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Latest Articles: International News
Time to Re-Privatize Fire Departments
Post Date: 2011-07-17 16:21:41 by jwpegler
1 Comments
All across America, municipal governments are awakening to the costs of overly- generous public sector compensation. In Orange County, California, the average total pay and benefits package for a firefighter is $175,000 a year. Firefighter unions say that there can be no cuts to fire department budgets without putting the safety of the public at risk. Yet for most of the nation's history, firefighting services were reliably provided by the private sector. Today, one county in Georgia is showing how that can be done again. The history of firefighting is instructive. After the traumas of the Great Fire of London in 1666, a fledging market for fire insurance developed there. Those ...
Britain's Scotland Yard Chief Resigns Over Phone Hacking Scandal
Post Date: 2011-07-17 15:30:20 by Brian S
14 Comments
London's police chief has quit over his links to a former News of the World editor caught up in the phone hacking scandal. Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Stephenson denies any wrongdoing. Stephenson has been criticized for hiring Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor arrested last week in the scandal, as a part-time PR consultant for a year until September 2010. He said he did not make the decision to hire Wallis, and had no knowledge of Wallis's links to phone hacking. "I will not lose any sleep over my personal integrity," he said. Earlier Sunday, Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World and close confidante of Rupert Murdoch, ...
Ex-British Murdoch Executive Rebekah Brooks Arrested
Post Date: 2011-07-17 13:07:24 by Brian S
4 Comments
Rupert Murdoch's protégé Rebekah Brooks, who previously ran his British tabloids was arrested today in London in connection with the phone hacking scandal. Brooks' arrest comes as she "voluntarily attended a London police station to assist with their ongoing investigation," according to a statement released on her behalf, The Associated Press reported. Authorities are questioning Brooks on suspicion of conspiring phone hacking and on suspicion of corruption. Brooks spokesman David Wilson told the AP that Brooks' meeting with the police was arranged but "not aware she was going to be arrested." "Obviously this complicates matter ...
CHINA: China bear the brunt of Pentagon strategy to push the network
Post Date: 2011-07-15 23:23:53 by A K A Stone
2 Comments
[News] Pentagon multidimensional July 14 released its first "network strategy for space operations," the official launch of the network security strategy, it will protect the United States firewall system, sensors, software and U.S. intelligence agencies to collect data. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Lynn said that day, this strategy focuses on defense rather than offense. Œ88;Cyber 3.0Œ89;” At the same time, U.S. officials also continued its public relations to the outside world "Network 3.0 (Cyber 43;43;3.0)" strategy is not as militant as people imagine, but only for defense and for self-defense. With the United States in recent years the field of ...
If The U.S. Government Loses Its AAA Rating It Could Potentially Unleash Financial Hell Across The United States
Post Date: 2011-07-15 19:14:08 by Capitalist Eric
1 Comments
For decades, the U.S. government has had a AAA rating. On the scales used by the big three credit rating agencies, that is the highest credit rating that a government can get. Moody's scale actually uses lettering that is a little different from the other two big agencies ("Aaa" instead of "AAA"), but you get the point. Right now, the U.S. government is closer than ever to losing its AAA rating. The threat of a rating downgrade is going to continue to grow regardless of how the political theater that we are watching unfold in Washington D.C. plays out. The truth is that the federal government has accumulated a debt that is so vast that it will never be paid back. In ...
Glenn Beck Warns Against ‘Vaporization Of Israel’
Post Date: 2011-07-15 12:02:56 by Brian S
3 Comments
In interview with 'Post' former-Fox News broadcaster promises Jerusalem mega-event in August will be bipartisan, not an anti-Obama rally. The “vaporization of Israel” and the end of the Western way of life as we know it could be on the horizon, American broadcaster Glenn Beck warned in an interview with The Jerusalem Post in the capital’s David Citadel Hotel on Wednesday.Beck came to Israel to prepare for “Restoring Courage,” his Jerusalem mega-event set for late next month. He also addressed the Knesset’s Diaspora Affairs Committee, toured Gush Etzion and Sderot, and met with hi-tech entrepreneurs and Vice Premier Moshe ...
