Rebekah Brooks, a close confidante of Rupert Murdoch, was charged on Tuesday with interfering with a police investigation into a phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the tycoon's media empire and sent shockwaves through the British political establishment.

Brooks was charged with concealing material from detectives, conspiring to remove boxes of archive records from Murdoch's London headquarters, and hiding documents, computers and other electronic equipment from the police.

The news is a personal blow for Murdoch and also embarrassing for British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was close friends with Brooks and her husband and sent her messages of support when the alleged offences took place.

"I have concluded ... there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction," said Alison Levitt, Principal Legal Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

"All these matters relate to the ongoing police investigation into allegations of phone hacking and corruption of public officials in relation to the News of the World and The Sun newspapers," Levitt said.

Also charged were Brooks's racehorse trainer husband Charlie Brooks, her secretary and other staff including her driver and security officials from News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch's News Corp media empire.

The upcoming NATO summit in Chicago must ensure that special measures are taken to protect the rights of Afghan women as US-led coalition forces prepare to pull out, UN organisations said Saturday.

There is widespread concern that gains women have made in the 10 years since the overthrow of the brutal Taliban regime could be lost in government attempts to reconcile with the hardline Islamists when NATO troops withdraw in 2014.

"Now is the time to deal with the longer-term security and protection needs of Afghan women who have long borne the brunt of the war in Afghanistan," said Jan Kubis, special representative for the UN secretary general in Afghanistan.

Continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and Obama's failure to close Guantanamo Bay in the face of vehement congressional opposition have dashed European support for Obama.

In Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008 to hear Barack Obama speak, there's now vast disappointment where there had been wild enthusiasm.

In Mogadishu, a former teacher wishes he had sent more economic assistance and fewer armed drones to fix Somalia's problems. And many in the Middle East wonder what became of Obama's vow, in a landmark 2009 speech at the University of Cairo, to forge a closer relationship with the Muslim world.

In a world weary of war and economic crises, and concerned about global climate change, the consensus is that Obama has not lived up to the lofty expectations that surrounded his 2008 election and Nobel Peace Prize a year later.

Obama has backed Israel on several key occasions at the United Nations, for instance, helping block a Palestinian attempt to join the world body last year without a peace deal and fending off attempts by other countries to charge Israel with human rights abuses.  The Palestinians have refused to conduct peace talks while Israel continues to expand its settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.  Obama's Mideast envoy, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, made no progress during two years of frequent meetings with both sides before quitting last year.

In a remote part of Afghanistan early last year, a girl was sentenced to death. Her crime was possession of a cellphone. Her executioners were to be her brothers. They suspected her of talking on the phone with a boy. The girl, in her late teens, had dishonored the family, her brothers said. "My older brother took the cellphone from me and beat me very badly. It was dinnertime. They told me that they would execute me after dinner. They said to me this would be my last meal," says "Lina," a pseudonym.

The obsession with victimhood has prevented people in Israel and the United States from focusing on the gravest threat to Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state: demography. If there is no progress toward a two-state solution, at some point Israel will not to be able to continue to rule over millions of Palestinians without giving them the right to vote — at which point it will cease to be a Jewish state.  This may be Israel's only weakness today.

A study conducted by the international organization, Save the Children, reveals that eight of the ten best countries to be a mother are in Europe, and eight of the ten worst are in Africa. The top five countries included Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark. The worst place is Niger.

Comparing Save the Children's data with other statistics, with the exception of New Zealand and Australia, secular countries having high populations of atheists/agnostics are the best places to be a mother. Countries having the most restrictions on abortion fell into the worst countries to be a mother and conversely, those where abortion is legal were the best environments to be a mother.

The only legitimate way to prosecute Mohammed is in a civilian court, not a tribunal with a jury of Pentagon-appointed military officers and an Army colonel for a judge, say many members of the legal community.

Even with the minimal reforms now in place, the defense lawyers say the commissions are anything but fair. They complain that their mail is improperly reviewed by the military, interfering with attorney-client privilege, that they aren't given enough resources to investigate cases the government spent years building, that too many hearings are still held in secret and that they are barred from disclosing anything their clients tell them.

Lawyers face hurdles they would never encounter in a civilian court, including strict limits on what they can say about their clients, whose every utterance is treated as presumptively classified. Courtroom proceedings are subject to a 45-second delay so censors can prevent the inadvertent disclosure of government secrets, a system that critics say is intended merely to prevent anyone from learning details about the men's treatment.

"You can take a $5 mule and put a $10,000 saddle on it and call it reformed," said Navy Cmdr. Walter Ruiz, a military lawyer for Saudi defendant al-Hawsawi. "You still have a $5 mule; it just has a fancy saddle."

The two women met for the first time last week at a sleek Georgetown hotel, where they were speakers at a glittering charity dinner. They shook hands and hugged across a vast gulf of culture, geography and faith: one a devout Muslim from West Africa with her hair carefully hidden under a tight scarf, the other a gregarious South Asian in a stylish sari and costume earrings.

But the horrific stories they had come to tell were surprisingly similar. Stories of gruesome rituals and suffocating family pressure; of two teenage brides a world apart, who somehow found the nerve to defy fate and escape to freedom. Now, years later, the pair were being feted as celebrities, survivors and crusaders for change. As each was introduced in the darkened salon, the clinking and murmuring stopped and the audience rose to its feet.

Jasvinder Sanghera, 46, fled an imminent forced marriage to a stranger in England and became a high-profile activist, telling her story countless times and seeking to protect other female South Asian immigrants from similar fates. Fauziya Kassindja, 35, fled the threat of genital mutilation in Togo and won a landmark U.S. asylum case that brought world attention to the plight of African girls, yet she has shunned the limelight, preferring to forget her painful past and focus on family and business.

“People say I did something brave, but the girls who go through this ordeal are the ones with real courage,” Kassindja said in an interview at the hotel fundraiser for the Tahirih Justice Center. She was referring to “kakia,” the ritual of crude circumcision that girls in her native country were traditionally forced to endure. Female relatives held down the screaming teenagers and sliced off their genitals with a knife, believing this would make them “clean” for their husbands.

At 19, Kassindja was expected to marry a much older man and undergo the rite before the wedding. But she was determined to resist and enlisted sympathetic relatives to help her run away. She eventually reached the United States, where she was detained as an illegal immigrant for 16 months. Then, in an unprecedented legal decision, she became the first person to receive U.S. political asylum for fear of “gender-based” abuse, particularly female circumcision.

Kassindja remained in the United States, where she graduated from college and became a citizen. She married an old friend from Ghana and bore triplets. She runs a successful grocery store on Staten Island that specializes in imported African foods, and she often travels to Ghana to purchase ingredients.

...While Kassinjda was growing up in the tightly circumscribed world of a Muslim Togolese village, Sanghera was trapped in an equally powerful web of social convention in an immigrant enclave 5,000 miles away. Although born and raised in England, she was the daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants, who expected her to leave school and marry an older Sikh man she had never met. Like Kassindja, she refused and ran away, determined to avoid the fate of her older sisters.

“I had seven sisters. Most were taken out of school and sent to India to marry men they had only seen in photos. Nobody asked where they had gone or why,” Sanghera recounted in an interview at the fundraiser. When she turned 14, her mother showed her a man’s photograph and announced that she would soon leave school and marry him. “I protested and said I was not going to marry a stranger,” she said. “I was taken out of class and locked in my bedroom for weeks until I finally agreed.”

Shortly before the wedding, Sanghera ran away, but she was quickly caught by police. “I called home, and my mother said, ‘You are dead in our eyes unless you come back and marry him.’ ” She never went back, and she has been disowned by her family. Her younger sister, who was forced to marry the man, ultimately escaped the abusive union by burning herself to death.

Sanghera exorcized her guilt and anger by plunging into full-time advocacy for women’s marriage rights. She has written two books, including an autobiography called “Shame.” She makes public appearances and testifies as an expert in court cases. She also lobbied for legislation against forced marriage of minors in Britain, which is home to large populations of South Asian and African immigrants. The law was enacted in 2008, and hundreds of protection orders have been issued for at-risk girls.

Rupert Murdoch is "not a fit person" to exercise stewardship of a major international company, a committee of MPs has concluded, in a report highly critical of the mogul and his son James's role in the News of the World phone-hacking affair.

The Commons culture, media and sport select committee also concluded that James Murdoch showed "wilful ignorance" of the extent of phone hacking during 2009 and 2010 – in a highly charged document that saw MPs split on party lines as regards the two Murdochs.

...Rupert Murdoch, the document said, "did not take steps to become fully informed about phone hacking" and "turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications".

The committee concluded that the culture of the company's newspapers "permeated from the top" and "speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International".

That prompted the MPs report to say: "We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of major international company."

 

Another Afghan police officer opened fire on American troops on Thursday, injuring two of them in the latest indication that Washington’s claim that the training mission is going well is a lie.

Also on Friday, it was revealed that an elite Afghan soldier shot dead an American trainer and his translator at a U.S. base on Wednesday. This is the first such rogue attack reported to have been carried out by the “closely vetted” special forces of Afghanistan.

Deadly shootings between Afghan soldiers and their American counterparts has increased markedly in occurrence, especially over the last year. Which is why the Wall Street Journal’s report almost a year ago on a leaked NATO document on the training mission in Afghanistan is so revealing. It said “the killings of American soldiers by Afghan troops are turning into a ‘rapidly growing systemic threat’ that could undermine the entire war effort.” And that was a year ago.

Democracy in Malaysia is alive and well as Malaysians peacefully demonstrate for electorial reform: activists have alleged the Election Commission is biased and claimed that voter registration lists are tainted with fraudulent voters.

Saturday's gathering follows one crushed by police last July, when 1,600 people were arrested. That rally for clean elections prompted a police crackdown with tear gas and water cannon.

Saturday's rally reflects concerns that Prime Minister Najib Razak's long-ruling coalition will have an unfair upper hand in elections that could be called as early as June. Najib set up a parliamentary panel whose eventual report suggested a range of changes to the electoral system.  But the opposition are demanding a complete overhaul of a voter roll considered fraudulent and reform of an Election Commission they say is biased in favour of the governing coalition.

Najib has launched a campaign to repeal authoritarian laws in a bid to create what he called "the greatest democracy".  Obviously the people aren't buying it.

there is a strong and highly significant link
between state security and women's security. In fact, the very best predictor
of a state's peacefulness is not its level of wealth, its level of democracy,
or its ethno-religious identity; the best predictor of a state's peacefulness
is how well its women are treated. What's more, democracies with higher levels
of violence against women are as insecure and unstable as nondemocracies.

Sanctioning more West Bank settlements will kill the two-state solution.

Speaking after an Israeli ministerial committee authorised three illegal West Bank outposts, Mr Erekat called on Israel to choose between settlements and peace. He said the Palestinians would seek a new United Nations security council resolution condemning settlement activity.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement pressure group, said the decision marked the first time since 1990 that the government had created new settlements.

The international community considers all Israeli construction in the West Bank illegal. Israel distinguishes between the 121 established settlements, and scores of illegal outposts, set up without a formal government decision.

The newly-authorised outposts are Bruchin, with some 350 settlers, and Rechelim, with 240 residents, both south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, and Sansana, with a population of 240, in the southern West Bank.

Each was set up without formal government approval.

Interior minister Eli Yishai called the decision "important and just," and he urged the government to legalise more Jewish West Bank communities.

In case the National Organization for Marriage has not significantly proven its intent to “drive a wedge” between racial groups by “fanning hostility,” its latest action is the most detestable yet. Today, NOM’s Brian Brown announced it will be exporting its Dump Starbucks campaign — a massive failure stateside — to countries that are significantly less supportive of LGBT rights:

BROWN: In our first week, we gained 25,000 pledge signers in the U.S. alone; today we go international, expanding DumpStarbucks.com campaigns into Mandarin, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, and Bahala (one of the chief languages of Indonesia). DumpStarbucks.com online ads will also start running in Egypt, Beijing, Hong Kong, the Yunnan region of China, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.

