France: A decades-long series of corruption scandals, bound up with oil and arms deals, constitute the essential legal background to the Clearstream Affair: here. And here.
The authors of the biggest financial catastrophe in world history—executives and traders at US investment and commercial banks—will see their year-end bonuses rise by an average of 40 percent compared to last year, according to a report issued Wednesday by Johnson Associates, a Wall Street-based compensation consulting firm: here.
Documents relating to the investigation of Bernard Madoff released last Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) highlight the complicity of the US regulatory agencies in one of the biggest financial frauds in history: here.
It is believed that the dead included troops making their final arrangements for deployment to Iraq.
The largest US military base in the world stayed closed yesterday after an army psychiatrist trained to help personnel deal with post-combat stress shot dead 13 soldiers about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan: here.
Right-wingers have been looking for a fresh excuse to scapegoat Muslims, and Fort Hood gave them one: here.
Editor’s Note: The horrific shooting Thursday at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and hospitalized another 30 people has set off a great deal of speculation as to why the alleged shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, did what he did. See here.
The US Army says seven people were killed and 20 wounded in two shootings at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas this morning.
An Army spokesman at the Pentagon says the shootings began about 1.30pm Thursday (6.30am Melbourne time) at a personnel and medical processing centre at Fort Hood.
The spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Banks, says two shooters were apparently involved. There is no word yet on who they were, nor on identities of the dead.
Lieutenant Colonel Banks says the second incident took place at a theatre on the sprawling base.
He says it is too soon to tell whether there is any link to battle stress or repeated deployments. The army is suffering a record high suicide rate and other signs of stress from fighting two wars.
Twenty three Americans have been convicted in absentia, after an Italian court found them guilty of kidnapping in the CIA rendition of a Muslim cleric, the Associated Press reports. Three other Americans were acquitted.
The New York Timesreported earlier today, “Italian prosecutors have charged the American officials, all but one of them alleged to be agents of the Central Intelligence Agency, and seven members of the Italian military intelligence agency, in the abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on Feb. 17, 2003. Prosecutors say the cleric was snatched in broad daylight, flown from an American air base in Italy to a base in Germany and then on to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured.”
A US registered plane named in a 2007 European Parliament report into alleged Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “extraordinary rendition” flights was observed to land at Birmingham Airport in England on October 2 of this year: here.
Britain: MPs demand law to ban rendition flights: here.
This video from Bangalore in India says about itself:
I just took my camera went arround the city searching for some child labour footage.. but I found more than I can handle. This social and economic issue should stop.. please leave your comments on this issue..
P.S: I had to shoot most of footage from a hidden camera or hiding from a distant place.. so the video is kinda shaky please bear with me.
Blueberry Farming Giant Found to Use Child Labor at Michigan Fields
An ABC News investigation has exposed how one of the country’s largest blueberry growers uses child labor on its fields. Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company in South Haven, Michigan is at the center of this scandal. Wal-Mart and the Kroger supermarket were among Adkin’s high-profile customers that have now cut ties with the blueberry grower. We speak to ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross and Teresa Hendricks of Michigan Migrant Legal Aid.
The Chupacabra Hunters report from Honduras on a demonstration to reinstate ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. These two brothers from Shallowater, Texas, a small town in West Texas, find themselves in the middle of a government coup as they travel from Texas to South America in search of the mysterious chupacabra.
This report highlights the mood of thousand of protesters as they go up against government troops ready to open fire.
Since the start of the coup, 20 people have been killed, including 12 trade unionists.
Over 3,000 people have been arrested and countless human rights violations have been committed, including crackdowns on freedom of association and pro-Zelaya media outlets.
However the Supreme Court and Congress have yet to approve the deal and Mr Zelaya warned that “there may be manipulation so we must remain vigilant until compliance has been achieved.”
He also warned that the coup regime was attempting to delay and possibly overturn any chance of his return.
The TUC - acting on an International Trade Union Confederation resolution - has sent a letter to Foreign Secretary David Miliband urging him to increase the pressure on the coup regime to restore democracy and immediately end the human rights violations.
