Almost 2,000 Dutch troops have been deployed in the Uruzgan region, where the Taliban is active and opium production is high. The final contingent of 250 Dutch soldiers will be withdrawn on Sunday, after strong domestic opposition to participation in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force. Qari Yusuf Ahmadii, a Taliban spokesman, told the Volksrant newspaper that he looked forward to other countries following the "brave" Dutch example.

"We would like to offer the citizens and government of the Netherlands our heartfelt congratulations for having the courage to take this decision independently," he said. "We hope other countries with soldiers stationed in Afghanistan will follow the Dutch example and withdraw their troops."

AFP/Google News: Dutch troops to leave Afghanistan

The death of five Israeli servicemen in a helicopter crash in Romania this week raised scarcely a headline. [...] What is Nato doing when it plays war games with an army accused of war crimes? Or, more to the point, what on earth is the EU doing when it cosies up to the Israelis? In a remarkable, detailed – if slightly over-infuriated – book to be published in November, the indefatigable David Cronin is going to present a microscopic analysis of "our" relations with Israel. I have just finished reading the manuscript. It leaves me breathless. As he says in his preface, "Israel has developed such strong political and economic ties to the EU over the past decade that it has become a member state of the union in all but name." Indeed, it was Javier Solana, the grubby top dog of the EU's foreign policy (formerly Nato secretary general), who actually said last year that "Israel, allow me to say, is a member of the European Union without being a member of the institution".

Paris. France's interior minister said Wednesday half the country's illegal Gypsy camps would be dismantled within three months and Bulgarian and Romanian Gypsies will be sent back home if they break the law, AFP reports. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux made the announcement after a meeting of ministers called by President Nicolas Sarkozy in the wake of violence between Gypsies and police. Hortefeux vowed Gypsies who committed offences would undergo "virtually immediate" deportation to their countries of origin. Most Gypsies in France are thought to be from Romania and Bulgaria, which both joined the EU in 2007. Sarkozy warned ahead of the meeting that some members of the minority pose security "problems", in the wake of clashes between police and Gypsies in Saint-Aignan, central France.

Germany joins NATO forces in using Israeli spy drones 27 Jul 2010 Worried by insurgent ambushes on its soldiers in Afghanistan and return fire that sometimes kills civilians or local allies, Germany last year ordered a small fleet of Israeli Heron spy drones designed to provide real-time images above a battlefield. That has brought German jet pilots to coastal Ein Shemer air base for accelerated retraining on the unmanned propeller planes, already daubed with their flag and Iron Cross emblem.

Britain’s political elite are attempting to play down the so-called Afghan War Diary—the 92,000 documents published by WikiLeaks, details of which are being serialised in the Guardian newspaper. For nine years Britain’s ruling circles have presented the intervention in Afghanistan as a fight for the “hearts and minds” of the Afghan people. In the face of widespread public opposition to the occupation, both the Labour government and now the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition have insisted that it is morally and politically justifiable. The documents published by WikiLeaks—consisting of battlefield reports written by US army personnel—expose such claims as lies. They lift the lid on just some of the terror and violence routinely meted out against the Afghan people.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is facing a massive backlash today following his criticism of the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip. Cameron insisted the blockade ‘has to change’ and that the strip “must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.” Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor expressed outrage at the statement, insisting that Cameron should have focused instead on Gilad Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier being held by the Hamas government. A number of Israel enthusiasts also complained that it was unfair of Cameron to mention the Israeli blockade of Gaza without insisting that it was entirely the fault of Hamas, and a number suggested that Cameron, a long standing pro-Israel hawk, had “turned” on Israel with the comments. Cameron also used his speech today in Ankara, Turkey to reiterate his opposition of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish aid ship that was bound for Gaza. Israeli commandos boarded the ship and killed nine aid workers.

The parliament of Catalonia has voted to ban bullfighting - the first region of mainland Spain to do so. The vote took place as the result of a petition brought to parliament, signed by 180,000 people who say the practice is barbaric and outdated. Bullfight supporters insist that the corrida, as it is known, is an important tradition to preserve. They also fear the vote could be the first of many in the country. The ban takes effect in January 2012. In Wednesday's vote, 68 backed a ban, 55 voted against and nine abstained. Barcelona's main bullring is one of the oldest in Spain, but support for the bullfight has waned. The Barcelona bullring is the only functioning one in Catalonia. The vote was brought to the agenda by activists who argue it is cruel and unacceptable and say most spectators in Catalonia these days are tourists. The campaign was led by the animal rights lobby group Prou! (Enough!). Supporters says the corrida is an art form that it is vital to preserve.

David Cameron used a visit to Turkey to make his strongest intervention yet in the intractable Middle East conflict today when he likened the experience of Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza strip to that of a "prison camp". Although he has made similar remarks before, his decision to repeat them on a world stage in Turkey, whose relations with Israel have deteriorated sharply since it mounted a deadly assault on the Gaza flotilla, gave them much greater diplomatic significance. Cameron's comments, in a speech to business leaders in Ankara, prompted the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to issue another strong condemnation of how Israel dealt with the flotilla. Erdogan likened the behaviour of Israeli commandos, who shot dead nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists, to Somali pirates.

An Israeli military helicopter carrying six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian crashed on Monday in mountainous terrain near Brasov, in central Romania. According to local sources, seven bodies had been recovered by rescue forces at the crash site by nighttime. The Israelis on board the chopper included four Israeli army pilots and two airborne mechanics. The Israeli occupation army released on Monday night the names of the six Israeli crew members. According to Bucharest media reports, the Romanian Defense Ministry said the helicopter, a CH-53 Sikorsky, crashed during Blue Sky 2010 – an 11-day joint Romanian-Israeli aviation exercise. The exercise began on July 18 and is set to conclude on July 29.

The Chilcot inquiry confirms what most suspected - the reasons for war were bogus. In future, such decisions must be transparent. It was almost exactly eight years ago that the public beat of the Washington war drums became so loud and insistent that it could no longer be ignored. But we now know that for quite some time before July 2002 Tony Blair and George Bush had been engaged in a dialogue of the determined with regime change in Iraq at the top of their agenda. Before Chilcot, we had to rely on leaked documents such as telegrams from diplomats, accounts of meetings held round the sofa at No 10, and, for lawyers, the crown jewels of the Attorney General's written advice to the Prime Minister. The Hutton and Butler inquiries helped to fill in some of the blanks, though qualified by their restricted remits and security considerations. But slowly and with only occasional fanfare the whole sad, sorry story is being systematically laid out in evidence before the Chilcot inquiry. Chilcot has not been about surprises but rather about confirmation, less about revelation and more about corroboration of what we thought we knew. Sir John Chilcot has made it clear that his committee is not a court of law and that no findings of legality will be made but just by exposing to public scrutiny the process by which legal advice was tendered and disregarded, he has provided more than enough evidence in support of the proposition that military action against Iraq was illegal.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Europe on Sunday not to join U.S. "plots" against Iran, saying that any cooperation with Washington will be regarded as hostile by the Iranian nation, the official IRNA news agency reported. The Americans have managed to persuade a part of Europe and Russia to join them in their latest anti-Iran scenario, Ahmadinejad made the remark in a festival in Tehran, according to IRNA. Any actions against Iran including disturbing Iranian airplanes or ships will be met with speedy responses from Iran, the Iranian president was quoted as saying. UN Security Council adopted last month a resolution on the Iranian nuclear issue, prohibiting Iran from investing abroad in nuclear and enrichment operations, imposing new restrictions on Iran's import of conventional arms and allowing the Iranian ships in the international water to be checked. On Thursday, the European Union agreed on sanctions against Iran's energy sector including its oil and gas industry. The agreement will come into effect if it is approved at the EU foreign ministers' meeting on Monday. PressTV: Iran deplores new EU sanctions.