What happens in Seattle won’t to stay in Seattle. By making gay marriage core to his brand, Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz is telling millions of customers and partners who support traditional marriage in the Middle East, China, South America and North America that they aren’t truly part of the Starbucks community.

As Joe.My.God. notes, NOM is specifically targeting countries that criminalize homosexuality, like Kuwait and Oman, and even some that punish it with the death penalty, like the United Arab Emirates.

A senior Dubai cyber-crimes investigator says authorities are now conducting round-the-clock monitoring of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The stepped up web watching in the United Arab Emirates comes amid rising crackdowns on alleged political dissent, including recent arrests of activists for Internet postings deemed challenges to the country's rulers.

Maj. Salem Obaid Salmeen, Dubai's deputy director of anti-electronic crimes, was quoted Wednesday by the news website Emirates 24/7 as saying social media sites are considered "public spaces" and the country's laws apply.

The UAE does not permit political parties and open protests for reforms can bring arrests.

The child, who has not been named, was among 400 children dealt with by the
Home Office's dedicated Forced Marriage Unit, last year. An 87-year-old
woman was also a suspected victim.

But campaigners warned that the case could be just the tip of the iceberg with
"thousands" of children in some communities believed to have been promised
in marriage from birth.

"I see no other option for a dignified end before having to scavenge through the garbage for my food," the 77-year-old retired pharmacist from Karditsa wrote in the note found on him after he shot himself to death in Athens' main square yesterday morning.

His suicide sparked demonstrations, recriminations, and a public debate on its significance. As people took to the square in commiseration and anger, Prime Minister Lukas Papademos expressed sorrow.

"It's tragic that a fellow man has ended his own life," he said  "In these difficult times for our society, we, both the state and the citizens, have to support the people next to us that are in distress." 

The public suicide as a political statement is highly unusual in Greek political tradition, said Michalis Spourdalakis, professor of political sociology at the University of Athens. "But, this is a political act, despite the different comments uttered by politicians and journalists in Greece. They're trying to depoliticize it, saying that it was a personal choice of a troubled fellow citizen. But, his life, his death, the suicide note, and the spot he chose, leave no room for doubt that this is a political stance."

A growing number of Afghan children are being coerced into a life of sexual abuse. The practice of wealthy or prominent Afghans exploiting underage boys as sexual partners who are often dressed up as women to dance at gatherings is on the rise in post-Taliban Afghanistan, according to Afghan human rights researchers, Western officials and men who participate in the abuse.

"Like it or not, there was better rule of law under the Taliban," said Dee Brillenburg Wurth, a child-protection expert at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, who has sought to persuade the government to address the problem. "They saw it as a sin, and they stopped a lot of it."

Over the past decade, the phenomenon has flourished in Pashtun areas in the south, in several northern provinces and even in the capital, according to Afghans who engage in the practice or have studied it.

The State Department has mentioned the practice — which is illegal here, as it would be in most countries — in its annual human rights reports. The 2010 report said members of Afghanistan's security forces, who receive training and weapons from the U.S.-led coalition, sexually abused boys "in an environment of criminal impunity."

"If it becomes known that you worked for the Americans, and you receive a death threat ... if you go to the US embassy, which, you know, just recently announced it's cutting its entire staff in half, and you tell them that you need help, you're running for you're life, they'll tell you to start waiting and you'll probably wait a year or so before the process even initiates for you," Johnson told Truthout. "These programs exist on paper and allow all of us to feel really good about ourselves because a bill was passed, but in practice they are practically non-existent."

The new security checks, Johnson says, imply that the US government can go from depending on interpreters and translators to fight its war to suspecting the same people of being potential terrorists. Johnson points out that less than 10 percent of more than 60,000 Iraqis who have resettled in the US were those who aided US missions. Despite being the most vulnerable Iraqis left behind, former interpreters and translators are left to face death threats in Iraq or hide in Jordan and Syria as American bureaucrats slowly verify that these former allies won't try to blow anything up if they resettle in South Carolina or Tennessee. It's a reality that Johnson calls "cruelly Darwinian."

"I absolutely agree that we have to keep the US safe, but there is a point to which the 'protecting the homeland' argument starts to appear as a shroud to cover up incompetence or just an unwillingness to do this," Johnson says. "There's no political points to be won anymore for bringing these people over ... but I would just argue that we're not protecting our national interests if we're letting people who came forward to help get exterminated."

I am sure you have heard of it – the “Cotton Ceiling,” a term porn actress Drew DeVeaux and other Transgender women use to “challenge lesbians’ tendency to support Transgender causes generally but draw the line at sleeping with Transgender women or including Transgender lesbians in their sexual communities.”

ABORIGINAL women across Canada are fighting a federal policy that denies tens of thousands of aboriginal children Indian status because their fathers failed to sign birth certificates.

Others only receive partial status -- their Indian status benefits cannot be passed down to their children -- and say the policy is a form of discrimination tied to paternity rights.

"It is most definitely discrimination, and the reason why is that it only impacts indigenous women," said Pam Palmater, author of Beyond Blood and Rethinking Indigenous Identity.

To make matters worse, advocates such as Palmater say the policy isn't a historical relic developed during an age when women were granted few official rights.

Norris was subsequently targeted and threatened online by men who blamed her personally for the closure of their favourite eatery.
One particularly vile man posted the following on Facebook:
“Sian Norris, of the Bristol Feminist Netowkr is a c*nt. I hate her. I’m posting the details of this on 4Chan. I’m going to find her address and everything. SHE MUST PAY.” Details of her blog, her Twitter and Facebook accounts were circulated, and she received threats, including one that offered to kick her ‘in the vagina’. And who said chivalry was dead?

US officials "sexed up" Mr Janabi's drawings of mobile biological weapons labs to make them more presentable. "I brought the White House team in to do the graphics," Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, General Powell's former chief of staff, says, adding how "intelligence was being worked to fit around the policy".

Indonesia is preparing to ban the mini-skirt under its tough anti-pornography laws 'because they make men do things'.The Muslim country's powerful religious affairs minister said that one of the considerations in its review of what could be considered pornographic would be 'when someone wears a skirt above the knee'.

In Kamikatsu, there’s no such thing as trash. You won’t find a single garbage bin in any of the town’s homes, and there’s not a dump anywhere within driving distance. Instead, the resourceful residents must compost all waste from their food, and sort other trash into 34 separate categories, with sections for plastic bottles, razor blades, Styrofoam, and various other paraphernalia.

Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus had endured more than three dozen surgeries over more than a decade to repair her severely damaged face and body when she finally decided life was no longer worth living.

The 33-year-old former dancing girl – who was allegedly attacked by her then-husband, an ex-lawmaker and son of a political powerhouse – jumped from the sixth floor of a building in Rome, where she had been living and receiving treatment.

Up to 400 women and girls are being held in Afghan prisons for "moral crimes" including running away from home to escape beatings or forced marriage according to a study.Ten years after the toppling of the Taliban government was accompanied by Western promises of a new era of women's rights, the justice system remained "stacked against them at every stage", it found.

Syrian's main opposition group said that government forces killed nearly 50 women and children and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting, Al Arabiya reports.The massacre was carried out by the security forces and the regime’s ‘shabbiha’ (thugs), who killed the victims inside their homes, activists told Al Arabiya. The victims were killed by horrific methods; including burning, breaking their bones or slaughtering, according to activists. There were also at least 16 cases of rape reported, according to a local physician.

In May 2009, U.S. citizen Anthony Mark Bianchi was sentenced to 25 years in prison for traveling to Moldova and Romania for the purpose of having sex with minors.

"Sex tourists are a special breed of predatory pedophile," said Michael Levy, the U.S. prosecutor who handled the Bianchi case at the time. "They have the means to travel to foreign places where they think the law cannot reach them and where no one will care about their crimes."

Since its independence from the Soviet Union two decades ago, Moldova has been one of the places such predators visit.

With its combination of poverty and weak governance, Moldova is particularly vulnerable to this kind of exploitation. In addition to being Europe's poorest country, Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region has been de facto independent since 1992 and is a notorious haven for trafficking of all kinds.

Israeli airstrikes killed an additional three people in the Gaza Strip overnight, including a teenage boy, bringing the total death toll to 21 after three days of attacks on the Hamas-controlled territory.

The Taliban vowed revenge Monday after an American soldier allegedly shot to death 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan and burned their bodies, an attack that has fueled anger still simmering after U.S. troops burned Qurans last month.

U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan have stepped up security following the shootings Sunday in Kandahar province out of concern about retaliatory attacks. The U.S. Embassy has also warned American citizens in Afghanistan about the possibility of reprisals.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for several attacks last month that the group said were retaliation for the Americans burning Qurans. Afghan forces also turned their guns on their supposed allies at the time, killing six U.S. troops as violent protests wracked the country.

It's unclear whether there will be a similar response to Sunday's shootings. But the attack will likely spark even greater distrust between Washington and Kabul and fuel questions in both countries about why American troops are still fighting in Afghanistan after 10 years of conflict and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

That's an important question: Why are we still there?

An Egyptian military tribunal on Sunday acquitted an army doctor of a charge of public obscenity filed by a protester who claimed she was forced to undergo a virginity test while in detention.
The court denied the humiliating tests even took place, despite a ruling by another court and admissions by generals quoted by a leading rights group.

A U.S. soldier was taken into custody in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, a few hours after he opened fire on Afghan civilians, killing 10, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

The shooting took place at approximately 3 a.m. as a lone soldier walked off a checkpoint in Kandahar Province's Panjwai district and opened fire on civilians in two villages, Javed Faisal, the director of the provincial government's media center, said in a phone interview.

Citing preliminary reports, Faisal said at least 10 people were killed and five were wounded. Provincial authorities said they were awaiting news from an investigative team sent to the villages before releasing a definitive death toll.

It is highly unusual for American soldiers to wander alone off base.

The media resound with warnings about a likely Israeli attack on Iran while the U.S. hesitates, keeping open the option of aggression – thus again routinely violating the U.N. Charter, the foundation of international law.

As tensions escalate, eerie echoes of the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the air. Feverish U.S. primary campaign rhetoric adds to the drumbeat.

Meanwhile, as tensions mount, the US applies sanctions which won't affect the leadership but will affect the ordinary citizen and may even amount to war crimes. 

While all this unfolds, one of Israel's leading stragegists has concluded tha nuclear arms are negative for the state of Israel.  He calls for a zone in the Middle East that excludes all WMD.

Meanwhile, the West's sanctions on Iran are having their usual effect, causing shortages of basic food supplies – not for the ruling clerics but for the population. Small wonder that the sanctions are condemned by Iran's courageous opposition.

The sanctions against Iran may have the same effect as their predecessors against Iraq, which were condemned as "genocidal" by the respected U.N. diplomats who administered them before finally resigning in protest.

The Iraq sanctions devastated the population and strengthened Saddam Hussein, probably saving him from the fate of a rogues' gallery of other tyrants supported by the U.S.-U.K. – tyrants who prospered virtually to the day when various internal revolts overthrew them.

There is little credible discussion of just what constitutes the Iranian threat, though we do have an authoritative answer, provided by U.S. military and intelligence. Their presentations to Congress make it clear that Iran doesn't pose a military threat.

Israel's prime minister is vigorously asserting his country's right to defend itself against an Iranian nuclear threat.

Benjamin Netanyahu's tough talk suggests he would attack Iranian nuclear facilities alone if he thinks Israel needs to do that.

Netanyahu told a gathering of the pro-Israel lobby on Monday that Israel has "patiently waited" for diplomacy and sanctions to work.

