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Russia's State Duma passes amendment allowing voters to contest election results


RT
Tue, 11 Mar 2014 14:18 UTC
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© RIA Novosti / Yakov Andreev
The Russian Lower House has approved an amendment allowing the annulment of election results if voters complain of irregularities.

The bill changing the federal law on the basic guarantees of voters' rights has been presented following last year's ruling of the Constitutional Court confirming that ordinary citizens can contest election results, though only in the constituencies in which they cast their votes.

Previously, the processes of investigating violations at elections could only be started after complaints from candidates or participating parties.

The new bill stipulates that any voter can turn to the courts with complaints over the decisions, actions or inactions of the district elections commissions. The new rule applies to elections to state bodies and to referendums. If a court finds the election results invalid a recount of votes is automatically ordered, but only in the constituency where the proven violations took place.
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Cow

Hypocrite Feinstein changed her mind about surveillance drones due to toy helicopter


RT
Mon, 17 Mar 2014 21:00 UTC
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© Reuters/Kevin LemarqueA Code Pink demonstrator wearing a mock drone.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) now says she has some serious privacy concerns about domestic drones, but it might have been nothing more than a children's toy that put her over the edge.

Feinstein - who also serves as the head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee - has since last year been advocating for her congressional colleagues to implement privacy safeguards to protect Americans from any potential surveillance threats brought on by the small, unmanned aerial vehicles expected to soon invade local airspace.

"The administration is looking at a rules playbook as to how these won't be used and how they will be used," Feinstein told MSNBC a year ago this month. "So it's a very complicated subject of new technology and I think we have to take a pause and get it right."

But speaking to journalists at the CBS News program 60 Minutes recently, Sen. Feinstein shared a personal story that put into better perspective why exactly she's so worried about spy drones. During an episode that aired Sunday evening, Feinstein said an experience that she recently had with a "drone" outside of her home had something to do with how she now views UAVs.
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Red Flag

Far-right National Front set to surge in French local elections?


Raw Story
Sun, 23 Mar 2014 12:13 UTC
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© Thierry Zoccolan/AFPA volunteer counts voting envelopes during the first round of local elections at a polling station in Saint-Jean-Saint-Gervais, central France, on March 23, 2014
French voters went to the polls on Sunday in the first round of local elections set to represent a landmark for women in politics and, possibly, for the far-right National Front.

The first nationwide vote since Francois Hollande's 2012 election as president took place with the ruling Socialists battling record unpopularity and the main opposition UMP party grappling with scandals embroiling former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Against that backdrop, polls have suggested around one in four voters are considering casting their votes for Marine Le Pen's National Front (FN), setting the scene for what could be a breakthrough election for the anti-immigration, anti-EU party led by the daughter of its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.
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Blue Planet

U.S. Navy pollutes Diego Garcia coral lagoon area - cleared of natives in order to 'protect environment'


RT
Mon, 17 Mar 2014 19:59 UTC
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© WikipediaChagos Islands, Diego Garcia
The US Navy has been discharging sewage and waste water into the British-owned and protected Diego Garcia coral lagoon since the 1980s, according to a new report by the UK-based Independent.

The base in question - located on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean - has been the focus of intense lobbying by supporters of the native residents, who were resettled elsewhere in the 1970s in order to make way for a US naval establishment. The British government has stated on multiple occasions that those Chagossians could not return to the island due to its effort to maintain the area's unspoiled habitat.

Despite these claims, however, scientists have found the state of the coral in the lagoon to be deteriorating, and have singled out increased levels of nitrogen and phosphate as the possible culprits. According to the Independent, the presence of these elements is likely the result of the US Navy dumping treated sewage water and other waste into the lagoon for the last three decades.

Although the British government was aware of the Navy's behavior in 2013, it has only now been revealed to the public.
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Snakes in Suits

Georgia summons ex-president and U.S. puppet Saakashvili for questioning in criminal investigations


RT
Sat, 22 Mar 2014 11:54 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Vasily MaximovFormer Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili
The Prosecutor General's Office of Georgia intends to question former president Mikhail Saakashvili as a witness in a number of criminal cases. After resigning Saakashvili left Georgia last November and currently lives and lectures in the US.

Saakashvili has been summoned to come to the prosecutor's office in Tbilisi next Thursday, on March 27, at 10 AM local time (6 AM GMT).

"As investigations of a number of criminal cases have entered a terminal stage, the prosecutor's office is facing the necessity to question Mikhail Saakashvili as a witness in these cases," a statement from the prosecutor's office said on Saturday. No comments from Saakashvili's representative have been available so far.

