India needs to level the playing field for the masses.

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Talk around the numbers of Indian billionaires with $2 billion houses is disgusting and shallow in a country with so much poverty and squalor.

Worst still is Bilaati Sahibs condescendingly lecturing Indians about this poverty and squalor.......Who looted trillions from us to create this squalor, originally?

The cheek and audacity!

But the issue is legitimate and unavoidable. 

India after 68 years of 'Independence' should have eliminated mass poverty left by the British Raj.

Then this is the fault of the political system in India. Nobody else.

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Nobel laureate pulls up India for its 'dreadful state of nutrition'

Kounteya Sinha, and The Times of India.

The National Nutrition Mission was aimed at employing technology and a five-tier mechanism to monitor the supplementary nutrition program for children between 0- 6 years.

  Nobel laureate Angus Deaton has pulled up India for its failure to significantly reduce what has long been regarded as a national shame - stunting of its children.

Deaton who was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences this month for his work on India pointed "to the improving, but still dreadful, state of nutrition in India" and recalled to the TOI how former prime minister Manmohan Singh called stunting among Indian children a "national shame."

"So it is," professor Deaton added reminding India that poverty "is more than lack of money".

The British economist who now teaches at Princeton University said to TOI that his "work highlighted that malnutrition is not just about a lack of calories, and certainly not about a lack of cereal calories, but is more about the lack of variety in the diet — the absence of things like leafy vegetables, eggs, and fruit".

He added "It is also crucially linked to inadequate sanitation, to the fact that women often do not get enough to eat when they are pregnant, and to poor maternal and infant health services".

At present stunting affects 165 million children worldwide. Nearly 50% of children in India are stunted. The World Health Assembly recently agreed to a new global target of a 40% reduction in the number of stunted children by 2025.

The Global Nutrition for Growth Compact signed by countries in London recently committed to reduce the number of children under five who are stunted by an additional 20 million in developing countries like India by 2020.

The Countdown 2015 report released at the ongoing Global Maternal and Newborn Conference in Mexico reveals that the percentage of children under five years of age who are moderately or severely underweight in India stands at 29% (almost 1 in 3) and who are severely stunted are 39%.

Global experts say that undernutrition is a chronic lack of nutrients that can result in death, stunted physical development and in a lower resistance to illnesses in later life.

It is the biggest underlying cause of death in under five-year-olds in the world and is responsible for 8,000 child deaths each day. It stunts the growth of children, reducing their potential, undermining their adult earnings by up to 10%, and in some countries reducing the size of the economy by 11% as a result.

Shockingly India was at the bottom of the world's nutrition barometer along with countries like Angola, Cameroon, Congo and Yemen.

The barometer brought out by Save the Children analysed the governments' commitments and outcomes in improving nutrition in 36 countries, which are home to 90% of undernourished children.

It found that India's economic growth had not translated into better nutrition outcomes for many of her children. The data showed that almost half of Indian children are underweight and stunted, and more than 70% of women and kids have serious nutritional deficiencies such as anaemia.

The report says that children in poor households are more than twice as likely to be stunted as those in affluent ones.

Deaton has spent a considerable amount of time working on the connection between stunting among Indian children due to abysmally low calorie consumption and its connection with poverty in India. He later concluded how widespread growth faltering was a human development disaster as height reflected early life nutrition which helps brains to grow.

Deaton proposed an ingenious way of using household consumption data to indirectly estimate whether daughters are given less than sons. Deaton also pointed to the TOI the threat "extreme inequality poses to democracy in India".

He says "India has been hugely successful in building a better life for many. Some of them now have consumption patterns that look like those of Americans or Western Europeans, and not a few have become fabulously rich. In an ideal world, the gap that has opened up between them and those left behind can help pull up others in an ideal world. Poor people can see the new opportunities, and understand that, with education and luck, their sons and daughters can prosper too".

"There are also terrible dangers of inequality, if those who have escaped from destitution use their wealth to block those who are still imprisoned by it. Decent education, available and effective healthcare, and functioning sanitation are goods that benefit everyone, and the new middle class should be more than happy to pay the taxes that help others share their good fortune. And if taxes are spent wisely, liberty can be widely shared," Deaton added. 

India is still a top growth model

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India's PPP GDP is $7500 billion. 

Exports in 2014-15 were $310 billion.

Thats about 4% of GDP.

Unlike many export led economies, India's overall economy will be less affected by the global recession.

What will guarantee DEVELOPMENT and greater GDP growth is substantial government led investment in Industry and Infrastructure inside India......nothing else. And the government ensuring that the wealth of the country benefits all.

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Forget weak export recovery! India can still grow at 7.5%

By Business Insider India

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is expected to weather global volatility with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, which is projected to rise by 7.5% despite a weak export recovery.

Faster implementation of reforms and a favourable terms-of-trade could help India to grow with better pace, the World Bank has forecast in its latest report, projecting the country to grow by 8% by 2017/18.

With China gradually transitioning into an environment of lower growth, India could durably occupy the top growth spot among large emerging markets, the World Bank has said in its latest South Asia Economic Focus Fall 2015.

The report said, "lifted by the prospects of faster implementation of reforms and a favourable terms-of-trade shock", the Indian economy has remained on a path of modest acceleration - as reflected in improvements in investments, and industrial output.

