Saturday, October 27, 2012

OpEdNews – Iceland Says Yes To New Constitution


With all votes now counted from last Saturday’s referendum, the majority of Icelanders have voted in favour of having a new constitution, including a number of significant changes.
Iceland’s original constitution is more or less borrowed from the Danes. In the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, a public outcry to change the very structure of Iceland’s socio-political system led to an initiative to write a new constitution. This led to the formation of a Constitutional Council. The council – comprised of 25 men and women from around Iceland, and appointed by the Prime Minister for the task – have been working on writing a new constitution for Iceland.
The council has been posting their progress on a website, inviting comments from the general public on what changes they would like to see, or what changes the public would like made to new constitutional articles that the committee has drafted.
Last Saturday, a referendum was held on six important questions related to a new constitution – including whether or not the constitution should be changed in the first place. The results are now in, RÚV reports, with the majority of Icelanders approving not only a new constitution, but also some changes to their society.
The results are as follows:
1. Do you wish the Constitution Council’s proposals to form the basis of a new draft Constitution? Yes: 66.3% No: 33.7%
2. In the new Constitution, do you want natural resources that are not privately owned to be declared national property? Yes: 82.5% No: 17.5%
3. Would you like to see provisions in the new Constitution on an established (national) church in Iceland? Yes: 57.5% No: 42.5%
4. Would you like to see a provision in the new Constitution authorising the election of particular individuals to the Althingi more than is the case at present? Yes: 77.9% No: 22.1% (This question pertains to the ability of unaffiliated politicians, or those from smaller parties, to run for parliament.)
5. Would you like to see a provision in the new Constitution giving equal weight to votes cast in all parts of the country? Yes: 65.5% No: 34.5%
6. Would you like to see a provision in the new Constitution stating that a certain proportion of the electorate is able to demand that issues are put to a referendum? Yes: 72.8% No: 27.2%
Of the 236,941 in Iceland with the right to vote in this election, 115,814 took part, giving a turnout of 48.9%
Not everyone has been excited about the idea of a new constitution, though – the Independence Party has been decidedly against the idea. Birgir Ármannsson, an MP for the Independence Party, told Vísir that the results show the turn-out was small, which he believes casts doubts on whether or not the people actually want a new constitution.
Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir said that she believes the election results send a “clear message” for a new constitution.
“I am very proud that the people should send parliament such an unreserved message,” she said. “Here, important issues that have long been in the public discussion were put to a vote.”
Indeed, the separation of church and state, as well as the ownership of natural resources, have been contentious issues in Iceland for a long time now. The “equal weight” question has also been much debated – as it is, votes cast in the countryside are counted as slightly more than one vote. Unsurprisingly, many living in the countryside voted against this question.
As a result of this referendum, the Constitution Council’s draft of a new constitution will soon be submitted to parliament.
www.opednews.com link to original article

WallStreetJournal – 9 More Banks Subpoenaed Over Libor


By Reed Albergotti aand Jean Eaglesham
Nine more banks have received subpoenas in connection with a probe into alleged widespread interest-rate manipulation by banks, a person familiar with the investigation said.
The probe, a joint effort by the offices of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, could lead to civil enforcement action related to breaches of antitrust and fraud laws.
The subpoenas, which were issued in August and September but haven’t been previously reported, bring the total number of subpoenas in the case to 16. The banks involved in the probe include most members of the panel that helps set the dollar London interbank offered rate.
The investigation by the state prosecutors is part of a global probe, in which more than a dozen federal and other regulators across three continents are looking into allegations that several banks rigged Libor.
Read the whole story at: online.wsj.com link to original article

