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The return of the Ghost of Altantuya: PI’s lawyer – ‘Anwar not behind Bala tapes’ & Bala is away somewhere in India.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is not involved in the latest twist to P Balasubramaniam’s sensational allegations against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, said the private eye’s lawyer.

Balasubramaniam had last year produced a statutory declaration alleging that Najib had close personal ties with murdered Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.

But 24 hours later, in a dramatic reversal, the private investigator recanted his statutory declaration and subsequently went into hiding in India for over one year.

In August, he re-emerged in Malaysia to stand by his first statutory declaration, saying that threats and inducements were used by certain quarters to make him change his story.

Balasubramaniam’s lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu, in an interview with Malaysiakini, denied that Anwar was behind this latest development.

“Many people think Anwar Ibrahim is behind all this. That is absolutely untrue. Anwar has no idea about this whole episode except what he may have read in the blogs and on Malaysiakini,” Americk told in an interview.

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MAGUINDANAO MUSLIM MASSACRE - 59 CONFIRMED DEAD

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the European Commission, as well as the US and British embassies in Manila have joined the chorus of condemnation of the massacre of more than 50 people, including journalists and lawyers, in Maguindanao last Monday.

The Secretary General is saddened by reports of the brutal killing of more than 50 civilians in Maguindanao province, Southern Philippines. He condemns this heinous crime committed in the context of a local election campaign, a statement from the Secretary Generals office read.

Ban called for the perpetrators of the heinous crime to be brought to justice.

President Arroyo declared on Tuesday a state of emergency in Maguindanao province following Mondays killings, which have been described as the worst election-related violence in the nations history.

The Secretary General extends heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and hopes that no effort will be spared to bring justice and to hold the perpetrators accountable, the statement said.

Outgoing US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said such barbaric acts violate the most fundamental principles of human rights and democracy.

On behalf of all American and Filipino employees of the Embassy, Ambassador Kenney offers heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the victims, the US embassy statement said.

We strongly believe that a thorough, rapid, and transparent investigation must be conducted, and those responsible must be brought to swift justice, Kenney said.

I condemn in the strongest possible terms the barbaric killing of innocent civilians, including women, journalists and lawyers, who were preparing to participate in the electoral process in the Philippines, said European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

I call for calm in the period leading up to the forthcoming elections scheduled for May 2010. In the face of this atrocity, the rule of law and democracy have to prevail, she said.

British Ambassador Stephen Lillie said: I condemn this brutal massacre of innocent civilians, including women, journalists and lawyers. I hope that the authorities in the Philippines will take urgent action to bring the perpetrators to justice and prevent further escalation of violence in the run-up to next year's elections here.

Effective action will be crucial in maintaining confidence in the Philippines' commitment to protect human rights, he added.

No accountability

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the massacre was an effect of the failure of the Arroyo administration to hold accountable perpetrators of unexplained killings.

It urged the government to initiate an independent probe on the murders to be led by the National Bureau of Investigation. The possible involvement of state forces in the Maguindanao massacre means that security personnel shouldn’t be allowed to interfere in an independent investigation.

Extrajudicial killings will continue to be a serious problem in the Philippines until they are competently, transparently, and impartially investigated, and perpetrators, including members of security forces, are fully prosecuted, Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.

The history of election-related violence in the Philippines makes the lead up to the May 2010 elections a period of special concern, Pearson said.

U.S. will not join treaty banning landmines

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By David Alexander

President Barack Obama has no plans to join a global treaty banning landmines because a policy review found the United States could not meet its security commitments without them, the State Department said on Tuesday.

"This administration undertook a policy review and we decided that our land mine policy remains in effect," spokesman Ian Kelly told a briefing five days before a review conference in Cartegena, Colombia on the 10-year-old Mine Ban Treaty.

"We determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we signed this convention," he said.

It was the first time the administration had publicly disclosed the decision.

The treaty bans the use, stockpiling, production or transfer of antipersonnel mines. It has been endorsed by 156 countries, but the United States, Russia, China and India have not adopted it.

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a leading advocate for the treaty, called the decision "a default of U.S. leadership."

