tagged w/ International Relations
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The "Art in Mind" group exhibitions offer a platform for UK and international artists to showcase their work to a new London audience. There is a gallery fee to cover all costs and we charge £250 per week for a 3 metre wide space - you can book as much space as you like (3,6,9 meters) depending on how much work you wish to include and the size of your work. Our team organise everything including internet marketing, email promotion, printing flyers, sending invitations, staff for set up, daily invigilating and sales (we take 0% commission on all sales made). All you need to do is organise delivery and pickup of the artworks the rest is taken care of. We supply a free bar during the opening night to entertain viewers, buyers and press contacts.
The next available space is a two week exhibition from the 31 March – 13 April 2009 with a preview opening night on Wednesday 1st April between 6.30 and 8.30pm. The Art in Mind exhibitions take place throughout the year on a regular basis.
For further information contact the director tony@thebricklanegallery.com
t: +44 (0) 207 729 9721
w: www.thebricklanegallery.comThe "Art in Mind" group exhibitions offer a platform for UK and... more
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A ten-minute Al-Qaeda message delivered by Egyptian native Ayman al-Zawahari says the ongoing violence in Gaza is a 'gift' from Obama before he takes office.A ten-minute Al-Qaeda message delivered by Egyptian native Ayman al-Zawahari says the... more
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Angola has closed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo due to an outbreak of the deadly ebola virus. 13 people in Congo have died, 183 cases are being observed, and 2 are being held in quarantine.Angola has closed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo due to an outbreak... more
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Two giant pandas have arrived in Taiwan, sent from China. The two pandas represent the thawing relations between the two countries.Two giant pandas have arrived in Taiwan, sent from China. The two pandas represent the... more
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The Syrian cabinet decided on Tuesday to close the American School and an American cultural center in Damascus, the capital, after a raid into Syria on Sunday by United States Special Operations forces, the official SANA news agency said.
The decision was the first retaliation against the United States by Syria, which has accused it of "terrorist aggression" in the raid.
Syria said eight civilians were killed in the attack. But American officials said the raid by American helicopter-borne forces killed an Iraqi militant responsible for running weapons, money and foreign fighters across the border into Iraq, and that all the people killed in the assault were militants.
A senior American official said and that women and children living with the militants had not been harmed.
The strike into Syria was by far the boldest by American commandos in the five years since the United States invaded Iraq and began to condemn Syria's role in stoking the Iraqi insurgency.
The timing was startling, not least because American officials praised Syria in recent months for its efforts to halt traffic across the border.
But in justifying the attack, American officials said the Bush administration was determined to operate under an expansive definition of self-defense that provided a rationale for strikes on militant targets in sovereign nations without those countries' consent.
Together with a similar American commando raid into Pakistan more than seven weeks ago, the operation on Sunday appeared to reflect an intensifying effort by the Bush administration to find a way during its waning months to attack militants even beyond the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States is at war.
Administration officials declined to say whether the emerging application of self-defense could lead to strikes against camps inside Iran that have been used to train Shiite "special groups" that have fought with the American military and Iraqi security forces.
See link for more...The Syrian cabinet decided on Tuesday to close the American School and an American... more
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"The EU and Cuba have formally restored ties, five years after the EU imposed diplomatic sanctions on the island following mass arrests of dissidents.
European Commissioner Louis Michel said the accord he signed with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque was "a turning point for EU-Cuban relations". "
When will the US follow the European lead and go through with something sensible, like lifting an ineffective, inefficient embargo?"The EU and Cuba have formally restored ties, five years after the EU imposed... more
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Dr. Marwan Abu Ras, the head of the parliamentary committee to break the siege, stated Monday that a large multinational parliamentary delegation is expected to make a humanitarian visit to the Gaza Strip at the beginning of November.
Dr. Abu Ras underlined that the Brussels-based European campaign to lift the siege worked during the last period on rallying a large number of European, Arab, African, Asian and Latin American lawmakers to participate in a group visit to the besieged Gaza Strip.
The lawmaker opined that this step is considered an advanced stage on the path of breaking the unjust Israeli siege on the Gaza people and a step to preserve the human dignity and rights which are bragged about by regimes involved blatantly in besieging Gaza.
