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Latest Articles: International News
CRISIS IN EGYPT: Coptic Christians shoulder to shoulder with Muslims in Tahrir Square
Post Date: 2011-02-07 14:37:53 by Godwinson
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CRISIS IN EGYPT: Coptic Christians shoulder to shoulder with Muslims in Tahrir Square SONIA VERMA CAIRO— From Monday's Globe and Mail Published Sunday, Feb. 06, 2011 7:45PM EST Last updated Monday, Feb. 07, 2011 2:40AM EST At Sunday Mass in Tahrir Square, thousands of Christians swayed to the sound of hymns blasted from a pair of tired speakers, not far from a makeshift trauma unit used to tend to the injured and count the dead on earlier, more violent days. Above the faithful, an effigy of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak swung ever so gently in the breeze, dangling from a red noose that has already begun to fray. The mass, which followed a Muslim prayer, was dedicated to ...
Hussein Obama sees progress in Egyptian Islamic revolution
Post Date: 2011-02-07 13:58:47 by Happy Quanzaa
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Obama sees 'progress' on Egypt (AP) – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says Egypt is "making progress" toward a path forward out of the political crisis enveloping the country. Obama didn't elaborate Monday in response to a reporter's question on the talks taking place in Egypt, where Vice President Omar Suleiman met several major opposition groups for the first time Sunday. U.S. officials have indicated support for the talks, even though they don't meet protesters' demands for President Hosni Mubarak's immediate resignation. And some in Egypt see the U.S. support as contradicting Obama's repeated call for a ...
Torture Complaints Hit Bush On Ninth Anniversary Of Key Decision
Post Date: 2011-02-07 10:44:48 by Brian S
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Nine years ago today, the Bush administration decided that international law does not apply to prisoners of war. It was a watershed moment in US history, resulting in a policy of torture that pervaded and darkened the Bush years, and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. To mark that grim anniversary, two men who claim to have been victims of torture filed official complaints in Geneva, Switzerland, seeking a ruling on universal jurisdiction. If the court sides with their complaints, US President George W. Bush likely would not face arrest; he would not, however, enjoy free travel around the world. That was evidenced over the weekend, when the media speculated on why the former ...
State multiculturalism has failed, says David Cameron (Diversity sux) [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-02-06 12:09:53 by Hondo68
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David Cameron has criticised "state multiculturalism" in his first speech as prime minister on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism. At a security conference in Munich, he argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to all kinds of extremism. He also signalled a tougher stance on groups promoting Islamist extremism. The speech angered some Muslim groups, while others queried its timing amid an English Defence League rally in the UK. As Mr Cameron outlined his vision, he suggested there would be greater scrutiny of some Muslim groups which get public money but do little to tackle extremism. Ministers should refuse to share platforms or ...
Cheney calls Mubarak a good friend, U.S. ally
Post Date: 2011-02-06 10:31:02 by go65
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(CNN) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is a good friend and U.S. ally, but declined to predict whether the embattled leader would heed protesters' calls to step down. Cheney made the comments Saturday night at a ceremony honoring former President Ronald Reagan in Santa Barbara, California. Protesters have pledged to stay on the streets of Egyptian cities until Hosni Mubarak relinquishes power. Mubarak, who has led the north African nation for three decades, has said he will stay in power until September, and will not run for re-election. Cheney said the Egyptian leader should be treated with respect. "He has been a good man, a good ...
Egypt Protests: Muslim Brotherhood 'To Join Talks'
Post Date: 2011-02-05 20:39:06 by Brian S
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Egypt's most influential opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, says it will enter talks with officials on ending the country's political crisis. The group told Reuters the talks would begin on Sunday and would aim to assess how far the government was "ready to accept the demands of the people". The Brotherhood had earlier said it would not take part in the negotiations with Vice-President Omar Suleiman. President Hosni Mubarak has rejected protesters' demands that he quit now. He has said he will not seek re-election in elections in September, but huge crowds have been on the streets of Cairo and other cities in the past few weeks to demand his resignation. ...
