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Kiev shells entire streets in eastern Ukrainian Lugansk, blames the victims


RT
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 17:27 UTC
Lugansk
© RIA Novosti/Valeriy Melnikov
Local residents in the village of Luganskaya after the Ukrainian armed forces' air attack.
Eyewitnesses in the Cossack settlement of Luganskaya have accused government forces of carrying out two airstrikes on densely-populated residential areas. Kiev says the devastation is the result of shelling by secessionist forces.

"The first plane appeared at 11 am, and hit the center of the town - destroying the police building, damaging the courthouse, and razing two houses. We won't know the death toll until the rubble is cleared," said Vladimir Bilous, the head of the local administration.

"At the site of the second strike the situation is even worse: 9 people have died, and 11 have been wounded. Among the victims is a five year-old girl, who with her father. The impact was so strong her legs were blown off. Once again, the exact number of the dead will only become clear later."

Amateur footage from the site shows multiple impact craters, and buildings that lay in ruins. Some of the houses still appear to be on fire, with visibly upset residents consoling each other on the streets.

Comment: And the propagandists say that Putin is escalating the situation in Ukraine?? Ukraine is being run be a group of mad, bloodthirsty maniacs. Putin is the sole voice of reason in this global farce.

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Bulb

Hungary secures its gas supply: PM will support South Stream gas project


Yahoo News
Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:49 UTC
Victor Orban
© AFP Photo/Andrej Isakovic
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic (R) and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban in Belgrade on July 1, 2014
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday his country would not give up on Russia's controversial South Stream gas pipeline project as it was key to securing the country's energy supplies.

The crisis in Ukraine has made the planned pipeline bringing Siberian gas to the European Union -- bypassing Ukraine -- a new focus of tensions between Moscow, Brussels and Washington.

"We will not allow ourselves to get into a situation that our gas supplies depend on Ukraine," Orban told reporters after talks with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic.

"Hungary will build up South Stream as it will secure our energy supplies," he said.

Orban said that while his country supported Ukraine, Hungary was "responsible for our citizens and energy supplies".

The premier added: "Those who say we should not build South Stream must offer an alternative as we can not live without energy."
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Folder

Berlin meeting agreement: Ceasefire in Ukraine, OSCE observers at border


RT
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 17:08 UTC
Slavyansk
© Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov
Local resident Viktor Shevchenko walks outside a building damaged by a recent shelling in the Ukrainian eastern city of Slaviansk July 1, 2014.
A roadmap of measures that will point a way out of the Ukrainian crisis has been agreed during four-way talks between the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, German FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

In their joint statement, the ministers called for the Contact Group to resume its work "no later than July 5 with the goal of reaching an unconditional and mutually agreed, sustainable ceasefire."

The group should include representatives of both Kiev and the self-defense forces of the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said.

While Russia only has limited influence over the self-defense forces in southeast Ukraine, Lavrov said that their representatives, including Donetsk People's Republic leader Aleksandr Boroday, have already "publicly stated that they are ready to answer Russia's and the OSCE's calls to start consultations on a ceasefire."


Comment: Russia is doing everything she can to show that she really does want peace. As this becomes clearer and clearer, through Putin's leadership, the lies flowing out of Kiev and the U.S. just become more blatant and obvious.

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Yoda

Quiet diplomacy and tough decisions: Putin under pressure as killing continues in Ukraine

Vladimir Isachenkov
Yahoo! News
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 16:43 UTC
Putin
© AP Photo//Maxim Zmeyev, Pool
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a meeting with Russian ambassadors, envoys and diplomats at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Moscow, Tuesday, July 1, 2014.
President Vladimir Putin has been slammed for arming rebels and fanning flames of separatism in eastern Ukraine. But there is strong evidence recently that it's just the opposite: He now wants to bring about a truce.

To do so, however, Putin must face down nationalists at home pressuring him to send in troops to support the rebels occupying town halls and border posts and fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine after the new Ukrainian president ended a mainly one-sided cease-fire.

Putin's strategic aims have not changed: He wants to keep Ukraine at least partly in Russia's orbit and prevent it from joining NATO.

