Geopolitical mosaic: the American people are dissatisfied with the behavior of Yanukovych, and the suitcase from Red Square will be removed
UN General Assembly condemned Israel. - Netanyahu about the “bad” deal. - Historical parallels? “We are enriching uranium today and will do it tomorrow.” - Comrade Lavrov: from the Geneva agreement to EuroPro. - The fate of the Studio monastery - to become a mosque? - Karzai shocked human rights activists. About stones and whips. - French soldiers will go to the Central African Republic. - Black label. “The pound and the queen.” - Between Russia and America. - Warsaw will not pay Moscow. - Chipped Latvia. - Riga Dynamo was fined. - “The battle for love.” - American petition against Yanukovych. - Russian advice. - Debt good turn deserves another. - A suitcase in the square. - Venezuelan innovations: confiscation and preventive control. - Joint fight against drug trafficking. - Trustful Yudoyono. - They decided not to recognize. - Double agents from Guantanamo. - A successful Israeli spy boasts of his success. - American Leps “affair”: nothing concrete. - In Colorado and Maryland, they started talking about secession from the USA. - In New York, 20% of children are starving.
The UN General Assembly condemned Israel. The UN General Assembly yesterday adopted five resolutions in support of Palestine and condemning Israeli settlement and occupation activities, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Oleg Zelenin.
The General Assembly resolution "Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine" calls for "completely stopping all Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan" and points to the "illegal nature" of such actions.
The General Assembly called for the convening of an international conference on the Middle East in Moscow "to advance and accelerate the renewed peace process."
In the next resolution, the GA demanded that Israel immediately cease "all illegal and unilateral measures" aimed at "imposing its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem."
Three other documents concern internal procedures and initiatives of the organization aimed at supporting Middle East settlement. In one of them, 2014 declared the year as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Also, the GA adopted a separate resolution requiring Israel to end the occupation of the Syrian Golan. All six documents were adopted by a majority vote. Among the states that spoke against the adoption of each of the documents - the United States, Canada and Israel.
Netanyahu about the "bad" deal. In the article “Defeat for Netanyahu,” journalist Monika Bolliger (“Neue Zürcher Zeitung”; source abbr. Translation - "Inopressa") writes that Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements on Iran’s agreement with the “six”, which he called a “bad deal,” were commented on by the Israeli media. Referring to their own sources in the defense circles, Jewish analysts and experts called the Prime Minister’s demands unrealistic.
For example, the former head of the Israeli military intelligence, and now the head of the National Security Research Institute, Amos Yadlin, wrote that "Iran would continue nuclear research, even if the talks were deadlocked." Just in this case, "Tehran would have placed all the blame on Israel (...), and therefore the current interim agreement is much better than the previous situation."
Other media outlets spoke in a similar vein. M. Bolliger notes that for his position and attempts to put pressure on the US, the head of state received a considerable portion of criticism. Netanyahu was accused of having "a negative impact on Israel’s relations with its most important ally."
“The agreement on Iran means for Israel the need to come to terms with the new political reality,” the journalist states. “Now Europe and the United States are ready to conduct a dialogue with Iran, they have turned from the previous confrontational course towards Tehran.”
Historical parallels? The Geneva Six’s agreement with Iran is even worse than other shameful agreements in Western history: the Munich of the 1938 and the Paris of the 1973 on the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam, believes The Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stevens, whose opinion leads "Inopressa".
The author considers the Paris Agreement a betrayal of South Vietnam, an ally of the United States. True, he immediately admits that peace was in the interests of the United States. As for the Geneva Agreement, in the opinion of the author of the article, it has no exculpatory or compensating aspects. Think about historical parallels, calls the journalist.
“Britain and France arrived in Munich as“ weak ”militarily - now the United States and its allies view Iran from a position of superior strength. Britain and France won time for rearmament - now the United States and its allies have given Iran too much time to accumulate uranium reserves and develop its nuclear infrastructure. Then England and France were extremely interested in any agreement in order to avoid war, but now the Obama administration ignores a wide bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress for the sake of a deal, ”the author of the material says. "... Now the US is trying to improve relations with Tehran for a short time at the cost of a solid" alliance of values "with Israel and an alliance based on common interests with Saudi Arabia," the journalist adds.
He also finds common features of the Geneva Agreement with Munich and Paris: all these are betrayals regarding small countries and the victory of dictatorships, as well as overtures to even more terrible events.
Stevens gives a forecast: after Geneva, chaos will reign in the Middle East, and the US will lose leverage on friends and enemies. As for Iran, the country will be freed from sanctions and move to the stage of “nuclear ambivalence.” Saudi Arabia, in turn, will acquire nuclear deterrent forces. Egypt has already thought about the nuclear option, and at the same time is nearing an alliance in the field of security with Russia. Finally, after Geneva, the likelihood of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as the Israeli war with Hezbollah, increased. The journalist summarizes: Barack Obama has scrapped the system of alliances, which the United States has created in order to prevent foreign policy "freelancing."
"We enrich uranium today and will do it tomorrow." Iran does not intend to abandon the uranium enrichment process. This was announced on national television by President Hassan Rouhani, correspondent ITAR-TASS Vladimir Koklikov.
“The rights of the people and the framework delineated by the Supreme Leader will be preserved,” Rouhani said. He added: “We are enriching uranium today and will do it tomorrow. This is our red line. ”
Rouhani also said that Tehran "will continue negotiations until a full agreement is reached."
Comrade Lavrov: from the Geneva Agreement to EuroPRO. In the article “Russia is already using negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program for its own purposes” (“The Washington Post”; the source of translation is "InoSMI") journalist Max Fisher writes:
The current ambiguity in the question is exactly what turns S. Lavrov's statement into a geopolitical "catch minnow" at a high level, the American journalist said. And this makes Lavrov the ideal of the Russian foreign minister.
The correspondent also recalls that Lavrov and Vladimir Putin benefited from the international crisis associated with the use of chemical weapons in Syria, advancing an agreement to destroy these weapons in exchange for the abolition of American air strikes. The case of E. Snowden became the crown of the laurel "catching minnow".
Well, what do you want, gentlemen from the White House? If a politician skillfully uses circumstances, we add from himself, he is not a weather vane in the wind, he is the wind itself. If a politician, by his own short-sightedness and at the instigation of numerous advisers, finds himself in a situation when circumstances begin to use him (as happened with Obama), then he is a weather vane. Both Syria and Snowden are excellent examples of this. Let's hope that they are not the last.
The fate of Studio Monastery - to become a mosque? The Turkish authorities are going to turn the Studios Monastery in Istanbul, founded in the V century, into a mosque. Reports about it "Lenta.ru" with reference to Hurriyet Daily News.
The ruins of the temple of the monastery will be rebuilt into a mosque after the entire complex is renovated in 2014 year. Official comments from religious organizations have not yet followed, notes France-Presse.
Earlier, the Hagia Sophia in the cities of Trabzon and Iznik were turned into mosques, Lenta reminds.
In Turkey, there is also a debate about the fate of the main Istanbul monument of the Byzantine era - the Hagia Sophia, known as the Hagia Sophia mosque (now a museum). Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the other day that he would like to restore the mosque, which was under the Ottoman Empire.