When a national police association accuses its government of what amounts to treason it is time to sit up and pay attention. Michael O'Boyce, President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said at its annual conference in Limerick, at the end of April, 2010, that the Irish Government had been 'corrupted' and had been 'bought' by developers and bankers. (A garda is an Irish policeman, gardaí in the plural.) Mr. O'Boyce, speaking on behalf of the country's 11,000 gardaí, charged government ministers with sacrificing the country to protect 'wealthy cronies' who had bankrolled the leading government party, Fianna Fáil. Such criticism of a serving government by its police force is unprecedented in Irish history and extremely rare in any western democracy.

Uncovered: Britain's secret rendition programme - Until now, this country has been guilty only by association in the illegal transfer of prisoners. But the covert rendition of a Moroccan man by MI5 agents suggests that the practice was central to Britain's 'war on terror'. MI5 was directly involved in the rendition of a Moroccan national, illegally taken from a Belgian prison to work for Britain's Security Services in London, an investigation by The Independent has discovered. The man, now aged 29 and who cannot be named for his own safety, was secretly transferred from a Brussels jail in April 2004 and then further held and interrogated by senior MI5 officers at a secret base near London. Documents seen by The Independent show that in September 2003 a Belgian court sentenced the man to four years in prison for the use of false documents and association with terror suspects. Yet less than a year later Home Office papers reveal that the Moroccan, who was born in Rabat, was in Britain and had been granted leave to remain in the UK by the British Government.

If approved, amendment will enable Israeli politicians war criminals, IDF officers to travel to Britain without fear of being arrested.

Livni: Free world must differentiate between real war criminals, those who fight [state] terrorism.

Archaeologists have discovered a second henge at Stonehenge, described as the most exciting find there in 50 years. The circular ditch surrounding a smaller circle of deep pits about a metre (3ft) wide has been unearthed at the world-famous site in Wiltshire. Archaeologists conducting a multi-million pound study believe timber posts were in the pits. Project leader Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University of Birmingham, said the discovery was "exceptional". The new "henge" - which means a circular monument dating to Neolithic and Bronze Ages - is situated about 900m (2,950ft) from the giant stones on Salisbury Plain.

Two Spanish activists have filed a court case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Manuel Tapial and Laura Arau, who were arrested in the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound humanitarian convoy in May, lodged their complaint against Netanyahu, six of his cabinet members and the Israeli navy commander at Spain's National Court on Friday. The activists say they were illegally arrested in international waters, tortured and forcibly returned to Turkey. Nine civilian activists were killed and many others were wounded after Israeli commandos attacked the Turkish-flagged flotilla on May 31. The brutal attack sent shockwaves across the world and raised global calls for an international investigation into the incident as well as an immediate end to the more than three-year-long blockade of Gaza.

Coalition in confusion as deputy prime minister pronounces invasion 'illegal' at dispatch box. Nick Clegg was tonight forced to clarify his position on the Iraq war after he stood up at the dispatch box of the House of Commons and pronounced the invasion illegal. The deputy prime minister insisted he was speaking in a personal capacity, as a leading international lawyer warned that the statement by a government minister in such a formal setting could increase the chances of charges against Britain in international courts. Philippe Sands, professor of law at University College London, said: "A public statement by a government minister in parliament as to the legal situation would be a statement that an international court would be interested in, in forming a view as to whether or not the war was lawful."

Tony Blair's evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry that toppling Saddam Hussein helped make Britain safe from terrorists was dramatically undermined by the former head of MI5 yesterday. Giving evidence to the same inquiry, Eliza Manningham-Buller revealed that there was such a surge of warnings of home-grown terrorist threats after the invasion of Iraq that MI5 asked for – and got – a 100 per cent increase in its budget. Baroness Manningham-Buller, who was director general of MI5 in 2002-07, told the Chilcot panel that MI5 started receiving a "substantially" higher volume of reports that young British Muslims being drawn to al-Qa'ida. She told the inquiry:

"Our involvement in Iraq radicalised, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people – a few among a generation – who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam." [She added:] "Arguably we gave Osama bin Laden his Iraqi jihad so that he was able to move into Iraq in a way that he was not before."

Her words are in stark contrast to the claim that Mr Blair made in front of the same inquiry on 29 January. AWIP/Chris Floyd: Blood is His Argument: Tony Blair's Gentle Cuddling at Iraq "Inquiry".

Counterpunch: Blair Strikes Oil in Iraq. "In the 3 years since he stepped down as prime minister, Blair pocketed more than $30 million in oil revenues from secret dealings with a South Korean oil consortium, UI Energy Corporation. Despite his best efforts to keep his connection to UI secret, word is spreading..."

The Independent: Blair warned in 2000 Iraq war was illegal. An invasion of Iraq was discussed within the Government more than two years before military action was taken – with Foreign Office mandarins warning that an invasion would be illegal, that it would claim "considerable casualties" and could lead to the breakdown of Iraq. A policy of "regime overthrow" is proposed, but roundly condemned. In an eerily portentous assessment of the consequences of taking military action, it states:

"Such a policy would command no useful international support. An overt attempt to be successful would require a massive military effort, probably including a land invasion: this would risk considerable casualties and, possibly, extreme last-ditch acts of deterrence or defiance by Saddam."

As if his marital challenges were not enough cause for concern, "Sarco the Sayan" has suddenly emerged as the most infamous accolade of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The influential French daily Le Figaro last week revealed that the French leader once worked for -- and perhaps still does, it hinted -- Israeli intelligence as a sayan (Hebrew for helper), one of the thousands of Jewish citizens of countries other than Israel who cooperate with the katsas (Mossad case-officers). A letter dispatched to French police officials late last winter -- long before the presidential election but somehow kept secret -- revealed that Sarkozy was recruited as an Israeli spy. The French police is currently investigating documents concerning Sarkozy's alleged espionage activities on behalf of Mossad, which Le Figaro claims dated as far back as 1983.

The Times has lost almost 90% of its online readership compared to February since making registration mandatory in June, calculations by the Guardian show. Unregistered users of thetimes.co.uk are now "bounced" to a Times+ membership page where they have to register if they want to view Times content. Data from the web metrics company Experian Hitwise shows that only 25.6% of such users sign up and proceed to a Times web page; based on custom categories (created at the Guardian) that have been used to track the performance of major UK press titles online, visits to the Times site have fallen to 4.16% of UK quality press online traffic, compared with 15% before it made registration compulsory on 15 June.

Controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders has said he is forming an international "freedom alliance" to amplify his anti-Muslim message across the West. Mr Wilders will launch the movement later this year in five countries: the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Britain. The aim of the alliance is to end immigration of people from Muslim nations. "The message: 'Stop Islam, defend freedom', is a message that's not only important for the Netherlands but for the whole free Western world," Mr Wilders told the Dutch parliament. The far-right politician identified the five nations as "ripe" for his message as they already have a large number of Muslim immigrants and face a threat from Islamic terrorists.

Wilders and Israel: Wilders lived in Israel for two years during his youth and has visited the country 40 times in the last 25 years. Wilders stated about Israel:

"I have visited many interesting countries in the Middle East – from Syria to Egypt, from Tunisia to Turkey, from Cyprus to Iran – but nowhere did I have the special feeling of solidarity that I always get when I land at Ben Gurion International Airport." Wilders told an audience during the report that "We [in the West] are all Israel". He has also said "Israel is the West's first line of defence" against what he perceives to be a threat posed by Islam. [Wikipedia]

Dutch public TV channel Nederland 2's daily news programme Netwerk reported that numerous American supporters of Israel financially supported Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) and openly approved of his message towards Islam and Islamic terrorism. [Wikipedia]

In 1991 Geert Wilders allegedly told the following to M.B. Kwint-de Roos, the lady sitting next to him at a traditional Christmas dinner:

He was in a tipsy told [me] that he was recruited by Israeli intelligence, in Israel and received a harsh education in that context even tortured and that his career not [was handled] by himself but by others. The separation from his first wife and [the marriage with] his current [one] [was arranged] without his intervention. [misdaadjournalist]

She later added in a formal statement that Wilders also has an Israeli passport.

