Cyprus is only the first victim of a one-size-must-fit-all policy that is made in Berlin. - Then, as now, Cyprus was the toy of foreign powers. Othello was sent there from Venice to repel the Turks, though luckily they all got blown away in a tempest. Since then, Russia, Britain, Greece and, always, Turkey, have taken an interest. Even today, Britain has an important listening post for the Middle East there, 60,000 expatriates, 3,500 troops in our sovereign bases and a continuing role as a guarantor power. Cypriots still drive on the left. Lord Salisbury, who won control of Cyprus for Britain from Turkey in 1878, once sent an envoy there. People complained that the man knew neither Greek nor Turkish. “Good,” said Salisbury, “then he will hear fewer lies.” That is the authentic tone of an imperial power. Today that power is Germany. We have heard enough lies, the Germans are saying haughtily to the Cypriots, now shut up and do what we want. Yesterday, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, ordered that “Cyprus must realise that its business model is dead”.

MoneyNews: Crisis in Cyprus Threatens EU Role and Legitimacy
Stephen Lendman: Grand Theft Cyprus: Part II
Ellen Brown: A Safe and a Shotgun or Publicly-owned Banks? The Battle of Cyprus

China's central bank deputy governor Yi Gang said: “China is prepared. In terms of both monetary policies and other mechanisms, China will take into full account the quantitative easing policies implemented by central banks of foreign countries.” However, Mr Yi said a currency war can be avoided if policymakers follow the consensus reached at the Group of 20 nations meeting in Moscow last month. ■ A currency war occurs when a number of major economies compete against each other to devalue their own currency and lower the exchange rate. This cuts the price of exports from the country and makes imports more expensive – effectively boosting jobs as demand from both domestic and foreign markets increases.

The US Central Intelligence Agency has been feeding information to select rebel fighters in Syria to try to make them more effective against government troops, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. - Citing unnamed current and former US officials, the newspaper said the new CIA effort reflected a change in the administration's approach that aims to strengthen secular rebel fighters. The CIA has sent officers to Turkey to help vet rebels who receive arms shipments from Gulf allies, the report said. But administration officials cited concerns about some weapons going to "Islamists", the paper noted.

Wall Street Journal: CIA Expands Role in Syria Fight

The United States has quietly unblocked almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority which had been frozen by Congress for months, a top U.S. official said Friday. - The news that the funds had finally been freed up came after U.S. President Barack Obama met top Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a landmark visit to Israel and the West Bank earlier this week. "To date, we have moved $295.7 million in fiscal year 2012 money... and $200 million in fiscal year 2013 assistance," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

Stephen Lendman: [The money is to prop up a stooge & his illegitimate regime.] - [Obama] said Israelis "have a true partner in president Abbas and prime minister Fayyad." Both serve illegitimately. They're Israeli collaborators. They enforce occupation harshness. They spurn their own people. They do so for benefits derived. Israel rigged Abbas' 2005 election. His term expired in January 2009. Fayyad was appointed, not elected. In 2006 legislative elections, his Third Way party won two of 132 seats. It got 2.4% of Palestinian votes. Fayyad's unwanted for good reason. He's Israel's man in Palestine. He's a former World Bank/IMF official. He supports neoliberal harshness. He enforces militarized occupation.

Stephen Lendman: Salam Fayyad: Israel's Man in Palestine
Stephen Lendman: Abbas and Fayyad: Collaborationist Israeli Allies

Israel has announced a full resumption of diplomatic ties with Turkey after apologizing for the deaths of nine Turkish activists in an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound international flotilla. - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he had apologized to Turkey during a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a deadly 2010 flotilla attack. He also accepted Ankara's demand for compensation to be paid to the families of the nine activists who were killed.

Al-Manar News: Zionist PM Apologizes, Amends Ties with Turkey
PressTV: Turkey says apology brought Israel to ‘line of international law’

REMEMBERING FURKAN DOGAN ~~ PHOTO ESSAY
US emboldens Israel to kill Americans
This Says It All: Israelis kill American – Joe Biden says: "What's the big deal?"

The hacker that has targeted Hillary Clinton and the Presidents Bush has leaked a new trove of classified emails to RT that discuss in detail the Algerian hostage crisis and the relationship between the United States and Egyptian governments. An elusive hacker using the moniker 'Guccifer' was credited earlier this week with infiltrating the email account of journalist Sidney Blumenthal and uncovering a collection of highly sensitive memos allegedly sent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Now for the second time in only a week, the person known only by a three-syllable screen name has provided yet another compilation of correspondence that highlights America’s foreign diplomacy in ways that are rarely made public this side of WikiLeaks.