Puppet MastersS

Apple Red

How ya like them apples? Poland issues complaint to WTO over lost agricultural revenue from Russian embargo


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 10:56 UTC
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© Reuters / Thomas PeterPolish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki
The Polish Agriculture Ministry has prepared a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the Russian ban on exports of agricultural goods from the European Union, according to the Minister Marek Sawicki.

Sawicki confirmed on Monday its being handled by Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociล„ski, who is responsible for WTO cooperation and that in the coming days "the complaint will be handed over further."

On August 1, Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor imposed a ban on all fruit and vegetables imported from Poland, citing numerous certification problems.

Warsaw asked the EU for compensation for its farmers. However, a few days later Russia imposed a ban on agricultural goods from countries that had imposed sanctions against it, including the EU. The restrictions include fruit and vegetables.

Comment: Countries in the European Union aren't exactly in a position to be acting so recklessly and foolishly. Perhaps they should have taken Victoria Nuland at her word when she said, 'F the EU'. For related news see:

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Cookie

Spain hit by Russian trade embargo; seeks compensation from EU


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 10:00 UTC
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© magrama.gob.esIsabel Garcia Tejerina
Spain will meet with EU officials Thursday to discuss offsetting the country's estimated โ‚ฌ337 million in food and agriculture losses due to blocked access to the Russian market.

Spanish Agriculture Minister Isabel Garcia Tejerina said the restrictions have prompted her ministry to convene a meeting with the European Commission in Brussels on Thursday.

Last week Russia announced a ban on agricultural imports from the EU, US, Canada, Australia and Norway.

The Spanish Agriculture Ministry will analyze the impact of the Russian trade embargo and try to address possible solutions.

"The ministry will perform specific monitoring of each of the sectors to see how they evolve their markets and to ask, in the event of disruption, compensation for these measures from the European Union," Tejerina said, as quoted by Spain's Region Digital.

To prepare for the meeting in Brussels, local Spanish industry representatives will meet to discuss and share data.

Comment: It seems many European countries are just now discovering that their support of the unjust and ridiculous sanctions on Russia will actually have consequences.

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Cheesecake

EU had it coming! Bickering, infighting over Russia food ban retaliation


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 23:21 UTC
Strache
© Reuters/Heinz-Peter BaderHead of Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache
There is growing dissent in the EU over policies that led to a de facto trade war with Russia. Meanwhile the countries not toeing the line are reaping the benefits, irritating those who jumped on the sanctions bandwagon.

Greek members of the European Parliament demanded Sunday that the EU cancel sanctions against Russia. MEPs Kostantinos Papadakis and Sotiris Zarianopoulos said in a letter to some senior EU officials that Russia's ban on food import from the EU, which was Moscow's response to anti-Russian sanctions, was ruinous to Greek agriculture.

"Thousands of small- and middle-sized Greek farms producing fruit and vegetables and selling them primarily to the Russian market have been hit hard now as their unsold products are now rotting at warehouses," the letter said.

The MEPs are representing the Communist Party of Greece and blame the EU leaders and their own government for supporting what they called "an imperialist intervention by the US, the EU and NATO" in Ukraine at the expense of good relations with Russia.


Comment: More EU citizens should take note and listen.


Greece is one of the EU members hit hardest by the Russian import ban, partially due to its economy still being in turmoil. Greek farmers stand to lose an estimated 200 million euro in direct damages due to Russia's move, with more long-term consequences expected even if year-long ban is not renewed on expiry. The producers may find it very hard to win back the market share they had before the ban as non-affected countries would certainly weight in.

Comment: On the surface, the sanctions have been marketed as punishment for Russia's "stance in the Ukrainian crisis". But Russia's stance has been the only sane one: calling for peace, justice, and the rule of law. It is the U.S. and Kiev whose stance has been shameful: an illegal coup d'etat, the deliberate murder of civilians, the branding of innocent people "terrorists", giving money and support to a barbaric 'antiterror operation', all founded on a mountain of lies, lies and more lies.

