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20 Jan, 2013

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi defends ‘crony’ donations – Hindustan Times

Myanmar pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday defended her party’s controversial decision to accept donations from businessmen close to the former junta for its education fund. “Let them donate if they donate for good things,” the opposition leader and lower house lawmaker told AFP in the capital Naypyidaw. “I don’t understand why we […]

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20 Jan, 2013

Tour guide exams another example of national licensing frenzy | The Japan Times Online

Colin P.A. Jones wondered if he was alone in laughing out loud at a question about impaired thinking in the national nursing exam (“Stop thinking — the exam is about to start,” Zeit Gist, Dec. 18). There is no end to this national licensing frenzy, and it brought to mind another fiasco: tour guide certification […]

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20 Jan, 2013

787 scare poses threat to suppliers | The Japan Times Online

AFP-Jiji The grounding of two Dreamliner fleets Wednesday not only dents the reputation of U.S. aviation giant Boeing Co. but also threatens to deal a blow to Japanese firms that make around a third of the aircraft, analysts said. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways halted all flights on the next-generation plane after an ANA […]

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20 Jan, 2013

Suicides fall under 30,000 for first time in 15 years | The Japan Times Online

Kyodo The number of suicides last year slipped below 30,000 for the first time in 15 years, falling 9.4 percent from 2011 to 27,766, the National Police Agency said in a preliminary report Thursday. The annual figure remained between 20,000 and 26,000 from 1978 to 1997 before hovering above 30,000 since 1998. Last year 19,216 […]

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20 Jan, 2013

Dreamliner battery probe may take months: GS Yuasa | The Japan Times Online

GS Yuasa Corp., the company that makes batteries used on Boeing Co.’s new 787 planes, said Thursday it may take months to complete an investigation into what caused an emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways Co. Dreamliner. The company needs to find out whether the emergency landing Wednesday in Kagawa Prefecture was caused by […]

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19 Jan, 2013

Underclass of restaurant employees in Sydney grossly underpaid

Diners in Sydney’s A-list suburbs are unknowingly exploiting an underclass of employees who are being grossly underpaid, Fairfax Media has found. Widespread cash-in-hand payments are resulting in hospitality workers being paid more than a third below the minimum wage, which is currently $15.96 per hour. Fairfax has established restaurants in Manly, Neutral Bay and the […]

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16 Jan, 2013

Court convicts Jewish terrorist Teitel of murdering two Palestinians – Haaretz

Jerusalem District Court convicted the Jewish terrorist Yaakov (Jack) Teitel on Wednesday on two counts of murder and additional counts of assault. The indictment, which had been revised, claimed Teitel was in good mental state and therefore is responsible for his actions. Teitel was convicted in the murder of two Palestinians in 1997 and two […]

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16 Jan, 2013

Get out and vote! – Israel Newspaper Tells Arabs in 3-language Editorial

Arab citizens are an important and inseparable part of Israeli society, and they contribute to it in many fields. As a national minority, they both enrich and challenge Israeli democracy, and therefore, it’s appropriate for them to have political representation that reflects their proportion in the Israeli population. Read the rest: Get out and vote! […]

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13 Jan, 2013

Noam Chomsky: The responsibility of privilege – Al Jazeera English

“If you look at his policies I think that’s what they reveal. I mean there’s some nice rhetoric here and there but when you look at the actual policies … the drone assassination campaign is a perfectly good example, I mean it’s just a global assassination campaign.” On Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in the […]

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12 Jan, 2013

PressTV – US national security set for de-Israelization?

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In truth, the CIA has been gutted and turned over to foreign control, other agencies crippled and the Department of Homeland Security and, to a lesser extent, the FBI, have become little more than Mossad “front” organizations. The most controversial appointment since the Israel lobby took control of America’s government, some say 1967, some use […]

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12 Jan, 2013

IPS – Morphine Kills Pain but its Price Kills Patients

BULAWAYO, Jan 11 2013 (IPS) – It took Gily Ncube’s daughters two weeks to sell enough chickens to raise the 18 dollars needed to buy the morphine tablets their mother takes every four hours. In a country where unemployment is estimated at 70 percent, 18 dollars for a bottle of 60 tablets of 10 milligrammes […]

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12 Jan, 2013

Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources

It’s time for a new kind of economy We’re overusing the earth’s finite resources, and yet excessive consumption is failing to improve our lives. In Enough Is Enough, Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill lay out a visionary but realistic alternative to the perpetual pursuit of economic growth – an economy where the goal is enough, […]

