Amid reports that the Syrian military is secretly stockpiling chemical weapons, U.N. human rights investigators allegedly have testimony indicating Syrian rebels have used sarin gas. Interviews with victims and doctors have provided “strong, concrete suspicions” that rebels used the deadly nerve agent, according to a lead investigator, though the U.N. does not have “incontrovertible proof.” There’s no evidence yet that the Syrian military used sarin. The latest Geneva-based investigation is separate from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s currently stalled inquiry into the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Reuters:

U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gave no details as to when or where sarin may have been used.

Israeli warplanes have targeted Syria twice in the last three days, and now Israel is deploying two batteries of its Iron Dome rocket defense system to the north of the country. The second airstrike early Sunday, hit a military facility just north of the capital, a Western intelligence expert confirmed. Israel declined to comment. “The sky was red all night,” said one man who lives less than a mile from the facility. “We didn’t sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued throughout the night.” The facility reportedly held Iranian-supplied missiles, which Israel contends were headed for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Israel attacked the same site three months ago. President Obama, meanwhile, defended Israel on Sunday.

"New York Hearts Boston" projection by The Illuminator. Image via imgur.com.

The Boston Marathon tragedy has been met with unbelievable acts of kindness. From Buzzfeed, these Bostonians will restore your faith in humanity.

In the wake of Monday's awful tragedy in Boston, you may be wondering what you can do to help, so...How You Can Help:

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino have formed The One Fund Boston, Inc. to help the people most affected by the Boston Marathon tragedy. Find out how you can get involved here.

Cell phone service has been shut down in the city. If you're looking for information on someone who was running the Marathon, Google has set up a People Finder -- you can also use it to submit information about a person. Families of victims can also use the Mayor's Hotline for information: 617-635-4500. Or use the Red Cross site, see below.

The American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts has opened a disaster operation center and is asking locals to notify loved ones of their whereabouts on the organization’s website.

The Red Cross says the best way to help right now is to get in touch with loved ones through its Safe And Well Listings. The organization is not asking for blood donations at this time thanks to many donations from people seeking to help. But check their website often in case this changes.

The Salvation Army has deployed four mobile feeding kitchens and more than 30 volunteers to dispense food, drinks and emotional support in Boston. One canteen is stationed at the Family Assistance Center at the Park Plaza Castle where survivors and first responders are congregating. Find out how you can get involved here.

Some marathon runners are stranded in Boston and in need of places to stay. Boston.com reports that they'll be setting up a Google doc where runners who need a place to stay can find lodging, and those who have lodging available can post details. Check back on their site for more information soon. Update: The Google doc is now live. Find out how you can offer housing here.

Boston Police are looking for tips, anyone with info about the incident can call 617-635-4500 or 1-800-494-TIPS.

Our thoughts are with everyone in Boston right now, stay safe. Cheers to the first responders who did an amazing job of responding to the call to duty.

Most businesses will be open in the area, although the JFK Library will be closed Tuesday, April 16.

[This video contains graphic images of war casualties. Viewer discretion is advised.]

I just received this video from Andrew Golis of Frontline, and he adds "This is what it looks like when a government drops bombs on its own people."

When Frontline filmmaker Olly Lambert sat to interview Jamal Maarouf, a Syrian rebel commander, he did not anticipate that bombs from government jets would begin to fall just 300 meters away. Though the first blast knocked him to the ground, Lambert kept his camera rolling. He spent the next hour documenting the impacts of the Oct. 28, 2012 bombing of al-Bara, a village in Idlib province an hour south of Aleppo. The result is a rare, immersive portrait of the immediate aftermath of Syrian government air strikes on a civilian population.

Frontline has condensed the footage into this 36-minute digital feature, vividly narrated by Lambert. It captures the chaos on the ground as villagers try to rescue family and friends trapped under the rubble, the bombing’s effect on ordinary civilians whose lives literally have just been blown apart, the terrible fear when the government jets return for a second bombing run, and the ensuing calls for revenge that illustrate the country’s descent into a no man’s land of hatred, suspicion and terror.

