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UK government prints money with abandon as Spain and Italy's debt ratings are downgraded

Jill Treanor & Patrick Wintour
The Guardian
Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:05 UTC
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British banks and building societies lose rating while pressure mounts on EU to restore faith in single currency

The eurozone crisis intensified on Friday when Spain and Italy were downgraded by the ratings agency Fitch, heightening fears over the health of Europe's banks.

Fitch's move came at the end of a day which had already seen 12 UK banks and building societies downgraded by the rival agency Moody's and amid speculation about co-ordinated European action to bolster the finances of the continent's banks by next weekend.

The euro fell against most major currencies, piling fresh pressure on European politicians to restore confidence in the single currency. Germany's Angela Merkel said Europe needed to find a solution for its banks by 17 October. Analysts from Capital Economics estimate the total financial package may top €200bn (£172bn).

Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy of France are due to meet in Berlin on Sunday to discuss the crisis, with bank recapitalisation expected to be at the heart of their negotiations.

Comment: Europe will collapse because 'Goldman Sachs rules the world'


Head Of UniCredit Securities Predicts Imminent End Of The Eurozone And A Global Financial Apocalypse

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Che Guevara

Protesters occupy Ireland's Cental Bank on Dame Street, Dublin


TheJournal.ie
Sat, 08 Oct 2011 13:30 UTC
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© @Stephenbrow via TwitterProtestors begin to gather at yet another protest against the global elite
The international 'Occupy Wall Street' protests arrived in Ireland today, with activists gathering in Dublin to mount a "leaderless resistance" against political and financial elites.

Upwards of a hundred protesters massed outside the Central Bank for the Occupy Dame Street event, which saw demonstrators bang pots and pans and hold placards calling for change.

In a statement earlier this week, organisers promised to use "tactics of non-violence and civil disobedience", citing the Arab Spring as inspiration.

The statement listed four demands: that the IMF and ECB "stay out of our affairs"; that the bank debt taken on by Ireland's government be lifted; that offshore oil and gas reserves be "returned to the people", and that "real participatory democracy" be established in Ireland.

The Dublin event comes after weeks of protests in New York, where a fully-fledged camp has sprung up as primarily young people demonstrate their anger against financial wrongdoing and perceived political cronyism.

Last week, New York police arrested more than 700 people as the protest spread to the city's Brooklyn Bridge.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand oil spill: grounded ship threatens environmental disaster

Warren Murray
The Guardian
Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:09 UTC
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© GettyAn oil slick streams from the Rena, a 47,000 tonne container ship grounded on a reef in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty.
Penguins rescued from slick amid fears Rena could break up and dump 1,700 tonnes of oil into prized Bay of Plenty

A container ship is grounded and leaking oil into New Zealand's pristine Bay of Plenty, with international crews scrambling to limit the environmental damage and refloat the vessel before it breaks up.

The 47,000-tonne Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef on Wednesday. An oil leak from the Liberian-flagged freighter has spread over an area of three miles, according to the BBC. There are estimates of 30 tonnes of oil spilled so far out of the 1,700 tonnes that could be dumped into the ocean if the Rena is wrecked in one of New Zealand's most prized areas of natural beauty.

Maritime authorities have said they are treating birds including little blue penguins brought in covered with oil. Animal welfare workers said the disaster had struck in the middle of breeding season for native birds on the bay.

Australia's ABC network said a team of 200 people including specialists from Australia, the UK, the Netherlands and Singapore had been despatched, and that 300 defence personnel were on standby in case the slick reached the North Island coastline.
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Nuke

IAEA team in Japan; Fukushima starts thyroid tests

Eric Talmadge
NewsToday
Sun, 09 Oct 2011 01:13 UTC
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© Associated PressA boy is taken by his mother to Fukushima Medical University Hospital for a thyroid test in Fukushima, northern Japan, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011.
Tokyo - Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in the Japanese city of Fukushima on Sunday to observe the massive decontamination effort following the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Local doctors also began a long-term survey of children for thyroid abnormalities, a problem associated with radiation exposure. Officials hope to test some 360,000 people who were under the age of 18 when the nuclear crisis began in March, and then provide follow-ups throughout their lifetimes.

The 12-member IAEA group was to visit farms, schools and government offices throughout Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan to observe the cleanup process. It is the U.N. atomic agency's second major mission to Japan since the crisis at Fukushima's Dai-ichi nuclear power plant began.