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12 Jan, 2013

The high cost of cheap meat in the German diet – DW.DE

The publication of “Meat Atlas” is intended to encourage a bit of reflection, says Böll foundation board member Barbara Unmüßig. “We’re eating at the expense of people in the third world,” she says. In the world’s poorest countries, 10 kilos of meat per year per person is usually unaffordable. The production of feed for industrialized […]

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12 Jan, 2013

Asia Times Online : A wider war looms in Myanmar

CHIANG MAI – Recent weeks have seen some of the heaviest fighting in Myanmar’s decades-long civil war with government forces launching determined attacks against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic guerrilla force in the far north of the country. For the first time ever, the government has used helicopter gunships and modern, sophisticated attack […]

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12 Jan, 2013

Asia Times Online: Jewish Lobby Biggest Obstacle to Iran Deal

The Iran nuclear crisis stands an good chance of de-escalation in 2013 if both sides show the necessary flexibility. Conditions include the US and its allies agreeing to tolerate Iran’s enrichment program at a low ceiling and higher degree of transparency, and Iran consenting to a technical formula regarding its enriched pile of uranium. The […]

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12 Jan, 2013

UK heading for triple-dip recession, NIESR warns

Pressure mounted on the chancellor to moderate his austerity programme after analysis by a leading thinktank showed the UK economy heading for a triple-dip recession and high profile employers Honda and Jessops cut hundreds of jobs The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said in its monthly health check that the economy shrank […]

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12 Jan, 2013

Banker jumped from rooftop London restaurant under ‘enormous amount of pressure’

The inquest heard how Mr Lambrechets, from Cobham, Surrey, had contemplated ending his life after he was unable to transfer cash from his native South Africa to pay for school fees for his children. The man who hired him at Investec Asset Management, Domenico Ferrini, told the court how Mr Lambrechts had moved to the […]

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12 Jan, 2013

Jimmy Savile: Report that reveals 54 years of abuse

Savile was a monster who in the words of detectives today, was hiding in plain sight. The report by the Metropolitan Police and the NSPCC has revealed a man who used his celebrity status and outwardly well-intended works to gain access to and ultimately rape and sexually exploit hundreds of vulnerable young star-struck victims – […]

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12 Jan, 2013

IPS – Closing Europe’s Borders Becomes Big Business

ATHENS/WARSAW, Jan 9 2013 (IPS) – The European Union is implementing a new border management system with tougher migration control the core aim. Major security and weapons companies are already reaping the benefits. Frontex, the EU border agency, has financed major weapons and security equipment producers to present their equipment in demonstrations. European national border […]

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12 Jan, 2013

It’s official: Indian students shunning Britain

LONDON: There has been a 24 per cent drop in the number of Indian students coming to Britain to study during the 2011-12 academic year, latest official figures show, reflecting concerns generated due to visa restrictions imposed on non-EU students by the David Cameron government. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the number […]

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11 Jan, 2013

How China Should Deal with Declining U.S. Hegemony

By Xue Fukang (China Daily)

2013-01-11 – Now China is the world’s second-largest economy, some have argued a bipolar world is more likely than a multipolar one. However, China should not seek to establish a bipolar world. Choosing not to seek hegemony demonstrates China’s foresight and clear thinking. After its reform and opening-up, as its national power has improved, China […]

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11 Jan, 2013

20 Facts About The Collapse Of Europe – Chinadaily Forum

The economic situation in Europe is far worse than it was a year ago, and it is going to continue to get worse as austerity continues to take a huge toll on the economies of the eurozone. It would be hard to understate how bad things have gotten – particularly in southern Europe. The truth […]

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11 Jan, 2013

Toys“R”Us, Inc. Reports Drop in December 2012 Holiday Sales Results

WAYNE, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– January 10, 2013 – Toys“R”Us, Inc. today reported its comparable store net sales and total sales for the month of December 2012. For the month of December, the U.S. Domestic segment reported a comparable store sales decrease of 1.8%. The Learning toy category generated the strongest comparable store sales growth, offset by […]

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10 Jan, 2013

Chinese Economist Warns of Global Interest Rate Risk

By Zhang Monan, China Daily / Project Syndicate

Beijing, 2013-01-09 – Since 2007, the financial crisis has pushed the world into an era of low, near zero, interest rates and quantitative easing, as most developed countries seek to reduce debt pressure and perpetuate fragile payment cycles. But there is a strong risk that real (inflation-adjusted) interest rates will rise over the next decade. […]

