Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

US: A Boom in Corporate Profits, a Bust in Jobs, Wages

Paul Wiseman
Associated Press
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:19 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse
Washington - Strong second-quarter earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Caterpillar on Friday are just the latest proof that booming profits have allowed Corporate America to leave the Great Recession far behind.

But millions of ordinary Americans are stranded in a labor market that looks like it's still in recession. Unemployment is stuck at 9.2 percent, two years into what economists call a recovery. Job growth has been slow and wages stagnant.

"I've never seen labor markets this weak in 35 years of research," says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Wages and salaries accounted for just 1 percent of economic growth in the first 18 months after economists declared that the recession had ended in June 2009, according to Sum and other Northeastern researchers.
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Magnify

Norway: Gunman's Background Puzzles Police

Karl Ritter
The Associated Press
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 06:13 UTC
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© AP Photo/Jon Bredo OveraasSmoke rises from the central area of Oslo Friday, July 22, 2011 after an explosion.
The 32-year-old suspected of massacring at least 80 young people at a summer camp and setting off a bomb in downtown Oslo that killed at least seven is a mystery to investigators: a right-winger with anti-Muslim views but no known links to hardcore extremists.

"He just came out of nowhere," a police official told The Associated Press.

Public broadcaster NRK and several other Norwegian media identified the suspected attacker as Anders Behring Breivik, a blond and blue-eyed Norwegian who expressed right-wing and anti-Muslim views on the Internet. Police have the suspect in custody.

Norwegian news agency NTB said Breivik legally owned several firearms and belonged to a gun club. He ran an agricultural firm growing vegetables, an enterprise that could have helped him secure large amounts of fertilizer, a potential ingredient in bombs.

But he didn't belong to any known factions in Norway's small and splintered extreme right movement, and had no criminal record except for some minor offenses, the police official told AP.

"He hasn't been on our radar, which he would have been if was active in the neo-Nazi groups in Norway," he said. "But he still could be inspired by their ideology."
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Bizarro Earth

Norway Attacks Leave More than 80 Dead, Dozens of Casualties, Mystery in Wake

Olivia Ward
The Star
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
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© unknown
If there were a peace capital of the world, it would be Norway.

But the tranquil homeland of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Oslo accords and numerous peacekeeping missions was shattered Friday by two deadly daylight attacks aimed at its political heart.

They left behind more than 80 dead, dozens wounded - and a shell shocked public unable to come to grips with what happened in a country more accustomed to dealing with others' conflicts than their own.

Why Norway? And why now?

At the start, the trail seemed to veer in different directions that puzzled both citizens and veteran terrorism experts.

But late Friday, a Norwegian police official told reporters that the Oslo bombing and the shooting spree aimed at the youth camp of the ruling Labour Party were "not linked to any international terrorist organizations" and had more in common with the Oklahoma City bombing in the United States. He said the investigation was ongoing.
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Better Earth

Palestine's Freedom Plea to World


New Zealand Herald
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 04:18 UTC
Palestinian child, buldozer, Israel
© The Associated PressA Palestinian boy and an Israeli tractor ... contrasting symbols of the bitter divisions over Israel's continued construction of Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians.
September's United Nations Assembly meeting is crunch time for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, now embroiled in a diplomatic frenzy to convince the nations of the world to recognise it as an independent state and UN member.

Leading Palestinian politicians, intellectuals and commentators - and many Israeli ones too - predict that if the occupation under which the Palestinians live is not brought to an end, it will result in catastrophe for the region.

The PLO is making intensive diplomatic efforts which Palestine National Council president Saleem Za'noon describes as "knocking on every door in the absence of any peace negotiations because appealing to a sense of duty from the international community is the only option left".

The PLO is asking the world, including Israel, to recognise Palestine's right to exist as an independent sovereign state, albeit consisting of only 22 per cent of the Palestinians' former homeland.

The UN appeal faces a near-certain Security Council veto from the United States, which will deny the PLO the vital recommendation for membership.

If the US - Israel's closest ally - sends the Palestinians packing, they will still have the moral force of support from a majority of Security Council members and more than two- thirds of the General Assembly
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Star of David

Israel paper sketches West Bank expansion


United Press International
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:10 UTC
Israel
© ReutersAn Israeli flag fluttering over a view of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ofra
Israeli authorities allegedly are planning to declare more of the West Bank as state land to expand settlements, a military document indicates.

The paper, written by Lt.Col. Zvi Cohen of the occupation's infrastructure department in January, was obtained by Rabbis for Human Rights under the freedom of information law and reported by Haaretz Friday.

The document empowers the government to take over land whose ownership is "undefined," the report said, enabling expansion of major Jewish settlement blocs like Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion and construction in areas farther from the 1967 border, like the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea.
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Star of David

Flashback WikiLeaks: U.S. worried Israel becoming 'the promised land' for organized crime

Barak Ravid
Ha'aretz
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:02 UTC
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U.S. Embassy follows Israeli crime families closely and considers them a serious threat, cable shows.

