30-SEP-1996 14-SEP-1999
Liberia 01-OCT-1996 17-AUG-2009
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 13-NOV-2001 06-JAN-2004
Liechtenstein 27-SEP-1996 21-SEP-2004
Lithuania 07-OCT-1996 07-FEB-2000
Luxembourg 24-SEP-1996 26-MAY-1999
Madagascar 09-OCT-1996 15-SEP-2005
Malawi 09-OCT-1996 21-NOV-2008
Malaysia 23-JUL-1998 17-JAN-2008
Maldives 01-OCT-1997 07-SEP-2000
Mali 18-FEB-1997 04-AUG-1999
Malta 24-SEP-1996 23-JUL-2001
Marshall Islands 24-SEP-1996 28-OCT-2009
Mauritania 24-SEP-1996 30-APR-2003
Mauritius
Mexico* 24-SEP-1996 05-OCT-1999
Micronesia,
Federated States of 24-SEP-1996 25-JUL-1997
Monaco 01-OCT-1996 18-DEC-1998
Mongolia 01-OCT-1996 08-AUG-1997
Montenegro 23-OCT-2006 23-OCT-2006
Morocco 24-SEP-1996 17-APR-2000
Mozambique 26-SEP-1996 04-NOV-2008
Myanmar 25-NOV-1996
Namibia 24-SEP-1996 29-JUN-2001
Nauru 08-SEP-2000 12-NOV-2001
Nepal 08-OCT-1996
Netherlands* 24-SEP-1996 23-MAR-1999
New Zealand 27-SEP-1996 19-MAR-1999
Nicaragua 24-SEP-1996 05-DEC-2000
Niger 03-OCT-1996 09-SEP-2002
Nigeria 08-SEP-2000 27-SEP-2001
Niue
Norway* 24-SEP-1996 15-JUL-1999
Oman 23-SEP-1999 13-JUN-2003
Pakistan*
Palau 12-AUG-2003 01-AUG-2007
Panama 24-SEP-1996 23-MAR-1999
Papua New Guinea 25-SEP-1996
Paraguay 25-SEP-1996 04-OCT-2001
Peru* 25-SEP-1996 12-NOV-1997
Philippines 24-SEP-1996 23-FEB-2001
Poland* 24-SEP-1996 25-MAY-1999
Portugal 24-SEP-1996 26-JUN-2000
Qatar 24-SEP-1996 03-MAR-1997
Republic of Korea* 24-SEP-1996 24-SEP-1999
Republic of Moldova 24-SEP-1997 16-JAN-2007
Romania* 24-SEP-1996 05-OCT-1999
Russian Federation* 24-SEP-1996 30-JUN-2000
Rwanda 30-NOV-2004 30-NOV-2004
Saint Kitts and Nevis 23-MAR-2004 27-APR-2005
Saint Lucia 04-OCT-1996 05-APR-2001
Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines 02-JUL-2009 23-SEP-2009
Samoa 09-OCT-1996 27-SEP-2002
San Marino 07-OCT-1996 12-MAR-2002
Sao Tome and Principe 26-SEP-1996
Saudi Arabia
Senegal 26-SEP-1996 09-JUN-1999
Serbia 08-JUN-2001 19-MAY-2004
Seychelles 24-SEP-1996 13-APR-2004
Sierra Leone 08-SEP-2000 17-SEP-2001
Singapore 14-JAN-1999 10-NOV-2001
Slovakia* 30-SEP-1996 03-MAR-1998
Slovenia 24-SEP-1996 31-AUG-1999
Solomon Islands 03-OCT-1996
Somalia
South Africa* 24-SEP-1996 30-MAR-1999
Spain* 24-SEP-1996 31-JUL-1998
Sri Lanka 24-OCT-1996
Sudan 10-JUN-2004 10-JUN-2004
Suriname 14-JAN-1997 07-FEB-2006
Swaziland 24-SEP-1996
Sweden* 24-SEP-1996 02-DEC-1998
Switzerland* 24-SEP-1996 01-OCT-1999
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan 07-OCT-1996 10-JUN-1998
Thailand 12-NOV-1996
The former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia 29-OCT-1998 14-MAR-2000
Timor-Leste 26-SEP-2008
Togo 02-OCT-1996 02-JUL-2004
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago 08-OCT-2009
Tunisia 16-OCT-1996 23-SEP-2004
Turkey* 24-SEP-1996 16-FEB-2000
Turkmenistan 24-SEP-1996 20-FEB-1998
Tuvalu
Uganda 07-NOV-1996 14-MAR-2001
Ukraine* 27-SEP-1996 23-FEB-2001
United Arab Emirates 25-SEP-1996 18-SEP-2000
United Kingdom of
Great Britain and
Northern Ireland* 24-SEP-1996 06-APR-1998
United Republic of Tanzania 30-SEP-2004 30-SEP-2004
United States of America* 24-SEP-1996
Uruguay 24-SEP-1996 21-SEP-2001
Uzbekistan 03-OCT-1996 29-MAY-1997
Vanuatu 24-SEP-1996 16-SEP-2005
Venezuela (Bolivarian
Republic of) 03-OCT-1996 13-MAY-2002
Viet Nam* 24-SEP-1996 10-MAR-2006
Yemen 30-SEP-1996
Zambia 03-DEC-1996 23-FEB-2006
Zimbabwe 13-OCT-1999
http://www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/status-of-signature-and-ratification/
“NATO killings spark Afghan protests,” April 12, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/20104121321185774.html