The prosecutor is waiting for Saakashvili, who is currently lecturing at Boston's Tufts University, to answer questions regarding as many as 10 instituted criminal proceedings.
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Pistol

Time to grab guns and kill damn Russians - Tymoshenko in leaked tape


RT
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:42 UTC
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© Reuters/Cathal McNaughtonYulia Tymoshenko
Ukrainians must take up arms against Russians so that not even scorched earth will be left where Russia stands; an example of former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko's vitriol in phone call leaked online.
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Vader

Western neo-colonialism: Bomb strikes Libyan capital's international airport


RT
Sat, 22 Mar 2014 11:51 UTC
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© Reuters / Ismail ZitounyPassengers look at a flight information monitor after the reopening of the airport in Tripoli March 21, 2014.
A bomb exploded in the major airport of Libya's capital, Tripoli, sparking further concerns about the widespread violence that has plunged the crisis-torn country into chaos.

Unidentified people managed to get onto the runway at Tripoli International Airport, plant an explosive device at dawn and detonate it using a timer, said Transport Minister Abdelqader Mohammed Ahmed.

"When security and the airport protection force arrived they found a timer," he said, adding that the explosion was "small."

The authorities immediately closed the airport, which is considered to be one of the best-guarded places in the country. Flights, both local and international, were immediately canceled.
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War Whore

Western neo-colonialism: Double bombing hits Iraq after Friday wave of attacks claimed 50 lives


RT
Sat, 22 Mar 2014 11:47 UTC
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© AFP Photo / StrIraqis gather around smoke rising from a building following a double car bomb explosion southeast of Baghdad on March 18, 2014.
At least seven people have been killed in a double bombing in Iraq on Saturday, after the bloodshed on the previous day took the lives of at least 50 people in a string of attacks, making it one of the deadliest since the beginning of the year.

At least five policemen and two civilians have been killed and 18 people injured in a double bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit. A roadside bomb exploded in a commercial street, while a few minutes later a car bomb struck policemen who arrived to inspect the first blast.

The attacks come after the deadly Friday events, in which the crisis-torn country was hit by multiple terror attacks.

In the first suicide attack on Friday, an unidentified gunman rammed an explosives-laden tanker into police HQ in the village of Injana, in Diyala province in north-eastern Iraq, 120 km north of Baghdad. According to Al Jazeera, twelve people were killed - including the battalion commander, Brigadier Ragheb al-Omari and his assistant, and dozens were injured.
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People 2

Russia prepares first bill targeting sexual harassment - punishable by fines and deportation


RT
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 10:11 UTC
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© RIA Novosti/Dmitry Korobeinikov"Hands off!" Russian anti-harassment poster
Lawmakers are ready to list sexual harassment as an offence punishable by fines for Russian citizens and deportation for foreigners.

The bill has been prepared by MP Oleg Nilov representing the center-left party Fair Russia. The lawmaker told the Izvestia daily that his main objective was to relieve women of psychological stress caused by sexual harassment on the part of bosses and strangers.

"Even a single verbal insult must carry a punishment. But of course the fact must be proven - the victim must file a report with the police and have witnesses to confirm the claims - in this case the punishment will be inevitable. The bill will make women's life easier," Nilov told the newspaper.

In its current form the draft bill allows sexual harassment and unwanted flirting in open and a concealed form to be punished by fines of between 30,000 and 50,000 roubles ($830 - $1400). Repeat offenses carry fines of between 80,000 and 100,000 roubles ($2,200 - $2,800). Foreigners found guilty of harassment will have to pay the same fines as Russians but also face deportation from the country.
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Chess

Russian lawmakers passed motion to impose sanctions on all Russian MPs


RT
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 15:15 UTC
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© RT
The State Duma has passed a motion suggesting that the US and EU extend the freshly introduced sanctions to all Russian MPs rather than a limited group of officials, defying western pressure just hours before Russia and Crimea signed a federation treaty.

The motion was supported by a unanimous vote on Tuesday morning. It was prepared the day before by all four parliamentary parties after representatives of the United States and the European Union said they were slapping sanctions, such as visa bans and asset freezes, on a number of Russian officials who are seen as "key ideologists and architects" of the policy towards Ukraine.

The State Duma motion reads that the US President's decree was limiting the rights of Russian citizens and that similar discriminatory measures were approved by foreign ministers of the EU nations.

In a speech MP Mikhail Markelov (Fair Russia) called the move by the US State Department, President Obama and the European Union "an absurd attempt", and suggested that the US punished all lower house members. "As long as they stress that MP Lyudmila Mizulina is on the blacklist, they should also impose sanctions on all 436 MPs who voted for the law that protects our children from gay propaganda," Markelov noted.
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