Reuters

A day in the life of Ras Lanuf: Rebels fire machine guns at passing Gaddafi planes overhead as reporters hug the ground to avoid getting hit by bombs. And a concise eyewitness report: "They have surrounded the square with snipers and tanks. The situation is not so good. It's very scary. There are a lot of snipers," said a Zawiyah resident."

Just because Greece is now terminally locked out from regular capital markets, with its CDS trading points upfront, doesn't mean the country can't drink from the same Hopium trough as every other US investor. According to Reuters: "Greece has filed a shelf registration with securities regulators in the United States to be able to sell so-called diaspora bonds to retail investors, the head of the country's debt agency said on Wednesday." In other words, Uncle Pap wants YOU to bail out the country that even the ECB appears to have given up on. And if not for G-Pap, do it for Angela: because if the euro falls apart, the the DEM returns, how will Germany export its way in a non-eurozone environment, if the fair value of Germany's currency is realized and exports plunge? And to all US citizens who are jealous they are not the target source of funds for this last ditch attempt to stave off bankruptcy (again) fear not: pretty soon (if Uncle Bill is correct), Uncle TurboTax will give the very same opportunity to all 300+ million US hopium addicts.

From Reuters: U.S. OFFICIAL EINHORN SAYS BELIEVES IRAN SEEKS TO REACH THRESHHOLD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAPABILITY

If indeed this is the first step of a forced provocation (shocking "weapons of mass destruction" discoveries coming?) we can't wait to hear how much more excess capacity Saudi Arabia can suddenly find and come to market with. It may however be slightly troubled to replace lost Russian output too: Reuters now reports that crude products exports blocked in thick ice at Russian Baltic ports according to St Peterburg Port Authority.

Bad news for crude bears all around today.

• Jury to hear gripping opening of Rajaratnam trial (Reuters)
• S.E.C. Chairwoman Under Fire Over Ethics Issues (NYT)
• Remember this rumor? OPEC sees no need to meet, supply ample: delegate (Reuters)
• Berkshire Takes $2.25 Billion in Dividends From Burlington (Bloomberg)... triple the
  railroad’s payout rate prior to the February 2010 acquisition. Better to milk company than to actually use cash to hire people.
• China Growth Plans to Slow Commodities (FT)
• Tchenguiz brothers arrested in Kaupthing raids (Telegraph, Bloomberg)
• As Oil Muddies Outlook, Fed Policy Less Certain (Reuters)
• Deja vu idiocy: Europe Blinks on Bank Test: Regulators Seen Easing 'Stress' Gauge, Undercutting Effort to Restore Confidence (WSJ)
• S&P Warns on Asian Inflation (WSJ)
• Americans Oppose Government Shutdown, Fault Cuts in Poll (Bloomberg)... You don't say

Update: Rebel witnesses say storage tanks in east Libya terminal of Es Sider hit an exchange of fire between Gaddafi forces and rebels . Reuters reports that three plumes of black smoke are rising from the area around As Sider oil terminal. This is in addition to Al Jazeera video coverage of comparable activity at Ras Lanuf. Whether this indicates that Operation Apres Moi Le Deluge by Gaddafi has commenced, is unclear for now.

It was only logical that hours after Jim Cramer "Whitney Tilsoned" gold, China would come out and say it needs to buy more of the precious metal. After hitting an overnight low of $1,423/oz for some unknown reason, perhaps the latest overdue shakeout of the weakest holders, gold has since retraced half the distance to its all time highs, following a report from Reuters that "China should use some of its $2.85 trillion foreign exchange reserves to buy more gold, a government adviser was quoted as saying by local media reports on Wednesday. Li Yining, a senior economist at Peking University and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, an advisory body to the national parliament, said that China should use the precious metal to hedge against risks of foreign currency devaluations. "China should increase its gold reserves appropriately, and China
must take every chance to buy, especially when gold prices fall," Li was
quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying." And so the immaculate record of all those calling for the "inevitable" correction in gold continues with a roughly 0% success rate.

Reuters is now quoting witnesses as saying that 50 protesters have been hurt in Yemen, three of them seriously. Earlier on Tuesday, thousands of inmates rioted at the central prison in Sanaa, taking a dozen guards hostage and calling for President Saleh to resign, according to the Associated Press. At least one prisoner was killed and 80 people were wounded, police said. And elsewhere, gunfire erupted in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where Gbagbo forces killed 4. These are just the latest pieces of news from Reuters in a day in which nothing at all from the tape mattered, as a rumor circulates that the wildcat well drilled in the 1 billion barrel strategic petroleum reserve in Bernanke's back yard has now started producing.

As the Russell 2000 index, better known to the Chairsatan as the US economy, surges on no news, except of course for the huge, massive 0.5% drop in the WTI, demonstrations in Iran are once again front and center, except in the US media, which deems it irrelevant to report on what is happening away from the NYSE Borse. From JPost: "Heavy police presence reported in Tehran; dozens of women rounded up, beaten in Khartoum while attempting to stage anti-rape protest." Being that it is international women's day, one can see why even Iranian women believe that something like rape may be a little anachronistic. Alas, the Tehran police did not take too kindly to these ridiculous demands for equal treatment, as the clip below shows.

