Puppet MastersS


Rocket

Russian Newspaper Reports Russia to Deliver Combat Jets to Syria

Vladimir Isachenko
Associated Press
Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00 UTC
Image
© Misha JaparidzeIn this file photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009, a Russian Yak-130 training jet is seen at MAKS-2009 (the International Aviation and Space Show) in Zhukovsky, Russia. Business daily Kommersant said Monday Jan. 23, 2012, that Russia signed a contract to sell 36 Yak-130s to Syria in a show of support for President Bashar Assad's government.
Russia has signed a contract to sell combat jets to Syria, a newspaper reported Monday, in apparent support for President Bashar Assad and open defiance of international condemnation of his regime's bloody crackdown.

The respected business daily Kommersant, citing an unidentified source close to Russia's Rosoboronexport state arms trader, said the $550-million deal envisions the delivery of 36 Yak-130 aircraft. A spokesman for Rosoboronexport refused to comment on the report.

If confirmed, the deal would cement Russian opposition to international efforts to put pressure on Assad's regime over its attempts to snuff out the country's uprising. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have died over 10 months. The report of the sale comes the same day that Human Rights Watch called Russia's backing of the Syrian regime "immoral."
Read More...
Chess

Mubarak Defense Tells Court That He Still Rules Egypt

Dina Zayed
Reuters
Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/StringerFormer Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is seen on a stretcher outside the courthouse where he is standing trial at the police academy in Cairo January 5, 2012.
Hosni Mubarak is still the president of Egypt and the court trying him has no legal jurisdiction to do so, his defense lawyer said on Sunday, trying to undermine the prosecution's case against the leader deposed in a popular revolt last year.

Lawyer Farid el-Deeb was defending Mubarak for the fifth and final day of his closing remarks in a trial that Egyptians who rose up against Mubarak's 30-year-rule hope will bring justice.

The prosecution is seeking the death sentence on a charge that Mubarak was involved in the killing of some 850 protesters in the uprising.

Mubarak's defense has denied those charges and attacked the prosecution's case on other charges of corruption and abuse of power. Many Egyptians who want to see Mubarak held to account worry the case is not as strong as it should be.

A light sentence or an acquittal may fuel more rage and is likely to lead to street protests. Activists are calling for mass demonstrations on January 25, the anniversary of the uprising.
Read More...
Propaganda

Wishful Thinking: America Overcomes the Debt Crisis as Britain Sinks Deeper into the Swamp

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:33 UTC
Britain has sunk deeper into debt. Three years after bubble burst, the UK has barely begun to tackle the crushing burden left by Gordon Brown. The contrast with the United States is frankly shocking.
Image

The latest report on "Debt and Deleveraging" by the McKinsey Global Institute shows that total public and private debt in the UK is still hovering at an all-time high. It has risen from 487pc to 507pc of GDP since the crisis began.

As the chart above shows, as recently as 1990 Britain's debts were still just 220pc of GDP. Has a rich country ever been debauched so fast in peace time?

The ordeal of belt-tightening will be grim, dragging out for a generation if Japan is any guide. The Japanese at least began their post-bubble debacle as the world's top creditor nation with a trade super-surplus and a savings rate of 17pc. Britain has no such buffers.

It is a very different picture in the US where light is emerging at the end of the tunnel. American banks, firms, and households have been chipping away at their debts, more than offsetting Washington's double-digit deficits.

The total burden has dropped to 279pc, down from 295pc at the peak of the boom. Households have purged roughly a third of the excess, roughly tracking the historic pattern of post-bubble deleveraging.
Read More...
Dominoes

Canada: 'U.S. Economy Unlikely to Fully Recover': Carney

Robert Hiltz
Calgary Herald
Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Mark Carney
© Chris Wattie/ReutersBank of Canada Governor Mark Carney
Canada needs to look beyond its southern neighbour for markets because the United States economy is unlikely to ever fully recover, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said Sunday.

In an interview with CTV's Question Period, Carney said that it is vital for Canada to look for new trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere to prevent the economy from being dragged down by the U.S.

"It's going to take a number of years before they get back to the U.S. that we used to know - in fact, they are not, in our opinion, ultimately going to get back to the U.S. that we used to know," he said.