CHINAMERICACOAL ─ Life shouldn't be this way

Re-reported in brief with comment by Carolyn Bennett
A thousand and more safety violations preceded this week’s Massey mine explosion that killed 25 West Virginia miners. Last month alone the Massey Energy Mine received 50 citations. [Update: By the weekend, 29 miners had been confirmed dead.]

As U.S. President Barack Obama supports patently unsafe nuclear power for war and energy, he also supports patently unsafe “safe” mining. Taking into account processes and consequences, safety is impossible in nuclear power and in coal mining.

In China last week, 9 miners died and 29 are still trapped after floods came to a coalmine in Shanxi Province. Rescuers on Monday pulled 115 miners from the mine alive. These miners had been trapped for more than a week.

To say we are sorry fails miserably to grasp the depth of human pain. To spout religious nonsense in the face of repeated workplace, environmental and community disasters ─ disasters preventable by good governance ─ as President Obama did today is more than immoral. It is an insult to ─ and criminal in its dismissal of ─ human beings and the inherent value of their lives.

Drawing attention to the national scandal of mountaintop removal mining and grave health consequences of coal mining and coal-fired plants ─ and the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate destabilization trigged by CO2 emissions ─ the Coal Free Future Project has launched a 2010 spring/summer 20-state tour with performances of ‘Welcome to the Saudi Arabia of Coal.’ This is a multimedia production and follow-up workshops with nonprofit citizen groups, environmental and student organizations on coal, mountaintop removal, climate change and clean energy options. http://coalfreefutureproject.org/

Sources
“Massey Energy Mine Cited for 1,300+ Safety Violations in Years Leading up to Deadly Explosion,” April 7, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/7/massey_energy_mine_cited_for_1
“Death toll rises to 9 in N China coal mine flood as rescue efforts continue,” Xinhua News Agency, April 7, 2010, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-04/07/c_13241390.htm

Also note: On CounterSpin Friday, April 9, 2010, [lead in]: “As we record this show, efforts continue to rescue 4 miners believed still trapped by the April 5 explosion that killed 25 in West Virginia, and media are tracking the story. However, if by ‘accident’ we mean something unpredictable and that substantive steps are taken to avoid, is it time for reporters to find a new word to describe such disasters? We talk with journalist Jeff Biggers, author of Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland.” Jeremy Scahill on Iraq killings, Jeff Biggers on coal mining (4/9/10-4/15/10), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=5

Sacrifice unlamented ─ incapable-of-rising dead

Re-reported, compiled, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett
Holiday casualties, costs, critics and loss; obstructionists, deniers, debaters and liars ─ U.S. theaters of WAR

Casualty sites reporting
April 4, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)
• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003 ─ [Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 159] Wounded 31,762-100,000; U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000; Suicides 18 a day [April 1 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count figures documented civilian deaths from violence: 95,775 – 104,481, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,387 U.S., 4,705 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,034 U.S., 1,713 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/

Who permits and who prohibits criticism?
Who is allowed to criticize and who is protected from criticism?
War costs
Warmongers’ kin

Roughly, 120,000 foreign troops occupy Afghanistan, a figure scheduled to reach close to 150,000 by year’s end. U.S. deployment by the summer will have risen from about 34,000 personnel when Obama took office last year to 100,000, according to Al Jazeera reports at the end of March and start of April.

Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops have launched a massive offensive in southern Afghanistan. This is the largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. U.S. and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan total approximately 113,000. Another estimated 40,000 troops will descend on Afghanistan in the coming months.

March 29, 2010
Afghanistan
U.S. president Barack Obama during a six-hour surprise visit last Sunday in Afghanistan met with President Hamid Karzai and called on that country to crack down on corruption and promote the rule of law.

March 31, 2010
Afghanistan
Seventeen people died and 45 suffered injuries on Wednesday when a bomb concealed on a bicycle exploded in a crowded village market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand where farmers had gathered to receive free seeds from government officials. Eight children were among the casualties.

April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
An estimated five Afghan troops died on Friday in the northern Kunduz province when German soldiers opened fire on Afghans attempting to support other troops involved in heavy fighting with suspected Taliban. A German central command statement confirmed the incident on Saturday. Three German soldiers had been killed when forces on a bridge-building, mine-clearing mission had been ambushed by around 200 Taliban fighters. Since 2001, 22 German soldiers have died in the fighting in Afghanistan, 138 suffered wounds. Fifteen thousand German troops are on the ground; amidst German citizens’ resistance to sending more troops to Afghanistan, 800 or more are scheduled to be deployed. A German general has said that the NATO force in Afghanistan was planning, for later this year, an offensive against the Taliban in Kunduz.