Egypt Unrest: US Disowns Envoy (Wisner) Comment On Hosni Mubarak
Post Date: 2011-02-05 20:37:02 by Brian S
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The US state department has distanced itself from comments by a US special envoy, to the effect that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should stay in office during a power transition. Spokesman Philip Crowley said Frank Wisner's views were his own, and not co-ordinated with the US government. Hundreds of protesters are refusing to leave Cairo's Tahrir Square. Mr Mubarak has vowed to stand down in September. Earlier, he replaced the leadership of his ruling party. The entire politburo including his son Gamal lost their jobs. Hossam Badrawi, a reformer and top physician, took the post of head of the policies committee, held by Gamal Mubarak, and that of secretary-general. On ...
US envoy (Wisner): Mubarak has to lead Egypt to transition
Post Date: 2011-02-05 18:01:55 by Hondo68
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MUNICH (AP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's leadership remains crucial for now as the country heads into a transition to democracy, a U.S. envoy who met him this week said Saturday, cautioning that the situation remains precarious. Frank Wisner, who was dispatched to Cairo on Monday, said he is increasingly hopeful that Egypt can manage a peaceful and orderly transition to democracy. He said by video link from New York to a security conference in Munich that "the flexibility is there, the imagination is there." But he cautioned that "this is a very volatile and dangerous time." Wisner, a former ambassador to Egypt, said that the president's departure ...
PolitiFact: Rand Paul Says Israel's Per Capita Income "Is Greater Than Probably Three-Fourths Of The Rest Of The World."
Post Date: 2011-02-05 13:28:56 by Brian S
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House Republicans have released a plan to cut the budget, but Rand Paul says they need to cut even more. House GOP leaders proposed cuts of $58 billion per year. Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky and a tea party favorite, has a plan that cuts $500 billion. Paul's plan includes cutting all foreign aid, including about $3 billion in annual aid to Israel. Cutting aid to Israel has got some of his fellow conservatives unhappy, but Paul isn't backing down. "I'm not singling out Israel. I'm a supporter of Israel," Paul said. "I want to be known as a friend of Israel, but you can't give money you don't have. We can't just borrow from our ...
Russian-US New START Treaty To Take Effect Saturday
Post Date: 2011-02-05 13:03:06 by Brian S
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MUNICH, February 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian-American New START treaty is formally entering into force. This will happen after the representatives of the two signatories - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchange the instruments of ratification. The Lavrov-Clinton meeting, to be held in Munich on the sidelines of the Conference on Security Policy, has already been described by the participants as the key event of three days of discussions and consultations. In fact, this is an event of global proportions: the Treaty will determine the parameters of strategic nuclear weapons reductions for the next ten years. The agreement on measures for ...
Gaza Feeds Hungry Egyptian Troops In Role Reversal
Post Date: 2011-02-05 12:59:45 by Brian S
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Egyptian soldiers isolated on the Gaza border by 10 days of internal upheaval are getting bread, canned goods and other food supplies from the enclave, which is usually on the receiving end of food aid. A source in the border town of Rafah said security forces of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, had been providing the troops with supplies for the past three days. Israel has blockaded Gaza for over three years with the assistance of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government, and half the population depends on handouts of staples from the United Nations. With mass protests demanding Mubarak should quit, sources in Rafah said north Sinai was tense. Angry ...
Bush Cancels Switzerland Visit Under Threat Of Protests, Efforts To Arrest Him
Post Date: 2011-02-05 12:56:26 by Brian S
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By Bridget Johnson - 02/05/11 09:59 AM ET President George W. Bush has canceled an event in the famously neutral country Switzerland because of expected protests to his presence there. Bush was supposed to give the keynote address at a Jewish group's charity gala on Feb. 12 in Geneva. Leftist groups had planned to protest the visit, according to news agencies. But several human rights groups had also filed criminal complaints against Bush, demanding that he be taken into custody if he stepped on Swiss soil and investigated for allegations of ordering torture. A right-wing member of the Swiss parliament also demanded last week Bush's arrest on war crimes allegations if he came to ...