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10 Jan, 2013

Changing Mindset, Ways of Doing Business, Helps Laos Become a WTO Member

Geneva, WTO Media release, 9 Jan 2013 – The World Trade Organisation has officially informed Laos of its acceptance as a member. The General Council formally agreed to this on 26 October 2012, paving the way for the southeast Asian country to become a member in early 2013. Travel & tourism is one of 10 […]

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10 Jan, 2013

Survey: Chinese Bankers Say Liberalisation Has Hit Bottom Lines

By Li Tao in Hong Kong, China Daily

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhuanet) — More than 56% of bankers surveyed in a poll say liberalization policies are adversely affecting their bottom lines  Chinese banks expect to see much slower business growth from 2012 to 2014, and about 70 percent of bankers predict they will see a less than 20 percent increase in their profitability […]

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9 Jan, 2013

EU Report: European Jobless Levels Highest in 20 Years

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Brussels, 8 January 2013, European Commission Press release – After five years of economic crisis and the return of a recession in 2012, unemployment is hitting new peaks not seen for almost twenty years, household incomes have declined and the risk of poverty or exclusion is on the rise, especially in Member States in Southern and […]

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9 Jan, 2013

Global Trades Union: 13 Things to Make the World a Better Place in 2013

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2 January 2013 (ITUC Media Release): The International Trades Union Congress has released its wish-list of 13 policies and actions that it feels will make the world a better place in 2013, as follows: An end to senseless austerity in Europe and the attacks on rights by the “Troika”; Collective bargaining and social protection floor […]

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8 Jan, 2013

Chinese View: US, EU Printing Money Furiously to Shift Debt Burden

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(People’s Daily Online Commentary), January 07, 2013 – The United States and the European Union have adopted the policy of quantitative easing, and kept their money-printing machines running around the clock over the past few years. This has increased the imported inflationary pressure facing China, and reduced the value of its huge foreign exchange reserves. […]

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5 Jan, 2013

Noam Chomsky On The Gravest Threat to World Peace

As numerous polls have shown, although citizens of Arab countries generally dislike Iran, they do not regard it as a very serious threat. Rather, they perceive the threat to be Israel and the United States; and many, sometimes considerable majorities, regard Iranian nuclear weapons as a counter to these threats. In high places in the […]

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18 Dec, 2012

Malaysian Jurist’s Message to America: Deal With Your Own Culture of Violence

Prof Chandra Muzaffar

Kuala Lumpur, 17 December 2012 – The whole world condoles with the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. It is a terrible tragedy: 27 people dead, 20 of them six and seven year-old kids. It is the worst school massacre in the history of the United States. Senseless, […]

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18 Dec, 2012

USA Land of disposable people – Pravda.ru

While the USA goes around the world expounding on the virtues of its way of life, it is obvious that those in charge place little value on human life. They are willing to kill thousands, even millions, for profit, for power, for money, for oil and resources. An inordinate amount of the national budget is […]

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15 Dec, 2012

Soviet-style disintegration awaits US: Gorbachev

The last head of state of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, has warned the US of an imminent Soviet-like collapse if Washington persists with its hegemonic policies. Speaking at a Thursday conference on the future of the Middle East and the Black Sea region in the Turkish city of Istanbul, Gorbachev noted that […]

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13 Dec, 2012

Five Unbelievably Creepy Surveillance Tactics | Alternet

Since the erosion of Americans’ civil liberties depends on high levels of public apathy, some of the most dangerous privacy breaches take place incrementally and under the radar; if it invites comparisons to Blade Runner or Orwell, then someone in the PR department didn’t do their job. Meanwhile, some of the biggest threats to privacy, […]

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10 Dec, 2012

British rule was crime against humanity: author ‘corrects’ history – Hindustan Times

This is a powerful indictment of what passes off euphemistically as the benevolent Raj. British colonial rule of India and China (two countries under study), author Rajendra Prasad says, was nothing short of a terrible crime against humanity. In what is undoubtedly a path-breaking study, Prasad dives into newspapers, books, pamphlets, booklets, journals, confidential notes, […]

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9 Dec, 2012

Bollywood favourite Sabyasachi pushes sari revival | GulfNews.com

As the platform-heeled models sashay past the flash of cameras to the sound of U2, Sabyasachi Mukherjee surveys the progress of his campaign to drag the sari from the back of the closet onto the catwalk. “Too many women think of the sari as something that is very backward and not cool,” said the award-winning […]

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9 Dec, 2012

Noam Chomsky: What the American Media Won’t Tell You About Israel | Alternet

December 3, 2012 – An old man in Gaza held a placard that read: “You take my water, burn my olive trees, destroy my house, take my job, steal my land, imprison my father, kill my mother, bombard my country, starve us all, humiliate us all, but I am to blame: I shot a rocket […]

