Economy and Society

Strategy to contain both China and Russia in South East Asia – Published on Global Research.ca, by Kazi Mahmood, August 15, 2010. ( /13 )

Washington is using the Asean region for a bigger military purpose and this strategy is becoming clear to observers due to the U.S. push for greater influence in Asia. The show of force of the American navy in the recent ‘military games’ bordering the Chinese seas and the American tough policies towards North Korea coupled with its diplomatic penetration in Myanmar and Vietnam.

The show of force of the American navy in the recent ‘military games’ bordering the Chinese seas and the American tough policies towards North Korea coupled with its diplomatic penetration in Myanmar and Vietnam gave the Asean group an idea of the ‘global’ powers that Washington is capable of wielding.  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Resear.ca, by Jacques R. Pauwels, August 6, 2010.

In the European Theatre, World War II ended in early May 1945 with the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The “Big Three” on the side of the victors – Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union – now faced the complex problem of the postwar reorganization of Europe. The United States had entered the war rather late, in December 1941, and had only started to make a truly significant military contribution to the Allied victory over Germany with the landings in Normandy in June 1944, less than one year before the end of the hostilities. When the war against Germany ended, however, Washington sat firmly and confidently at the table of the victors, determined to achieve what might be called its “war aims” … //  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Researach.ca, by Michel Chossudovsky, August 1, 2010.

Humanity is at a dangerous crossroads. War preparations to attack Iran are in “an advanced state of readiness”. Hi tech weapons systems including nuclear warheads are fully deployed.

This military adventure has been on the Pentagon’s drawing board since the mid-1990s. First Iraq, then Iran according to a declassified 1995 US Central Command document.  Continue Reading…

Published on Online Journal, by Larry Chin, July 30, 2010.

Since the release of classified US military papers by WikiLeaks, the material has been aggressively spun by various political factions. Meanwhile, virtually no attention has been devoted to investigating the source of this “leak,” or questioning the agenda behind it … //

… Leak as imperial war propaganda:  Continue Reading…

The US is Insolvent and Faces Bankruptcy as a Pure Debtor Nation – Published on Global Research.ca, by Washington’s Blog, July 25, 2010.

As the Financial Times notes, the head of China’s biggest credit rating agency has said America is insolvent and that U.S. credit ratings are a joke: … //

… The Scary Part:

I chatted with the head of a small investment brokerage about the China credit rating story. Because he gives his clients very bullish, status quo advice, I assumed that he would say that China was wrong. To my surprise, he simply responded: Continue Reading…

Published on Current Concerns, an Interview with Professor Dr Wilhelm Hankel, by Current Concerns, July 2010.

Current Concerns: Professor Hankel, at the beginning of May you and four competent colleagues filed a lawsuit to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany against the so-called ‘Help for Greece’, which had been adopted by the German Bundestag. You also appealed to the public by an advertisement in a large German newspaper. What prompted you to do so?

Prof Dr Wilhelm Hankel: What we asked the Constitutional Court to consider is an affair to all of us, of all Germans, even to all Europeans. Because the help for Greece and also for a lot of countries in a similar situation will – under a humane pretext, a pretext of solidarity – bring to life a monstrosity, a complete change of the European system without asking the people. And this change will be performed on different levels. On the legal level: breaches of law have been committed, which are simply outrageous. Continue Reading…

Those who want to guarantee food security by relying on alliances will have to surrender

Published on Current Concerns, by Hermann M. Dür, July 2010.

cc. A self-sustaining agriculture and food sovereignty are one of the claims of the World Agriculture Report, whose topics must repeatedly be brought up for discussion, until politicians will finally start to implement the claims. Food security must be made a topic of discussion not only in view of an imminent war, but it is equally important with regard to security policy in so-called times of peace. The following article* by Hermann Dür will give evidence of this context. In his article, Dür explains the dependencies that a state risks to get involved in, if it has to import agricultural products and can no longer provide for the basic needs of its population. Continue Reading…

Johan Galtung and Dennis Kucinich discuss with Paul Jay the proposal for a Department of Peace

Linked on our blogs with Johan Galtung – Norway, with Dennis John Kucinich – USA,  with Transcend-International,  and with Paul Jay – Canada.