But he is also mindful of Russia's other global relationships, and he needs to move carefully to avoid more sanctions from the European Union and the United States.

His solution? Try to negotiate a truce in Ukraine while securing some long-term levers over Ukraine.

The Russian leader scored a measure of success last month when the new Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, declared a cease-fire that some rebels accepted. While the truce was frequently broken and failed to persuade the rebels to disarm, it set the stage for consultations involving a former Ukrainian president, the Russian ambassador, European officials and insurgent leaders.
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Laptop

Anonymous threatens lawmakers, their 'loved ones' over cybersecurity bill


RT
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 15:57 UTC
Image
© Screenshot Taken from 'Anonymous: C.I.S.A' video uploaded June 30, 2014.
The hacktivist collective Anonymous has gone from bold theatrics to physical threats, telling supporters of the latest incarnation of CISA that they should drop the cybersecurity bill if they value the "sanctity of their loved ones" and themselves.

"We would like to inform you that despite our direct and crippling attacks on former cybersecurity bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA, there is yet a new threat: The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) of 2014," the groups says in a video recently posted on YouTube.

Anonymous warns that the bill is a direct attack on the Fourth Amendment as well as the collective, making those who drafted and supported the legislation "sworn enemies."

"Every action you perform, every word you say, we will know. If you value the sanctity of your loved ones as well as your own [sic], it will be best for you to back down and drop this bill where it belongs - out of our Congress."

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Sherlock

Sarkozy corruption charge is just one of a number of scandals the former French president is embroiled in

Rory Mulholland
The Telegraph
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 12:17 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Nicolas Sarkozy was charged on Wednesday for corruption and abusing his position of power
Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of taking a second shot at the presidency in 2017 were dealt a severe blow when he was charged on Wednesday corruption and abusing his position of power. But that affair is just one of a raft of police investigations swirling around the conservative politician.

Cash from Gaddafi?

Judges have, since April 2013, been examining allegations that former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi's regime helped finance Mr Sarkozy's successful 2007 presidential campaign.

Mr Sarkozy says the claim is ridiculous and is suing Mediapart, the website which first reported the alleged up-to-€50 million payment, for defamation.

Judges authorised the unprecedented step of tapping the phone of the former president as part of the investigation. The taps formed the basis for the investigation which led to Wednesday's charges.
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Info

Iran preparing to vanquish ISIL despite approaching nuclear deal

M.K. Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 08:18 UTC
President Rouhani and emir al-Thani
© Unknown
Rouhani called the emir of Qatar and proposed that Iran and Qatar should join hands to fight terrorism in Iraq.
After a week-long lull, almost, Tehran has shifted gear in its rhetoric and approach to the crisis in Iraq and Syria. The innuendos and dark hints in the Iranian statements so far have given way to open criticism of the Saudi Arabian backing for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL].

Two prominent members of the Majlis commission on foreign and security policies lashed out at Riyadh - "Saudi Arabia is the spiritual, material and ideological supporter of the ISIL and the Saudi King had tasked the country's former intelligence chief [Prince Bandar] with a special mission to support the ISIL." (Mohammad Hassan Asafari). It is extremely rare that King Abdullah is nailed by name in an Iranian statement. Again, another prominent MP Mohammad Saleh Jokar implicitly warned Riyadh that it is throwing stones from a glass house - "Instead of interfering in Iraq's affairs and implementing the US plots, Saudi Arabia had better deal with its own internal affairs."

The Iranian line is that the succession struggle in the Saudi royal family is becoming acute. Significantly, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei repeated an expression which was coined by Imam Khomeini in the early years of the Iranian revolution to refer to Saudi Arabia as a poodle of the US and a covert accomplice of Israel. Khamenei said while addressing a group of Quran reciters in Teheran on Sunday that there is a difference between "American Islam" and true Islam - "The American Islam, despite having Islamic appearance and name, complies with despotism and Zionism... and totally serves the goals of Zionism and the US."
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Pirates

Arab spring, Jihad summer: Welcome to IS

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 06:48 UTC
Caliph iznogood
© Rene Goscinny
IS: The Caliphate of Iznogoud
Welcome to IS. No typo; the final goal may be (indiscriminate) regime change, but for the moment name change will do. With PR flair, at the start of Ramadan, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, or ISIL - the Islamic State of the Levant - to some) solemnly declared, from now on, it will be known as Islamic State (IS).

