Friday, August 02, 2013
Diana: The Fairytale Princess
Charles Saatchi's Multimillion-pound Art Collection Up for Sale
Fifty lots, including a four-poster bed by Tracey Emin, will be sold at Christie's Thinking Big sale in central London in October.
Mr Saatchi has not put any reserve prices on the work, which means in theory they could sell for as little as once [sic] pence.
In reality, artist's dealers will probably bid for work if it looks like they might sell for prices so low they would damage their reputation.
Many of the lots, including work by the Chapman Brothers and Conrad Shawcross, are so big they cannot be exhibited at Christie's but will instead go on show in a huge former Post Office depot in central London.
The Saatchi Gallery, which Mr Saatchi opened in 1985, has included some of the UK’s most controversial and talked-about artworks. His collection is reported to be worth £200million. » | Alice Philipson | Friday, August 02, 2013
America Issues Travel Alert over Fears of Al-Qaeda Plot to Target Tourists
The US State Department said the risk of a terror attack was particularly high in the Middle East and North Africa between now and the end of August.
It followed a warning from America on Thursday of an al Qaeda plot to attack its embassies in Muslim countries.
Britain changed its travel advice for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf yesterday in the wake of the latest alert, telling diplomats in Arabian capitals to exercise vigilance until the Eid festival, marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Thursday.
In a statement last night, the US State Department officials said American citizens living or travelling overseas should be aware of a potential al-Qaeda attack either in or emanating from the Arabian peninsula.
"Current information suggests that al-Qaeda and affiliated organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August," the department said.
The attacks are seen as occurring in or emanating from the Arabian peninsula, according to the statement, and "may involve public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure." » | Damien McElroy, and Raf Sanchez in Washington | Friday, August 02, 2013
Charles and Diana: The Wedding of the Century
The Heiress-apparent: Silvio Lines Up Daughter to Take Control of His Political Party
"Best Dressed"-Liste: Vanity Fair nominiert Herzogin Kate
US-Spionageaffäre: Snowden dankt Russland für Asyl
Videobotschaft nach Urteil: Verbitterter Berlusconi gibt sich uneinsichtig
Family Who Got Dinner Lady Fired after She Accidentally Served Their Child Gammon Are Emigrating to Muslim Country
The parents involved in the sacking of a school dinner lady who mistakenly served gammon to their daughter are to emigrate to a Muslim country.
Alison Waldock, 51, was accused of gross misconduct and says she lost her job after Zahid and Rumana Darr asked that she be dismissed.
Today it can be revealed that Mr and Mrs Darr and their three children are emigrating to the United Arab Emirates later this month. The family have chosen to move from their home in Cambridge to Sharjah, where alcohol is banned and there are the strictest decency laws in the emirates.
Mrs Darr, 33, wrote on her Facebook page: ‘So we’re leaving the country end of August for good … We’re moving to Sharjah. We want to go relax in a nice hot Muslim country where the kids know their identities as Muslims.’
The move comes after Mr Darr’s recruitment firm was closed down in June when he was found to be working as a company director illegally.
Following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, he was banned from holding company directorships after he was caught pocketing over £500,000 owed in tax in 2008.
His firm Interecruit (UK) went into liquidation after Mr Darr, 36, ‘diverted’ money owed to the taxman in VAT, income tax and national insurance to another of his companies.
The nine-year ban was imposed in February 2011 but in May this year he was found to be operating a similar company named Interecruit (GB), which supplied agricultural workers. (+ video) » | John Stevens | Thursday, August 01, 2013
Wire Transfer: NSA Paid $150 Mlnimum to GCHQ to Spy on UK Citizens
'Snowden, Manning, Assange Victims of Morally Bankrupt System'
Snow Storm: US Slams Russia for Granting Temporary Asylum to Snowden
Edward Snowden Asylum Case Is a Gift for Vladimir Putin
For the past four years the Obama administration has tried hard to "reset" relations with Russia. The idea wasn't a bad one. A more co-operative Kremlin might help the White House with its pressing international problems – the war in Syria, the US military draw-down in Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear programme.
On Thursday, however, bilateral relations appeared anything but reset as Edward Snowden – dressed in his trademark grey shirt and carrying a dark backpack – strolled out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. He had been holed up there for five and a half weeks, ever since he slipped out of Hong Kong. Now he was free.