Watch this video, 9.32 min, published on The Real News, July 21, 2010.

Published on RIA Novostni, by Atta Kenare, July 15, 2010.

Iran plans to commission several oil refineries by the end of 2010 and could become one of the largest gasoline exporters in a few years, the Islamic Republic’s petroleum minister said Thursday.

“I believe in 2-3 years we will become one of the largest gasoline exporters in the region and the world,” Massoud Mir-Kazemi told the Arab-language Russia Today TV channel.

“In any case, we will produce gasoline at our oil refineries and can stop importing it,” said the minister, who is on a visit to Moscow … //   Continue Reading…

Published on open Democracy, by Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, 14 July 2010.

A decade of wars has produced a strategic shift very different from what Washington and its allies intended – less towards unipolar order than the complexities of multipolar disorder. This poses a challenge to policy-makers and analysts alike, says Arshin Adib-Moghaddam … //

… A Turkish lesson:
Turkey’s repositioning within the greater west Asian area is the most prominent example of this emerging regional order. True, the reorientation of Turkish foreign policies towards the Arab and Muslim worlds has a lot to do with domestic changes within Turkey, primarily the emergence of a new middle class that is sensitive to issues affecting the umma (Islamic nation). This is the constituency that in 2002 brought to power Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (Justice & Development Party / AKP).  Continue Reading…

Linked with Gareth Porter – USA. – Published on Global Research.ca, by Gareth Porter, July 3, 2010.

WASHINGTON – Olli Heinonen, the Finnish nuclear engineer who resigned Thursday after five years as deputy director for safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was the driving force in turning that agency into a mechanism to support U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran.

Heinonen was instrumental in making a collection of intelligence documents showing a purported Iranian nuclear weapons research programme the central focus of the IAEA’s work on Iran. The result was to shift opinion among Western publics to the view that Iran had been pursuing a covert nuclear weapons programme.   Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Terry Burrows, June 27, 2010.

… (as photo legend): See the distinctive yellow dots on the thick corrugated soles of the boots which are the giveaway. The Quebec Provincial Police were then forced after three days of  public outrage to admit that these three men were indeed their officers operating undercover … //

… Canadian “Bureaucratic Economizing” Exposes The Fraud:

That the ‘black bloc’ provocateurs and the uniformed armoured police are wearing in Toronto (as at Montebello) the identical government issued combat boots, has at least one positive aspect. It looks as if someone in the procurement bureaucracy was at least trying to do some economizing in the spending of the one billion dollars that this G20 fiasco has wrested from the taxpayers. Very sensibly, these bureaucrats wanted to provide the same sturdy combat boots for both the uniformed police officers as well as the undercover ones. How wonderfully Canadian.

But this endearing Hobbit-like practicality has also given the game away. The ‘black bloc,’ if they ever existed as an independent entity, have clearly been thoroughly infiltrated by undercover government agents. In classic covert counterinsurgency strategy these agents manipulate the group to commit violent acts which play directly into hidden government controllers’ hands. These controllers manipulate public opinion from behind the scenes through the commission of false flag acts of violence (these are acts falsely blamed on scapegoats other than those concealed perpetrators who are actually responsible.) The psychological operation (psyop) is then accomplished through the propaganda fulminations of the completely controlled and complicit mass media. As in so many similar situations in so many other countries in the past, the goal of this combination of violent acts and lying media propaganda is to invalidate any legitimate citizen protest of the many immoral acts being wreaked upon the peoples of the world by our governments. The techniques of imperial control which have been used so successfully overseas are now being fully deployed against the people at home. Deployed against us. As far as our war-addicted governments are concerned, we are all insurgents now.  Continue Reading…

Published on Other Jones, by Deena Stryker, June 26, 2010.

During the Vietnam war, American draft resisters found refuge in Canada. Those days are long gone. I’m not con-vinced that it’s just be-cause Canada has a Conservative Prime Minister that the country has emulated so much of our Homeland Security provisions, extending them to cover domestic dissent.