He says, "None of us can afford to wait much longer. As prime minister of Israel, I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation."

Afghanistan will start accepting investor offers next week to explore for at least 600 million barrels of crude oil in the western half of the Afghan-Tajik Basin, the country's mining minister said.

Intensified violence, including riots and the killings of six U.S. soldiers in the past 10 days over a Koran burning at the main American military base, have thwarted investment and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's decade-long effort to end the war.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPZ) last year won an auction to develop three blocks of the Amu Darya basin, a geological zone that extends into Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The three blocks were estimated to hold 80 million barrels and the Afghan government projected it would yield about $7 billion in profits.

The company, which is PetroChina Co. (857)'s parent, won the tender by offering to build a refinery and pay more royalty than rivals from Australia, the U.K., the U.S. and Pakistan. Production is due to begin in October, Shahrani said yesterday.

Among American companies, Afghanistan is most likely to interest those that focus on oil and gas, rare earths, gold and, to a certain extent, copper, Shahrani said.

Shahrani said he will meet with representatives from Molycorp Inc. (MCP) of Greenwood Village, Colorado. The company owns the largest rare-earth deposit outside China.

UPDATED 2/29/12 Note: I have extensively edited this list, re-verified links, shortened URLs to make this list more readable. Its grown very rapidly over the past week and was getting unwieldy in its prior form. In some cases certain middle eastern bankers and European private bankers have managed to have their names removed from smaller blogs and news sites so I have updated those cases to larger news organizations less likely to bow to pressure. At the time of this posting all URLs listed work, I do not guarantee they always will. I have also added missing names (in bold) and those URLSs where more than one person was resigning I expanded the item to have one line each, since everyone who copies this to their blogs (wow did this spread far and wide!) views each instance as one banker resigning I thought I’d make this listing more reflect that viewpoint. I do not know under what circumstances these individuals have left their positions, I make no judgement on that. I just find the timing of so many resignations extremely curious and a bit of temporal marker in history of very high significance. No one should assume I make any judgement about the character of these people. I frankly don’t know their reputations except for a few rather famous ones. I don’t mind if you re-blog this listing, information wants to fly free, just do me a favor of including http://americankabuki.blogspot.com and this header when you do so. Save yourself the wear and tear on your karma. Thanks Kauilapele for the heads up on the broken links.

The list has grown by 20 in just the last week since I originally seeded this story.

WTF is going on?  Are they bowing to political pressure or just taking their ill-gotten gains and running away before they get arrested for their part in the economic crises their greed created?  Few have actually gone to jail while a few more have resigned from their posts in disgrace because of corruption scandals.  Most have simply quit.

The complete list can be found here.

Citizen Kane-473667

Why is the Department of Homeland Security spying on a peaceful and nonviolent group of Americans?

After seeing the picture, breastfeeding advocates immediately put pressure on the government to pull the photo from the public health ad, which officials did.

The move has led to an international backlash, with many saying that a select group should not have taken issue with a sweet picture of a father feeding his child.

This is a truly inspirational tale involving a woman, a horse, and a group of dedicated rescuers on a beach in Australia.

Normally I would have just seeded the link to this article by American Kabuki but the links to the stories were dead in their post.  I copied and pasted their list so the links would work.

(1) 9/01/11 (USA NY) Bank of New York Mellon Chief Resigns in a Shake-UP

http://loanworkout.org/2011/09/bank-of-new-york-mellon-chief-resigns-in-a-shake-up/

(2) 09/20/12 (SCOTLAND) SCOTTISH WIDOWS (RETIREMENT INVESTMENT SAVINGS FUND) There could be no Scottish representative on the board of Lloyds Banking Group, owner of Bank of Scotland, in future after it announced the departure of Lord Sandy Leitch, the chairman of Scottish Widows and group deputy chairman.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/business/company-news/warning-as-last-scot-leaves-lloyds-board-lloyds-could-lack-scottish-voice.15150830?_=20e772c9486b6372433ff2b886a31e9fca7eeb2a

(3) 9/25/11 (SWITZERLAND) Bank chief resigns over £1.5bn rogue trader crisis

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041385/Oswald-Gruebel-resigns-UBS-boss-steps-Kweku-Adoboli-trading-scandal.html

(4) 9/28/11 (SWITZERLAND) SNB Bank Council: Fritz Studer resigns as per end-April 2012

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.snb.ch%2Fen%2Fmmr%2Freference%2Fpre_20111028%2Fsource%2Fpre_20111028.en.pdf

(5) 10/29/11 (CHINA) Resignations Suggest Shift for China’s Banks

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504577003734190522426.html

(6) 11/01/12 (INDIA) More directors of the Beed district bank resign

http://www.thenews.coop/article/more-directors-beed-district-bank-resign

(7) 11/02/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Lloyds Banking Group chief executive, António Horta-Osório, is to take leave of absence on health grounds for six to eight weeks, the BBC has reported. (STILL OUT AS OF 2/24/12 – DEFACTO RESIGNATION)

http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/2011/11/02/lloyds-chief-on-sick-leave/

(8) 11/21/11 (JAPAN) UBS’s Japan Investment Banking Chairman Matsui to Resign

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-22/ubs-s-japan-investment-banking-chairman-yasuki-matsui-to-resign.html

(9) 11/29/11 (Iran) Iran’s Bank Melli CEO Resigns Over Loan Scam

(10) 12/15/11 (UNITED KINGDOM) Senior private banker resigns from Coutts [a very exclusive private bank]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/15/coutts-fleming-idUSL6E7NF23S20111215

(11) 12/22/11 (FRANCE) Societe Generale’s Investment Banking Chief Steps Down

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/socgens-investment-banking-chief-steps-down/

(12) 12/23/11 (USA VA) Bank feud: Chairman Giles quits VNB with other directors

http://www.readthehook.com/102524/bank-feud-chairman-giles-quits-vnb-other-directors

(13) 1/01/12 (NIGERIA) The Board of United Bank for Africa Plc, the pan African financial services Group with presence in 19 countries across Africa, has accepted the resignation of Mr. Victor Osadolor, from the board with effect from January 9, 2012.

http://www.ubagroup.com/mediacentre/newsdetails/343

(14) 1/01/12 (ISRAEL) Israel’s Bank Leumi CEO Maor steps down after 16 years

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/01/leumi-ceo-resignation-idUSL6E8C108220120101

(15) 1/03/12 (USA VA) Suffolk Bancorp president and CEO steps down

http://riverheadlocal.com/local-news/4114-suffolk-bancorp-president-and-ceo-steps-down

(16) 1/03/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Departures from Board at Arbuthnot Banking Group: Neil Kirton
Shortly before the market closed at 12.30 p.m. on Friday the company disclosed that Neil Kirton had resigned from the Board the previous day.

http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4285058/Departures-from-Board-at-Arbuthnot-Banking-Group.html

(17) 1/03/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Departures from Board at Arbuthnot Banking Group: Atholl Turrell
It has today stated that Atholl Turrell has left the Board.

http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4285058/Departures-from-Board-at-Arbuthnot-Banking-Group.html

(18) 1/05/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Chief executive of Saunderson House [Private Bank] steps down

http://www.ftadviser.com/2012/01/05/ifa-industry/people/saunderson-house-chief-executive-steps-down-M0vEWlpbSqKA3OCLZDCcGM/article.html

(19)1/09/12 (SWITZERLAND) Switzerland’s central bank chief resigns

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/01/201219145612935171.html

(20) 1/12/12 (United Kingdom) Lloyds’ head of wholesale quits

http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/2012/02/01/lloyds-head-of-wholesale-quits/

(21) 1/19/12 (SPAIN) Spanish bank Santander’s Americas chief quits

http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-news/spanish-bank-santander-s-americas-chief-quits_202395.html

(22) 1/30/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Head Of UK Private Bank Steps Down [Butterfield Private Bank]

http://www.wealthbriefing.com/html/article.php?title=Head_Of_UK_Private_Bank_Steps_Down&id=43933

(23) 1/20/12 (JAPAN) Normura’s head of wholesale banking quits

http://www.euromoney.com/Article/2959021/Nomuras-head-of-wholesale-banking-quits.html

(24) 1/29/12 (NEW ZEALAND) New Zealand Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard to Step Down in September

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-29/new-zealand-reserve-bank-governor-alan-bollard-to-step-down-in-september.html

(25) 1/21/12 (Greece) Banks’ top negotiator quits Greece, but talks go on

http://www.france24.com/en/20120121-banks-top-negotiator-quits-greece-but-talks-go

(26) 2/01/12 (SOUTH AFRICA) ABSA falls as deputy CEO steps down [UK Barclay's Bank Controlledl

http://m.news24.com/fin24/Companies/Financial-Services/Absa-falls-as-deputy-CEO-steps-down-20120201

(27) 2/01/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Truett Tate - Lloyds Bankging Group head of wholesale quits

http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/2012/02/01/lloyds-head-of-wholesale-quits/

(28) 2/01/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Tim TOokey - Llyods Banking Group leaving end of February having served as interim group chief executive in addition to group finance director

http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/2012/02/01/lloyds-head-of-wholesale-quits/

"Mr Tookey, who has been with the group since 2006, will leave at the end of February after preparing the bank’s accounts for 2011. He will not get a pay-off."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/business/company-news/warning-as-last-scot-leaves-lloyds-board-lloyds-could-lack-scottish-voice.15150830?_=20e772c9486b6372433ff2b886a31e9fca7eeb2a

(29) 2/02/12 (VENEZUELA) Key Chavez Minister Resigns Amid Banking Corruption Fallout

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=10717&ArticleId=348565

(30) 2/05/12 (USA - NY) Two Top Morgan Stanley Bankers Resign

http://www.stockbroker-fraud.com/lawyer-attorney-1133774.html

(31) 2/06/12 (INDIA) Dhanlaxmi Bank CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi quits: http://www.livemint.com/2012/02/06160111/Dhanlaxmi-Bank-CEO-Amitabh-Cha.html

(32) 2/7/12 (USA) Bank Of America's Mortgage Business Chief Resigns

http://www.mortgageorb.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.10881

(33) 2/07/12 (INDIA) Falguni Nayar quits Kotak Mahindra Bank

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-02-07/news/31031134_1_kotak-mahindra-bank-falguni-nayar-shanti-ekambaram

(34) 2/07/12 (IRAN) Iran denies central bank resignation rumor (don't believe until its denied?)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/iran-denies-central-bank-resignation-164154294.html

(35) 2/09/12 (VATICAN) Four Priests Charged In Vatican Banking Scandal

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-09/europe/31040509_1_anti-money-laundering-law-vatican-finances-italian-tv

(36) 2/10/12 (KOREA) Korea Exchange Bank chief steps down

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2012/02/10/0503000000AEN20120210005100320.HTML

(37) 2/10/12 (INDIA) Tamilnad Mercantile Bank CEO resigns

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/tamilnad-mercantile-bank-md-resigns/464259/

(38) 2/13/12 (KUWAIT) Kuwait Central Bank CEO resigns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/kuwait-central-bank-chief-resigns-amid-political-tensions/2012/02/13/gIQAcxrOAR_story.html

(39) 2/14/12 (NICARAQUA) Nicaraqua Central Bank Pres Rosales resigns

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/nicaragua-central-bank-head-quits-amid-row.html

(40) 2/14/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Social finance pioneer Hayday steps down from Charity Bank

http://www.socialenterpriselive.com/section/news/people/20120214/social-finance-pioneer-hayday-steps-down-charity-bank

(41) 2/14/12 (UKRAINE) The National Bank of Ukraine issued a short statement on Thursday announcing the resignation of deputy governor Volodymyr Krotiuk.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:63Yjqc2bApkJ:www.centralbanking.com/central-banking/news/2145127/ukraine-deputy-governor-resigns%3FWT.rss_f%3DHome%26WT.rss_a%3DUkraine%2520deputy%2520governor%2520resigns+ukraine+deputy+governor+resigns&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1

