About 40 Russian Spies Operating in UK — PaperLondon is worried by Russian espionage activity — in 2005, the British Home Office estimated the number of Russian spies in the UK at 40 agents, an American weekly reported Wednesday.
The high level of Russian espionage activity in the UK is a serious limitation on bilateral relations, said Jane’s Intelligence Digest.
A leaked Home Office memo dating back to early 2005 indicates that 18 SVR (political intelligence) and 18 GRU (defense intelligence) offic... (more)
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Military officers under surveillance on suspicion of coup against ArroyoMANILA, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Thursday said that it has placed a number of individuals under surveillance on suspicion that they are recruiting junior military officers to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration.
Army Col. Tristan Kison, chief of the military's public information office, would not reveal the identity of those who are under watch but hinted that some of them are from within the uniformed service.... (more)
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Chinese attack Parliament using Windows security holeChinese hackers launched a major attack on the UK Parliament earlier this month, the government’s email filtering company MessageLabs has confirmed.
The attack, which occurred on 2 January, attempted to exploit the Windows Meta File (WMF) vulnerability to hijack the PCs of more than 70 named individuals, including researchers, secretaries and MPs themselves.
Emails were sent to staff, with an attachment that contained the WMF-exploiting Setabortproc Trojan. An... (more)
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Iran accuses Britain over bombingTEHRAN, Iran -- Iran on Wednesday accused Britain of cooperating with bombers who killed eight people in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz on Tuesday.
"Their (British) cooperation, either in London or Basra, is clear and we will seriously express this to British officials," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been due to visit the southern city where bombs exploded at a bank and government building, ... (more)
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US diplomat: Chávez is meddling in other countries' affairsUS ambassador to Peru James Curtis Struble Wednesday said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez "is meddling a lot in other countries' affairs."
"He should let presidents take care of their countries, and the best thing for the region is Chávez taking care of managing his country," Curtis said when asked about recent diplomatic tensions between Venezuela and Peru.
Tensions emerged following Chávez' public expression of support for Peruvian nationalis... (more)
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Bush commits US to defence of Israel in face of Iran threat· President issues warning over Tehran nuclear plans
· Pressure rises for referral to UN Security Council
George Bush yesterday committed the US to the defence of Israel against threats from Iran, saying he would not allow the world to be "blackmailed" by an Iranian nuclear weapon.
The US president's warning, issued in an exchange with students in Kansas, came at a tense time in relations with Iran, after Tehran vowed to restart nuclear researc... (more)
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Chavez says end is near for U.S. "empire"(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)La Paz, Jan 23 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said here Monday that what he describes as the U.S. empire is nearing its end.
"The empire has entered the phase of desperation, like a vampire who sees dawn approaching and realizes that he still has not sucked enough blood," the outspoken leftist said in a long speech after receiving an honorary degree from San Andres University in La Paz.
The Venezuelan traveled to Bol... (more)
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Iranian report: Mossad agent arrested on border with TurkeyAn Iranian website reported Monday that an agent working for the Israeli Mossad was arrested while crossing the border between Iran and Turkey.
The conservative Farda News website, considered to be closely aligned with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reported Iranian intelligence agents arrested a man who worked for Iran's Gachsaran oil company some 20 years ago. Fourteen years ago, the man allegedly hijacked an Iranian plane and landed it in Israel.
Farda Ne... (more)
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Chavez's Arms Build-Up Concerns State Dept.Venezuela is going on a "buying spree" for military equipment that goes beyond the country's legitimate needs, according to the U.S. State Department.
The warning comes on the heels of U.S. efforts to block a proposed sales of military aircraft - including 20 planes costing $200 million - and other equipment to Venezuela by Spain and Brazil.
Such sales are part of what "we would consider an outsized military buildup in Venezuela," according to State Department spoke... (more)
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Bolton: Bush won't tolerate nuclear IranUS President George W. Bush will not accept a nuclear Iran, John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday.
Bolton, speaking from New York via video hook-up to the Interdisciplinary Center's Herzliya Conference, said that Bush was determined to pursue the issue through peaceful and diplomatic means, "but has made clear that a nuclear Iran is not acceptable."
According to Bolton, Bush worries that a nuclear-equipped Iran under its current leadershi... (more)
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Mofaz: Iran gives Hizbullah $100 million a year: Israeli defense minister threatens use of force against lebanonIsraeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has claimed Hizbullah receives $100 million a year from Iran and accused the group of channeling some of these funds to Palestinian factions engaged in a violent confrontation with the Jewish state.
Speaking Saturday in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Mofaz said: "Iran gives Hizbullah $100 million per year and part of this money goes to Palestinian terrorist groups."
The minister also threatened to use force against Lebanon in case ... (more)
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FSB: 4 British Spies UncoveredThe Federal Security Service said Monday that it had uncovered four British spies working under diplomatic cover in Moscow and that one had authorized grants for Russian nongovernmental organizations.
The four -- all staff members at the British Embassy -- downloaded information from transmitters concealed inside rocks, Sergei Ignatchenko, the chief spokesman for the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said at a news conference for select Russian journalists.
A Russia... (more)
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BRITISH SPY RING SMASHED, SAY RUSSIANSRUSSIA claims to have smashed a British spy ring and is threatening to kick four British diplomats out of the country.