However, the delay in implementing key reforms on the domestic front, a weak trade performance and the recent slowdown in rural wage growth pose risks to growth, it said.

The terms-of-trade shocks are identified based on their impact on commodity prices, global manufactured prices, and global economic activity.

Further, the economic activity in India is expected to accelerate gradually, on the back of improved industrial activity, a continued revival of the investment cycle.

Public investments are expected to accelerate, in line with the government's stated focus on enhancing infrastructure investments, and start crowding in private investments.

With the expected upward momentum in investment, the overall growth momentum can gradually reach 7.9% in 2017/18. Private consumption may also receive a fillip from the imminent civil service pay revisions and is expected to grow by 8% by 2017/18.

On the production front, the acceleration would be supported by construction activity at first, with manufacturing gradually picking up pace.

At the same time, the bank said India's projected growth outlook is subject to substantive downside risks.

The most immediate is related to corporate and financial sector balance sheets, and in the longer-term the implementation of the government's reform program - e.g. GST, land acquisition, and improvements in the business climate, some of which have been delayed, it said. 

Declining exports from India

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Government offers sops for exports to check fall

By Times of India.

The government on Friday announced some sops for textiles, pharma, auto parts, electronics and exporters of several other products in an attempt to check fall in exports, which have declined for 10 straight months now. But the commerce department failed to convince the revenue department to restore the interest subsidy scheme that was discontinued last year.

Additional benefits have been offered under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). Rewards under the scheme given as a percentage of realized free-on-board (FOB) value of exports through duty credit scrips that can be used for payment of a number of levies such as basic customs duty. The government provides duty benefits at 2-5% depending upon the export destination and the product. The commerce department had made a plea for a package for exporters, including an extension of MEIS along with a restoration of the interest subsidy scheme. Despite healthy finances, the finance ministry has refused to loosen its purse strings to boost exports, which in turn can provide a fillip to the manufacturing sector.

The current revision introduces 110 new products and increases rates or the country coverage for 2,228 existing tariff lines, the commerce department said in a statement. New products that have been added under this scheme include medical instruments, sports goods, value added processed products of natural rubber, chemicals and plastics. Global support has been extended to products including textiles, pharmaceuticals, project goods, auto components, telecom, computer, electrical, electronics and railway transport equipment. Earlier, benefits to these items were provided to a few countries.  

Contracting for tenth straight month, exports fell over 24% in September under $22 billion, due to fall in shipments of petroleum products, iron ore, and engineering goods amid tepid global demand.  

8% Growth for the future possible

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Panagariya sees growth at over 8%

By The Times of India.

The Indian economy is expected to grow over 8% in the current financial year as the momentum has started gathering pace, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Friday. "We will cross 8% economic growth. The 7% economic growth in the first quarter will be revised upwards," he said, emphasizing that things are now moving on economy front.

In the first quarter of the current financial year (April-June), the economy grew at 7%, down from 7.5% in the preceding three months mainly on account of deceleration in farm, services and manufacturing sectors. It was, however, 6.7% in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Panagariya's comments come a day after the World Bank projected India's growth to be below 8% over the next three years even when investments in the country grow by 8.8% during the three year period up to 2017-18.  

"The latest India Development Update expects India's economic growth to be at 7.5% in 2015-16, followed by a further acceleration to 7.8% in 2016-17 and 7.9% in 2017-18," World Bank said in a report released earlier this week. Panagariya was optimistic about the prospects of the economy.

"The picture will be more clear when we will get the second quarter GDP data by the end of November. The investments are up during the first half of this fiscal which reflect buoyancy in the economy. The numbers are even more than that of China,'' he said.

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) too projected a slight drop in India's growth rate from 7.5% to 7.3% in 2015. The multilateral body, however, retained its growth projection for 2016 at 7.5%.

The economic survey released by the finance ministry in February had set growth target of 8.1 to 8.5% for the current fiscal year.

However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy review last month lowered the GDP growth forecast to 7.4% for the current fiscal from 7.6%. Economy grew 7.3% in the previous fiscal year compared to advance estimates of 7.4% by the Central Statistics Office.  

Modi on the right track as regards development

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If time could be found to do it every day, anywhere in India and the world.......like intelligence briefings. 1 hour set aside every day.

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Once every month, PM Modi steps in to slash red tape and move along projects

Reuters and Times of India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally taking on India's notorious red tape to clear tens of billions of dollars worth of stalled public projects, hoping that his hands-on intervention can bend a vast, dysfunctional bureaucracy.

Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground. Since March this year, his intervention has helped revive nearly $60 billion in central and state projects, according to government data through September seen by Reuters.

Modi has won plaudits for the initiative that has chipped away at a $150 billion backlog of planned roads, ports, railways, power stations and other projects. But equally, critics say, the fact he needs to personally intervene shows the level of government inertia in Asia's third-biggest economy.

"It is a systemic problem that the Prime Minister needs to work on," said Arun Maira, a management consultant and member of the previous Congress government.

The initiative, launched by Modi in March and publicised on his personal website and Twitter feed, is called pro-active governance and timely implementation, or Pragati, which means "progress" in the Hindi language.

Federal and state bureaucrats are linked by video to Modi's office for the meeting, usually held on the fourth Wednesday of each month. They are typically from the finance, law, land, environment, transport and energy ministries whose clearances are needed for many projects.

