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Airplane Paper

London Heathrow 'rips off' passengers amid £600m price hike


Press TV
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 04:35 UTC
London Heathrow airport
© UnknownA welcome sign on approach to London Heathrow airport.
London Heathrow airport has been "ripping off" passengers amid plans to slap a £600 million price hike on passengers over five years, the British Airways (BA) boss has announced.

Speaking at a press conference in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, Willie Walsh, head of BA and International Airline Group, said the equivalent of £140 million annual hike to prices at Heathrow comes amid bad management and practice.

He called on BA Chief Executive Colin Mathews to step down and criticized senior officials' saying they work toward getting the "right regulatory outcome" rather than running the airport properly.

Walsh claims the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has allowed Britain's biggest and the world's third busiest airport to reward its foreign investors with higher-than-average returns at the expense of passengers.

"I think Heathrow is ripping off passengers and I think if the CAA does not take a stronger line on this, Heathrow will continue to be inefficient and over rewarded."

Heathrow's move will put an extra £7 per head per trip, which the British flag carrier airline said makes it the most expensive hub airport in the world.

"In an environment where everybody has been tightening their belt, for an airport to continue to increase their charges by well in excess of inflation will come as a great surprise to passengers."
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Megaphone

Death toll from Sudan demos nears 30


Press TV
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 04:30 UTC
Sudan protests
© UnknownSudanese protesters gather for a demonstration in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurmanon, September 25, 2013.
The death toll from three days of protests over a cut in fuel subsidies in Sudan has reached to nearly 30.

Protests broke out in the country on September 23 following a government decision to lift fuel subsidies to raise revenue.

According to initial reports, seven people died during the protests, but a hospital source in Khartoum's twin city Omdurman said the bodies of 21 people had been received since the protests began on September 23. That announcement put the death at nearly 30 people.

The source also stated that all the victims were civilians.

Activists are scheduled to hold fresh protests in the capital on Thursday.

On Wednesday, security forces fired tear gas and used force to disperse the demonstrators in Khartoum and Omdurman.

The demonstrators burned vehicles in a hotel car park near Khartoum International Airport, and a petrol station in the area was also set alight.

On September 24, protesters stormed and torched the offices of the ruling National Congress Party in Omdurman.

Sudan's Education Ministry announced that schools in the capital would remain closed until the end of the month.
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Mr. Potato

Italian lawmakers threaten to resign over Berlusconi issue


Press TV
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 04:23 UTC
Silvio Berlusconi
© UnknownItaly’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
Parliament members from the party of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have threatened to resign all together if a senate committee votes to expel him from the legislative body over a tax fraud conviction.

A cross-party senate committee is set to vote on October 4 whether the 76-year-old billionaire should be stripped of his senator post following the criminal conviction. It is widely speculated that the 23-member senate committee will vote for Berlusconi's expulsion.

On Wednesday, Italy's former Senate chief Renato Schifani put forward a proposal at Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) meeting for lawmakers to resign en bloc, which was highly greeted.

However, an aide of Berlusconi, Renato Brunetta said, "There was no proposal for mass resignation. We have only asked each parliamentarian to reflect on and decide according to his or her conscience."
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Dollar

It's the austerity, stupid: How we were sold an economy-killing lie

Kevin Drum
Mother Jones
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 23:08 UTC
Image
© Zohar Lazar
It was the Excel error heard round the world.

In January 2010, as the global economy was slowly beginning to claw its way out of the depths of the Great Recession, the Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff published a short paper with a grim message: Too much debt kills economic growth. They had compiled a comprehensive database of debt episodes throughout the 20th century, and their data told an unmistakable story: Time and again, countries that rack up high debt levels have gone on to suffer years - sometimes decades - of stagnation.

As economics studies go, it was nothing short of a bombshell. As its conclusions were invoked from Washington to Brussels, tackling the recession suddenly became less important than tackling deficits. For the next three years, stimulus was out, austerity was in, and the protests of critics were all but buried amid the headlong rush to slash spending.

But then, on April 15 of this year, a trio of researchers at the University of Massachusetts published a paper that took a fresh look at Reinhart and Rogoff's study. It turned out there was a problem: R&R had presented data from a list of 20 countries that filled lines 30 through 49 on a spreadsheet. But the formula that calculated the results relied on lines 30 through 44. Oops.
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Calendar

'Monsanto Protection Act' to expire, won't be part of continuing resolution

Ashley Alman
Huffington Post
Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:01 UTC
Image
© feminspire.com
The so-called Monsanto Protection Act is set to expire, and will not be included in a bill designed to avert a government shutdown, according to a statement Tuesday from the press office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

House Republicans earlier this month released legislation that would include an extension of the Monsanto measure in their continuing resolution. The measure shields sellers of genetically modified seeds from lawsuits, even if the resulting crops cause harm.