"It is a lost opportunity for the United States to show leadership instead of joining with China and Russia and impeding progress," Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a statement.

Landmines are known to have caused 5,197 casualties last year, a third of them children, according to the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which links some 1,000 activist groups.

The United States generally abides by the provisions of the treaty. It has not used antipersonnel mines since the 1991 Gulf War, has not exported any since 1992 and has not produced them since 1997, Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, told a briefing on Monday.

The review conference next Sunday is expected to draw more than 1,000 delegates representing more than 100 countries, including ministers and heads of state.

It will look at the progress of a broadly popular treaty that has helped cut land mine casualties around the world and provided relief to victims.

Kelly said the United States would send humanitarian mine relief experts from the State Department, Defense Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to observe the conference.

"As a global provider of security, we have an interest in the discussions there," Kelly said. "But we will be there as an observer, obviously, because we haven't signed the convention, nor do we plan to sign the convention."

"The very fact that they are showing up we take as a positive sign of movement on this issue within the Obama administration," Goose said.

"We hope they're not coming empty-handed," he added. "We very much want them to come and say that they intend to join this convention. Even if they can't give a timeline, we want them to say they intend to join at some point in time."

Anti-mine campaigners said a declaration of intent was important because the Bush administration reversed U.S. policy on accepting the convention and said it would never join.

While Kelly's comment indicated no shift in administration policy, Jeff Abramson, deputy director of the nonpartisan Arms Control Association, said the United States was expected to make a statement at the conference that might shed more light on the decision.

He said it would be disappointing if such a statement shut the door to continuing a review of U.S. policy.

Kelly said the United States was the world's single largest financial supporter of humanitarian mine action, having provided more than $1.5 billion since 1993 to support mine clearance and destruction of conventional weapons.

In contravention of the treaty, however, the United States stockpiles some 10 million antipersonnel mines and retains the option to use them.

But using mines would pose big problems for Washington, Goose said, because most of its allies including all but one NATO country, are parties to the treaty and are pledged not to help other countries use the weapons.

Holocaust Story Spoiled by Lies and Fraud.

Shooting the messenger..

Some 34 journalists died this year while doing their jobs. And the independent press organization Committee To Protect Journalists says another 30 correspondents have gone missing. In New York next Tuesday, (November 24th) members of the media from around the world will gather to honor and pay tribute to several international journalists. VOA's Chris Simkins has more.

VOA's Chris Simkins

21 Filipinos killed on way to file election papers

The wife of a candidate for governor and about 30 others were abducted Monday morning in the southern Philippines -- with at least 21 of them later killed, army officials said.The woman was on her way to file her husband's nomination papers, when some 100 armed men abducted her and the others in Maguindanao province, said the candidate, Ibrahim Mangudadatu.

Army Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said soldiers later recovered 21 bodies -- 13 women and eight men -- from the area where the abduction occurred.

Presidential Adviser on Mindanao Affairs Jesus Dureza has asked the government to place Maguindanao province under a state of emergency."This is a gruesome massacre of civilians unequaled in recent history. Even women and media men were not spared. There must be a total stop to this senseless violence," Dureza said told reporters.

How much do Malaysians spend?

NATO trains Afghan Police and National Army training.

The US had pass the buck to NATO to train Afghan Police and Army. Transparency International had placed Afghanistan among the bottom in their table of "perceptions of corruption".What can the oppressed Afghan expect out of this exercises?

 

How US can pay for health care?

Close Tax havens & tax currency speculation.

Conspiracy against anti-corruption top guns.

Indonesian commission lays blame on police | Posted: 18 November 2009 0255 hrs

student's demo

JAKARTA: Indonesia's president should censure senior police and prosecutors accused of leading a conspiracy against the anti-corruption agency, an independent fact-finding team recommended Tuesday.

The so-called "Team 8" was appointed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to look into allegations that police and prosecutors are trying to frame top anti-corruption investigators with false criminal charges.

The scandal has sparked protests and raised doubts over Yudhoyono's drive to lift the scourge of corruption from Indonesia, which remains ridden with graft despite 10 years of reform since the fall of the Suharto kleptocracy.