Ahmed Wali Karzai’s Killer Had Been A Taliban Foe, U.S. ALLY
Post Date: 2011-07-15 11:56:12 by Brian S
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The man who murdered President Hamid Karzai’s half brother spent years as an ally of the United States in the war against the Taliban. The killer, Sardar Mohammad, a police commander, met on several occasions with U.S. and British military officials, shared intelligence with Americans and played a part in Afghan arrests of scores of Taliban fighters, according to three relatives interviewed on Thursday in his home near Kandahar. The reasons behind the dramatic switch that turned the 35-year-old officer against Ahmed Wali Karzai, perhaps the most powerful figure in southern Afghanistan, are still not understood. But one of Karzai’s brothers and a ...
Murdoch Now Faces FBI Phone Hacking Probe
Post Date: 2011-07-14 14:52:48 by Brian S
1 Comments
A law enforcement official says the FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sought to hack into the phones of Sept. 11 victims. The official spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. New York City-based News Corp. has been in crisis mode. A rival newspaper reported last week that the company's News of the World had hacked into the phone of U.K. teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into the 13-year-old's disappearance. More possible victims soon emerged: other child murder victims, 2005 London bombing victims, the families of ...
IS GOLD MONEY? [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-07-14 13:07:59 by socalv8
131 Comments
Big Ben's hesitation was telling.What say you?
Demands Mount in U.S. Congress for News Corp. Hacking Probes
Post Date: 2011-07-14 11:56:53 by Brian S
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Outrage over alleged bribery and phone hacking at a News Corp. (NWSA) tabloid in London mounted in Washington as lawmakers demanded probes of whether the company violated anti-corruption laws and Sept. 11 victims’ privacy. The scandal will be raised at a House hearing today on Internet privacy, said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Representative Mary Bono Mack. The California Republican’s staff contacted News Corp. several times yesterday to seek “assurances that this is a uniquely U.K. problem,” Johnson said in an interview yesterday. “We want to make sure the contagion is not spreading,” he said. Employees of the now-defunct News of the World are accused of ...
Iran Prepares For Nuclear Work In Bunker: Sources
Post Date: 2011-07-13 16:57:47 by Brian S
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(Reuters) - Iran is preparing to install centrifuges for higher-grade uranium enrichment in an underground bunker, diplomatic sources say, a development that is likely to add to Western worries about Tehran's atomic aims. Preparatory work is under way at the Fordow facility, tucked deep inside a mountain to protect it against any attacks, and machines used to refine uranium could soon be moved to the site near the clerical city of Qom, the sources said. The Islamic Republic said in June it would shift production of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity to Fordow from its main Natanz plant this year and triple output capacity, in a defiant response to charges that it is trying to make ...
Obama, US viewed less favorably in Arab world, poll shows
Post Date: 2011-07-13 15:13:24 by Happy Quanzaa
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The United States is viewed less favorably in much of the Arab world today than it was during the final year of the Bush administration, and President Obama is less popular in the region that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to a poll released today (WED) by the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group. Attitudes towards the US president and the United States as a whole have been growing increasingly negative over the past ten years due to the invasion of Iraq, outrage over Guantanamo Bay, and continued frustration over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which has been tracking attitudes ...
Obama Administration defends aid to Palestinians
Post Date: 2011-07-13 02:44:19 by socalv8
3 Comments
Obama Administration officials defended US aid to the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday, telling Congress the funds are critical for progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace process. “Our assistance gives us leverage,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jacob Walles while testifying before a House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. “There are practical benefits… improvement in security and helping develop institutions needed for a two-state solution,” he said The hearing, held to reassess funding for the PA, comes days after both the House and Senate passed resolutions urging the White House to cut aid to the Palestinians if they followed through ...