The agenda is set the previous week and usually has about a dozen stalled projects, public grievances and other governance issues.

A senior official who has attended said that when a project comes up for discussion, Modi turns to the representative of the ministry where it is being held up.

He simply asks, "Please tell me why it hasn't happened," the official said.

Several months into Pragati, the official said, a majority of the projects are cleared before they come up for discussion.

The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, Akhilesh Yadav, a political rival of Modi, wrote to the Prime Minister's office requesting the inclusion of a $1 billion metro rail project in the state capital at one Pragati meeting.

It got the clearances, including a pledge of central funding, at the September meeting.

"This is a welcome move which would go a long way in doing away with avoidable delays," said Alok Ranjan, the state's top bureaucrat.


(Labourers work at the construction site of the Lucknow Metro.)

Systemic problem

Still, critics say that while Modi can quickly cut through red tape, his style centralizes decision-making and will not be sustainable in a country as large as India.

The stock of stalled projects in the country has come down, but remains high.

In the July-September quarter, projects worth 7.6 percent of India's GDP, or $152 billion, were stalled, down from a peak of 8.5 percent in the January-March 2014 quarter, according to CMIE, a think-tank. The data includes private investment plans.

"Running a country is far more challenging than managing a state," said Maira, the consultant, referring to Modi's reputation as an effective administrator when he was chief minister of Gujarat state from 2001 to 2014.

During those years, he used a similar initiative to get projects off the ground.

After taking over as Prime Minister last year, Modi vowed to fire up India's notoriously slow bureaucracy. He has set an ambitious goal of making India one of 50 most business-friendly destinations in the world by 2017.

The World Bank ranked India 130th out of 189 economies, up from 134th last year, in its annual "Doing Business" report released this week.

READ ALSO:
India up 12 spots in 'Ease of doing business' report

The previous government set up a Cabinet task force to clear the backlog of projects but failed to make much of an impact because state governments were not involved.

Modi's initiative has tried to plug that loophole.

IYR. Krishna Rao, the top bureaucrat in Andhra Pradesh state, said projects are usually held up by a lack of coordination between different departments and governments.

Rao said he was pushing to get clearances for a railway line in his state. After it was reviewed by Modi, the response from the railway ministry improved substantially.

"This is a very good forum," Rao said.

Plummy Bernard Lewis JAM

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The Empire of Chaos Is in a Jam

Russia's simple strategy has the West completely flabbergasted and confused with no good counter move


By Russia Insider and Sputnik.com

NATO is desperate. The Pentagon is desperate. Imagine waking up one day in Washington and Brussels just to realize Russia has the ability to electronically jam — detect, trace, disable, destroy — NATO electronics within a 600 km range across Syria (and southern Turkey).
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Imagine the nightmare of row after row of Russian Richag-AV radar and sonar jamming systems mounted on helicopters and ships jamming everything in sight and finding every available source of electromagnetic radiation. Not only in Syria but also in Ukraine.
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Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army units in Europe, was even forced to qualify Russian electronic warfare capabilities in Ukraine as “eye-watering.”
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For their part, caught in the crossfire as sitting ducks or headless chickens, that mighty ideological aircraft carrier known as the USS Think Tankland was left dabbling with the four options left for Washington to “achieve its goals” in Syria.
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The first option is containment — which is exactly what the Obama administration has been doing. The recipe was proposed in full by the Brookings Institution; “containing their activities within failed or near-failing states is the best option for the foreseeable future.”
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But that, Think Tankland argues, would “crush the popular opposition” in Syria. There is no “popular opposition” in Syria; it's either the government in Damascus or a future under the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh Salafi-jihadi goons.
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The second option is the favorite among US neocons and neoliberalcons; to weaponize the already weaponized opposition. This opposition ranges from the YPG Kurds — who actually fight on the ground against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh — to Jabhat al-Nusra, a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria and its Salafi-jihadi cohorts. Al-Nusra of course has been rebranded in the Beltway as “moderate rebels”; so this option means in practice the House of Saud weaponizing al-Qaeda while they fight under the cover of US air strikes.
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Pure Ionesco-style theatre of the absurd. Compounded by the fact those apocalyptic nut jobs who pass as “clerics” in Saudi Arabia, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, have duly declared jihad against Russia.
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The third option will go nowhere; Washington allying with “Assad just go” and Iran — not to mention Russia — in a real fight-to-the-finish  against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. Obama boxed himself in a long time ago  with “Assad must go”, so he remains immobilized by a self-inflicted ippon.
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The fourth option is the neocon wet dream; regime change, achieved, in theory, by what I call the Coalition of the Dodgy Opportunists (CDO), as in the NATO-GCC embrace, with a Turkish starring role and attached US air strikes, plus all those thousands of CIA-trained “moderate rebels” slouching all the way to Damascus. As if the Russian campaign did not exist.
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In fact, for US corporate media, it's as if the overwhelming Russian massacre — and not “containment” — of “Caliphate” assets these past three weeks is not happening at all. Hubris has metamorphosed into huge embarrassment and finally into total omission.