"Team 8 recommends to the president, in order to uphold justice for the people, that sanctions should be imposed on the officials responsible for this forced legal process," team spokesman Anies Baswedan told reporters after the committee handed in its report at the end of a two-week investigation.

It also said the police had no evidence to support their allegations of bribery and abuse of power against two deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and recommended the charges be dropped.

Yudhoyono has been under mounting pressure to take action after wiretap recordings captured senior police and prosecutors discussing ways to apparently frame the commissioners, Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto.

The anti-graft investigators were arrested last month but were released after the KPK's wiretaps were played in court on November 3.

Police general Susno Duadji and deputy attorney general Abdul Hakim Ritonga have stepped down over their roles in the alleged conspiracy, but anti-graft activists say police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji also must go.

The team also recommended authorities investigate a controversial, 6.7-trillion-rupiah (US$710-million) bank bailout many analysts believe is the source of friction between the police and the KPK.

Baswedan said Duadji's connections with an account holder reportedly close to Yudhoyono's Democratic Party who was able to withdraw supposedly frozen funds from the collapsed Bank Century should be part of the wider probe.

The Democrats have refused to back parliamentary calls for an inquiry into the Bank Century fiasco, arguing that any suspicions over the bailout should be investigated by the police and not by lawmakers.

Yudhoyono welcomed the Team 8 report but insisted he could not immediately act on its recommendations due to an "internal process" that he did not explain.

"As the head of the country and head of government, what I do will have to be in line with the constitutional order, laws, and government rules," he said, echoing his standard line that the "legal process" must be respected.

Police have refused to drop their allegations against the KPK officials despite the attorney general's office twice rejecting the case in the aftermath of the wiretap revelations.

Activists said Yudhoyono, a liberal ex-general who won re-election in July on promises of clean government and economic growth, was under mounting pressure to prove his anti-corruption credentials.

"The president must follow the recommendations of the team, otherwise what's the point in setting it up in the first place?" Indonesia Corruption Watch coordinator Danang Widoyoko told AFP.

"If he doesn't follow the team's recommendations, it will mean that he has not only failed in carrying out his job as president but also in stopping corruption. In fact, he's only encouraging corruption."  

courtesy :channelnewsasia.com 

 

American.Drug.War.

Moves afoot to end Houthi fighting.

Meanwhile Houthi rebels have released new video which they say shows destruction caused by continued Saudi air strikes.

But diplomatic moves are under way to end the fighting, as Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reports.

U.S. Moves to Seize Properties Tied to Iran.

Federal prosecutors continued legal action on Friday to seize properties, including several mosques, owned by a non-profit Muslim organization with alleged ties to the Iranian government. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has details in this report from Washington.

Mohamed ElBaradei at CFR: A World Free of Nuclear Weapons.

Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) speaking at the New York office of the Council on Foreign Relations on November 4, discussed ongoing negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program. ElBaradei reiterated that the agency had no evidence that Iran had an ongoing nuclear weapons program or had developed a nuclear weapon. He also expressed hope for the confidence-building plan that calls for Iran to ship much of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for reprocessing.

Saudis tighten Yemen border control

Gone are the days when thousands of Yemeni workers, pilgrims, and businessmen used to enter Saudi Arabia without any problems.

Following the escalation in a conflict with rebel Houthi fighters and the Saudis' involvement in it, many of them are being sent back from the border by the Saudi authorities.

The Saudis are seeking to deny the Houthis access to the mountainous area straddling the border of the two countries, but it is the common people who are being inconvenienced.

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reports from northern Yemen.

Royalti minyak - H.A,K

Rakyat Kelantan bukan peminta sedekah - Rakyat Kelantan memperjuangkan hak di atas semangat federalisme. Kita (ahli parlimen PAS) akan perjuangkan hak ini dan jelas jawapan perdana menteri tadi bertentangan dengan semangat federalisme, bertentangan dengan perlembagaan dan akta 144 petroleum yang disebut tadi," tegasnya yang juga Naib Presiden PAS dalam sidang media 4 November 2009. PM Najib masih mengikut cara Dr Mahathir - 1 Malaysia kah?

capitalism a love story trailer.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Moore, I wanted to turn to an interview that you did in Capitalism: A Love Story with the former bank regulator Bill Black about Timothy Geithner, President Obama’s Treasury Secretary and the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

BILL BLACK: …pretty much everything he’s done in life. Most of the institutions that destroyed the economy were under his direct regulatory authority.

