Puppet Masters
© Reuters/Joshua Roberts
Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills speaks during a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington March 8, 2012.
Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills speaks during a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington March 8, 2012.
The death of the president of the world's No. 2 cocoa grower comes months before Mills was due to stand for re-election at the helm of the West African country that posted double-digit growth in 2011 and has been praised for its strong democracy in a turbulent region.
"It is with a heavy heart...that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the president of the Republic of Ghana," a statement sent to Reuters by the president's office said.
The FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008 gave the NSA broad powers to monitor international phone calls and emails, and granted legal immunity to telecommunication companies that had participated in the Bush administration's wiretapping program prior to 2008. But former senior official Thomas Drake, former senior analyst Kirk Wiebe, and former technical director William Binney said the NSA was not only monitoring international communications - the agency had been spying on "the entire country."
G4S, the firm at the center of the debacle over security for the London 2012 Olympics, is helping Israel secure facilities where Palestinian children are imprisoned and severly abused.
Defence for Children-Palestine (DCI-Palestine) has released an urgent appeal to end the practice of holding Palestinian children from the West Bank in solitary confinement in facilities in Israel. The organization has documented 53 such cases since 2008.
The children have been held in solitary confinement mainly in Al Jalame and Petah Tikva interrogation centers. The security systems for Al Jalame detention facilities were provided by G4S Israel, according to a March 2011 report on the firm by Who Profits.
G4S Israel is a subsidiary of British-Danish security firm G4S and it is deeply involved in Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, as well as in Israeli prisons and detention centers.
Meanwhile, G4S has lost its credibility because its incapacity to deliver on the contract to secure the London Olympics. The UK government stepped in and mobilized 3,500 military personnel to fill in the gap. Nick Buckles, G4S's CEO, was interrogated by members of parliament about the failure of his company. Buckles admitted that G4S's reputation is in tatters.
Defence for Children-Palestine (DCI-Palestine) has released an urgent appeal to end the practice of holding Palestinian children from the West Bank in solitary confinement in facilities in Israel. The organization has documented 53 such cases since 2008.
The children have been held in solitary confinement mainly in Al Jalame and Petah Tikva interrogation centers. The security systems for Al Jalame detention facilities were provided by G4S Israel, according to a March 2011 report on the firm by Who Profits.
G4S Israel is a subsidiary of British-Danish security firm G4S and it is deeply involved in Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, as well as in Israeli prisons and detention centers.
Meanwhile, G4S has lost its credibility because its incapacity to deliver on the contract to secure the London Olympics. The UK government stepped in and mobilized 3,500 military personnel to fill in the gap. Nick Buckles, G4S's CEO, was interrogated by members of parliament about the failure of his company. Buckles admitted that G4S's reputation is in tatters.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime has friends in the region poised "to strike out" in the event of an intervention into Syria, says a commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The warning was particularly sent to "hated" Arab countries.
"None of Syria's friends or the great front of resistance has yet entered the scene, and in the event that this happens, decisive blows will be struck at the enemy, especially the hated Arab rulers," Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, a spokesman of the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fars news agency.
No country in particular was mentioned. Iran remains a key ally of official Damascus, while leaders of such Gulf countries as Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Qatar openly support Syrian rebels.
The hawkish rhetoric heard from Iran comes on top of the exchange over Syria's chemical and biological arsenal, which the Arab country pledged Monday not to use against its own population, but only to combat "foreign aggressors."
Comment: Looks like Israel will get the war it so much desires after all.
With all this warmongering taking place as the world experiences the effects of bizarre weather - including cosmic weather - we are reminded of Victor Clube's assertion that military activity is needed to mask celestial events. See:
Reign of Fire: Meteorites, Wildfires, Planetary Chaos and the Sixth Extinction
Spain is battling to avert a fully-fledged sovereign rescue after borrowing costs spiralled out of control, with dangerous knock-on effects in Italy and Eastern Europe.
The yields on closely-watched two-year debt surged by 78 basis points to a modern-era high of 6.42pc, leaving it unclear how long the country can continue funding itself. Italy's two-year yields vaulted to 4.6pc.
"We can't keep going like this for another 15 days," said Prof Miguel Angel Bernal from Madrid's Institute of Market Studies. "The European Central Bank has to bring out its heavy artillery."
Andrew Roberts, credit chief at Royal Bank of Scotland, said the dramatic spike in short-term borrowing costs marked a key inflexion point in the crisis, replicating the pattern seen in Greece, Ireland and Portugal as they lost access to market finance. "We are fast approaching the endgame," he said.