The Obama administration's “Assad must go” diktat has also metamorphosed into a wacky version of a non-denial denial. It's plain obvious now that the Russia air campaign, way beyond ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, has destroyed the whole imperial game across “Syraq”; that same old mix of regime change, Balkanization, creating and keeping failed states, “isolating” Russia.
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Moreover, and contrary to all the current rehash of Afghan mythology — where, incidentally, the Taliban continue to win in America's Longest War — Syria won't be a revisited USSR quagmire. On the contrary; while in Afghanistan in the 1980s the proverbial imperial game of using Salafi-jihadis against a secular government worked, as it worked in NATO turning Libya into a failed state, now Moscow reverse-engineered the process, smashing the Salafi-jihadis on the ground in conjunction with secular governments.
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It's our (bombing) way or the highway.
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Which bring us to Iraq.
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Next week, Iraq's parliament will vote on whether to request Russian air strikes against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, former national security adviser to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is convinced the vote will pass — even facing Sunni and somewhat Kurdish opposition.
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A measure of Washington's alarm is that the new chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford was forced to fly to  Baghdad to make sure this won't happen. In his own words, the Pentagon was consumed by “angst” when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi evoked the vote.
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“Angst” is bound to persist. This is all about imperial spheres of influence. A “yes” vote, on the ground, means the Russian Air Force working in tandem with ground intel collected by Shi'ite militias such as the Badr Corps and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haqq to smash all fake “Caliphate” positions. And geopolitically, a “yes” vote signifies the ultimate humiliation — after all those elaborate multi-trillion dollar plans for the “Greater Middle East” which Shock and Awe in 2003 should have set in motion.
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The USS Think Tankland's prescription for all the trouble in Syria is to beef up NATO, as in “send aid of all kinds” to “protect” poor Turkey.
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Sultan Erdogan is possibly about to profit from a Chancellor Merkel-engineered 3 billion euro plan to “encourage” Ankara to keep on Turkish soil potential Syrian migrants bent on a peaceful invasion of the European Union. Thus the Sultan will have paved the way for being finally “accepted”, in the long run, as a EU member.
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The problem is Sultan Erdogan not only supports ISIS/ISIL/Daesh as a regime change tool, but he also has renewed his war against PKK Kurds, which are allied with YPG Kurds, which are objectively allied with Washington.
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Even that configuration does not prevent the USS Think Tankland from advising the creation of a NATO-enforced no-fly zone along the Turkish-Syria border, supported by American, Turkish, British and French troops.
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Beltway, now we do have a problem. This no-fly zone is already in effect. And it's run by Russia. And you won't be able to jam it.
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A quick final recap: the Empire of Chaos destroys Iraq; creates the conditions for the emergence of a Salafi-jihadi constellation, from al-Qaeda in Iraq to its Frankenstein, ISIS/ISIL/Daesh; does not get the oil (remember Wolfowitz's “We're the new OPEC”?); tries to destroy Syria for four years, unsuccessfully; and in the end Russia reinstates its Middle East sphere of influence as the real power fighting Salafi-jihadism across “Syraq”.
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If this is what passes for imperial planning, the Empire of Chaos certainly does not need enemies.

Sun and beach BBQ Australia also affected by elite Peadophilia style from the criminal UK STATE.

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'3 AUSSIE PRIME MINISTERS LINKED TO CHILD ABUSE RING' BY aangirfan

Above, we see former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam and some boys.

Fiona Barnett

Whistleblower Fiona Barnett has told the Australian media that she was the victim of a child abuse ring which included three former Australian prime ministers.

She says she was prostituted to 'paedophile parties' at Parliament House in Canberra.

Abuse survivors.

The CIA and its friends reportedly use child abuse rings to control the top people in Australia, and elsewhere.


Gough Whitlam
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Anonymous makes the following allegations:

"Two of the Australian prime ministers ... are deceased.
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"Gough Whitlam who fancied young Asian boys, and Sir William McMahon.

"Gough Whitlam was removed by a CIA organised scandal in Oz when he tried to close down the US Pine Gap spy station in the outback..
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"They threatened to reveal his ... habits...

McMahon
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"Sir William McMahon is the father of Hollywood actor Julian McMahon.
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"The McMahons and the Kidmans (family of Nicole Kidman who was married to Tom Cruise) grew up together...

"The McMahons, Kidmans and Murdochs are all very close friends and holiday together. They have been close for generations.

Bob Hawke
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"Former PM Bob Hawke is (allegedly) a CIA asset and travels extensively to Burma and Thailand to (allegedly) indulge in his taste for ...."

...
Young Talent Time. Debra Byrne claims she was raped while on Young Talent Time . Young Talent Time stars Debra Byrne, Sally Boyden, Jamie Churchill and Bobby Driessen battled with drug addictions.

DISCLAIMER: THE POSTING OF STORIES, COMMENTARIES, REPORTS, DOCUMENTS AND LINKS (EMBEDDED OR OTHERWISE) ON THIS SITE DOES NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, NECESSARILY EXPRESS OR SUGGEST ENDORSEMENT OR SUPPORT OF ANY OF SUCH POSTED MATERIAL OR PARTS THEREIN.

Fiona Barnett
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Fiona Barnett says that, at the age of five, she was abused by a child abuse ring which included top politicians, top police and top members of the judiciary.

She says there are thousands of other victims.

She says: "My experiences were horrific beyond words.

"But the way I've been treated for reporting the crimes I witnessed and experienced has been far worse than my original abuse experiences."