TheGuardian – Giles Tremlett – Bankia Executives Ordered To Pay Back Bonuses


Bankia did not say how much the executives had received as bonuses last year. Photograph: Kiko Huesca/EPA
Top executives at Spain‘s giant nationalised Bankia are to be ordered to pay back last year’s annual bonuses as the bank admits to having run up record-breaking losses of €7bn (£5.6bn) in the first three quarters of this year.
The size of the losses, the biggest ever reported by a Spanish bank, was revealed on the same day that recession-hit Spain also saw unemployment rise to above 25%. Some southern Spanish provinces are now reporting unemployment at almost 40%.
Bankia will tell its executives to return the money in response to a petition from the European commission, which says they should not have been paid bonuses just months before the bank admitted it needed €23bn in bailout money.
“We have received the instruction via the Bank of Spain and, effectively, those people will have to return their bonuses,” a spokeswoman said.
Bankia did not say exactly how much former Bankia chairman Rodrigo Rato, who is also a former president of the International Monetary Fund, and the other 71 executives, received.
“Some had been paid the money already, but others had not,” the spokeswoman said. “The vast majority are still working here, so their cases can be dealt with internally.”
The bonuses were agreed in April when the bank claimed 2011 profits of some €300m. But auditors refused to sign the accounts and the bank eventually recognised a €3bn loss.
That helped tip Spain’s banking sector over the edge and saw the government ask for a eurozone bank bailout. Banks are now expected to take some €40bn of the €100bn on offer, with Bankia accounting for more than half.
The losses reported on Friday came after Bankia set aside €11.5bn to cover losses on toxic real estate that will soon have to be transferred to a Spanish “bad bank” as part of the bailout.
Net profit at Spain’s third-biggest lender, Caixabank, fell 80% to €173m as it, too, recognised real estate losses. The Santander, Popular and Sabadell banks have also this week reported falling profits from balance-sheet clean-ups.
It was not clear whether any of the Bankia executives would refuse to pay back their bonus. Rato resigned soon after the 2011 losses were first made public and waived his right to a golden handshake.
Spain’s government has since capped salary payments to executives at state-rescued banks.
Bankia is at the centre of the storm that has swept through the sector as it struggles to cope with billions of euros of bad loans given to real estate developers and land speculators.
Created by the merger of seven savings banks, or cajas, Bankia is evidence of considerable consolidation in the sector that analysts say is set to continue.
The 45 savings banks that existed five years ago have now been merged into just fourteen, and analysts predict a new round of mergers could see that reduced to 10.
The unemployment figures showed that Three of the country’s seventeen regions now have more than one in three workers out of a job. They include southern Andalucía, Spain’s most populous region with more than 8 million inhabitants, together with the Canary Islands and south-western Extremadura.
www.guardian.co.uk link to original article

Der Spiegel – Ex-Italian Prime Minister Convicted – Silvio Berlusconi Sentenced To Four Years In Jail


A court in Milan found former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi guilty of tax fraud on Friday and sentenced him to four years behind bars. The conviction stems from the sale of broadcasting rights connected to his company Mediaset. But it is doubtful that the ex-premier will serve any jail time soon.
Ever since former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi left office in 2011, there has been speculation that his myriad legal troubles would eventually catch up with him. On Friday, they did. A court in Milan sentenced the 76-year-old to four years in jail for tax fraud relating to his broadcasting company Mediaset. In addition, according to the website of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Berlusconi has been prohibited from occupying all public offices.
Despite the sentence, it remains unclear whether the former premier will ever spend any time behind bars. His lawyers immediately announced that he would appeal the sentence, saying in a statement that the verdict was “absolutely incredible” and “totally divorced from all judicial logic.” Berlusoni would not be jailed unless the verdict is upheld by the ensuing appeals process, which promises to be a lengthy one.
The court on Friday also mandated that Berlusconi and his business associates pay some €10 million to Italian tax authorities.
Italian prosecutors had asked for a sentence of three years and eight months. Berlusconi was one of a total of 11 defendants in the Mediaset trial, which began fully six years ago. He was found guilty of being personally involved in a scheme to artificially inflate the cost of television rights using offshore companies under his control. The money thus generated was used to establish illegal slush funds, the court ruled. Berlusconi, Milan public prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale found, led the “chain of command.”
‘Out of Love for Italy’
De Pasqale argued that Mediaset was able to boost television rights it was selling by hundreds of millions of euros. He asked that all 11 defendants be sent to jail.Berlusconi insisted on his innocence throughout the trial. As head of government, he pushed through several laws aimed at shielding himself from potential punishment in connection with the Mediaset trial as well as several other cases still pending. The laws also meant that the proceedings were interrupted for years at a time, a strategy seemingly aimed at voiding the charges by way of the statute of limitations.
The verdict comes just days after Berlusconi announced that he would not seek a fourth term in general elections scheduled for next June. “I will not run for the office of prime minister,” he announced on Wednesday, a decision taken “out of love for Italy.” While he said that he still “had enough strength and a head on my shoulders,” his role from now on would be that of a consultant for his party.
cgh — with wire reports