Security chiefs in Moscow claim the four embassy officials used a fake rock, deposited on a city street, to store electronic eavesdropping equipment used to download information to and from palmtop computers.
The allegations follow the broadcast of a film on Russian state television claiming that British agents had been "caught red-handed" downloadi... (more)
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Russia: British used 'rock' to spyMOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia's internal security service has accused four British Embassy employees of conducting a high-tech spying operation that included using an "advanced electronic spy gadget" in a fake rock, news agencies reported.
"An electronic cache from the British intelligence service was seized by counterintelligence," Interfax quoted Federal Security Service (FSB) chief spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko as saying Monday.
Interfax reported that the FSB had... (more)
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Britain Denies Russia's Spy ClaimsBritain's Foreign Office on Monday denied its four staff were engaged in any "improper conduct" after Russia's state TV broadcast footage showing them collecting intelligence by high-tech gadgets.
A spokesman for British Foreign Office said it was "surprised" by Russia's allegations of a spying operation.
"We are concerned and surprised at these allegations. We reject any allegation of improper conduct in our dealing with Russian NGOs (Non-Governmental organizations... (more)
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Argentina Breaks Plutocrat, Banker Stranglehold: Massive Debt Paid Off Two Years Early; Lenders DismayedIn 2001, the economy of Argentina was declared dead but it has suddenly come alive and paid off a massive $9.5 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) almost two years ahead of schedule. The payment, which was announced on Jan. 3, represented a third of the country’s federal reserves and was aimed at once and for all breaking the financial stranglehold the IMF and its lending partners— the Paris Club, international banks and private lenders—have had for decades on... (more)
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Iran’s Oil Exchange threatens the GreenbackThe Bush administration will never allow the Iranian government to open an oil exchange (bourse) that trades petroleum in euros. If that were to happen, hundreds of billions of dollars would come flooding back to the United States crushing the greenback and destroying the economy. This is why Bush and Co. are planning to lead the nation to war against Iran. It is straightforward defense of the current global system and the continuing dominance of the reserve currency, the dollar.
... (more)
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Activists find a home from homeLeaders with a social reform agenda are increasingly popular across Latin America, while Chavez's own "revolution" for the poor has become an inspiration for like-minded activists everywhere from Canada to Chile.
Organisers predict that as many as 100,000 people will attend the World Social Forum in Caracas, including environmentalists, Indian leaders, human rights activists and campaigners against US-style free trade.
Their views span a wide spectrum, but most part... (more)
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Israel 'will not sit back' and let Iran build atomic weaponsIsrael issued thinly-veiled warnings yesterday that it was preparing to take direct action to stop Iran, its bitter enemy, acquiring nuclear weapons.
Remarks by Shaul Mofaz, the defence minister, raised the temperature of the worsening international crisis over the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions and prompted Iran into a swift and strongly-worded response.
The war of words increased the prospect of another pre-emptive strike by Israel similar to that in 1981 wh... (more)
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Joe Lieberman: U.S. Prepared for Iran StrikeSen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday that the U.S. is prepared to deal with the Iranian nuclear crisis militarily - even if the war in Iraq continues to require a substantial American troop commitment.
"We have the most powerful military in the history of the world," Lieberman told CBS's "Face the Nation."
"We are capable, if necessary, of continuing to pursue our aims militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere and, if necessary, conduct a military attack on Iran."<... (more)
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Walker's World: Iran's Really Big WeaponThe prospect of a mushroom cloud rising from the Dasht-e-Lut, Iran's Desert of Stones, may not be Tehran's greatest threat to international stability. A successful test of an Iranian nuclear weapon at some point in the next few years may prove less destabilizing than a simple free market economic measure that Iran is said to be planning for March of this year.
Tehran is preparing to open a bourse, a mercantile exchange and potentially a futures market, where traders can buy and se... (more)
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Currency War A funny thing happened to the Europeans on their way to get the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors to refer Iranian nuclear fuel-cycle programs – all Safeguarded and certified by the IAEA to be for peaceful purposes – to the UN Security Council by March.
They were on their way – reluctantly – at the insistence of Bush, Cheney, Bolton and Condi-baby. Reluctantly, because the Security Council will likely throw the IAEA Board referral &ndash... (more)
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Iran Denies Shifting Assets From EuropeIran on Saturday denied it has shifted funds out of Europe due to fears of economic sanctions over its nuclear program after a swirl of contradictory reports on whether such transfers had taken place.
A deputy central bank chief categorically denied that Iran was moving foreign currency out of Europe to Southeast Asia. The comments appeared to flatly contradict previous reported remarks by the bank's president.
"At the moment, Iran does not have any schedule to tran... (more)
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The Proposed Iranian Oil BourseAbstract: the proposed Iranian Oil Bourse will accelerate the fall of the American Empire.
I. Economics of Empires
A nation-state taxes its own citizens, while an empire taxes other nation-states. The history of empires, from Greek and Roman, to Ottoman and British, teaches that the economic foundation of every single empire is the taxation of other nations. The imperial ability to tax has always rested on a better and stronger economy, and as a consequence, a b... (more)
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