She says she witnessed child abduction, torture, rape and murder.

She says the operation was a "very well-coordinated international paedophile ring."

..

The CIA and its friends have reportedly used child abuse rings in Belgium.

..

The CIA and its friends have reportedly used child abuse rings in the UK.

...

The CIA and its friends have reportedly used child abuse rings in the USA.



We don't like the term 'pedophile' because there is more than one definition of the word.

We prefer the phrase 'child abuser' because the meaning is more clear.

Most of the child abusers turn out to be married men and married women, who are not strictly speaking 'pedophile'.

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Young Talent Time. Jamie Redfern, who toured the world with Liberace.

Now, what happened to Harold Holt who disappeared in December 1967?

And, was the wife of Sir William McMahon Jewish?

DISCLAIMER: THE POSTING OF STORIES, COMMENTARIES, REPORTS, DOCUMENTS AND LINKS (EMBEDDED OR OTHERWISE) ON THIS SITE DOES NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, NECESSARILY EXPRESS OR SUGGEST ENDORSEMENT OR SUPPORT OF ANY OF SUCH POSTED MATERIAL OR PARTS THEREIN.

...

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Young Talent Time

USA to lift all sanctions against Iran

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Coming on the heels of the clean chit from the IAEA....the USA will now clear all sanctions against Iran.

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Obama orders removal of Iran sanctions

President Barack Obama has ordered the US government to lift Iran sanctions according to the JCPOA. (File photo)

Presstv.com 
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 US President Barack Obama has ordered his administration to take steps towards lifting sanctions on Iran in accordance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached between Tehran and the P5+1 group of nations in July.
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"I hereby direct you to take all appropriate additional measures to ensure the prompt and effective implementation of the US commitments set forth in the JCPOA, in accordance with US law," Obama said in a memorandum on Sunday, AFP reports.
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The directive comes 90 days after the UN Security Council endorsed the historic nuclear agreement with Iran.
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Obama said the measures will take effect after the US secretary of state confirms that Iran has met its commitments under the JCPOA.
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"This is an important day for all of us and a critical first step in the process of ensuring that Iran's nuclear program will be exclusively for peaceful purposes," Secretary of State John Kerry added in a statement.
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US officials believe that the nuclear deal will take a few months to be implemented.
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“For us it's important that it's done right, not that it's done quickly,” a senior Obama administration official told reporters. “We cannot imagine less than two months.”
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The JCPOA won final approval in Iran on Wednesday when the Guardians Council, a top panel of jurists and clerics, gave the go-ahead for its implementation.
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Iranian lawmakers have also endorsed the nuclear agreement, giving the administration the green light to voluntarily implement the Vienna accord.
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In accordance with the JCPOA, Iran has agreed to reduce its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the removal of all economic sanctions.
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The European Union also adopted legislative framework Sunday for lifting all of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against Iran.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini are expected to make statements on the lifting of sanctions.

Turkey at a cross road

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Turkey: Success Story Turned to Disaster

By Eric Margolis at information clearing House
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- Turkey, once a pillar of Mideast stability, looks increasingly like a slow-motion truck crash. What makes this crisis so tragic is that not very long ago Turkey was entering a new age of social harmony and economic development.

 
Today, both are up in smoke as this week’s bloody bombing in Ankara that killed 102 people showed.
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America’s ham-handed policies in the Mideast have set the entire region ablaze from Syria to South Sudan and Libya. Turkey sits right on top of the huge mess, licked by the flames of nationalist and political conflagrations and now beset by 2 million Syrian refugees.(Obligated to follow American policies set by the USA....as Erdogan was brought into power by the USA)

 
As Saddam Hussein predicted, George W. Bush’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq opened the gates of hell ( for the local inhabitants mostly). 

Attempts by Washington to overthrow Syria’s Alawite regime – a natural US ally (Empires like minorities in other countries...Persia Jews...British in India  Sikhs and Parsee..Studiously participated in the black sites rendition program of the CIA........and at times helped the USA kill Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon and Syria. One wonders loudly how 3 Iranian generals died in the space of a few days.....whilst in Syria to help the Assad regime...the 4th Iranian general thus far........slippery Arab snakes come to mind)- have destroyed large parts of that once lovely multi-ethnic nation and produced the worst human disaster since the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the late 1940’s and 1967.
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Washington’s bull-in-a-China-shop behavior in the fragile Mideast came just as the Turkish government of Recep Erdogan had 

1. presided over a decade of stunning economic growth for Turkey ($1.6 trillion PPP GDP...15th largest in the world..2015),  

2. pushed the intrusive armed forces back to their barracks, 

3. and achieved friendly relations with neighbors.  

4. No Turkish leader in modern history had achieved so much.
 
5. Equally important,  the Erdogan government was on the verge of making a final accommodation with Turkey’s always restive Kurds – up to 20% of the population of 75 million – that would have recognized many new rights of the “people of the mountains.”  
This was a huge achievement. 