"To be or not to be" is so ... metaphysically outdated. IS is - and here it is - in full audio glory. And we're talking about the full package - Caliph included: "the slave of Allah, Ibrahim Ibn 'Awwad Ibn Ibrahim Ibn 'Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Badrial-Hashimi al-Husayni al-Qurashi by lineage, as-Samurra'i by birth and upbringing, al-Baghdadi by residence and scholarship". Or, to put it more simply, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

IS has virtually ordered "historic" al-Qaeda - yes, that 9/11-related (or not) plaything of one Osama bin Laden - as well as every otherjihadi outfit on the planet, to pledge allegiance to the new imam, in theological theory the new lord over every Muslim. There's no evidence Osama's former sidekick, Ayman "the doctor" al-Zawahiri will obey, not to mention 1.5 billion Muslims across the world. Most probably al-Qaeda will say "we are the real deal" and a major theological catfight will be on.
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Dollar

BNP Paribas agrees to record $8.8bn settlement for US sanctions violations as blackmail for Paris to cancel Russia deal fails


RT
Mon, 30 Jun 2014 06:23 UTC
BNP Paribas
© Reuters / John Schults
French banking giant BNP Paribas has agreed to plead guilty to two criminal charges of violating US sanctions, and will pay a record-breaking $8.8 billion settlement.

Prosecutors allege BNP conducted "long-term, multi-jurisdictional conspiracy." A lawyer representing the bank appeared in New York state court on Monday to answer for both charges, reports Reuters.

The settlement represents the largest criminal penalty in US history, and will practically wipe out BNP's entire 2013 pre-tax income of $11.2 billion, reports the BBC.

The size of the looming fine had been decried by the French government. The country's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, previously said the amount would be "an extremely serious problem," an "unfair and unilateral decision" and "not reasonable."

"BNP went to elaborate lengths to conceal prohibited transactions, cover its tracks, and deceive US authorities. These actions represent a serious breach of US law," US attorney general Eric Holder said in a statement.

Comment: The US prefers to go after foreign banks and slap fines on them at will, whereas the giant US banks in the US are protected and even helped to the tune of trillions with taxpayer funded bail-outs. Why do European banks accept the rulings of US courts as they have no international basis?

Putin sees it well as just another strongarm tactic by the US to try and blackmail the French Government into cancelling the Mistral ship contract with Russia:
'Every state has right to be different': Top 10 takeaways from Russia's president Putin's foreign policy speech
President Putin criticized Washington, which already imposed sanctions on Moscow after the accession of the Republic of Crimea into Russia, for making efforts to scuttle Russia's 1.12 billion euro deal on Mistral warships with France.

"We know about the pressure that our American partners put on France to prevent the supply of Mistral [warships] to Russia. And we know that they hinted that if the French won't supply Mistral [warships] then sanctions against their banks will be removed or, at least, minimized. What is this, if not blackmail?"


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Mr. Potato

Former French president Sarkozy placed under formal investigation for corruption

Sara Miller Llana
The Christian Science Monitor
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 05:47 UTC
Sarkozy
© Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes
Former French bling-bling President Nicolas Sarkozy.
More accustomed to schmoozing with world leaders or vacationing with his superstar wife, Carla Bruni, France's former President Nicolas Sarkozy has found himself in entirely different company today: police custody.

In what French media are calling unprecedented for a contemporary former French head of state, Mr. Sarkozy has been questioned this morning by French anticorruption investigators over allegations of influence-peddling. The political saga has implications for Sarkozy's personal political comeback and his center-right party - and has put the ruling Socialists on the defensive as well about their political motivations in the case.

Sarkozy was quizzed Tuesday morning in Nanterre, west of Paris, as part of an investigation over whether he used his influence to attain information in another case against him. That one revolves around whether the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi funded Sarkozy's 2007 election bid. Sarkozy denies this.
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