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'Chance for a new start': Croatia writes off debts of 60,000 poorest citizens


RT
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 08:51 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Antonio Bronic
Village of Bobodol, near Knin, in central Croatia
Croatian government have gotten creditors on board a plan to erase the debts of some 60,000 poorest citizens. The "fresh start" scheme targets less than 1 percent of the entire debt, but is hoped to boost the economy in the long-term.

The unorthodox measure was voted for by the government on January 15 and comes into force on Monday. To be eligible to participate debtors must have no savings or property, have a debt no greater than about $5,100 and live on welfare or an income of no higher than $138 per month.

"We assess that this measure will be applicable to some 60,000 citizens," Deputy Prime Minister Milanka Opacic said as he was introducing the bailout. "Thus they will be given a chance for a new start without a burden of debt."

Some $31 million worth of bad debts are expected to be written off by creditors who have signed up to the government's scheme. Those include several banks, telecommunication companies, major utilities, several major cities and municipalities as well as the government's own tax agency. None will be refunded for their losses.

The program would return access to bank accounts to about 20 percent of the 317,000 Croatians, whose accounts were frozen in July last year due to debts. The entire population of the small Mediterranean nation is 4.4 million.

"This is the first time that any (Croatian) government is trying to solve this difficult problem and we are proud of it," Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told a cabinet session.
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Eye 1

US proposes DNA database to help 'fight disease'

Tony Cartalucci
LocalOrg
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 14:52 UTC
DNA
© unknown
The US is proposing a government-backed DNA database composed of over a million volunteers' genetic material. RT would report in their article, "Got genes: Obama proposes genetic biobank of 1mn Americans' DNA to fight disease," that:
A new $215 million US government proposal would seek more than 1 million American volunteers for analysis of their genetic information in an initiative to fight disease, while developing targeted health care based on one's DNA.
Officials hope the biobank project, announced Friday by President Barack Obama, can merge existing genetic studies with a diverse range of new volunteers to hit 1 million participants.
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Dollar Gold

Break in the collective punishment? U.S. allows Crimeans U.S. accounts, money transfers


RT
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 01:46 UTC
crimea
© RIA Novosti/Yuriy Lashov
A train station in Simferopol, Crimea.
US Treasury has revised sanctions regime in Russia's Crimea, allowing residents of the peninsula to operate US bank accounts. Crimeans will also be able to send and receive non-commercial personal money transfers.

Washington is easing the latest restrictions it imposed on Crimeans on December 19, making concessions to those residents of the peninsula that were not earlier specifically blacklisted by the US.

The updates to the sanctions, published Friday, allow Crimeans to have bank accounts in the US.

Comment: The U.S. was punishing Crimeans either for being 'taken over' by Russia, or for exercising their democratic rights. Either way, the sanctions were a petulant insult to Crimeans, standard operating procedure for the 'politicians' running the U.S. So what gives with this latest concession?

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Attention

Thousands of Ukrainian troops trapped by Donbass rebels?


RT
Fri, 30 Jan 2015 01:11 UTC
Ukraine tank
© Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili
A Ukrainian serviceman is pictured next to an armored vehicle near the village of Debaltsevo in eastern Ukraine.
Some 8,000 Ukrainian troops are believed to be surrounded near the village of Debaltsevo in Donbass, as militia units cut off the only road linking the pocket to Kiev-held territory. The servicemen have been offered the chance to surrender.

The forces of the People's Republic of Donetsk (DPR) have stormed and captured the town of Uglegorsk, a stronghold of the Ukrainian army in the east of the country used for communication and supply. It is about 10 kilometers from Debaltsevo.

Ukrainian MP and commander of the Donbass volunteer battalion Semyon Semenchenko, says on his Facebook page that Uglegorsk has been abandoned by Ukrainian forces. Semenchenko claimed that the rebels attacked his unit from the rear.


Comment: Basurin's press conference is available below:



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Compass

Russian developments over last month: Isolation, economy, Ukraine

Patrick Armstrong
Russia: Other Points of View
Fri, 30 Jan 2015 23:47 UTC
russia isolated
Russia Has Had Enough

I agree, as I usually do, with Alexander Mercouris: here and here he argues that Putin and his team have given up trying for a diplomatic solution. Moscow used its influence to stop the rebels' offensive last year when they believed themselves on the edge of routing the Kiev forces, forced the Minsk ceasefire, made several proposals to Kiev and... nothing. I believe that Putin stopped believing anything the West said after Libya, but I think he kept hoping Europe would not be willing to harm itself in subjugation to Washington. Or maybe he just needed time; time to strengthen links with the BRICS and especially Beijing, time to de-dollarise (Russia is buying a lot of gold), time to build up and exercise the military; time to make his case to the "not-the-world" (I love this cartoon). I'm sure he has the next move figured out and I'm equally sure Brussels, Washington and their dependants will be just as stunned by it as they were the last times.

Russian Economy

Two takes on it that argue that the situation is serious but recoverable: Goldman Sachs repeats points I have mentioned; Chris Weafer says rally but not boom. Yes, inflation is up, yes the Ruble is down, but there is much import substitute going on, industrial and agricultural production continue to rise and unemployment is unchanged. As for rating downgrades, China has a different opinion. Time, as they say, will tell. But I'd bet on China.