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Eye 2

U.S.-inspired barbarism: Son of ISIS rebel pictured holding Syrian soldier's severed head


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 22:57 UTC
ISIS syria
© The AustralianNot quite human.
A grisly photograph showing a young boy, said to be the son of an ISIS rebel, holding the severed head of a slain Syrian soldier, proves the 'hideous atrocities' the terrorist group is capable of, said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The picture, taken in the northern Syrian city of Raqa, was posted on the Twitter account of Khaled Sharrouf, an Australian citizen who traveled to Syria last year and is now an Islamic State fighter.

As if the photo was not shocking enough, Sharrouf attached the comment "That's my boy!" to the Twitter image.

The shocking picture quickly went viral.

The Australian leader warned that the photograph proved exactly how dangerous the terrorist organization, which has swept across parts of Iraq and Syria in recent months, really is.

"There are more photographs in newspapers in Australia today of the kind of hideous atrocities that this group is capable of," Abbott said in an interview with ABC Radio.

"[The] Islamic State - as they're now calling themselves - it's not just a terrorist group, it's a terrorist army and they're seeking not just a terrorist enclave but effectively a terrorist state, a terrorist nation.

Comment: All thanks to U.S. meddling.

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Better Earth

Building a better world: Russia, China create joint university in Shenzhen free economic zone


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 20:03 UTC
Image
Russia's top university will open a branch in China, in the country's rapidly developing Shenzhen free economic zone. The building will bring an iconic element of Moscow's skyline to China.

On Monday, representatives of Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Beijing Institute of Technology and the local administration signed an agreement to create a joint university in Shenzhen.

The project is aimed at training skilled professionals in China using MSU's advanced educational programs and standards.

Those behind the project believe graduates of the new university will be in demand not only in Russia and China, but everywhere around the world.

Comment: While the US and its Western puppet states are busy waging wars, leaving a trail of destruction everywhere they go, Russia and China are cooperating to build facilities for a better world. The contrast could not be more striking.

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USA

Democratically-elected Iraqi PM al-Maliki ousted in umpteenth Western coup d'etat in Middle East - Iraq 'War' III imminent?


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 17:38 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Amer Al-SaediIraqis hold placards reading in Arabic "Maliki is our choice" during a demonstration to support Iraq's prime minister on August 11, 2014 in Baghdad's central Saadoun Street after Nuri al-Maliki said he was filing a complaint against the president for violating the constitution.
The US has warned outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against attempts to stay in power after the country's president officially named a replacement for the politician. Maliki recently lost the trust of both his Western and domestic allies.

His former backers - Washington, Tehran, and the Shia clergy - are now blaming Maliki for increasingly sectarian policies and failure to counter a massive offensive by Sunni militants from the Islamic State group (formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS/ISIL).

Maliki's dismissal came after repeated claims from US President Barack Obama that Iraq's problems will never be solved without the formation of a new, more inclusive government.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum accepted the nomination of Haidar al-Abadi - leader of Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party - for prime minister on Monday.

"The country is in your hands," Masum said, expressing hope that the new PM will be able to win the sympathy of parliament and end the violence in the country.


Comment: Only one thing will end violence in Iraq: the end of the US Empire. ISIS is a creature of Western intelligence, tasked with going into Iraq at this time to stir things up and justify continued US presence in Iraq and the wider Middle East.


Comment: Iraq's first democratically-elected leader... has just been deposed in yet another US coup d'etat!

You couldn't make this stuff up.

Hollywood producers would reject the script for being too fantastical.

But there you have it.

The NeoCons decided they didn't like the way Iraq was partnering with Russia and Iran, so they moved some of their jihadists from Syria into Iraq to cause bloody mayhem.

Meanwhile America's biggest war whores are baying for yet another round of 'shock and awe' in Iraq...

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Vader

US supplied ISIS militants capture new swathes of Iraq, threatening to wipe out entire villages

Ian Birrell
Mail Online
Sun, 10 Aug 2014 14:16 UTC
yezidis sinjar mountains
Thousands of Yezidis are trapped in the Sinjar mountains as they try to escape from Islamic State (IS) forces
They arrived bristling with heavy weapons and waving black flags from about a dozen Humvees, seized from the Iraqi army and supplied originally by the United States.