(42) 2/15/12 (WORLD) World Bank CEO Zoellick resigns

http://business.time.com/2012/02/15/world-bank-president-zoellick-resigns/

Did the White House tell the World Bank president that he's out?

http://bosco.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/15/did_the_white_house_tell_the_world_bank_president_that_hes_out

(43) 2/15/12 (SLOVENIA) Slovenia TWO largest Banks CEO's (2) resign

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-15/slovenia-s-nova-kreditna-banka-maribor-ceo-plos-resigns.html

(44) 2/15/12 (KENYA) Governor of Kenyan Central Bank to Resign

http://www.centralbanking.com/central-banking/news/2152753/parliamentary-committee-calls-kenyan-governor-resign

(45) 2/16/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) The Financial Services Authority’s (FSA’s) interim managing director, Conduct Business Unit, Margaret Cole, is to step down later this year.
FSA is the regulator of all providers of financial services in the UK; Bank of England retains
responsibility for systemic risk.

http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/2012/02/16/fsas-cole-to-step-down/

(46) 2/16/12 (GHANA) Ken Ofori-Atta steps down as Executive Chair of Databank Group

http://business.thinkghana.com/pages/finance/201202/57429.php

(47) 2/16/12 (SAUDI ARABIA) Saudi Hollandi Banks Managing Director Quits

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZVfFZypqVIcJ:www.a1saudiarabia.com/4489-saudi-hollandi-banks-md-quits/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

(48) 2/16/12 (AUSTRALIA) Anz Bank CFO Australia resigns

http://www.proformative.com/news/1470243/cfo-anz-bank-resigns-amid-turmoill

(49) 2/16/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Royal Bank of Scotland Bankers Arrested

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9086930/Senior-bankers-caught-up-in-film-investment-tax-probe.html

(50) 2/16/12 (AUSTRALIA) Royal Bank of Scotland Austrailan CEO Stephen Williams resigns

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/andrew-chick-to-lead-royal-bank-of-scotlands-australian-arm/story-fnay3vxj-1226272513981

(51) 2/17/12 (USA) Blankfein out as Goldman Sachs CEO by summer

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/17/gary-cohn-goldman-sachs/

(52) 2/17/12 (SWITZERLAND) SNB Council President Hansueli Raggenbass To Leave Central Bank

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120217-710604.html

(53) 2/18/12 (PAKISTAN) AJK Bank’s executive steps down

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/18-Feb-2012/ajk-bank-s-executive-steps-down?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online%2F24hours-news+%28The+Nation+%3A+Latest+News%29

(54) 2/20/12 (RUSSIA) Head of Russian Bank Regulator Steps Down

http://newsley.com/articles/head-of-russian-bank-regulator-steps-down/206711

(55) 2/20/12 (SWITZERLAND) Credit Suisse Chief Joseph Tan resigns

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-20/credit-suisse-s-private-bank-chief-asian-economist-tan-resigns.html

(56) 2/20/12 (ISRAEL) Bank Leumi le-Israel Ltd. : Mr. Zvi Itskovitch Announces his Decision to Redesign From Bank Leumi

http://www.4-traders.com/BANK-LEUMI-LE-ISRAEL-LTD-6491695/news/BANK-LEUMI-LE-ISRAEL-LTD-Mr-Zvi-Itskovitch-Announces-his-Decision-to-Redesign-From-Bank-Leumi-14031540/

(57) 2/20/12 (USA) R. David Land Submits Resignation from the Boards of Directors of Peoples Bancorporation, Inc. and Seneca National Bank

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=25695731

(58) 2/20/12 (USA WA) First Financial Northwest Director Quits in Candy Austerity Push[shades of the movie The Caine Mutiny?] First Financial Northwest Inc., a Renton, Washington-based lender, said director Spencer Schneider resigned after asking the bank to remove pictures of past directors and serve only hard candies at annual meetings.Schneider made the requests at a Feb. 15 board meeting as “symbols of austerity,” and also asked that the bank suspend serving refreshments at the annual shareholders’ meeting, offering just hard candies instead, he said. Schneider, general counsel for shareholder Joseph Stilwell, resigned immediately when the company asked that his requests be placed on the agenda for a board meeting next month, the bank said yesterday.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-20/first-financial-northwest-director-quits-in-candy-austerity-push.html

(59) 2/21/12 (ARGENTINA) The general manager of the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA), Benigno Velez, resigned his position today.

http://m24digital.com/en/2012/02/21/the-general-manager-of-the-bcra-benigno-velez-resigned-today/

(60) 2/21/12 (BANGLADESH) Five bank, insurance directors resign

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=120917&date=2012-02-21

(61) 2/21/12 (JAPAN) CITIBANK JAPAN: Bakhshi is taking over duties from Brian Mccappin, who the bank said in December would resign after the unit was banned for two weeks from trading tied to the London and Tokyo interbank offered rates.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-21/citigroup-stakes-u-s-mutuals-efsf-bond-program-compliance.html

(62) 2/22/12 (USA) Wietschner, Goldman Hedge Fund Advisory Chief, Retires

https://www.finalternatives.com/node/19689

(63) 2/23/12 (SOUTH AFRICA) Richard Gush resigns from Standard Bank

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-23/standard-bank-says-merrill-lynch-hires-investment-banker-gush

(64) 2/23/12 (SCOTLAND) Royal Bank of Scotland Group has announced that John McFarlane will step down as a Non-executive Director on 31 March 2012, as a regulatory condition of his impending appointment at Aviva.

(65) 2/24/12 (INDIA) Breaking: ICICI Bank GC Pramod Rao resigns, may start up law firm

http://www.legallyindia.com/201202242600/In-house-counsel/breaking-icici-bank-gc-pramod-rao-resigns-may-start-up-law-firm

(66) 2/24/12 (HONG KONG) Citigroup Private Bank’s Co-Head of Global Real Estate Resigns
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — Kwang Meng Quek, co-head of the global real estate group at Citigroup Inc.’s private banking unit, resigned.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-24/citigroup-private-bank-s-co-head-of-global-real-estate-resigns.html

(67) 2/24/12 (NEW ZEALAND) FSF Executive Director resigns
After two years leading the Financial Services Federation (“FSF”) executive director, Kirk Hope has resigned to take up the role of chief executive of the New Zealand Bankers? Association.

http://www.voxy.co.nz/business/fsf-executive-director-resigns/5/115797

(68) 2/24/12 (USA) Evercore’s Mestre steps down as U.S. banking head
(Reuters) – Eduardo Mestre has stepped down as day-to-day head of Evercore Partners Inc’s U.S. investment banking business, the New York-based company said in a regulatory filing

(69) 2/25/12 (AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND) Goldman Sachs: Fitz quits
Stephen Fitzgerald has resigned as Australia and New Zealand chairman and advisory director at Goldman Sachs, after 20 years with the bank. His departure comes less than a year after Goldman took full control of its Australian joint venture, formerly known as Goldman Sachs JBWere.

http://www.ifrasia.com/goldman-sachs-fitz-quits/21001856.article

(70) 2/27/12 (GERMANY) Deutsche Bank Americas chief steps down

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57385821/deutsche-bank-americas-chief-steps-down/

(71) 2/27/12 (BAHRAIN) Ebrahim Ebrahim quits as CEO of Khaleeji Commercial Bank

http://www.cpifinancial.net/news/post/12845/ebrahim-ebrahim-quits-as-ceo-of-khaleeji-commercial-bank

(72) 2/27/12 (FRANCE) Societe Generale’s Investment Banking Chief Steps Down

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/socgens-investment-banking-chief-steps-down/

(73) 2/27/12 (MALAYSIA) Elaf Bank CEO Dr El Jaroudi resigns

http://twentyfoursevennews.com/banking-finance/elaf-bank-ceo-dr-el-jaroudi-resigns/

(74) 2/27/12 (JAPAN) Nomura’s Head Of Wholesale Banking Quits

http://atomiclotusbox.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/nomuras-head-of-wholesale-banking-quits/

(75) 2/27/12 (INDIA) Falguni Nayar Quits Kotak Mahindra Bank

http://atomiclotusbox.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/falguni-nayar-quits-kotak-mahindra-bank/

(76) 2/27/12 (GERMANY) Equiduct chairman steps down

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2012-02-27/equiduct-chairman-steps-down?mod=sectionheadlines-home-TT

(77) 2/27/12 (BAHRAIN) Al Zain steps down as Mumtalakat Holding CEO
The board of directors of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat),Bahrain’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, has accepted the resignation of the Chief Executive Officer, Talal Al Zain, following the completion of a four year term as head of the investment arm for non-oil and gas assets of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

http://twentyfoursevennews.com/bahrain-news/al-zain-steps-down-as-mumtalakat-holding-ceo/

(78) 2/27/12 (IRAN) Iran’s Bank Melli CEO Resigns Over Loan Scam

http://atomiclotusbox.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/irans-bank-melli-ceo-resigns-over-loan-scam/

(79) 2/27/12 (INDIA/KASHMIR) AJK Bank’s Executive Steps Down

http://www.monitorkashmir.com/content/ajk-bank-s-executive-steps-down?destination=node%3Ftimeframe%3Dall%26filter%3Dall

(80) 2/27/12 (UNITED KINGDOM) Moreno to step down at Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group has announced that Glen Moreno, its senior independent director, intends not to seek re-election at the bank’s annual general meeting on 17th May, and will retire from the board on that date.

http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/2012/02/27/moreno-to-step-down-at-lloyds/

(81) 2/28/12 (HONG KONG) Leung `to enjoy life’ as she calls it quits

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=120161&sid=35559525&con_type=1&d_str=20120228&fc=1

Some see this as a sign of impending doom of the banking industry alla rats bailing from a sinking ship type scenario.  Others have noted that while the number seems high, when you consider the number of World Banks, it is indeed a small number depending on how you define "World Banks".  Currently the IMF and WTO have 338 member banks and if you use this number total, the resignations do represent a significant number (24%).  On the other hand, AAAdir list places the total number of banks in the world as 13,068 which would make it a small percentage indeed (.61%).  I'm sure the reasons listed in the article links above-like health, retirement, arrest, etc.-can justify the numbers so far, but if the trend continues, I would indeed wonder why.

"The Israeli diamond industry generates about US$1 billion in funding for the Israeli military each year. So when someone buys a diamond from Israel they are helping to fund war crimes and other human rights violations in Palestine," said Sean Clinton, a leading campaigner against Israeli blood diamond.

“While there is some public awareness about the trade in blood-tainted, rough diamonds from Zimbabwe, the media in general ignores the far larger trade in blood tainted diamonds from Israel."

The aim of the campaign is to get all of us to boycott Israeli blood diamonds.  There's already a campaign to boycott all blood diamonds--why wasn't Israel mentioned earlier?

The Iranian government… particularly President Ahmadinejad himself… is in the middle of a HUGE financial scandal right now that could topple the current Iranian regime. This story… though current… isn’t new, breaking last September (ibid first link), and apparently has been consuming the airwaves over there ever since. Yet our own media has been completely mum. The people there are STILL furious over the apparent stolen election in 2009 that had THOUSANDS protesting in the streets. The LAST thing anyone should be thinking about right now is bombing Tehran and sending patriotic Iranians fleeing back into the waiting arms of the Ayatollah’s. Yet, if the GOP had its way, that’s exactly what they’d have us do,

Shakila, 8 at the time, was drifting off to sleep when a group of men carrying AK-47s barged in through the door. She recalls that they complained, as they dragged her off into the darkness, about how their family had been dishonored and about how they had not been paid.