Karzai shocked human rights activists. About stones and lash. The Afghan government is exploring the possibility of restoring the death penalty by stoning in case of adultery, which could mean a return to the punishments that were practiced under the Taliban regime, Human Rights Watch warned, BFM.ru with reference to France Press.
Lapidation is provided for in the amendment to the Afghan Penal Code: it is being prepared by a working group in the Ministry of Justice. According to the project, married men or married women who committed adultery may be sentenced to stoning, and a person not bound by marriage, but having intimate ties with married or married, will receive a hundred lashes. Punishments will be public.
And further. A representative of the Ministry of Justice confirmed that the ministry is studying the punishments for adultery, theft and drinking in accordance with Sharia law.
Human Rights Watch is shocked that the Karzai administration has gathered to reinstate a similar death penalty twelve years after the fall of the Taliban regime.
Well, where does the "shock" come from? Karzai rule in the country is not long; in 2014, in Afghanistan - elections. Karzai will leave power, the Taliban will come to it (most likely, relatively legally, by intimidating the population, and then elections), and the American contingent will either leave Afghanistan completely or leave a small part of the military there. Karzai really doesn’t want to repeat the fate of Najibullah, who was killed by the Taliban in September 1996 (“We killed him because he was the murderer of our people”), that’s why in the last months of his reign the president started building Sharia. Hamid Karzai is in a hurry to please the bearded, not without reason, considering him an American puppet.
French soldiers will travel to the CAR. France intends to send to the Central African Republic an additional about a thousand soldiers for the next six months. About this French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on the French radio station "Europe 1", reports "Lenta.ru".
The authorities are awaiting permission from the UN Security Council. Earlier, after the talks in Paris, the Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, Nicolas Thyangye, said that France would increase its military presence in the country three times. According to him, Paris intends to send soldiers to the 800 CAR to maintain peace in an African country. Thus, the French contingent will be 1,2 thousand military.
Black Mark. Parents of students in one of the schools in England were strongly recommended to send 4-6-year-old children to Islamic culture lessons, otherwise the leadership of the school promised to put a mark on racial intolerance in the student’s personal file, The Daily Mail.
As the channel notes "RT", parents of schoolchildren received letters in which it was stated that all elementary school students should attend a lesson in Islamic culture at Staffordshire University. If the child misses the lesson, the school management will make a special mark in his personal file, which “will accompany the student throughout the course of his studies.” And the lesson is not free: parents ordered to pay for it on 5 pounds sterling.
It is noted that after parents' complaints, the school administration sent a letter with clarifications: “After considering complaints, the school asks parents to ignore the threat of sanctions in the form of making an entry in a personal file from a previous letter.”
Pound and queen. In independent Scotland, it is proposed to keep the British pound sterling as the currency, and leave the Queen of Great Britain as head of state. This is stated in the document describing the device of the new state, which is presented on the website of the Scottish government, "Lenta.ru".
Here are some more details. Scotland will have its own armed forces. Her government will collect taxes independently of London. It is proposed to remove British nuclear weapons from the territory of the country.
Also, representatives of the Scottish National Party promise to make a "revolution" in the field of social policy, writes "BBC News". They propose to raise the minimum wage and legally provide care for young children in special institutions in the amount of 30 hours per week.
The 670-page document was published by Scottish National Party’s first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond.
Between Russia and America. As a result of the Russian request for the use of an air base in Cyprus, this state was at the center of a diplomatic conflict between Russia and the United States. "Sight" with reference to the "Greek Reporter".
The center of the diplomatic conflict between the United States and Russia became the Andreas Papandreu airbase. “The Cypriot leadership is forced to choose a solution that will satisfy both parties, but any solution is likely to create problems in relations with any of the countries,” the Greek Reporter believes.
The Russian government appealed to the military of Cyprus with a request to lease the air base - and the conflict began. The Americans made it clear to the Cypriot government that they strongly disagree. However, the government of Cyprus reminded the United States that Russia constantly supports Cyprus in matters of security and finance. However, the United States stated that "Cyprus is also under American influence."
To this, the Cyprus Defense Minister said that “he does not want to go into details on such a serious topic as Cyprus’s foreign policy.” But he promised that "Cyprus will take the right decision, taking into account national interests."
Warsaw Moscow will not pay. Poland will not compensate for the damage inflicted on the Russian embassy during the "Independence March" organized by the nationalists on November 11. Warsaw itself suffered losses of tens of thousands of dollars, reports "Voice of Russia" with reference to RIA "News".
Earlier, the Russian embassy in Warsaw sent to the Polish Foreign Ministry a claim for damages in the amount of 11 thousand dollars. After that, the ministry sent a request to the Warsaw authorities, in which it asked the city administration to express its position on this matter.
“We are preparing an answer in which we will write that the city did not organize this march, moreover, suffered damage in the amount of 40 thousand dollars,” said the spokesman for the mayor’s office, Bartosz Milcharczyk.
To this he added that the city authorities are preparing a lawsuit against the organizers of the march demanding compensation for the loss.
And the leader of the national all-Ukrainian youth movement, Tomas Palash, who was one of the organizers of the march, said that the organizer should not be held responsible for the actions of “hooligans and provocateurs”.
Split Latvia. Linda Kinstler ("The New Republic"; source abbr. Translation - "Inopressa") wrote a note entitled “Supermarket collapse in Latvia: what does this event say about a country that is at a crossroads?”
The ruins of the Maxima supermarket in Riga and what has become known about the causes of the catastrophe make it possible to see what a precarious state Latvia is in now, the columnist writes.
"Now the country is faced with a national tragedy in addition to the economic and political difficulties associated with joining the eurozone in the coming January," the author explains.
In 2004, Latvia joined the EU. “In 2006, economic growth ceased, and the next year the country was devastated by the global economic crisis,” the journalist said. This summer, the Riga Castle, the residence of the Latvian President, engulfed the flames, because “the equipment was of Soviet times”. The Maxima supermarket collapsed for similar reasons: the building was an element of the modernization of the urban area built in Soviet times. Vice Mayor of Riga Andris Ameriks said: “In Latvia in recent years, due to the economic crisis, many institutions, including those supervising the construction, (...) were closed to save money.” The conclusion of the journalist: "Although now the Latvian economy is growing fastest in the EU, its recent successes should be viewed skeptically."
The article also raises the problem of the split of Latvia due to homophobia and nationalism.
“As Latvia’s integration into the EU progressed, nationalism boomed in the form of a rise in homophobia and antipathy towards ethnic Russian residents, which split the already fragmented country,” the material says.
By the way, the investigation of the collapse of a building in Riga can be taken up by the EFBA members.
As reported "Vesti" With reference to ITAR-TASS, experts from the FBI can be involved in the investigation of the collapse of the Maxima shopping center. The head of the Latvian Parliamentary Commission on Defense, Home Affairs and the Prevention of Corruption, Ainars Latkovskis, spoke about this with the US Ambassador to Riga Mark Pekal.
Dinamo Riga was fined. The Continental Hockey League fined Riga Dinamo club for one million rubles for displaying a Nazi badge in a pre-match show, reports "Voice of Russia" with reference to the agency "R-Sport".
As the source recalls, the incident occurred on November 17 before the start of the match between Riga Dynamo and Ugra during a show on ice.
"For the gross violation of the technical regulations of the KHL, as well as for the violation of the principles of mutual respect laid down in the basis of the philosophy of the KHL as an international sports organization, Dynamo (Riga) was imposed penalties in the amount of one million rubles," the official website said CHL
The statement says that Dynamo Riga was warned that it could be excluded from the KHL participants if such violations recur in the future.