Vladimir Putin's decision to grant Snowden asylum – and make no mistake, Putin called this one – is a humiliating, wounding rebuff to the US. In theory Snowden has been allowed to stay for one year. In reality he is learning Russian and ploughing his way through Doystoyevsky. Snowden's stay in Russia could be indefinite. » | Luke Harding | Thursday, August 01, 2013
Thursday, August 01, 2013
NSA Spy Leaks: Snowden Thanks Russia for Asylum
In a statement, Mr Snowden also accused the US government of showing "no respect" for international law.
The US has charged Mr Snowden with leaking details of its electronic surveillance programmes.
Washington has expressed its "extreme disappointment" at Russia's decision.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said they were considering whether a meeting between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September should go ahead.
The latest developments came amid fresh revelations from the cache of documents leaked by Mr Snowden.
Documents seen by the UK's Guardian newspaper appear to show the US government paid at least £100m ($150m) to the UK's GCHQ spy agency to secure access to and influence over Britain's intelligence gathering programmes. » | Thursday, August 01, 2013
Ex-Italy PM Silvio Berlusconi Jail Term Confirmed
However, the court ordered a review of a five-year ban on public office that was part of the sentence.
Berlusconi faces house arrest or community service instead of going to jail because of his age - he is 76.
His lawyers had asked judges at Rome's Court of Cassation to overturn a one-year jail sentence and political ban.
When Berlusconi was convicted in October last year, he was sentenced to four years in prison but this was automatically reduced to one under a 2006 pardon law.
The supreme court's ruling came after a three-day hearing.
The judicial review of the five-year ban from public office will enable Berlusconi to remain as a senator and as leader of his centre-right People of Freedom Party (PDL) for the moment. » | Thursday, August 01, 2013
Edward Snowden 'in a Safe Location in Russia,' Says Lawyer
Anatoly Kucherena said Mr Snowden was in a safe location.
"As he is one of the most wanted people on Earth, he will be making sure his place of residence is absolutely safe," he added. (+ video) » | Thursday, August 01, 2013
US Officials Fume Over Russia Granting Asylum To Snowden
"If these reports are accurate, Americans in Washington should consider this a game changer in our relationship with Russia," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement, calling Russia's decision "provocative" and "a sign of Vladimir Putin's clear lack of respect for President Obama." Graham called for the U.S. government to meet the decision with a "firm response," which he did not describe.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called it a "slap in the face of all Americans."
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J., also said that Snowden "belongs in a United States courtroom, not a free man deserving of asylum in Russia." He called the development a "setback to U.S.-Russia relations." » | FoxNews.com | Thursday, August 01, 2013
Inside Story: Bradley Manning: Whistleblower or Traitor?
NSA's Google: XKeyscore Search Engine for All Private Info
Fugitive Snowden Slips Out of Moscow Airport for 'Secure' Base
A Russian lawyer who has been assisting Snowden said the American, who is wanted in the United States for leaking details of secret government intelligence programs, had gone to a secure location which would remain secret.
After weeks staying out of sight from hordes of reporters desperate for a glimpse of him, Snowden managed to slip away in a taxi without being spotted. Grainy images of his passport showed he had been granted asylum for a year from July 31.
"He is the most wanted man on planet Earth. What do you think he is going to do? He has to think about his personal security. I cannot tell you where he is going," his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Reuters.
"I put him in a taxi 15 to 20 minutes ago and gave him his certificate on getting refugee status in the Russian Federation," he said. "He can live wherever he wants in Russia. It's his personal choice."
He said Snowden was not going to stay at any embassy in Moscow, although three Latin American countries have offered to shelter him. Snowden was well, he added. » | Timothy Heritage and Alissa de Carbonnel | MOSCOW | Thursday, August 01, 2013
RT VIDEO: Snowden granted 1-year asylum in Russia, leaves airport »
Edward Snowden Safest in Russia, Says Father
Vox Populi: New Yorkers on Manning Leaks, Abuse, Trial Verdict
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Espagne : l'infante Cristina part vivre en Suisse
La fille cadette du roi d'Espagne, Cristina, éclaboussée par une affaire de corruption pour laquelle son mari Inaki Urdangarin a été inculpé, part vivre avec ses quatre enfants en Suisse pour raisons professionnelles, a annoncé mercredi son employeur. Cristina "partira sous peu pour que les enfants commencent l'école en septembre à Genève", a confirmé une source proche de la famille royale, précisant que Inaki "Urdangarin reste dans sa résidence de Barcelone" où ils vivent actuellement.