The seed is the first link in the food chain - and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. If farmers do not have their own seeds or access to open pollinated varieties that they can save, improve and exchange, they have no seed sovereignty - and consequently no food sovereignty.

The Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after Nato-led forces withdraw from the country, according to reports citing a classifed assessment by US forces.The Times described the report as secret and "highly classified", saying it was put together last month by the US military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top Nato officers. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.

An Afghan woman has been strangled, apparently by her husband, upset that she gave birth to a second daughter rather than the son he had hoped for, police say.

It was the latest in a series of grisly examples of subjugation of women that have made headlines in Afghanistan in the past few months - including a 15-year-old tortured and forced into prostitution by in-laws and a female rape victim imprisoned for adultery.

The Obama administration is preparing to begin talks with Iraq on defining a long-term defense relationship that may include expanded U.S. training help, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s chief policy aide.

The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Iraq in December after nearly nine years of war. Both sides had considered keeping at least several thousand U.S. troops there to provide comprehensive field training for Iraqi security forces, but they failed to strike a deal before the expiration of a 2008 agreement that required all American troops to leave.

“The Iraqi army, while capable of conducting counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, possesses limited ability to defend the nation against foreign threats,” said the report submitted to Congress Monday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W. Bowen, Jr.

In an introductory note, Bowen wrote that while Iraq’s young democracy is buoyed by increasing oil production, it “remains imperiled by roiling ethno-sectarian tensions and their consequent security threats.”

U.S. officials have said they aim to establish broad defense ties to Iraq, similar to American relationships with other nations in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

“We wanted to raise awareness about the ills of dowry, a tradition that is still very closely related with marriage,” said Ram Bhamidi, head of online marketing at Shaadi.com, a popular website that helps individuals and their families find a suitable partner. Mr. Bhamidi said that a recent survey taken by Shaadi.com revealed that 47% of men interviewed expected gifts from the bride’s family and that 25% of women were okay with giving dowry if required.

An investigative series by the New York Times and a performance piece by Mike Daisey featured on This American Life have put the spotlight on Foxconn, the Taiwanese company whose massive Chinese factories manufacture some of the world's most popular consumer electronics.

As well as working with companies like Dell, Motorola, Nokia and Hewlett-Packard, Foxconn assembles popular Apple products like the iPhone and iPad.

 

One year after a CIA contractor shot to death two Pakistanis, relatives of the victims are living off generous compensation they received in a deal that led authorities to free the American.

"Pakistani rulers are puppets of America," said Malik Waqar, who demonstrated with dozens of others Friday in the city of Lahore. "We are here to tell the Americans that we are not cowards like our rulers, and we will continue raising our voices until Abbad ur Rehman's family gets justice."

The dead man's brother, Ejaz ur Rehman, has insisted in the past that the family didn't desire payment but wanted to see the driver of the vehicle that killed Abbad taken to court. The driver is believed to have left the country soon after the shooting.

But Rehman told The Associated Press that the family was now open to receiving a payout because it seemed unlikely the driver will ever face trial in Pakistan. He said they wanted the same amount of money received by the families of the two men killed by the CIA contractor, Raymond Davis. Officials said at the time they were paid up to $2.34 million between them.

"As we have said, we deeply regret the loss of life in this case, as in the others, and we have expressed our sorrow for the victim's family," said a U.S. official, who didn't give his name because he didn't have clearance to speak about the matter. "Beyond this, it would be inappropriate to discuss the issue in public."

The Jan. 27, 2011 shooting in the eastern city of Lahore and the diplomatic standoff that followed represented one of the first incidents to derail an alliance that the Obama administration was trying to strengthen. Pakistani cooperation is vital in defeating al-Qaida and ending the war in Afghanistan.

Davis, 37, claimed the two men he shot on the street in Lahore were trying to rob him and that he acted in self-defense.

One was carrying a gun, television footage briefly shown on Pakistani TV indicated. There were also widely reported suspicions that the men, both from poor families, were on the payroll of Pakistani intelligence agencies and were trailing Davis.

The U.S. government initially described Davis as either a U.S. consular or embassy official, but officials later acknowledged he was working for the CIA.

The State Department had insisted Davis was covered by diplomatic immunity. But Pakistan's government, facing intense pressure from Islamist parties, sections of the media and the general public, never said whether it agreed this was the case.

Seven weeks after the shooting, Davis was freed after "blood money" was paid to the families of the two victims.

The Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their current standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them.  Nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.

In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died.

The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.

The Norwegian 1% percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million!

The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace.

The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn’t pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers’ federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.

Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.

Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society’s high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.

"My husband is at the center of an unprecedented media storm," his wife, Fabiola Rossi, told French magazine Paris Match. "I cannot think of any other naval or air tragedy in which the responsible party was treated with such violence ... This is a man hunt, people are looking for a scapegoat, a monster."

Chinese New year, often referred to as the Spring Festival, is one of the most important holidays in China. Regional customes and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese New Year vary widely. However, a common thread is home and family.

http://www.pfchangs.com/Dragon/CNY.html

A 45-year-old man was killed early this morning after being gored and trampled by a bull during a festival in Navajas, Spain. After flaming balls of wax were placed on the bull's horns in a tradition known as "correbous," the man tripped and was quickly brought down by the charging animal.

Undercover police had children with activists - Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring, the Guardian can reveal.

In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers – whom they have not seen in decades – were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children's mothers for many years.

The history of Zionism is history gone wrong, and not only for the Palestinians. The tragedy for the Palestinians is obvious, although, blinded by racism and the Zionist bias of their media, Westerners only recently have begun to see this tragedy for what it is. It has been a tragedy for the Jewish people too, who were co-opted by the Zionists to place their energy, their talent and their hopes on a project they should never have undertaken, and whose only chance of success lay in obliterating the hopes of another people. The more trapped this project becomes in its own logic, the greater the destruction it becomes willing to wreak. It chooses destruction in order to delay coming to terms with, and making amends for, the tragedy it has spawned.

Everyone loves chocolate. But for thousands of people, chocolate is the reason for their enslavement.
The chocolate bar you snack on likely starts at a plant in a West African cocoa plantation, and often the people who harvest it are children. Many are slaves to a system that produces something almost all of us consume and enjoy.

By Sebastian Junger - The video that emerged in recent days appearing to show four U.S. Marines urinating on several dead Taliban fighters has outraged many people in this country. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have condemned the act, the military has promised an inquiry, and some experts are even suggesting that the act could qualify as a war crime.

Mainly, however, people seem simply to not understand it. Why would America’s warriors — for that matter, why would anyone — urinate on a dead body?

I spent a year, off and on, with a platoon of U.S. soldiers in the Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan. There was a lot of fighting, a lot of casualties and an enormous amount of stress on the men I was with. I never saw anyone do anything like this, but then again, I never saw any dead Taliban fighters — the enemy always recovered their casualties before we could get there.

Nevertheless, the things the soldiers shouted during combat were very revealing of the state of mind that war produces. (For the record, I’m sure the Taliban was screaming pretty much the same things about us.) At one point a Taliban fighter had his leg shot off during a firefight and was crawling around on the hillside, dying, and the men I was with cheered at the sight. That cheer deflated me. I liked these guys tremendously, but that celebration was just so ugly. I didn’t want them to be like that.

Later, I asked one of them about it, and he explained that they had been happy because they were that much closer to all going home alive. They weren’t cheering the enemy’s death; they were cheering their own lives. That particular fighter would never again be able to kill an American soldier.

In a statement issued Thursday, Gen. Jim Amos, the Marine Corps commandant, said that “the behavior depicted in the video is wholly inconsistent with the high standards of conduct and warrior ethos that we have demonstrated throughout our history.”

Yet, I can’t imagine that there was a time in human history when enemy dead were not desecrated.  Achilles dragged Hector around the walls of Troy from the back of a chariot because he was so enraged by Hector’s killing of his best friend. 

The federal government plans to change the law to legally recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who came to Canada to wed, even if the laws of their home country do not, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Friday.

"I want to make it very clear that, in our government's view, these marriages should be valid," he said. "We will change the Civil Marriage Act so that any marriages performed in Canada that aren't recognized in the couple's home jurisdiction will be recognized in Canada."

The legislative change will apply to all marriages performed in Canada regardless of the laws of the jurisdiction in which the couple lives, Nicholson said.

The minister was speaking in the wake of an international controversy sparked by a Toronto court case involving a foreign lesbian couple seeking a divorce in Canada.

My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system . . .

All four of the U.S. Marines seen in an outrageous video urinating on dead Afghan bodies have been identified and could face criminal charges 'within hours' over the incident, it emerged today.

[Click here for video - NSFW]

Two men have so far been interviewed but not detained - and the group could face criminal charges on Friday of bringing dishonour to the armed forces, reported CNN, CBS and ABC News.

The revelations come as University of Southern California military psychologist Eugenia Weiss suggested the soldiers involved may have been 'stressed' or 'pranksters with extremely bad taste'.

The Navy's law enforcement arm is heading the main inquiry, which is expected to weigh evidence of violations of the U.S. military legal code as well as the international laws of warfare.

Separately, the Marine Corps is doing its own internal investigation. Pentagon officials said the criminal investigation would likely look into whether the Marines violated laws of war.

These include prohibitions against photographing or mishandling bodies and detainees. It also appeared to violate the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs conduct.

Thus, some or all of the four Marines could face a military court-martial or other disciplinary action.

The psychologist's advice came as U.S. officials spoke out against the footage yesterday and scrambled to maintain damage limitation and avoid another Abu Ghraib scandal.

The four were members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, reported CNN. An unidentified official said that some of the four are no longer in that battalion.

The 40-second clip, which has been described a 'recruitment tool for the Taliban', shows four men in combat gear standing over the three corpses with their genitals exposed as they relieve themselves.

One outcome is an announcement by Iran of a clear and unequivocal intention to close the Strait, backed up by some form of credible action, would cause the oil price to spike to very high levels. This would have serious global economic consequences, especially given the current very uncertain prospects for the eurozone and global economic recovery. As such, this is a very powerful card that Iran is unlikely to play early in the game.

 Iran also has other retaliation options. It could begin to aggravate upward pressures on oil prices by contributing to the growing instability in Iraq that has emerged since the US completed its troop withdrawal and the Shi’a ruling clique has begun a de facto war of attrition against the Sunnis. This could certainly cause problems with Iraqi oil exports. It could also make serious trouble for NATO in Afghanistan. It could also put huge pressure on the GCC exporters to be, at the very least, slow in offering replacements to Europe. At worst it could even threaten GCC export facilities. For example, the Abqaiq processing facility in Saudi Arabia, well within Iranian missile range, processes 5 to 6 million b/d. Some form of retaliatory action against the EU countries of the sort seen when the UK extended its sanctions to financing issues could also be expected.19 There could even be a Lockerbietype response prompted by elements from within the government.

