Topic: POLITIK - on April 8, 2012 at 12:41:00 PM CEST
Chinese government tells military to ignore internet in wake of coup talk
Regime's jitters evident in thinly veiled reference by army newspaper to rumours that prompted crackdown on chat sites
China's top military newspaper has told troops to ignore rumours on the internet and steel themselves for "ideological struggle" – an apparent reference to talk of a coup as the ruling Communist party faces a leadership transition.
The Liberation Army Daily did not mention rumours of a foiled junta that spread on the internet in recent weeks after the ousting of Bo Xilai, an ambitious contender for a spot in the new central leadership structure to be settled later this year.
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Topic: POLITIK - on April 8, 2012 at 12:39:00 PM CEST
Report: U.S. trained terror group
From the air, the terrain of the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, with its arid high plains and remote mountain peaks, has the look of northwest Iran. The site, some sixty-five miles northwest of Las Vegas, was once used for nuclear testing, and now includes a counterintelligence training facility and a private airport capable of handling Boeing 737 aircraft. It’s a restricted area, and inhospitable—in certain sections, the curious are warned that the site’s security personnel are authorized to use deadly force, if necessary, against intruders.
It was here that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted training, beginning in 2005, for members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian opposition group known in the West as the M.E.K. The M.E.K. had its beginnings as a Marxist-Islamist student-led group and, in the nineteen-seventies, it was linked to the assassination of six American citizens. It was initially part of the broad-based revolution that led to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran. But, within a few years, the group was waging a bloody internal war with the ruling clerics, and, in 1997, it was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. In 2002, the M.E.K. earned some international credibility by publicly revealing—accurately—that Iran had begun enriching uranium at a secret underground location. Mohamed ElBaradei, who at the time was the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring agency, told me later that he had been informed that the information was supplied by the Mossad. The M.E.K.’s ties with Western intelligence deepened after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003, and JSOC began operating inside Iran in an effort to substantiate the Bush Administration’s fears that Iran was building the bomb at one or more secret underground locations. Funds were covertly passed to a number of dissident organizations, for intelligence collection and, ultimately, for anti-regime terrorist activities. Directly, or indirectly, the M.E.K. ended up with resources like arms and intelligence. Some American-supported covert operations continue in Iran today, according to past and present intelligence officials and military consultants.
newyorker.com salon.com Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh details U.S. training of Iranian terrorist group
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Topic: POLITIK - on April 6, 2012 at 1:41:00 PM CEST
France election 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy bans cheese from Elysée Palace
It is an admission that is verging on sacrilegious for a French president. But Nicolas Sarkozy's top chef has revealed that the French head of state has banned cheese from the table at the Elysée Palace.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 29, 2012 at 9:21:00 AM CEST
Gingrich begins charging $50 for pics at events
In a sign that his campaign is in need of fresh funds, Newt Gingrich on Monday began charging $50 to have a photograph taken with him following a campaign speech to Republican County groups here in the northernmost part of the state.
It was the first time the former House speaker has charged those attending one of his public speaking events to pose for a photograph with him. Lately, a member of his campaign staff has been snapping photographs of any interested attendee and later posting them online at the campaign's website, newt.org.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 14, 2012 at 10:34:00 AM CET
US, EU, Japan Complain To WTO Over China's Rare Earth Ban
China's rare earth monopoly has resulted in a shortage as China blocks their export and the rest of the world resumes their operations. Now, in a first-ever joint filing from three members of the World Trade Organization, Japan, the EU and the U.S. are not sitting idly by as China repeatedly ignores the WTO's orders to export rare earth metals and raw materials at a fair price to other countries. China claims the embargoes are in place to protect its environment, while Obama denounces China as being unfair and not playing by the rules of the WTO. In 2009, the WTO released a report (PDF) that explained how actions like China's hurt trade partners.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 14, 2012 at 10:31:00 AM CET
Sarkozy denies receiving 50 million pounds as illegal campaign funding from Gaddafi
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has denied claims that he had received 50 milion euros (42 million pounds) in an illegal campaign funding from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2007.
