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Chavez Says He Won't Give Up Decree Powers

Christopher Toothaker
The Associated Press
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:36 UTC
Image

Hugo Chávez
President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he won't relinquish special legislative powers - a possibility he raised last week as a means of seeking reconciliation with Venezuela's opposition.

Chavez's offer to reduce the period of time he has to enact laws by decree through the "Enabling Law" surprised opposition leaders, who welcomed his overture while expressing doubts regarding the president's call for mutual respect and dialogue between political rivals.

"I'm not going to return the Enabling Law," said Chavez, speaking in a televised address. "I made a call to encourage courteous and respectful dialogue, but look at their response."

Chavez first said that he needed special legislative powers for 18 months, which were approved by a lame-duck congress dominated by his allies in December, to swiftly approve disaster-relief measures after severe floods and mudslides that left thousands homeless last year.
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Megaphone

Russian Spy Anna Chapman to Reveal 'All Secrets'


The Associated Press
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:13 UTC
Image
© Mikhail Metzel, AP file
Russian spy Anna Chapman is enticing viewers to watch her television show by promising to reveal "all secrets."
Russian spy Anna Chapman is enticing viewers to turn on her new Russian television show by promising to reveal "all the secrets."

But that won't be about her years of undercover work in the United States -- these secrets are about the mysteries of the world.

The director of documentary programs at the private REN-TV network says Chapman's Friday night debut program will focus on stigmata and other skin marks. A seductive tagline for the show cites Chapman as saying "I will uncover all the secrets, if you have the courage."

There are no plans for any show on espionage, Mikhail Tukmachyov was quoted as saying in Friday's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

Tukmachyov told online journal www.er-portal.ru that Chapman will also investigative the reported spontaneous combustion of a 4-year-old child in a town near Moscow.

The 28-year-old Chapman was one of 10 Russian agents exposed in the U.S. and deported last summer in the biggest spy swap since the Cold War. She has not publicly discussed her role as a spy, and Tukmachyov told the newspaper the subject was taboo during filming.
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Arrow Down

The World is Sinking: Dubai Islands 'Falling Into the Sea'

Richard Spencer
The Telegraph
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:30 UTC
Image
© AFP/Getty
The low-lying islands represent a vague shape out to sea when viewed from Dubai's beaches,
The islands were intended as the ultimate luxury possession, even for Dubai.

But the World, the ambitiously-constructed archipelago of islands shaped like the countries of the globe, is sinking back into the sea, according to evidence cited before a property tribunal.

The islands were intended to be developed with tailor-made hotel complexes and luxury villas, and sold to millionaires. They are off the coast of Dubai and accessible by yacht or motor boat.

Now their sands are eroding and the navigational channels between them are silting up, the British lawyer for a company bringing a case against the state-run developer, Nakheel, has told judges.

"The islands are gradually falling back into the sea," Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, for Penguin Marine, said. The evidence showed "erosion and deterioration of The World islands", he added.

With all but one of the islands still uninhabited - Greenland - and that one a showpiece owned by the ruler of Dubai, most of the development plans have been brought to a crashing halt by the financial crisis.
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Wolf

Propaganda Alert: Bin Laden says France will pay a 'high price' for its policies in Afghanistan

Elena Casas
France 24
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:11 UTC
bin laden
© Reuters/Stringer

In a purported audio tape aired on Al Jazeera television on Friday, al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden warned French President Nicolas Sarkozy that his refusal to withdraw troops from Afghanistan was a "green light" to kill French hostages.

In a message specifically targeting France, al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden warned that Paris would pay a "high price" for its policies and that the fate of French hostages would depend on the pullout of French troops from "Muslim lands", in a purported audiotape broadcast on Arabic news network Al Jazeera on Friday.