The lawmaker called in this regard on all concerned humanitarian organizations to support this delegation and facilitate its entry into the Strip to get closely familiar with the suffering of Gaza people under the Israeli siege.
In another context, Ayad Al-Qarra, the media advisor to the PLC presidency, told the Quds Press news agency that a parliamentary delegation headed by Dr. Ahmed Bahr, the acting speaker of the PLC, will make visits soon to a number of Arab and Islamic countries including Qatar, Bahrain, Syria, Iran and Indonesia.
Qarra said that the aim of these visits is to inform the Arab and Islamic parliaments about the situation in the Palestinian arena under the suffocating siege imposed on the Palestinian people and the ongoing efforts to end the internal discord.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Dr. Marwan Abu Ras, the head of the parliamentary... more
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Moopak
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In this report by our fledgling news crew economist and journalist Daniel Ben Ami, discusses what he calls “Caveman Equality.” He reminds us that in the Stone Age we were “all pretty equal …and dirt poor”. This caveman logic needs to be rejected, he argues, and instead we should fight for Ferraris for all.In this report by our fledgling news crew economist and journalist Daniel Ben Ami,... more
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Scientist Joe Kaplinsky tells us not to waste valuable time sorting out our rubbish. He explains that even if the whole world produced as much garbage as the USA for the next 100 years we could still just bury it in less than a 20 mile patch. This report was produced by our fledgling news crew and is sure to stir debateScientist Joe Kaplinsky tells us not to waste valuable time sorting out our rubbish.... more
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This is a report produced by our fledgling news crew which visited a conference challenging China bashing which reached a peak in the run up to the Olympics and now simmers as a backdrop to global affairs...This is a report produced by our fledgling news crew which visited a conference... more
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's commander in Afghanistan has said the war against the Taliban cannot be won, the Sunday Times reported.
It quoted Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith as saying in an interview that if the Taliban were willing to talk, then that might be "precisely the sort of progress" needed to end the insurgency.
"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," he said.
He said his forces had "taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008" but that troops may well leave Afghanistan with there still being a low level of insurgency.
But Afghanistan's Defense Minister expressed his disappointment on Sunday at the commander's statements, maintaining the insurgency had to be defeated.
"I think this is the personal opinion of that commander," Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters.
"The main objective of the Afghan government and the whole international community is that we have to defeat this war of terror and be successful," he said.
Wardak said success also depended on how British forces were approaching the problems they faced in Helmand but did not say whether their current strategy was the right one.
Asked if the commander's comments came as a disappointment, Wardak said: "Yes, it is disappointing, for sure."
Britain has around 8,000 troops based in Afghanistan, most of them in the volatile southern province of Helmand, where they face daily battles with a growing insurgency.
NO NEGOTIATIONS WITH "INVADERS"
NATO commanders and diplomats have been saying for some time that the Taliban insurgency cannot be defeated by military means alone and that negotiations with the militants will ultimately be needed to bring an end to the conflict.
"If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this," Carleton-Smith said. "That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."
But a spokesman for the Taliban said on Sunday there would be no negotiations with foreigners and repeated calls made by Taliban commanders for the unconditional withdrawal of the more than 70,000 international troops from Afghanistan.
"They should know that Taliban will never hold talks with the invaders," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told the Pakistan-based Afghan news agency, AIP.
"What we had said in the past, we also say once again, that foreign forces should leave without any condition," he said.
Violence in Afghanistan has increased to its worst level since 2001, when U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the ruling Taliban following the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said last week he had asked the king of Saudi Arabia to mediate in talks with the insurgents and called on Taliban leader Mullah Omar to return to his homeland and to make peace.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's commander in Afghanistan has said the war against... more
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Moopak
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The transformed the global financial landscape, bankrupting established names and prompting unprecedented interventions by governments and central banks to save others from collapse as they buckle under the weight of "toxic debts." This timeline charts the key moments in that process.
Feb. 7, 2007: HSBC announces losses linked to U.S. subprime mortgages
May 17: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said growing number of mortgage defaults will not seriously harm the U.S. economy.