"Battle for love." New review from "Foreign Press" dedicated to the topical Ukrainian theme.
The first “Orange Revolution” flooded Kiev with tents and led to the cancellation of rigged elections, but failed to convince disunited Ukraine to prefer Europe to Russia, according to The Times. Nine years later, Ukrainians again took to the streets, but much has changed: because of Putin’s intimidation, pro-European sentiments are becoming stronger, and in the Russian-speaking east of the country. Today's protests are a public manifestation of the struggle for who gets the political capital from the country's final turn to Europe, the British newspaper said.
It seems that Yanukovych has succumbed to Putin’s threats of a trade war, but time is drawing. The consequences of signing an agreement with the EU in the short term promise to be painful. Probably, Yanukovych is trying to postpone this pain, and also to keep Tymoshenko out of politics until the election of the 2015 year. But this is a dangerous and selfish strategy, writes The Times.
“Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, with Ukraine being bribed and then subordinate, Russia automatically turns into an empire,” wrote Brzezinski 20 years ago. In today's fight for Ukraine, the stakes remain the same, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Returning to power, Putin became even more hostile to the West and set out to restore the Russian sphere of influence in the “near abroad”. Because of the trade sanctions imposed by Moscow, Kiev lost 15 billion dollars and could lose more 500 if it signed an agreement with the EU.
WSJ condemns Angela Merkel’s proposal to discuss the fate of the eastern neighbors in the Russia-EU talks: after all, it looks as though these countries were not independent the last 22 of the year.
According to the magazine’s editorial board, “an independent Ukraine leaning toward the West will make Europe safer and more difficult for Putin to restore the revanchist Russian empire.”
Russia received an advantage in the “fight for love” of Ukraine with the European Union, writes columnist “Newsweek” Benny Evni. According to him, Yanukovych "would prefer all the advantages of good relations with Europe, and not life under Putin's heel." But he is afraid of domestic political rivalry even more and will prefer to crush two powerful opponents (Yulia Tymoshenko and Vitali Klitschko), rather than competing with them in elections.
Meanwhile, for Putin, Ukraine is an element of the “alliance of his dreams,” which is to bring back former Soviet greatness to Russia, the article says.
The Financial Times journalist Gideon Rahman talked to American and European officials in Washington to find out how they perceived Kiev’s refusal to sign an association agreement.
“The West for the first time lost to Russia the contest in soft power,” lamented an unnamed analyst.
“In the end, the matter was decided by money, and not for Ukraine, but for certain Ukrainian clans,” said another interlocutor.
What next?
“However, Europeans have a calm assurance that in the long-term, it’s in the interests of Ukraine to focus on the West, and not on Moscow. Europe still believes that sooner or later Ukrainians will understand this. “Strategic patience” is the slogan of the current moment, ”the journalist said.
American petition against Yanukovych. A petition demanding sanctions against the president of Ukraine appeared yesterday on the White House website and has already collected 633 signatures, reports correspondent RIA "Novosti" Alexey Bogdanovsky.
The drafters of the document are unhappy that the Ukrainian government decided to suspend preparations for the signing of an association agreement with the EU: “We cannot agree that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his government refuse to the Ukrainian people the right to get closer to Western civilization.”
The authors of the petition are demanding that the United States impose sanctions on Yanukovych himself and members of his cabinet: a ban on entering the US and the EU, freezing bank accounts of companies associated with these people.
It feels like we’ll add that in the USA not only the government and Congress, but also some part of the American people feel themselves as the world hegemon, faithfully believing in American exclusivity and the inevitable victory of liberal democracy all over the world.
Russian Council. Russia advised Ukraine to postpone the signing of an agreement with the EU and hold talks on improving Russian-Ukrainian trade relations. This was announced to journalists by the head of the republic’s government, Mykola Azarov, "Lenta.ru" with reference to France Press.
From whom exactly the recommendation proceeded, it is not specified. These negotiations with Russia, Azarov said, will begin in December.
Debt good turn deserves another. The President of the Russian Federation, speaking yesterday at a press conference following his visit to Italy, touched on the situation around Ukraine, reports Interfax.
Vladimir Putin recalled that Ukrainian borrowers owe Russian banks about 30 billion dollars. According to Putin, the total debt on loans is slightly more than 20 billion dollars and 280 billion rubles (i.e. cumulatively almost 29 billion dollars). “Plus two billion more, which are paid for transit. These are all loans and quasi-loans, their volume is more than 30 billion dollars, ”the president noted.
Also, the Russian leader refuted the statement by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Mykola Azarov that the Russian Federation allegedly “softened” on the gas issue and that an agreement on the revision of the contract actually exists. “We, at Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine, have a contract signed before 2019. And we didn’t even discuss the possibility of contract revision, ”Putin said.
According to the head of state, according to repeated requests from Naftogaz about installment payments, “friendly partnership negotiations were conducted in payment for gas.” The President further noted that Russia both worked with Ukraine and will work. “Not at a loss to ourselves, but we will continue working - both in energy and in the financial sphere,” Putin explained.
As for the EU's dissatisfaction, V.Putin also responded to critics from Brussels: “I would ask our friends in Brussels, my personal good friends at the European Commission, to refrain from harsh expressions. What do we need to strangle entire sectors of our economy in order to please them? ”
Suitcase on the square. GUM's management informed the Louis Vuitton company of the need to dismantle a chest-pavilion in Red Square, informs "Voice of Russia" with links to ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti.
“Considering the position of a part of the society, as well as the fact that the pavilion’s construction exceeded the permissible agreed dimensions, we informed the Russian representation of Louis Vuitton about the need to immediately dismantle the pavilion, and also make every effort to remove any irritating effects, related to the exhibition pavilion of Louis Vuitton as soon as possible, ”the GUM press service reported.
Representatives of GUM also promised to make every effort in order to “remove any irritating effects related to the pavilion“ Louis Vuitton ”as soon as possible.
Voice of Russia reminds that the suitcase pavilion, stylized as a historical traveling bag of Prince Vladimir Orlov with a Russian tricolor, was intended for the exhibition The Soul of Wanderings, held for the XUMUM anniversary of GUM. But the appearance of a pavilion in Red Square in the form of a chest measuring 120 meters in height and 9 meters in length caused a great public outcry.
Venezuelan novations: confiscation and preventive control. The Venezuelan Ministry of Economy has ordered the introduction of preventive controls at Daka electronics stores, whose products had previously been confiscated and sold by the authorities for overpricing, Venezuelan media reported. This tells correspondent RIA "News" Dmitry Znamensky.
The authority to implement the decision was assigned to the institute for the protection of citizens in terms of access to goods and services. This measure applies to five Daka stores located in Caracas and four other major cities.
Joint fight against drug trafficking. The Nicaraguan parliament yesterday allowed Russian and US air and military ships to enter the country’s territory in the Caribbean’s sea border to fight drug trafficking, reports correspondent RIA "News" Dmitry Znamensky.
The Russian and American military also had the opportunity to be in Nicaragua to counter the spread of drugs.
The relevant proposal was made by President Daniel Ortega and is based on international treaties that Managua signed with Washington and Moscow. The majority of Nicaraguan parliamentarians voted for this initiative.