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8 Dec, 2012

The Demographic Challenge: Older Americans Worry About Being “Thrown Over Economic Cliff”

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Pennsylvania volunteers and staff today met with members of the state’s Congressional delegation and other key members of Congress involved in the lame duck discussions to avert a so-called “fiscal cliff.”  The AARP volunteers and staff urged the members of Congress not […]

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8 Dec, 2012

National Geographic Unveils New Phase of Genographic Project: Grant Applications Sought

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WASHINGTON (Dec. 5, 2012)—The National Geographic Society today announced the next phase of its Genographic Project — the multiyear global research initiative that uses DNA to map the history of human migration. Building on seven years of global data collection, Genographic continues to shine new light on humanity’s collective past, yielding tantalizing clues about humankind’s […]

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8 Dec, 2012

US$6 billion Election bill: What a Waste of Corporate Money

JURIST Guest Columnist Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

JURIST Guest Columnist Ciara Torres-Spelliscy of the Stetson University College of Law discusses the proposed statutory and regulatory reforms that could curb the rising levels of spending by corporations in political campaigns… Source: JURIST – Forum, Dec. 3, 2012, http://jurist.org/forum/2012/12/torres-spelliscy-campaign-finance.php . The US has just gone through its most expensive election ever. The projected price […]

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8 Dec, 2012

Pew Research Center: Anti-Americanism Down in Europe, but a Values Gap Persists

By Richard Wike, Associate Director, Pew Global Attitudes Project

Released: December 4, 2012 – Europeans generally reacted to President Obama’s re-election with a mixture of excitement and relief, just as they did four years ago. For many across the Atlantic, Obama’s 2008 victory signaled the end of the Bush-era estrangement between the U.S. and its Western allies, and the emergence of an America that […]

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6 Dec, 2012

TSA creating all new watch list for Americans

Being absent from a federal no-fly list might not mean you won’t be hassled the next time you enter an US airport. The Transportation and Security Administration is constructing a new list of known “low risk” passengers. According to the November 19 Federal Register newsletter put out by the US government, the TSA is trying […]

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5 Dec, 2012

“Big Brother” Grows Bigger: Online Public Records Search Available for Adults in All 50 U.S. States

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Detroit, Michigan (PRWEB) December 04, 2012 — Public records are one thing that leave a paper trail that can be documented. The Inteligator company is now offering its public records search tool online for adults to use. This service is available in all 50 states although not all states release all forms of public data. […]

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3 Dec, 2012

Saudi female blogger: Why don’t men cover their faces?

My cousin and I are staring outside the window. We are looking at the garden where my male cousin and his friends are playing. This is the garden where we used to play together. They used to be our friends once upon a time, these are the boys we used to play with. But what […]

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3 Dec, 2012

Africa: Unmasking Racist World Bank – allAfrica.com

This article is about the twin evils that have bedeviled the World Bank’s relationship with Africa as a continent and Africans as human beings. The first is structural: it concerns a ‘democracy deficit’ in the bank’s governance architecture that has denied Africa a voice in the institution’s boardroom. The second is cultural: it involves institutional […]

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3 Dec, 2012

Australian Paedophile Flees Sri Lanka

BERNARD McGRATH, the Australian paedophile wanted by a NSW court on more than 250 child sex charges, has again escaped law enforcement agencies, fleeing Sri Lanka this week. McGrath, wanted since June, was reportedly living on a tea plantation in the highlands of Sri Lanka, having skipped out of New Zealand ahead of an order […]

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2 Dec, 2012

Rio de Janeiro Inaugurates the World’s Tallest Floating Christmas Tree

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The 17th Bradesco Seguros Christmas Tree, the world’s tallest floating Christmas tree, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was inaugurated Saturday night, December 1st, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a free major event that included world-renowned Brazilian singers Simone and Emilio Santiago. With this year’s […]

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1 Dec, 2012

Spend it again, Sam – People’s Daily Online

Don’t be distressed if you had missed the world’s largest online shopping spree on Nov 11, when Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group alone reported sales of 19.1 billion yuan ($3.06 billion) on the unofficial “Singles’ Day”. Chinese e-retailers are keen to have another shopping festival soon – after the spending frenzy that produced about three […]

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1 Dec, 2012

China: Five reasons why US universal values are not working in Mideast

People's Daily Online Commentary

December 01, 2012 – In 2012, the United States has been suffering repeated setbacks in its strategies in the Middle East. Firstly, it has a decline in the soft power and a loss of support of local people. According to mass observation of U.S. Zogby Company, 78 percent of Arabians hate the United States and […]