BRUSSELS, (PIC)-- The European campaign to end the Siege on Gaza announced Monday that Freedom Flotilla 2 will be delayed until late September or early October due to expansion in participation from European countries. The campaign noted that the fleet will have extensive media coverage at an unprecedented level, given the number of vessels and the 9,000 and counting international activists from around the world who have requested to participate in the mission. More than thirty-five media organizations have requested to participate in the Freedom Flotilla 2, the Brussels-headquartered campaign said, asserting that it intends to have the largest possible number of media on board to detect any new follies Israel may commit against international peace activists.

Back in 1987, Margaret Thatcher famously declared,

“I think we’ve been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it’s the government’s job to cope with it… They’re casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first.”

Cameron is Thatcher’s heir, but he cannot display similar candour or malice, given the bitter experience of millions of people with the results of Thatcher’s slash-and-burn strategy. Instead, he cynically portrays cuts as opening “opportunities” for charities and local communities and privatization as a means of facilitating “greater local democracy.”

Details of the techniques used in a secret manual governing the use of physical restraint in private child prisons were revealed today. Some of the measures employed in the secure training centres, detailed in the "instructor's manual", include ramming knuckles into ribs and raking shoes down the shins, the Observer reported. The contents of the manual were revealed after The Youth Justice Board (YJB) agreed to hand over the document earlier this month. The document includes descriptions of "distraction" techniques, which deliberately inflict pain. The Observer detailed some of the techniques such as placing an "inverted knuckle into the trainee's sternum and drive inward and upward." Another practice reads: "Continue to carry alternate elbow strikes to the young person's ribs until a release is achieved."

Hamburg, the port city that sends 1 million tons of goods to foreign markets each week, has a reply to those who say Germany’s economy is too reliant on exports. “Nonsense,” said Frank Horch, the city’s Chamber of Commerce president, in a June 24 interview in the offices of the 345-year-old trade group. “You cannot say Germany has to stop exports, it makes no sense. Germany was born out of this.” Hamburg, Germany’s largest port and a crossroads in European trade since at least the 13th century, is the city with the most to lose from U.S.-led calls on Chancellor Angela Merkel to reduce the trade surplus in Europe’s biggest economy.

After the destruction of their homes and forced expulsion from South Mitrovica in Kosovo in 1999, the Roma people were displaced to temporary UN camps at the foot of mountains of toxic lead waste. Ten years later, families are still there suffering from chronic lead poisoning. AWIP/Pete Brook: The Roma People: Matt Lutton building upon a legacy of wandering photographers. AWIP/Michaela Stanková: A wall to keep out Roma + The cost of excluding the Roma minority

British citizens face being subjected to chilling new EU 'Big Brother' surveillance and investigation powers: Bureaucrats want foreign officials to be able to travel to the UK and immediately assume the powers of our own police. They would be able to order undercover-spying missions, demand DNA and even pursue people for 'crimes' which are not recognised in UK law - such as criminal defamation. Other EU countries could demand the personal details of entire plane-loads of holidaymakers, and force hard-pressed British police to trail suspects on their behalf. The countries demanding the new powers on behalf of the European Union include ex-Eastern Bloc states Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia.

The officials said that the denial of access to the information was the key factor in the refusal to extradite the film maker to the U.S., according to the letter to the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland. A district attorney's spokeswoman said their office was never notified of the Swiss request and did not know that the Justice Department had turned it down. The letter dated Monday was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday night. It provided a time line of when the request was filed and when it was turned down. The letter blamed the denial of extradition solidly on the refusal by the Justice Department to show transcripts of testimony by the film director's original prosecutor to Swiss officials.

A group of journalists has announced that it plans to sue Israel over its deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip in May. Lawyers have already begun preparing lawsuits in several European countries, according to several of the journalists, who met in Istanbul on Wednesday. The group accused Israel of violating international law. One of the nine people killed on board the Mavi Marmara, the main ship, was Cevdet Kulclar, a Turkish journalist. Reporters who were on board the ships say the Israeli government never returned their equipment or passports, and that Israeli soldiers later used their credit cards. An Italian journalist, Manolo Luppichini, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in June that his credit card was used to make NIS250 ($65) worth of purchases in Israel.

Former Guantanamo detainees can proceed with lawsuits accusing Britain of complicity in torture overseas, a High Court judge ruled Wednesday, rejected a government request to suspend the action. Britain had asked a judge to direct the six men, and six others who plan to launch similar cases, to halt their lawsuits and focus on reaching out of court settlements, allowing an independent inquiry into the accusations to begin. But High Court judge Stephen Silber ruled that the men can press ahead with their cases, even if their lawyers decide to take part in mediation talks aimed at reaching a deal outside the courts. Some documents giving a taste of what might be released in the inquiry also were released, showing an often-confused government position under former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Officials claim the court cases could last five years and cost tens of millions of pounds (dollars), they also insist that intelligence agency staff have been taken off anti-terrorism duties to review up to 500,000 documents to be disclosed in the cases. The Guardian: Omar Deghayes: 'He was brought in manacled and hooded'. + The torture files: the interrogations.

Terror laws, stop and search and council snooping to be curbed. A bonfire of draconian anti-terror laws was promised by Theresa May yesterday to reverse the 'substantial erosion of civil liberties' by Labour ministers. The Home Secretary said powers that could be scrapped or scaled back include 28- day detention without charge, control orders, stop and search and Big Brother snooping by town halls. She also pledged a sweeping review of laws that allow the arrest of people who take pictures of police officers or hold peaceful protests without permission outside Parliament.

An Afghan soldier has killed three British troops during a joint patrol in the country's southern province of Helmand, a provincial security official has said. Two more British soldiers were injured in the attack, which took place near Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, where some 9,000 British troops are based as part of the US-led forces, a security source told Reuters on Tuesday. Meanwhile, NATO released a statement saying that three of its soldiers were killed in an attack by militants in southern Afghanistan. Their deaths bring to 36 the number of foreign soldiers killed so far this month in Afghanistan.

The US has expressed disappointment at Switzerland's decision to free film director Roman Polanski after he was kept under house arrest for eight months over rape charges. The Swiss justice ministry also refused to extradite Polanski to the United States where he is wanted for having unlawful sex with an underage girl in 1977. Swiss authorities made the ruling after they said they had found a "fault" in Polanski's extradition request. They have stressed that the US could not appeal its decision. "We are disappointed by it," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters on Monday. "The rape of a 13-year-old girl by an adult -- who should know better and does know better -- is a crime," he said. "We will continue to seek justice in this case and we will evaluate our options." The Oscar-winning French-Polish director has been a fugitive from the United States, since 1978. He left the country before he could be sentenced for the rape of a 13-year-old after apparently plying her with drugs and champagne. The Independent: So that's OK then. It's fine to abuse young girls, as long as you're a great film director. WSWS: Swiss authorities decide against extraditing Roman Polanski. Time: Why the Swiss Won't Extradite Polanski.

Ireland objects to EU-Israel data deal Irish minister for justice Dermott Ahern has confirmed that Dublin is seeking to block a new European Commission initiative that would allow the free transfer of personal data on EU citizens to Israel. The minister's statement over the weekend, reported in Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday (12 July), follows recent media reports that Ireland is concerned the data could be misused after eight fake Irish passports were allegedly used by Israel's intelligence agency Mossad in the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh earlier this year. As a result, Irish officials last week called for the scrapping of commission plans to declare Israeli data protection standards as being sufficient to allow the transfer of personal data. Without the formal declaration, the broad transfer of the personal information such as bank and telephone details between the two sides is forbidden. "Personal data provided innocently to Israeli officials by Irish citizens was used in forging passports. Other EU countries, particularly the UK, had similar experiences and that is a matter of the gravest concern." Al-ManarTV: Ireland: Israel Shouldn’t Have Access to Data on European Citizens.