Crisis in Egypt Tests U.S. Ties With Israel
Post Date: 2011-02-05 01:01:31 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON — The demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak’s government in Egypt are rocking the relationship between the United States and its most important Arab ally. But they are also rocking an even more fundamental relationship for the United States — its 60-year alliance with Israel. Obama administration officials have been on the telephone almost daily with their Israeli counterparts urging them to “please chill out,” in the words of one senior administration official, as President Obama has raced to respond to the rapidly unfolding events. But the crisis raises many questions about how the United States will navigate its relationship with Israel ...
Frigid U.S., warm Arctic — what gives?
Post Date: 2011-02-04 21:21:19 by go65
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While much of the U.S. is seeing a wicked winter, the Arctic is going through just the opposite: January saw the least amount of sea ice for that month on record, plus the region's air temperatures are way above normal. So experts are asking themselves: are these two events intertwined? La Nina, the naturally occurring (i.e., not manmade) ocean cycle, is certainly a factor in terms of the precipitation coming off the Gulf of Mexico that's colliding with the cold Arctic air. But what's rare is the Arctic air moving so far south and in several rounds this winter. It's well documented that the Arctic has been warming much faster than other parts of the world in recent years, ...
Pro- and anti-regime gangs clash in streets off Cairo's Tahrir Square
Post Date: 2011-02-04 15:07:23 by Hondo68
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Government backers, left, holds signs in front of anti-government protesters, foreground, at Cairo's Talaat Harb Square.STORY HIGHLIGHTSBattles break out offstage on Egypt's "Day of Departure"Opponents and supporters of the president clash on side streetsSoldiers protect captured prisoners from angry protestersCairo, Egypt (CNN) -- What a difference a few city blocks can make. Crowds of thousands upon thousands of Egyptians demonstrated peacefully Friday, filling most of Cairo's sprawling and once besieged Tahrir Square. They played music on loud speakers, danced and chanted "down with the dictator" in a rally dubbed "Day of Departure." But down the ...
The Egyptian Uprising Is a Direct Response to Ruthless Global Capitalism
Post Date: 2011-02-04 14:43:27 by Ferret Mike
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Economic decline at the hands of 'hot' money has driven Egyptians' discontent. February 4, 2011 | The revolution in Egypt is as much a rebellion against the painful deterioration of economic conditions as it is about opposing a dictator, though they are linked. That's why President Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he intends to stick around until September was met with an outpouring of rage. When people are facing a dim future, in a country hijacked by a corrupt regime that destabilized its economy through what the CIA termed, "aggressively pursuing economic reforms to attract foreign investment” (in other words, the privatization and sale of its ...
US Plan: Replace Mubarak With Torture-Linked ‘CIA Point Man’
Post Date: 2011-02-04 11:48:08 by Brian S
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A US plan to see Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak leave office immediately is reportedly in the works and would see a transitional government formed by Mubarak's vice-president, a former head of Egypt's spy agency and an alleged "CIA point man" who facilitated the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorism suspects. US officials are discussing a plan with Egyptian officials that would see Mubarak quit immediately and hand over power to a transitional government run by Vice President Omar Suleiman, the New York Times reported Thursday. Even though Mr. Mubarak has balked, so far, at leaving now, officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in ...
U.S. Increases Pressure on Egypt Military to Accelerate Mubarak Departure
Post Date: 2011-02-04 11:41:51 by Brian S
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Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration is increasingly counting on the Egyptian military to contain violence in the country and help accelerate President Hosni Mubarak’s departure, as the U.S. braces for growing protests. President Barack Obama’s advisers have concluded that the longer Mubarak remains as Egypt’s head of government, the more strident the political opposition will become, according to specialists on the region consulted by the administration. The U.S. is pressing for a demonstration that Mubarak will surrender power soon as European leaders stepped up rhetoric warning the government against using supporters to intimidate protestors. Vice President ...
Iceland did it the Right Way
Post Date: 2011-02-03 21:09:23 by jwpegler
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Iceland did not bail out the banks or the bank investors and its economy is thriving, proving that the the US-Irish model of bailing out the banks with taxpayer money was harmful unless you were a wealthy bank investor On his second day as head of Iceland's third-largest bank, Arni Tomasson faced a crisis: The bank was out of cash. "Everybody was panicked -- depositors, creditors, banks around the world." Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country's banks, whose ...