L'infante, directrice internationale de la fondation La Caixa, organisme qui gère les oeuvres sociales de la banque espagnole CaixaBank, est nommée à Genève avec pour "mission de gérer et coordonner ses programmes avec les agences des Nations unies dont le siège est à Genève", explique la fondation dans un communiqué. Cristina travaille pour La Caixa depuis 1993. » | Source AFP | mercredi 31 juillet 2013
Cleared of Aiding the Enemy, Bradley Manning Still Faces a Lifetime in Jail. The Very Least We Owe This Heroic Man Is a Debate on US Foreign Policy
Power has to be relentlessly fought. Without being constantly checked, exposed, harangued, mocked and driven back, it would swiftly devour all the rights that were won at its expense. There is invariably a cost. The powerful know that if those who chip away at their authority are not undermined, or humiliated, or even persecuted, others would be emboldened to strike blows at them, too.
And so it is with Bradley Manning. Although a military judge has found him not guilty of aiding the enemy, the guilty verdicts on other charges will leave him languishing in military custody for much, if not all, of his life: indeed, he faces a sentence of 130 years. Here is the sacrifice he has paid for exposing the secretive actions of a government that claims to act in the name of the US people.
Here's why. Over a decade ago, the US initiated two calamitous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with a terrible human cost that is still paid every single day. The then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declared that the Iraq invasion was illegal; the country is today still awash with car bombings and gruesome sectarian bloodletting. It was always in the interests of the US elite to keep the consequences of their actions as far away from public consciousness as possible. … » | Owen Jones | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Egypt's Cabinet Orders Police to End Pro-Morsi Sit-ins
"The cabinet has decided to take all measures necessary to confront these risks and put an end to them," an official said in a televised statement.
The statement termed the continued rallies "a national security threat".
Three top Muslim Brotherhood leaders have also been referred to court on charges of inciting violence.
The movement's supporters have been staging sit-ins for several weeks since President Morsi was removed on 3 July, after just one year in office.
They have defied previous threats of removal from their sit-in protests, despite deadly clashes with security forces. (+ video) » | Wednesday, July 31, 2013
BBC: Morsi meeting: EU chief Catherine Ashton speaks to BBC (+ video) » | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Polish Dissident Adam Michnik: 'We Are Bastards of Communism'
We are sitting in a room on the sixth floor of the building occupied by the leftist-liberal Warsaw newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. There are stacks of newspapers and books everywhere, and on the walls are certificates from American and German universities next to photos of Adam Michnik with statesmen from around the world. Michnik is sitting at the table smoking an electric cigarette. He is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's most important nationwide daily newspaper, which started being published in 1989 as the first legal newspaper of the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) trade union. Michnik, 66, is the country's most prominent former dissident. He was sent to prison several times for his political convictions, starting at the age of 19. He wrote for underground newspapers and supported the independent Solidarity trade union. When the communist regime declared martial law in 1981, Michnik was detained. In the spring of 1989, he took part in the Round Table talks, as an adviser to Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, and negotiated the first free elections. Since then, he has focused his attention on the upheavals in Eastern Europe. For Michnik, the demonstrations in Bulgaria against the corrupt political class, the authoritarian tendencies in Hungary and nascent nationalism are all the delayed consequences of 40 years of oppression and patronization under communism. Michnik has a special relationship with SPIEGEL. When he was allowed to go to Paris in the 1970s to visit Jean-Paul Sartre, he called the SPIEGEL offices in Hamburg from Paris. He wanted to know whether its editors would like to print an essay he had written, which they did. "It was the first article I was able to publish in a truly important Western publication," Michnik says. "It sent a message to Poland's rulers that they could not sideline me with force." » | Wednesday, July 31, 2013
The Diana Conspiracy: Documentary
The Alma Tunnel Mystery: Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed Story »
Princess Diana Was 'Madly in Love' with Heart Surgeon Hasnat Khan
Diana wanted to marry the doctor, with whom she had a two-year relationship, and secretly met his family in Pakistan to discuss the possibility of a union, according to Jemima.
She is understood to have told two other friends that she wanted a daughter with the eminent surgeon.
"Diana was madly in love with Hasnat Khan and wanted to marry him," Jemima told Vanity Fair. "Even if that meant living in Pakistan, and that’s one of the reasons why we became friends.”
Jemima disclosed that Diana visited her twice in Pakistan to help fund-raise for the hospital where her former husband Imran Khan – a distant cousin of Diana's lover – worked.
"Both times she also went to meet his family secretly to discuss the possibility of marriage to Hasnat," she said. » | Alice Philipson | Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Caucasus Report: Syrian Fighters Tell North Caucasus Muslims 'Wage Jihad at Home!'
The address is delivered by a wheelchair-bound fighter identified as Salakhuddin who appears to have lost both legs. He is surrounded by seven masked fighters armed with heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.