Exchange clearer LCH Clearnet raised margin requirements on both Spanish and Italian bonds, a move that will automatically cause further selling by some funds.
© Reuters
A worker sweeps outside Madrid's bourse on Monday.
A worker sweeps outside Madrid's bourse on Monday.
The yields on closely-watched two-year debt surged by 78 basis points to a modern-era high of 6.42pc, leaving it unclear how long the country can continue funding itself. Italy's two-year yields vaulted to 4.6pc.
"We can't keep going like this for another 15 days," said Prof Miguel Angel Bernal from Madrid's Institute of Market Studies. "The European Central Bank has to bring out its heavy artillery."
Andrew Roberts, credit chief at Royal Bank of Scotland, said the dramatic spike in short-term borrowing costs marked a key inflexion point in the crisis, replicating the pattern seen in Greece, Ireland and Portugal as they lost access to market finance. "We are fast approaching the endgame," he said.
Exchange clearer LCH Clearnet raised margin requirements on both Spanish and Italian bonds, a move that will automatically cause further selling by some funds.
Comment: There's the story of a country who got out from under the IMF, ECB and World Bank Rule:
Iceland forgives mortgage debt of its population
Iceland, who was: "Bullied" Over Bank Debt
Iceland where there was a: Peaceful Revolution Ignored by Mainstream Media
© Ken Pyne
Barclays, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, BOA..
Barclays, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, BOA..
The report by James Henry, a former chief economist at international consultancy McKinsey & Co., shows how with the help of private banks the money has flowed into countries such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
"We're basically talking about a black hole in the world economy," Henry told NBCNews.com.
The figure of $21 trillion in off-shore funds is conservative and the true sum could be as high as $32 trillion, Henry said.
According to the study, the world's top 50 private banks managed more than $12.3 trillion in 2010 in off-shore financial assets, up from $7.5 trillion five years earlier.
© PA
News of the world, Rupert Murdoch leaving News International
News of the world, Rupert Murdoch leaving News International
More than 100 new allegations of "data intrusion" also are being probed.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers' comments to a judge-led inquiry into media ethics indicated that the scandal, which erupted last year at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World and has involved hundreds of victims, could end up burning the now-defunct tabloid's U.K. competitors as well.
Akers gave as an example payments of tens of thousands of pounds (dollars) allegedly made to the same prison officer by all three newspaper groups.
"Our assessment is that there are reasonable grounds to suspect offenses have been committed and that the majority of these stories reveal very limited material of genuine public interest," Akers told Lord Justice Brian Leveson, who is leading a government inquiry into media misbehavior set up in the wake of the scandal.
Separately, prosecutors said they would announce Tuesday whether to levy criminal charges against an unspecified number of people caught up in the investigation.
So far more than 40 journalists and public officials have been arrested as part of the sprawling inquiry. Only a handful, including former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, have been charged. Brooks has denied any wrongdoing
© hispantv.com
Official and tribal sources said drones fired eight missiles and pounded a house at Dre Nishtar village in mountainous Shawal Valley, about 90 kilometres southwest of Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan Agency.
The death toll could rise as, according to sources, some of the injured were said to be in critical condition and medical facilities are not available in the remote forest-covered valley.
Tribal sources said the people had gathered for Iftar-dinner in the courtyard of the house when the drones attacked them. They said most of the victims died on the spot and their bodies were damaged beyond recognition.
Comment: For more information about the use of drones please read:
Celebrating our "Warrior President"
Obama's Death Panels: Jeremy Scahill at the Drone Summit
Spy in the Sky: Is It Only a Matter of Time Before Drone Technology is Used in Civil Society?
Police State: "Robots R'US": Military-Style Drones on 63 Military Bases In The USA
© unknown
James Holmes
James Holmes
Since the Friday shooting at the Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, the Twitterverse was filled with postings from people worried about multiplex security patting down folks and searching their bags.
The National Association of Theatre Owners has already announced intentions to collaborate with police on new "security procedures," whatever that means.
You can expect the government to completely overreact to the massacre. Already, people are calling for stricter gun laws, and new screening measures are not far behind.
"I was seriously full on molested by TSA in London coming back from Italy & now we will probably start having it in movie theaters," tweeted a woman named Victoria Lewis.
Comment: The treatment that these children get from Israel amounts to torture. We are hard pressed to think of a crime worse than that. Yet the world is content with bread and circus...