Six In The Morning

US charters planes to help its citizens leave Japan

State Department authorizes voluntary evacuations; meanwhile, Japanese official says ‘there is absolutely no reason to leave Tokyo’

NBC, msnbc.com and news services

Airlines scrambled to fly thousands of passengers out of Tokyo on Thursday as fears about Japan’s nuclear crisis mounted and the United States joined other nations urging their citizens to consider leaving.

The U.S. authorized the first evacuations of Americans out of Japan and warned U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to any part of the country as unpredictable weather and wind conditions risked spreading radioactive contamination.

The State Department said the government had chartered aircraft to help Americans leave Japan and had authorized the voluntary departure of family members of diplomatic staff in Tokyo, Nagoya and Yokohama – about 600 people.

Rebels slow Gadafy army advance



irishtimes.com – Last Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 07:04

Libyan rebels have fought back against Muammar Gadafy’s troops around the eastern town of Ajdabiyah, hampering their push towards the insurgent capital Benghazi.

Government forces captured Ajdabiyah, 150km south of Benghazi on the Gulf of Sirte, on Tuesday after most of its rebel defenders retreated from a heavy artillery barrage.

One rebel officer said yesterday the town had been lost and the fighters who remained had handed over their weapons. But some apparently refused to surrender or flee.

By last night, residents said the rebels held the centre of town while forces loyal to Col Gadafy were mostly on its eastern outskirts.

Bahrain ‘arrests six opposition leaders’



AP Thursday, 17 March 2011

Authorities detained at least six prominent opposition activists today as the crackdown on dissent widened under martial law-style rule in the tiny Gulf nation, a rights group and relatives of the arrested said.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said those taken into custody in the pre-dawn raids include Hassan Mushaima and Abdul Jalil al-Sangaece – who were among 25 Shia activists on trial on charges of trying to overthrow the nation’s Sunni rulers.The case was dropped in a bid to calm tensions after political unrest began last month, but the latest sweeps suggests authorities have abandoned efforts at dialogue and are trying to silence the opposition leaders.

Bahrain has imposed a three-month emergency rule that gives the military wide powers to battle the pro-democracy uprising that began in mid-February in the strategic nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Brussels Eyes a Halt to SWIFT Data Agreement

Problems with Transparency

By Christoph Schult  

Only with great reservations did the European Parliament agree last year to the SWIFT agreement with the United States. The agreement allows the transfer of data pertaining to European bank customers to US investigators in accordance with strict guidelines. But many provisions of those guidelines have been widely ignored.

One week ago, a critical report from the Europol Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) noted that the written requests received by Europol, the EU-wide law enforcement organization, from the US are too vague to decide on their validity. Yet despite the shortcomings, Europol has agreed to every request. The auditors complained this is making oversight of data privacy “impossible.”

Quake images can shake a young child’s psyche



Julie Robotham

March 17, 2011  

THE acres of rubble and splintered wood that have replaced entire Japanese towns may leave children unmoved. But add an abandoned toy to the picture, or an image of someone in pain, and the result can be a devastating assault on a child’s sense of personal security.

News images that enter homes so casually can have lasting effects on even the youngest children, says a professor of population mental health and disasters at the University of Western Sydney, Beverley Raphael.

US to investigate killings by Davis Rallies against release, protest day tomorrow Tahir Khan



ISLAMABAD:  

The US ambassador Wednesday thanked families of the two men, shot dead by CIA contractor Raymond Davis in Lahore in January. “The families of the victims of the January 27 incident in Lahore have pardoned Raymond Davis. I am grateful for their generosity. I wish to express, once again, my regret for the incident and my sorrow at the suffering it caused,” US ambassador, Cameron Munter said. “I can confirm that the United States Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the incident in Lahore ,” the US ambassador said in a statement “I wish to express my respect for Pakistan and its people, and my thanks for their commitment to building our relationship, to everyone’s benefit.