Permission to stay of foreign troops in the border maritime zone with Colombia was given in the first half of the year 2014. We are talking about 124 US troops and roughly 65 Russian military. The task of the latter will be the exchange of experience with Nicaraguan experts in combating drug trafficking.
Trusting Yudoyono. Indonesia and Australia have agreed to establish and develop “new bilateral relations”. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono made a statement about this after receiving a letter from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Pavel Vanichkin.
"Australia in the future will not take any action that could interfere with our country or damage it," said Yudoyono. According to him, after receiving the letter, which became Canberra’s official response to Indonesia’s request for clarification and apologies for the electronic espionage activities of the Australian intelligence services, “we again believed Australia”.
We decided not to recognize. Japanese airlines decided not to recognize the air defense identification zone established by the Chinese authorities over most of the East China Sea, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to France-Presse.
Earlier, the Japanese government called on airlines to make such a decision, but Japanese air carriers still announced their decision to comply with Chinese requirements. At the November 26 industrial meeting of Japanese air carriers, a different decision was taken: not to recognize the new air defense zone of China.
“The Chinese authorities, through the Japanese Foreign Ministry, assured air carriers that they did not intend to impede civilian flights aviation in its air defense zone, ”the press service of JAL Airlines explained.
With 00: 00, JAL and All Nippon Airways ceased to comply with the requirements imposed by the Chinese air defense zone: indicate the flight plan and report the nationality of the aircraft.
Regarding the new Chinese air defense zone, the official representative of the US State Department, Jen Psaki, spoke.
China’s decision to create an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, according to her, is a “one-sided step” and could lead to increased tensions in the region. He writes about it correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Zlodorev.
Jen Psaki called it "an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea." Such a turn of events "will lead to an increase in tension in the region and an increase in confrontation and the number of incidents."
Next psaki stressed that Washington has repeatedly brought its position to Beijing. “We called on China for caution and restraint. We are also consulting with Japan and other interested parties in the region about the response to this announcement, "Beijing," she said.
Earlier, the Pentagon confirmed that two US military aircraft on Monday without warning entered the identification zone of air defense in the East China Sea created by the People's Republic of China.
Double agents from Guantanamo. After the September 11 2001 bombing of the year, the CIA began recruiting Guantanamo prisoners into double agents, the Associated Press reported. Then the former prisoners were transported to their homeland and helped the American military to fight terrorists, said "RT".
According to the Associated Press, a CIA double agent promised the prisoners freedom, the safety of their loved ones, and millions of dollars from secret intelligence accounts. At the same time, the secret services risked the lives of their soldiers: a former terrorist could well have broken the deal and again attacked the US military.
For the American public, the program remained one of many secrets. The government is justified by the fact that it does not release dangerous criminals to freedom, and invites them to work for the CIA.
These agents were trained in an institution near the administrative buildings of Guantanamo Prison. Then they were thrown home. Some of the double agents helped the CIA hunt down and destroy al-Qaida members and other terrorist groups. Others stopped providing information and lost contact with US authorities.
A successful Israeli spy brags about his success. Hollywood producer 68-year-old Arnon Milchan in the program of the Israeli television channel Channel 2, admitted to working for Israeli intelligence, writes "Lenta.ru" with reference to Ha'aretz.
American Leps case: nothing concrete. Washington will have to tackle the question of Grigory Leps: a petition in support of the Russian singer, whom the US Treasury blacklisted on suspicion of having links with the “Russian mafia”, collected more than 100 thousand signatures in the US.
The representative of the US Treasury, John Sullivan, said that the agency will prepare a response: "We will draft a response, because it was our decision."
The terms of the answer were not specified, transmit "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
They did not say anything concrete in the White House either. “Each petition crossing the established threshold will be reviewed by experts on relevant political issues and will receive an answer,” the presidential press service said.
In Colorado and Maryland, talking about secession from the United States. On Friday evening, a group called “Western Maryland: A New State Initiative” held a meeting to discuss the separation of West Maryland. The mission is to “form a new state that will constitute the five western districts of Maryland,” Mixednews.ru with reference to benswann.com.
The report of The Washington Times states the following: “The people feel the pressure exerted on them by the laws drawn up by the democratic majority of Maryland. Western Maryland is a more conservative part of the state, whose views are well reflected on their website, where arms control laws and high taxes are cited as the main reasons for citizen discontent. ”
Maryland's five counties — Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, and Washington — make up 11% of state territory.
Interested in secession and some residents of Colorado. Conservative citizens dislike: 1) anti-weapon laws; 2) legalization of marijuana; 3) legalizing same-sex marriage.
Voters from rural Colorado endorsed the idea of separation. Governor John Hickenlooper said: “We understand that some rural areas still feel under-represented and unheard. We still pledge to listen more and work with local communities throughout Colorado. ”
If the people of Colorado succeeded in separating, their new state would be about the size of Vermont.
In New York, 20% of children go hungry. Every sixth adult New Yorker and every fifth child are starving, according to a report by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, reports correspondent RIA "News" Maria Chaplygina.
Specialists of the organization named analyzed data for 2010-2012 years and came to the following conclusion. Almost 16% of the population of the city (about 1,4 million people) suffer from a lack of food, of which 406,26 thousand are children. For comparison: in 2006-2008, the number of those who could not provide themselves with food on their own was 1,2 a million people.
21,85% (10% more than 4 a year ago) children in New York live in families that cannot provide them with good nutrition for a year. The Bronx remains the most “hungry” area of the city in recent years: about half of the hungry children of New York live there. The second place in terms of the number of both adults and minors, who do not receive adequate nutrition, is occupied by Manhattan.
It is noted that the number of New Yorkers living below the poverty line reached 2012 in the 1,7 year by a million people (by 100 thousand more than in the 2008 year).
The study is based on data from the US Census Bureau and information provided by charitable organizations.
Very strange, let me add that Obama has not yet impeached.
The UN General Assembly condemned Israel. The UN General Assembly yesterday adopted five resolutions in support of Palestine and condemning Israeli settlement and occupation activities, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Oleg Zelenin.
The General Assembly resolution "Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine" calls for "completely stopping all Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan" and points to the "illegal nature" of such actions.
The General Assembly called for the convening of an international conference on the Middle East in Moscow "to advance and accelerate the renewed peace process."
In the next resolution, the GA demanded that Israel immediately cease "all illegal and unilateral measures" aimed at "imposing its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem."
Three other documents concern internal procedures and initiatives of the organization aimed at supporting Middle East settlement. In one of them, 2014 declared the year as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Also, the GA adopted a separate resolution requiring Israel to end the occupation of the Syrian Golan. All six documents were adopted by a majority vote. Among the states that spoke against the adoption of each of the documents - the United States, Canada and Israel.
Netanyahu about the "bad" deal. In the article “Defeat for Netanyahu,” journalist Monika Bolliger (“Neue Zürcher Zeitung”; source abbr. Translation - "Inopressa") writes that Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements on Iran’s agreement with the “six”, which he called a “bad deal,” were commented on by the Israeli media. Referring to their own sources in the defense circles, Jewish analysts and experts called the Prime Minister’s demands unrealistic.
For example, the former head of the Israeli military intelligence, and now the head of the National Security Research Institute, Amos Yadlin, wrote that "Iran would continue nuclear research, even if the talks were deadlocked." Just in this case, "Tehran would have placed all the blame on Israel (...), and therefore the current interim agreement is much better than the previous situation."