Speaking in accented Russian, Salakhuddin begins by conveying Ramadan greetings to Muslims across Russia, and specifically to Umarov, whom he refers to as “our amir.” (He is wearing a black T-shirt bearing the slogan "Caucasus Emirate.")
Salakhuddin says there has been a “huge influx of volunteers” from the North Caucasus to join the armed opposition in Syria. He attributes that wave of volunteers to a widely held belief that "Syria is where you go to join the jihad."
Salakhuddin says it is understandable that Muslims from those areas of Russia where there is no jihad underway should share that belief, but that Muslims in the North Caucasus have an obligation to remain at home and fight there, even though conditions are far more difficult in terms of weaponry, support, and the possibility of withdrawing from the front to the rear. He cites a sura from the Koran in support of that argument. » | Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Faces Jail and 600 Lashes For Insulting Islam
Raif Badawi has been in detention since 2012, after being arrested on cyber-crime charges related to Free Saudi, the website he founded which hosted discussions on religion in the ultraconservative Islamic kingdom.
The US and France expressed deep concerns at the punishment also slammed by human rights groups.
"We believe that when public speech is deemed offensive, be it via social media or any other means, the issue is best addressed through open-dialogue and honest debate," said US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
"This incredibly harsh sentence for a peaceful blogger makes a mockery of Saudi Arabia's claims that it supports reform and religious dialogue," said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
"A man who wanted to discuss religion has already been locked up for a year and now faces 600 lashes and seven years in prison."
Judges at Jeddah criminal court reportedly dropped the heaviest charge of apostasy - which carries an automatic death sentence - after Badawi, gave assurances he was a Muslim. » | Umberto Bacchi | Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Snowden's Father Says FBI Asked Him to Visit His Son
Lonnie Snowden said he had been asked several weeks ago about Edward, who is sought by the US for leaking details of electronic surveillance programmes.
However, he wants to know the FBI's intentions, he told Russian state TV.
He said his son would not get a fair trial in America and, if he were in his son's place, he would stay in Russia.
He described his son as a "true patriot" who had "made America a more democratic country" by revealing secret details of the US National Security Agency's surveillance programmes.
The interview was broadcast live, early in the morning, on the Russia 24 news channel. Mr Snowden spoke English, with a Russian translation.
Mr Snowden has been stuck in transit at a Moscow airport for more than a month as he has no valid travel documents. » | Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Gay Rights Around the World: The Best and Worst Countries for Equality
We have a US president who supports gay marriage, and now a pope who, if not exactly signing up to equality for all, is at least starting to talk in language less inflammatory than his predecessor. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?" he told an assembled group of journalists on the papal plane back from his tour of Brazil. Then he went on to criticise the gay "lobby" and said he wasn't going to break with the catechism that said "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered". Still, for a brief moment it looked like a minor breakthrough.
Then you weigh it against a raft of anti-homosexuality legislation that is coming into force in countries across the world. In Russia, gay teenagers are being tortured and forcibly outed on the internet against a backdrop of laws that look completely out of step with the rest of Europe. In what is being described as rolling the "status of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people back to the Stalin era", President Putin has passed a number of anti-gay laws, including legislation that punishes people and groups that distribute information considered "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations". The country also now has powers to arrest and detain foreign citizens believe to be gay, or "pro-gay". It has led to the boycott of Russian vodka brands by gay bars and clubs in solidarity, started by writer and activist Dan Savage and taken up by bars in London.
In many African countries where homosexuality is already illegal, more draconian anti-gay laws are being passed and violence against LGBT people is increasing. » | Emine Saner | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Bradley Manning: Not the Enemy
On Wednesday , Private First Class Bradley Manning was handed a verdict on charges he faced in relation to leaking classified material – after 1,160 days of pre-trial detention. His crime was to release military documents to WikiLeaks.
Contained within this material was footage of a US military helicopter gunning down a father taking his children to school; evidence of a death squad operating in Afghanistan, and files showing that rather than containing just "the worst of the worst", Guantánamo held dementia patients, taxi drivers and prisoners of the Taliban.
Millions worldwide regard Manning as a hero, but he was always going to face prosecution for his actions. Not pursuing him would have been politically untenable given the national security climate in the US. Military leaders would have feared the repercussions of allowing a soldier to get away with such a large-scale leak.