Whatever the reason, this much is certain: Canada is now more than ever an extension of the United States, and while it is probable that the North American Free Trade Agreement has something to do with it, the more deeper reasons are more worrisome. Sooner or later, the conflictive situation with Mexico will make it part of a North American Colossus – a desperate but probably futile effort to meet the challenges of China, India and Brazil.  Continue Reading…

Published on The National Security Archive, by Robert Wampler, PhD, June 23, 2010.

Washington, D.C., June 23, 2010 – Four decades ago, in response to North Korean military provocations, the U.S. developed contingency plans that included selected use of tactical nuclear weapons against Pyongyang’s military facilities and the possibility of full-scale war, according to recently declassified documents. Astonishingly, casualty estimates ranged from a low of 100 or so civilian deaths, up to “several thousand.”   Continue Reading…

Published on Geopolitical Monitor, by Jody Ray Bennett, June 24, 2010. – Summary: The recent announcement that the notorious private military company formerly known as Blackwater is up for sale highlights the end of an era, but leaves many remaining questions about its future.

Analysis:

Earlier this month, Xe Services, LLC, the latest re-branded name of the company that was once known as Blackwater Worldwide, announced that the company was up for sale. The announcement that Xe was seeking new ownership came somewhat as a surprise to industry insiders both in favor of and critical of the company, especially considering Blackwater’s seemingly amazing ability to withstand the yearly toll of accidents, mishaps and misconduct that has since earned it a highly negative reputation throughout the world … //  Continue Reading…

Published on Gonzalo Lira’s Blog, by Gonzalo Lira, June 12, 2010.

Imagine some Brazilian terrorist attacks China – he and his minions blow up the Forbidden City as well as the Great Wall, in one fairly spectacular terrorist attack.

We’re in America—this shouldn’t involve us. But as a consequence of these terrorist attacks, the Chinese – screaming for vengeance – deploy their sophisticated weapons and their millions of soldiers, and invade Canada. They invade Canada – our next-door neighbor – supposedly because this Brazilian terrorist is hiding in the frozen wastelands up north. Supposedly.  Continue Reading…

From the Secret Soviet, American and German Files – Published on the National Security Archives, by Svetlana Savranskaya and Thomas Blanton, June 13, 2010.

Washington, D.C., June 13, 2010 – The Washington summit 20 years ago this month between Presidents George H.W. Bush and Mikhail S. Gorbachev brought dramatic realization on the American side of the severe domestic political pressures facing the Soviet leader, produced an agreement in principle on trade but no breakthrough on Germany, and only slow progress towards the arms race in reverse which Gorbachev had offered, according to previously secret Soviet and U.S. documents posted today by the National Security Archive … (full text and Documents 1 to 16).  Continue Reading…

Published on openDemocracy, by William Davies, 4 June 2010.

There’s an argument, stemming from Hegel, that a political idea is only fully realised by its opponent. Hegel explored this via the master-slave dialectic: the master is implicitly dependent on the slave for his mastery, whereas the slave’s freedom – when it arrives – is actually real. Overthrowing something enables one to realise its inner possibility. Marx reinvented this in class terms, which is why the proletariat has the potential for a higher form of liberal freedom than the liberal bourgeoisie themselves … //

… To apply pain and gain equally, proportionately and fairly across every rank in society is the ultimate legitimation of the ranks as they presently stand. The status quo receives an endorsement, not in economic terms (it is efficient) nor in conservative terms (it has worked in the past) but in liberal ones (it will be managed fairly). Continue Reading…

Published on Online Journal, by Eric Walberg, June 11, 2010. – Linked with Eric Walberg – Canada.

War junkies popped their champagne corks on 7 June to celebrate the 104th month of US military engagement in Afghanistan, America’s longest war in its history (Vietnam lasted 103 months) … //

… The Yanks and their quislings almost started a war between themselves when US officials forced the Afghans to submit to urinalysis to weed out the dope smokers. Most of the ancops are Tajik who don’t speak Pashtun, and, dressed up and paid by the invaders, are as much the enemy to the Marja residents as the Americans. No wonder the ancops don’t want to patrol or work at night.  Continue Reading…

Published on english Xinhuanet, June 7, 2010.