Thursday, October 25, 2012

NaturalNews – Jonathan Benson – Scientist That Discovered GMO Health Hazards Immediately Fired, Team Dismantled


(NaturalNews) Though it barely received any media attention at the time, a renowned British biochemist who back in 1998 exposed the shocking truth about how genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) cause organ damage, reproductive failure, digestive dysfunction, impaired immunity, and cancer, among many other conditions, was immediately fired from his job, and the team of researchers who assisted him dismissed from their post within 24 hours from the time when the findings went public.

Arpad Pusztai, who is considered to be one of the world’s most respected and well-learned biochemists, had for three years led a team of researchers from Scotland’s prestigious Rowett Research Institute (RRI) in studying the health effects of a novel GM potato with built-in Bt toxin. Much to the surprise of many, the team discovered that, contrary to industry rhetoric, Bt potato was responsible for causing severe health damage in test rats, a fact that was quickly relayed to the media out of concern for public health.

But rather than be praised for their honest assessment into this genetically-tampered potato, Pusztai and his colleagues were chastised by industry-backed government authorities, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose office was discovered to have secretly contacted RRI just hours after Pusztai and his team announced the results of their study on television. For speaking the truth, Pusztai was immediately fired from his position, and his team dismissed from their positions at the school.

Research out of Egypt finds similar results – GMOs cause severe, long-term health damage

As reported recently in Egypt Independent, similar research by Hussein Kaoud from Cairo University‘s Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene also made some fascinating, though politically incorrect, discoveries about the effects of GMOs on the body. After feeding nine groups of rats varying combinations of GM soy, corn, wheat, and canola, Kaoud and his team observed that these genetic poisons clearly obstructed the normal function of the animals, affirming Pusztai’s research.

“I recorded the alteration of different organs, shrinkage of kidneys, change in the liver and spleen, appearance of malignant parts in the tissues, (and) kidney failure and hemorrhages in the intestine,” said Kaoud about the effects of GMOs as observed in the test rats. “The brain functions were touched as well, and the rats’ learning and memory abilities were seriously altered.”

In Kaoud’s case, his groundbreaking findings will soon be published in the respected journals Neurotoxicology and Ecotoxicology. But it remains to be seen whether or not the scientific community at large, which is heavily influenced by biotechnology interests, and the political structures that control it will accept the results as valid, or pull a similar character assassination on Kaoud and his team as punishment for defying the status quo.

What all this clearly illustrates, of course, is that modern science can hardly be considered the independent, truth-seeking, “gold standard” of interpreting and understanding reality that many people mistakenly think it is. The truth about GMOs, as uncovered by mounds of independent research, is that they are inadequately safety tested, at best, and deadly at worst. But this fact remains shrouded in deception, thanks to the corporatized, pro-GMO culture of mainstream science.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.egyptindependent.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers

Planned war on Iran and the General who said No!


US General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Today, General Dempsey, Chairman of America’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the man who flew to Tel Aviv and informed Netanyahu that America wanted no part of his scheming against Iran was the subject of an assassination attempt in Afghanistan.