Other media outlets spoke in a similar vein. M. Bolliger notes that for his position and attempts to put pressure on the US, the head of state received a considerable portion of criticism. Netanyahu was accused of having "a negative impact on Israel’s relations with its most important ally."
“The agreement on Iran means for Israel the need to come to terms with the new political reality,” the journalist states. “Now Europe and the United States are ready to conduct a dialogue with Iran, they have turned from the previous confrontational course towards Tehran.”
Historical parallels? The Geneva Six’s agreement with Iran is even worse than other shameful agreements in Western history: the Munich of the 1938 and the Paris of the 1973 on the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam, believes The Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stevens, whose opinion leads "Inopressa".
The author considers the Paris Agreement a betrayal of South Vietnam, an ally of the United States. True, he immediately admits that peace was in the interests of the United States. As for the Geneva Agreement, in the opinion of the author of the article, it has no exculpatory or compensating aspects. Think about historical parallels, calls the journalist.
“Britain and France arrived in Munich as“ weak ”militarily - now the United States and its allies view Iran from a position of superior strength. Britain and France won time for rearmament - now the United States and its allies have given Iran too much time to accumulate uranium reserves and develop its nuclear infrastructure. Then England and France were extremely interested in any agreement in order to avoid war, but now the Obama administration ignores a wide bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress for the sake of a deal, ”the author of the material says. "... Now the US is trying to improve relations with Tehran for a short time at the cost of a solid" alliance of values "with Israel and an alliance based on common interests with Saudi Arabia," the journalist adds.
He also finds common features of the Geneva Agreement with Munich and Paris: all these are betrayals regarding small countries and the victory of dictatorships, as well as overtures to even more terrible events.
Stevens gives a forecast: after Geneva, chaos will reign in the Middle East, and the US will lose leverage on friends and enemies. As for Iran, the country will be freed from sanctions and move to the stage of “nuclear ambivalence.” Saudi Arabia, in turn, will acquire nuclear deterrent forces. Egypt has already thought about the nuclear option, and at the same time is nearing an alliance in the field of security with Russia. Finally, after Geneva, the likelihood of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as the Israeli war with Hezbollah, increased. The journalist summarizes: Barack Obama has scrapped the system of alliances, which the United States has created in order to prevent foreign policy "freelancing."
"We enrich uranium today and will do it tomorrow." Iran does not intend to abandon the uranium enrichment process. This was announced on national television by President Hassan Rouhani, correspondent ITAR-TASS Vladimir Koklikov.
“The rights of the people and the framework delineated by the Supreme Leader will be preserved,” Rouhani said. He added: “We are enriching uranium today and will do it tomorrow. This is our red line. ”
Rouhani also said that Tehran "will continue negotiations until a full agreement is reached."
Comrade Lavrov: from the Geneva Agreement to EuroPRO. In the article “Russia is already using negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program for its own purposes” (“The Washington Post”; the source of translation is "InoSMI") journalist Max Fisher writes:
“No one is looking for opportunities to benefit from the situation, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov does. He did not wait even two days after the signing of an agreement with the United States, Europe and China on the issue of Iran’s nuclear weaponsby trying to find out if he can extract something for his country from this deal. On Monday, Lavrov said that if Iran followed the terms of the agreement to limit its nuclear program, the United States and NATO would have to abandon their plan to install an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe. Here is what the state agency RIA "News":
"The implementation of the agreements on the Iranian nuclear program, reached as a result of the negotiations in Geneva, will remove the reason for creating missile defense in Europe, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday.
“If an agreement on Iran is implemented, the reason, which is called as the need to create a missile defense system in Europe, will disappear,” Lavrov said, speaking at a media forum in Rome.
"The implementation of the agreements on the Iranian nuclear program, reached as a result of the negotiations in Geneva, will remove the reason for creating missile defense in Europe, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday.
“If an agreement on Iran is implemented, the reason, which is called as the need to create a missile defense system in Europe, will disappear,” Lavrov said, speaking at a media forum in Rome.
The current ambiguity in the question is exactly what turns S. Lavrov's statement into a geopolitical "catch minnow" at a high level, the American journalist said. And this makes Lavrov the ideal of the Russian foreign minister.
The correspondent also recalls that Lavrov and Vladimir Putin benefited from the international crisis associated with the use of chemical weapons in Syria, advancing an agreement to destroy these weapons in exchange for the abolition of American air strikes. The case of E. Snowden became the crown of the laurel "catching minnow".
Well, what do you want, gentlemen from the White House? If a politician skillfully uses circumstances, we add from himself, he is not a weather vane in the wind, he is the wind itself. If a politician, by his own short-sightedness and at the instigation of numerous advisers, finds himself in a situation when circumstances begin to use him (as happened with Obama), then he is a weather vane. Both Syria and Snowden are excellent examples of this. Let's hope that they are not the last.
The fate of Studio Monastery - to become a mosque? The Turkish authorities are going to turn the Studios Monastery in Istanbul, founded in the V century, into a mosque. Reports about it "Lenta.ru" with reference to Hurriyet Daily News.
The ruins of the temple of the monastery will be rebuilt into a mosque after the entire complex is renovated in 2014 year. Official comments from religious organizations have not yet followed, notes France-Presse.
Earlier, the Hagia Sophia in the cities of Trabzon and Iznik were turned into mosques, Lenta reminds.
In Turkey, there is also a debate about the fate of the main Istanbul monument of the Byzantine era - the Hagia Sophia, known as the Hagia Sophia mosque (now a museum). Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the other day that he would like to restore the mosque, which was under the Ottoman Empire.
Karzai shocked human rights activists. About stones and lash. The Afghan government is exploring the possibility of restoring the death penalty by stoning in case of adultery, which could mean a return to the punishments that were practiced under the Taliban regime, Human Rights Watch warned, BFM.ru with reference to France Press.
Lapidation is provided for in the amendment to the Afghan Penal Code: it is being prepared by a working group in the Ministry of Justice. According to the project, married men or married women who committed adultery may be sentenced to stoning, and a person not bound by marriage, but having intimate ties with married or married, will receive a hundred lashes. Punishments will be public.
And further. A representative of the Ministry of Justice confirmed that the ministry is studying the punishments for adultery, theft and drinking in accordance with Sharia law.
Human Rights Watch is shocked that the Karzai administration has gathered to reinstate a similar death penalty twelve years after the fall of the Taliban regime.
Well, where does the "shock" come from? Karzai rule in the country is not long; in 2014, in Afghanistan - elections. Karzai will leave power, the Taliban will come to it (most likely, relatively legally, by intimidating the population, and then elections), and the American contingent will either leave Afghanistan completely or leave a small part of the military there. Karzai really doesn’t want to repeat the fate of Najibullah, who was killed by the Taliban in September 1996 (“We killed him because he was the murderer of our people”), that’s why in the last months of his reign the president started building Sharia. Hamid Karzai is in a hurry to please the bearded, not without reason, considering him an American puppet.
French soldiers will travel to the CAR. France intends to send to the Central African Republic an additional about a thousand soldiers for the next six months. About this French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on the French radio station "Europe 1", reports "Lenta.ru".