A 15-year-old French Muslim girl has beaten the ban on Islamic headscarves in schools by shaving her head. Cennet Doganay was banned from classes for wearing a headscarf - as it went against the new law banning religious signs in schools, introduced this term. At school on Friday she said: "I will respect both French law and Muslim law by taking off what I have on my head and not showing my hair." With her newly-shaven look, she was allowed into school on Friday. She told journalists waiting outside: "I respect the law but the law doesn't respect me."

More than a million people held a march in Barcelona to call for greater autonomy for the Catalan region. The demonstration comes a day after a constitutional court declared that there was no legal basis to recognise Catalonia as a nation. The ruling also said the Catalan language should not take precedence over Castilian Spanish. It followed a challenge to the region's statute by the opposition People's Party, which favours Spanish unity. The statute of autonomy was approved by Catalan voters in a 2006 referendum. It gave greater powers to the regional parliament in taxation and judicial matters.

[Here's what the Beeb left out:] "Nine Turkish activists" and one United States Citizen carrying an American passport! One of the nine activists killed by Israeli commandos aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla was a teenager who held U.S. citizenship, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. His name was Furkan Dorgan. She said that another U.S. citizen was injured on one of the ships and that a third -- later identified as Emily Henochowicz, 21, of Potomac -- was hurt during a subsequent protest of the incident. According to Israeli media reports, Henochowicz lost an eye after being hit by an Israeli tear-gas canister. "We have made no decisions at this point on any additional specific actions that our government should take with respect to our own citizens," Clinton added, but she renewed her call for "a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation that conforms to international standards."

Whitehall officials were urgently scrambling last night to find ways to prevent 'femme fatale' Anna Chapman from returning to the country after she admitted spying for Russia. They are looking at whether they have the power to strip her of her citizenship before she can carry out her threat to come back to live in Britain. The battle over Chapman emerged on a day of high drama yesterday as the biggest spy swap since the end of the Cold War was underway in Vienna.

It could hardly be said to be the most dignified of send-offs. Undertakers in Belgium plan to eschew traditional burials and cremations and start dissolving corpses instead. The move is intended to tackle a lack of burial space and environmental concerns as 573lbs of carbon dioxide are released by each cremated corpse.

[The Irish government] has moved to block a European Commission initiative to allow the transfer to Israel and storage there of sensitive personal data on European citizens. The intervention by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern reflects “profound concern” over transfers being made following the use of eight fake Irish passports by the alleged Israeli assassins of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Dubai police have accused Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad of orchestrating the killing using fraudulent British, French, German and Australian passports along with the fake Irish passports. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The commission wanted European governments to approve a declaration that the EU recognises Israeli data protection standards as being sufficient to allow member states to transfer such personal data to Israel. Two days ago, however, Irish officials called for the termination of the procedure under which EU governments were to endorse the commission’s declaration. Without such a declaration, the transfer of personal data to Israel is prohibited.

■ Kremlin 'keen to sidestep potential embarrassment of court testimony'
■ Ten alleged spies set for first court appearance together
■ Accused could plead guilty to lowest charges before being deported

Raw Story: US, Russia planning Cold War-style prisoner swap? AWIP/Stephen Lendman: Russian Spy Case: Espionage or Politics?

A Spanish court on Tuesday was seeking the arrest of undercover CIA agents it says used false documents in Spain during the dirty war on terrorism ordered by the George W. Bush administration. That revelation, reported by the local press, was offered by judicial sources investigating U.S. civilian flights with stopovers in Spanish airports between 2003 and 2005. Prosecutor Ismael Moreno with the Audiencia Nacional (National Court)asked the United Kingdom for help in taking statements from Olivier Minkwitz, the author of a report by the British NGO Reprieve which demonstrates that members of those flight crews used fake IDs in their many stopovers in Spain. Reprieve is an organization of lawyers representing individuals locked up on terrorism charges without trial or evidence in the prison maintained by the United States on the its naval base in Guantanamo. According to members of the Reprieve team, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in at least seven kidnappings and illegal transfers of prisoners from Afghanistan and to secret jails in Europe and Africa. The Spanish prosecutor Moreno demanded the arrest of 14 alleged CIA agents who were part of the crew of one of the flights that stopped over in Palma de Mallorca in 2004. According to the court, those individuals were carrying false passports and did not report their presence to Spanish authorities in accordance with the law for undercover operations.

The Bilderberg Group is one of the most secretive and exclusive clubs that attracts world's most powerful people. Its meetings are invitation only and take place under tight security, away from the prying eyes of the public and the press. Investigative journalist Daniel Estulin, who has made it his mission to uncover the secrets of the Bilderberg Group, has shared some of his revelations with RT. He claims the group makes decisions on international policy in a way far removed from democracy.

Popular disgust is mounting over revelations that, while demanding huge social cuts from working people, top French officials took money from billionairess Liliane Bettencourt and helped her evade taxes. The 87-year-old Bettencourt’s net worth of €17 billion, largely in holdings of stock in cosmetics giant L’Oréal, makes her France’s richest woman. Yesterday, the news web site Mediapart published interviews implicating President Nicolas Sarkozy in the Bettencourt affair. It interviewed Claire T., Bettencourt’s former accountant, currently under investigation, after she testified to police the night before. The accountant’s testimony suggests that Bettencourt illegally funded Sarkozy’s election campaign. Daily Mail: Sarkozy and the envelopes of cash: President denies taking money from L'Oreal heiress. AWIP: What the butler heard. The Guardian: Nicolas Sarkozy denies campaign took illegal donation.

The Queen is to address the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York for the first time in 53 years. The trip is her first to the city since 1976 and follows her nine-day tour of Canada with the Duke of Edinburgh. After her speech on world peace, the Monarch will lay a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center which was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks in 2001. She will also officially open a British Garden of Remembrance in Hanover Square in honour of the 67 UK victims. The Queen's speech to the United Nations is considered by Buckingham Palace to be one of her most important in recent years.

No ban has been imposed on refueling Iranian planes in British airports, an informed source in Iran Air's Britain and Ireland office says. "No limitation has been placed on the refueling of Iranian passenger planes in Britain so far. The Iranian flights to London are being conducted regularly and on a daily basis and Iran National Airlines Company conducts three direct flights to Tehran and one direct flight to Shiraz (from London) each week," the informed source told IRNA on Monday. "No unusual behavior by the companies providing fuel for Iranian planes has been observed so far. Iran Air Lines Company, however, is fully ready to encounter any likely limitations in this regard," the source added.

Five European countries have called for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolution which calls for the blockade of the Gaza Strip to be lifted. On Monday, the foreign ministers of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and Britain underlined "the need for a fundamental change of policy leading to a durable solution to the situation in Gaza, in line with the UNSC Resolution 1860," the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, AFP reported. The five countries also said they hoped "the measures announced by the government of Israel will soon be implemented," referring to Tel Aviv's alleged intention to relax its restrictions on the transfer of supplies. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said earlier in the day that the Spanish, French, and Italian foreign ministers would visit Gaza this month to check on the plan.

An international inquiry into the Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla may hurt the Turks – This is the message that US President Barack Obama has conveyed to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish sources told the London-based al-Hayat newspaper. Saturday's report said Obama told Erdogan that "such an inquiry commission may lead to accusations against several passengers on the Marmara ship, or members of the IHH organization and Turkey must know that its request could turn into a double-edged sword." [It has been clear to all and sundry for a while now that the American president is a dishonest broker. We make a note of the fact that he now also is a bag man, delivery boy, if you like, for Israeli threats against a friendly nation and fellow NATO member. It would appear that this is something new in the unending American downward spiral.]

Turkey has for the first time threatened to break diplomatic ties with Israel over its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May. Turkey's foreign minister said a break could only be averted if Israel either apologised or accepted the outcome of an international inquiry into the raid. The Israeli government said it had nothing to apologise for. Ankara curtailed diplomatic relations with Israel after the naval raid, in which nine Turks were killed. Turkey - which until recently was Israel's most important Muslim ally - withdrew its ambassador and demanded that the Israelis issue an apology, agree to a United Nations inquiry and compensate the victims' families. AWIP: No apology for attack on flotilla.