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1 Dec, 2012

US won’t follow Israel ‘like a stupid mule’ – Brzezinski — RT

In the event that Israel attacks Iran before Iran crosses the US red line, Zbigniew Brzezinski does not think there is any “implicit obligation” for the US “to follow, like a stupid mule, whatever the Israelis do.” “If they decide to start a war, simply on the assumption that we will be automatically drawn into […]

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29 Nov, 2012

Middle East Headed for Unpredictable Future, U.N. Security Council Told

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United Nations, 27 Nov 2012 (UN Dept of Public Information) – Following the Gaza escalation, which last week brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the “brink of a crisis that could have engulfed the region”, it was more vital than ever not only to bring a sustainable end to violence, but to achieve a fair and […]

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28 Nov, 2012

Jakarta faces massive layoffs following salary hike: The Jakarta Post

The Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) has said that at least 10,000 workers could lose their jobs when the Jakarta administration implements the new minimum wage at Rp 2.2 million (US$228) next year. Apindo wages and social security division head Hariyadi Sukamdani said Tuesday that the 44 percent increase would hit employers hard. “Until now, 100 […]

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28 Nov, 2012

New curriculum to focus on religion, civics and history : The Jakarta Post

The Education and Culture Ministry and the House of Representatives Commission X overseeing education and youth affairs have agreed that the new curriculum for 2013 will focus more on the character building of students. Although Commission X has yet to approve the content of a draft prepared by the ministry, chairman of the commission Agus […]

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25 Nov, 2012

ASEAN leaders agree to 12-month extension of deadline for regional integration

Leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations Asean have agreed to extend the deadline to realize economic, political and social integration among the 10 countries to the end of 2015 from the originally-envisioned Jan 1, 2015. The extended timeframe, coming amidst increasing pressure on Asia as the global economy wobbles, reflects sober assessment […]

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13 Nov, 2012

An open letter to President Obama from the world’s poorest countries

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The following is an open letter from the chair of the Least Developed Countries group, Pa Ousman Jarju. November 8, 2012 Dear President Obama, As the lead negotiator for the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the United Nations climate change negotiations, I congratulate you on your re-election. I also want to express my […]

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10 Nov, 2012

Social Casino Games Raking It In as Gambling Scourge Goes Global

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LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–November 09, 2012–Global revenues from social casino games have now reached $1.6 billion announced Gaming Club. According to new research from SuperData, an online games research company, social casino gamers are spending almost twice as much as their regular social gamer counterparts. In July, paying social casino gamers spent $78 online compared to $43 […]

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9 Nov, 2012

Warning from China: US ‘dual-deterrence’ is self-defeating

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(People’s Daily Online), November 08, 2012  – Japan’s new ambassador to the United States has recently pointed out that the U.S. government does not remain neutral on the Diaoyu Islands issue because the it does not oppose Japan’s “nationalization” of the Diaoyu Islands and indicates the applicability of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty instead, claiming that […]

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9 Nov, 2012

China Voice: Time for Renewed U.S. Policy Toward China

Editor: Mu Xuequan

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) — With Barack Obama successfully defending his presidency in the U.S. election and a new leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) soon to be elected, it is the right time for the Obama Administration to rethink its policy on China. More than three decades have passed since the […]

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9 Nov, 2012

Chinese Leader: Corruption Could Lead to “Fall of the State”

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(Xinhua), 2012-11-08, BEIJING – Chinese leader Hu Jintao delivered a report on Thursday at the opening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The following are key quotes from his report: On Scientific Outlook on Development — The most important achievement in our endeavors in the past ten years is […]

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1 Nov, 2012

Accused UBS trader ‘played God’ over $2.1b loss

A banker accused of Britain’s biggest fraud played God as he carried out “unprotected, unhedged, incautious and reckless” trades, a court has heard. Kweku Adoboli, 32, allegedly gambled away £1.4 billion ($2.19 billion) in “off-book” operations while working for Swiss bank UBS during the global financial crisis. The Ghanaian-born former public schoolboy has told jurors […]

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9 Oct, 2012

U.S. Should Learn from U.K. “To Decline Gracefully”

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(People’s Daily Online) October 08, 2012  – Maybe the United States should learn from Britain “to decline gracefully,” Professor Meghnad Desai, an Indian-born member of the British House of Lords, said in his recent article, “America, Enjoy the Downward Slide.” Americans have said similar things before. However, American leaders are obsessed with “building a peaceful […]