History has shown that since the Iranian nationalization of 1951 and the events leading to the overthrow of Dr Mossadegh in 1953, oil embargoes simply do not work. The international oil market is too complex, with too many players and too many options, to disguise transactions. History is littered with failed oil embargoes ranging from Cuba, Rhodesia and South Africa to the Arab oil embargo and the embargo against Iraq after 1990.22However, history appears to have passed by the decision-makers of the EU. It is also worth pointing out that an EU oil embargo would greatly strengthen the Ahmadinejad regime at a time when it is under considerable pressure, especially with parliamentary elections looming in March. Unemployment remains very high, as does inflation. The latter has been greatly aggravated by the removal of many price subsidies in the last twelve months. Moreover, in the last few weeks the value of the Iranian rial against the dollar has fallen dramatically (at one point reaching a devaluation of over 30 per cent, before recovering somewhat). This has damaged the credibility of the government and will fairly quickly aggravate the problem of inflation. Given the crucial role of oil in Iran’s deepest political DNA, an EU embargo would put the population solidly behind the current regime. A more effective means of putting pressure on Iran would be for the United States to persuade the EU to extend sanctions to financial transactions. At the start of 2012, the US passed legislation imposing sanctions against any financial transactions undertaken with the Central Bank of Iran.24 Over the last 18 months, access to finance for Iran in the EU has also become more constrained as restrictions on such financial transactions have been imposed here too. Arguably this has had a much greater negative impact on the Iranian economy than the US sanctions since the passing of the Iran Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) in 1996. However, the financial embargo route to restrain oil revenues also presents problems. It is possible that importers of Iranian oil could resort to barter, thereby avoiding using the normal financial instruments. This is clearly an option for China. There are also other financial routes such as using the banks within the UAE to disguise any financial trail. While no route to restricting Iranian oil revenues is perfect, at least financial sanctions will not provoke the same high level of popular backlash from the Iranian public as an embargo, which would be perceived as a direct threat to Iranian oil – although both measures would be seen as an attack on Iran.

Despite the problems with financial sanctions, at least they offer some possibility of pressuring Iran in a way that a simple oil embargo cannot. An oil embargo alone cannot succeed.

Antoine Raffoul reported:  If this goes on ON-CAMERA, just imagine what goes on OFF-CAMERA. Obama calls these people his 'eternal allies'.

CoH, please

The Jarawa tribe have lived in peace in the Andaman Islands for thousands of years. Now tour companies run safaris through their jungle every day and wealthy tourists pay police to make the women - usually naked - dance for their amusement. This footage, filmed by a tourist, shows Jarawa women being told to dance by an off-camera police officer

ON Wednesday, America’s detention camp at Guantánamo Bay will have been open for 10 years. For seven of them, I was held there without explanation or charge. During that time my daughters grew up without me. They were toddlers when I was imprisoned, and were never allowed to visit or speak to me by phone. Most of their letters were returned as “undeliverable,” and the few that I received were so thoroughly and thoughtlessly censored that their messages of love and support were lost.

Some American politicians say that people at Guantánamo are terrorists, but I have never been a terrorist. Had I been brought before a court when I was seized, my children’s lives would not have been torn apart, and my family would not have been thrown into poverty. It was only after the United States Supreme Court ordered the government to defend its actions before a federal judge that I was finally able to clear my name and be with them again.

I left Algeria in 1990 to work abroad. In 1997 my family and I moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina at the request of my employer, the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates. I served in the Sarajevo office as director of humanitarian aid for children who had lost relatives to violence during the Balkan conflicts. In 1998, I became a Bosnian citizen. We had a good life, but all of that changed after 9/11.

When I arrived at work on the morning of Oct. 19, 2001, an intelligence officer was waiting for me. He asked me to accompany him to answer questions. I did so, voluntarily — but afterward I was told that I could not go home. The United States had demanded that local authorities arrest me and five other men. News reports at the time said the United States believed that I was plotting to blow up its embassy in Sarajevo. I had never — for a second — considered this.

The fact that the United States had made a mistake was clear from the beginning. Bosnia’s highest court investigated the American claim, found that there was no evidence against me and ordered my release. But instead, the moment I was released American agents seized me and the five others. We were tied up like animals and flown to Guantánamo, the American naval base in Cuba. I arrived on Jan. 20, 2002

Many analysts familiar with the thinking of Iran's leadership warn that the pressure tactics being adopted by the Obama administration are incompatible with the objective of persuading Iran to refrain from building nuclear weapons, and may represent a raising of the ante which, if it doesn't persuade Tehran to fold, could press the Iranian regime towards making the fateful nuclear decision.

"The United States cannot hope to bargain with a country whose economy it is trying to disrupt and destroy," warned former Bush Administration State Department policy adviser Suzanne Maloney, writing in Foreign Affairs. She continued:

As severe sanctions devastate Iran's economy, Tehran will surely be encouraged to double down on its quest for the ultimate deterrent [nuclear weapons]... Given the ayatollahs' innate mistrust of the West, they cannot be nudged into a constructive negotiating process by measures that exacerbate their vulnerability. American policy is now effectively predicated on achieving political change in Tehran. Such an outcome will likely prove even more elusive than productive talks with the revolutionary regime.

Regardless of the Administration's intent, the new measures, which are explicitly designed to throttle the Iranian economy, are being read in Tehran as further evidence that Washington's goal is to force regime-change. That's hardly likely to convince Iran's leaders that they don't need nuclear weapons; on the contrary, Iran appears to be bracing itself for war.

"Military action is becoming the seemingly fail-safe solution for the United States to deal with real and imagined security problems," Pickering and Luers wrote in the Washington Post "The uncertain and intellectually demanding ways of diplomacy are seen as 'unmanly' and tedious -- likely to involve compromise and even 'appeasement'." Iran, they and other analysts have argued, has not been presented with a plausible (to its leaders) path away from the brink. "The slow, elusive diplomatic process to achieve U.S. objectives does not provide the sound-bite satisfaction of military threats or action," they argue. "Multiple, creative efforts to engage Iran's leaders and provide a dignified exit from the corner in which the world community has placed them could achieve more durable solutions at a far lower cost."

But real diplomacy and its attendant compromises are difficult at best of times, and an election year -- in both Washington and Tehran -- is not the best of times. Without compromise and confidence building, the only diplomacy on offer is that of the megaphone variety. And if Iran's leaders are loathe to come out with their hands up, the alternative is more likely to be war and, , quite possibly, a nuclear-armed Iran.

An inquiry by "a Danish Defence Ministry official" regarding "what happened at the American Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq after media reports of torture and abuse in 2003." Subsequently, "Danish soldiers continued to hand over prisoners to the facility, however, even after the torture was officially confirmed several months later."

"'That Denmark didn't intervene in time simply shows that someone must have stopped the criticism at the political level', said Social Democratic Defense Spokesman John Dyrby Paulsen. 'That is also why we want an inquiry into all of this', he added."

Former Danish Defense Minister Søren Gade previously told the Danish Parliament that Danish troops had only 21 prisoners. But according to the leaked "War Logs," "the actual number of prisoners taken in the period at a minimum of 95. Of these, 62 were handed over to Iraqi authorities, who were well known to be carrying out torture in Iraqi prisons." In reply, the Defense Ministry "argued that the reason for the great disparity between the reported number of prisoners was due to the fact that many of the prisoners had been captured by British troops and that the Danish troops therefore could not be held accountable." But recent revelations have seen the number of prisoners actually handed over has grown from a later admitted 200 to a reported 500 or more. The higher number surfaced in a memorandum from Defense Chief Gen. Knud Bartels to the new Defense Minister Nick Hækkerup.

"According to international law, soldiers may not deliver prisoners of war to another authority they suspect of mistreating or torturing prisoners." This international prohibition is written into the UN Convention Against Torture, which states that no signatory to the treaty can return or refoule any person to a state authority "where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture."

The controversy over handing over prisoners to be tortured by Iraqi forces has not been limited to Denmark. Indeed, after the release of the WikiLeaks "Iraq War Logs," numerous reports of such transfers of prisoners, despite knowledge of torture practices, were published in the British and US press.

The Obama administration has pointedly refused to initiate any investigations into US torture, while the British government has announced formation of a government commission to look into the torture charges.

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, has demanded that the United States detention center at Bagram Air Base be handed over to Afghan control within a month, along with all Afghan citizens held by the coalition troops across the nation.

A presidential statement, released on Thursday, said that keeping Afghan citizens imprisoned without trial violates the country's constitution, as well as international human rights conventions.

The prison, inside the sprawling US base at Bagram north of Kabul, is adjacent to a well-known public detention center known as Parwan, which is run jointly by Afghan authorities and the US military.

Human rights groups have claimed that detainees were menaced, forced to strip naked and kept in solitary confinement in windowless cells.

A statement from Karzai's office said he issued instructions to a commission consisting of the ministers of defense, interior and justice, as well as other top government and judicial officials, "to complete their job regarding the handing over of the [Bagram] prison and other prisoners who are held by foreign forces".

"The work should be completed within a month,'' it said.

Women's exclusion hits new low: Not one female doctor has been invited to speak in a conference on gynecology and halacha scheduled to take place next week. Only male doctors will speak in the meeting, including senior physicians, as organizers claim female doctors where shunned after rabbis prohibited their participation.

 ...

Those invited were also informed that there will be a separation between men and women in the audience.

 

Here we go again with Israeli Agent Provocateurs launching bottle rockets into open fields in Israel just to try to get world sympathy for them to launch another campaign of murder against the Palestinians.

Oz Zion, West Bank - Heroic youth. Righteous Jews. Hill top kids. Crazy folks. Nationalist criminals. Vigilantes. Terrorists. The price tag movement. 

Countless names exist for a group of settlers in the occupied West Bank that exact retribution against Palestinians and the Israeli army in response to policies targeting the settlement movement. The group has burned and desecrated mosques, destroyed olive groves on private Palestinian land, harassed people and property, and most recently confronted an Israeli army base. The last assault on December 13 forced Israel's government and the Israeli public to take note of this rogue element in their society.

Police arrested two of these young settlers on Wednesday evening in the illegally constructed outpost of Oz Zion. The reason for their arrest remains unknown.

Oz Zion, or "Zion's might", a newly built outpost erected on private Palestinian land, is east of Ramallah and neighbours the larger settlement of Givat Assaf in the occupied West Bank. The hilltop resembles a campsite with five makeshift wooden sheds, where a few dozen residents live.

The dynamics between the residents of Oz Zion and the Israeli authorities are a clear illustration of the confrontation between the concepts of the 'Land of Israel' (religious and nationalist convictions) and the State of Israel (the civic, legal and political entity). Last month, the Israeli police and army dismantled the illegal outpost in a dawn raid. A YouTube video testimonial of the incident was later circulated on the internet. However, the authorities' actions have not deterred the residents of Oz Zion from rebuilding the hilltop. In fact it has only intensified their zeal.

The residents of Oz Zion claim that they are not involved in the "price tag movement", the name given to violent acts by Jewish settlers to prevent security services from dismantling illegal outposts by making the price too high to bear.

Since a group of right-wing activists vandalised the Israeli army's Eprhaim Brigade in the northwest West Bank and attacked two Israeli army commanders on December 13, the army allocated 30 per cent of its troops to fight price tag attacks.

Questions and a wake-up call?

Some are asking whether the group is a fifth column in Israel and why the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security forces, remains impotent in the face of these settlers.  

"When you invade an army base and cause damage I think that is a wake-up call," a former US senior official said. 

The attack may be a sign that some settlers are using extremer strategies to protect their homes. Yet Avinoam, a 29-year-old student at Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, disagreed. 

He compared the price tag attacks to the summer riots in London and said that just like the youth in London, "these kids have some issues like we all do, you can't hold a grudge against anyone that looks like them and holds the same political opinions".

Sitting in a West Jerusalem cafe, Avinoam described the doctrine behind the settler movement: "It started as something known as mutual solidarity. When they [the army] destroy one hilltop they [the settlers] build another hilltop."

Israel's Supreme Court

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that the state must destroy at least six illegal outposts in the West Bank by the end of 2012.

"There is more political tension and campaigns by the settlers because they are trying to do their utmost to prevent the demolitions," said Hagit Ofran, a senior official at Israeli group Peace Now, who monitors the expansion of Israeli settlements. Ofran, who has taken a lead role in petitioning the court to dismantle these illegal outposts, has had her own run-in with these settlers. In November, settlers vandalised her home, slashed her neighbour's tyres, and grafittied death threats like "Rabin is waiting for you", in reference to the murder of the former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

"The problem is that the government is afraid. There is a reason why for 44 years there has not been real enforcement of laws against them," Ofran said.

