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At least 50 prisoners killed in Tunisian prison inferno

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© Unknown
Smoke billows from market on January 15, 2011 near Tunis.
Reports say scores of inmates have been killed in an inferno at a jail in eastern Tunisia as violence continues in the North African country.

Medical sources say at least 50 prisoners have been killed in the fire at the prison in the resort town of Monastir, 160 kilometers south of the capital Tunis.

"The whole prison is on fire, the furniture, mattresses, everything," Reuters quoted one witness as saying.

In the wake of the unexpected ouster of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali, a new wave of mayhem and disorder has swept across the capital Tunis.

The blaze started when an inmate set fire to a mattress in a dormitory in an attempt to escape.

Bomb

Blast kills 4, injures 5 in Dagestan

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© Unknown
Russian security forces in Dagestan
The explosion of a car parked near a cafe in Russia's troubled southern republic of Dagestan has claimed the lives of four people, the country's Investigation Committee says.

Five other people were severely injured during the blast that hit the cafe in the city of Khasavyurt on Friday at 7.30 p.m. local time (18.30 GMT).

"According to preliminary data, two people working in the cafe and two customers were killed; five were taken to hospital in critical condition," the Russian RIA Novosti quoted the committee as saying in a statement.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast yet.

Sporadic attacks and militant clashes are common in Russia's North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia.

Rocket

Russian Duma ratifies new START treaty

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© Unknown
Russia's State Duma
Russia's lower house of parliament has voted in favor of ratifying the new START treaty with the United States, albeit with conditions.

The State Duma set its terms for approving the Russian-American Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on the second reading on Friday, the state-run Ittar-Tass news agency reported.

According to the head of the State Duma foreign relations committee Konstantin Kosachev, the conditions include circumstances that would push Russia to withdraw from the new START treaty as well as the possibility of further Moscow-Washington talks on similar treaties.

The draft law was adopted by a 349-57 vote with two abstentions.

The Russian lower house of parliament had, on December 24, 2010, voted 350-58 against the new START treaty, which was signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama last April.

Earlier on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was "absolutely" opposed to US Senate additions to the treaty, which denies the link between missile defense and strategic arms.

"We are absolutely not in agreement with this. This is an arbitrary interpretation of the principles of international law," he told the State Duma.

Cards

US: Forget Cellphones; Casinos Say Poker Is Answer to State's Budget Woes

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© unknown
California voters may have decided that marijuana was not the answer to the state's budget woes but what about gambling?

A group of California casinos say they could raise about $1 billion over the next decade if the state legalized Internet poker.

The problem is California is facing a $25 billion shortfall right now. But with Gov. Jerry Brown cutting costs wherever he can -- see his $20 million cell phone savings earlier this week -- $100 million a year could go a long way.

Star of David

How Terrorists took control of Israel

God chosen terrorists were the Irgun which was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut (or "Freedom") party, which led to today's Likud party. Benjamin Netanyahu is the present leader. Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977.

Star of David

Take a course on 'Zionist editing' to make Israel look good on Wikipedia!

Interviews with Hasbera trainees on how to edit Wikipedia to make Israel look good.


Briefcase

Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks

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© Rene Soobaroyen/Guardian
Rudolf Elmer in Mauritius
Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks

He will disclose the details of 'massive potential tax evasion' before he flies home to stand trial over his actions.

The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations - detailing massive potential tax evasion - will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.

Eye 2

Canada's double standards

illegal israeli settlement
© ActiveStills
The Canadian tax system subsidizes Israel's illegal settlements.
Canada's tax system currently subsidizes Israeli settlements that Ottawa deems illegal, however, the Conservative government says there's nothing that can be done about it.

In June of last year, Guelph activist Dan Maitland emailed Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon concerning Canada Park, a Jewish National Fund of Canada initiative built on land Israel occupied after the June 1967 War. Three Palestinian villages (Beit Nuba, Imwas and Yalu) were demolished to make way for the park.

A few weeks ago Maitland received a reply from Keith Ashfield, Minister of National Revenue, who refused to discuss the particulars of the case but provided "general information about registered charities and the occupied territories." Ashfield wrote that "the fact that charitable activities take place in the occupied territories is not a barrier to acquiring or maintaining charitable status."

This means Canadian organizations can openly fundraise for settlements Ottawa (officially) deems illegal under international law and get the government to pay up to a third of the cost through tax credits for donations. To justify the government's position, Ashfield cited a September 2002 Federal Court of Appeal case (Canadian Magen David Adom for Israel v. Minister of National Revenue), which reversed the Canadian Revenue Agency's previous position.

Handcuffs

"Doomsday Seed Vault" - Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don't?

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© Unknown
One thing Microsoft founder Bill Gates can't be accused of is sloth. He was already programming at 14, founded Microsoft at age 20 while still a student at Harvard. By 1995 he had been listed by Forbes as the world's richest man from being the largest shareholder in his Microsoft, a company which his relentless drive built into a de facto monopoly in software systems for personal computers.

In 2006 when most people in such a situation might think of retiring to a quiet Pacific island, Bill Gates decided to devote his energies to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest 'transparent' private foundation as it says, with a whopping $34.6 billion endowment and a legal necessity to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world to maintain its tax free charitable status. A gift from friend and business associate, mega-investor Warren Buffett in 2006, of some $30 billion worth of shares in Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway put the Gates' foundation into the league where it spends almost the amount of the entire annual budget of the United Nations' World Health Organization. So when Bill Gates decides through the Gates Foundation to invest some $30 million of their hard earned money in a project, it is worth looking at.

No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the world's most remote spots, Svalbard. Bill Gates is investing millions in a seed bank on the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean, some 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole. Svalbard is a barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty (see map).

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© Unknown

Gear

Intelligence Briefs or Disinformation? How to Tell the Difference

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© Philip Brennan
With certain people within my circle of contacts being suckered by Sorcha Faal / EU Times articles, I feel it is time to deal with the whole messy subject of intelligence sources.

Before I go into this subject in any great depth, I would first like to deal with Sorcha Faal, otherwise known as David Booth of the CIA. David Booth works within the Central Intelligence Agency in COINTELPRO. Other western intelligence agencies known for using COINTELPRO methods include MI5, MI6, GCHQ, and the think-tank, DEMOS. To be quite blunt, all intelligence agencies have their own COINTELPRO departments.

Sorcha Faal does not exist. There is no "spokesperson" within the GRU named Sorcha Faal. Intelligence agencies rarely make public statements, and when they do, it is always through either someone in the highest echelons of the organisation or a government minister with the correct clearances, and never a mere "spokesperson".

Do leaks ever happen through lesser agents? Yes, but those agents if caught are dealt with very strictly, usually with "Holy Orders" to keep their traps shut. By rights, if "Sorcha Faal" was really working within the GRU, she would have been silenced by now. Permanently.

It appears that David Booth is a major thorn in the side of the Alternative Intelligence Community, as well as the Patriot and Truth Movements. This is a gross understatement. Over the past week or two I have had to take aside many people and let them in on the whole Sorcha Faal thing.