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9 Oct, 2012

New EU-UNESCO Pact on Education, Culture, Science & Human Rights

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Brussels, 8 October 2012, European Commission Press release – A new deal that will boost cooperation, dialogue and help to share information and best practice between the European Union (EU) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was signed between the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, the High Representative of the Union for […]

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9 Oct, 2012

Ernst & Young Barometer: Low Economic Confidence Clouds U.S. Deal-making

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NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Waning global economic confidence has dealt mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity another blow as boardrooms and CEOs are hunkered down in the United States (US), according to Ernst & Young’s latest Capital Confidence Barometer, (click HERE to download FREE) based on a survey of more than 1,500 senior executives […]

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24 Sep, 2012

PressTV – Americans are literally being worked to death

Even though our incomes are going down, Americans are spending more time at work than ever before. In fact, U.S. workers spend more time at work than anyone else in the world. But it was not always this way. Back in 1970, the average work week for an American worker was about 35 hours. Today, […]

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23 Sep, 2012

Poll: Foreign retailers still have eyes firmly on China

September 22, 2012, (China Daily) – Top international retailers still consider China as a top target market for future growth, as the population continues to become wealthier and people migrate in greater numbers to the bigger cities. According to the Global Retail Index, a survey carried out among 200 retailers worldwide, international retailers view China […]

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23 Sep, 2012

China Voice: Is Chinese economy sliding into dangerous position?

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) — In the past few weeks, there has been growing debate at home and abroad about China and its economic growth, with rhetoric speculating about an imminent economic blowout in the world’s second-largest economy. It’s interesting to observe the difference between what pessimists predict about China’s economy and what’s actually going […]

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23 Sep, 2012

I’ll say it my way – Hindustan Times

Think of a sharp practice in human affairs and you will find its very master in India, or of a genre of human roguery, of political skullduggery, of financial chicanery, of professional trickery and India will show you its finest guru in a virtuoso performance as well as forms of selfishness so saw-toothed as could […]

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17 Sep, 2012

A picture of war: the CIA’s drone strikes in Pakistan: TBIJ

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has been recording every reported CIA drone strike in Pakistan. The result is our extensive database which details every known attack and the numbers killed in a covert war that has been bitterly fought since 2004. Our detailed analysis has found that 344 strikes have killed between 2,562 and 3,325. […]

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13 Sep, 2012

The Hindu : Why terrorists aren’t scared of sanctions

In 1999, soon after a string of terrorist attacks against U.S. diplomatic missions in East Africa, the U.N. passed a resolution calling on all member states to “freeze the assets of, prevent the entry into or transit through their territories by, and prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer of arms and military […]

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12 Sep, 2012

Widespread distrust of US extends beyond Middle East, poll shows – The Guardian

American influence on the world stage is being sapped by widespread distrust of US intentions, not just in the Middle East and south Asia but also among traditional European allies, according to a survey of global opinions. Suspicion of America outweighed faith in its good intentions by large margins in the Arab world and Pakistan, […]

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12 Sep, 2012

Western support for Afghanistan war collapsing, survey shows – guardian.co.uk

Public support for the war in Afghanistan is collapsing in western and Nato member countries, with 53% of Europeans and 44% of Americans favouring the immediate withdrawal of all troops, an international survey shows. Large majorities – 75% of European respondents and 68% of Americans – support either withdrawal or an immediate troop reduction, according […]

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12 Sep, 2012

Eleven enduring mysteries of 9/11 — RT

Today, as the world pauses to remember the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States, it is also important to remember the inexplicable things that happened – and didn’t happen – that tragic day. After all, 9/11 is solely responsible for diminishing hard-fought US civil rights, as well as triggering wars […]

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12 Sep, 2012

Food on global casino | The Asian Age

Food is our nourishment. It is the source of life. Growing food, processing, transforming and distributing it involves 70 per cent of humanity. Eating food involves all of us. Yet, it is not the culture or human rights that are shaping today’s dominant food economy. Rather speculation and profits are designing food production and distribution. […]

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12 Sep, 2012

FBI begins installation of $1 billion face recognition system across America — RT

Birthmarks, be damned: the FBI has officially started rolling out a state-of-the-art face recognition project that will assist in their effort to accumulate and archive information about each and every American at a cost of a billion dollars. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached a milestone in the development of their Next Generation Identification […]

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12 Sep, 2012

US pays $104 mln to whistleblower who reported employer — RT

The US government is bribing Americans to spy and report on fellow citizens’ finances. By giving financial rewards to whistleblowers who report on tax misconduct, the IRS hopes to catch those who don’t report all their earnings. Bradley Birkenfeld, a convicted criminal who smuggled and sold diamonds that he carried in a toothpaste tube, was […]