MICHAEL MOORE: How did he get the job as Treasury Secretary?

BILL BLACK: By completely screwing up his job as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

MICHAEL MOORE: That makes no sense.

BILL BLACK: Of course it makes perfect sense. This is not new to Washington. People who will give you the wrong answer, but the answer you want, are invaluable, and they often get promoted precisely because they’re willing to say and do absurd things. These are the people that promised us that financial deregulation would make all of us rich, and these are the people who were personally made rich.

Israel denies illegal diamond trade

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 PressTV

Israel has criticized a UN report which accuses Tel Aviv of involvement in illegal diamond trade from the Ivory Coast that could be helping re-arm rebels there (photo).

Israel's Diamond Controller Shmuel Morderchai dismissed the accusations in a Wednesday statement, insisting Israel has never dealt in diamond trade with the Ivory Coast.

"We are shocked by these false accusations and completely refute them," he said. The experts report was presented to the UN Security Council on international compliance with sanctions imposed by the international body on the Ivory Coast

The UN sanctions on the African nation's diamond trade came four years ago, after rebels took control of the country's north in a deadly civil war. The world body's investigation team on Tuesday urged Israel to 'investigate fully the possible involvement of Israeli nationals and companies in the illegal export of Ivorian rough diamonds'.

The panel also named the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Guinea and Liberia as some of the countries that needed to step up efforts to enforce the embargo on buying rough diamonds mined in the Ivory Coast.

But Israel insisted it had never imported conflict diamonds from the Ivory Coast or any other countries that are not members of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS).

The watchdog was set up in 2003 in a bid to stem the trade in 'blood diamonds' in the wake of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, which were largely financed by illegal diamond trade. Israel has threatened to lodge an official complaint about its inclusion in the UN report at the upcoming meeting of Kimberley Process members scheduled for November 2-5 in Namibia.

Troubled Waters: Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water

Israel Cutting Palestinian Water: Amnesty

27/10/2009 reported by almanar

Israel is denying Palestinians adequate access to clean, safe water while allowing almost unlimited supplies to Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, human rights group Amnesty International has said.

"Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements... stand in stark contrast next to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle even to meet their domestic water needs," the group said in a report released on Tuesday.

Amnesty said between 180,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in West Bank rural communities have no access to running water, while taps in other areas often run dry. "Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank", Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty researcher, said.

Israel's daily water consumption per capita is four times higher than the 70 litre per person consumed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to the report entitled: Troubled waters - Palestinians denied fair access to water Shortages.

Israel, which itself faces unprecedented water shortages, controls much of the West Bank's supplies, pumping from the so-called Mountain Aquifer. The Amnesty report said Israel uses more than 80 per cent of water drawn from the aquifer and while Israel has other water sources, the aquifer is the West Bank's only supply of water.

In the Gaza Strip, several repair works were under way to improve sanitation before the Israeli blockade was imposed in 2007. But the projects have been on hold under the siege, as Israel is preventing repair materials from coming into the Strip.

Adding to an already dire situation, Israel's war on Gaza early this year left water reservoirs, wells, sewage networks and pumping stations severely damaged. The Amnesty report said Gaza's coastal aquifer, its sole fresh water resource, has been polluted by infiltration of seawater and raw sewage and degraded by over-extraction.

The water situation in Gaza had now reached a "crisis point," with 90 to 95 per cent of the water supply contaminated and unfit for human consumption, Rovera said.

Israel's water authority called the report "biased and incorrect, at the very least" and said that while there is a water gap, it is not nearly as big as presented by Amnesty. The authority said Israel had met its obligations under the “Oslo peace agreement” but said the Palestinian authorities had failed to meet their own requirements to recycle water and were not distributing water efficiently.