The recordings that expose the murky world of France's super-rich Jewish L'Oréal heiress could have come from the pen of Molière. The following story could have been written by the 17th-century French playwright Molière. It is the tragi-comic tale of a deaf and confused 87-year-old heiress, surrounded by quarrelling and mutually detesting advisers and favourites who may or may not also be predators. The play could be entitled The Bewildered Billionairess. It's set not in the 17th century, however, but in the very recent past – between 25 May 2009 and 11 May 2010, to be precise. The extracts are, in fact, taken from the transcripts of real conversations secretly recorded by the old woman's former butler. The 100 hours of tapes have created a political scandal in France. They threaten to bring down a senior cabinet minister, Eric Woerth, and could deal a fatal blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy's already limping presidency. The tapes may become the principal exhibit in an explosive trial – which opened last week and then adjourned – and could also decide the future of the world's largest cosmetics company, L'Oréal.

19 November 2009

Mr de Maistre explains to Ms Bettencourt that he should ensure that her favourite grandson takes over the family stake in L'Oréal.

PdeM: The Angelli family did that. It's the grandson, John Elkann, who took over.

LB: Is that a Jewish name?

PdeM: Yes. Isn't that odd? They are always where the money is. [He laughs.]

LB: I am not anti-Semitic at all. [Her daughter, Françoise, is married to a rabbi's son, Jean-Pierre Meyers.]

Finland has made access to broadband connections to the internet a legal right for every one of its citizens in the first legislation of its kind anywhere in the world. From today, all Finns will have the right to a 1 megabit per second (Mbps) broadband connection. Under the new law, telecommunications companies will be obliged to provide all citizens with broadband lines that can run at a minimum of 1Mbps. In addition, the government has promised that by 2015, the entire population will have a 100Mbps connection. Suvi Linden, the country's communications minister, said the internet was part of everyday life for Finnish people and that high speed internet access was a priority for the government. "Internet services are no longer just for entertainment," she told the BBC. "Finland has worked hard to develop an information society and a couple of years ago we realised not everyone had access." Up to 96 per cent of the population is already online and only about 4,000 homes will need to be connected to comply with the law. However, the plan means it will be difficult for the authorities to cut off people suspected of illegal file-sharing. Instead of restricting internet access, the Finnish government plans to send letters to anyone breaking piracy laws. AWIP/Maidhc Ó Cathail: Guess Who Wants to Kill the Internet?

The allegations of torture by British soldiers in Iraq bear chilling comparison with America's worst excesses. The inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa is due to report by the end of the year. It will detail how Mousa died in Iraq in September 2003, allegedly brutalised by British soldiers in a "free for all"; and how it was that he and nine other men in the same incident were allegedly hooded, forced into painful stress positions, and deprived of sleep, food and water.

One of the women accused of being a Russian spy in the U.S. travelled on a British passport, according to the FBI. Tracey Lee Ann Foley, who was posing as a naturalised U.S. citizen born in Canada, is believed to have been given forged British documents by her Russian handlers. She used them to travel to and from Moscow with greater ease, the FBI has claimed. The Foreign Office said today it was investigating the claim.

Been booted out by the Times paywall? Allow us to introduce you to the Guardian's website. Come on in – the more the merrier. And a very warm welcome to all our readers from The Times. We're very sorry you awoke to find you could no longer read your newspaper online without a credit card and we feel your pain. We couldn't get into the Times site either last week when it was supposed to still be free as the registration system had crashed. But we can help you through this trauma. Call it a belief in an open internet or care in the community if you like, but here at the Guardian we can offer everything you ever wanted from the Times – and more – for nothing.

A 'Big Brother' stop and search power which has been used by police to harass hundreds of thousands of innocent people will remain in force despite being ruled illegal. The news that police may continue to search members of the public without having any reasonable grounds for suspicion provoked fury among civil liberties campaigners. The power - section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 - was ruled unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday. The Home Office now has no remaining grounds for appeal. But, despite the crushing Strasbourg defeat, officials say they will not stop the police from using the power for months or even a year or more.

Embargo 'Not a Good Way to Settle Differences'. Speaking today at an economic forum Christophe de Margarie, the CEO of French oil giant Total S.A., condemned the recent series of international sanctions targeting Iran’s petroleum industry as a mistake. “The embargo affects the population, too many things are politicized, de Margarie insisted, adding that “we do not think an embargo on the delivery of petrol products is a good way to settle differences of a political nature.” The unilateral US sanctions against Iran, which were signed by President Obama this week, have ordered every energy company in the world to stop delivering refined petroleum to Iran, nominally to punish it for its civilian nuclear program. Total announced on Monday that they would be suspending all deliveries to Iran to avoid US punishment. Though Iran is one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil, they have comparatively little refining capacity and have had to rely on imports from international companies like Total for civilian needs like gasoline. Since the sanctions Iran has pledged it will increase its refining capacity and become self sufficient. Antiwar: Outgoing UN Nuclear Inspector Pushed Dubious Iran Nuclear Weapons Intel.

Israel has ruled out any formal apology for the May 31 attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turkish activists dead. In a meeting with Israeli Trade Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer in Brussels on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated Ankara's demands that Israel apologize for the deadly attack on the Turkish-owned ship Mavi Marmara, offer compensation to the victims, agree to an international investigation, and end the blockade of Gaza. Ankara, a former ally of Israel, recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv and cancelled military exercises with Israel. It has also twice denied Israel the use of its airspace. The international community condemned the attack on the Freedom Flotilla and several countries summoned Israeli ambassadors. On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the attack, describing it as an act of self-defense. Haaretz: Netanyahu: No apology, no compensation to Turkey over Gaza flotilla.

Ben-Eliezer denies agreeing to compensate for flotilla injuries. According to a different Turkish paper, Zaman, during the secret meeting between Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels, Davutoglu threatened that Israel-Turkey relations may worsen, with Turkey closing its airspace to commerical flights, as well as military ones, should Israel fail to apologize. Huriyyet reported that Ben-Eliezer signaled that Israel is willing to apologize, and even pay the families of those inured in the IDF raid on the "Mavi Marmara." However, Ben-Eliezer has denied that Israel will compensate those injured on the flotilla. "No one intends to do that, and the minister did not promise anything," Ben-Eliezer's spokesman said.

The Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER) stated during a press conference on Monday that Israeli commandos shot at activists on the Mavi Marmara from their helicopters, according to autopsy reports. Yasin Dıvrak, a lawyer for MAZLUM-DER, said the autopsy reports prepared by the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) proved that Israeli soldiers, contrary to their claims of self-defense, aimed to kill and started to shoot even before descending onto the Mavi Marmara, which was carrying humanitarian aid to the under-siege Gaza on May 31. During the Israeli raid, nine peace activists were killed and dozens more injured. Israel claims that its soldiers attacked passengers in self-defense because some of the passengers assaulted Israeli soldiers with sticks and knives after they descended onto the ship. The autopsy reports also showed that the corpses of the activists were washed before being sent to Turkey and some alcohol had been found in their bodies.

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Turkish humanitarian group IHH has released an assessment of the flotilla mission last month in which nine activists died when Israeli forces raided the vessel in international waters. "This operation was hostile from the very beginning, directed towards killing and killing as many as possible. Israeli soldiers did not open fire on the ships as a warning. They opened fire to kill," the report stated. Israel listed IHH as a terrorist organization shortly following the raid on 31 May. Eurasia Review: Israeli Investigation Of Gaza Flotilla In Disarray.

Police officers stopped a teenage photographer from taking pictures of an Armed Forces Day parade - and then claimed they did not need a law to detain him. Jules Mattsson, a 16-year-old freelancer from Hackney, east London, was photographing police cadets on Saturday when he was ordered to stop and give his personal details by an adult cadet officer who claimed he needed parental permission to capture images of the cadets. After arguing his rights in a series of protracted legal debates with officers, the sixth former says he was pushed down a set of stairs and detained for breaching the peace until the parade passed. He is now considering taking legal action against the Met which has often been criticised for its heavy handed approach towards photographers in the capital.