“It’s only when you see things like this that you realize the real impact of civilian casualties in a civil war,” Lambert says about the scenes he witnessed. “When I first arrived in Syria, people would often say to me, ‘Here your life can end in a moment. Any minute now you could be dead.’ And at first I didn’t believe them, but certainly after an experience like this, it’s hard not to feel that they’ve got a point.”

Continue reading »

Here's the latest on the situation from AlJazeera:

Fresh Israeli air raids have killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and wounded dozens more, medics say, with Palestinian security sources confirming that at least three of the dead were Hamas fighters.

Israel on Saturday expanded its fierce air assault on rocket operations, striking Hamas government and security compounds, tunnels and electricity transformers after an unprecedented rocket attack on Friday aimed at the holy city of Jerusalem raised the stakes.

The Israeli army said that four of its soldiers were injured by a rocket fired from Gaza. Meanwhile, a newly installed battery of Israel's Iron Dome defence system successfully intercepted a Gaza rocket aimed at Tel Aviv on Saturday.

Palestinian medics said 40 Palestinians have been killed and 345 wounded since Israel launched the aerial campaign against the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday.

In the same period, three Israelis have been killed and 18 injured, including 10 soldiers.

Since the start of its operation, Israel's army said it carried out some 700 airstrikes. It also said that fighters have fired more than 580 rockets over the border, 367 of which hit southern Israel, and 222 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Also now at AlJazeera, breaking news banners read "Israeli air strike hits main gaza police headquarters and prime minister ismail haniyeh's office," and "Israeli cabinet approves plan to call up 75,000 reserve soldiers as air strikes continue on the gaza strip," with no further details as yet.

An update this morning on the situation: Hamas launched a rocket into Jerusalem on Friday, the first time the current conflict with Israel has expanded outside of Gaza. Israeli media said the rocket landed outside the city and there were no causalities. A ceasefire Friday between Israel and Hamas collapsed after just three hours when Palestinians continued launching rockets over the border, and Israel resumed airstrikes in retaliation. The ceasefire had been planned for Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil’s visit to Gaza. The Israeli military also announced Friday morning that it was calling up 16,000 reservists for a potential ground operation. More on this from the Washington Post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Israel is continuing to pound the Gaza Strip with air strikes amidst fears that Israel could soon launch a ground invasion into Gaza. Israeli troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers are now massing near the Palestinian territory. Earlier today, 85 missiles exploded within 45 minutes in Gaza City, sending black pillars of smoke. At least 21 Palestinians have died in the most recent round of violence, while three Israelis died on Thursday. Israel said it launched 150 air strikes overnight, while Palestinians fired a dozen rockets into Israel. Israel has started to draft 30,000 reserve troops in a sign the assault may soon widen. Among the casualties of Israeli violence was the 11-month-old son of a BBC Arabic journalist, Jihad Misharawi. Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil traveled to Gaza today to condemn the Israeli attack. For more, Democracy Now! gets a report from Rafah by Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer, who says, "One thing that we ought to talk about here is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. This is a situation of targeting a population of civilians, exactly like Israel is shooting in a fishbowl. And there is no shelter, and there is nowhere to run for the general population. Gaza is living in a very dire situation." Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! also speaks with Gershon Baskin, the founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, who was the initiator of the secret talks between Israel and Hamas for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

A rush transcript follows below the fold.

Continue reading »

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook a mountainous region of Guatemala near the Mexico border Wednesday morning. At least 48 have been reported dead, with a hundred missing and hundreds more injured. The powerful quake impacted all but one region of the country and was felt as far as 600 miles away in Mexico City. It is the strongest earthquake to have hit Guatemala since 1976. President Otto Pérez Molina flew to see the damage in the most affected region. “One thing is to hear about what happened and another thing entirely is to see it,” he told the Associated Press. “As a Guatemalan I feel sad … to see mothers crying for their lost children.”

It was a Bloody Sunday, indeed for Iraqis as bombs and small arms attacks claimed at least 75 lives and left another 285 wounded in a series of attacks that targeted the country’s security forces. The onslaught by insurgents struck a dozen cities and an outpost of the Iraqi Army. Ten soldiers were killed in that assault, and 8 more were wounded. A brigadier general and 7 police recruits were killed when a bomb exploded in the city of Kirkuk, and 2 more car bombs detonated outside the French Consulate in Nasiriyah. Explosives went off in a number of other cities, including Baghdad. No group claimed immediate responsibility for the violence.