Comment: As usual, the mainstream media gives a view of what's going on in relation to Russia that is diametrically opposed to objective reality.

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Gear

Match made in "heaven"? Netanyahu denies wife pocketed state money in cash-for-bottles scheme


RT
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 21:37 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Nir Elias
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied reports that his wife, Sara, stole thousands of dollars worth of state funds from bottles returned to local supermarkets on her orders.

In a Facebook post, Netanyahu railed against the "false accusations against me and my wife that seek to topple the Likud and bring the left to power."

Netanyahu criticized local media who jumped at the opportunity to ridicule Sara, just a month-and-a-half ahead of scheduled snap elections which will pit Netanyahu's ruling Likud party against a united center-left front.

"All of this aims to detract attention from what is really important - who will lead the country," he wrote.

But Israeli media did seize the chance to make fun of Sara. A frequent target for left-leaning Haaretz, she is often portrayed as out of touch and extravagant.

Comment: Seems like the couple is in the news: Netanyahu and his wife are being sued for 'racist and physical abuse' of African bodyguard and maid

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Snakes in Suits

Netanyahu speech scandal blows up and 'soiled' Dermer looks like the fall guy

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 19:44 UTC
Image
In the last 24 hours the controversy over the planned speech by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to both houses of Congress on March 3 to rebut the president's policy on Iran has blown up to a new level. Muted outrage over the invitation has turned into open rage. The opposition to the speech by major Israel supporters across the political spectrum, liberal J Street, center-right Jeffrey Goldberg, and hard-right Abraham Foxman, all of whom say the speech-planners have put the US-Israel relationship at risk by making it a political controversy in the U.S., has been conveyed to the Democratic establishment.

The New York Times and Chris Matthews both landed on the story last night, a full week after it broke, to let us know what a disaster the speech would be if it's ever delivered. So these media are acting to protect the special relationship by upping the pressure to cancel the speech.

With even AIPAC washing its hands of the speech, it sure looks as if Israel supporters want an exit from this fiasco. Jettisoning Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer or cancelling the speech would seem like a small price to pay in the news cycle next to a spectacle in which leading Democrats are forced to line up against Netanyahu in Washington, even as they file in and out of the AIPAC policy conference and praise Israel to the skies.

Comment: What a spectacle the Netanyahu invitation is turning out to be.

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Brick Wall

Cleansing without water: Israeli forces destroy 1,000 meter water pipe donated to Palestinian town in West Bank


IMEMC News & Agencies
Thu, 29 Jan 2015 19:38 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Israeli bulldozers, on Thursday, destroyed a water pipe being used in connecting the West Tubas district's Atoof village with Khirbet Yezra, in the northern Jordan Valley.

Head of Al-Maleh local council, Aaref Daraghmeh, said that the pipe had length of 1,000 meters, and was donated by Agricultural Relief to provide the residents of Yezra with water, since the area has no water sources.

According to the PNN, Dr. Hanna Issa, professor and expert on international law, strongly condemned the action, saying that occupation authorities provide settlers with water, while depriving Palestinians of their own sources.

Comment: What possible justification could Israel have for doing such a thing - except, perhaps, for the goal of making life even more difficult for the oppressed Palestinian population living the West Bank.

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Heart - Black

Netanyahu and his wife are being sued for 'racist and physical abuse' of African bodyguard and maid

Zeidy David
Counter Current News
Mon, 26 Jan 2015 13:01 UTC
Netanyahu
© Unknown
Benjamin Netanyahu has long been accused by Palestinians and African refugees of being a racist. But now the Israeli Prime Minister is being sued by a former bodyguard who says that he was constantly subjected to racist and physical abuse.

Manny Naftali, 35, says that Bibi and his wife Sarah did not just provide him with a job, primarily as a bodyguard, they also provided him with constant abuse. The former soldier says that the humiliating treatment by Mrs Netanyahu was the worse, and it occurred almost entirely with her husband's knowledge.

The lawsuit was just filed with Jerusalem district labour court. Mr Naftali explains in the suit that he worked for 20 months at the Balfour Street residence.

During that time, he describes one particularly disturbing incident when Mrs Netanyahu complained him about a Shabbat meal.

"We are sophisticated Europeans," she explained to the Moroccan-descended Naftali. "We don't eat as much food as you Moroccans. You are stuffing us, so that when they photograph us abroad, we look fat."

It is unclear why the meal was being blamed on their African Jewish bodyguard.
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SOTT Logo Radio

The Truth Perspective: Myth and Reality in Palestine: Interview with IMEMC's Alexandra Halaby


Sott.net
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 19:00 UTC
Sott Talk Radio logo
This week, The Truth Perspective interviews Alexandra Halaby, North American Spokesperson and Media Liaison for Palestine's International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). Ms. Halaby will be discussing recent events in Palestine and Israel, the conditions of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as the history of the conflict, the recent Summer war in Gaza, and the various commonly held myths about what is really going on in the regions.

Alexandra Halaby is an experienced journalist, published at Huffington Post, NSNBC International, The World Post, and Palestine Review. She studied Organizational Leadership with a focus on Public Relations at Bethal University and has continued studies at University of Geneva and Pynter Institute for Media Studies. She has also done volunteer work with the United Nations Population Fund for Palestine, American Friends of UNRWA, and is a member of Amnesty International.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 02:00:00

Download: MP3

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