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv sent a cable to the State Department in May 2009 expressing little confidence in the Israel Police's ability to counter the growing wave of organized crime.

The cable, released on WikiLeaks, said the embassy was taking pains to prevent members of crime families from being issued visas to the United States.

The cable, under the headline "Israel, a promised land for organized crime?" notes that the U.S. Embassy was following Israeli crime families closely and considered them a serious threat to the United States. The embassy has set up a database on the subject with the help of Israeli and American law-enforcement agencies.

"Given the growing reach and lethal methods of Israeli OC [Organized Crime], blocking the travel of known OC figures to the United States is a matter of great concern," according to the cable, signed by James Cunningham, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
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Star of David

Flashback A real Wikileak shocker

Geoffrey Paul
Jewish Chronicle
Thu, 02 Dec 2010 02:56 UTC
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Among the hundreds of thousands of classified US documents put into the public domain this week by Wikileaks, there is one I found particularly shocking. It is a long and comprehensive report on the alleged growth of organised crime in Israel, its increasing sophistication and its overseas connections. Sent last year from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, it lists names of what are claimed to be Israel's leading crime families, their territories and their activities. Addressed not only to the State Department but also the immigration and homeland security authorities in Washington, it reports that the US consular authorities in Israel are working hard to prevent any of Israel's gang members infiltrating into the US. It is the kind of document I might have expected to come out of some unpoliced, third world country. Not Israel. What underscores the shocking nature of the content is the title given by the US Embassy to its report: "Israel, a Promised Land for Organised Crime?" You can read it if you want to be disturbed at:

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09TELAVIV1098.html

Comment: At least, you could read the leaked cable; it appears to have been removed.

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War Whore

Intense NATO airstrikes hit Tripoli


Press TV
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 02:54 UTC
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Several NATO airstrikes have rocked the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Several NATO airstrikes have rocked Tripoli in the most intense night of bombing of the Libyan capital in several weeks.

At least seven strong explosions were heard in Tripoli in the early hours of Saturday morning, including the area surrounding the residence of embattled ruler Muammar Gaddafi, AFP reported.

Three blasts were heard around 2:20 a.m. (0020 GMT), followed by four others.

NATO planes "are currently bombing civilian sites in the capital Tripoli," said a military source quoted by Libyan state television.

However, no official report on targets or casualties has been issued.
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Bomb

Update: Norway shooting, bomb attack kill 87


Press TV
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 02:48 UTC
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Smoke is seen billowing from a damaged building, with debris strewn across the street in the aftermath of an explosion in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, on July 22, 2011.
At least 87 people have been killed and scores injured in the twin shooting and bomb attacks in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, and a nearby island.

"We have confirmation that at least 80 people are dead. We do not exclude a higher toll," said Are Frykholm, a Norwegian police spokesman, in reference to Friday's killings at a youth camp on the island of Utoeya, AFP reported.

A man dressed as a police officer opened fire at the youth meeting of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's ruling Labour Party in Utoeya island, south of Oslo, and went on a shooting spree.

Seven others lost their lives in the powerful bomb blast in central Oslo, where the premier's office and several government buildings are located.

Security was meanwhile tightened across potential target sites in the Norwegian capital, police said on Saturday.

The Norwegian prime minister pointed out that the culprits would not intimidate one of Europe's most peaceful countries.
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Star of David

Flashback Norwegian government-run pension fund drops shares in evil Israeli companies

Shuki Sadeh
Ha'aretz
Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:19 UTC
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Thou Shalt Not Betray Us... Construction of the Green Park project in the West Bank settlement of Modiin Ilit.
Oslo says EUR450bn oil fund has excluded two Israeli firms for ethical reasons.

Norway's 450 billion euro oil-riches fund has excluded two Israeli firms involved in developing settlements, as well as a Malaysian forestry firm, on ethical grounds, Norway's finance ministry said on Monday. The excluded companies are Africa Israel Investments and its engineering subsidiary Danya Cebus, both of which are controlled by energy and real estate magnate Lev Leviev. The Malaysian firm is Samling Global.

The ministry said that the oil fund, which is essentially a form of pension fund, has already sold all its holdings in these companies.

The central bank-managed fund follows ethical guidelines set by the government and does not invest in companies that produce nuclear weapons or cluster munitions, damage the environment or abuse workers' rights. Nor will it invest in companies that build in the settlements, it appears.

Africa Israel controls Danya Cebus, "a construction company involved in developing settlements in occupied Palestinian territory," the fund said in a statement.

Danya Cebus has carried out construction projects, as a hired contractor, in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, and in the settlements Ma'aleh Adumim, Modi'in Ilit ‏(shown in the picture‏) and Adam.
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