The authorities are awaiting permission from the UN Security Council. Earlier, after the talks in Paris, the Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, Nicolas Thyangye, said that France would increase its military presence in the country three times. According to him, Paris intends to send soldiers to the 800 CAR to maintain peace in an African country. Thus, the French contingent will be 1,2 thousand military.
Black Mark. Parents of students in one of the schools in England were strongly recommended to send 4-6-year-old children to Islamic culture lessons, otherwise the leadership of the school promised to put a mark on racial intolerance in the student’s personal file, The Daily Mail.
As the channel notes "RT", parents of schoolchildren received letters in which it was stated that all elementary school students should attend a lesson in Islamic culture at Staffordshire University. If the child misses the lesson, the school management will make a special mark in his personal file, which “will accompany the student throughout the course of his studies.” And the lesson is not free: parents ordered to pay for it on 5 pounds sterling.
It is noted that after parents' complaints, the school administration sent a letter with clarifications: “After considering complaints, the school asks parents to ignore the threat of sanctions in the form of making an entry in a personal file from a previous letter.”
Pound and queen. In independent Scotland, it is proposed to keep the British pound sterling as the currency, and leave the Queen of Great Britain as head of state. This is stated in the document describing the device of the new state, which is presented on the website of the Scottish government, "Lenta.ru".
Here are some more details. Scotland will have its own armed forces. Her government will collect taxes independently of London. It is proposed to remove British nuclear weapons from the territory of the country.
Also, representatives of the Scottish National Party promise to make a "revolution" in the field of social policy, writes "BBC News". They propose to raise the minimum wage and legally provide care for young children in special institutions in the amount of 30 hours per week.
The 670-page document was published by Scottish National Party’s first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond.
Between Russia and America. As a result of the Russian request for the use of an air base in Cyprus, this state was at the center of a diplomatic conflict between Russia and the United States. "Sight" with reference to the "Greek Reporter".
The center of the diplomatic conflict between the United States and Russia became the Andreas Papandreu airbase. “The Cypriot leadership is forced to choose a solution that will satisfy both parties, but any solution is likely to create problems in relations with any of the countries,” the Greek Reporter believes.
The Russian government appealed to the military of Cyprus with a request to lease the air base - and the conflict began. The Americans made it clear to the Cypriot government that they strongly disagree. However, the government of Cyprus reminded the United States that Russia constantly supports Cyprus in matters of security and finance. However, the United States stated that "Cyprus is also under American influence."
To this, the Cyprus Defense Minister said that “he does not want to go into details on such a serious topic as Cyprus’s foreign policy.” But he promised that "Cyprus will take the right decision, taking into account national interests."
Warsaw Moscow will not pay. Poland will not compensate for the damage inflicted on the Russian embassy during the "Independence March" organized by the nationalists on November 11. Warsaw itself suffered losses of tens of thousands of dollars, reports "Voice of Russia" with reference to RIA "News".
Earlier, the Russian embassy in Warsaw sent to the Polish Foreign Ministry a claim for damages in the amount of 11 thousand dollars. After that, the ministry sent a request to the Warsaw authorities, in which it asked the city administration to express its position on this matter.
“We are preparing an answer in which we will write that the city did not organize this march, moreover, suffered damage in the amount of 40 thousand dollars,” said the spokesman for the mayor’s office, Bartosz Milcharczyk.
To this he added that the city authorities are preparing a lawsuit against the organizers of the march demanding compensation for the loss.
And the leader of the national all-Ukrainian youth movement, Tomas Palash, who was one of the organizers of the march, said that the organizer should not be held responsible for the actions of “hooligans and provocateurs”.
Split Latvia. Linda Kinstler ("The New Republic"; source abbr. Translation - "Inopressa") wrote a note entitled “Supermarket collapse in Latvia: what does this event say about a country that is at a crossroads?”
The ruins of the Maxima supermarket in Riga and what has become known about the causes of the catastrophe make it possible to see what a precarious state Latvia is in now, the columnist writes.
"Now the country is faced with a national tragedy in addition to the economic and political difficulties associated with joining the eurozone in the coming January," the author explains.
In 2004, Latvia joined the EU. “In 2006, economic growth ceased, and the next year the country was devastated by the global economic crisis,” the journalist said. This summer, the Riga Castle, the residence of the Latvian President, engulfed the flames, because “the equipment was of Soviet times”. The Maxima supermarket collapsed for similar reasons: the building was an element of the modernization of the urban area built in Soviet times. Vice Mayor of Riga Andris Ameriks said: “In Latvia in recent years, due to the economic crisis, many institutions, including those supervising the construction, (...) were closed to save money.” The conclusion of the journalist: "Although now the Latvian economy is growing fastest in the EU, its recent successes should be viewed skeptically."
The article also raises the problem of the split of Latvia due to homophobia and nationalism.
“As Latvia’s integration into the EU progressed, nationalism boomed in the form of a rise in homophobia and antipathy towards ethnic Russian residents, which split the already fragmented country,” the material says.
By the way, the investigation of the collapse of a building in Riga can be taken up by the EFBA members.
As reported "Vesti" With reference to ITAR-TASS, experts from the FBI can be involved in the investigation of the collapse of the Maxima shopping center. The head of the Latvian Parliamentary Commission on Defense, Home Affairs and the Prevention of Corruption, Ainars Latkovskis, spoke about this with the US Ambassador to Riga Mark Pekal.
Dinamo Riga was fined. The Continental Hockey League fined Riga Dinamo club for one million rubles for displaying a Nazi badge in a pre-match show, reports "Voice of Russia" with reference to the agency "R-Sport".
As the source recalls, the incident occurred on November 17 before the start of the match between Riga Dynamo and Ugra during a show on ice.
"For the gross violation of the technical regulations of the KHL, as well as for the violation of the principles of mutual respect laid down in the basis of the philosophy of the KHL as an international sports organization, Dynamo (Riga) was imposed penalties in the amount of one million rubles," the official website said CHL
The statement says that Dynamo Riga was warned that it could be excluded from the KHL participants if such violations recur in the future.
"Battle for love." New review from "Foreign Press" dedicated to the topical Ukrainian theme.
The first “Orange Revolution” flooded Kiev with tents and led to the cancellation of rigged elections, but failed to convince disunited Ukraine to prefer Europe to Russia, according to The Times. Nine years later, Ukrainians again took to the streets, but much has changed: because of Putin’s intimidation, pro-European sentiments are becoming stronger, and in the Russian-speaking east of the country. Today's protests are a public manifestation of the struggle for who gets the political capital from the country's final turn to Europe, the British newspaper said.
It seems that Yanukovych has succumbed to Putin’s threats of a trade war, but time is drawing. The consequences of signing an agreement with the EU in the short term promise to be painful. Probably, Yanukovych is trying to postpone this pain, and also to keep Tymoshenko out of politics until the election of the 2015 year. But this is a dangerous and selfish strategy, writes The Times.
“Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, with Ukraine being bribed and then subordinate, Russia automatically turns into an empire,” wrote Brzezinski 20 years ago. In today's fight for Ukraine, the stakes remain the same, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Returning to power, Putin became even more hostile to the West and set out to restore the Russian sphere of influence in the “near abroad”. Because of the trade sanctions imposed by Moscow, Kiev lost 15 billion dollars and could lose more 500 if it signed an agreement with the EU.