When the terrified residents looked out of their windows, they saw that Kosho, their traditional walled village in the mountains of northern Iraq, had been surrounded by jihadists. More than 200 bearded militants had besieged the village.

Then their leader - a local man from Mosul rather than the foreigners who make up more than a third of the ranks of the group now known as Islamic State - offered them a chance to save their lives.

'He told us that either we become Muslims or they would kill us all,' said Falah, mayor of the village made up mainly of members of the ancient Yazidi sect. 'We offered money but they would not accept it.'

Comment: This hellish destruction could not be taking place without the funding and training of the US.

Creating fake 'enemies' in order to dominate the planet: U.S. trained ISIS at secret Jordan base
Liar! Obama: Bad intelligence behind ISIS underestimation
The end of Iraq and the start of a new and darker period in the Middle East

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Health

Moscow and Kiev agree on humanitarian operation says Russia's Foreign Minister


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:42 UTC
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© RIA NovostiA residential building in downtown Donetsk damaged during the city's artillery shelling by Ukrainian forces.
Moscow and Kiev have agreed on a humanitarian mission under the authority of the Red Cross, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated.

"With careful optimism, I can now say that, I think, all possible and impossible pretexts have been dismissed. I hope that in the very nearest future this humanitarian action will take place under the authority of the Red Cross," Lavrov said.

"We've agreed on all details with the Ukrainian leadership," the Foreign Minister declared.

He also expressed hope that "Western partners won't put a spoke in the wheel and will think about the people who are badly in need of water and electricity," Lavrov said.

Russia, together with the International Red Cross Committee, is sending a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, according to the president's press service.
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Binoculars

US accused of inflaming tensions in South China Sea


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:41 UTC
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© Reuters/Martin Petty
The Chinese foreign ministry strongly questioned the intentions of the United States over the weekend with regards to an Asian territorial dispute that has attracted the opinion of US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his American counterpart were both among the attendees at this weekend's ASEAN Regional Forum in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, where representatives from 26 countries came together to discuss policy and security issues concerning the Asia-Pacific region. Now in the aftermath of the event, Wang's office is instructing the US to refrain from interfering in one of the matters in particular that Sec. Kerry spoke of at the forum: the ongoing dispute involving Beijing's claims regarding the South China Sea and those from other neighboring nations.

"China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are totally able to safeguard well the peace and stability of South China Sea," the Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Wang as saying, "in immediate response to the so-called tense situation propagated by some countries over the South China Sea."

The statement, published by the Foreign Ministry on Monday this week, says that Wang insisted during the multinational conference that China and ASEAN are capable of handling the territorial dispute in calm, yet "he could not understand why some countries out of the region stayed restless to propagate its tense situation."
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Snakes in Suits

WikiLeaks reveal that Ban Ki-moon secretly worked with Israel to undermine UN report into Gaza war crimes


Dailybhaskar.com
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:13 UTC
ban ki moon
Complicit to war crimes
In a startling revelation, it has come to light that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked the "members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) not to take into account the report submitted by the UN Board of Inquiry that accused Israel of targeting UN buildings in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009". Quoting some documents released by WikiLeaks on Friday, TeleSUR English reported, "Ban Ki-moon secretly worked with Israel to undermine UN report into Gaza war crimes."

"Ban wrote a letter to the UN Security Council asking its members not to take recommendations by the UN Board of Inquiry about Israeli bombings in Gaza into account," the report alleged. In its report, the UN Board of Inquiry had concluded that "Israeli Defense Force (IDF) targeted UN buildings in Gaza Strip in seven of the nine attacks. The report also accused Israel of having "breached the inviolability and immunity of UN premises". It had recommended an impartial probe into the bombings at UN facilities. According to WikiLeaks, White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice spoke four times with Ban Ki Moon "to discuss concerns over the Board of Inquiry's report on incidents at UN sites in December 2008 and January 2009".

"Rice urged Ban not to include the recommendations in the final report's summary, which was supposed to be transmitted to the UN Security Council on May 5," says WikiLeaks.
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