I covered the bloody guerilla war on eastern Anatolia between Turkey’s police and armed forces, and tough Kurdish guerillas of the Marxist-Stalinist PKK movement.  By 1990, some 40,000 had died in the fighting that showed no hope of resolution.
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Thanks to patient diplomacy and difficult concessions,  PM Erdogan’s Islamist –Lite AK Party managed to reach tentative peace accords with the PKK and its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan in spite of fierce resistance from Turkey’s generals, violent semi-fascist nationalist groups and equally dangerous leftist revolutionaries.
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Peace with the Kurds went down the drain when the US intensified the war in Syria and began openly arming and financing Syria’s and Iraq’s Kurds.
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Various Kurdish groups became involved in the Syria fighting against the Assad regime in Damascus and against the Islamic State – which had been created by Saudi Arabia and the CIA to attack Shia regimes.
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Turkey struck back,  and the war with the Kurds resumed.  A decade of patient work kaput.
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Turkey’s prime minister – and now president – Erdogan had led his nation since 2003 with hardly a misstep.   Then came two disastrous decisions.  First, Erdogan dared criticize Israel for its brutal treatment of Palestinians and killing of nine Turks on a naval rescue mission to Gaza.   America’s media, led by the pro-Israel Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Fox News have made Erdogan a prime target for savage criticism.
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Second, for murky reasons, Erdogan developed a hatred for Syria’s leader, Bashar Assad, and allowed Turkey to serve as a  conduit and primary supply base for all sorts of anti-Assad rebels, most notably the so-called Islamic State.  Most Turks were opposed to getting involved in the Syrian quagmire.  Doing so unleashed the Kurdish genii  and alienated neighbor Russia.
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Turkey’s blunder into the Syrian War has enraged the restive military, which has long sought to oust Erdogan and return the nation to Ataturkism, the far-right political creed of  Turkey’s anti-Muslim oligarchs, urban and academic elite.  Now, Turkey’s long repressed violent leftists are stirring trouble in the cities.  Fear is growing that Turkey might return to its pre-Erdogan days of bombings, street violence, and assassinations – all against a background of hyperinflation, soaring unemployment and hostile relations with its neighbors.
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One hears rumbles of a Turkish conflict with Armenia over its conflict with Turkish ally, Azerbaijan.  Greece is nervous and moving closer to Israel. Oil and gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean are heightening tensions.

Is India drifting into an anti-China alliance?

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Joint military exercises are under way between China and India currently...in China, so why is it interpreted as anti-China if India holds joint naval exercises with Japan and the USA?

China holds joint military exercises with Pakistan.....is investing $50 billion into its Infrastructure and industry...and is the prime arms supplier to that hostile anti-India country. Followed by the USA....

Should this be interpreted as an anti-Indian alliance by China against India?

Short of strategic treaty's of friendship and cooperation between nations...example India/Russia...North Korea/China...nations are free to hold military exercises with whomever they want.

India since 1991, and the end of of its Socialist past 'spiritually' looks to the USA in many matters.


"Washington and Beijing will look to collaborate over issues such as disaster response, peacekeeping, and counter-piracy, while there was even talk of the two countries conducting drills together in the future." 


Ultimately though India's future lies in remaining neutral from any USA geo-strategic maneuvering in Asia....just as the USA erratically develops relationships with the Chinese military, CONCURRENTLY.

India's sole strategic objective should be to become a $50 trillion PPP GDP economy by 2050, with sustained growth of 8% over the next 35 years. That should be the real military goal of India...and eliminating poverty. 
The only and true enemy-POVERTY IN INDIA.

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Don't get roped in to anti-China alliance, Beijing tells Delhi

The Times of India

Number 3....in the Bay of Bengal..Hai Sala!  

Naval warships, aircraft carriers and submarines from the US, India and Japan steamed into the Bay of Bengal on Saturday as they took part in joint military exercises off India's east coast, signalling the growing strategic ties among the three countries as they face up to a rising China.

A Chinese state-run newspaper, however, cautioned India to guard against being drawn into an anti-China alliance.

"The China-India relationship is on a sound track, and healthy ties are beneficial to both countries," the Global Times said. "India should be vigilant to any intentions of roping it into an anti-China camp."

Rear Admiral Roy J Kelley , commander, Carrier Strike Group 12 of the US Navy , said it was "China's issue" when asked about the Asian giant's objection to Japanese participation, but said the exercise was not aimed against it. 

Putin Hero mania in the Middle East, except Saudi Arabia

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Putin Craze Takes Hold in the Middle East