June: Two Bear Stearns-run hedge funds with large holdings of subprime mortgages run into large losses and are forced to dump assets. The trouble spreads to major Wall Street firms such as Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs which had loaned the firms money.
Aug.: French bank BNP Paribas freezes withdrawals in three investment funds.
Sept.: Crisis-hit UK bank Northern Rock admits financial difficulties as it asks Bank of England for assistance. Share prices fall as customers queue up to withdraw their money.
Oct. 1: Swiss bank UBS announces losses liked to U.S. subprime mortgages
Oct. 5: Investment bank Merrill Lynch reports losses of $5.5 billion
Oct. 15: Cititgroup announces $6.5 billion third quarter losses
Oct. 24: Merrill Lynch announces losses to be over $8 billion
Jan., 2008: Swiss bank UBS announces fourth quarter losses at $14 billion.
Jan. 11: Bank of America pays $4 billion for Countryside Financial.
Jan. 15: Citigroup reports $18.1 billion loss in fourth quarter
Jan. 17: Merrill Lynch reports $11.5 billion loss in fourth quarter. Washington Mutual posts losses
Feb. 13: U.K. bank Northern Rock is nationalized.
March: UK hedge fund Peloton Partners and U.S. fund Carlyle Capital fail
March 16: Bear Stearns, the U.S.'s fifth largest investment bank collapses and is taken over by JP Morgan.
April 1: German Deutsche Bank credit losses of $3.9 billion in first quarter.
April 13: U.S. bank Wachovia Corp. reports big loss for quarter.
May 12: HSBC writes off $3.2 billion in the first quarter linked to exposure to the U.S. subprime market.
July 22: WaMu reports $3.3 billion loss for second quarter.
Aug. 31: German Commerzbank AG takes over Dresdner Kleinwort investment bank.
Sept 7: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively nationalized by the U.S. Treasury which places them into "conservatorship."
Sept. 9: Lehman Brothers shares plummet to lowest level on Wall Street in more than a decade.
Sept 14: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy. Stock markets plummet; Central banks inject billions of dollars into money markets. Bank of America agrees to buy Merrill Lynch.
Sept. 16: AIG Corp, the world's biggest insurer bailed out by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Morgan Stanley and Wachovia enter merger talks.
Sept. 17: Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) merges with UK bank Lloyds TSB in an emergency rescue plan representing one-third of the UK's savings and mortgage market.
Sept. 18: Fed and other central banks inject billions into global markets to help ease the crunch.
Sept. 22: Japan's Nomura Holdings buys Lehman's Asian operations for up to $525 million.
Sept. 25: WaMu sold to JP Morgan.
Sept. 27: HSBC announces 1,100 job cuts worldwide.
Sept. 29: UK's Bradford & Bingley nationalized. Spanish banking giant Santander to buy deposits for $38.2 billion. U.S. House of Representatives rejects a $700 billion plan to bail out the U.S. financial system. German bank Hypo Real Estate is bailed out by a consortium of banks. Citigroup, the world's largest bank, buys Wachovia. Irish government moves to safeguard all bonds, debts and deposits for two years in six banks and building societies. Belgian insurance giant Fortis is bailed out by the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Iceland's third largest bank Glitnir nationalized.
Sept 30: Belgian bank Dexia bailed out by France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Swiss bank UBS expected to annouce losses before Oct. 2 shareholder meeting.The transformed the global financial landscape, bankrupting established names and... more
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Moopak
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Europe must show it can respond like the United States in the "trial by fire" of the global financial crisis, says International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
European leaders are meeting in Paris on Saturday to discuss their approach to the global financial crisis.
Strauss-Kahn said that the financial situation was an unprecedented test for the countries that use Europe's common currency, The Associated Press reported.
The IMF boss said the crisis was worrying and that his organization would lower its economic growth forecasts.
Strauus-Khan commented after meeting Saturday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss Europe's response.
Sarkozy also planned to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Also expected to attend was Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker who heads the Eurogroup, comprising the finance ministers of the 15 countries using the euro.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet were also expected at the summit.
Sarkozy said the economic crisis required a global response, while Brown said that no strong bank should be allowed to fail for lack of solvency.