MOSCOW, June 7 (Xinhua) — Russians may now travel to Brazil without visas as the 2008 agreement between the two countries came into force on Monday, reported local media. Under the agreement both Russian and Brazilian tourists were not required visas to pass or stay on the countries’ territories up to 90 days within each six-month-period from the first entry. So far those intending to remain to stay for a long period to receive education or seeking employment were still required to procure their visas. Brazil was one of the six Latin American countries that have scrapped visa requirements for Russians … (full text).

Links:   Continue Reading…

Published on Voltairenet.org, by Thierry Meyssan, June 1, 2010. – (en français: Pourquoi Israël a t-il attaqué des civils en Méditerranée? par Thierry Meyssan, 31 mai 2010).

Israel weighed in advance the consequences of its attack against a humanitarian convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip. What were its objectives in triggering a world diplomatic crisis, and why did it defy its Turkish ally as well as its U.S. protector? … //

… By boarding a Turkish ship and killing passengers, Tel Aviv opted for a military response to the diplomatic crisis that has pitted it against Ankara since January 2009. Israel expects this decision will provoke a crisis within the Turkish Army command as well as between the latter and the Turkish government. However, it could also lead to a complete break in military ties between the two countries, even though Turkey has been Israel’s closest regional ally for over half a century. Turkish-Israeli joint exercises have already been canceled indefinitely. Moreover, this crisis could also affect trade relations between the two countries, despite the fact that Turkey is a vital partner for the Israeli economy.  Continue Reading…

Linked with Eric Walberg – Canada. – Published on Online Journal, by Eric Walberg, June 4, 2010.

Brazil accused the US of double standards, and Turkey insisted Thursday that rejecting the deal with Iran, which calls for Tehran to ship around half its stock of low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for enriched uranium suitable for research and medical use, would be “unreasonable” and said that a US push for fresh sanctions on Tehran was creating an “absurd situation.”

“Those who speak to this issue should eliminate nuclear weapons from their own country and they should bear the good news to all mankind by doing that,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan said, while attending a UN conference in Rio de Janeiro. Continue Reading…

See also our blog KASHMIR and IDPs.

Just 2% of people in Jammu and Kashmir want to join Pakistan – Published in CHOWK (first on Time of India May 28, 2010), by Suresh Shenoy, May 30, 2010.

NEW DELHI: For those who still think a plebiscite will tilt the status of Kashmir and that most Kashmiris yearn to wave the Pakistani green, there are now numbers for the first time to contradict these claims.

A survey carried out across both Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, that
its author claims is the first ever of its kind, shows that only 2% of the respondents on the Indian side favour joining Pakistan and most such views were confined to Srinagar and Budgam districts. In six of the districts surveyed late last year by researchers from the London-based think tank Chatham House, not a single person favoured annexation with Pakistan, a notion that remains the bedrock for the hardline separate campaign in Kashmir.  Continue Reading…

Published on english Xinhuanet.com, June 02, 2010.

Watch Israel’s  black and white video, 2.10 min: … Activists returning to Europe after the attack said the commandos had beaten passengers and used electric shocks during the assault. A German doctor, who had been on board the Marmara, said he saw four activists who had died of gun shot wounds.

Matthias Jocheim, German Activist, said, “I saw the bodies of four people at the entrance. They died because of heavy ammunition. Not rubber bullets, heavy ammunition was used.” Israeli police say 16 pro-Palestinian activists from the Gaza-bound flotilla have been sent to jail. It will deport around 700 activists from the flotilla.  Continue Reading…

The University of Toronto and the Munk School of Global Affairs are hosting the following web pages (in English, Français,  Deutsch, Italiano, Portuguesa, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian):

G20 Information Centre;
G20 Summits, Official Documents;
G20 Ministerials of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors and Deputies, Official Documents;
G20 Analysis, Summits, Ministerials;
G8 Information Centre.

Linked with Eric Walberg – Canada. – Published on Online Journal, by Eric Walberg, May 28, 2010.

The movement to “get the troops out now!” has found unlikely converts in the form of the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition in Britain. The election campaign suggested nothing new could be expected from any of the parties on Afghanistan, despite the fact that over 70 percent of Britons want the troops home.