Syria Again Holds The Strings In Lebanon
Post Date: 2011-02-03 19:39:32 by Brian S
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Lebanon's former powerbroker Syria has edged its way back into the heart of local politics, analysts say, after the militant Hezbollah and its allies toppled the Western-backed government of Saad Hariri. "Over the past six years, Syria has sought to regain its influence, step by step, until the time came when it could announce to the world that Lebanon was once again squarely in its hands," said Marwan Rowayheb, political science professor at the Lebanese American University. "The rift between the (Hariri) alliance in Lebanon and Syria all these years did not prevent the latter from retaining its political hegemony over Lebanon." Syria's political tug-of-war ...
Jordan Rediscovers Its Islamists As Potential Govt Partner
Post Date: 2011-02-03 19:38:22 by Brian S
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AMMAN - Jordan's new premier started consultations on Wednesday to form his government charged with passing reforms and meeting the demands of popular protests, despite objections from the Islamist opposition. "Maruf Bakhit will meet today and Thursday with Senate President Taher Masri and Lower House Speaker Faisal Fayez as well as heads of parliamentary blocs and committees," a member of his entourage said. "He will also hold discussions with heads of all political parties," mainly Islamist leaders as well as trade unions, the source added. "The composition of the new government should be announced Saturday or Sunday if the consultations go well," he ...
WikiLeaks Cables: Planned US Missile Shield Blind To Nuclear Weapons
Post Date: 2011-02-03 16:49:35 by Brian S
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A 2007 briefing by General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the US Missile Defence Agency, disclosed that the radar system would be unable to detect long-range missiles in the launch phase because it could only see in a straight line, not over the horizon. By the time the radar "saw" the missile, it would be too late to launch an interceptor in time to stop it striking its target. The Czech radar system was the lynch-pin of George Bush’s “son of star wars” missile defence plans, ostensibly intended to intercept missiles launched from North Korea and Iran. Russia reacted furiously to the proposed system, which it claimed could threaten its own defences and be ...
US Response To Egypt Draws Criticism In Israel
Post Date: 2011-02-03 16:48:20 by Brian S
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JERUSALEM (AP) - President Barack Obama's response to the crisis in Egypt is drawing fierce criticism in Israel, where many view the U.S. leader as a political naif whose pressure on a stalwart ally to hand over power is liable to backfire. Critics - including senior Israeli officials who have shied from saying so publicly - say Obama is repeating the same mistakes of predecessors whose calls for human rights and democracy in the Middle East have often backfired by bringing anti-West regimes to power. Israeli officials, while refraining from open criticism of Obama, have made no secret of their view that shunning Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and pushing for swift elections in ...
Mexico pulls the plug on Texas
Post Date: 2011-02-03 16:16:30 by Happy Quanzaa
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Mexico cancels offer to send electricity to Texas MEXICO CITY — Mexico said Thursday it was temporarily suspending an offer to provide electricity to Texas to help the U.S. state weather an ice storm that forced rolling blackouts, because of severe cold in Mexico's own territory. Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission had said Wednesday it had agreed to transmit 280 megawatts of electricity to Texas. But on Thursday, the commission said it was temporarily suspending the transfer because below-freezing temperatures in northern Mexico had affected the generating capacity of some its own plants, causing a reduction of about 1,000 megawatts in generation. The commission also ...
Danger of E.U. and North Africa Bank Runs 2011
Post Date: 2011-02-03 14:34:48 by Capitalist Eric
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This is a warning to prepare for potential stealth bank runs cascading from North Africa and Ireland through to EU regional banking centers. Stealth bank runs are the unrecognized and perilous serpent lurking presently below the European financial surface. They prey on slower moving archaic bond vigilantes and anyone else swimming in these dangerous uncharted waters. Investors need to fully appreciate that a modern bank run looks and operates differently than what is depicted in the movies and what we most likely expect to occur! For starters, it isn't the individual depositor lining up, it's now Corporate CFOs or Treasurers at their terminal en masse! Secondly, it isn't ...
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