Separate legal systems

Separate legal systems have existed in the occupied West Bank for Palestinians and Jewish settlers. Palestinians are tried under administrative detention - imprisonment without trial - while Jewish settlers are not. Human rights group have criticised this measure, which strips individuals to due process of law.

Government complicity

The expansion of the settlements has not been possible without the co-operation of state and legal institutions.

"It [settler violence] is a movement that has political and legal protection," Hassan Jaafar, the director of Mossawa Centre, an advocacy organisation for Arab citizens in Israel, said.

He explained these settlers are granted lawyers to "support and protect them", the media to "explain them", and money to "finance them".

The former US senior official characterised the state's complicity in a similar way.

"I think the army and the Shin Bet know exactly where they [those who attacked the Ephraim Brigade] are and I think it has essentially been a conspiracy of silence," he said.

"It is part of the coddling that has gone on with the settlement movement for the past 30 years. As you sow, so shall you reap."

Saudi Arabia will begin enforcing a law that allows only females to work in lingerie and apparel stores, despite disapproval from the country's top cleric.The 2006 law banning men from working in female apparel and cosmetic stores has not been implemented up to now, partly because of view of hardliners in the religious establishment, who oppose the idea of women working where men and women congregate together.

Egypt’s military-led government on Sunday justified its recent crackdown on human rights and democracy-building organizations as a defense against foreign interference in its politics, defying international pressure and contradicting reports from senior officials in Washington that Egypt’s military rulers had pledged to soften their stance.

Egypt’s defense of the raids escalates a diplomatic feud with Washington that began last Thursday with raids by armed police officers on the offices of 10 nonprofit groups, including 3 supported mainly by the United States government: the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House.

Egypt’s continued support of the raids is also the latest indication that the military rulers who took over after the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak share his government’s dim view of the international norms of democracy and human rights. Facing escalating domestic and international pressure to turn over power, the ruling military council has appeared increasingly willing to use force without apology to intimidate its critics, including directing assaults on demonstrators that have left more than 80 people dead and hundreds wounded over the last three months.

Employees of the raided organizations — most still unable to re-enter their offices — said the news conference by Ms. Abu El-Naga appeared to erase whatever guarantees the American officials thought they had won. “Nothing has changed,” one said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Ms. Abu El-Naga, herself one of the last senior civilians left over from Mr. Mubarak’s government, called the raids a legitimate step in a continuing investigation into suspected violations of Mubarak-era laws. If enforced, those laws would all but eliminate any independent human rights or civil society group here.

might have threatened Egyptian sovereignty, though the identities and activities of some are well known. Two of the American-financed groups — the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute — provide training in the nuts and bolts of campaigning, and they monitor elections. The other American-financed group that was raided, Freedom House, trains journalists. And a foreign-financed Egyptian group that was raided advocates an independent judiciary — an idea seemingly every political party in Egypt is eager to endorse.

If the investigation continues, said Heba Morayef, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Egypt, “It is going to shut down every human rights organization in Egypt.”

Iraq Body Count (IBC) recorded 4,063 civilian deaths from violence in 2011. Evidence of these deaths was extracted from some 6,828 distinct reports collected from over 90 sources covering 1,874 incidents, each of which is openly listed on the IBC website. This brings the total number of deaths in the IBC database so far to 114,212. These numbers represent a verifiable documentary record of deaths, and are not estimates

Image: Baghdad on Fire by Klearchos Kapoutsis.

Knesset members from all sides of the political spectrum called for the government to officially recognize the Armenian genocide.

The discussion took place a week after France’s lower house of parliament moved to criminalize Armenian-genocide denial.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said that those who fight Holocaust denial must may not ignore the tragedies of other nations, and it is a moral imperative that Israel remember the Armenian genocide.

At the heart of the crisis are two debt-laden, state-owned banks, which are the depository for all government funds. Far from functioning as lending institutions to stimulate the economy, the Rafaidan and Rasheed banks are widely thought to facilitate the corruption that bogs the economy down.

Transparency International, which monitors corporate and political corruption in international development, rates Iraq as the eighth most corrupt country on the planet, tied with Haiti and only slightly less corrupt than Sudan, Afghanistan and North Korea.

Knowledgeable foreign experts say that the problems begin with government contracts, where bidders are chosen from pre-determined, closed lists, rather than an open competition. The rules of the game are anything but transparent.

"I tried to find out what actually qualified these firms to be on that list, but no one can tell me," said one foreign observer, who didn't want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

In one of the biggest recent procurement scandals, Electricity Minister Raad Shallal al Ani was forced to resign in August after signing contracts worth $1.3 billion with a firm in Canada that didn't exist and one in Germany that had gone bankrupt a month before the contract was signed.

The World Bank has proposed a new procurement law that would open up the bidding process, creating committees to select and evaluate the bids. To ensure that bidders are legitimate, it would require them to make deposits in advance, as in almost anywhere in the Western world. But Maliki's government is dragging its feet.

This is very good news and obviously the US has been involved for some time at the highest levels:

Afghanistan will accept a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to start peace talks but no foreign power can get involved in the process without its consent, the government's peace council said, as efforts gather pace to find a solution to the decade-long war.

Afghanistan's High Peace Council, in a note to foreign missions, has set out ground rules for engaging the Taliban after Kabul grew concerned that the United States and Qatar, helped by Germany, had secretly agreed with the Taliban to open an office in the Qatari capital, Doha.

U.S. officials have held about half a dozen meetings with their insurgent contacts, mostly in Germany and Doha with representatives of Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban's Quetta Shura, this year to prepare the way for face-to-face talks between the group and the Afghan government.

A representative office for the group is considered the starting point for such talks and Doha has in the past served as a meeting ground for initial contacts.

But the Afghan peace commission which has suffered a series of setbacks including the assassination of its head in September said that negotiations with the Taliban could only begin after they stopped violence against civilians, cut ties to al Qaeda, and accepted the Afghan constitution which guarantees civil rights and liberties, including rights for women.

The council, according to a copy of the 11-point note made available to Reuters, also said any peace process with the Taliban would have to have the support of Pakistan since members of the insurgent group were based there.

"The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is in agreement regarding the opening of an office for the armed opposition, but only to move forward the peace process and conduct negotiations," the council said.

The government would prefer such an office in either Saudi Arabia or Turkey, both of which it is close to, but was not averse to Doha as long as the authority of the Afghan state was not eroded and the office was only established for talks, officials said.

"We are saying Saudi or Turkey are preferable, we are not saying it has to be there only. The only condition is it should be in an Islamic country," said a government official.

President Hamid Karzai's administration recalled its ambassador from Doha last week, apparently angry that it had been kept in the dark about the latest round of contacts with the insurgent group.

Officials said Kabul was also deeply concerned about reports that the United States was considering the transfer of a small number of Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay military prison to Doha as a prelude to the talks.

"We are a sovereign country, we have laws. How can you transfer our prisoners from one country to another. Already it's a violation to have them in Guantanamo Bay," the official said.

The Afghan government wanted the prisoners to be returned to its custody, the official said.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Saturday he would soon leave Yemen for the United States to help make way for elections for his replacement, even as forces loyal to him opened fire on protesters, killing at least nine.

Demonstrators had marched for four days from the city of Taiz, a major opposition center, to the capital, Sana, to demand that Saleh face trial for the deaths of scores of protesters in the government's crackdown on an 11-month-old uprising.

Under an agreement reached last month, endorsed by the United States and Persian Gulf nations, Saleh is to be granted immunity in return for stepping down after elections scheduled for Feb. 21. He has already transferred most authority to his vice president, but retains the title of president...

Saleh did not specify Saturday when he would leave for the U.S., where the United Nations envoy to Yemen has said the president will receive treatment for injuries sustained during a June assassination attempt. "I will leave for the United States in the coming days, not for treatment, but to get out of sight," Saleh told reporters. He said he might undergo some medical checkups, but insisted he was fine and would soon be back to work with his party in the opposition.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/24/134078/yemeni-president-says-hell-leave.html#storylink=cpy

 

While the last round of protests got ugly quickly (more than 40 people died and thousands were injured), this round is characterized by its escalating public violence against women. In addition to the dubiously iconic photo, other women were photographed having their clothes torn or removed in public.

When the mother of all financial crashes struck in 1929, it seemed as if markets would forever lose their god-like status. A consensus emerged that financial speculation was a major cause of the Great Depression, and tight controls were established during the New Deal to teach these petulant children a lesson they would never forget.

They forgot. We forgot.

After WWII, a new generation of economists emerged who worshiped the markets and detested any and all government interference. For these true believers, markets were infallible, blessed by what they called the “efficient markets” theory. Financial markets, they claimed, always got prices right. They always provided the best allocation of society’s scarce resources, and most importantly, they undermined bad government decisions. And all of this happened without any guidance and without anyone exercising any control whatsoever. These great autonomous and anonymous forces of modern economies ruled supreme and that was absolutely wonderful, according to these worshipers– praise the lord!

Led by economist Milton Friedman, these market apostles undermined any and all regulations that were put in place during the Great Depression to contain the diabolical impacts of markets run wild. “Let them run wild,” we were told, “and we’ll get an economic boom to make all boats rise.”

Our financial high priests taught our political leaders how to appease the financial market gods: cut more taxes for the rich, gut more regulations and trim social programs. Not only didn’t the riches flow to all of us, but the markets again crashed in 2008 revealing as they did in 1929 to be nothing more than enormous casinos designed by and for the high priests.

When President Obama came into office, the market gods were in total disarray and the high priests were on their knees begging for help. That was the perfect time to unmask the false gods and the false profits. Instead, like the Bush administration, Obama turned over policy-making to the high priests – Geithner, Summers, Bernanke – who secretly provided up to $7.77 trillion in free loans and asset guarantees to help their fellow Wall Street priests become even more powerful. The market gods were resurrected again and given license to run wild.

We are now at the mercy of speculators again.  The Obama Administration has funded the banksters and imposed no serious regulations. 

Our choices will become increasingly stark as the high priests demand more sacrifice from us – cuts in schools, cuts in social security, cuts in health care coverage, cuts in our standard of living. They will push us down until we develop the organizational power to unmask their false gods and fight back.

Our resistance can start with this simple cognitive step: every time you hear a commentator talk about what the markets “want” or what the markets “reject,” remember the financial elites who are pulling the strings.

Pro-Israeli-right-wingers think nothing of attacking the President of the United States in the most vicious of terms, but condemn anyone with the temerity to criticise anything done by the prime minister of Israel.  It is not Israel they put first, but rather the Israeli right. 

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is under attack for writing a column denouncing Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who praised the recent Russian election as "absolutely fair, free and democratic", and lamenting a host of anti-democratic actions in Israel (all of which have been roundly condemned inside Israel).

The Friedman quote that absolutely drove the pro-Likud right crazy was directed at Binyamin Netanyahu:

I sure hope that Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.

For this, Commentary called Friedman a practitioner of the "new anti-Semitism."

If Tom Friedman is an anti-Semite, there is no such thing; the charge has simply lost its meaning.  Not only does he not hate Israel, he loves Israel and makes no effort to hide it.

As for his quote about the lobby and Netanyahu's standing ovation at that joint session, everyone knows that the only reason there even was a (rare) joint meeting of Congress honouring Netanyahu (for what?) was because House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) wanted to make it harder for the president to promote an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by demonstrating that Congress supported Bibi and not Obama. Plus they wanted to put on a show for the lobby.

The attacks on Obama are dumb, but the one on Hillary Clinton takes the cake. (Has there ever been an American political figure more outspokenly pro-Israel?)

So, why all the hate from the right?

The reason is simple.

It is that some  (Friedman, for instance) oppose the unsustainable occupation and the determination to heighten tensions (and hence the likelihood of war) with Iran. Friedman and company object to those policies endorsed by the right that because these policies could lead to Israel's destruction.