The protest will take place between 5.30-7.30pm at the US embassy, 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1. Speakers include Jeremy Corbyn MP, Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke, Greater London UNISON regional secretary Linda Perks, Jose Vallejo Villa from Justice for Cleaners and NUS black students officer Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has called for ongoing international pressure to ensure the deal around his return to office is implemented in the face of prevarication and delay from the coup regime: here.
The main challenger to President Hamid Karzai is urging action to prevent a repeat of the fraud that tarred Afghanistan’s presidential election, as preparations began for a run-off poll next month. Security, voter apathy and corruption are the main challenges facing organisers of a credible second round.
The “action” asked for by Karzai’s rival, Abdullah, did not happen. So, Abdullah decided to boycott the runoff election.
Taliban propagandists couldn’t make it up. Afghanistan’s comically fraudulent election is won by the fraudster! With foreigners visibly involved in the process, the words “occupation,” “puppet government,” and the like undoubtedly ring ever truer in Afghan ears. You don’t have to be a propaganda genius to exploit this sort of thing.
An international scramble to congratulate Hamid Karzai on his “re-election” as Afghan president has demolished western claims that the war was about bringing democracy, anti-war campaigners have said: here.
What a joy it must have been for Hamid Karzai to receive a congratulatory phone call from Gordon Brown on his re-election as leader of the wholly US-owned subsidiary known as the Afghan government: here.
The protracted and fraudulent Afghan election process ended Monday with incumbent Hamid Karzai decreed the winner. The end of this farcical exercise has set the stage for Washington to escalate its eight-year-old war: here.
The US government has no precise figure for how many contractors are employed in Iraq and Afghanistan, inviting the risk of fraud and security threats, a US commission warned on Monday: here.
British lance corporal Joe Glenton, facing court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan, reports that fellow soldiers have expressed support for his position: here.
Defence ministers in the Nato alliance are to meet in Edinburgh on Saturday 14 November to discuss the continued occupation of Afghanistan. The Stop the War Coalition is organising to ensure that they get a “warm welcome” to the Scottish capital: here.
How the U.S. Is Destroying, Not Helping, Democracy in Afghanistan: here.
Military prosecutors have brought charges against six Polish officers for claiming they had gone on patrols in Afghanistan when in reality they did not leave their base, the daily Rzeczpospolita reported Monday: here.
The trial has begun of former SS member Heinrich Boere. The 88-year-old is accused of having shot three civilians in occupied Holland as part of an SS murder squad 65 years ago: here.
As Israeli police arrest two settlers charged with assaulting a Palestinian family, Inside Story asks if this is a sign of a more serious investigation into settler violence by the Israeli police.
A resident of the West Bank settlement outpost Shvut Rachel was arrested last month for suspected murder and for his alleged role in a string of attempted murder plots, according to details of an investigation revealed on Sunday after a gag order on the case was lifted.
According to the Shin Bet and Israel Police, Teitel has confessed to most of the allegations against him. …
Teitel, a resident of the northern West Bank outpost, was born in Florida and has moved back and forth between the United States and Israel over the last two decades. In 2000, he returned to Israel to live permanently.
During a search of his home, police discovered rifles, handguns and explosive materials; they were unable, however, to find the gun which he allegedly used to kill the Palestinians.
Teitel was arrested on October 7 in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, in Jerusalem, after posting signs around town praising the attack on the Tel Aviv gay club.
His posters were signed with the name ‘Shleisel,’ referring to the ultra-Orthodox man who stabbed and wounded a number of marchers during the Jerusalem pride parade a couple of years ago.
Police also found posters in his neighbourhood offering a one million shekel reward to anyone killing a member of Israel’s Peace Now movement, that opposes West Bank settlement activity. …
Teitel has confessed to murdering a Palestinian shepherd near Mount Hebron in 1997 and to killing an Arab taxi driver in East Jerusalem some two months later. He said that he came to Israel precisely to carry out attacks against Palestinians as revenge for suicide bombings.