Carney pointed to China as a market with great potential and as a place where Canada is currently under-represented, but cautioned it would take time to enhance trade between the two countries.
Read More...
Newspaper

US: Georgia Judge Orders President to Appear at Hearing


Cbsatlanta.com
Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:16 UTC

Atlanta - A judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and can't be president.
Read More...
Bad Guys

Davos Elites to Seek Reforms of 'Outdated' Capitalism


Breitbart
Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:51 UTC
Image
© Agence France-PresseWorld Economic Forum (WEF) founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab gives a news conference in Cologny, near Geneva, on January 18.
Economic and political elites meeting this week at the Swiss resort of Davos will be asked to urgently find ways to reform a capitalist system that has been described as "outdated and crumbling."

"We have a general morality gap, we are over-leveraged, we have neglected to invest in the future, we have undermined social coherence, and we are in danger of completely losing the confidence of future generations," said Klaus Schwab, host and founder of the annual World Economic Forum.

"Solving problems in the context of outdated and crumbling models will only dig us deeper into the hole.

"We are in an era of profound change that urgently requires new ways of thinking instead of more business-as-usual," the 73-year-old said, adding that "capitalism in its current form, has no place in the world around us."
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

European Union adopts Iran oil embargo

Don Melvin
The Detroit News
Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:37 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
Brussels - The European Union adopted an oil embargo Monday against Iran and a freeze of the assets of the country's central bank, part of sanctions meant to pressure the country to resume talks on its nuclear program.

Diplomats said the measures, which were adopted in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products, while existing contracts will be allowed to run until July.

EU diplomats are calling the measure part of a twin track approach toward Iran: Increase sanctions to discourage what they suspect is Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons but emphasize at the same time the international community's willingness to talk. Iran says its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the embargo part of "an unprecedented set of sanctions."

"I think this shows the resolve of the European Union on this issue," Hague said.

Comment: Who is Maryam Rajavi? Where does she reside? What is her main part in the over theme of generating more data to bastardize Iran?

The forces of conquest and pillaging are aligning against a generally peaceful country, once again.

Read More...
Info

Greece Presses EU to Ease Iran Oil Sanctions

Joshua Chaffin and James Blitz
The Financial Times
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 06:34 UTC
Greece Flag, EU Flag
© unknown
Greece is pressing its European Union partners to make last-minute concessions over a forthcoming EU embargo on Iranian oil, complicating the bloc's efforts to unveil a sweeping package of sanctions against Tehran on Monday.

European diplomats are confident that EU foreign ministers will agree plans on Monday to impose a phased ban on the import of crude oil from Iran over the next few months.

But Greek brinkmanship has added an element of suspense to Monday's meeting, which is aimed at imposing the most serious sanctions the EU has ever agreed in protest at Iran's nuclear programme.

The imposition of a ban on Iranian oil will be painful for a range of southern European countries, such as Italy and Spain, which are heavily dependent on imports from Iran.
Read More...
Attention

Egypt's Islamists Win 75 Percent of Parliament

Aya Bartrawy
My Way
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:03 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Khalil HamraProtesters chant slogans at a rally honoring those killed in clashes with security forces in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, nearly a year after the 18-day uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Activists are now trying to energize the public to demand that the ruling military step down.
Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, according to election officials and political groups.

The Islamist domination of Egypt's parliament has worried liberals and even some conservatives about the religious tone of the new legislature, which will be tasked with forming a committee to write a new constitution. It remains unclear whether the constitution will be written while the generals who took power after Mubarak's fall are still in charge, or rather after presidential elections this summer.

In the vote for the lower house of parliament, a coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats.

The Salafi Al-Nour, which was initially the biggest surprise of the vote, wants to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt, while the more moderate Brotherhood, the country's best-known and organized party, has said publicly that it does not seek to force its views about an appropriate Islamic lifestyle on Egyptians.
Read More...
Vader

US: Obama signals State of Union a Campaign Rallying Call

Alister Bull
Reuters
Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:27 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Kevin LamarqueU.S. President Barack Obama attends a campaign fund raiser at the Apollo Theater in New York January 19, 2012.
President Barack Obama, offering a glimpse of next week's State of the Union address, made clear on Saturday that he will deliver a starkly partisan election-year call for a "return to American values" of economic fairness.

"I'm going to lay out a blueprint for an American economy that's built to last," Obama said in a campaign video sent to supporters. "And most importantly, a return to American values of fairness for all, and responsibility from all."

A reference to values is usually political code for social and religious issues, a rallying cry for conservative Republicans who want to deny the Democratic president a second White House term in November.

But Obama, who delivers his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night, is running for re-election on his claim of being a champion for the middle class, while trying to paint Republicans as the party for the rich.

"We can go in two directions. One is towards less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few," Obama said.
Read More...