(text link to video)

Early this morning the final US troop convoy drove into Kuwait, leaving Iraq, and the war that started in March 2003, behind.

Below is the video of CNN's coverage of this historic event. Part I ends with US soldiers closing the large metal gate in the fence separating Iraq from Kuwait:

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Part II:

Cradle of Arab Spring celebrates first anniversary - The festive mood in Sidi Bouzid was tempered somewhat, however, by reminders that democratic change in Tunisia has yet to ease poverty and high unemployment - bread and butter issues that preoccupy many Tunisians and have triggered rioting.

The fuse for "Arab Spring" uprisings was lit when a jobless unemployed university graduate in Sidi Bouzid set himself on fire in despair at police who had confiscated his unlicensed fruit and vegetable cart. He died later in hospital.

Mohamed Bouazizi's death took the lid off simmering anger about poverty, joblessness, corruption and repression. Protests erupted across Tunisia, forcing autocratic President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country less than a month later.

Tunisia's revolution inspired other Arabs to rise up against entrenched authoritarian rulers. They were overthrown in Egypt and Libya. Yemen's leader has stepped aside for a reformist transition while Syria's president faces a spreading insurgency.

In Sidi Bouzid, tens of thousands of people rallied joyfully in the central square, dancing to the rhythms of popular songs despite cold weather, and flags and photographs of Tunisians killed in the uprising decorated the streets.

A ceremony was held, attended by the new president and his prime minister, to unveil a giant status of Bouazizi, who has become a national hero in the North African country.

"It's a day of joy; Sidi Bouzid has long suffered from neglect and today it has become the capital of the world," said a dancing young man who identified himself as Emad.

"On December 17 last year, the Arab world began a new page of history, this is really a source of pride," he said.

Celebrations will run through the weekend with some leading international figures on hand, including the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Yemeni opposition activist Tawakkol Karman.

But Manoubia Bouazizi, Mohammed's mother, conveyed the underlying concerns of many by urging Tunisian authorities to parlay the revolution into a better quality of life for the population, especially the young.

"(My son) set himself alight to grant liberty to Tunisia and the Arab world ... I ask government officials to pay attention to poor areas and provide jobs for young people," she said.

Troops assault Egypt protesters, clashes kill 9 - Soldiers beat demonstrators with batons in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday in a second day of clashes that have killed nine people and wounded more than 300, marring the first free election most Egyptians can remember.

Protesters fled into side streets to escape the troops in riot gear, who grabbed people and battered them repeatedly even after they had been beaten to the ground, a Reuters journalist said. Shots were fired in the air.

Soldiers pulled down protester tents and set them on fire, local television footage showed.

In footage filmed by Reuters one soldier in a line of charging troops drew a pistol and fired a shot at retreating protesters.

The violence highlights tensions in Egypt 10 months after a popular revolt toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

The army generals who replaced him have angered some Egyptians by seeming reluctant to give up power. Others back the military as a force for badly needed stability during a difficult transition to democracy.

The army assault on Saturday followed skirmishes between protesters and troops. A fire destroyed archives in a building next to Tahrir, including historic documents dating back over two centuries.

An official blamed petrol bombs for starting the blaze, the state news agency MENA reported.

An army official said in a statement troops targeted thugs not protesters after shots were fired at soldiers and petrol bombs set the archive building ablaze, MENA reported.

The bloodshed follows unrest in which 42 people were killed in the week before November 28, the start of a phased parliamentary poll that is empowering Islamist parties repressed during the 30-year Mubarak era, when elections were routinely rigged.

• One in four of those polled believe there are 'too many Turks' in Austria, the predominant immigrant group
• 18.2 per cent declared 'Jews have now, like before, too much influence over the world economy'

By Allan Hall

Austrians are shocked by a new survey which shows that one in ten young people think Adolf Hitler was not all bad and that he did some 'good things'.

Many are also anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner despite years of multi-cultural teaching in schools.

The country's Kurier newspaper called the findings by the Youth Culture Research Institute 'frightening' - particularly as it is coupled with the general mistrust and dislike of non-Austrians.

Austria has struggled with its relationship to Nazis in general and Hitler in particular ever since 1945.

The country was taken over by Hitler - himself an Austrian by birth - in 1938.

Two MPs from France's mainstream Right and Left-wing parties filed a draft bill to punish the clients of prostitutes along the lines of legislation already in place in Sweden since 1999.

A small group of ultra-Orthodox Jews has prevented some women from voting in local elections in Jerusalem. It's the latest step by the extremely pious Jews to try to force their practices on others.

Israel's Channel 2 TV video showed the men screaming at a few dozen women, demanding that they leave a voting station Wednesday. Then the men pushed them away.

Dozens of radical Jewish settlers, reacting to a rumor that several of their outposts would be dismantled, attacked an Israeli Army base in the West Bank on Tuesday, lighting fires, vandalizing vehicles and throwing stones, hours after another group of settlers occupied a border post with Jordan.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak condemned what he called “a string of violent attacks by criminal groups of extremists,” adding that such “homegrown terror” would not be tolerated. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an urgent meeting of defense officials, saying, “We must take care of these rioters with a heavy hand.”

In the past few years, small groups of settlers have pursued a campaign they call “price tag,” attacking Palestinian civilians and property as well as Israeli security forces in retaliation for government policies they oppose. Olive trees have been slashed and burned, mosques vandalized and army property damaged.

In the attack on the base, about 50 settlers used paint, nails and rocks, the military said. Soldiers dispersed the rioters and detained one man. In a separate episode, settlers stopped a car driven by a local Israeli commander and threw a brick at him. He was slightly injured.

Some 100 haredim in Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood blocked a road in order to stop Egged bus line number 1 from passing through the neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

In addition to standing in the road, the protesters overturned a baby carriage - with a baby in it - in front of the bus.

In a press conference in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem Police Chief Nisso Shaham insisted that police would not stop their activities in the neighborhood, working to stop the separation of women.

Saudi Arabia has executed a 60-year-old woman for practicing “witchcraft and sorcery.” The beheading of Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser in the northern province of Jawf yesterday has angered international human rights organisations and sparked the ridicule of netizens on Twitter.

Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou talks about the financial crisis, the role of banks and the importance of the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. "The Occupy Wall Street movements ... are saying something very, very specific. That inequality in the end is an inequality of power. And we need to redistribute power, not just money. Power –– and this is I think the Democratic challenge that we have today," Papandreou says.

The picture that emerged of India was not a happy one. In most countries, women generally outnumber and outlive men. As a result, they are a little over half the population. But in India, they constitute 48.2 per cent of the population, worse than Pakistan where the situation is bad enough with women being 48.5 per cent of the population. Even Bangladesh is better at 48.8 per cent. The reason this has happened is a combination of the factors that have led to 42.7 million “missing” women (2007 data).

In 2009 the energy industries, backed by business lobbies, launched major campaigns that cast doubt on the near-unanimous consensus of scientists on the severity of the threat of human-induced global warming.

The consensus is only “near-unanimous” because it doesn’t include the many experts who feel that climate-change warnings don’t go far enough, and the marginal group that deny the threat’s validity altogether.

The standard “he says/she says” coverage of the issue keeps to what is called “balance”: the overwhelming majority of scientists on one side, the denialists on the other. The scientists who issue the more dire warnings are largely ignored.

One effect is that scarcely one-third of the U.S. population believes that there is a scientific consensus on the threat of global warming – far less than the global average, and radically inconsistent with the facts.

It’s no secret that the U.S. government is lagging on climate issues. “Publics around the world in recent years have largely disapproved of how the United States is handling the problem of climate change,” according to PIPA. “In general, the United States has been most widely seen as the country having the most negative effect on the world’s environment, followed by China. Germany has received the best ratings.”

Gene Sharp, a humble, 83-year-old intellectual, has been credited with promoting non-violent struggle around the world.

Sharp's book From Dictatorship to Democracy, a how-to guide for toppling dictators first published in 1993, has been translated into 24 different languages. From Burma to Bosnia, and more recently this February in Cairo's Tahrir Square, protesters distributed Sharp's 94-page manual as a guide for overthrowing autocrats.

To many despots, Sharp's works are threatening. The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has denounced his books. In 2008, the Iranian government produced an animated video portraying Sharp as a CIA agent, hobnobbing in the White House with John McCain and George Soros.

According to a cable written by the US embassy in Damascus - and later published by WikiLeaks - Syrian dissidents trained non-violent protesters by reading Sharp's writings. Another leaked cable from 2007 revealed that Burmese authorities thought Sharp was part of an attempt to "bring down" the country's government.

This week, European leaders will huddle in intense meetings, trying to work out a comprehensive plan to solve crushing debt problems.

Higher stakes are hard to imagine.

If all goes well at a summit in Brussels, the political leaders will make an announcement Friday, spelling out their long-term commitment to a plan to loosen a choking tangle of debt troubles. If they can't agree on a plan, the EU debt crisis could lead to the kind of financial chaos that economists say surely would hurt the United States.

"They have to fix this in a matter of days or weeks, not months," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Global Insight. "This is the single biggest threat to the global economy — and to the U.S. economy."

The threat is so serious that last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve began working with the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and Swiss National Bank to help pump dollars into Europe's banks. That extra money created enough "liquidity" to keep loans flowing in Europe, and prevent a panic.

That coordinated action came in the wake of rumors that a major European bank was about to collapse. The central bankers' move helped tamp down fears of an impending credit crunch, but did not address the underlying problem of excess debt. As Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said, Europe's problem is "a solvency crisis, not a liquidity crisis."

Americans still looking for work or facing the prospect of losing a home may be wondering why the Federal Reserve is taking action in Europe. They may feel this country has enough problems of its own to keep U.S. central bankers busy right here.

But economists are unanimous in saying the United States has an enormous stake in this week's negotiations in Europe. Here are some reasons why:

The economies of the U.S. and EU tend to move closely in tandem, rising and falling at the same time. If the EU goes down, the U.S. is likely to follow.

First, the European Union, made up of 27 countries, is the United States' single biggest trading partner. Americans and Europeans do roughly a half-trillion dollars worth of trade with each other every year.

Because of those elaborate ties, U.S. and EU manufacturing orders tend to move closely in tandem, rising and falling at the same time. At the same time, U.S. corporations derive many of their profits from Europe.

So Behravesh says U.S. stock prices would likely drop if exports to Europe, or profits from Europe, were to drop. That would dampen any expansion plans for U.S. businesses, he said.

 

Ohad Gibli of the Canaan advertising agency, which launched a campaign to attract organ donors using only images of men, told Israel Army Radio: "We have learned that an ad campaign in Jerusalem … that includes pictures of women will remain up for hours at best, and in other cases, will lead to the vandalisation and torching of buses."

In an interview on BBC’s The One Show Wednesday, Jeremy Clarkson, host of BBC’s Top Gear, was asked about the strikes that had affected “schools, hospitals, airports, even driving tests.”Frankly, I’d have them all shot!” Clarkson exclaimed.
“I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean how dare they go on strike when they’ve got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?”

Scott Horton passes along an excerpt from an article in the German newsweekly Der Spiegel * regarding the race for the Republican nomination:

"Africa is a country. The Taliban rule in Libya. Muslims are terrorists. Immigrants are mostly criminals, Occupy Wall Street protesters are always dirty. And women who claim to have been sexually molested should kindly keep quiet.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of the Republican Party. Or rather: to the distorted world of its presidential campaign. For months it has coiled through the country like a traveling circus, from debate to debate, from scandal to scandal, contesting the mightiest office in the world — and nothing is ever too unfathomable for them… These eight presidential wannabes are happy enough not only to demolish their own reputations but also that of their party, the once worthy party of Abraham Lincoln. They are also ruining the reputation of the United States."

*I've provided a link to the English version. Carlos