Tuesday, 01 March 2011 11:57 'A copy of the accord obtained by The Daily Telegraph shows that the two leaders agreed to co-operate on defence matters in a range of areas, including exchanging information about defence structures and technology. It was signed during the former Labour prime minister’s “Blair-well” tour of Africa in May 2007, in Gaddafi’s tent in the Libyan desert. Included in the document was an agreement on “co-operation in the training of specialised military units, special forces and border security units”. They also signed up to “exchanges of information on Nato and EU military and civil security organisations”. The document was personally signed by Mr Blair and Gaddafi.' Read more: Libya: Tony Blair Agreed to Train Gaddafi’s Special Forces in 'Deal in the Desert’ Tuesday, 01 March 2011 11:47 'Scarcely a day goes by without more evidence to show why the Government's obsession with wind turbines, now at the centre of our national energy policy, is one of the greatest political blunders of our time. Under a target agreed with the EU, Britain is committed within ten years — at astronomic expense — to generating nearly a third of its electricity from renewable sources, mainly through building thousands more wind turbines. But the penny is finally dropping for almost everyone — except our politicians — that to rely on windmills to keep our lights on is a colossal and very dangerous act of self-deception.' Tuesday, 01 March 2011 10:39 'The UN Security Council unanimously passed broad sanctions on the nearly ousted Gadhafi regime in Libya, but in a bizarre twist the council also granted broad immunity from war crimes prosecution for the mercenaries responsible for many of the bloodiest massacres against the pro-democracy protesters. The sanctions call on the ICC to investigate top Libyan officials for their roles in crimes against humanity at the Hague, but the US insisted that an additional clause be inserted that would forbid the ICC from prosecution of people from non-ICC member nations.' Tuesday, 01 March 2011 10:17 'HSBC has reported its profits more than doubled in 2010 to £11.8 billion, with every region in the black for the first time since 2006. The banking giant's result marks a sharp rise on the £4.4 billion posted in 2009 as it continues to benefit from lower bad debt losses. But HSBC's new chairman Douglas Flint said the group would 'not forget' the financial crisis and support from governments around the world, adding the group entered 2011 'with humility'.' Read more: HSBC Bank Profits Double to £11.8 Billion as Chief Executive is Handed £5.2 Million Bonus
Tuesday, 01 March 2011 09:52
'Iran is threatening to boycott the 2012 Olympic Games in London because of the Games’ logo.
According to an Iranian official, the logo, with its blocky, abstract rendering of “2012,” is racist because it appears to spell the word “Zion,” a biblical term for Jerusalem, rather than 2012. Bahram Afsharzadeh, the secretary-general of Iran’s National Olympic Committee, said via the official IRNA news agency that he sent a letter of complaint to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.'
Read more: Iran Threatens to Boycott 2012 London Olympics Because of LogoTuesday, 01 March 2011 08:22
'Britain, France and the United States have dispatched hundreds of military advisors to Libya to set up military bases in the country's oil-rich east, reports say.
Several Libyan diplomats have been quoted by news outlets as saying these forces are setting up bases in the eastern cities of Benghazi and Tobruk -- the two oil-rich cities that have been liberated by the opposition forces.'
Read more: US, France, Britain Set up Military Bases in Libya
Tuesday, 01 March 2011 08:14
'Saudi Arabia is sending some 30 tanks to Bahrain which were sighted late Monday along the King Fahd causeway linking the two countries, witnesses say. Pro-democracy protests in Bahrain have shown no sign of decline after almost two weeks. The protesters are demanding the resignation of the government, constitutional reforms and the king's abdication.
Witnesses said that the causeway was blocked as "15 tank carriers carrying two tanks each were heading towards Bahrain," Egypt's al-Masry al-Youm daily reported in its latest edition.'
Tuesday, 01 March 2011 08:01
'China has arrested foreign journalists attempting to report on peaceful protests, which were being held for the second consecutive Sunday.
Large numbers of police officers were deployed to stop the rallies, which resemble pro-democracy movements in the Middle East and North Africa. Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police aggressively pushed away foreign reporters with cameras and briefly detained several.'
Read more: China Cracks Down on Peaceful Protests
Monday, 28 February 2011 15:54
'You can imagine the scene: The Chief Executive of the council is advised by his legal team that their court case against the council tax rebel (me) is unwinnable lawfully because I have exposed the fact that the council have been breaking the law by issuing their own summonses... the summons is the foundation of their case and fraudulent evidence is inadmissible in a court of law, so the case must be thrown out. The legal team advise to withdraw the claim.
The Chief Executive ponders the problem... potentially all previous liability orders will be adjudged unlawful... claims against the council will amount to millions of pounds... poor families will benefit... the council, to save face and money, win this case... by fair means or foul... lawful or unlawful, not forgetting of course that his £200,000 salary plus expenses depends upon it. The Chief Executive clears his room and he picks up the phone... he puts in a call and makes contact (via ‘the network’) with the judicial arm of ‘the club’ and he calls in a favour.'
Monday, 28 February 2011 11:53
'It is quite startling to realise that a special room had been set up to receive the dead of the July 7th bombings in a temporary morgue built on army land, the contract for which (see [1] below) arrived on the contractor’s desk on July 6th, the day before the massacres. All the bodies of the dead were taken and cryogenically stored here.
Not until the Inquest, five years later, did startled lawyers acting on behalf of the victim-families get to hear, that NO POST MORTEMS had been performed on the dead. Let us repeat this astonishing statement, the better to realise our own astounded bafflement:
NO POST MORTEMS HAD BEEN PERFORMED ON THE DEAD.'
Read more: 7/7 Inquest: Was Someone Afraid to Reveal the Causes of Deaths?
Monday, 28 February 2011 11:28
'Over 100,000 people in Madison, Wisconsin were joined by thousands of other Americans around the country in protest of Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from the state’s unionized workers, but you would not have known any of this if you watched cable news on Saturday as the coverage of the protests ranged from disappointing (MSNBC) to scant (CNN) to non-existent (Fox News).'
Read more: Media Blackout: CNN Fox News and MSNBC Ignore 100,000 WI Protesters
Monday, 28 February 2011 09:22
'On February 25, AP said the Wisconsin Assembly, after days of debate, passed Walker's contentious bill, but the standoff is far from over. Senate Democrats remain absent in Illinois, vowing to resist ending collective bargaining rights for public workers. So far, Walker won't compromise, so resolution is on hold.
Much more, however, is at issue. On February 24, economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman headlined, "Shock Doctrine, USA," saying: "What's happening in Wisconsin is....a power grab - an attempt to exploit the fiscal crisis to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy." It involves much more than union busting, bad as that is.
Hidden in the bill's 144 pages are "extraordinary things," including a provision letting Walker appoint a health czar to make draconian healthcare cuts to Wisconsin's poor and low-income households unilaterally.'
Read more: Hidden Provisions in Wisconsin Bill
Monday, 28 February 2011 07:50
'Michele Alliot-Marie stated in a handwritten resignation to President Nicolas Sarkozy that she decided to step down although she had not committed any wrongdoing, AFP reported.
She asked the president to accept her resignation, complaining about the harassment her family suffered from the media for the last two weeks. There is speculation that she will be replaced by Defense Minister Alain Juppe who had served as France's top diplomat from 1993 to 1995. Alliot-Marie sparked controversy after she suggested that French riot police could help restore order during the Tunisian 'Jasmine Revolution.'
Read more: French FM Resigns After Tunisia Scandal
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