Turkey partially closed its airspace to Israeli military flights in reaction to the attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine civilians dead, the prime minister and other officials have said. Diplomatic sources said Monday that Turkey has rejected two separate Israeli requests to use Turkish airspace since early June. “The ban is about military flights. Civilian flights are not affected. Each request will be analyzed case by case,” diplomatic sources told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Monday. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters in Toronto, where he was attending a G-20 summit, that Turkey imposed the ban after the May 31 raid on the Mavi Marmara vessel, the Associated Press reported.

Human Rights Watch says France, Germany and Britain utilize foreign intelligence obtained through torture in the so-called fight against terrorism. In its report entitled "No Questions Asked: Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture," Human Rights Watch (HRW) has denounced the use of foreign torture intelligence as "illegal" and "wrong," raising concern about the way the countries of the European Union have dealt with intelligence obtained from individuals detained on charges of terrorism. The report condemns any application of information tainted by torture, saying such information has also been used in criminal and other proceedings in France and Germany. "Berlin, Paris and London should be working to eradicate torture, not relying on foreign torture intelligence," the AFP quoted Judith Sunderland, a western Europe researcher for HRW. "Taking information from torturers is illegal and just plain wrong," she emphasized. HRW: “No Questions Asked,” Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture [Report] Electronic Intifada: Israeli link possible in US torture techniques.

Four Norwegian soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan, taking the total number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this month close to the 100 mark. The soldiers were killed inside their vehicle in Faryab province when a roadside bomb exploded on Sunday. The Norwegians' deaths push the Nato death toll in Afghanistan this year to 318 compared to 520 for the whole of 2009, according to the AFP news agency's tally. In a separate attack on Monday, at least eight civilians were killed when a homemade-style bomb struck a minivan in the central province of Ghazni, Afghan police said. Nato blames the rise in casualty numbers on expansion of its military operations and a more aggressive approach to the Taliban in areas where the group had previously been unchallenged. "Norway has been hit hard," Grete Faremo, Norway's defence minister, said reacting to the news of the deaths. "The loss deeply affects us all. It's hard and it reminds us of the risk we're taking."

[Editor's Comment:] That's the way it goes -ignorant and unempathic young men sign up as a hired killers for the waning US empire and sooner or later things like these will happen. Their shabby deaths are not a great loss to Norway. We still have plenty of young fools who will fill the boots of their reckless predecessors. In spite of what the "defence" minister claims, their well-deserved deaths won't affect "Norway" at all, "deeply" or otherwise. This unctuous and hypocritical "defence" minister uses words like 'we' and 'us' but she does not speak for the Norwegian people. She speaks for the political & military establishment.

Mainstream media here have gone into overdrive and people are being inundated with soppy eulogies and heroic tales. These killers' unnecessary deaths now are cynically being converted in to political capital for the local client state elite. They need this, of course, to justify their illegal and criminal presence in Afghanistan. They also need the sentimental propaganda to justify wasting billions of Nowegian Kroner in Afghanistan, ordered by their US masters. This really is what "deeply affects us all", because their war crimes are being financed by the taxpayers' money. They do this for "America", not for us. -So the risk the young killers in fact are taking is definitely not for their own country (which is not under attack, not by any stretch of mind). Nor do they take it for peace, democracy, or for the women in Afghanistan or anything of the sort. But they do take it for war & plunder. They're a pathetic bunch of fools and so are the hypocritical psychophants now ruling Norway for the evil empire.

Following the attacks on the Freedom Flotilla in which 9 Turkish citizens were killed, Turkey has decided to continue severing ties with Israel by canceling the agreement it signed in 2000 to supply Israel with water for a 20 year period. The Israel National Newspaper asserted that the annulment of the agreement comes as a punishment to the Israeli entity for refusing to apologise, conduct an international investigation or compensate the martyrs ofthe Freedom Flotilla's families.

A campaign has been launched by the Friends of Al-Aqsa organization for the government to take action to address the theft of yet another British Passport by the Israeli authorities. Al Jazeera journalist Jamal Elshayyal was on board the MV Marmara on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which was stormed by Israeli soldiers on 31 May. As with others on board, Jamal's possessions were all confiscated by the soldiers, and not returned to him. As a journalist, his rights were not respected. As a citizen of Britain, worse still, his passport was not returned to him, and 23 days later, is still missing.

Kenneth O'Keefe talks about the attack on the MV Mavi Marmara
that was trying to run the blockade on Gaza. Part 2, Part 3.

The Free Gaza Movement says it will take the State of Israel to the International Criminal Court over last month's raid on an aid ship that left nine civilians dead. Twelve lawyers from countries whose citizens took part in the voyage are collecting evidence and testimonies from passengers, human rights lawyer Audrey Bomse told Ma’an. The lawyers have asked governments of citizens on board, including the US and UK, to pressure Israel to return passengers’ property taken by Israeli soldiers during the raid on 31 May. In a statement, the organizers said the seized cameras, camcorders, and mobile phones contain vital evidence of “willful killing, inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and unlawful deportation or transfer.” As Israel is the occupying power in Gaza, these alleged crimes would constitute a contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Threats of a swine flu pandemic were 'vastly over-rated' by the World Health Organisation, an inquiry has concluded. The Council of Europe last night also accused the UN's health arm of 'grave shortcomings' in the process that led it to declare a pandemic last year. Plummeting confidence in health advice could prove 'disastrous' in the event of a severe future pandemic, parliamentarians at the Strasbourg-based senate said. The assembly also accused the WHO of being 'highly defensive' of its handling of the outbreak and drugs companies of influencing the decisions taken. Members, including five British MPs, voted overwhelmingly in favour for greater transparency in public health decisions. AFP: Council of Europe calls for WHO flu handling probe.

War Criminals: Barak & Livni # 1
& 2 from left. Olmert on the right.

Two Belgian lawyers, working on behalf of a group of Palestinians, plan to charge 14 Israeli politicians, including Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni and Matan Vilnai, for crimes against humanity and war crimes. The lawyers, Georges-Henri Beauthier and Alexis Deswaef said they were acting on behalf of 13 Palestinian victims from Gaza, and an additional man - Anouar El Okka, a Belgian doctor of Palestinian origin. The current charges would be brought against the Israeli leaders using the principle of universal jurisdiction, the lawyers said - and would focus on alleged crimes, including the use of phosperous, committed during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in January 2009. In Belgian, the law states that there must be a connection between the crimes and a Belgian citizen in order to successfully prosecute under universal jurisdiction - something El Okka would supply.

This is not the first time the Belgian system has been asked to charge Israeli with such offenses. Just last year, Belgian attorneys, acting on behalf of Belgian nationals with relatives who were wounded or killed in Gaza, petitioned a court there to arrest then Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni upon her arrival in Brussels. However, in that case it seems the connection between the victims and Belgium was not strong enough to follow through with the case. The most famous case to date involving Belgium and Israel was in 2001 when there was a criminal complaint in Belgium on behalf of 21 survivors of the 1982 massacre at the Shabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut. The then Israeli Defense Minister (Ariel Sharon) and members of the Lebanese Christian militia were charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It was after this case that the law was changed to include a clause about a Belgian connection. Maan News: War crimes suit filed against Barak, Livni in Belgium. PressTV: Israel faces new war crime headache.

The Swedish Dock Workers Union (Hamnarbetarförbundet) on Wednesday launched a blockade of Israeli cargo in protest against the deadly raid on the Gaza-bound freedom flotilla last month, union representatives have confirmed. The blockade, which also applies to Israeli ships, was launched "because of the assault on the Ship to Gaza (flotilla), that we supported before they took off ... and the blockade of the Gaza strip, which affects the civilian population," union spokesman Rolf Axelsson said. The dock workers' protest is set to take place in all unionised Swedish ports, and is scheduled to and ends at midnight on June 29th.

