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Posts Tagged ‘European Union’

Why the World Must Watch Europe

March 2, 2011 Comments off

realtruth.org

Beyond the EU Debt Crisis

The continent’s financial crisis gave rise to bailouts, infighting and demands for sweeping financial reform. Could there still be a bright future over the horizon for the European Union?

european_union_map-apha-110228.jpg
Source: Canstockphoto.com

Amid the shift in global superpowers, two names come up as heavyweight world championship opponents: China and the United States.

The constant media exposure and speculation could be likened to a pay-per-view boxing matchup.

In one corner: the world’s largest energy consumer—with a 1.3-billion-strong population—endlessly stockpiling natural resources—and holding nearly $900 billion in United States’ debt.

In the other: longtime democratic world champion—largest economy—and leader in manufacturing.

China is the clear favorite, but the U.S. is still in the running. On its way down from unmatched superpower, it is still a formidable opponent, with its manufacturing sector out-producing China by 40 percent.

Yet America is weighed down by a $14 trillion federal debt and rampant Read more…

Israeli military says new weapon shot down Gaza anti-tank rocket in first combat test

March 2, 2011 Comments off

canadianpress

JERUSALEM — A new Israeli weapons system knocked down a Palestinian anti-tank rocket in its first combat test Tuesday, the military said, showing off technology that could protect the heavy vehicles that have been the mainstay of the world’s ground forces for decades.

Palestinian militants said they fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Israeli tank as it patrolled near the Gaza-Israel border, a frequent occurrence. This time, the “Trophy” system sensed the incoming rocket and fired its own projectile, blowing it up away from the tank, the military said.

Trophy is thought to be the only active defence system of its kind in the world. Up till now, tanks have relied on heavier and thicker armour plating to protect against more powerful anti-tank weapons.

Experts say the active defence concept, if it works consistently, could allow the construction of smaller, lighter and more efficient tanks.

The Israeli military did not make Read more…

Wikileaks: GMO conspiracy reaches highest levels of US Government

February 26, 2011 79 comments

WikiLeaks Wikileaks: GMO conspiracy reaches highest levels of US GovernmentRecent Wikileaks cables are typically associated with information leaks related to U.S. war strategy, and foreign policy, which has led some people to conclude that leaked information of this nature is a possible threat to national security.

But in this case, Wikileaks cables leaked information regarding global food policy as it relates to U.S. officials — in the highest levels of government — that involves a conspiracy with Monsanto to force the global sale and use of genetically-modified foods.

In 2007, then-U.S. ambassador to France Craig Stapleton conspired to retaliate against European countries for their anti-biotech policies. U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal the Bush administration formulated battle plans to extract revenge against Europe for refusing to use genetically modified seeds.

In the leaked cable, Stapleton writes: “Europe is Read more…

After the ecstasy of revolution, the Bankers quietly begin carving up Egypt and North Africa

February 26, 2011 Comments off

21stcenturywire.com

By Richard Eastman
21st Century Wire
Feb 25, 2011

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is ready to lend one billion EUROS a year to Egypt for reconstruction and “free-market reform”- even as Egypt’s Minister of Finance Samir Radwan has gone begging to the City of London bankers and the British Ministry of Trade and Investment  for relief on debt payments that are about to throw Egypt into bankruptcy.

All this, as Egypt has been such a good boy with regards to privatization and austerity, measures which awarded Egypt its celebrated 7 percent growth rate- mostly in investments that will end up in international hands as ventures fail to pay out with ever diminishing Egyptian domestic purchasing power.

FRESH CYCLES OF DEBT

First EBRD will lend at interest and build what they want backed by Egyptian collateral and the value of the projects themselves.  Then when it turns out they can’t make the debt payments because of all the interest we have sucked from them, we take over all of the assets we have developed.  That’s freedom and EBRD is really going to give it to them.  After all EBRD is  experienced at this.  In 1991 the EBRD was organized to financially lead  Russia and Eastern Europe in their transition from paternalistic socialism to sustainable  free-market economies open to international Read more…

NATO Warns of Food Crisis and More Unrest, Prices Increase 15% in Four Months

February 21, 2011 Comments off
The potential of high food prices to act as a trigger for social and political changes has been evident across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011. Higher food prices, coupled with a financial downturn, have impacted hard on the region’s people. Those hit hardest are the poor, who spend a higher percentage of their money on food. 

The World Food Program’s representative in one of the countries which has seen protests, Yemen, recently stated: ‘There is an obvious link between high food prices and unrest.’

Credit: NATO

The 2008 food crisis was a warning of things to come. More recently, food prices rose by 15% in just the period October 2010 to January 2011, according to the World Bank’s Food Price Watch.

This time, the impacts have been felt more keenly in political and security circles. The President of Read more…

Iran Pushing to Upgrade Enrichment Gear: IAEA

February 19, 2011 1 comment

A forthcoming International Atomic Energy Agency report asserts Iran is pushing to replace thousands of its uranium enrichment centrifuges with newer carbon-fiber machines capable of operating five times faster than their predecessors, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Feb. 17).