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10 Sep, 2012

The day that didn’t change a thing : Asia Times Online

Seventy-seven Norwegians may sound like chump change compared with the almost 3,000 Americans that died on the day that changed everything forever and ever Amen. But for Norway’s 7 million people, last year’s attacks killed proportionately more of them than the number of Americans killed on September 11, 2001. Norwegian politicians are not climbing over […]

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10 Sep, 2012

Canada appeases Israel on Iran: Asia Times Online

On Friday, the conservative and strongly pro-Israel government in Canada announced that it was cutting off diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran and put the Middle East country on its list of “terror-sponsoring” states, a move that instantly won the praise and admiration of Israeli leaders and condemnation from Tehran, as well as […]

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10 Sep, 2012

PressTV – A world infected with US-Israel psychological operations

Deception is the basis of any military education, the basis of business practices, the basis of diplomacy, the underlying basis of the world’s currencies and economic systems and, more than ever, how civilization with 5000 years of learning and advancement can justify unbridled killing of the innocent or “collateral” as justifiable for a “common good” […]

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9 Sep, 2012

Iraq: Inside the Belly of CIA Beast – Countercurrents

Much to the bitter disappointment of international community, a report recently declassified by CIA reveals that a war that started in the name of democracy in Iraq in 2003 and claimed the lives of more than one million innocent Iraqis and thousands of US-led troops was waged on the basis of an unfortunate series of […]

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9 Sep, 2012

9th World Hindi Conference to be held in Johannesburg

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The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India with the support of Hindi Shiksha Sangh, South Africa and other stakeholders is organizing the Ninth World Hindi Conference [WHC] in Johannesburg, South Africa from 22-24 September, 2012. The Conference will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre. The tradition of the World Hindi Conferences began with […]

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8 Sep, 2012

The Hindu : Call to prevent plundering of education sector

In an open session organised by the SFI at Sellur, N. Ram, former Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, expressed concern that education had become completely commercialised and it had become like a business. “Top corporate houses and industrialists are giving concept papers to Government and they are being implemented. It is all the more worse with medical […]

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7 Sep, 2012

NYPD Opens Up New Bureau–in Israel | Alternet

Looks like the trigger-happy NYPD is jet setting all over the world, exporting its particularly oppressive strategy of law and order. Among other offenses–such as killing unarmed African American children, stopping and frisking 700,000 (mostly black and brown) people a year and illegally surveilling thousands of Muslim Americans–the NYPD has recently come under fire for […]

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7 Sep, 2012

When Did Dissent Become a Crime? America’s Police State on Steroids at the Conventions | Alternet

The biggest impact of militarized policing is not at the conventions themselves, but in the long term. The two political conventions coincide with the Summer Olympics. The international games proved to be a handy way to push out the poor from city centers by constructing stadiums and Olympic villages that are repurposed for tourism, consumption […]

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7 Sep, 2012

PressTV – Obama once again bows down to Israel over Palestine

As a former law professor, President Obama knows something about international law and US constitutional law which he taught at the University of Chicago. But he repudiated both, besmirched his academic bona fides, violated Democratic Party rules and hurt his campaign on 12/5/12 by ordering the Democratic Party to summarily change earlier a twice debated […]

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7 Sep, 2012

Washington Post Breaks Lockstep on Israel and Iran | Focal Points, the Blog of FPIF

Maybe — facetiousness alert! — the United States should call Israel’s bluff: we’ll bomb Iran for you if you make your nuclear-weapons program public, sign the NPT, and open your program to IAEA inspections. via Washington Post Breaks Lockstep on Israel and Iran | Focal Points, the Blog of FPIF.

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7 Sep, 2012

Democratic Leaders Undermine Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Their Own Procedures | FPIF

The craven way in which the Jerusalem amendment was pushed through demonstrates that the Democratic Party is not a democratic party. It has shown to the world an essentially authoritarian mindset, both in terms of its willingness to undermine international law in its support of the expansionist goals of allied right-wing governments as well as […]

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7 Sep, 2012

Patrick Pexton: What about Israel’s nuclear weapons? – The Washington Post

Among the less benign reasons U.S. sources don’t leak is that it can hurt your career. Said Perkovich: “It’s like all things having to do with Israel and the United States. If you want to get ahead, you don’t talk about it; you don’t criticize Israel, you protect Israel. You don’t talk about illegal settlements […]

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6 Sep, 2012

U.S. Shoppers Warned: Buy Foreign Made Products And the Next Job Loss Could be Yours