So eyebrows were raised with the news that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was Prime Minister David Cameron’s first visitor at Chequers. They went higher still when Foreign Minister William Hague made his first foreign destination Kabul, where he called for the withdrawal of troops as soon as possible.  Continue Reading…

Published on CHOWK (first in Daily Times, 13th May 2010), by Rakesh Mani, May 17m 2010.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is on the cusp of celebrating the first birthday of its second term in office. But far from being a celebratory occasion where the party and the people can look to further consolidation in the four years to come, the mood is gloomy. There is almost a sense of shoulder-shrugging disenchantment palpable. The government, re-elected as the alternative to the right-wing Hindu parties, has struggled with a boatload of problems on the domestic front. Continue Reading…

Published on Voltairenet.org, by Thierry Meyssan, May 16, 2010.

The failure to reshape the Greater Middle East has left the field open to a new alliance, the Tehran-Damascus-Ankara triangle. Since nature is allergic to vacuums, Moscow is filling the space left vacant by Washington. The wind has changed and it’s blowing strong. In a matter of a few months, the entire regional balance of power has tipped.

In recent months the equilibrium of the Middle East has undergone a complete shift. First of all, the capabilities and positions of a number of players have changed … (full text).

Publié sur Voltairenet.org, par Thierry Meyssan, 15 Mai 2010.

L’échec du remodelage du Grand Moyen-Orient a laissé le champ libre à une nouvelle alliance, celle du triangle Téhéran-Damas-Ankara. La nature ayant horreur du vide, Moscou comble l’espace laissé vacant par Washington. Le vent a tourné et il souffle fort. En quelques mois, c’est tout l’équilibre régional qui a été bouleversé.

L’équilibre du Proche-Orient a été entièrement modifié au cours des derniers mois. Tout d’abord, les capacités et les positions de plusieurs acteurs ont changé … (lire le long texte entier).

Published on Radio Free Europe /Radio Liberty, by Michael Hirshman, May 15, 2010.

A country with an active nuclear program comes under intense international pressure. Many suspect that, despite stated goals of producing nuclear power, a secret weapons program is under way.

While this scenario describes Iran today, it also describes Brazil during the late 1970s and ’80s. After opting for cooperation over defiance, the South American country voluntarily ended its nuclear-weapons program and has retained its civilian nuclear industry while raising its diplomatic stature.  Continue Reading…

Rising and Declining Economic Powers: The Sino-US Conflict Deepens

Linked on our blogs with James Petras – USA. – Published on Global Research.ca, by Prof James Petras, April 29, 2010.

… US Responses to Imperial Decline:  Saving the Empire Sacrificing the Nation – Washington has pursued at least six responses to its decline:

1.

• The long term, large scale response of Washington to its declining position in the world economy and its declining political influence in several regions is to extend and reinforce its global military base networks[21].  Beginning in the 1990’s it converted the former Warsaw pact countries – Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, etc. – into NATO members under US military leadership.  It then extended its military reach by incorporating the Ukraine and George as “associate” members of NATO.  This was followed by establishing bases in Kyrgystan, Kosova and other statelets of the ex Yugoslavian republic. Continue Reading…

Published on WSWS, by Chris Marsden, 24 April 2010.

… The dispute that did emerge between the three, over whether or not to replace the Trident submarine nuclear weapons system, was framed entirely as an issue of how best to pursue a militarist agenda.

Clegg has called for the issue of Trident’s replacement or otherwise to be made part of an upcoming Strategic Defence Review. But he did so only on the grounds of whether it was cost-effective, reaffirming his commitment to Britain’s retention of nuclear weapons.  Continue Reading…

Published on Global Research.ca, by Rick Rozoff, April 17, 2010.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (see the Homepage, and on wikipedia) NATO was founded in April of 1949 by a country not on the European continent, the United States, and eleven subordinates which had fought on both sides of the World War that had ended four years earlier: Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal. Greece and Turkey were added in 1952 after their service in the Korean War and West Germany joined in 1955 … //

… During the recently-concluded Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC where a number of decidedly unrelated agreements were reached including one with which the U.S. secured the right for military overflights from Kazakhstan [12], Czech Defense Minister Martin Bartak disclosed that his meetings in the American capital included one with Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher, the latter a long-time advocate for and organizer of U.S. missile shield projects in Eastern Europe.  Continue Reading…

