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Nuclear Catastrophe in Japan “Not Equal to Chernobyl, But Way Worse” : "Japan has raised the severity rating of its nuclear crisis from 5 to 7, the highest level, matching the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. We go to Tokyo for an update from Thomas Breuer, head of the Climate and Energy Unit for Greenpeace Germany and part of a field team of radiation monitors in Japan. He notes that unlike Chernobyl, the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is in a densely populated area. “We warned the government that there are a lot of cities and villages outside the 20-kilometers evacuation zone where the radiation levels are so high that people need urgently to be evacuated, especially children and pregnant women, because they are the most vulnerable part of the population to radiation,” says Breuer. [includes rush transcript]"

"I Am Willing to Give My Life": Bahraini Human Rights Activists Risk Lives to Protest U.S./Saudi-Backed Repression : "The Gulf nation of Bahrain is intensifying its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. On Saturday, masked police offers broke into the home of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist. He was beaten and detained. We speak to his daughter, Zainab Alkhawaja, who witnessed the attack and is now on a hunger strike. Her husband and brother-in-law were also beaten and arrested in the pre-dawn raid. We also speak to Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He is facing a possible military trial for publishing the photograph of Ali Sager, a protester who died while in Bahraini custody. [includes rush transcript]"

Egypt's Mubarak detained for investigation - Yahoo! News CAIRO – Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak was put under detention in his hospital room Wednesday for investigation on accusations of corruption, abuse of power and killings of protesters in a dramatic step Wednesday that brought celebrations from the movement that drove him from office. Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Alaa, were also detained for questioning and taken to Cairo's Torah prison, where a string of former top regime figures — including the former prime minister, ruling party chief and Mubarak's chief of staff — are already languishing, facing similar investigations on corruption. The move was brought by enormous public pressure on the ruling military, which was handed power when Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11. Tens of thousands protested in Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Friday, the biggest rally in weeks, demanding Mubarak and his family be put on trial. Many in the crowd accused the mil...

AIPAC's newest strategy - Opinion - Al Jazeera English Prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu is being heavily criticised in Israel for his blatant exploitation of the murder of five members of one family (including three children) at the Itamar settlement near Nablus. Particularly egregious has been Netanyahu's demand that president Mahmoud Abbas personally appear on Palestinian radio and television to condemn the killings, although Abbas had issued an unusually strong statement as soon as he heard of the tragedy. Forget for a minute that no one knows who committed the crime and that certainly no one believes that the killer was associated with Abbas. Also, lay aside the fact that Netanyahu has never condemned or even expressed remorse over the killing of 300 plus Palestinian children by the IDF during the Gaza war. (In fact, one would be hard pressed to find any Israeli government that ever even criticised the killing of Palestinian children by the IDF, although many hundreds have...

Unveiling French hypocrisy - Opinion - Al Jazeera English : "To quote again from my previous article: 'How often are the French wont to proclaim liberté, égalité, fraternité as their most fundamental values? As far as French policy in North Africa is concerned, we may add another: Fallacy.' As recent events have unfolded, however, I admit that I erred by overlooking one more very official French value: Hypocrisy."

BBC News - Ivory Coast: Gbagbo held after assault on residence : "Ivory Coast politician Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered after a military assault on his residence in Abidjan and has been put under UN guard. Forces of his UN-recognised successor, Alassane Ouattara, and French tanks advanced on his residence where he had been ensconced in a bunker. Mr Gbagbo had been refusing to cede power, insisting he won November's presidential election. There are conflicting accounts of how he finally surrendered. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the detention of Mr Gbagbo had brought to an end months of unnecessary conflict, and the UN would support the new government."

ADIDAS: DON’T RUN WITH ISRAELI APARTHEID | BDSmovement.net : "On April 8, activists of the Rome Palestine Solidarity Network organized a boycott action in the Adidas store in Via del Corso in Rome’s historic center. On the same day as the Tel Aviv Marathon, and following shortly after the Jerusalem Marathon on March 25, both sponsored by Adidas, activists dressed as runners sprinted through the store denouncing the use of sporting events by the State of Israel in an attempt to re-brand its image and hide its policies of occupation, colonization and apartheid. Since 1967, Israel has transferred nearly 500,000 settlers to the occupied Palestinian territories, in violation of international law and dozens of UN resolutions, forcing Palestinians off their land and reducing the West Bank to a few isolated patches of land separated by checkpoints, military bases, settlements and the “Apartheid Wall”."