Monday, May 21, 2012

black listed news




AMC Entertainment, a Kansas City fixture since 1920, has been purchased by a Chinese firm for $2.6 billion to create the world’s biggest movie theater operator.





Britain's banks are strong enough to withstand any Greek exit from the eurozone but need to keep bolstering their financial strength in the face of the escalating crisis, according to a member of a Bank of England regulatory body.


Protesters at the NATO summit meeting clashed with the Chicago police late Sunday as officers tried to disperse thousands of people who had gathered several blocks from the site of the meeting and refused demands to leave. 

A standoff between police and anti-war demonstrators near the NATO summit at McCormick Place left several protesters bloodied and led to dozens of arrests, as delegates gathered for the first of two days of meetings.


Good thing he is usually wrong

Iraq already said it is buying more than $15 billion worth of U.S. military hardware, including 36 F-16 fighter planes, M-1 tanks and armored personnel carriers, insisting the weapons are for defensive purposes.

Some 12,500 officers will be deployed daily during the Olympic Games in the country’s largest ever pre-planned policing operation, according to the Metropolitan force.


Israel wants its energy projects in Greek Cyprus to be run by Israelis and is seeking to deploy as many as 20,000 commandos for their protection, Anatolia news agency reported today.

Egypt's military rulers are expected to decree a temporary constitution restricting the country's new president, as the nation is to vote this week in its first presidential election since Hosni Mubarak was removed from power.


For several years now there has been a dramatic loss of bees in Europe and North America. As many as 50% to 90% of the bee populations have simply vanished. This is a big deal.



Close relationship with Putin creates dispute in Russia.

Propaganda that was supposed to target foreigners could now be aimed at Americans, reversing a longstanding policy. “Disconcerting and dangerous,” says Shank.


Annusek was released Friday morning along with four others reportedly suspected of preparing molotov cocktails. At least one other detainee was released several hours later Friday.



Military defectors in northern Syria have denounced claims that al-Qaidawas behind a series of deadly bombings in Damascus, contradicting the UN secretary general’s assessment that the terror group is taking a lead in the insurgency.







One of the biggest risks to the world's financial health is the $1.2 quadrillion derivatives market. It's complex, it's unregulated, and it ought to be of concern to world leaders that its notional value is 20 times the size of the world economy

According to an interview with National Lawyers Guild (NLG) spokesman Kris Hermes, Chicago police officers raided a Bridgeport apartment complex on Wednesday evening without a valid warrant and detained up to nine people without cause.


The system crash of Thailand’s Department of Provincial Administration central database in Bangkok, affecting Phuket and the rest of the country yesterday and this morning, has been attributed to a “server problem”.

A year ago this month, Bolivian President Evo Morales inaugurated the College for Defense of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) with a speech in which he called for the expulsion of U.S. intelligence agencies, a new military doctrine based on “asymmetrical war” against “imperialism” and the “abolition” of the U.N. Security Council. He also attacked the press, calling CNN a “tool of capitalism”,


Go to Google and type in “H.R. 4133.” You will discover that, apart from a handful of blogs and alternative news sites, not a single mainstream medium has reported the story of a congressional bill that might well have major impact on the conduct of United States foreign policy. H.R. 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012



TED Talks, a group that promotes some of the world’s greatest thinkers in a traveling presentation series, recently refused to publish a “controversial” examination of income inequality in societies



Liberal economists and financial wonks say that we need to stimulate more to avoid falling back into an economic abyss.



FAA investigating “extremely dangerous” incident

Military intervention in the sovereign affairs of other states may lead to outright war, including nuclear war, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.


The credit rating on Greece's government debt was downgraded deeper into junk bond territory on Thursday.

The British government is making urgent preparations to cope with the fallout of a possible Greek exit from the single currency, after the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, warned that Europe was “tearing itself apart”.

Italy increased security Thursday at 14,000 sites, and assigned bodyguards to protect 550 individuals after a nuclear energy company official was shot and letter bombs directed to the tax collection agency.


Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has a status update for Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin: Stop attempting to dodge your taxes by renouncing your U.S. citizenship or never come to back to the U.S. again.

Everyone driving on Interstate 15 in southwest Utah may soon have their license plate scanned by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.



Reports suggest local law enforcement agencies are considering shutting down cell phone services in the city over the weekend and while it will most likely be very effective, many are questioning if the move is legitimate.


An American tax exile living in the Cayman Islands has emerged as a winner from the chaos engulfing Greece, even as the political and economic turmoil in the beleaguered nation deepened yesterday, with Athens putting a senior judge in charge of an emergency government to lead it to fresh elections.

"The Metropolitan Police has rolled out a mobile device data extraction system to allow officers to extract data 'within minutes' from suspects' phones while they are in custody. 'Ostensibly, the system has been deployed to target phones that are suspected of having actually been used in criminal activity, although data privacy campaigners may focus on potentially wider use.'"



Infographic

Opponents of a U.S. law they claim may subject them to indefinite military detention for activities including news reporting and political activism persuaded a federal judge to temporarily block the measure.




An 844-foot-long U.S. Navy assaultship collided with a refueling tanker Wednesday in the Pacific Ocean, causing damage to both ships, but there were no injuries or fuel spills, military officials said.






Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.

Money is being pulled out of Greek banks at an alarming rate, and if something dramatic is not done quickly Greek banks are going to start dropping like flies.


The United States has completed its planning for a military strike on Iran, the US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said in remarks at a closed conference in Tel Aviv that were broadcast on Israel TV on Wednesday night.


Denied no longer, US officials admit US-Saudi cash & logistical support arming terrorists in Syria.

The bank runs that we are watching right now in Greece are shocking, but they are only just the beginning.

Europe’s financial crisis lurched into a perilous new phase as dire predictions emerged of a collapse in Greece’s economy, with a run on its banks bringing an inevitable end to its membership of the euro.




Norman and Oriane Rousseau were one more couple pushed by a huge, greedy bank to the brink of homelessness. On Sunday, desperate and with nowhere to go, Norman Rousseau shot himself.

Oops! Another couple billion dollars lost. Oh well, no biggie; nothing to get too concerned about. That, in essence, was the reaction of Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, America’s biggest bank, to the news that Morgan had lost $2 billion in derivatives trading.



Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Merrill Lynch & Co. employees discussed helping naked short-sales by market-maker clients in e-mails the banks sought to keep secret, including one in which a Merrill official told another to ignore compliance rules, Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK) said in a court filing.


If you needed one more example of how DNA will soon cease to exist as a private piece of information, you need look no further than the latest product launch by Applied DNA Sciences.

The world's prison capital is not the United States, per capita, although it leads the world for its overall prison population. One state far outdoes America itself and incarcerates nearly double the national average.



Balancing power with an informed, active, pragmatic citizenry is key to thwarting neo-imperialism in all its forms.

Stocks faded in the final hour of trading Tuesday to finish lower after a transcript from the Greek meeting showed deposits leaving the nation's banking system and after the Greece's leaders failed to agree on a coalition government.