China's Secretive Army Opens Door For U.S.'s Mullen
Post Date: 2011-07-12 21:07:56 by A K A Stone
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China's famously secretive army opened its doors just a bit Tuesday for the visit of Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This was a fence-mending mission after China cut off military ties last year over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. The troops came out to salute Mullen for his official welcoming ceremony. One day earlier, speaking to Beijing university students, Mullen noted that China's time has come. "It is no longer a rising power. It has in fact arrived as a world power," Mullen said. China's newfound confidence was visible Monday as Mullen met his counterpart, Gen. Chen Bingde. While Mullen tried to showcase three new agreements for ...
Pakistan Could "Pull Troops From Afghan Border" If U.S. Cuts Aid
Post Date: 2011-07-12 12:10:10 by Brian S
1 Comments
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan could pull back troops fighting Islamist militants near the Afghan border if the United States cuts off aid, the defense minister said on Tuesday in an interview with Pakistani media. The United States Monday said it would hold back $800 million -- a third of nearly $2 billion in security aid to Pakistan -- in a show of displeasure over Pakistan's removal of U.S. military trainers, limits on visas for U.S. personnel and other bilateral irritants. "If at all things become difficult, we will just get all our forces back," Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said in an interview with the Express 24/7 television to be aired later on Tuesday. The ...
Strong Blast Hits Egyptian Gas Pipeline: Report
Post Date: 2011-07-12 11:44:58 by Brian S
1 Comments
CAIRO — Saboteurs bombed an Egyptian gas pipeline in the Sinai peninsula for the fourth time since February, cutting supplies to Israel and Jordan, the official MENA news agency reported Tuesday. The blast occurred near the town of al-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, it said, adding that the ensuing "flames were up to 10 metres (32 feet) high. "The area is being searched to find those behind this explosion and to find the type of explosives used," it said. It was the fourth attack on the gas pipeline since February, a time of political upheaval when an uprising toppled former president Hosni Mubarak and saw power handed over to a military council. Egypt ...
Ahmed Wali Karzai Killing Sparks Fears Of Turmoil In Kandahar
Post Date: 2011-07-12 11:43:19 by Brian S
3 Comments
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the powerful half-brother of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has been killed by one of his security guards inside his house in Kandahar, raising the prospect of turmoil in a city widely seen as the key to the war in Afghanistan. The president confirmed the death at a press conference in Kabul intended to mark the visit of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to the capital. "Ahmed Wali Karzai was killed at about 11.30am," General Abdul Razaq, Kandahar's chief of border police, said. "He was killed by his bodyguard inside his house." Officials said the assassin, named as Sardar Mohammed, reportedly Ahmed Wali Karzai's chief of security, ...
Uh Oh – Italy Is Coming Apart Like A 20 Dollar Suit
Post Date: 2011-07-11 17:24:04 by Capitalist Eric
3 Comments
Did anyone really think that Italy would be able to get through this thing without needing a bailout? Just when you thought that things in Europe could get back to normal for a little while, here comes Italy. On Friday, there was a bit of a "mini-panic" as investors started dumping Italian financial assets. European officials are concerned that the sovereign debt crisis that has ravaged Greece, Ireland and Portugal will now put the Italian economy through the wringer. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called an emergency meeting for Monday morning. He is denying that the meeting is about Italy, but everyone knows that Italy is going to be discussed. European Central ...
'Anonymous' Hackers Release 90,000 Military Emails And Logins
Post Date: 2011-07-11 16:58:15 by Brian S
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SNIP--- Update: Anonymous releases 90,000 military emails and passwords Hackers claiming to be part of Anonymous said this afternoon that they had released some 90,000 military email addresses and passwords stolen from the servers of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. "We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security measures in place," they wrote. "We were able to run our own application, which turned out to be a shell and began plundering some booty. Most shiny is probably a list of roughly 90,000 military emails and password hashes (md5, non-salted of course!). We also added the complete sqldump, compressed ~50mb, for a good measure." ...