Abu Rashed stated in a press conference that he and Ms. Anne de Jong filed a lawsuit against the Israeli government on last Thursday June 17 2010, and that a lawyer specialized in the international laws has presented their complaints, because they were kidnapped at sea and detained without a lawyer. He added that they will ask for a compensation for the moral and the material damage which was done to them during the abduction from aboard the ships in international waters. The Dutch Foreign Ministry will pay all expenses of a lawsuit. SabbahReport: Let the Truth Be Heard!

With relations tense between Turkey and American Jews, this week saw a rare attempt at appeasement as a senior Turkish parliamentarianl asked to attend a Chabad event to honor the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The event kicked off with meetings between Chabad representatives from all over the world and U.S. lawmakers, continued with more meetings at the White House and wound up with a dinner attended by much of Washington's diplomatic corps.

Egypt allowed at least one Israeli and 11 American warships to pass through the Suez Canal as an Iranian flotilla approaches Gaza. Egypt closed the canal to protect the ships with thousands of soldiers, according to the British-based Arabic language newspaper Al Quds al-Arabi. One day prior to the report on Saturday, Voice of Israel government radio reported that the Egyptian government denied an Israeli request not to allow the Iranian flotilla to use the Suez Canal to reach Gaza, in violation of the Israeli sea embargo on the Hamas-controlled area. International agreements require Egypt to keep the Suez open even for warships, but the armada, led by the USS Truman with 5,000 sailors and marines, was the largest in years. Egypt closed the canal to fishing and other boats as the armada moved through the strategic passageway that connects the Red and Mediterranean Seas. Despite Egypt’s reported refusal to block the canal to Iranian boats, the clearance for the American-Israeli fleet may be a warning to Iran it may face military opposition if the Iranian Red Crescent ship continues on course to Gaza. AWIP: Report: US battleships cross Suez Canal.

AWIP/Kurt Nimmo: Most Americans and Europeans Support Impending Attack on Iran. Naturally Americans are more susceptible to neocon propaganda than other people around the world. In America, a sucker is born every minute, as P. T. Barnum said (actually it was “Paper Collar Joe” Bessimer who made the cynical comment). “Americans are among the most supportive of a military option to deal with Iran with 66 per cent of those who oppose a nuclear-armed Iran saying they would consider the use of force, a figure second only to Nigeria’s 71 per cent.” No explanation why Nigerians are more brain-dead than Americans who spend large periods of time sucking up fallacious and absurd propaganda disseminated by a corporate media that works hand-in-glove with transnational corporations and the military-industrial complex, or maybe that should be military-industrial-media complex.

Berlin attractive for its nightlife, bohemian lifestyle and security. Unsurprisingly, once the Second World War was over and the new state of Israel came into being in 1948, the few Jews who had survived were loath to stay in Germany, in the "Land der Taeter" ( "country of the perpetrators"). But today, decades later, with an ever-dwindling number of Holocaust survivors still around, the scars are slowly healing and Germany is becoming an attractive place to live for many Israelis.

Britons have paid more than £20 billion for fighting and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan since April 2001, government figures have revealed. The recently released figures -- which indicate that at least £9.24bn was spent on Iraq and £11.1bn on Afghanistan -- do not include troop salaries or care for those wounded. People have begun questioning the government's credibility as it plans to cut more than £6bn in public spending, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in the public sector, but refuses to make any cuts to defense spending. "It is a disgrace that the coalition government plans to target low-paid public sector workers and those receiving welfare benefits in its emergency budget," said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union.

Iran will offer a "firm" response to the European Union if it pursues its plan to impose sanctions on Tehran, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani was quoted on Saturday as saying on the Press TV website. "The European Union will face an appropriate and firm response from Iran should it pursue the policy of imposing sanctions," Ahani told Germany's State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office Wolf-Ruthart Born in a meeting on Thursday, the website of the English-language television reported. Dismissing the Western and European dual-track policy of diplomacy and sanctions as "deceitful and useless," Ahani urged the EU to end its confrontational policy towards Iran, the report said. "The policy of imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme will not help to settle the disputes but will inflict damage on European firms," he said. AWIP: US and EU impose extra sanctions on Iran.

After an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound flotilla that left nine Turkish citizens dead, Ankara has introduced a roadmap to "completely" cut its ties with Israel. After Israel failed to apologize or pay compensations for the killing of the Turkish citizens in its attack on the Mavi Marmara on May 31, Turkish Defense Industry Implementation Committee (SSIK) reviewed the country's military agreements and joint projects with Israel on Thursday. The SSIK held a meeting chaired by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday and decided to shelve 16 military agreements with Israel, including a $757 million plane and tank modernization project and a missile project worth over $1.5 billion. Turkish President Abdullah Gul had earlier announced that a roadmap was to be prepared on the issue of sanctions against Israel.

■ EU begin emergency billion-pound bailout of Spain ■ Countries in debt may fall to dictators, EC chief warns ■ 'Apocalyptic' vision as some states run out of money Democracy could ‘collapse’ in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the debt crisis, the head of the European Commission has warned. In an extraordinary briefing to trade union chiefs last week, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso set out an ‘apocalyptic’ vision in which crisis-hit countries in southern Europe could fall victim to military coups or popular uprisings as interest rates soar and public services collapse because their governments run out of money. The stark warning came as it emerged that EU chiefs have begun work on an emergency bailout package for Spain which is likely to run into hundreds of billions of pounds.

The European Court of Human Rights will consider the case of a German citizen who was kidnapped and beaten in connection with the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, the Open Society Justice Initiative revealed today. This is the first time an extraordinary rendition case related to the "war on terror" has reached Europe's top court. Macedonian security forces seized Khaled El-Masri at the request of the United States in December 2003 and held him—incommunicado—for 23 days. El-Masri was then handed over to the CIA and flown to a detention center in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was confined in appalling conditions, interrogated, and abused. After several months, El-Masri was finally released and dumped on a roadside in Albania. Despite overwhelming evidence of its collaboration, Macedonia has denied that El-Masri was detained illegally on its territory or handed over to the CIA.

"European governments must be held accountable for participating in torture, abuse, and kidnappings in association with the CIA's rendition program," said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which is litigating the case. "United States courts may have closed their doors on this matter, but we hope that El-Masri will find justice before the European Court."

The Government will today kick out an Israeli diplomat over the use of forged Irish passports in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai. It’s understood investigations by the Garda and Passport Office have led to the "inescapable conclusion" that an Israeli government agency was responsible both for the misuse and manufacture of the forgeries. As a result, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin will recommend to the Cabinet meeting that a member of the Israeli embassy in Dublin be expelled from the country. Six forged Irish passports were used by suspects believed to have been involved in the killing of Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai in January. Der Spiegel: Aftermath of Dubai Assassination: Israel Against Extradition of Suspected Mossad Agent to Germany.

Israel has been forced to the defence of an alleged Mossad spy who has been arrested in Poland on charges of using a German passport in an operation to kill a Palestinian militant. Uri Brodsky faces extradition to Germany which posted a notice that he was wanted in connection with the assassination of a senior Hamas official in a Dubai earlier this year. The man was detained at Warsaw's Okecia airport on June 4 for his apparent role in the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of the Hamas armed wing.

Flemish separatist N-VA party on course to win most seats in a result that could complicate efforts to form coalition government. The Flemish separatist N-VA party which wants to divide Belgium was on course last night to win the most seats in parliamentary elections. Such a result could also complicate attempts to form a coalition that can bring the budget under control in a country plagued by rising national debt. With 86% of the votes counted by late last night, the interior ministry predicted the New Flemish Alliance, which wants to gradually split the country between Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia, would win 28 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, compared with just eight now. That would narrowly push the mainly French-speaking Socialists into second place. Heavy losses were expected for the Christian Democrats and the Liberals. "The N-VA has won the election today," the party's leader, Bart De Wever, told jubilant supporters. "We stand before you with a party that has some 30% [of the Flemish vote]."