But the Obama administration didn't merely go through the motions in pursuit of Manning. Military authorities imposed a charge that should have sparked far greater alarm than it did. They argued that by talking to the media, Manning had "aided the enemy" – a charge tantamount to treason, which can carry the death penalty (though this was not pursued in Manning's case). » | James Ball | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
WikiLeaks On Manning Verdict: Glad Journalism Is Not Treason, No Term Will Stop Whistleblowers
Bradley Manning Is a 'Hero', Says WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
L'Arabie saoudite lance un chantier de métro gigantesque
L'Arabie saoudite a accordé à trois consortiums internationaux la réalisation du métro de Riyad, un méga-projet de 22,5 milliards de dollars (16,9 milliards d'euros), conçu pour décongestionner la circulation dans une ville de 6 millions d'habitants.
Le projet de métro de six lignes, prévu sur 176 km, vise à "faciliter la vie" dans la capitale dont le nombre d'habitants devra augmenter à 8,5 millions "dans 10 ans", a déclaré le gouverneur de Riyad, le prince Khaled Ben Bandar Ben Abdel Aziz, lors d'une cérémonie d'attribution des contrats dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi. » | Le Point.fr | lundi 29 juillet 2013
Manning Not Guilty of Aiding Enemy, Faces 100+ Years in Jail on Other Charges
Bradley Manning Cleared of 'Aiding the Enemy' But Guilty of Most Other Charges
Bradley Manning, the source of the massive WikiLeaks trove of secret disclosures, faces a possible maximum sentence of more than 130 years in military jail after he was convicted of most charges on which he stood trial.
Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the court martial of the US soldier, delivered her verdict in curt and pointed language. "Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty," she repeated over and over, as the reality of a prolonged prison sentence for Manning – on top of the three years he has already spent in detention – dawned.
The one ray of light in an otherwise bleak outcome for Manning was that he was found not guilty of the single most serious charge against him – that he knowingly "aided the enemy", in practice al-Qaida, by disclosing information to the WikiLeaks website that in turn made it accessible to all users including enemy groups.
Lind's decision to avoid setting a precedent by applying the swingeing "aiding the enemy" charge to an official leaker will invoke a sigh of relief from news organisations and civil liberties groups who had feared a guilty verdict would send a chill across public interest journalism. » | Ed Pilkington at Fort Meade | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
THE GUARDIAN: Bradley Manning: whistleblower or traitor?: The verdict on the WikiLeaks disclosures is the culmination of a process that has presented two starkly contrasting portraits » | Ed Pilkington in Fort Meade | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
LE MONDE: Bradley Manning coupable "d'espionnage" mais pas de "collusion avec l'ennemi" » | Le Monde.fr avec AFP | mardi 30 juillet 2013
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Keine „Unterstützung des Feindes“ durch Bradley Manning: Der Wikileaks-Informant Bradley Manning ist von einem Militärgericht in 19 von 21 Anklagepunkten schuldig gesprochen worden. Freigesprochen wurde er vom Vorwurf der „Unterstützung des Feindes“. Damit droht ihm keine Todesstrafe. » | Von Matthias Rüb, Washington | Dienstag, 30. Juli 2013
In Gefangenschaft: "Mursi geht es gut"
Textbook Praises Islam, Denigrates Christianity
State Rep. Ritch Workman told Fox News the Prentice World History textbook rewrites Islamic history and presents a biased version of the Muslim faith.
“The book has a 36-page chapter on Islam but no chapters on Christianity or Judaism,” Workman said. “It’s remarkably one-sided.”
The textbook is being used in an Advanced Placement class in Brevard County schools. The book is on a state-approved list and has been used in the school system for the past three years without any complaints.
Workman said he received a copy of the book and he said it’s clear the authors “make a very obvious attempt not to insult Islam by reshaping history.”
“If you don’t see it from the eyes of a parent, kids are going to take this book as gospel and believe that Christians and Jews were murderous barbarians and thank God the Muslims came along and the world is great,” he said. » | Todd Starnes | Monday, July 29, 2013
Norwegian Mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik Seeks University Place
Norway's oldest and most illustrious university, with five Nobel Prize winners among its alumni, may soon add the self-confessed fascist whose terror campaign two years ago killed 77 people.
Anders Behring Breivik, serving a 21-year sentence in a maximum security prison, has applied to the University of Oslo to study political science, Norwegian television revealed on Monday night.
The university, whose Latin motto is et nos petimus astra – we strive for the stars – said it would consider Breivik's application on its merits.
Ole Petter Ottersen, the university's rector, confirmed that Breivik had applied to study a single topic that would not lead to a degree, but could not go into details on how the application would be treated.
"Prison inmates are allowed to study, and we have a set of rules that we stick to in assessing applications. We don't want to change them — although obviously some people would like them changed," he told the Guardian.
Breivik last summer announced his intention to study politics and write several books. » | David Crouch in Gothenburg | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
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