Secular Café: CNN Pretends Tent on Sidewalk is a Prison

Secular Café For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

CNN Pretends Tent on Sidewalk is a Prison Apr 30th 2013, 19:25 CNN pretends tent on sidewalk is bombing suspect's prison cell Sometimes you read the paper, and you think, "This would be funny... if it were in the Onion." And then you weep for humanity

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Secular Café: Swiss banks under fire

Secular Café For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Swiss banks under fire Apr 30th 2013, 12:23 Everyone in Switzerland is aware of the power of the banks. http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-896689.html Mind you, this is what is currently firing up German interest in Swiss banks: http://www.economist.com/news/europe...ce-uli-uli-uli Quote: ULRICH HOENESS is one of Germany’s football greats, up there with Franz Beckenbauer, with whom he won a World Cup in 1974 and many titles for Bayern Munich, their club. A Swabian butcher’s son with blond curls, “Uli” was lean, clever and fast. And he was good at life. When a knee injury ended his career in 1979, he became Bayern’s manager, leading the team where he is still president to decades of success. He has survived a plane crash and run a thriving sausage business. Growing paunchier over the years, he remained earthy and became a moral voice in German sport and society. Politicians couldn’t be photographed enough with him. And now he may face prison. For over a decade, it has emerged, Mr Hoeness had a bank account in Switzerland that he hid from the German tax authorities. He seems to have counted on a German-Swiss agreement that would have kept such account holders anonymous while settling their back taxes through transfers between the governments. But when the leftist parties in Germany’s upper house killed that deal last year, he came clean. In January, he turned himself in, paying more than €3m ($3.9m) in back taxes.

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Secular Café: Dutch Queen abdicates

Secular Café For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Dutch Queen abdicates Apr 30th 2013, 11:36 As did her mother and grandmother before her. Now the Netherlands has a king -- the first for over 100 years. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22348160

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Secular Café: Islamists forced out of Mali start operations in Libya

Secular Café For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Islamists forced out of Mali start operations in Libya Apr 29th 2013, 14:01 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...olence-tripoli Quote: Diplomats are warning of growing Islamist violence against western targets in Libya as blowback from the war in Mali, following last week's attack on the French embassy in Tripoli. The bomb blast that wrecked much of the embassy is seen as a reprisal by Libyan militants for the decision by Paris the day before to extend its military mission against fellow jihadists in Mali. The Guardian has learned that jihadist groups ejected from their Timbuktu stronghold have moved north, crossing the Sahara through Algeria and Niger to Libya, fuelling a growing Islamist insurgency. "There are established links between groups in both Mali and Libya – we know there are established routes," said a western diplomat in Tripoli. "There is an anxiety among the political class here that Mali is blowing back on them."... ...France sent troops to Mali in January after an uprising in the north started by the ethnic Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA), named for the independent state it hopes to create. The impetus for this uprising came from ethnic Tuareg soldiers who had fought alongside Muammar Gaddafi and fled south when his regime fell. They were later augmented by jihadists from Libya and across north Africa, who triggered international condemnation for their destruction of ancient Sufi Muslim shrines in Timbuktu. The fear across the Maghreb is that the French operation that has pushed them out of the northern cities has inadvertently compounded problems elsewhere in north Africa as jihadist units disperse. "If you squeeze a balloon in one part, it bulges out in another," said Bill Lawrence, of International Crisis Group, a political consultancy. "There's no question that the French actions in Mali had the effect of squeezing that balloon towards Algeria and Libya."... ...Diplomats say jihadists cross the Sahara to join cadres in Libya's eastern coastal cities of Benghazi and Derna. Police stations in both cities have been hit by bombings in the past few days, part of an insurgency that threatens to undermine the country's fragile new democracy. Chad's president, Idriss Déby, claimed at the weekend that Benghazi was now home to training camps for Chadian rebel fighters... ...Eastern Libya has long been a base for Islamists, who launched an unsuccessful uprising against Gaddafi in the 1990s. Their units reappeared in the uprising two years ago, and while many have integrated with government forces, others are campaigning for a state ruled by clerics rather than secular politicians. Benghazi has become a virtual no-go area for foreigners following attacks on the British, Italian and Tunisian consulates, the fire-bombing of an Egyptian Coptic church and the killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens in September when militants overran the American consulate. The bombing in Tripoli indicates that terrorism has now spread to the capital... ...Libya's efforts to tackle the militants are restricted by the distrust felt by much of the population for government security units, many of them drawn from former Gaddafi-era formations. Twin rocket attacks on oil and gas pipelines earlier this month south of Benghazi have meanwhile sent a shudder through Libya's oil industry, almost its only export earner. Libya has already piled resources into cutting the jihadist flow of men and weapons over its southern border, declaring its entire desert region a "free fire zone" for patrolling jets. In the south-west, work has now finished on a 108-mile trench cut through the desert to deter smugglers crossing into Libya. But experts say the Libyans face a herculean task. "To ensure that these borders are completely sealed off is impossible – we are talking about desert areas with mountains and very narrow valleys," said Sèbe.

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Secular Café: Neo-Apartheid Malaysia poised to be overthrown

Secular Café For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Neo-Apartheid Malaysia poised to be overthrown Apr 29th 2013, 12:32 Malaysia has an election next week and it looks like ,after 40 years, that the neo-Aprtheid regime that has governed Malaysia will be out. Malaysia is a racist state that makes certain citizens 2nd class citizens based on their racial origins (such as Chinese or Indian Malaysians)

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Secular Café: Thatcher’s Funeral Cost £3.6 million / $5.6 million – Much Less Than Reported

Secular Café For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Thatcher's Funeral Cost £3.6 million / $5.6 million – Much Less Than Reported Apr 28th 2013, 21:21 http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/28/...than-reported/ Good grief: £3.6 million totally wasted....they should have wrapped her body in a black bin-bag, and dropped it down one of the many mine-shafts she closed. Much cheaper, and much more appropriate. And they're saying it was good value because it cost less than anticipated...... Quote: The funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher cost £3.6 million ($5.6 million) – a fraction of its previously estimated price tag, according to the BBC. The procession through central London and ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral on April 17 — together with a huge security operation involving some 4,000 police officers — was initially estimated in some media reports to cost around £10 million ($15 million), a tab that would be largely picked up by the British taxpayer. That led to an outcry among those who felt that such a sum (and for a Prime Minister whose economic reforms and battles with trade unions continue to divide Britain) was excessive at a time of austerity. As thousands of people lined the streets of central London to pay their respects to Lady Thatcher, who died on April 8 at age 87, a number of protestors vented their anger over the funeral's perceived cost. When the true cost of the funeral was announced on Friday by the Prime Minister's office, Lord Bell, a spokesman for the Thatcher family, told the Daily Telegraph that those protests had been unjustified. "It is a remarkably low cost for this most extraordinary event. It increased the standing of Britain in the world and was extremely good value," he said. :mad:

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