Russia is to sign a major deal with Israel for a joint production of military drones as Moscow seeks higher-quality arms than those its domestic firms can provide. An article published by Bloomberg News website on June 11 said the agreement is worth 300 million euros (362 million USD) and will be implemented in two years.

Iceland, the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of state, passed a law on Friday allowing same-sex partners to get married in a vote which met with no political resistance. The Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between "man and man, woman and woman," in addition to unions between men and women. Iceland, a socially tolerant island nation of about 320,000 people, became the first country to elect an openly gay head of state in 2009 when Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir became prime minister after being nominated by her party.

Following the Nazi capitulation at the end of World War II, millions of Germans were kicked out of Czechoslovakia. Thousands were also murdered. A video of one mass execution recently turned up in Prague and was shown on television.

A senior Iranian lawmaker urges Moscow to "stand by its commitments" after the Kremlin made a snap decision to freeze the sale of the S-300 defense system to Tehran. In the wake of a UN Security Council decision to impose fresh sanctions on Iran, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reportedly assured fellow Western leaders that Moscow would shelve a long-stalled deal to deliver the S-300 air-defense missiles to the government in Tehran. Deputy Head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Esmail Kowsari reacted to the sudden decision made by the Kremlin on Saturday, asserting that Russia is "bound by an agreement to provide Iran with the advanced defense system." Don't Bomb Iran: Israel stations nuclear missile subs off Iran [The London Times scrubbed this article.] Global Research: UN "Green Light" for a Pre-emptive US-Israel Attack on Iran? Security Council Resolution Transforms Iran into a "Sitting Duck".

Belgians are going to the polls to cast their votes to fill 150 parliamentary seats in a move that could decide the fate and possible breakup of their country. On Sunday, Belgians cast their votes to decide the future of their government with opinion polls showing the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which advocates the gradual dissolution of Belgium, winning the majority in Dutch-speaking Flanders -- and possibly throughout the country. The party, however, needs to reduce Belgium's debt ratio, which is the third highest in Europe. Despite the fact that it serves as the home base for the European Union, Belgium has long struggled with divisions between its Dutch-speakers in northern Flanders and its French-speakers in Wallonia in the South.

Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary, insisted yesterday that he did not know until the death of Baha Mousa that British troops hooded prisoners in Iraq as standard operating procedure. Mr Hoon told an inquiry into Mr Mousa's death: "I was clearly deeply shocked that a man had died in such circumstances at the hands of apparently British soldiers," and that the abuse he had suffered, manacled and hooded, while held by British soldiers was "appalling" and "reprehensible".

A great number of people working in the Italian judiciary behave incorrectly. Convinced that they will never secure convictions of the rich and powerful, they habitually leak their entire investigations to newspapers, so at least to hang their subjects in the court of public opinion. It is a shameful way to ride over due process, no matter how much it may seem justified. So I have some sympathy with Silvio Berlusconi’s attempts significantly to tighten up the rules on judicial surveillance, wiretaps and leaks, even if it once again looks like the Italian prime minister is putting the machinery of state to use in the service of protecting his personal interests. But – and it’s a big but – Berlusconi’s attack on the journalists who print transcripts of telephone conversations or other such information from judicial sources is completely indefensible.

After wavering at first, Russian now maintains that the new round of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran do not forestall a sale by Moscow to Tehran of S-300 surface-to-air missiles, which are defensive in character. It is reassuring that the US State Department in the end agreed with Russia on this matter. If the US had been gung-ho to deprive Iran of a defensive weapon, it would have indicated that Washington had serious plans for an attack.

An Italian journalist who was detained by the Israel Defense Forces following the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla says his credit card was used to purchase items after it was confiscated by the Israeli authorities. Manolo Luppichini was aboard the Sfintoni-8000, one of the smaller boats in the flotilla, when the naval commandos took it over. "Nobody was killed on our boat," Luppichini said in a telephone call from Italy. "We tried a little passive resistance around the boat's bridge. The soldiers fired paint balls and two people were hurt by stun [taser] guns."

Some 78 percent of Jewish Israelis now view Turkey, once Israel's only Muslim ally in the Middle East, as an enemy nation, according to a poll published on Thursday. The sharp switch in public attitude towards Turkey comes in the wake of a May 31 raid by Israeli commandos on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, which left nine Turkish activists dead. The poll, published in the pro-government Yisrael Hayom daily, asked participants: "Do you believe that in light of recent events Turkey has become an enemy state?" It said 78 percent of those surveyed answered yes, while 22 percent said no. You Tube: Zionists celebrating and justifying Gaza flotilla murders.

Israeli Army commander and top Likud member Uzi Dayan today warned on Israeli Army Radio that Israel would consider any attempt by the Turkish military to protect future aid ships from attack an “act of war.” Dayan then added that if Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan attempted to accompany the aid ships personally, as he has reportedly considered “we would not try to take over the ship he was on, but would sink it.” He added that Erdogan’s presence on a future aid ship would also be a casus belli for an Israeli war against Turkey. AWIP/Stephen Lendman: Israel's New Initiative: Barbarism and Piracy at Sea. Uruknet: State Terrorism.

The Israeli thugs are holding Furkan down, kicking him, then pumping four bullets into his head, killing him. AWIP/Justin Raimondo: This Says It All: Israelis kill American – Joe Biden says: "What's the big deal?"

Reports circulating in the Kremlin today state that Prime Minister Putin has ordered Russian military forces to prepare to confront American military forces in Afghanistan over what Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov warns is the “greatest threat to International peace and security”, Afghanistan’s thriving drug trade supported by the US and NATO. Not being reported to the American people about the Afghanistan war is that it has nothing to do with their being protected from terrorists, but rather it involves the billions of dollars gained for many of the West’s top intelligence agencies (mainly the CIA) from the heroin produced in this region (90% of World’s total) that by 2001 the Taliban had virtually eliminated. Immediately after the US invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) installed one of their main Afghan operatives, Hamid Karzai, as President, who then put into power his brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, who since then has increased heroin production to levels unseen in modern times and resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Russian citizens.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is showering Afghan cable networks with lucrative deals to cut broadcastings of Iran's English-language news channel, Press TV. The Press TV bureau in Kabul was informed on Wednesday that "a number of BBC employees have recently contacted the cable networks' union in Herat to persuade them into breaking contract with Press TV and blocking all satellite transmission of its programs." "The BBC reportedly offered to triple the union's pay once it agrees to strip Press TV of its broadcasting rights in Herat," the bureau added. Last year, US military forces confiscated technical equipment of Press TV's Afghanistan bureau, only days before Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a visit to the country. Local reports revealed that Press TV has started to emerge as a popular news source among the people and even journalists in Afghanistan.

Israel is prepared to accept a British plan to ease its blockade of Gaza in exchange for international acceptance of a watered-down investigation into last week's deadly raid on a Turkish ship that was headed for the Hamas-ruled territory, the Telegraph reported Wednesday. The British daily quoted Western officials as saying that last week the UK circulated a confidential document proposing ways of easing the blockade. [In other words, to forsake truth for some "crumbs of bread"...for a limited span of time, until it's down to business again and time to tighten the screw and choke the life out of Gaza after the world's attention has wandered elsewhere.]

Avigdor Lieberman, foreign minister, said that Turkey was "simply of no interest" and that Turkey may once have been a friend of Israel but "internal changes in Turkish society" had caused the split, as they had between Israel and Iran in 1979.

"We didn't start this provocation, we did not send bullies with knives and metal rods to Turkey," he said. "In this case, the entire blame, all of it, from beginning to end, is that of Turkey. We have nothing to apologise for. On the contrary."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they don’t plan to export natural gas to Israel via a new pipeline to Turkey. “There is no such thing on our agenda,” Erdogan said at a news conference with Putin in Istanbul when asked about the gas. Today's Zaman: Turkey to cancel defense agreements with Israel after flotilla attack.