just incorrigible

1. beware the winds of December

excerpt:

A recent article by the veteran and well-connected Israeli columnist, Alex Fishman, in the Hebrew language newspaper, Yediot Ahronoth, perhaps offers some insights into how Israelis may be speculating about such issues when he warns about "the approaching December winds”. These winds, Fishman tells us, will bring more and new revelations - not about Iran's nuclear ambitions - but about Syria's nuclear projects: the departure of Mohamed ElBaradei from the chair at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he states, will open the door to new IAEA demands to inspect two suspected nuclear sites in Syria.

Fishman notes that, following the surfacing last month in Germany of stories that Israeli special forces had been on the ground covertly in Syria, no one should be surprised if more evidence and photographs of the nuclear reactor, destroyed by Israeli air attack in September 2007, come to dominate the headlines in the Western press this December.

The "star" turn in this prospective public relations campaign is to be evidence proving a direct Iranian nuclear connection and finance for Syria's alleged nuclear project.

Fishman suggests that it suits "Israel's internal as well as foreign PR efforts" for the time being to play along with talk of peace between Israel and Syria; but that both the December campaign against Syria's alleged Iranian nuclear cooperation in the Western press, and the playing along with the Syrian peace track "are directly linked to negotiations" that the US is conducting with Iran. Fishman concludes that these could end in confrontation with Iran - "and also lead to a military strike", in which case, "whomsoever is in the Iranian camp will also get a pounding" - a reference to Syria.

read more @ asia times


2. Foreign Policy's first annual list of top 100 global thinkers --

NUMERO UNO: BEN BERNANKE

WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

for staving off a new Great Depression.

Chairman, federal reserve | Washington

The Zen-like chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve might not have topped the list solely for turning his superb academic career into a blueprint for action, for single-handedly reinventing the role of a central bank, or for preventing the collapse of the U.S. economy. But to have done all of these within the span of a few months is certainly one of the greatest intellectual feats of recent years. ... His key insight? The need for massive, damn-the-torpedoes intervention in financial markets. Winning over critics who have since praised his "radical" moves (including Nouriel Roubini, No. 4 on this list), he now faces an uphill battle in his bid for permanently expanded Fed powers. The radicalism is far from over.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/30/the_fp_top_100_global_thinkers



3. oh by the way, UN seeks US$7B for relief to give to the NGOs and other organizations who are very busy pretending to fix the problems that the think tanks dream up and the corrupt intelligence community make happen on the ground.

GENEVA - THE United Nations called on richer governments on Monday to provide a total of US$7.1 billion (S$9.83 billion) in 2010 to fund urgent humanitarian assistance for 48 million people in 25 countries.

It was the largest sum sought for such aid, in what is known as the annual Humanitarian Appeal, since the world body started making consolidated calls for funding to tackle crises in different parts of the world in 1991.

'Our aim is to help people survive the coming year, and start working their way out of vulnerability towards the dignity, safety and self-sufficiency to which every human being has a right,' said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.

Mr Ban's remarks, in a foreword to the text of the appeal issued in Geneva, was coupled with a call from his top humanitarian relief coordinator John Holmes for major governments not to cut aid because of the economic crisis.

Funds collected in the Consolidated Appeal Process are shared among some 380 aid organisations, including UN agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other international bodies working in the relief field.

All have worked together to compile the appeal and detail the needs of the countries and regions it targets, which include Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. -- REUTERS

source: straits times

is someone trying to provoke Russia into a fight?

1. Russia launches manhunt for train bombers

It remains unclear what motivated the attackers to strike the train, which is popular with well-off Russians and foreign tourists. A police spokesman expressed doubts about a message posted on the internet by a radical right-wing group claiming responsibility.

The chief of Russia's FSB security service had said earlier that the blast which derailed the train was caused by an improvised explosive device with the force of seven kilograms (15 lbs.) of TNT.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev had said police had evidence suggesting that several persons took part in the attack, and even gave a description of one of the suspects.

A second explosion occurred during rescue operations on Saturday, but no one was injured.

...Extremists from conflict regions in the northern Caucasus have been blamed for a string of attacks on other civilian targets in Russia, including planes and a bus.

2. murder on the Nevsky Express

Anna Arutunyan

Police were looking for a man and woman in a silver Lada on Monday in connection with the bomb blast that derailed the St. Petersburg-bound Nevsky Express train on Friday night, killing at least 26 people and injuring more than 90.

The attack - the deadliest Russia has seen in the last five years - included two blasts, but no one was harmed in the second, which coincided with visits from senior investigative officials.

Among those killed were Federal Reserve Agency chief Boris Yevstratikov and former senator Sergei Tarasov, chairman of the state company Avtodor.

A criminal investigation has been instigated under article 205 (terrorist attack). RIA Novosti quoted a source in the Novgorod law enforcement services as saying that police were looking for a man aged about 30 and a woman in a silver VAZ-2109. Earlier, police chief Rashid Nurgaliyev described one of the suspects as a stocky red-headed man about 40 years old.

The ultra-nationalist Combat 18 group claimed responsibility for the blast, Ekho Moskvy radio reported, but media reports also point to suspects connected to Chechen separatists.

...The second bomb, placed near an electric pole a few metres from the rail, went off at 2 pm on Saturday, just as Alexander Bastrykin, chief of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, was touring the scene of the previous blast.

...The blast had all the trappings of a previous attack on the same Nevsky Express on August 13, 2007, Kommersant reported. Then, 60 people were injured. Although extremist nationalists were initially suspected in the attack, two Ingush nationals, Maksharil Khidiyev and Salambek Dzakhiev, were arrested for bringing the explosives. They were said to have been acting on the orders of former military serviceman Pavel Kosolapov and Chechen militant warlord Doku Umarov, both of whom are subjects of an Interpol search.

Kosolapov was named as a possible suspect on Sunday, Kommersant reported, adding that he is also described as stocky and red-headed. But it had not yet been confirmed whether Umarov was linked to the latest blast, police sources said.

Incidentally, Khidiyev had insisted on his innocence in court until Nov. 26, the day before the latest blast, Gazeta.ru reported. That day, he admitted planting the explosives for the 2007 attack.

read more @ moscow news

3. Russia could take revenge with assault on Caucasus

THE SHOCK-WAVES from Friday night’s bomb attack on the Moscow-St Petersburg express will be felt far beyond Russia’s two main cities.

...No group has claimed responsibility for the atrocity, but suspicion is already focused on militants from the North Caucasus region, whose attacks on Russian targets are becoming more frequent and more audacious.

In the first nine months of this year, more than 420 people were killed in rebel attacks in the neighbouring republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, four times the number killed in the same period last year.

This year’s victims include senior police and army officers, local politicians and judges, and the militants came close to killing the Kremlin-appointed president of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, in a car bomb attack in June.

...Russia’s most prestigious train was targeted because it carried some 700 passengers between the nation’s biggest and most important cities, its political, economic and financial powerhouses, the home of its elite. Putin and Medvedev both hail from St Petersburg, and they have brought many allies from their home town to rule with them in Moscow.

The Nevsky Express was a soft target that carried considerable symbolic weight for Russians, and its destruction will feed political and public calls for severe measures against those responsible.

Ultranationalist groups have been mentioned as possible suspects, but they have never launched an attack on this scale. If, as expected, Caucasian rebels are ultimately blamed, then we may soon see Russian forces surging back into the region to crush them.

read more @ irish times



4. repost, possibly related: special IDF explosives lab attracts international experts

Over the past decade, a small compound of single-story buildings at the IDF base in Tel Hashomer has become a Mecca for munitions and explosives experts from the world over. These buildings host the materials laboratory for the experiments and quality assurance units at the technological division of the ground forces.