Merkley has opposed the measure since it quietly passed in March, when it was attached to another spending resolution. Merkley led an online petition to oppose the extension, and unsuccessfully offered an amendment to the farm bill intended to kill what opponents have dubbed the Monsanto Protection Act. Monsanto is the world's largest seed company.
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Arrow Down

Cold War documents show NSA spied on US senators


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 18:10 UTC
NSA
© AFP/File, Paul J. RichardsThe National Security Agency (NSA) is shown on May 31, 2006 in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Washington - The National Security Agency eavesdropped on civil rights icon Martin Luther King and heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali as well as other leading critics of the Vietnam War in a secret program later deemed "disreputable," declassified documents revealed Wednesday.

The six-year spying program, dubbed "Minaret," had been exposed in the 1970s but the targets of the surveillance had been kept secret until now.

The documents showed the NSA tracked King and his colleague Whitney Young, boxing star Ali, journalists from the New York Times and the Washington Post, and two members of Congress, Senator Frank Church of Idaho and Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee.

The declassified NSA historical account of the episode called the spying "disreputable if not outright illegal."

The documents were published after the government panel overseeing classification ruled in favor of researchers at George Washington University who had long sought the release of the secret papers.

The intensity of anti-war dissent at home led President Lyndon Johnson to ask US intelligence agencies in 1967 to find out if some protests were fueled by foreign powers. The NSA worked with other spy agencies to draw up "watch lists" of anti-war critics to tap their overseas phone calls.
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Video

Best of the Web: New unseen footage emerges from the 9/11 attacks

Austin Petersen
The Libertarian Republic
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 16:42 UTC
Image
"Go home! Go home! They're blowing up the buildings!"

A video has appeared on the Internet featuring some never-before-seen footage from the events of September 11th, 2001. The video is a series of mashups seemingly taken from multiple sources. It begins with a distant shot of the towers, while the rest of the 14 minutes documents peoples reactions to the explosions. Conversations from incredulous New Yorkers can be heard discussing the events, many registering disbelief about the tragedy that was taking place. The video was just released today and has yet to undergo strenuous tests to verify its authenticity but it is an intriguing insight into the psychology of the people who were there in New York that day.


Comment: Note how, before the propaganda machine rolled into action, common sense told ordinary New Yorkers that "powerful bombs" had to have taken the Twin Towers down...

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HAL9000

Boycotting Rouhani speech a mistake: Israeli minister


Press TV
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 11:16 UTC
President Rouhani
© Unknown
Israel's Finance Minister Yair Lapid has criticized the Israeli delegation for walking out of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's speech at the UN General Assembly as a mistake.

"Israel shouldn't be portrayed as a serial objector to negotiations, uninterested in peaceful solutions," Lapid said

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli delegation to the United Nations to boycott Rouhani's address at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Following the Iranian president's landmark speech, Netanyahu issued a statement and described the address as "cynical" and filled with "hypocrisy".

Netanyahu also said Iran wanted to use the talks to buy time for its nuclear program.

In his address to the UN, Rouhani reiterated Tehran's readiness for talks on its nuclear energy program with complete transparency.

"Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran's security and defense doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions," he said.
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Airplane

US-led airstrike kills Chardara shadow governor in Afghanistan


Press TV
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 11:08 UTC
US airstrike in Afghanistan
© Unknown
A US-led airstrike in war-torn Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz has killed Chardara district's shadow governor, reports say.

According to local reports, the self-proclaimed governor was a senior Taliban official. He was reportedly killed in an attack not coordinated with Afghan officials.

"Maulavi Ahmad Shah, the Taliban's so-called governor for Chardara district and his bodyguard were killed in a NATO airstrike at 12 am (1930 GMT) in Noorzai area," district police chief Ghulam Muhayyuddin said.

The attack is likely to further torpedo US efforts to reach out to the Taliban. Washington's talks with the group have angered the Afghan government.

Afghan officials say that more than 10 militants have been killed and 20 others arrested over the past 24 hours in nine different provinces.

On September 21, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Afghan security forces have killed 11 Taliban militants, including a shadow district governor identified as Muhibullah.

The attack comes months after Taliban militants announced the start of their annual offensive against US-led and Afghan forces.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise in the country.
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Megaphone

Brazil's Rousseff blasts U.S. spying as breach of law

Daniel Trotta
Reuters
Tue, 24 Sep 2013 10:50 UTC
Image
© REUTERS/Shannon StapletonBrazil's President Dilma Rousseff addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 24, 2013.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff used her position as the opening speaker at the U.N. General Assembly to accuse the United States of violating human rights and international law through espionage that included spying on her email.

Rousseff had expressed her displeasure last week by calling off a high-profile state visit to the United States scheduled for October over reports that the U.S. National Security Agency had been spying on Brazil.

In unusually strong language, Rousseff launched a blistering attack on U.S. surveillance, calling it an affront to Brazilian sovereignty and "totally unacceptable."

"Tampering in such a manner in the lives and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and, as such, it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries, especially among friendly nations," Rousseff told the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.
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