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Arcanum, OH (PRWEB) September 04, 2012 – The following message has been issued to serve as a reminder to all U.S. shoppers during this Labor Day shopping season: All American Clothing Co. and Josh Miller, producer of the upcoming documentary film ‘Made in the USA: The 30 Day Journey” were both involved in making the […]

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6 Sep, 2012

Central Park Skywriting to Promote Peace Following Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting

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New York, NY (PRWEB) August 31, 2012  – A skywriting message flew over Central Park on Sunday, August 26, 2012 to commemorate victims of the shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek on August 5. The message was organized by Taj Chahal, an entrepreneur who is spreading acceptance for the Sikh community. […]

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4 Sep, 2012

‘Judaization’ of Jerusalem targets Islamic relics – Muslim cleric — RT

The occupation regime treats Palestinians in a way that is far from humane. They are cruel, oppressive, they don’t have mercy. There is one issue that is not reported in the media – I am talking about Palestinian women who don’t always get a chance to give birth at a hospital. The occupiers stop ambulances […]

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2 Sep, 2012

Tony Blair should face trial over Iraq war, says Desmond Tutu: The Observer

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for Tony Blair and George Bush to be hauled before the international criminal court in The Hague and delivered a damning critique of the physical and moral devastation caused by the Iraq war. Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner and hero of the anti-apartheid movement, accuses the former British and […]

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2 Sep, 2012

Glenn Greenwald skewers US injustices in compelling latest book | The Electronic Intifada

Greenwald’s most recent book, With Justice and Liberty for Some, demonstrates structural injustice in the US: “how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful,” as the book’s subtitle spells out. There is a dialectic relationship, Greenwald contends, between the private law enjoyed by the country’s most wealthy and politically powerful, and […]

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31 Aug, 2012

New List Reveals Healthiest Places to Work in America

Pack a healthy lunch, and keep a stash of healthy snacks (granola bars, fruit, etc) in your desk drawer. Get up from your desk, and take regular 5-minute walk breaks. Drink lots of water. Fill a water bottle up at the nearest cooler or water fountain and keep it at your desk. Take the stairs. […]

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31 Aug, 2012

Why Americans Must End America’s Self-Generating Wars « THE INTERNET POST

To define this prevention of war as an achievable goal may sound pretentious. But the necessary steps to be taken are above all achievable here at home in America. And what is needed is not some radical and untested new policy, but a much-needed realistic reassessment and progressive scaling back of two discredited policies that […]

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31 Aug, 2012

U.S. Shares Responsibility for Rachel Corrie’s Death | FPIF

It appears that both Republicans and Democrats believe that the lives of Americans who work for peace and justice in conflict areas are secondary to ensuring the profits of American arms merchants and the pursuit of narrowly defined strategic objectives. Perhaps the best thing we can do in memory of Rachel Corrie, Furkan Dogan, and […]

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31 Aug, 2012

California State Assembly Seeks to Stifle Debate on Israel

The California State Assembly has just passed a bipartisan resolution (HR 35) by voice vote which constitutes a serious attack on academic freedom and the rights of students and faculty to raise awareness about human rights abuses by U.S.-backed governments. While purporting to put the legislature on record in opposition of anti-Semitism on state university […]

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31 Aug, 2012

U.S. Imprisons More People Than Any Other Country in the World | Alternet

A new video created by the Brave New Foundation and endorsed by a wide range of groups, from the ACLU and the NAACP to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the United Methodist Church, examines the ways in which prison is like a beast. “The U.S. is paying to have more than 2.3 […]

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30 Aug, 2012

Sikh-led prayer and GOP convictions – CNN.com

If Mitt Romney and Republican leaders want the historic Sikh invocation to be more than tokenism — and are serious about preventing another Oak Creek — they cannot continue to let hateful speech within their own party go unchecked. In a time when hate groups are on the rise, the Republican Party must accept responsibility […]

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30 Aug, 2012

The GOP has a Muslim problem – CNN.com

A Catholic priest, a rabbi, an evangelical minister, a Sikh, a Greek Orthodox archbishop and two Mormon leaders walk into the Republican National Convention. It sounds like the beginning of a joke. But the Republican Party’s decision to invite representatives from all of these faiths to speak at this week’s convention, but to exclude a […]

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30 Aug, 2012

Russian central banker outperformed US Fed’s Bernanke – rating — RT

The Chairman of Russia’s Central bank Sergey Igantiev beats US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and the ECB head Mario Draghi in the World’s Top Central Bankers 2012 rating, organised by Global Finance magazine. Russia’s Ignatiev was rated B+, improving his result from last year’s B rating. Meanwhile America’s Bernanke was rated B by Global […]

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