The lab is considered to be one of the world's top centers in the field of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a kind of weapon the IDF has been dealing with for decades, and which in the last few years began taking a high toll among American and British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

...Like other technological units of the IDF, the lab, too, complains of a shortage in qualified young people with technological background. Tuval is trying hard to persuade veteran officers to stay in the lab, while also hunting for recent immigrants from the former USSR with technical knowledge you can't learn in Israeli schools.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1129505.html



5. possibly related: Birobidjan - the original Jewish homeland

The reality, admitted even by Jewish sources such as the Encyclopedia Judaica, is that Birobidjan was a widely supported initiative to create a Jewish homeland, beginning in 1928 and formalised in 1934.

A large number of Jews took leading roles in the 1917 Russian Revolution, but while these were happy to submerge their Jewish identity into their Bolshevik identity, they recognised that there was a broader problem of how to deal with Russia's Jews.

The last thing the Bolshevik leaders wanted was for their new social experiment to be derailed by further outbreaks of the traditional hostility between Russians and Jews. So early plans to settle Jews in the Ukraine or Crimea were swiftly abandoned, due to adverse reactions from the existing local populations.

The region around Birobidjan by contrast was a large and virtually empty space, and an autonomous Jewish region was created amounting to 36,000 sq. km. This is almost the size of Switzerland (40,000 sq. km) and considerably larger in area than modern Israel (20,000 sq. km).

Far from Jews being forcibly exiled to Birobidjan, there were extensive worldwide efforts to promote this Soviet Jewish homeland project, including 'Ambidjan', the American Birobidjan Committee, whose officials included Albert Einstein and the prominent American Jewish author B.Z. Goldberg.

More than a thousand Jews from outside the Soviet Union emigrated to Birobidjan during the 1930s, though once the Zionist project neared fruition it overshadowed its Stalinist rival.

read more @ tellingfilms

crime and corruption news

1. Philippines: 25 murder charges filed against Ampatuan

Philippine prosecutors on Tuesday filed 25 counts of murder against a politician accused of leading an election-linked massacre of 57 people, officials said. The charges against Andal Ampatuan Jnr were filed in a court in the southern city of Cotabato, which has jurisdiction over the remote farming area where the slaughter occurred last week, said prosecutor Edilberto Jamora.

However authorities said they were looking to have the case heard outside of the southern Philippines because witnesses were extremely worried about intimidation or other repercussions from the extremely powerful Ampatuan clan. "They are reluctant to go to court and they fear for their safety and their families' safety," Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera told reporters in Manila. The Ampatuans, through the backing of their own private army and the support of President Gloria Arroyo's ruling coalition, have ruled the southern province of Maguindanao since 2001.

read more @ al manar tv



2. India: contract killers of Manipur

Hong Kong, China — Early this month a team of civil society activists visited Manipur, one of the most militarized states in India....

During their stay, they met Y. Joykumar Singh, the director-general of police, and expressed their concern about the number of extrajudicial executions reported from the state. Singh informed the team that in the past 10 months the police had killed over 260 persons in the state and that each of them was a terrorist, killed in an encounter with security forces.

This statement by the most senior police officer in the state defies common sense. ...

The fact is that many victims who fall prey to police gunfire are killed for reasons beyond security operations. For instance, on July 23, the Manipur State Commando Force killed two people in the capital Imphal in broad daylight. One was a young man and the other a woman, seven months pregnant and on her way to the hospital with her two-year-old son.

read more @ upi asia


3. Israel: Ohana brothers get life in prison

The Tel Aviv District Court on Monday sentenced underworld figures Rafi and Moshe Ohana to life in jail for their role in the murder of an alleged rival in Hod Hasharon in 2003.

The heads of the Kfar Saba-based crime family were convicted in early November of hiring contract killer Yaron Sanker to murder Haim Shabi, who was shot dead in a Hod Hasharon hair salon in 2003.

Sanker, who was convicted of the murder three years ago, was sentenced to two life sentences before he testified against the Ohana brothers and Sheetrit.

The brothers were also convicted, along with accomplice Charlie Sheetrit, of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit a crime. The court added an additional 20 years to Rafi Ohana's sentence, and an additional 10 years to Moshe's.

Police said the murder was part of a wave of killings in the Israeli underworld at the time, and that the Ohana brothers sought vengeance for the death of their brother Hanina, who was killed in the driveway of his Ganei Hatikvah home six months earlier.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1259243043183


4. London: beauty pageant scam, disenchantment

The beauty pageant was supposed to be the most memorable day of their lives. Yet, for the bevy of beauties gathered here, their dream of becoming beauty queens has turned into a somewhat surreal nightmare. Their anger is legitimate as the ceremony, which is taking place in London, proves itself as a magnificent showcase of unadulterated incompetence on the part of the organisers.

Their dreams of sequins, luxury hotels and champagne quickly turned into disenchantment as soon as the girls, aged between 18 and 28, got to London. “we were accommodated an hour away from the event venue. There was no one around to guide us. We were left on our own,” says one of the finalists. Thrown into dilapidated hotel rooms with “worn and leaky ceilings hanging from disrepair”, the contestants found themselves in a frightful situation. “Some of the girls wanted to leave!” says Binta. “Once, we found our bags in front of the hotel because the organisers of the Miss Guinea Europe pageant had not paid for the hotel”, she adds.

read more @ afrik.com



5. Moscow: scandal grows over Russian 'golden youth' car crash

Andy Potts

The Russian road-racing scandal which has gripped Geneva has thrown the spotlight onto the antics of Russia's so-called "golden youth".

With four young Russian citizens - one identified as the son of a wealthy construction magnate and two others believed to be the sons of flamboyant oligarch Telman Ismailov - apparently roaring through the villages around Lake Geneva at 220 kilometres an hour, the normally sedate Swiss are aghast.

And the imminent court appearance of 22-year-old Zia Babayev, a student at a Geneva university affiliated with Moscow State University, on suspicion of causing an accident which left a 70-year-old motorist severely injured, has also seen sharp criticism of the pampered classes back home in Russia.

Reports that three of the four men involved, students at a Geneva university affiliated with Moscow State University, were whisked out of Switzer­land by private jet in the aftermath of the crash has done little to appease many people furious that youngsters were careering out of control in a Bugatti Veyron, a Lamborghini Murciélago, a Mercedes SLR McLaren and a Porsche Cayenne Turbo.

It is, after all, a story which has everything - fast cars, money, a whiff of corruption and a brush with tragedy, washed down with a hint of booze.

read more @ moscow news


6. Thailand: police 'stonewalled' in murder case

Police investigating the murder of businesswoman Sunatthi Nuengchamnong are frustrated at a "lack of cooperation" from her lawyer. Her husband, Pol Maj Gen Piyachart Nuengchamnong, a former deputy Bangkok police chief, and the lawyer, whose name was not released by police, reported to Udomsuk police station yesterday.

They told investigators Sunatthi was involved in more than 30 business-related lawsuits as either a defendant or a complainant.

The investigators also questioned the woman's children.

Metropolitan Police Bureau deputy commissioner Arnat Kledmani said the lawyer appeared to be withholding information and did not give the investigators her full cooperation.

Her husband and children insisted Sunatthi had no personal conflicts, Pol Col Arnat said.

read more @ bangkok post

scientists...not helping

1. new device can track multiple people without sensors

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The world's first device capable of tracking multiple people without attached sensors is here, and scientists see in the invention opportunities for more efficient military training and warfare readiness.

Orlando-based Organic Motion computer vision company unveiled the tracking platform at the Interservice Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, the world's largest of its kind that opened Monday at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center.

Tracking devices have different uses, none more challenging than in a modern warfare scenario where soldiers can end up in dangerous, unpredictable situations and lose contact with their commanders, often with disastrous results.

The new motion tracking platform, OpenSTAGE, does not require participants to wear any attached devices, tags or sensors. The technology enhances the operations of a wide range of simulated training environments and is apparently effective in tracking multiple people at the same time, without special backgrounds or controlled environments.

read more @ upi asia



2. Antarctica may heat up dramatically as ozone hole repairs, warn scientists -- NOT THAT YOU CAN BELIEVE ANYTHING SCIENTISTS SAY ANYMORE.