He also mooted setting up a $21 billion European fund to help small businesses through the economic downturn.
Europe has been hit with bankruptcies and stock declines since the crisis unfolded in the United States last month.
Europe has welcomed the approval in the U.S. Congress of a $700 billion financial industry bailout. However, most of the leaders at the summit are against a similar Europe-wide bailout.
Sarkozy has denied France was backing the creation of a special fund to rescue any crisis-hit European banks despite the French finance minister floating the idea.
The European Central Bank left its key interest rate unchanged Thursday, but it and the Bank of England are under increasing pressure to cut rates quickly in the face of declining economic activity and an increase in unemployment.
Europe must show it can respond like the United States in the "trial by... more
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Moopak
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Sarah Palin thinks Russia is so close to her home, it gives her foreign policy experience. And Tina Fey said on SNL imitating Palin "I can see Russia from my house!" This is a funny map which puts it into perspective.
Check out the great map!Sarah Palin thinks Russia is so close to her home, it gives her foreign policy... more
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Moopak
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MOSCOW - A Russian navy squadron set off for Venezuela Monday, an official said, in a deployment of Russian military power to the Western Hemisphere unprecedented since the Cold War.
The Kremlin recently has moved to intensify contacts with Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American nations amid increasingly strained relations with Washington after last month's war between Russia and Georgia. During the Cold War, Latin America became an ideological battleground between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the nuclear-powered Peter the Great cruiser accompanied by three other ships sailed from the Northern Fleet's base of Severomorsk on Monday. The ships will cover about 15,000 nautical miles to conduct joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy, he told The Associated Press.
The deployment follows a weeklong visit to Venezuela by a pair of Russian strategic bombers and comes as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — an unbridled critic of U.S. foreign policy who has close ties with Moscow — plans to visit Moscow this week. It will be Chavez's second trip to Russia in about two months.MOSCOW - A Russian navy squadron set off for Venezuela Monday, an official said, in a... more
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The federal agency said anyone who brings their computer or cell phone out of the country is risking privacy and data security violations.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security appears to be of two minds about the security of information on portable devices.
On the one hand, it defends border searches of laptops as necessary to limit the movements of terrorists, to deter child pornography, and to enforce U.S. laws.
On the other hand, it has warned business and government travelers not to carry laptops or other electronic devices when traveling abroad, as a way to prevent "unauthorized access and theft of data by criminal and foreign government elements."
In a document titled "Foreign Travel Threat Assessment: Electronic Communications Vulnerabilities," published by the DHS's critical infrastructure threat analysis division and recently posted to Wikileaks, DHS urges business leaders and U.S. officials to "leave [electronic devices] at home" when traveling.
"Foreign governments routinely target the computers and other electronic devices and media carried by U.S. corporate and government personnel traveling abroad to gather economic, military, and political information," the document warns. "Theft of sensitive information can occur in a foreign country at any point between a traveler's arrival and departure and can continue after returning home without the victim being aware."
Recognizing that for some it may be impossible to travel without a laptop and phone, DHS recommends buying a single-use cell phone locally, carrying a designated "travel" laptop with a minimum of information on it, and using temporary Internet e-mail accounts that are not associated with a corporate or government entity.
"Even with these strategies, however, travelers should assume that all communications are monitored," the DHS Threat Assessment says.
In other words, expect no privacy or data security anywhere.
Oh, P.S. THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!
The federal agency said anyone who brings their computer or cell phone out of the... more
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Spain will pay jobless immigrants to go home under a decree approved Friday, more dramatic evidence of how a once-booming economy has quickly gone bust.
Labor Minister Celestino Corbacho said the Cabinet had fast-tracked the measure to take effect in about a month. Its approval by Parliament is expected.
The plan targets tens of thousands of non-EU citizens who have been laid off in Spain and are entitled to various unemployment benefits, based on length of employment. The plan, however, offers them 40 percent of their full entitlement once they renounce their work and residency permits, and the remaining 60 percent once they get home.
The program is strictly voluntary, and applies to people from 19 non-EU countries with which Spain has signed bilateral agreements to pay people's social security benefits that are accrued one another's country.
People who sign up for it must agree not to come back to Spain for three years, but can come back after that and recover their work and residency permits.