This wasn’t an act of terrorism or Taliban militants. It was a “mob hit” against someone who failed to kiss the feet of Netanyahu. His response was to unleash killers, not a fact for the public but a fact just the same, one the American military knows very well. Netanyahu has a problem with “hubris.”

The culprits, “militants,” managed to escape undetected from the most sophisticatedly defended real estate on earth, the perimeter of Bagam Air Force Base. Lucky for them they attacked at night, a time when America’s 5th generation night vision, ground radar and other detection systems were mysteriously disabled.

The rocket detection systems, early warning blimps with ground penetrating synthetic aperture radar and the continual coverage by UAV drones using infrared detection, $2 billion in technology on this one perimeter alone, cost the plane of America’s top military commander and wounds were sustained by two crew members.

Dempsey had just left Tel Aviv where he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following:

“I may not know about all of [Israel's] capabilities, but I think that it’s a fair characterization to say that they could delay but not destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

Dempsey then told waiting reporters:

“We compare intelligence, we discuss regional implications, and we’ve admitted to each other that our clocks are turning at different rates, we have to understand the Israelis; they live with a constant suspicion with which we do not have to deal.”

There are those close to President Obama who don’t accept the attack on Dempsey at face value, with a public admission by the Taliban of complicity. Such statements, which would certainly cost dearly in reprisals by the US, are most often found on Internet sites lacking a credible connection to any Islamic source.

To some Americans, the attack appears to be a reprisal against Dempsey who, out of coincidence, cited the motive in his own appraisal of Israel’s judgment, their “constant suspicion.”

News agencies buried the failed attack, knowing Dempsey is hated by Netanyahu and respected by the Taliban as both “truthful and fair.”

Netanyahu longs for the days when General Myers held Dempsey’s job, under Bush (43), both flawed and narcissistic, predictable puppets, the perfect fodder for Netanyahu’s machinations.

Only two weeks ago, Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, returned from a trip overseas, coming back to America with $60 million dollars collected in Israel and Britain while accompanied by Casino boss Sheldon Adelson who’s Las Vegas and China organizations have long been reputed to be the center of worldwide organized crime.

The business, gambling, drugs, prostitution, money laundering and now war, is seeking its own president and war on Iran is the only issue driving the American campaign.

Romney, as a state governor, was, if anything, to the “left” of President Obama. Romney’s support of government health care and widespread gun controls run totally opposite to the core constituency of the Republican Party, the weapons lobby and the medical racketeers.

Romney has found, however, that, though it is illegal for any American candidate to accept money overseas, while overseas, from overseas, at home from those who are citizens of other countries, he feels himself above the law, in the sweet and motherly arms of the Israeli controlled American media.

Now drowning in illegal cash, much from London bankers, his most interesting catch was the private dinner he shared with the Tel Aviv “blood diamond” smugglers who donated up to $25 million dollars in one night.

Key to his financial successes is his lifelong history of working closely with organized crime. His investment company, Bain, was funded initially by cash infusion from El Salvador death squads many years ago. These investors are still at his side despite charges of mass murder and corruption.

Bain Capital is Romney’s money laundering and tax avoidance company with thousands of secret bank accounts in “safe havens” around the world, invisible billions, hidden transactions, unseen profits and unseen “clients.”

Now Romney has found the “mother of all causes,” selling the promise of an American war, fought by Americans, financed by Americans, American dead, American blood, American collapse, a war demanded by, not Jews of the world but by organized crime groups operating through Israel’s Likudist party, dominated by the Koch Brothers, American gasoline speculators, Sheldon Adelson, whose reputation would fill volumes and Rupert Murdoch, whose spy organization is now proven to have blackmailed three consecutive British government, well proven, and likely to have been even more successful in the United States, Germany, Canada, Australia and a dozen other nations.

Most embarrassing to both Russia and the United States has been the ability of criminal organizations to secure sanctions against Iran when both nations are burdened by official reports stating with comprehensive clarity that Iran has no nuclear program.