The hole in the Earth's ozone layer has shielded Antarctica from the worst effects of global warming until now, according to the most comprehensive review to date of the state of the Antarctic climate. But scientists warned that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3C on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea-level increases of up to 1.4m.

The western Antarctic peninsula has seen rapid ice loss as the world has warmed, but other parts of the continent have paradoxically been cooling, with a 10% increase in ice in the seas around the region in recent decades. Many climate change sceptics have used the Antarctic cooling as evidence against global warming.

But John Turner of the British Antarctic Survey said scientists are now "very confident" that the anomaly had caused by the ozone hole above Antarctica. "We knew that, when we took away this blanket of ozone, we would have more ultra-violet radiation. But we didn't realise the extent to which it would change the atmospheric circulation of the Antarctic."

read more @ guardian

money and oil

1. Judge blasts bad bank, erases couples mortgage debt

A Long Island couple is home free after an outraged judge gave them an amazing Thanksgiving present -- canceling their debt to ruthless bankers trying to toss them out on the street.

Suffolk Judge Jeffrey Spinner wiped out $525,000 in mortgage payments demanded by a California bank, blasting its "harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive" acts.

The bombshell decision leaves Diane Yano-Horoski and her husband, Greg Horoski, owing absolutely no money on their ranch house in East Patchogue.

...

Spinner excoriated OneWest for repeatedly refusing to work out a deal, for misleading him about the dollar amounts at stake in the case, and for its treatment of the couple over months of hearings.

OneWest's conduct was "inequitable, unconscionable, vexatious and opprobrious," Spinner wrote.

read more @ ny post

2. the global oil scam -- 50 times bigger than Madoff

$2.5 Trillion - That’s the size of the global oil scam.

It’s a number so large that, to put it in perspective, we will now begin measuring the damage done to the global economy in "Madoff Units" ($50Bn rip-offs). $2.5Tn is 50 times the amount of money that Bernie Madoff scammed from investors in his lifetime, but it is less than the monthly excess price the global population is being manipulated into paying for a barrel of oil.

Where is the outrage? Where are the investigations?

Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), BP (BP), Total (TOT), Shell (RDS.A), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Societe Generale (SCGLY.PK) founded the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2000. ICE is an online commodities and futures marketplace. It is outside the US and operates free from the constraints of US laws. The exchange was set up to facilitate "dark pool" trading in the commodities markets. Billions of dollars are being placed on oil futures contracts at the ICE and the beauty of this scam is that they NEVER take delivery, per se. They just ratchet up the price with leveraged speculation using your TARP money. This year alone they ratcheted up the global cost of oil from $40 to $80 per barrel.

read more @ seeking alpha


3. Dubai, debt and a return to reality

excerpt:

As it turned out, we didn't have to wait five years or anything of the sort. Needing a further $10 billion in funding by the end of the year, the rulers of Dubai appear to have spoken again to their cousins in Abu Dhabi, only for the previous conditions - namely Dubai's corporate jewels to be handed over to the latter - to have been mentioned again.

We will probably never find out quite what happened in these negotiations, but the upshot of receiving $5 billion for the government of Dubai last Wednesday, November 25, appears to have been an immediate announcement of a "standstill" on the debts of the conglomerate Dubai World for a period of six months.

In the total debt pile of $59 billion attributed to Dubai World, a large amount comes under the name of Nakheel, the construction company behind some of the most iconic developments in the city, such as palm-shaped reclamation off the coast and a host of reclaimed islands in the shape of a map of the world.

The real trouble with the announcement though is that Nakheel has an Islamic bond (sukuk) due in the middle of December to the tune of $4 billion or so. This is almost sure to default because time is too short for investors to get together and agree to a standstill. Also, there is no specific clause such as "standstill" in the debt world, just an agreement to restructure.

At the weekend, the UAE's central bank said it stood behind the country's banks, easing some concern about a possible default by Dubai World. The Abu Dhabi-based central bank of the UAE said lenders would be able to borrow using a special facility tied to their current accounts, Bloomberg reported.

read more @ asia times


4. Islamic finance is growing at a phenomenal pace

Muhammed Al-Jasser, governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), is the new kid on the block, taking over as the new Saudi banking regulator in April this year. With his stint as an IMF executive director for Saudi Arabia and his postgraduate education in the US, he has indeed become a sophisticated and savvy operator.

He brims with confidence and he talks the talk and walks the walk as the gatekeeper of the Saudi financial and economic sector, potentially one of the most influential in global finance because of its huge petrodollar surpluses and the fact that the Kingdom is the world's largest oil producer and exporter, and as such exercises a vital role as swing producer in global oil market dynamics.

...

What was disappointing is the lack of clarity with regards to Islamic finance regulation and supervision. Although his remarks pertaining to the permissibility of things unless they are shown to contravene Islamic principles are accurate, its application to a modern scientific and systemic financial system is implicit.

As the Malaysians have shown with their dual banking model, this has to be ingrained in the financial regulatory and legal framework of a jurisdiction. There is no other way expect the entire Islamization of the banking system which has failed in countries such as Pakistan, Sudan and Iran, because of the global nature of finance, the implications for cross-border financing especially correspondent banking, and the sheer dominance of the interest-based system. Pakistan has since adopted the Malaysian dual banking model, which only a few weeks ago was enshrined in Malaysian law by the government of Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak.

The implications of Al-Jasser's remarks effectively rule out a stand alone Islamic banking law in the Kingdom, and a separate but equally rigorous supervisory regime for Islamic financial institutions, to take into account the specificities and special characteristics of Islamic finance. The governor's views may also be perceived as a slap in the face for the Malaysian model, which most Islamic finance market players agree is the most systemic and advanced approach to regulating and supervising the sector.

read more @ arab news

flu psyop causes whiplash

1. WHO consistently downplaying dangers of mutated flu strains

Lee stated that D225G is currently circulating worldwide and by stealth since most samples that are being collected are from the upper respiratory tract, while D225G is mostly affecting in the lowest portions of the lungs. "This strain is specifically attacking the inferior [lowest] portion of the lungs which is the largest and most critical pulmonary branch...it is almost as if the virus knows where to most effectively kill its host."

On November 17th, the WHO lied to the world by stating:

"Preliminary tests reveal no significant changes in the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus based on investigations of samples taken from patients in Ukraine....Preliminary genetic sequencing shows that the virus is similar to the virus used for production of the pandemic influenza vaccine, reconfirming the vaccine's efficacy at this time."

The comments were made after sequences had been generated which showed that four of four fatal cases in Ukraine had the receptor binding domain change D225G. This change had been predicted because it is the type of change expected for the large number of deaths which were linked to the rapid destruction of both lungs. The failure of WHO to consider such a change significant raises serious concerns about the agency's credibility and scientific underpinnings.

The failure of WHO to correctly report on the receptor binding domain after the sequences had been generated destroys confidence in the agency at a most crucial time. In addition to targeting of the lungs and a reduction in vaccine efficiency, Tamiflu resistance is on the rise and one of the fatal D225G cases in France has additional viral changes which raise concern at a time when WHO is posting situation updates which are not credible.

read more @ prevent disease


2. Russia could withdraw from WHO over swine flu corruption

A Russian deputy of the Duma has called for Russia to withdraw from the WHO if an investigation into the alleged collusion between the WHO and pharmaceutical companies on the swine flu scandal proves to be accurate, according to reports in the European media.

Igor Barinov, Member of the Commission of the State Parliament (Duma) in Charge of Corruption, said that there needed to be an investigation into whether experts advising WHO received money from pharmaceutical industry and whether this influenced WHO to declare a pandemic level 6 emergency for the first time in 40 years in spite of the fact that the swine flu is neither lethal nor spreading rapidly.