April 3, 2010
Afghanistan
Afghan president Hamid Karzai acknowledged on Thursday that there had been widespread fraud in his country’s most recent presidential and provincial council elections, but “‘Afghans did not do this fraud,’” he said; “‘the foreigners did this fraud.… Foreigners will make excuses [and] do not want us to have a parliamentary election… They want parliament to be weakened and battered and for me to be an ineffective president and for parliament to be ineffective.’”

Karzai singled out Peter Galbraith for having organized the fraud and fed details to the international media in an attempt to blacken his name. The United Nations allegedly dismissed Galbraith after he criticized the UN for failing to do enough to combat voter fraud in Afghanistan. Karzai’s accusatory comments on Thursday, following U.S. President Barack Obama’s accusations of Afghan corruption, prompted angry reactions from Afghan rivals and international diplomats. In a telephone call on Friday with the U.S. Secretary of State, Karzai reportedly explained remarks accusing foreign diplomats and the United Nations of organizing massive fraud during last year’s presidential election.

April 4, 2010
Afghanistan
United States forces in Afghanistan are planning, for later this year, a major military attack on Kandahar. This Taliban-controlled province is home to more than two million people. Al Jazeera reporter David Chater travelled to Kandahar to hear what people think about the planned U.S. military operation. His report found “Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive.”

April 4, 2010
Iraq
Thirty people died and 224 suffered wounds when a series of three car bombings occurred today close to Iranian, German and Egyptian embassies across Baghdad. Hours before Sunday’s blasts, Iraq’s Green Zone, hosting many international agencies and government buildings in the capital, came under mortar fire. Outside Baghdad, more casualties occurred: three people died and 25 suffered wounds when a car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul. Alleged targets were Law enforcement.

April 5, 2010
Pakistan [update]
More than 30 people died and 100 suffered wounds today when a series of bombs exploded across Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Bombs went off first at a political rally in the Lower Dir district town of Timargarah, then near the U.S. consulate in the main city of the North West Frontier Province, Peshawar.…

Pakistani Taliban representative Azam Tariq, announcing his group’s responsibility for the attack in which six people died, said, ‘Americans are our enemies …We carried out the attack on their consulate in Peshawar. We plan more such attacks.’ Four attackers and two security people died in that attack.…

Pakistan’s intelligence agency headquarters at Peshawar, close to which security forces today were reported firing their weapons, had been bombed in November of 2009…In the past three years, more than 3,150 people have died in bomb attacks in Pakistan.

April 2, 2010
Pakistan
Pakistan’s attorney-general Anwar Mansoor resigned on Friday over what he termed the government’s obstruction of Supreme Court orders to investigate the president for corruption.

The country’s parliament is currently debating a piece of legislation that will reduce the presidency to a ceremonial role. Submitted to parliament’s lower house (or the national assembly) on Friday, the bill aims to transfer powers from President Asif Ali Zardari to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The measure known as the 18th Amendment Bill is, according to Gilani, “‘unprecedented’” in Pakistan history. The legislation seeks to reverse constitutional changes adopted by former military ruler (President) Pervez Musharraf.

April 2, 2010
Palestine
Claiming to be responding to rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli planes and helicopters on Friday launched a string of air attacks on the Gaza Strip. Among the wounded were three Palestinian children. Palestinian medical sources reported at least seven missiles targeted various sites in Gaza. Hamas blamed the Israelis for escalating tensions. Four Friday air attacks destroyed two caravans near the town of Khan Younis; a fifth missile hit and set on fire a cheese factory in Gaza City; the head of Palestinian emergency services in Gaza reported that the Palestinian children hit by flying glass were ages two, four and 11.

Two Israeli soldiers and two armed Palestinians died in clashes when Israeli tanks made a brief incursion into Gaza. On Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager died when Israeli troops fired on protesters near the border of the blockaded coastal strip.

Sources and notes
“Obama urges progress in Afghanistan,” March 29, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201032816319310458.html
“Afghan farmers die in suicide blast,” March 31, 2020, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/03/201033173331654531.html
“German troops kill Afghan soldiers,” April 3, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010437573466607.html
“Karzai calls Clinton on fraud charge,” April 3, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/201043448184706.html
“Fears over U.S. Kandahar offensive,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/2010/04/201044132439731261.html
“Baghdad hit by deadly triple blasts,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/20104483114169984.html
“Bill seeks to curb Zardari’s powers,” April 2, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/20104284045747391.html
“Israeli air raids wound children,” April 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/201042155550920415.html
“Deadly blasts rock Pakistan,” April 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/04/2010458464129649.html