Even more embarrassing for Russia, who refused to veto sanctions as they did with Iran’s ally Syria, is the fact that Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is built, in near entirety on Russian technology, a Russian nuclear reactor and 3000 Russian technicians.

Statements by Obama directly contradict America’s National Intelligence Estimate. The estimate stated that Iran has no nuclear program. Russia’s Putin has similarly ignored, not just his own intelligence agencies but the fact that Russia is actually building Iran’s reactor and has 3000 technicians in Iran, all of whom probably are not entirely deaf and blind.

Obama has no rational claim to ignorance. His behavior is like that of the playground, all the other children are eating dirt, he feels he has to do the same. In this case, however, when known falsehoods likely to end in a destructive war are agreed to out of fear of retaliation by a former furniture salesman (Netanyahu) or gambling boss, the real importance of the presidency comes into doubt.

A problem no one will mention, is the behavior of Putin in Tel Aviv, backing Netanyahu’s claims of Iran’s violation of voluntary agreements based on no facts other than the statements of one of the world best known pathological liars. What does the failed furniture salesman from Philadelphia have on Uncle Vladimir?

Neither leader has dealt with the simple fact, Iran has the right to build anything it wants for any reason it wishes.

Similarly, the United States, under Bush, both withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 and withdrew from participation in the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The latter, the withdrawal from the court, is a veritable admission of complicity in war crimes with key U.S. officials facing indictment and arrest across the globe.

Were one to be honest, the entire Bush administration is under a privileged form of “house arrest” as is Britain’s Tony Blair. All face criminal proceedings and continually make plans to travel but end up cancelling, sometimes out of public outcry for justice or to actually avoid arrest.

Despite his pronouncements, even with an election upcoming and the need to parrot childish threats in order to please the Israeli press a prerequisite, Obama has made it clear he will not attack Iran. It is time the public realizes that by opposing war and running against Romney, an agent of a hostile foreign power and longtime organized crime affiliate, the president and those around him are at great risk.

The carefully choreographed and very public attempt on the life of General Dempsey is a greeting card from the Adelson/Romney/Netanyahu camp.

Several appropriate responses, RSVPs as it were, come to mind, some partially fatal. Is an American president really the leader of the free world, as we so often say, if any “two bit thug” can dictate policy?

Despite that position, Obama controls well over 80% of the Jewish vote in the United States where, as pointed out in an earlier article, studies have shown only 4% of Jewish voters in America feel Iran is any threat to Israel.

A critical part of understanding organized crime requires the study of its origins, particularly in America, during the 19th century.

While London, from the earliest days of what America had believed to be freedom from British rule, in actuality ran America’s economy, and was, itself, subjected to rule by continental bankers.

Britain, the colonizer of the world was, itself, no more than a client of the Bauer/Rothschild group who underwrote the British pound.

The real criminal groups running American politics developed from among the immigrant gangs that settled America’s cities. There were German, Irish, Italian and Jewish gangs. All that survive now are the remnants of the Mafia, the Jewish gangs who now run Washington and Wall Street and the new threats from Kosovo and Albania, the latest round of criminal immigration into America.

With the full cooperation of FBI Director Hoover, tasked with protecting America from criminal organizations, the government stood aside while every aspect of American life, every necessity from water to electricity to medicine, leaving nothing out, came under assault by criminal groups grown fat on profiteering from war, narcotics and, during the Prohibition years, the sale of illegal alcohol.

For decades, America’s media has been tasked with blaming all ills on Italian Americans and corrupt trade unions while America has been little but a colony of key European banking families who created wars, suppressed technologies, manipulated currencies, raised and crushed stock markets and national economies and, in the end, became as a hydra, the multi-headed beast of Greek mythology, ruling all.

What drew Adelson, Romney and even Putin to Israel at this critical time as the world sits on the brink of nuclear war over Syria is simple. We are again reminded of Putin’s visit to Israel.