Danish journalists belonging to "Information" concluded that the swine flu could be the biggest case of corruption in our era after examining links between experts of WHO and the pharmaceutical companies.

read more @ the flu case

3. WHO linked scientists mixing swine flu and bird flu to create deadly virus -- in 2009

INTENT ON CREATING A DEATH VIRUS

Swine flu and bird flu viruses are being mixed together by French professor , Bruno Lina, affiliated with WHO, potentially creating a lethal virus writes Ester Nordland on the internet news site Norway Health.

Lina and his team are carrying out this research into creating a lethal bioweapon under the pretext of having to predict the course of a future pandemic.

http://www.siste.no/Innenriks/helse/article4726428.ece

In one of the safest laboratories in the world, scientists are intent on mixing one of the most contagious viruses in this world with one of the most deadly ones, she writes. The goal is to find out whether swine flu and bird flu can end up as a deadly mixture, writes the Norwegian news agency ANB.

Swine flu (H1N1) is very contagious, but ends up only killing a minority of the persons who actually get the flu.

Bird flu (H5N1), on the other hand, kills more than 60 percent of its human victims, but only in rare cases spreads from person to person.

Should those two viruses mix or mutate, a new horror virus might appear: A virus as devastating as the avian flu virus and as contagious as the swine flu virus.

read more @ the flu case


4. FLASHBACK: NOTHING NEW: January 2004: CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study

Jan 14, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – One of the worst fears of infectious disease experts is that the H5N1 avian influenza virus now circulating in parts of Asia will combine with a human-adapted flu virus to create a deadly new flu virus that could spread around the world.

That could happen, scientists predict, if someone who is already infected with an ordinary flu virus contracts the avian virus at the same time. The avian virus has already caused at least 48 confirmed human illness cases in Asia, of which 35 have been fatal. The virus has shown little ability to spread from person to person, but the fear is that a hybrid could combine the killing power of the avian virus with the transmissibility of human flu viruses.

Now, rather than waiting to see if nature spawns such a hybrid, US scientists are planning to try to breed one themselves—in the name of preparedness.

read more @ CIDRAP


5. the resulting confusion of all the mixed messages: H1N1 vaccine clinics causing riots in France

Things have changed extremely quickly. The days of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories have evaporated into thin air in the space of just one week, replaced by crowds of worried people clamouring to be vaccinated and overwhelming vaccination stations and their staff.

This situation has come about because of the sudden and dramatic rise in infection rates and, with it, the sudden and dramatic rise in the number of dead, particularly among the young.

read more @ prevent disease



6. CONTINUING the process to discredit people who question the authorities: New England Journal of Medicine: THE EMOTIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGY OF H1N1 INFLUENZA VACCINE




Six months have passed. Flu season is now here. After repeated delays, H1N1 vaccine finally arrived in our clinic earlier this month to the uniform relief of the medical staff. But my formerly desperate patients were now leery. "It's not tested," they said. "Everyone knows there are problems with the vaccine." "I'm not putting that in my body."

I was unprepared for this response, but maybe I shouldn't have been. For weeks now, in the schoolyard of my children's elementary school, other parents had been sidling up to me, seemingly in need of validation. "You're not giving your kids that swine flu shot, are you?" they'd say, their tone nervous, if a bit derisive.

How to explain this dramatic shift in 6 short months? It certainly isn't related to logic or facts, since few new medical data became available during this period. It seems to reflect a sort of psychological contagion of myth and suspicion.

Just as there are patterns of infection, there seem to be patterns of emotional reaction ("emotional epidemiology") associated with new illnesses. When 2009 H1N1 influenza was first detected, it fit a classic pattern that Priscilla Wald recently outlined in her book Contagious1: It was novel and mysterious; it emerged from a teeming third-world city, and it was now making its insidious — and seemingly unstoppable — way toward the "civilized" world.


YES DOCTOR IT'S CALLED PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS. AND YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. - ed.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp0911047


7. Science is Broken -- great site covering many topics

Power mongering, incompetence and lack of accountability have reduced science to a propaganda machine which promotes agendas. Overview

Carbon dioxide shows how scientists are forced to submit to a fake consensus. Several years ago, most scientists said humans are not the cause of global warming; now they are afraid to speak out. How the Firing Works

Journalists can describe a dispute but cannot tell you which side is right. You have to look at the basics to determine which side is right. So I describe the basics in terms the public can understand.

Why do I call everything fraud? Those of us who live this subject and understand it see fraud which cannot be trivialized. Tim Ball, Climatologist, explains why fraud is the term for it in this article: Hacked files of the Climatic Research Unit, Global Warming a deliberate fraud

more here

terrorists

1. Somali training camps fuel threat of attacks on US -- cartoon terrorist school

The recruits gather in scorching desert hideouts in Somalia, use portraits of President Barack Obama for target practice, learn how to make and detonate bombs, and vow allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

Training camps in the lawless nation of Somalia are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to al-Qaida, according to local and U.S. officials. American officials and private analysts say the camps pose a security threat far beyond the borders of Somalia, including to the U.S. homeland.

In interviews with The Associated Press, former trainees gave rare details on the camps, which are scattered along desert footpaths, rutted roads and steamy coastal dens. They say the recruits are told the United States is the enemy of Islam.

U.S. and Somali officials say Somalia's al-Shabab jihadist, or holy war, movement is growing, and uses foreign trainers with battlefield experience from other conflicts.

The threat posed by the training camps was underscored in federal court documents unsealed Nov. 23 in Minneapolis, home to a large Somali-American community. An indictment against several Somali-Americans who allegedly fought in Somalia said trainees at one camp included dozens of ethnic Somalis from Somalia and other African countries, Europe and the United States.

"The trainees were trained by, among others, Somali, Arab, and Western instructors in ... small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and military-style tactics," said an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Michael N. Cannizzaro Jr. that was unsealed with the indictment.

read more @ taiwan news


2. Somali pirates (well-trained of course by their Western instructors) hijack oil-tanker going to US -- notice how the threats in these AP stories are always pretty huge

Somali pirates seized a tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States in the increasingly dangers waters off East Africa, an official said Monday, an attack that could pose a huge environmental or security threat to the region.

The Greek-owned Maran Centaurus was hijacked Sunday about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) off the coast of Somalia, said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force. Harbour said there were 28 crew members on board the 300,000-ton ship.

Pirates have increased attacks on vessels off East Africa for the millions of dollars of ransom that can be had. Though pirates have successfully hijacked dozens of vessels the last several years, Sunday's attack appears to be only the second ever on an oil tanker.

read more @ taiwan news


3. Italy takes command of UNIFIL maritime task force

UNIFIL Maritime Task Force (MTF) underwent on Monday a transfer of command from Germany to Italy for the next six months, UNIFIL said in a statement.

In a ceremony aboard German flagship FGS Schleswig-Holstein at Beirut Harbour, Rear Admiral Paolo Sandalli of Italy assumed command from Germany's Rear Admiral Jürgen Mannhardt.

UNIFIL Commander Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano paid special tribute to Germany for its competent leadership of MTF over the past months. He also praised the Lebanese navy's performance.

"The combined employment of LAF-navy patrol craft and coastal radar in interdiction operations, the navy's involvement in hailing merchant vessels and in the boarding and inspection of suspicious vessels at sea, including at night, have significantly contributed to securing Lebanese maritime borders," Graziano said.

UNIFIL-MTF assists the Lebanese navy in securing the territorial waters and helping prevent the unauthorized entry of arms or related material by sea into Lebanon.

Since the start of its operations on 15 October 2006, MTF has hailed around 28,000 ships and referred nearly 400 suspicious vessels to the Lebanese authorities for further inspections, the UNIFIL press release said.