"We repeat the same message to you: The release of your prisoners in the hands of our brothers is linked to the withdrawal of your soldiers from our country," bin Laden said. "The refusal of your president [Nicolas Sarkozy] to withdraw from Afghanistan is the result of his obedience of America and this refusal is a green light to kill your prisoners," he added.
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Handcuffs

EU: Messier, Bronfman Convicted by Court in Vivendi Case

Heather Smith
Bloomberg Business Week
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:33 UTC
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© (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
Edgar Bronfman Jr.
Jean-Marie Messier and Edgar Bronfman Jr. were found guilty by a Paris court of criminal charges related to Vivendi SA's near-bankruptcy after a $77 billion acquisition spree while they led the company.

Messier was fined 150,000 euros ($200,000) and Bronfman 5 million euros by a three-judge panel today. Neither was sentenced to jail time. Messier, 54, was found guilty of misleading investors during his tenure as Vivendi's chief executive officer. Bronfman, also 54, was found to have traded on inside information while vice chairman.

"On the points that were important to the rise in the Vivendi Universal shares," Messier made "statements of a nature to mislead investors," the judges wrote in their decision. Messier also "had awarded to himself, while the company was in grave difficulty, very large amounts, of a type to exacerbate its financial problems."

The conviction diverges from a civil jury verdict in a New York shareholder class-action lawsuit last January. That ruling cleared Messier and former chief financial officer Guillaume Hannezo of misleading investors and held the company solely responsible for the conduct.
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Whistle

Big Ears: 'Largest' secret spy hub uncovered in Israel


Russia Today/YouTube
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:37 UTC
It's been described as Israel's 'big ears'. A huge facility where it's claimed phone calls and e-mails from all across the Middle East and beyond, can be monitored for intelligence. Hidden from prying eyes for decades in the desert, it's become a focus for investigative journalists.

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Vader

Virginia teen detained in Kuwait returns to U.S., reunites with family

Kafia A. Hosh and Peter Finn
The Washington Post
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:39 UTC
A Virginia teenager who was placed on the no-fly list and barred from returning home to the United States from Kuwait arrived at Dulles International Airport on Friday morning for an emotional reunion with his family.


Gulet Mohamed, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from Alexandria, entered the arrivals terminal nearly two hours after his United Airlines flight landed. His attorneys said he had been kept after the flight by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

As he emerged from the gate around 8:40 a.m., his brother Abdi Mohamed, 28, sprinted over and hugged him, shouting "Gulet!" repeatedly.
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Bad Guys

The Afghan village that's been wiped from the map - with 25 tons of coalition bombs

Lewis Bazley
Mail Online
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:55 UTC
The impact of coalition operations in Afghanistan is often bogged down in statistics and political manoeuvring.

But these photos of a devastated village in the Arghandad River Valley show the horror of war in stark reality.

Tarok Kolache, a small settlement in Kandahar, has been completely erased from the map after an offensive by the U.S. army.

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Before and aftermath: The picture on the left shows the village of Tarok Kolache in the Arghandab River Valley. The picture on the right is the same location following allied air strikes, which completely obliterated the village
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Blackbox

Dennis Kucinich "Pentagon Is Missing Trillions Of Dollars They Can Not Account For"


Truth Squad.TV
Sat, 08 Jan 2011 10:09 UTC
Last time something like this was announced we were attacked by "terrorists" the day after.

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Blackbox

Does Joe Lieberman's Resignation Signal Imminent Collapse?

Eric Blair
The Intel Hub / Activist Post
Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:01 UTC
Joe Lieberman is announcing his retirement today which would seem like a victory for the liberty movement. Throughout his career the Senator from Connecticut has been the consummate insider. From conceding victory before Gore did in the 2000 recount, to his full conversion to NeoCon status after 9/11, to introducing a barrage on freedom-smashing legislation; he seems to be the spearhead for ushering in the control grid over the opposition to tyranny.
Image
© Unknown
Joe Lieberman

His non-threatening monotone voice and easy manner made him appear as a gentle servant of the people, yet nothing could be farther from the truth. He is certainly near the pinnacle of the elite control structure and his abrupt departure should be viewed as alarming. The establishment media will point to real political challenges Lieberman faces like the fact that anti-Lieberman activists have taken over his party created in 2006 called Connecticut for Lieberman. However, his resignation may have a deeper meaning, perhaps indicating that his inside job is complete and this ship is about to capsize.
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