WSJ condemns Angela Merkel’s proposal to discuss the fate of the eastern neighbors in the Russia-EU talks: after all, it looks as though these countries were not independent the last 22 of the year.
According to the magazine’s editorial board, “an independent Ukraine leaning toward the West will make Europe safer and more difficult for Putin to restore the revanchist Russian empire.”
Russia received an advantage in the “fight for love” of Ukraine with the European Union, writes columnist “Newsweek” Benny Evni. According to him, Yanukovych "would prefer all the advantages of good relations with Europe, and not life under Putin's heel." But he is afraid of domestic political rivalry even more and will prefer to crush two powerful opponents (Yulia Tymoshenko and Vitali Klitschko), rather than competing with them in elections.
Meanwhile, for Putin, Ukraine is an element of the “alliance of his dreams,” which is to bring back former Soviet greatness to Russia, the article says.
The Financial Times journalist Gideon Rahman talked to American and European officials in Washington to find out how they perceived Kiev’s refusal to sign an association agreement.
“The West for the first time lost to Russia the contest in soft power,” lamented an unnamed analyst.
“In the end, the matter was decided by money, and not for Ukraine, but for certain Ukrainian clans,” said another interlocutor.
What next?
“However, Europeans have a calm assurance that in the long-term, it’s in the interests of Ukraine to focus on the West, and not on Moscow. Europe still believes that sooner or later Ukrainians will understand this. “Strategic patience” is the slogan of the current moment, ”the journalist said.
American petition against Yanukovych. A petition demanding sanctions against the president of Ukraine appeared yesterday on the White House website and has already collected 633 signatures, reports correspondent RIA "Novosti" Alexey Bogdanovsky.
The drafters of the document are unhappy that the Ukrainian government decided to suspend preparations for the signing of an association agreement with the EU: “We cannot agree that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his government refuse to the Ukrainian people the right to get closer to Western civilization.”
The authors of the petition are demanding that the United States impose sanctions on Yanukovych himself and members of his cabinet: a ban on entering the US and the EU, freezing bank accounts of companies associated with these people.
It feels like we’ll add that in the USA not only the government and Congress, but also some part of the American people feel themselves as the world hegemon, faithfully believing in American exclusivity and the inevitable victory of liberal democracy all over the world.
Russian Council. Russia advised Ukraine to postpone the signing of an agreement with the EU and hold talks on improving Russian-Ukrainian trade relations. This was announced to journalists by the head of the republic’s government, Mykola Azarov, "Lenta.ru" with reference to France Press.
From whom exactly the recommendation proceeded, it is not specified. These negotiations with Russia, Azarov said, will begin in December.
Debt good turn deserves another. The President of the Russian Federation, speaking yesterday at a press conference following his visit to Italy, touched on the situation around Ukraine, reports Interfax.
Vladimir Putin recalled that Ukrainian borrowers owe Russian banks about 30 billion dollars. According to Putin, the total debt on loans is slightly more than 20 billion dollars and 280 billion rubles (i.e. cumulatively almost 29 billion dollars). “Plus two billion more, which are paid for transit. These are all loans and quasi-loans, their volume is more than 30 billion dollars, ”the president noted.
Also, the Russian leader refuted the statement by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Mykola Azarov that the Russian Federation allegedly “softened” on the gas issue and that an agreement on the revision of the contract actually exists. “We, at Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine, have a contract signed before 2019. And we didn’t even discuss the possibility of contract revision, ”Putin said.
According to the head of state, according to repeated requests from Naftogaz about installment payments, “friendly partnership negotiations were conducted in payment for gas.” The President further noted that Russia both worked with Ukraine and will work. “Not at a loss to ourselves, but we will continue working - both in energy and in the financial sphere,” Putin explained.
As for the EU's dissatisfaction, V.Putin also responded to critics from Brussels: “I would ask our friends in Brussels, my personal good friends at the European Commission, to refrain from harsh expressions. What do we need to strangle entire sectors of our economy in order to please them? ”
Suitcase on the square. GUM's management informed the Louis Vuitton company of the need to dismantle a chest-pavilion in Red Square, informs "Voice of Russia" with links to ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti.
“Considering the position of a part of the society, as well as the fact that the pavilion’s construction exceeded the permissible agreed dimensions, we informed the Russian representation of Louis Vuitton about the need to immediately dismantle the pavilion, and also make every effort to remove any irritating effects, related to the exhibition pavilion of Louis Vuitton as soon as possible, ”the GUM press service reported.
Representatives of GUM also promised to make every effort in order to “remove any irritating effects related to the pavilion“ Louis Vuitton ”as soon as possible.
Voice of Russia reminds that the suitcase pavilion, stylized as a historical traveling bag of Prince Vladimir Orlov with a Russian tricolor, was intended for the exhibition The Soul of Wanderings, held for the XUMUM anniversary of GUM. But the appearance of a pavilion in Red Square in the form of a chest measuring 120 meters in height and 9 meters in length caused a great public outcry.
Venezuelan novations: confiscation and preventive control. The Venezuelan Ministry of Economy has ordered the introduction of preventive controls at Daka electronics stores, whose products had previously been confiscated and sold by the authorities for overpricing, Venezuelan media reported. This tells correspondent RIA "News" Dmitry Znamensky.
The authority to implement the decision was assigned to the institute for the protection of citizens in terms of access to goods and services. This measure applies to five Daka stores located in Caracas and four other major cities.
“The campaign to combat inflated prices began in Venezuela with an order to confiscate and sell goods in the Daka network. The network management was arrested, and, according to the authorities, the prices at which the goods were sold were 1000% higher than the purchase price. Meanwhile, according to the country's internal regulations, this mark-up cannot exceed 30% without proper justification.
The situation in Venezuela’s trade has led President Nicholas Maduro to the parliament asking for extraordinary powers to allow the head of state to conduct legislative activities. After the parliament approved this initiative, Maduro has already signed the law on pricing control. ”
The situation in Venezuela’s trade has led President Nicholas Maduro to the parliament asking for extraordinary powers to allow the head of state to conduct legislative activities. After the parliament approved this initiative, Maduro has already signed the law on pricing control. ”
Joint fight against drug trafficking. The Nicaraguan parliament yesterday allowed Russian and US air and military ships to enter the country’s territory in the Caribbean’s sea border to fight drug trafficking, reports correspondent RIA "News" Dmitry Znamensky.
The Russian and American military also had the opportunity to be in Nicaragua to counter the spread of drugs.
The relevant proposal was made by President Daniel Ortega and is based on international treaties that Managua signed with Washington and Moscow. The majority of Nicaraguan parliamentarians voted for this initiative.
Permission to stay of foreign troops in the border maritime zone with Colombia was given in the first half of the year 2014. We are talking about 124 US troops and roughly 65 Russian military. The task of the latter will be the exchange of experience with Nicaraguan experts in combating drug trafficking.
Trusting Yudoyono. Indonesia and Australia have agreed to establish and develop “new bilateral relations”. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono made a statement about this after receiving a letter from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Pavel Vanichkin.
"Australia in the future will not take any action that could interfere with our country or damage it," said Yudoyono. According to him, after receiving the letter, which became Canberra’s official response to Indonesia’s request for clarification and apologies for the electronic espionage activities of the Australian intelligence services, “we again believed Australia”.