Following Monday's command changeover, UNIFIL-MTF will now comprise naval units from Germany (3 ships), Greece (1 ship), Italy (1 ship) and Turkey (1 ship).

source: naharnet news desk


4. RELATED: Israel recently complained about SPAIN being scheduled to take over UNIFIL from Italy

October 30, 2009: Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak cancelled a visit to Spain next week amid alleged disagreements between the two nations over the command of UNIFIL.

Barak was scheduled to meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Defense Minister Carme Chacon during his two-day visit which had been scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

The visit will no longer take place due to "agenda reasons," a Spanish foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday.

The Israeli embassy in Spain said in a statement that Barak had cancelled his visit "due to an unexpected trip" that he must make to the United States "in the coming days."

This change in his schedule "has no relation with the reports in various media on the change of command at the head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon," it added.

Israel has asked Italy to try to remain at the head of the 13,000-strong UNIFIL force for at least another six months, rather than handing over to Spain as planned, a senior Israeli official told AFP in Israel on Thursday.

Asked about the affair on Friday, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega denied there was any dispute with Israel and she referred journalists to the "clarifying press release" issued by the Israeli embassy.

She said Barak told Moratinos in a telephone conversation that Israel was "very pleased with the work of Spanish forces" that are taking part in UNIFIL and would be "very happy" to see them take charge of the forces.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

source: lebanon news


5. according to sources, Iran to up naval presence in Gulf -- Iranian naval forces described as guerrilla pirates with motivating concepts 'similar' to patriotism but not quite the same

A US Intelligence report on Iran published last week disclosed that the Islamic republic was reinforcing its naval presence in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, various sources reported on Monday.

The reports highlighted the growing divergence between Iran's Shah-era navy, the IRIN, and the more modern, better equipped Revolutionary Guard navy - the IRGCN, favored by the country's leadership as a key security force.

"Public statements by Iranian leaders indicate that they would consider closing or controlling the Strait of Hormuz if provoked," said the report, adding that although they were due to undergo an overhaul, Iran's naval forces were adequately "equipped to defend against perceived external threats."

The report also outlined Iran's movement toward guerrilla, irregular and asymmetrical warfare on the naval front. After the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the Islamic republic decided to forsake traditional sea combat for hit-and-run attacks utilizing "surprise, speed, maneuverability and deception," possibly having realized "the consequences of technological inferiority," it said.

...Being deeply rooted in the Islamic Revolution, the IRGCN and Teheran's naval strategy were said by the report to be influenced by "a culture of jihad and martyrdom," which gives fighters "extra motivation, similar to the concept of patriotism."

...It is estimated that the IRGCN currently possesses anti-ship cruise missiles such as the C-802 - one of which hit the INS Hanit during the Second Lebanon War - as well as attack submarines, patrol boats, rocket launchers, missile boats, torpedoes, mines, SAM systems, surface-air artillery and other armaments, mostly produced in China and Russia.

jpost: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1259243039417



6. Swiss daily: Israel eavesdropped on UN session over Hariri's assassination

A Swiss newspaper said that a number of UN employees in Geneva have concluded that Israel is eavesdropping on UN court sessions. The Neue Zuericher Zeitung (NZZ) added that bugging devices have been found in the organization’s deliberations room in the Swiss capital.
The newspaper pointed that during regular maintenance procedures on the electrical network, three years ago, two bugging devices were found in a room set for the UN Disarmament Committee meetings. It added that ‘secret’ meetings were also held in the room over the Second Gulf War and the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. NZZ revealed that other spying devices have also been found in other parts of the building, including courtrooms. The daily quoted UN employees as saying that Israel was behind planting the devices. UN security experts estimate that the planting process might have taken at least two days with the collaboration of UN employees. An expert in intelligence affairs told NZZ that the “technical level of the [spying] system and the great danger inherent in it, indicates that the planting decision was taken at the highest [Israeli] level.” The Neue Zuericher Zeitung said that only seven countries could have been behind the incident: The United States, Britain, France, Chinaa, Russia, North Korea, and Israel. “If I had to estimate which country was behind it, I would say Israel,” an intelligence officer told NZZ.

A European diplomat supported the conclusion saying: “I’ve always been amazed at the level of good information the Israeli mission posses.” The Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth, quoted Israeli diplomats as denying any connection to the issue.

source: al manar


7. Afghan teenagers claim abuse at US occupation military prison

Two Afghan teenagers held in US detention north of Kabul this year said they were beaten by US occupation guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep and held in solitary confinement in concrete cells, The Washington Post reported late Friday.

The newspaper said the teenagers had been held in these cells for at least two weeks while undergoing daily interrogation about their alleged links to the Taliban.

The accounts could not be independently substantiated, the report said. But in successive, on-the-record interviews, the teenagers presented a detailed, consistent portrait suggesting that the abusive treatment of suspected insurgents has in some cases continued under the administration of President Barack Obama, the paper noted.

read more @ al manar

invoking the rule of law

1. powerful Filipino clan says innocent in massacre

The Ampatuans held a rare news conference Sunday to again deny any responsibility in the killings.

Zaldy Ampatuan, governor of a Muslim autonomous region that includes Maguindanao, said his family has hired a battery of lawyers to defend his brother. While he spoke at the clan's mansion in Maguindanao's capital of Shariff Aguak, hundreds of followers rallied outside, waving placards that read, "They are not killers."

Ampatuan said he and his father, who have also been linked to the savage killings, were innocent.

He appealed to the public to respect the law and not prejudge his brother, adding he will resist a plan by Arroyo's interior secretary to suspend him and other officials of the vast region that he heads.

"We have been prejudged," Ampatuan told reporters in his family's mansion, where about 30 town mayors gathered to show support.

read more @ taiwan news


2. mayor ordered massacre

MANILA - A PHILIPPINE politician ordered soldiers, police and other gunmen to kill at least 57 defenceless people in a horrifying slaughter that saw women shot in the genitals, the government alleged on Friday.

In the most detailed account yet of Monday's election-linked massacre, which has sent shockwaves through the South-east Asian nation, an emotional Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said female victims may have also been raped.

'It was horrible. I cannot begin to describe it,' Ms Devanadera told the GMA television network, recounting what she had seen of the bodies as well as the testimony of many of those who had taken part in the killings.

Ms Devanadera said the witnesses told prosecutors that local mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr ordered his private militia of more than 100 gunmen to open fire on the group of people on a remote farming area in the southern Philippines.

The gunmen had a short time earlier abducted a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival Muslim politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, plus a batch of local journalists.

Fifty seven bodies have since been recovered from shallow graves in the killing fields close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name. At least 22 of the victims were women, police said earlier. Twenty-seven victims were journalists and 15 were motorists who were driving past the area at the wrong time, all of whom were apparently killed to eliminate witnesses. -- AFP

source: straits times


3. massacre taped, says vice mayor -- what will happen to the tape???

MANILA, Philippines—One of the 57 victims of the massacre in Maguindanao made a secret audio recording of the horrifying slaughter blamed on Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town, who is detained at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) headquarters in Manila.

“Police told me they have recovered the recording device,” said Esmael Mangudadatu, who lost his wife, two sisters and an aunt in Monday’s attack in the Maguindanao town named after the powerful Ampatuan clan, a close ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Mangudadatu said he had asked one of his sisters to hide the tape recorder in her sock when his wife and female relatives were about to leave for a local election office, accompanied by at least 30 journalists, to file his certificate of candidacy for provincial governor in next year’s election.

“I asked her to turn it on as soon as they left,” Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan town, told dzMM radio. “It has a capacity of 288 hours or 12 days.”

He said he did not join the convoy because of threats to his life.

There was no independent confirmation of the existence of the recording. Police investigators have said they cannot reveal the details of some of the evidence they have collected.

Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera on Friday said it was possible the women were all raped before they were killed. Police said the recovered cadavers included those of 22 women.