No Israeli citizen was spoken to, no public concerns were addressed, no, a visit to Israel is a visit to the “safe haven” for worldwide organized crime that controls and manages the vast and endless wealth of the Russian continent as easily as it runs Britain or dances its Washingtonian puppets into discarding laws and traditions and becoming a surrogate bully, not for a nation but for an international criminal conspiracy.

The language of politics must be replaced with the language of crime as the solutions to what are misconstrued as political problems are and have long been responses to the depredations of criminal organizations.

It isn’t as though Iran were the only target, simply the public target where control of the United Nations Security Council can be exercised, a demonstration of the raw power of evil.

The mistake made by so many is to use principles of geopolitics to describe the world condition, the continual entropy, the centralization of wealth and the rapid deterioration of human rights as wars rage without end.

Even the educated classes, searching for patterns and rationales to explain how 2000 trillion dollars represented by “derivative debt” could encumber all the world’s currencies, a staggering amount created by an unseen hand through a process none have yet been able to describe.

Debt, or as it is known in criminal circles as “loan sharking,” is the business of the world. Controlling currencies was not enough, thus controlled governments, bribed, threatened, blackmailed and bought looked away while the wealth and hope of a hundred generations was stolen overnight, a few lines of text, a few entries on computers and generations of our progeny are changed, in that moment, from citizens of the world to “useless eaters,” as Henry Kissinger would describe them.

Armies may march, air forces may bomb, drones may attack but none of this is war or politics, nor has it been for centuries. This is where we went awry. We chose to play chess while our opponents simply put a pistol on the table and emptied our pockets.

America is living this today, as it looks on an upcoming election. The very few can escape the packaged news, scripted in Hollywood or Washington or Tel Aviv, our political life is a theatrical production, a comic tragedy without the Shakespearean irony.

This is a government that Sheldon Adelson, the man who believes he will be America’s real next president, believes he can take to war, a systematic conquest of the Middle East and Central Asia, done for the criminal elements some call Israel, done, quite simply, to prove the power of evil over good.
 

NaturalNews – Ethan A. Huff – Greece Turning To Desperate Measures As Citizins Face Starvation Due To Economic Collapse


(NaturalNews) The European nation of Greece appears to be sliding ever so progressively into the abyss of total collapse, as illustrated by a recent government measure aimed at feeding the growing hordes of hungry, unemployed Greeks across the nation. A report translated into English from Voz Populi explains that, under the new law, Greek merchants will now be permitted to sell expired foods at a reduced rate to the nation’s poorest citizens, who are becoming increasingly unable to afford basic necessities.
Since price control efforts have largely failed thus far, as have austerity measures aimed at reviving the nation’s economy, the Greek government is grasping at straws to maintain some illusion of normalcy in a country where the unemployment rate has now breached 25 percent overall, and more than 54 percent among the youth population aged 15 to 24.
“We are sinking in a swamp of recession and it’s getting worse,” Dimitris Asimakopoulos, Head of the Greek small business and industry association GSEVEE, is quoted as saying by phillyBurbs.com. “180,000 businesses are on the brink and 70,000 of them are expected to close in the next few months.”
As far as the expired food situation is concerned, products with both a month and day expiration date will be permitted to sell for an additional week, while products with a “best before” date that contains only a month and year marker will be permitted to sell for an additional month. Food products with only a year indicator will be allowed to sell for an additional quarter year, under the new law.
Because virtually all aspects of the Greek economy are unraveling, though, the measure is unlikely to make much of a difference in reducing overall food costs, as demand will still likely outpace supply. And repeated efforts to bail out the nation at the EU level continue to spark massive protests and labor strikes, which is only exacerbating the problem even further.
In defiance of proposed austerity measures that would further increase taxes on Greece’s already-struggling private business sector, 70,000 protesters in Athens and at least 17,000 protesters in the town of Thessalonika recently took to the streets. The protests resulted in massive public service shutdowns, grounded flights, hospital and business closures, and public transport failures.
Sources for this article include:
www.naturalnews.com link to original article