By Fox News and Russia Insider

Amid the ornate walls of Damascus' famed Omayyad Mosque, preacher Maamoun Rahmeh stood before worshippers last week, declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin a “giant and beloved leader” who has “destroyed the myth of the self-aggrandizing America.”
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Posters of Putin are popping up on cars and billboards elsewhere in parts of Syria and Iraq, praising the Russian military intervention in Syria as one that will redress the balance of power in the region.
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The Russian leader is winning accolades from many in Iraq and Syria, who see Russian airstrikes in Syria as a turning point after more than a year of largely ineffectual efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to dislodge the Islamic State militants who have occupied significant parts of the two countries.
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The reactions underscore that while the West may criticize Putin for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad, there is some relief in the region at the emergence of a player with a coherent — if controversial — strategy.
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“Putin does more than just speak,” said Sohban Elewi of Damascus, summing up the views of Syrians on opposing camps who regard U.S. policy in Syria and Iraq as fumbled and confused.
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Russia began its air campaign in Syria on Sept. 30, joining the fray of those bombing Syria at a critical time for Assad and his embattled troops. The Syrian army's loss of the northern province of Idlib opened the way for rebels to come dangerously close to the coastal Alawite heartland, leaving his soldiers there vulnerable and dejected.
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Russia insists it is targeting the Islamic State group and other “terrorists.” But Syrian rebels and opposition activists say Moscow's warplanes in recent days have focused on Idlib and the central province of Hama, hitting U.S.-backed rebels in areas with no IS militants.
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The planes also have provided air cover for Syrian ground troops who launched an offensive in central Syria, reinforcing the belief that Russia's main aim is to shore up Assad's forces.
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In addition to the warplanes taking off from a base in Latakia, Russian ships in the Caspian Sea have fired cruise missiles that fly nearly 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) over Iran and Iraq to strike Raqqa and Aleppo provinces, in what many see as a show of force meant to portray muscle more than serve a specific military goal.
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Among Assad's war-weary and frustrated supporters, such elaborate displays of support provide a much-needed psychological boost, and have injected new hope that their flailing battle against rebel factions and the Islamic State group can still be won.
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“The (Russian) intervention has raised the morale of the Syrian army and the Syrian people alike,” said Dr. Samir Haddad from the central city of Homs.
“President Putin has a distinguished personality and charisma, and it has become clear that world leaders have gradually started approving, openly or secretly, of this intervention,” he said.
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In Iraq, where the U.S.-led war against IS has stalled, many say they want Russian airstrikes against IS to extend to their country.
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Buried between paintings of Baghdad architecture, mosques and landscapes, some art shops in Baghdad have begun selling portraits of Putin, a tribute to his intervention in what Iraqis see as the new military front against IS.

“Russia does not play games. They are problem solvers, and they do it quietly and efficiently, not like the Americans who prefer to do everything in front of the cameras,” said Hussein Karim, a 21-year-old medical student from Baghdad.
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In one cartoon widely distributed among Iraqis on Facebook and Twitter, U.S. President Barack Obama is dressed as a Sunni sheikh, while Putin as a Shiite imam, suggesting the two are taking sides.
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Another cartoon shows a bare-chested Putin holding IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by the collar of his jalabaya, looking very intimidating. He says to al-Baghdadi: “Where do you think you're going? I'll flatten you like flour,” a popular Iraqi expression.
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Al-Baghdadi, holding a cellphone, shouts: “Obama, save me!”
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Most of the cartoons portray Putin as muscular — a perception that echoes the one at home in Russia, where he has cultivated an image as a man of action.
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In addition to conducting his official duties, he often is shown on Russian TV doing such activities as playing ice hockey — as he did last week on his 63rd birthday — or climbing into a submersible to explore the sea.
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T-shirts with his image are sold at shopping malls, souvenir stores and even from vending machines in Moscow airports. Some depict him looking tough in dark sunglasses, while others show him riding a horse to the words from a pop song: “They are not going to get us.”
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The military intervention in Syria is viewed by many as a sign of shifting alliances in the region as Russia takes a greater role in the fight against IS.
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Russia has had strong ties with the Mideast for years. The fascination with Putin is driven largely by a longstanding suspicion of the West and anger about decades of U.S. intervention in the region that many say has led to more wars and sectarianism. Many hope a stronger Russia would lead to a more balanced approach.
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Iraq's prime minister said last month that his government also entered a joint intelligence sharing agreement with Russia, Iran and Syria, opening an operations center in the heart of Baghdad.
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In Egypt, Russian flags and posters of Putin's face hung across Cairo during his visit in February. At the time, the state-run Al Ahram newspaper profiled him, with photos showing Putin shirtless and holding various weapons, headlined, “A hero of our times.”
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His appeal has extended to Lebanon, where some demonstrators — Christian allies of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group — wore T-shirts bearing Putin's face at a protest Sunday calling for Lebanese presidential elections.

Iran needs to mobilise $150 billion to upgrade its petro-chemical sector

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Iran needs $150bn to modernize oil sector

Iran says it will need at least $150 billion to implement a complete modernization of its oil industry within the next five years.

 

Presstv.com

Iran says it will need at least $150 billion to implement a complete modernization of its oil industry within the next five years.
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Mehdi Hosseini, a top advisor to Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh, said the required funds will be spent on a wide range of activities including increasing Iran’s oil output as well as developing LNG projects and other downstream plans.
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Hosseini said Iran offers unique advantages to oil investors that include lower production costs, an easy access to free waterways, expert local workforce and modern infrastructure facilities.
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“I believe Iran has many [oil and gas] projects that have low production costs and are highly profitable,” he has been quoted as saying by IRNA.
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“This can help offset many of the investors’ problems that include decreasing oil prices, high project costs, low financial resources and a waning interest of banks in giving loans to companies for oil projects,” said Hosseini. 
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He further emphasized that Iran’s return to the market will not push down oil prices. 
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“New supplies from Iran may in the first place cause the prices to decrease,” Hosseini said. “However, it appears that US shale production will at the same time decrease by at least 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2016 as a result of high production costs and a lack of funds. It will be then that the production from Iran will fill the gap thus created,” he added.
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Hosseini further emphasized that Iran plans to increase its oil production in three phases.
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Phase one, he said, will comprise a rise of 500,000 bpd after the removal of sanctions. Phase two will be increasing the output to 4.2 million bpd that existed before the sanctions were implemented against Iran. And Phase three will involve increasing Iran’s production by a further 2 million bpd to reach above 6 million bpd.   