Mangudadatu’s rival for the post, Ampatuan Jr., and more than 100 armed followers stopped the six-vehicle convoy before shooting everyone dead, according to indictments released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday that charged Ampatuan with murder.

Police later recovered 57 bodies, many of them buried in mass graves beneath a mechanical digger with the name of the suspect’s father, Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., printed on its side.

DoJ handling evidence

Among the dead were 30 media people.

Asked about the audio recording, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno told the Inquirer in a text message that evidence was being handled by the secretary of justice and did not elaborate.

In a separate text message Sunday night, Chief Supt. Raul Castañeda, of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said the Mangudadatus had not turned over any audio recording of the attack.

“They went to the NBI or DoJ,” he told the Inquirer.

Sources in the DoJ and National Bureau of Investigation said they had yet to receive the audio tape referred to by Mangudadatu.

“We have yet to receive that kind of evidence,” a DoJ source said in a telephone interview.

Prosecutor Edilberto Jamora of General Santos City indicated it was too early to reveal the evidence gathered so far. He also said that this information was still “off limits” to reporters.

11 witnesses

In a separate phone interview, CIDG head investigator Senior Supt. Ericson Velasquez said his office was expecting 11 witnesses to arrive from Maguindanao on Monday.

When asked if they were all policemen, Velasquez replied: “Not necessarily ... but these witnesses can shed light on what took place before the massacre.”

The witnesses will be escorted by policemen to ensure their safety, he added.

Earlier, military and police authorities completed the accounting and the documentation of 429 high-powered rifles issued to four deactivated special companies of armed civilians in Maguindanao.

PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa has suspended all gun-carrying privileges issued to civilians in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City.

The Civil Security Group (CSG) has revoked all gun licenses issued to Ampatuan Jr. on orders of Verzosa, Chief Supt. Ireno Bacolod told the Inquirer over the phone Sunday.

Records from the PNP Firearms and Explosives Division showed that Ampatuan owned four .45 cal. pistols, two 9 mm pistols, three .40 cal. pistols, two .380 cal. guns, a .357 and 5.77 mm handguns, four shotguns and two high-powered rifles.

Under the standard operating procedure, these firearms are now subject to forfeiture, Bacolod said. With reports from Agence France-Presse, Jocelyn R. Uy and Norman Bordadora

source: the inquirer



4. in Russia -- police issue description of train blast suspect

One of the main suspects in an attack on a Moscow-St. Petersburg train that killed at least 26 people was described by the Interior Minister on Saturday as "over 40, stocky and ginger-haired."

Russia's federal security chief earlier said that an explosive device equivalent to 7 kg of TNT caused Friday evening's deadly derailment. Traces of explosives have been found at the scene and prosecutors have opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism.

"There is information to suggest that several people were involved," Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev also told journalists. He said that a person who supplied information on the suspects was being sought.

read more @ ria novosti

It's notable how reserved the coverage over this attack has been -- not too much speculation over who is responsible. What a contrast from the usual knee-jerk blaming Muslim terrorists al Qaeda crowd that we typically hear. - ed.

Chinese investments

1. Wen attends 12th China-EU summit in Nanjing

China to increase imports from Europe to address trade imbalance
China, EU promote trade, investment
China, EU should show great foresight in shaping future
China urges EU to relax export control over high-tech products
China welcomes EU pledge of 57 million Euros for near-zero emissions coal project
Chinese premier addresses 5th China-EU business summit
Chinese premier meets Swedish prime minister

read these stories @ chinaview


2. China, Brazil should tap potential for cooperation

MANAUS, Brazil, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- China and Brazil should work to tap the potential for cooperation and take advantage of their economic complementarity to help achieve economic prosperity of both countries, top Chinese political adviser Jia Qinglin said on Sunday.

Jia, who is in Amazonas state as part of his visit to Brazil, said at a meeting with state governor Carlos Eduardo de Souza Braga that Amazonas, with a strong economy and Brazil's sole free trade area, has been the destination of investment by some Chinese companies, which have based their production here and sold products in Brazil and to other parts of South America.

...Amazonas' trade with China accounts for 20 percent of the total trade between Brazil and China, and China has become the primary source of foreign investment and tourists to Amazonas, he said.

read more @ chinaview

3. China's Wuhan to invest $400m in Brazil Miner MMX

SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- China's Wuhan Iron & Steel Group agreed to invest $400 million in Brazilian miner MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA (MMXM3.BR), MMX said Monday in a statement.

Under the terms of the agreement, Wisco, as the Chinese company is widely known, will acquire a 21.52% stake in MMX through a private issue of shares. MMX will also export iron ore to Wisco as part of the deal.

The 20-year iron ore sales and purchase agreement could represent a total volume of 16 million metric tons of iron ore from MMX's Sudeste system, with initial shipments to start in April 2010, MMX said.

read more @ morningstar

gold, dubai, india

1. Bob Chapman: investors buy gold

excerpt:

As we look back some years from now when most of us will be in the Elysian Fields, history will comment on America a nation run by common criminals. Many of you know who they are, and those who do not are about to find out. Richard Nixon rolled for the Illuminati on 8/15/71 by taking us off the gold standard. In the year 1987 we were beset upon by the master criminal Alan Greenspan. He was later joined by other Illuminists, including Robert Rubin and Ben Bernanke and many others too numerous to mention. All of these immoral, diabolical people have destroyed our financial system and they did it deliberately to enrich themselves and to bring about world government. Others throughout the world have seen this period of looting since WWII and want to bring an end to it, but heretofore have been threatened with extinction if they disagreed with these illuminated masters of the universe. That time for the end to begin is fast approaching and the elitists are well aware of that, thus, the final push for one-world government. The process of dumping dollar denominated assets has been moving forward for the past few years. They are being exchanged for many things, but gold is the most important. Foreigners are tired of receiving constantly depreciating dollars for their goods and services. They also do not want US bonds and mortgage paper. Incidentally, the current high absorption of US government debt by foreign central banks is by a handful of banks that are being fed money and credit by our Federal Reserve. The funds to buy this paper are being supplied by our privately owned Federal Reserve. The eventual redemption will be met by further depreciated dollars until such time as there is official devaluation. That is why china, Russia, Brazil, Iran, India and others are dumping dollars. The only time they hold or buy is when they need to devalue their own currencies. A good example is the Chinese Yuan, which is unchanged for the past year as the dollar dropped from 89.5 to 75.50 just since early May.

Next comes the scandals. In the forefront are the tungsten bars coated with gold discovered by the Chinese several weeks ago, which has been blacked out in the elitist owned media. The bars were held and delivered from London and believed to be from the ETF-GLD, which received them from the US government. Our question is how much gold held by the US government is a fraud? Is GLD a fraud? Is SLV a fraud? Why can’t London OTC gold dealers deliver gold and have to borrow it from the Bank of England? Why does Comex not have gold to deliver and has to borrow it from Canada and the ECB? When is the CFTC going to stop the short side concentration in gold and silver? When is the SEC going to stop black box front-running and naked shorting? Once these factors assert themselves will the system break down and finally will some of these crooks go to jail? Wall Street, banking and our government continue to steal from the American people with the assistance of the Federal Reserve. Is it no wonder that 75% to 80% of Americans want the Fed audited? We must also keep in mind that the public still only knows a fraction of what has been done to them. They know little about front running, naked shorting or bogus gold bars, thanks to our media. Criminals are doing 20 to 30 years for much less than what these crooks have done and the core, the heart of the mechanism, springs from the Federal Reserve. The Fed is the center from which the fraud emanates.

...Another factor not yet considered is when will those who were involved in the tungsten gold bar caper be exposed? Who created the bars and then sold them? It is a scandal that is really an afterthought to the massive physical buying in the marketplace, particularly by the Chinese and Indians.

read more @ global research



2. India could buy rest of IMF gold on offer

REUTERS VIA MINE WEB

An Indian financial newspaper report suggests that the country is considering buying the remainder of the IMF gold currently up for sale over and above the 200 tonnes it has already bought.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - India is open to buying more gold from the International Monetary Fund following its purchase of 200 tonnes earlier this month, the Financial Chronicle newspaper said on Wednesday, helping to drive gold prices to an all-time high.

