Arrest Warrants for Honduran Ex-President Dropped

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) – A supreme court judge dismissed three arrest warrants for former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Friday, allowing him to return without detention to the country where he was deposed in a June 2009 coup.

Justice Oscar Chinchilla’s ruling didn’t dismiss corruption charges that were levied against Zelaya, who was whisked to Costa Rica in his pajamas by the military after he ignored court orders to drop a referendum on changing the constitution.

Zelaya attorney Anahim Orrellana said that although his client could return and remain free, he is not happy with the ruling because it let stand charges that Zelaya calls political.

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Tiny Amounts of Radiation From Japan Reach Nev.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. (AP) – Minuscule amounts of radiation from Japan’s damaged nuclear plant have reached Las Vegas, but scientists say it poses no health risk.

Extremely small amounts of the radioactive isotopes iodine-131 and xenon-133 reached a monitoring station by the city’s Atomic Testing Museum this week, said Ted Hartwell, manager of the Desert Research Institute’s Community Environmental Monitoring Program.

Hartwell said he’s certain the isotopes came from Japan because they’re not usually detected in Nevada. But he said the readings were far below levels that could pose any health risks.

“Unless you have an accident like this (in Japan) you wouldn’t expect to see this. No doubt it’s from Japan,” Hartwell told The Associated Press.

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Syria unleashes force on protesters demanding
freedom as unrest spreads
Reports of many killed as marchers take to streets, plus confrontations in Jordan,
Yemen and Bahrain

Katherine Marsh in Damascus, Tom Finn in Sana’a and Martin Chulov in Beirut

Demonstrations in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and elsewhere were met with force as security forces struggled to contain unrest that had begun in the southern city of Deraa a week ago.

Thousands once again joined funeral processions in Deraa on Friday, chanting: “Deraa people are hungry, we want freedom.”

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The threat of America’s nativist far right
by James Ridgeway

While Peter King holds hearings on homegrown jihadists, the growing menace of white supremacist terror goes unremarked

As emerging reports would have it, Kevin William Harpham, 36, who is accused of setting a bomb to go off at the Martin Luther King Jr Day parade in Spokane, Washington, was yet another “lone wolf” terrorist, acting at his own behest and on his own behalf. Even groups on the racist, radical far right that so clearly inspired him are rushing to disown and denounce the indicted man. Regardless of whether he was a “member” of an organised group, there can yet

be no doubt that Harpham saw himself as part of a movement – one that has an especially broad reach in the age of Obama, and roots as deep as American culture itself.

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Universal Healthcare Bill Passes VT House: Vermont Takes Step Towards Making Healthcare a Human Right

NEWS ALERT FROM THE HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN

Montpelier, VT — Statehouse — On Wednesday, March 23, members of the grassroots Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign cheered on as the Vermont House of Representatives voted 92 – 49 to pass the universal healthcare bill, H.202. The House bill passed as a result of thousands of Vermonters speaking out and demanding that healthcare be treated as a human right and provided as a public good.

“This bill puts Vermont on a path to a system in which every Vermonter can get the healthcare they need when they need it, and the financing of that system is shared equitably by all. This is a huge step forward,” says Peg Franzen, President of the Vermont Workers’ Center.

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Libya intervention threatens the Arab spring

By Phyllis Bennis

Ironically, one of the reasons many people supported
the call for a no-fly zone was the fear that if Gaddafi
managed to crush the Libyan people’s uprising and
remain in power, it would send a devastating message to
other Arab dictators: Use enough military force and you
will keep your job.

Instead, it turns out that just the opposite may be the
result: It was after the UN passed its no-fly zone and
use-of-force resolution, and just as US, British,
French and other warplanes and warships launched their
attacks against Libya, that other Arab regimes
escalated their crack-down on their own democratic
movements.

In Yemen, 52 unarmed protesters were killed and more
than 200 wounded on Friday by forces of the US-backed
and US-armed government of Ali Abdullah Saleh. It was
the bloodiest day of the month-long Yemeni uprising.
President Obama “strongly condemned” the attacks and
called on Saleh to “allow demonstrations to take place
peacefully”.

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Top Bush-era GITMO/Abu Ghraib psychologist is WH’s newest appointment
By Glenn Greenwald

One of the most intense scandals the field of psychology has faced over the last decade is the involvement of several of its members in enabling Bush’s worldwide torture regime. Numerous health professionals worked for the U.S. government to help understand how best to mentally degrade and break down detainees. At the center of that controversy was — and is — Dr. Larry James. James, a retired Army colonel, was the Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo in 2003, at the height of the abuses at that camp, and then served in the same position at Abu Ghraib during 2004.

Today, Dr. James circulated an excited email announcing, “with great pride,” that he has now been selected to serve on the “White House Task Force entitled Enhancing the Psychological Well-Being of The Military Family.” In his new position, he will be meeting at the White House with Michelle Obama and other White House officials on Tuesday.

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March for the Alternative – as it happened

9.31pm: As the TUC anti-cuts protest begins to calm down, here is a short summary of the day’s events.

* 500,000 demonstrators turned out in what is believed to be the largest demonstration since those against the Iraq war

* Police said the protest had been “peaceful and well-stewarded”, but latest figures suggest there were 157 arrests and 35 injuries

* More than a dozen shops on Oxford Street were occupied by Ukuncut. The group also occupied the upscale department store Fortnum & Mason

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Hundreds of thousands protest against nuclear energy across Germany
by Nicole Goebel

Over 200,000 protesters took to the streets in Cologne,
Berlin, Munich and Hamburg to pressure the government
into abandoning nuclear energy generation. The protests
add to the pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Around 210,000 demonstrators in Cologne, Berlin, Munich
and Hamburg vented their anger at the government’s
nuclear policy on Saturday, supported by Germany’s
umbrella union body, the DGB, as well as politicians
from the opposition Greens and Social Democrats.

Alarmed by the nuclear crisis in Japan, environmental
and religious groups as well as unions organized the
demonstrations, which kicked off in Cologne’s city
center, where nearly 40,000 people turned up to support
the cause.

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