Nearly 20,000 people were killed when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, and the disaster severely damaged the Fukushima complex. Officials say the plant is now relatively stable, but tens of thousands of people still cannot -- or choose not to -- return to their homes because of the radioactive contamination.
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Light Saber

Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law: Don't Talk to Police!

russr
YouTube
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:06 UTC
A law school professor and former criminal defense attorney tells you why you should never agree to be interviewed by the police.

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Dollar

US Budget chair: Sugar high economics don't work


MSNBC
Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:05 UTC
House Budget Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says only "policy certainty from Washington" will help create jobs.

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Comment: The above is a different Ryan than the (Tim) Ryan, who spoke these words during the Bush administration.


From the above video, Tim Ryan appears to know there would be a major recession in the near future if (War/Foreign!) policies were not changed. By 2008 (and written well before, in many SOTT.net economic articles,) the recession was in full swing.

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Bell

David Seaton: The meaning of Liberty Plaza

David Seaton
David Seaton's News Links
Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:22 UTC
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Occupy Wall Street protests at Liberty Plaza
Ten years ago we had:

Steve Jobs
Bob Hope
and
Johnny Cash

Now we've got:

No jobs
No hope
and
No cash

Many "mainstream media" commentators try to minimize the importance of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement because it has no "leaders" and no list of "concrete proposals". These comments show that those who make them do not understand what is going on in Liberty Plaza and the echoing "Occupy" movements around the country.

They should read the joke that tops this page... it is all there. This joke could be the cry of a generation of young, educated, middle class Americans, just like "Hell no, we won't go!" was the cry of young, educated, middle class Americans during the war of Vietnam. It has as much pithy truth in it as Muhammad Ali's, "I ain't got no quarrel with no Vietcong". Young, middle class America feels itself under attack from the system and the system should fear for its safety.

Because nothing is more potentially "revolutionary" than a newly pauperized middle class. It can go to the left or it can go to the right, but history shows that it won't act like the proverbial mule in a hailstorm and "just stand there and take it".
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Attention

UK: Assange, Jemima Khan Lead Afghanistan Protest in London


Breitbart
Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:14 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseWikileaks founder Julian Assange pushes through photographers and camera crews as he leaves the High Court in central London, July 2011.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and socialite Jemima Khan led a protest in London Saturday against the war in Afghanistan, 10 years after the United States and Britain went to war against the Taliban.

Organisers of the Stop The War Coalition claimed 5,000 people attended the protest in central London's historic Trafalgar Square. London's Metropolitan Police did not give a figure.

"There comes a moment when you have to ask what is more dangerous, terrorism or counter-terrorism," Khan, the former wife of Pakistani cricketer turned politician Imran Khan, told the crowd.

"Afghanistan is still the worst place in the world for women to live.... So by any standards, our mission in Afghanistan has failed."

Assange, who is currently under strict bail conditions as he fights extradition from Britain to Sweden on charges of rape, compared journalists and soldiers to war criminals.
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Attention

Dalai Lama Criticises China in Web Chat with Tutu


The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 08 Oct 2011 11:02 UTC
The Dalai Lama criticised censorship in China as 'immoral' in a video chat with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, after he was banned from travelling to South Africa.


The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader was not granted a visa in time to travel to South Africa where he was meant to deliver an inaugural peace lecture to wrap up Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations.

"Some Chinese officials describe me as a demon so naturally some fear about the demon," the Dalai Lama told the Archbishop via a laughter-filled live video link when asked why the Chinese feared him.
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Attention

Dalai Lama Visa Blocked "Over South African Trade Fears with China"


The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:22 UTC
South Africa refused to give the Dalai Lama a visa to visit for Desmond Tutu's birthday because the foreign ministry feared his trip would jeopardize trade ties with China, according to reports.

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© AP PhotoChina says the Dalai Lama is a 'splittist'
"The People's Republic of China is South Africa's largest trading partner and was key in avoiding the last recession, among others," read a secret foreign ministry document, which the weekly City Press said it had obtained.

The document said that South Africa's "strategic relationship" with China depended on Pretoria unconditionally supporting Beijing's "one China" policy, which rejects Tibetan independence.

China regards the Dalai Lama as a "splittist" and frowns on overseas travel by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

"The issue of Tibet is high in China's priority and is seen as posing a threat to sovereignty. South Africa respects the quest for China to protect its sovereignty," the document allegedly said.
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