But India's central bank governor, Duvvuri Subbarao, declined to comment on whether the bank would buy more gold from overseas, however.

The paper said that subject to acceptable conditions, India's central bank could well buy the balance of the initial 403.3 tonnes, or one-eighth of the IMF's total gold holdings, that the Fund had planned to sell.

read more @ pimpin turtle


3. Gordon Brown attempts to play down global impact of Dubai crisis

Gordon Brown claimed today that the Dubai financial crisis would not cause major damage to the global economy.

The prime minister said this morning that Dubai's problems were "a setback", during a summit meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Trinidad and Tobago. "My own view is the world financial system is stronger now and able to deal with the problems that arise," said Brown.

"I think we will find it is not on the scale of previous problems we have dealt with. I think global recovery has depended on monetary action and fiscal stimulus," he added.

Brown also said that he had spoken to senior figures in Dubai, and was confident that their plans to redevelop the ports they own in the UK would still go ahead.

"The world economy has put in place mechanisms by which when a problem starts in one country we are in a far better position to monitor it and to gauge the effects," Brown said in Port of Spain.

read more @ guardian



4. Robert Fisk: India may hold whip hand in this power game

There are, however, two basic truths about Dubai which, predictably, have not found their way into market speculation or newspaper analysis. The first is that Dubai may soon find itself a satellite not of its Abu Dhabi capital but of India. The biggest merchants in Dubai are Indian – they run the gold market, even the bookshops in Sheikh Mohamed's playpen – and west India is only two hours' flying time away. In fact, until 1962 – and you have to be an oldie to understand the emirates' economic world – the Indian rupee was the currency for most of the Gulf, including even Kuwait.

...

But deep in their golden mosques, the ruling family are asking themselves some serious questions this Islamic holiday. Why was the call for a moratorium on debt so crudely and unprofessionally put together?

As one fine source – Independent readers must take on trust how high up the ladder he is, but he should have known of this announcement and didn't – said privately last night: "It came as a shock and a surprise to everybody, not only to me but to anyone I know. All the information I had till yesterday was that everything was in hand. We had the finding for everything coming due this year – there was the $10 billion [£6 million] issued back in February and then nearly $8 billion over the past month – the money's there.

"So it's a puzzle, particularly since it was very clear, to people who knew, that the bond coming due in December was a litmus test. Everyone was planning to repay it. The people of Abu Dhabi didn't know this was going to happen. The market did not expect anything like this."

read more @ independent

5. scientists: South African gold reserves are 90% lower than thought

Research shows that production rates should fall permanently below 100 tonnes a year within the coming decade

JOHANNESBURG - The apparent bottom line in a paper published in the South African Journal of Science is that South Africa's gold industry is on final deathwatch, despite claims of massive existing below-ground reserves. Chris Hartnady, research and technical director of Cape Town earth sciences consultancy Umvoto Africa, has found that South Africa's Witwatersrand goldfields are around 95% exhausted, and anticipates that production rates should fall permanently below 100 tonnes a year within the coming decade.

Gold production from the Witwatersrand, the biggest known gold field in the world, peaked at around 1,000 tonnes in 1970 and has declined ever since. Hartnady says that while initially (1970-1975) the decline was "quite precipitous", it has been interrupted by only short periods of slight trend reversal (1982-1984 and 1992-1993).

Leon Esterhuizen, a London-based specialist analyst at RBC Capital Markets, has reacted to the research by saying that "South African gold is dying -- this is not new news", but adds "that it may be dying faster than we currently believe is novel". On the levels of reserves, Hartnady finds that the South African "residual gold reserve" after production through 2007 is only 2 948 tonnes, a little less than three times the 1970 production figure, and much less than 10% of the officially cited reserve.

read more @ pimpin turtle

there is NO DOUBT that church and other authorities PERPETUATE and COVER UP the sexual abuse of children

1. commission finds church covered up child sex abuse

The Commission of Investigation into Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese has concluded that there is “no doubt” that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the archdiocese and other Church authorities.

The commission’s report covers the period between January 1st 1975 and April 30th 2004. It said there cover-ups took place over much of this period.

In its report, published this afternoon, it has also found that “the structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.”

It also found that “the State authorities facilitated the cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes.”

Over the period within its remit “the welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages,” it said.

“Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests,” it said.

read more @ irish times


2. Vatican IGNORED commission letters

Letters sent by the Commission of Investigation to the Vatican and to the papal nuncio in Ireland seeking information were ignored, the report has disclosed.

The commission wrote to the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, of which Pope Benedict had been head until April 2005, in September 2006.

It was asking for information on the document `Crimen Solicitationis’, which dealt with clerical sex abuse, as well as information on reports of clerical child sexual abuse conveyed to it by the Dublin archdiocese over the relevant period.

The Vatican did not reply. Instead it contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs stating that the commission had not gone through appropriate diplomatic channels.

The commission said that as a body independent of Government, it did not consider it appropriate for it to use diplomatic channels.

In February 2007, the commission wrote to the papal nuncio in Dublin asking that he forward to it all documents in his possession which might be relevant to it and which had not been or were not produced by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. It also requested that he confirm it if he had no such documents. The papal nuncio did not reply.

Earlier this year, the commission again wrote to the papal nuncio enclosing extracts from its draft report which referred to him and his office, as it was required to do. Again, there was no reply.

Vatican senior spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told The Irish Times today it was a matter for “the local church involved”.

Father Lombardi said diplomatic practice requires that any outside requests made to the governance of the Vatican would pass through diplomatic channels, in this case the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and the Irish Embassy to the Holy See in Rome.

“It’s obvious, if you are looking for official documents from the Vatican then you have to go through the normal diplomatic channels,” he said.

Vatican observers argue that the same “diplomatic” reasoning would apply to the lack of a reply from the nuncio in Dublin. As the Vatican’s Ambassador in Ireland, he cannot respond directly to a request from an independent Irish body.

As for the overall findings of the report, Fr Lombardi was reluctant to add any further comment. “In all cases like this, it is not appropriate for Rome to comment, rather that is for the local bishop. In the case of Dublin, we have an excellent Archbishop and he knows what has to be said.”

source: irish times



3. church used 'don't tell' approach

The pre-occupations of the Dublin Archdiocese in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the “maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church and the preservation of its assets”, the Murphy commission has said.

It says the American phrase “don’t ask, don’t tell” was appropriate to describe the attitude of the Dublin Archdiocese to clerical sex abuse for most of the period covered by the report.

There was an “obsessive concern with secrecy and the avoidance of scandal” and successive Archbishops and bishops failed to report complaints to the gardai prior to 1996.

Main findings:

- The archdiocese first made inquiries about insurance cover against compensation claims in the mid 1980s and such cover was put in place in 1987.

- The commission said it “did not accept” as true the church’s repeated claims to have been on “a learning curve” in relation to allegations of child sexual abuse.

- In 1981, Archbishop Dermot Ryan “showed a clear understanding of both the recidivist nature of child sexual abusers and the effects of such abuse on children” when he referred a priest to a therapeutic facility in Stroud, in the UK.

- “All the Archbishops of Dublin in the period covered by the Commission were aware of some complaints. This is true of many of the auxiliary bishops also. At the time the Archdiocese took out insurance in 1987, Archbishop Dermot Ryan and Archbishop John Charles McQuaid had had, between them, available information on complaints against at least 17 priests operating under the aegis of the Dublin Archdiocese. The taking out of insurance was an act proving knowledge of child sexual abuse as a potential major cost to the Archdiocese and is inconsistent with the view that Archdiocesan officals were still on a ‘learning curve’ at a much later date, or were lacking in an appreciation of the phenomenon of child sexual abuse.”