USA airdrops to ISIS in Syria after Russia destroys most of their ammo.

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US Airdrops 50 Tons of Ammo to Syrian ‘Rebels’ After Russia Decimates “ISIS” Supplies

Posted by American everyman.

The Russian Defence Ministry has reported that “Russian airstrikes resulted in the elimination of the majority of ISIS ammunition, heavy vehicles and equipment.“ Stuart Hooper, 21st Century Wire

Persia and China

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Chinese admiral visits Iran, wants closer defense cooperation

Reuters and antiwar.com

Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation, Sun Jianguo, greets delegates as he arrives for the opening of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore May 29, 2015.

Reuters/Edgar Su

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China wants to deepen military ties with Iran, a senior Chinese admiral was quoted as saying on Thursday after a meeting with Iran's defense minister in Tehran.
. Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, told Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan that China paid great attention to developing relations with Iran, China's Defence Ministry said.
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"The aim of this delegation's visit is to further promote friendship, deepen cooperation and exchange views with Iran on bilateral military ties and issues of mutual concern," Sun said, according to the statement.
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The trip will also "promote the preservation of international and regional peace and stability", he added.
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China and Iran have close diplomatic, economic, trade and energy ties, and China has been active in pushing both the United States and Iran to reach agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program.
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Under a multilateral deal, agreed in July, sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations will be lifted in return for Iran agreeing to long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb.
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Sun said that China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, was pleased that an agreement had been reached.
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Last year, for the first time ever, two Chinese warships docked at Iran's Bandar Abbas port to take part in a joint naval exercises in the Gulf and an Iranian admiral was given tours of a Chinese submarine and warships.
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Iran and Russia have both provided support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war. China, however, remains a low key diplomatic player in the Middle East despite its dependence on the region's oil. Beijing has repeatedly warned that military action cannot end the crisis in Syria and has called multiple times for talks and a political solution.
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(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Fundamental Reform of the BND

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It should be moved from Bavaria (from where the Nazis started in 1919...with the guidance of the Abwer) to near Berlin.

Its should be remodeled as a civilian foreign intelligence service rather than as a military intelligence.

Gays, especially butch gays should be excluded from it.

Its origins is in the SS and Gestapo from the Nazi period through the Galen network should be eliminated, and therefore a thorough de-Nazification of it should take place.

Its should stop acting as the WHORE of USA intelligence....it is no longer 1948..with the Red army occupying Prussia.....mechanisms to ensure this through the German Bundestag.

It should stop spying on German companies, where IP and R & D and sheer German ingenuity is transferred to the USA, primarily, but also to other countries.....mechanisms to ensure this through the German Bundestag.

It should stop its relation with mafia organizations in Eastern and Central Europe for drug smuggling from Afghanistan, counterfeiting...attempting to copy its brethren in the USA.

It should try and serve Germany's best interests, from where the taxes pays for its very existence and functioning.

Angie Merkels center right party can't seriously reform the BND, but they must undertake a PR exercise where they pretend to reform it...after ALL the scandals.

What is required is radical party to come to power, which abolishes the fascist BND, and transfers most of its powers to either the German Foreign ministry (passive intelligence gathering and analysis) , and still others to the federal police. Germany there after will become more efficient and effective a country.

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Germany vows tougher control of spy agency after new revelations

Reuters and antiwar.com

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas gives a statement to the media at the Ministry of Justice in Berlin, Germany, August 4, 2015.

Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch

FUCKING 3 EGGS.

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Germany's justice minister has called for tighter control of the national foreign intelligence agency, after media reported its spies had targeted the embassies of allied countries without the government's express permission.
.  FUCKING TRACTORS

Heiko Maas told the Rheinische Post newspaper in an interview to be published on Friday that a fundamental reform of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) was needed.
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FUCKING GERMAN PROSTITUTES.

"Parliament must get all the necessary means for an effective control of the intelligence services," he added.
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 FUCKING GERMAN NEANDERTHALS.
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The media reports were the latest in a controversy over German intelligence that has erupted since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 a widespread U.S. surveillance program that included tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone.
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 FUCKING DUPLICITY.

Germany's foreign intelligence agency is already under scrutiny after revelations earlier this year that its officials indirectly helped the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spy on European firms such as defense manufacturer Airbus.
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FUCKING MERCEDES
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The scandal has caused a political uproar in Germany, where privacy is an especially sensitive issue after the extensive surveillance by Communist East Germany's Stasi secret police and by the Gestapo in the Nazi era.
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The latest reports are seen as an embarrassment for Merkel, who repeatedly commented on Snowden's revelations of widespread U.S. espionage in Germany with the sentence: "Spying on friends isn't on at all."
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 Former fucking SS and the Gestapo in the BND

The German magazine Der Spiegel's online edition and public broadcaster ARD reported that BND officials spied on embassies and other government buildings of allies such as France and the United States through so-called "selectors" such as names and internet addresses.
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Some of these search terms were not on the chancellery's commission list for the BND agency, suggesting its agents spied on allies without permission, the media reported, adding the government ordered the BND to stop this practice in autumn 2013.
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(Reporting by Michael Nienaber and Matthias Sobolewski; editing by Andrew Roche)