(Feb. 18) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveils an experimental uranium enrichment centrifuge at a ceremony in Tehran last year. A forthcoming International Atomic Energy Agency report says Iran is working to deploy a new line of higher-speed centrifuges, according to diplomats (Behrouz Mehri/Getty Images).

Iran was purging electronics from its Natanz uranium enrichment complex and other atomic facilities after what appears to be an unsuccessful attempt to locate the origin of the Stuxnet computer worm infecting the sites, said diplomats with knowledge of the “militarization report” requested by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. Moving in new equipment might take as long as two years, the diplomats said.

Deploying its experimental carbon-fiber in large numbers could enable Iran to produce sufficient material for a nuclear weapon in under 12 weeks, Germany determined in an official assessment. The United States and its allies have expressed concern that Iran’s uranium enrichment program could generate nuclear-weapon material; Tehran has insisted its atomic ambitions are strictly peaceful (David Crawford, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 18).

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department yesterday blacklisted an Iranian bank believed to be supporting the organization managing Read more…

Britain’s coming crunch with Europe

February 18, 2011 Comments off

Fraser Nelson

It did not take David Cameron long to realize that there were three parties in his coalition. A few months into government, the Prime Minister worked out that only half of the policies he was enacting came from the shared agenda drawn up when the Tories and LibDems got together. The other half comes from the EU. Or, more specifically, the Civil Service machine, which is busy implementing various EU Directives, often passed many years ago. Cameron is trying to put the brakes on this process.

As I say in my News of the World column, this has led to much frustration in Whitehall. And dismay: the Civil Service remembers how easily Labour waved through EU regulation and the piles of fat that Whitehall likes to pile on top of the EU regulation. Labour would claim that the EU rules were actually its idea, so as not to lose face. Only in government is it clear how far power has slipped; Cameron wants to claw it back.

Oliver Letwin has been tasked with stopping Whitehall from being a breeding ground for new regulations. Cameron jokingly refers to Letwin as a ‘contraceptive’, because it’s his job to stop these regulations being conceived – usually after a little European foreplay. It’s a huge task. The problem is that Read more…

All children to be registered in national biometric records

February 16, 2011 Comments off

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

Below the radar of public opinion, Mexico has started to assemble the type of biometric national identity database that could be used to document names for a North American Trusted Traveler border pass card, a plan already being developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Mexican citizens.

It apparently would be similar to the program that has become commonplace in the European Union to allow free transit for EU citizens to move, live and work wherever they choose within the EU, disregarding nation-of-origin and national border restrictions.

On Jan. 19, 2011, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon signed an executive order requiring within the next five years all Mexicans 17 years old and younger have a biometric national identity card that would include a facial photograph, all 10 fingerprints, and an iris scan.


To carry out the presidential executive order, the Mexican Directorate General of the National Population Register plans to go to all Read more…

Obama signature creates ‘continental perimeter’

February 12, 2011 Comments off

Move described as key step in advance of North American Union

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper quietly have taken a major step toward erasing the border between the two nations with a new “Beyond the Border” bilateral declaration.

In a ceremony designed to remain below the radar of national public opinion, Obama and Harper bypassed Congress to sign on the basis of their executive authority a declaration that put in place a new national security vision defined not by U.S. national borders, but by a continental view of a “North American perimeter.”

It happened Friday, the day the Obama administration usually pushes through issues that it prefers the media ignore.

By signing the declaration, the Obama administration has implemented without congressional approval a key initiative President Bush began under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, moving the United States and Canada beyond the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly known as NAFTA, toward a developing North American Union regional government.

The declaration signed by the two heads of state and titled “Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness,” was described as “For Immediate Release” on the websites of the White House and the Canadian chief executive.



Harper followed Obama’s lead in signing the declaration as a form of executive order, deciding to bypass the Read more…

Global Effort To Outlaw Vitamins Now Underway

February 8, 2011 Comments off

(NaturalNews) The global effort to outlaw herbs, vitamins and supplements is well under way, and in just four months, hundreds of herbal products will be criminalized in the UK and across the EU. It’s all part of an EU directive passed in 2004 which erects “disproportionate” barriers against herbal remedies by requiring them to be “licensed” before they can be sold.

It’s called the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD), Directive 2004/24/EC.

The licensing requirements, however, were intentionally designed to make sure that virtually no herbs could ever meet them. It costs from $125,000 to $180,000 to license a single herb with the EU, and since herbs cannot be patented and don’t have the monopolistic pricing found in pharmaceuticals, there’s simply not enough profit margin in most herbs to justify such huge expenditures from any one company.

But that’s sort of the point. Governments of the world have been conspiring with the pharmaceutical industry for decades to destroy the competition by outlawing nutritional supplements, herbal remedies and many other forms of natural medicine.

They really are coming for your natural medicine

Some people in the USA are still skeptical that Read more…