We decided not to recognize. Japanese airlines decided not to recognize the air defense identification zone established by the Chinese authorities over most of the East China Sea, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to France-Presse.
Earlier, the Japanese government called on airlines to make such a decision, but Japanese air carriers still announced their decision to comply with Chinese requirements. At the November 26 industrial meeting of Japanese air carriers, a different decision was taken: not to recognize the new air defense zone of China.
“The Chinese authorities, through the Japanese Foreign Ministry, assured air carriers that they did not intend to impede civilian flights aviation in its air defense zone, ”the press service of JAL Airlines explained.
With 00: 00, JAL and All Nippon Airways ceased to comply with the requirements imposed by the Chinese air defense zone: indicate the flight plan and report the nationality of the aircraft.
Regarding the new Chinese air defense zone, the official representative of the US State Department, Jen Psaki, spoke.
China’s decision to create an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, according to her, is a “one-sided step” and could lead to increased tensions in the region. He writes about it correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Zlodorev.
Jen Psaki called it "an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea." Such a turn of events "will lead to an increase in tension in the region and an increase in confrontation and the number of incidents."
Next psaki stressed that Washington has repeatedly brought its position to Beijing. “We called on China for caution and restraint. We are also consulting with Japan and other interested parties in the region about the response to this announcement, "Beijing," she said.
Earlier, the Pentagon confirmed that two US military aircraft on Monday without warning entered the identification zone of air defense in the East China Sea created by the People's Republic of China.
Double agents from Guantanamo. After the September 11 2001 bombing of the year, the CIA began recruiting Guantanamo prisoners into double agents, the Associated Press reported. Then the former prisoners were transported to their homeland and helped the American military to fight terrorists, said "RT".
According to the Associated Press, a CIA double agent promised the prisoners freedom, the safety of their loved ones, and millions of dollars from secret intelligence accounts. At the same time, the secret services risked the lives of their soldiers: a former terrorist could well have broken the deal and again attacked the US military.
For the American public, the program remained one of many secrets. The government is justified by the fact that it does not release dangerous criminals to freedom, and invites them to work for the CIA.
These agents were trained in an institution near the administrative buildings of Guantanamo Prison. Then they were thrown home. Some of the double agents helped the CIA hunt down and destroy al-Qaida members and other terrorist groups. Others stopped providing information and lost contact with US authorities.
A successful Israeli spy brags about his success. Hollywood producer 68-year-old Arnon Milchan in the program of the Israeli television channel Channel 2, admitted to working for Israeli intelligence, writes "Lenta.ru" with reference to Ha'aretz.
“In 1960-1970-ies, Milchan, being a successful businessman in the United States, worked for the Israeli intelligence service Lakam, helping the authorities obtain the equipment and information needed to build a nuclear reactor. Milchan then maintained close relations with Shimon Peres, who served as Deputy Minister of Defense of Israel, and then headed this department. Peres was one of the initiators of the construction of a nuclear reactor in Dimona.
To fulfill his tasks, Milchan opened bank accounts and organized fake companies. At the peak of his career in the Israeli intelligence service, he ran 30 companies in 17 in different countries. Through these companies, he bought weapons and other equipment for Israel. In particular, he made deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the United States to buy helicopters and combat missiles. At the same time, Milchan claims that he himself did not receive income from these transactions (at the same time, according to the documents, the profits of his companies sometimes reached 60 percent), and transferred all the money to the Israeli authorities.
In addition, Milchan told how he persuaded a German engineer to actually hand over to him plans for building a nuclear reactor. He also said that he used his Hollywood connections to help the South African regime, which pursued the policy of apartheid, correct its image in the international arena in exchange for providing uranium to Israel.
Moreover, according to Milchan, Hollywood director Sydney Pollack (who died in 2008) also took part in a number of transactions, and he made films such as Tootsie and Out of Africa.
To fulfill his tasks, Milchan opened bank accounts and organized fake companies. At the peak of his career in the Israeli intelligence service, he ran 30 companies in 17 in different countries. Through these companies, he bought weapons and other equipment for Israel. In particular, he made deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the United States to buy helicopters and combat missiles. At the same time, Milchan claims that he himself did not receive income from these transactions (at the same time, according to the documents, the profits of his companies sometimes reached 60 percent), and transferred all the money to the Israeli authorities.
In addition, Milchan told how he persuaded a German engineer to actually hand over to him plans for building a nuclear reactor. He also said that he used his Hollywood connections to help the South African regime, which pursued the policy of apartheid, correct its image in the international arena in exchange for providing uranium to Israel.
Moreover, according to Milchan, Hollywood director Sydney Pollack (who died in 2008) also took part in a number of transactions, and he made films such as Tootsie and Out of Africa.
American Leps case: nothing concrete. Washington will have to tackle the question of Grigory Leps: a petition in support of the Russian singer, whom the US Treasury blacklisted on suspicion of having links with the “Russian mafia”, collected more than 100 thousand signatures in the US.
The representative of the US Treasury, John Sullivan, said that the agency will prepare a response: "We will draft a response, because it was our decision."
The terms of the answer were not specified, transmit "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
They did not say anything concrete in the White House either. “Each petition crossing the established threshold will be reviewed by experts on relevant political issues and will receive an answer,” the presidential press service said.
In Colorado and Maryland, talking about secession from the United States. On Friday evening, a group called “Western Maryland: A New State Initiative” held a meeting to discuss the separation of West Maryland. The mission is to “form a new state that will constitute the five western districts of Maryland,” Mixednews.ru with reference to benswann.com.
The report of The Washington Times states the following: “The people feel the pressure exerted on them by the laws drawn up by the democratic majority of Maryland. Western Maryland is a more conservative part of the state, whose views are well reflected on their website, where arms control laws and high taxes are cited as the main reasons for citizen discontent. ”
Maryland's five counties — Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, and Washington — make up 11% of state territory.
Interested in secession and some residents of Colorado. Conservative citizens dislike: 1) anti-weapon laws; 2) legalization of marijuana; 3) legalizing same-sex marriage.
Voters from rural Colorado endorsed the idea of separation. Governor John Hickenlooper said: “We understand that some rural areas still feel under-represented and unheard. We still pledge to listen more and work with local communities throughout Colorado. ”
If the people of Colorado succeeded in separating, their new state would be about the size of Vermont.
In New York, 20% of children go hungry. Every sixth adult New Yorker and every fifth child are starving, according to a report by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, reports correspondent RIA "News" Maria Chaplygina.
Specialists of the organization named analyzed data for 2010-2012 years and came to the following conclusion. Almost 16% of the population of the city (about 1,4 million people) suffer from a lack of food, of which 406,26 thousand are children. For comparison: in 2006-2008, the number of those who could not provide themselves with food on their own was 1,2 a million people.
21,85% (10% more than 4 a year ago) children in New York live in families that cannot provide them with good nutrition for a year. The Bronx remains the most “hungry” area of the city in recent years: about half of the hungry children of New York live there. The second place in terms of the number of both adults and minors, who do not receive adequate nutrition, is occupied by Manhattan.
It is noted that the number of New Yorkers living below the poverty line reached 2012 in the 1,7 year by a million people (by 100 thousand more than in the 2008 year).
The study is based on data from the US Census Bureau and information provided by charitable organizations.
Very strange, let me add that Obama has not yet impeached.
Observed and commented on Oleg Chuvakin
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- especially for topwar.ru
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