Category: #Geopolitiks
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US Said to Curtail Drone Strikes in Pakistan
from washingtonpost.com: The Obama administration has sharply curtailed drone strikes in Pakistan after a request from the government there for restraint as it pursues peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, according to U.S. officials. “That’s what they asked for, and we didn’t tell them no,” one U.S. official said. The administration indicated that it will…
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EU Commission Report: Corruption Across EU ‘Breathtaking’
from bbc.co.uk: The extent of corruption in Europe is “breathtaking” and it costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has presented a full report on the problem. She said the true cost of corruption was “probably much higher” than 120bn. Three-quarters of…
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Libya’s Cache of Toxic Arms All Destroyed
from nytimes.com: Even as the international effort to destroy Syria’s vast chemical weapons stockpile lags behind schedule, a similar American-backed campaign carried out under a cloak of secrecy ended successfully last week in another strife-torn country, Libya. The United States and Libya in the past three months have discreetly destroyed what both sides say were…
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Sochi Security Force to Be 40,000 Strong
from cbsnews.com: Officials in Russia are dealing with perhaps the only sporting event with even bigger security concerns than the Super Bowl – the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Security has tightened with the start of the games days away.
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Asia Rings In Year Of The Horse With Fireworks, Festivities
from timesofindia.indiatimes.com: Fireworks illuminated the skies across Asia and millions of families gathered together on Friday to usher in the Year of the Horse, kicking off a week of celebrations that included a performance by Braveheart actress Sophie Marceau on China’s annual televised gala. Residents from China’s small towns and villages to its sprawling megacities…
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Ukraine President Approves Amnesty, Repeals Anti-Protest Laws
from nation.com.pk: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday signed a law offering an amnesty to jailed opposition activists and repealed controversial laws cracking down on protests, his office said. The amnesty bill passed by parliament on Wednesday gives protesters a 15-day deadline to vacate the public buildings they have occupied in order for it to…
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TPP Protests Across North America Aim to Block ‘NAFTA on Steroids’
from beyondchron.org: Workers across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will unite in an Inter-Continental Day of Action Friday to stop a massive new trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership—commonly referred to as “NAFTA on steroids.” In the U.S., the immediate fight is to block a bill that would grant the president “fast track” authority to sign…
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As China’s Economy Slows, the Pain Hits Home
from nytimes.com: Piles of unsold coal line rural roads in north-central China. Some iron ore mines near Beijing are operating at a fraction of capacity. Chinese farm products are even increasingly scorned by the Chinese consumer. While China remains nearly self-sufficient in all these categories, it is importing more from other emerging markets. Economists and…
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North American Integration Continues After Robert Pastor’s Death
from thenewamerican.com: The plans of the last decade for a North American Union (NAU) led by Robert Pastor, director of the Center for North American Studies at American University (AU) in Washington D.C. have accelerated in recent months under different cover. Pastor died on January 8, but not without having done serious damage to American…
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Scarlett Johansson Stands By Israel’s SodaStream Ad Campaign
from eonline.com: A few weeks after being announced as the face of Sodastream International’s new ad campaign, which includes a Super Bowl commercial, the Her star has issued a statement in response to criticism from Oxfam that Johansson was implicitly supporting Israel’s politics because the Israeli manufacturer of the do-it-yourself soda maker operates in the…
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Strategy, Military Tactics and Weapons: Asymmetric War and the New Geopolitics
from globalresearch.ca: Political and military planners spend a great deal of time and effort ‘war-gaming’ various scenarios, hoping to predict outcomes, and prepare accordingly. This is no trivial task in the 21st century, but as history teaches, and despite the proclamations of so-called war ‘experts’ – it has never been an exact science. The threat…
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Amid Scandal, François Hollande Meets Pope Francis
from telegraph.co.uk: The timing could not be more exquisite – a president from a (mostly) Catholic country embroiled in a sexual intrigue holds his first audience with the pontiff. Luckily for the French president, Francis is something of a reformist, and once questioned his right to judge homosexuals. He was probably more interested in asking…
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South Sudan Cease-Fire Signed After More Than a Month of Fighting
from nytimes.com: The government of South Sudan and rebels loyal to the country’s ousted former vice president signed a cease-fire agreement on Thursday, holding out the prospect of peace after more than a month of fighting that has torn the new nation apart. Under the agreement, signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, both sides…
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Ukraine Opposition Sets 24-hour Deadline As Protests Rage
from washingtonpost.com: Ukrainian opposition leaders issued a stark ultimatum to President Viktor Yanukovych on Wednesday to call early elections within 24 hours or face more popular rage, after at least two protesters were killed in confrontations with police in a grim escalation of a two-monthlong political crisis. The protesters’ deaths, the first since the largely…