"If he (Gaddafi) had financed it, then I haven't been very grateful. Gaddafi, who is known for talking nonsense, even said that there were cheques. Well then the son should just go ahead and produce them then,"The Telegraph quoted Sarkozy,as saying.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 14, 2012 at 10:20:00 AM CET
Rechnungen bringen Amon in Bedrängnis - 10.000 Euro als "Druckkostenbeitrag IP-Telephonie"
Der Korruptions-U-Ausschuss hat am Dienstag mit einem Knalleffekt begonnen. Es wurde bekannt, dass die Staatsanwaltschaft wegen des Verdachts der Geldwäsche beim ÖVP-Arbeiter- und -Angestelltenbund (ÖAAB) ermittelt und dabei den Abgeordneten Werner Amon als Beschuldigten führen will. Amon ist Fraktionsführer der ÖVP im U-Ausschuss, früherer ÖAAB-Generalsekretär und ehemaliger Obmann des Wiener Pressvereins.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 11, 2012 at 10:13:00 AM CET
Den Katholiken geht das politische Personal aus
Kanzlerin und Präsident: beide Protestanten. Die Abkehr vom rheinischen Katholizismus, die sich in diesen Spitzenpositionen spiegelt, ist dabei paradoxerweise eine Folge der Säkularisierung. Evangelische Politiker kommen besser an beim Wähler - weil sie nicht von der Kirche her denken.
Nach der protestantischen Pfarrerstochter Angela Merkel haben wir jetzt in Kürze mit Joachim Gauck einen Bundespräsidenten, der sogar als evangelischer Pfarrer in der früheren DDR wirkte. Auch unter den anderen Namen, die als präsidiabel genannt wurden, finden sich vorwiegend Protestanten - wie der frühere Bischof Wolfgang Huber oder die frühere Landesbischöfin Margot Käßmann. Fast 500 Jahre nach der Reformation und den 95 Thesen Martin Luthers rangiert der politische Katholizismus nur noch unter ferner liefen.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 9, 2012 at 11:27:00 AM CET
Security: UK 'must plan for euro collapse'
Ministers should draw up plans to deal with a break-up of the eurozone "as a matter of urgency", a committee of MPs and peers has warned.
The joint committee on the government's National Security Strategy (NSS) said the full or partial collapse of the single currency was "plausible".
It said political unrest and a rise in economic migrant numbers could result.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 9, 2012 at 11:25:00 AM CET
Obama admin: War is peace, IP negotiations are transparent
Speaking before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk touted the openness and transparency of negotiations over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the newer Trans Pacific Partnership. Both of those contain numerous copyright and patent provisions. Kirk's statements are sharply at odds with those of the treaties' critics, who say they have been shut out of negotiations.
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 3, 2012 at 5:36:00 PM CET
Australia Proposes Mass Monitoring of Blogs
A chill went through the Australian blogosphere Friday as the government released a report recommending that blogs with an annual readership of 15,000 or more be subject to the same regulatory body and rules as mainstream newspapers and other professional media. That’s 40 pageviews a day, for those of you who are counting. Welcome to the big time.
The Independent Media Inquiry stated:
“There are many newsletter publishers and bloggers, although no longer part of the ‘lonely pamphleteer’ tradition, who offer up-to-date reflections on current affairs. Quite a number have a very small audience. There are practical reasons for excluding from the definition of ‘news media’ publishers who do not have a sufficiently large audience. If a publisher distributes more than 3000 copies of print per issue or a news internet site has a minimum of 15 000 hits per annum it should be subject to the jurisdiction of the News Media Council, but not otherwise. These numbers are arbitrary, but a line must be drawn somewhere.”
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Topic: POLITIK - on March 1, 2012 at 11:43:00 AM CET
Diese Länder waren schon mal pleite
Seit dem Jahr 1800 gab es weltweit 227 Staatsinsolvenzen. Der Pleiten-Überblick zeigt: Der Fall Griechenland ist historisch einzigartig. Kaum ein entwickeltes Land hat sich je ohne Not derart in die Schuldenfalle manövriert.
Es gibt nichts zu beschönigen: Der bevorstehende Schuldenschnitt für Griechenland ist nichts anderes als eine Staatspleite - und zwar eine gewaltige. Auf einen großen Teil des ihnen zustehenden Geldes werden die privaten Gläubiger freiwillig verzichten müssen, etwas anderes bleibt ihnen ohnehin nicht übrig. Die Rating-Agentur Standard & Poor's zog am Montag die Konsequenzen und stufte die Bonität Griechenlands auf das Niveau eines "teilweisen Zahlungsausfalls" ab. Bedienen kann Griechenland seine Schulden aus eigener Kraft ohnehin schon lange nicht mehr, das Land hängt am Tropf der internationalen Geldgeber.
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