Linked with Frederick William Engdahl – Germany and USA. – Published on Geopolitics-Geoeconomics, by F. William Engdahl, 22 March 2010, 23 pdf pages.
Part I: The Geopolitical significance of Ukraine today

A decisive vote against NATO:

On February 14 Ukraine’s Election Commission declared Viktor Yanukovych the winner in that embattled country’s Presidential runoff vote, defeating former Prime Minister and Orange Revolution instigator Yulia Tymoshenko. Contrary to the positive spin Washington is trying to put on the events, they mark the definitive death of Ukraine’s much-touted “Orange Revolution.“  Continue Reading…

Linked with Malalai Joya – Afghanistan. – Published on Voltairenet.org, by Dominique Bari, 9 April 2010.

The young Afghan deputy and women’s rights champion was thrown out of parliament for having exposed foreign interference in her country and the worsening violations against women fomented by the continued occupation …

… Malalai Joya: Millions of dollars have been promised to the Karzai regime so that insurgents will lay down their arms: at the same time millions of Afghans are dying in poverty. This will lead to the Taliban being rehabilitated, they will take control of the Loy Jirga, the meeting of the elders and the tribal leaders which is to be held soon. Can we really expect to establish democracy with such reactionaries? The Taliban aren’t the only fundamentalists.  Continue Reading…

Published on Chowk, by mohammad gill April 6, 2010.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened over the weekend to quit the political process and join the Taliban if he continued to come under outside pressure to reform, several members of parliament said Monday. (Lawmakers: Afghan leader threatens to join Taliban, by Amir Shah and Christopher Bodeen, Yahoo! News, April 5, 2010).

Recent news coming out of Afghanistan indicates that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is under great pressure from the USA, to go after the Taliban more vigorously. Evidently, the pressure had built to such an extent that Karzai felt he was pushed to the wall and could take it no longer. Continue Reading…

Linked with Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. – Published on Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, by John Isaacs and  Kingston Reif, not dated.

On March 26, President Obama announced that after nearly a year of tough negotiations, the U.S. and Russia have reached agreement on the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures to Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the “New START Treaty”). Presidents Obama and Medvedev will sign the new agreement on April 8 in Prague, Czech Republic.

New START is a modest but critically important and necessary step toward reducing the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. The treaty enhances U.S. security by verifiably reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles and ensuring a stable and predictable U.S.-Russian nuclear relationship. Continue Reading…

University of Ottawa, January 27, 2010 – Published on Global Research.ca, January 27, 2010.

• Causes and consequences of the economic crisis
• Financial fraud and the “bank bailouts”
• The economic crisis and its relationship to the Middle East Central Asian war
• The implications of the military “surge” on the US economy
• An oversized US war economy triggers imbalances in the US monetary system

Date: Wednesday, January 27th 2010, Time: 12:00pm – 2pm;
Address: 147-B Fauteux Hall (Law School), 57 Louis Pasteur, University of Ottawa Campus, OTTAWA, K1N6N5,
… (full text).

Turkmenistan commits its gas exports to China, Russia & Iran – Published on Global Research.ca, by Amb. M K Bhadrakumar, January 12, 2010.

The inauguration of the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline in early January connecting Iran’s northern Caspian region with Turkmenistan’s vast gas field may go unnoticed amid the Western media cacophony that it is “apocalypse now” for the Islamic regime in Tehran.

The event sends strong messages for regional security. Within the space of three weeks, Turkmenistan has committed its entire gas exports to China, Russia and Iran. It has no urgent need of the pipelines that the United States and the European Union have been advancing. Are we hearing the faint notes of a Russia-China-Iran symphony?   Continue Reading…

Published on iAfrica.com, AFP, 11 Jan.

Voters in French Guiana rejected an offer from France for more autonomy for the territory bordering Brazil and Suriname in South America …

… Sixty years after being granted the status of department — which makes them legally as French as Normandy or Provence — the tropical territories face recurrent social problems including high unemployment and low wages despite massive financial support from the state.

The mayor of Guiana’s capital Cayenne, Rodolphe Alexandre, said the question of financing drove the campaign and the result of the referendum.  Continue Reading…