The government has been grappling with growing unemployment in an economy now flirting with recession after more than a decade of solid growth. Spanish unemployment is now an EU-high of 10.7 percent, according to the bloc's statistical agency Eurostat.
The meltdown stems mainly from a collapse in the construction industry, which apart from being the main engine of growth has also been a key employment source for low-skill workers from Latin America, North Africa and Eastern Europe.
These immigrants are being hit by building companies' layoffs, and are the ones the government now wants to pay to go home until things get better in Spain.
"We are trying to facilitate the return of those workers who, having contributed to the growth of this country, decide to go back to their own," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told a news conference. She gave no further details.
In July, the government said it believed some 10,000 jobless non-EU citizens - out of a total of 165,000 recorded as of that month - would go along with the plan.
Spain will pay jobless immigrants to go home under a decree approved Friday, more... more
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Moopak
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President Dmitri Medvedev has accused the West of trying to push Russia behind a new "Iron Curtain".
"This is not our path. For us there is no sense going back to the past," the Russian leader said in Moscow.
He also blamed Nato for provoking last month's fighting between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia.
His comments come a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia was becoming increasingly aggressive abroad.
In a strongly-worded speech, Ms Rice said Moscow was on a "one-way path to isolation and irrelevance".
Diplomatic relations between the US and its European allies, on one side, and Russia on the other, have been strained by the Georgian conflict.
Lambasting Nato
"We are in effect being pushed down a path that is founded not on fully-fledged, civilised partnership with other countries, but on autonomous development, behind thick walls, behind an Iron Curtain," President Medvedev said.
He said that Moscow would not allow this to happen, adding that he did not want disputes with the West.
Mr Medvedev also said that Nato's role in the Georgian conflict proved that the military bloc was unable to provide security in Europe.
"What has Nato done, what has it guaranteed? It only provoked the conflict. That's all," he said.
The fighting began on 7 August when Georgia tried to retake its breakaway region of South Ossetia by force after a series of lower-level clashes.
Russia launched a counter-attack and the Georgian troops were ejected from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia - another Georgia's rebel region - several days later.
The Kremlin later recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. So far, Nicaragua is the only other country to have done so.
President Dmitri Medvedev has accused the West of trying to push Russia behind a new... more
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Moopak
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a loan for Georgia, amounting to $750m (£418m).
It is aimed at rebuilding the country's currency reserves and boosting confidence in its economy following last month's conflict with Russia.
Analysts say the money could offset any difficulty Georgia might have in selling products abroad or in attracting foreign investment.
The approval came as Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was visiting Tbilisi.
He called for Georgia's "accelerated" integration with Nato and condemned Russia's conduct in the conflict.
But Mr de Hoop Scheffer - speaking at the first meeting of the Nato-Georgia Commission - did not say when Georgia might join the alliance.
EU aid
A third of the IMF loan will be released immediately, with the rest to come in stages over the next 18 months.
David Owen, a senior IMF adviser, told reporters that the funding was above normal limits for the fund, because of the "exceptional pressures" facing Georgia.
He added that Georgia's growth prospects had been hit by the Russian incursion, but that the economy was well placed to recover quickly.
Also on Monday, the EU announced 500m euros (£397m, $712m) to help Georgia's recovery.
European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the aid would go to assisting internally displaced people, post-conflict rehabilitation, and towards new infrastructure.
In Brussels, EU foreign ministers were set to clear the way for at least 200 ceasefire monitors to deploy to buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia, ahead of an expected Russian troop withdrawal by 10 October.
It is unclear whether the monitors will actually be allowed to enter the breakaway regions, which are full of Russian troops.
In August Russia launched a counter-attack and the Georgian troops were ejected from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a loan for Georgia, amounting to... more
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Moopak
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Sociologists say the gap between the lifestyle, opinions and outlooks of Muscovites and residents of smaller towns is becoming larger and larger. There are hardly any people in Moscow who suffer from a shortage of money for food. The situation is completely different in smaller towns. The smaller a town, the more hungry people it may have.
Sociologists say the gap between the lifestyle, opinions and outlooks of Muscovites... more
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