Via:

"What kind of life is this?" said Safeen Qadir, 26, a university student in Kirkuk. He described dead bodies and weeping, shouting relatives at bombing scenes in Kirkuk, where three midmorning explosions killed seven and wounded about 70.

"Because of the daily explosions, we must write our wills before go out of home," Qadir said. "The death exists in every inch of the city of Kirkuk, and no one is spared from the crime of terrorism."

Via:

Journalist Ahmed Rushdi, reporting from Baghdad, told Al Jazeera that, according to him, it was not only al-Qaeda that was behind the attacks.

"It is also the insurgency against the government and the political parties, because there is a major political dispute between al Maliki and his opponents," Rushdi said.

"It is another day in the major failure of the security forces in Iraq. The people here are asking themselves; what is the government doing to regain control of the situation? There seems to be no real intelligence data concerning these attacks."

As the attacks were sweeping across Iraq on Sunday, a Baghdad criminal court sentenced Iraq's Sunni vice president to death after finding him guilty of masterminding the killing of two people. The sentence was handed down in absentia.

Hashemi fled the country after Iraq's Shia-led government authorities had accused him in December of running a death squad, as the last US troops were withdrawing from the country.

A 14-year-old suicide bomber attacked NATO headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, killing six civilians and wounding five, including children. No soldiers were struck. The teenage attacker was wearing a vest packed with explosives, and rode up to the building on a bike before detonating. Although the Taliban claimed initial responsibility for the attack, they say the bomber was a 28-year-old and the target was the CIA's Kabul offices. The latest attack highlights militants' abilities to strike even the most secure parts of the Afghan capital, worrying officials.

Hashmat Stanikzai, a police spokesperson, said the dead and wounded were all street sellers aged between 12 and 17.

Street children routinely gather outside NATO headquarters to peddle small trinkets and sweets, looking out for soldiers leaving or getting into the base.

Pieces of flesh and splattered blood lay on the street near the base, where small bodies were seen being lifted into ambulances, witnesses said.

"I was here when the blast occurred. I saw some wounded children on the ground. The wounded [were] transferred to emergency hospital for treatment and I heard that three of the injured children have died," said Ahmad Sameer, a witness.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) condemned the use of children. "Forcing underage youth to do their dirty work again proves the insurgency's despicable tactics," said spokesman Brigadier General Gunter Katz.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul said in a statement that using "the most impressionable and vulnerable", such as a teenager, to carry out such attacks revealed the true nature of the insurgents.

[Note: The report in this video is disturbing, but it seems that ABC News filtered the extremely graphic images.]

United Nations observers reported that a brutal attack in a city near Homs on Friday left 32 children and at least 60 adults dead, with an estimated 300 wounded. Syrian anti-government groups claim that official troops raked the city with mortar shells and then sent thugs and soldiers in. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his predecessor, Kofi Annan, released a joint statement calling for a ceasefire and criticizing the government for the attack. Bloody images of the young casualties prompted anti-government demonstrations across the country.

Via:

The rebel Free Syrian Army, the loose federation of armed militias across the country, issued a statement saying it was no longer committed to the United Nations truce because the plan was merely buying time for the government to kill civilians and destroy cities and villages.

“We won’t allow truce after truce, which prolongs the crisis for years,” the statement said.

The Syrian government blamed “terrorists,” its catchall phrase for the opposition, for killing the civilians.

Interesting that the mainstream media caught on to that "catchall phrase for the opposition" so quickly, yet...oh, nevermind. *Sigh.*

[Caution: Graphic images]

Update: An update from the interior ministry now says that "At least 55 people were killed and 372 wounded in the blasts."

Twin explosions rocked Damascus on Thursday, killing at least 40 people and injuring 170, according to Syrian state television. The blasts occurred near an intelligence building for the security forces, and they ripped the façade off the building although the structure of the building remained intact. There were reports of bodies strewn in the streets, and the explosions could be heard throughout the capital city. The Syrian government blamed “terrorists” for the attack, but the leading opposition group said the Syrian government itself is to blame, and claimed security forces have been known to attack near government buildings in the past.