Tag Archives: EU
EU court confounds US and limits sanctions on Iran
In a setback for the United States’ attempts to isolate Iran, a European Union court threw out sanctions Friday on seven Iranian companies, including four banks, rejecting arguments that they were acting as front companies to bypass the punitive measures. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/world/europe/european-union-wrongly-imposed-sanctions-on-iranian-companies-court-rules.html?ref=world The General Court in Brussels, the union’s second-highest tribunal, ruled that the bloc wrongly […]
EU bank deal gives Cyprus, warm water port to Russia
European leaders engineered a harsh bailout deal for this tiny Mediterranean nation in March and the Russians are now in a position to get something that has previously eluded even Moscow’s most audacious oligarchs: control of a so-called systemic financial institution in the European Union. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/world/europe/russians-still-ride-high-in-cyprus-after-bailout.html?pagewanted=1&ref=world “They wanted to throw out the Russians but in […]
EU antitrust suit uncovers bankster derivative scheme
Back in 2009, the Justice Department said it was investigating the large Wall Street banks for possible collusion in the huge and opaque credit default swaps market. The question was whether the big financial institutions had worked to keep transactions in these insurance-like instruments closed to competitors and more profitable for themselves. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/business/trying-to-pierce-a-wall-street-fog.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130721&_r=0 Not much […]
EU agrees on drone surveillance program
Three European aerospace companies called on Europe to launch its own independent drone programme to equip armies across the continent. “European sovereignty and independence in the management of information and intelligence would be guaranteed while at the same time delivering a robust system resilient against cyber attacks,” Northrop Grumman signed a $1.7 billion (1 billion […]
Recent attacks give way to police state rationale
“Short of a police state on East German lines the number of such individuals who can be subject to very intensive surveillance sufficient to detect preparations for violent action is but a small proportion of the total — and of course individuals can flip quickly even where they have been checked out previously.” http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/05/31/world/europe/ap-eu-tracking-terrorists.html?ref=world “This […]
German drones and the anti-surveillance state
Germany’s national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, plans to test small drones to try to reduce the amount of graffiti being sprayed on its property. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22678580 The idea is to use airborne infra-red cameras to collect evidence, which could then be used to prosecute vandals who deface property at night. But it is not yet clear […]
IMF head accused of financial misdealing
Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, will soon learn if she must face a full criminal investigation over her role in a contentious financial deal that dates back to her time as French finance minister. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/business/global/lagarde-to-appear-in-french-court.html Ms. Lagarde, Nicolas Sarkozy’s finance minister from 2007 to 2011, allowed a court case to go […]
Austerity starving Greek children
In Greece children are picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy was bent over with hunger pains. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/world/europe/more-children-in-greece-start-to-go-hungry.html?hp&_r=0 “He had eaten almost nothing at home,” The parents, who were ashamed and embarrassed but admitted that they had not been able to find work for months. […]
Honey bee collapse attributed to pesticides
Scientists have found that two types of pesticides called neonicotinoids and coumaphos are interfering with the honey bee brain’s ability to learn and remember. Experiments revealed that exposure was also lowering brain activity, especially when the two pesticides were used in combination. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21958547 We found neonicotinoids cause an immediate hyper-activation – so an epileptic type […]
International banking corruption leaves one dead
The head of communications for the troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena, David Rossi, is found dead. What were the circumstances that forced the bank, the world’s oldest, to accept a €4.1 billion or $5.3 billion bailout from the Italian government? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/business/global/official-from-monte-dei-paschi-di-siena-bank-is-found-dead.html?ref=world In 2008 Monte dei Paschi acquired another Italian bank, Antonveneta, for […]
Dirty Babylon 