- Many of the auxiliary bishops also knew of the fact of abuse as did officials, including Monsignor Gerard Sheehy and Monsignor Alex Stenson who worked in the Chancellery. Bishop James Kavanagh, Bishop Dermot O’Mahony, Bishop Laurence Forristal, Bishop Donal Murray and Bishop Brendan Comiskey were aware for many years of complaints and/or suspicions of clerical child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese. Religious orders were also aware.

- The commission said it found claims of ignorance on the part of the church authorities and the religious orders who were dealing with complaints “very difficult to accept” as they were all “very well educated people”.

read more @ irish times

the real terrorists

1. Israeli spies 'infiltrate' Johannesburg airport

By Jonathan Cook - NAZARETH, Israel

South Africa deported an Israeli airline official last week following allegations that Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, had infiltrated Johannesburg international airport in an effort to gather information on South African citizens, particularly black and Muslim travellers.

...The programme also featured testimony from Jonathan Garb, a former El Al guard, who claimed that the airline company had been a front for the Shin Bet in South Africa for many years.

Of the footage of the undercover reporter’s questioning, he commented: “Here is a secret service operating above the law in South Africa. We pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. We do exactly what we want. The local authorities do not know what we are doing.”

The Israeli foreign ministry is reported to have sent a team to South Africa to try to defuse the diplomatic crisis after the government in Johannesburg threatened to deport all of El Al’s security staff.

Mr Garb’s accusations have been supported by an investigation by the regulator for South Africa’s private security industries.

They have also been confirmed by human rights groups in Israel, which report that Israeli security staff are carrying out racial profiling at many airports around the world, apparently out of sight of local authorities.

...Mr Garb commented on the show: “What we are trained is to look for the immediate threat – the Muslim guy. You can think he is a suicide bomber, he is collecting information. The crazy thing is that we are profiling people racially, ethnically and even on religious grounds … This is what we do.”

...Suspect individuals, the former workers say, are held in an annex room, where they are interrogated, often on matters unrelated to airport security, and can be subjected to strip searches while their luggage is taken apart. Clandestine searches of their belongings and laptops are also carried out to identify useful documents and information.

All of this is done in violation of South African law, which authorises only the police, armed forces or personnel appointed by the transport minister to carry out searches.

The former staff also accuse El Al of smuggling weapons – licensed to the local Israeli embassy – into the airport for use by the secret agents.

...A South African Jew, he said he was recruited 19 years ago by the Shin Bet. “We were trained at a secret camp [in Israel] where they train Israeli special forces and they train you how to use handguns, submachine guns and in unarmed combat.”

Mr Garb claimed to have profiled 40,000 people for Israel over the past 20 years, including recently Virginia Tilley, a Middle East expert who is the chief researcher at South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council. The think tank recently published a report accusing Israel of apartheid and colonialism in the Palestinian territories.

“The decision was she should be checked in the harshest way because of her connections,” Mr Garb said.

Ms Tilley confirmed that she had been detained at the airport by El Al staff and separated from her luggage. Mr Garb said that during this period an agent “photo-copied all [her] documentation and then he forwarded it on to Israel” – Mr Garb believes for use by the Shin Bet.

Israeli officials have refused to comment on the allegations. A letter produced by Mr Garb – signed by Roz Bukris, El Al’s general manager in South Africa – suggests that he was employed by the Shin Bet rather than the airline. Ms Bukris, according to the programme, refused to confirm or deny the letter’s validity.

The Israeli Embassy in South Africa declined to discuss evidence that it, rather than El Al, had licensed guns issued to the airline’s security managers. Questioned last week by Ynet, Israel’s largest news website, about the deportation of the airline official, Yossi Levy, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said he could not “comment on security matters”.

read more @ middle east online


2. commander accuses western coalition of collusion with Somali pirates

"Why don't the coalition forces, which enjoy super hi-tech equipment, annihilate the buccaneers of the region forever and why do they provide the ground for the continuation of their activities through their suspicious supports?" Commander of Iran's first Naval Zone Fariborz Qaderpanah asked, speaking in a detailed interview with FNA on Tuesday.

Noting that many analysts believe that there are secret hands at work which are disturbing security in the Gulf of Aden, Qaderpanah lamented that certain countries which are the root cause of insecurity in the region make suspicious statements to justify their presence.

Elsewhere, he further stated that pirates' experience and practice as well as the hi-tech weaponry supplied by the western states to the pirates have rendered them so skillful that they can now grab a vessel at the earliest.

read more @ fars



3. 'they treated us like dogs' - freed crew on Somali pirates

MOGADISHU – "Nightmarish" is the way the crew of the Al-Meezan cargo vessel recount their time in captivity at the hands of Somali pirates.

...

"On November 3, when we were about 150 nautical miles from the Somali coast, we were chased by three small boats with very powerful engines. It's all in the logbook," the old man said, pointing to a black book on the table.

"We'd hardly had time to raise the alarm when the attackers were already on board. They're very intelligent. They immediately took over the controls, switched off all the electronic equipment and headed for Garacad" in north eastern Somalia where the ship anchored in the shelter of a small island, he said.

...Built in 1979, the 2,000-ton 50-meter long Al-Meezan is managed from Dubai by Biyat International.

The Al-Meezan 7906710 is owned by a company called Shahmir Maritime based in the Carribean Grenadine Islands and described by people who know it as a front company.

Chartered by Somali businessmen, the ship mostly plies between the Gulf States and Somalia. When it was captured for the first time around the pirates were already claiming it had arms on board.

read more @ inquirer.net

4. Lebanon: terror groups get local funding

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi has said al-Qaida network does not constitute a real threat to Lebanon adding that local criminal or Gulf sources are funding terrorist groups in the country.

Al-Qaida "hasn't been entrenched in Lebanon. It seems that al-Qaida does not consider our land a land of Jihad," Rifi told France's Defense magazine.

"We could sometimes find in Lebanon groupings that adopt al-Qaida's ideas but without any ties with it," the ISF chief said, adding the reason behind it was the openness of Sunni Lebanese on the west, a move that prevents planting the terror network's ideology in Lebanon.

About the financial support of terrorist groups in Lebanon, Rifi told the magazine that the funding was from "local criminal or Gulf sources."

"Some groups fund themselves through criminal activities such as bank robberies and human trafficking," he said. "However, as a big number of reports indicate, other groups get funding from Arab Gulf countries."

"When I say the Gulf I don't necessarily mean the governments. I mean private parties that sponsor their networks," The ISF chief said.

source: naharnet news desk


5. police raid homes of alleged Chinese spies

Munich investigators on Tuesday searched the apartments of four alleged Chinese agents on suspicion they have been spying on the city's Uighur community, news magazine Der Spiegel reported.

Authorities told the magazine that the Chinese general consulate has been running a spy network from the Bavarian capital, where several hundred Muslim Uighurs form one of the largest communities outside of China.

The World Uighur Congress is also located in the city, and many members are politically active in protesting what they see as China's oppression of the ethnic group. Meanwhile China has in the past accused Uighur exile groups of supporting terrorism.

“According to findings by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s office, the Chinese government has therefore won a range of informants who report on the private lives of the Munich Uighur community for Beijing,” the magazine's website said.

Investigators have observed Chinese diplomats meeting with the informants, but only the alleged spies are under investigation due to matters of diplomatic immunity.

The efforts by German authorities are the result of new policies created last year to curtail possible Chinese espionage, though this is the first time they have taken such drastic steps, the magazine said.

Two years ago Chinese diplomat Ji Wumin left Germany after he was discovered meeting with an informant about Uighur issues. But he departed of his own accord without being expelled. China is said to be interested in returning Ji to his former post, but this is now unlikely after the latest raids, which are related to his successor, the magazine said.

source: the local