Murdoch Tabloid Scandal Reaches 9/11 Victims, Ex-PM Gordon Brown
Post Date: 2011-07-11 16:53:38 by Brian S
9 Comments
The printing presses for News of the World may have fallen silent, but the tabloid remains at the top of the news agenda in Britain amid fresh allegations journalists targeted former prime Minister Gordon Brown and the families of 9/11 victims as part of the paper’s phone-hacking schemes. For more than 10 years, Brown was the target of News International journalists, who allegedly attempted to access his voicemail, obtain banking information, legal files and family medical records, the Guardian reports. Details surrounding Brown’s infant son’s battle with cystic fibrosis were allegedly stolen for a 2006 story that appeared in The Sun, another News International tabloid. ...
Pakistan Courts China as US Announces Military Aid Cuts
Post Date: 2011-07-11 12:58:31 by Brian S
2 Comments
Yesterday’s announcement that the US is withdrawing some $800 million in military aid from Pakistan looks to do more serious harm to US-Pakistani relations, but if administration officials expected the “rebuke” to be met with an act of contrition from the Pakistani military, they were mistaken. Rather, Pakistan’s military today insists that they don’t need the US military aid at all, and that the civilian government is the one more in need of help from abroad. Major General Athar Abbas, the military’s spokesman, also accused the US of trying to undermine the military leadership. But the US isn’t the only horse in the race to court the Pakistanis, and ...
Next Up: Pakistan - Ominous Signs Of A Major New War
Post Date: 2011-07-11 12:53:49 by Brian S
1 Comments
I see someone besides myself has noticed all the “leaking” going on in the upper echelons of Washington over our rocky relationship with Pakistan. Suddenly Islamabad is on the verge of being classified as part of the Axis of Evil, with the head of the joint chiefs, Admiral Mullen, openly accusing the Pakistanis of “sanctioning” the killing of a journalist, and allying with a faction of the Taliban. Since when does a military man – the titular uniformed head of the US armed force, no less – speak out on such sensitive political matters? Why, when he has the full backing of the White House – which obviously has plans for the Pakistanis. The new accusations ...
Assad Loyalists Storm US And French Embassies In Syria
Post Date: 2011-07-11 11:22:20 by Brian S
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Protesters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad briefly broke into the U.S. embassy in Damascus on Monday and security guards used live ammunition to prevent them storming the French embassy, diplomats said. No casualties were reported in the attacks but a U.S. official said Washington condemned Syria's slow response and its failure to the prevent the assault on its embassy. The attacks followed a visit by the U.S. and French ambassadors to the city of Hama last week in support of the hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators who have been gathering there despite attacks by Syrian forces. "We are calling in the Syrian charge (d'affaires) to complain," ...
Draft Mental Health Act, "public order disturbances" admitted to the provisions of Yin Zhengyi
Post Date: 2011-07-10 23:52:22 by A K A Stone
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All suggestions of mental health legislation to force heated debate with mental disorders treated in suitable conditions "Disturbing public order" admitted to the provisions of Yin Zhengyi June 10, concern the "Mental Health Law (Draft)" 26 years after the end of a long difficult birth available, the State Council Legislative Affairs Office on the draft opinion to the community in the assembly closed yesterday for the first time, the community in different ways participate in the discussion, Another number of professional organizations to submit a modified proposal. In addition to mental disorders in patients with involuntary hospitalization medical system, community ...
Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail a train accident caused 11 outages due to thunderstorms late trains
Post Date: 2011-07-10 23:31:10 by A K A Stone
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At 18:10 on the 10th Xu, Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway to Shanghai the direction of the G151 train failure. After emergency repairs in Shandong, 19:37 that night repair is completed, the current line has been restored. Reporters from the railway authorities learned that the preliminary investigation, the accident was mainly caused by a lightning storm a fault in the catenary. After the incident, the vehicle parked in Shandong emergency repairs. After more than 1 hour of repair, the line returned to normal. Affected, with varying degrees of follow-up the train late. Reporters learned from the Shanghai railway sector, as 22:30, a total of 11 trains delayed. (Reporters Guyuan Kun, Yang ...
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