In David Greely's note which we noted earlier, in addition to debunking speculation that OPEC has much if any spare excess capacity, confirming Jim Rogers' point from a week earlier, he observes that more than half of the country's oil infrastructure may already be in the hands of rebels. Whether this will merely reinforce Gaddafi's resolve to let everything burn in his wake is still unknown - repeated rumors that he is seeking to hand over power peacefully have so far been squashed, as the offensive against rebels accelerates. In the meantime Reuters reports that European oil imports are about to get very complicated, making life for Italy, which is most reliant on Libyan oil, quite complicated: "Libyan oil trade has been paralysed as banks decline to clear payments in dollars due to U.S. sanctions, trading sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The move follows a decision by major U.S. oil firms to halt trade with Libya and will complicate deals for European firms to buy Libyan oil. Around half of Libya's oil output, or more than 1 percent of global supply, has already been choked off by lethal clashes between rebels and forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. . Oil prices hit their highest levels since September 2008 on Monday." We anticipate that NATO forces with GCC backing, will find a way to institute a no fly zone to prevent an all out "Saddam" response which could see all the oil holdings in rebel hands be destroyed in retribution by the Gaddafi regime, which we are skeptical will result in dropping oil prices.

• Global Bond Rout Resembling 1994 Seen as Inflation Exceeds Benchmark Rates (Bloomberg)
• Libya Rebels Push to Regain Town as NATO Weighs No-Fly Zone (Bloomberg)
• OPEC Members Rush to Raise Oil Output (FT) Since Refuted by both OPEC Member and Goldman Sachs
• Divisions Emerge on US Foreclosure Settlement (FT)
• Policy Disputes Spill Over Into Spending Fight (WSJ)
• Keynes would denounce policies associated with his name (Washington Times)
• Monsters that lurk in the shadows of Wall St (FT)
• China Faces 60% Risk of Bank Crisis by 2013, Fitch Gauge Shows (Bloomberg)
• China Looks to Lift Imports (WSJ)... and to double exports
• EU Watchdog sets tough 2011 bank stress test (Reuters) criteria include whether traders can count to 10 without an abacus
• Rain and Snowfall Ease Drought in China (NYT)...  Cause China said so

Crude dropped overnight, after the FT joined the BBC in the "False Rumor Spreading Korner", after the Libyan Investment Authority held newspaper said some OPEC members are looking to raise oil output to avoid any supply shortfalls. Too bad that just like every other previous rumor-based attempt to drive oil lower, this one was refuted within minutes by the same OPEC members that were allegedly boosting their capacity (which does not exist in the first place). Perhaps if the FT had read the note sent out at midnight by Goldman's David Greely, which noted that there is virtually no spare OPEC capacity left, they would have known why they should have come up with a more credible rumor: like Gaddafi committing suicide after watching the latest episode of Sheen's Korner. So much for the rumor mill. Now on to facts, where instead we see a development which threatens to send oil surging far higher. Reuters reports that formerly peaceful Kuwait has just joined the ranks of demonstrators, demanding the resignation of the prime minister in a peaceful protest early in the day, with a larger one expected later in the day: "Kuwaitis demonstrating outside parliament for the prime minister's ouster came up with a new symbol of Arab discontent on Tuesday by handing out watermelons. "This is for the parliament's poor performance," one of the small band of protesters shouted as he gave a watermelon to a lawmaker making his way into the parliament. The significance was not spelled out, but in local parlance, a person who has a lack of understanding or holds an unrealistic point of view sometimes is called a watermelon. A potentially larger rally was expected later, inspired by spreading Arab protests that toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt before sparking the insurrection in Libya and spreading to other Gulf countries including Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia." Kuwait, for those keeping track, is the 4th largest oil exporter in the world.

Funding for U.S. state pension plans improved marginally in 2010 as the economy recovered from the recession, a report from Wilshire Associates said. Will battered plans continue doing better?

And the imminent update, which is just as expected: "AL JAZEERA SAYS INTERIM REBEL GOVT REJECTS GADDAFI OFFER OF MEETING TO CONSIDER HIS RESIGNATION"

Just out from Reuters: "AL JAZEERA SAYS GADDAFI OFFERS REBELS TO HOLD PEOPLE'S CONGRESS TO LET HIM STEP DOWN WITH GUARANTEES"

Earlier, we reported that Obama mentioned that NATO is currently evaluating military options against Libya. Now, White House spokesman Carney adds some additional color on what Operation "Nobel Peace Prize", aka the invasion of Libya, will look like. From Reuters: "White House says no option removed from table on Libya response but use of ground troops not at top of list."Does that mean air force intervention is at the top? Luckily Zero Hedge readers know very well that the USS Enterprise is now peacefully sailing in the Mediterranean, awaiting for its moment in the sun. And on the use of the SPR: "White House says no specific price point would trigger the use of oil reserve; the issue is oil supply disruption." But what supply disruption: wasn't the spin up to now that Libya is largely irrelevant for the US from a supply perspective?