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Archive for the ‘Global news’ Category

The Bank of England Told Us to Do It, Claims Barclays


Thursday, 05 July 2012

‘A memo published by Barclays suggested that Paul Tucker gave a hint to Bob Diamond, the bank’s chief executive, in 2008 that the rate it was claiming to be paying to borrow money from other banks could be lowered.

His suggestion followed questions from “senior figures within Whitehall” about why Barclays was having to pay so much interest on its borrowings, the memo states.

Barclays and other banks have been accused of artificially manipulating the Libor rate, which is used to set the borrowing costs for millions of consumers, businesses and investors, by falsely stating how much they were paying to borrow money.’

Read more: The Bank of England Told Us to Do It, Claims Barclays

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Incident ‘Man-Made’: Parliament


Thursday, 05 July 2012

 ‘Japanese parliamentary panel has found that the incident at Fukushima nuclear plant has been a “man-made disaster” and not only due to the tsunami that hit the country last year.

“It is clear that this accident was a man-made disaster,” the panel said in a report released on Thursday. It also criticized “governments, regulatory authorities and Tokyo Electric Power” for lacking “a sense of responsibility to protect people’s lives and society.”‘

Read more: Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Incident ‘Man-Made’: Parliament

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

European Parliament Kills Global Anti-Piracy Accord ACTA


By David Kravets July 4, 2012 | 

European Parliament members applaud Wednesday vote defeating ACTA. Photo: European Parliament

 The European Parliament on Wednesday declared its independence from a controversial global anti-piracy accord, rejecting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The vote, 478-39, means the deal won’t come into effect in European Union-member nations, and effectively means ACTA is dead.

Its fate was also uncertain in the United States. Despite the Obama administration signing its intent to honor the deal last year, there was a looming constitutional showdown on whether Congress, not the administration, held the power to sign on to ACTA.

Overall, not a single nation has ratified ACTA, although Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea last year signed their intent to do so. The European Union, Mexico and Switzerland, the only other governments participating in ACTA’s creation, had not signed their intent to honor the plan.

Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/eu-kills-acta/

Official Coverup Obscures The Collapse Of Reactor 4 – Fukushima

July 4, 2012 2 comments

See The Video Of What Is Being Demolished
At Fuksuhima Daiichi Here

By Yoichi Shimatsu
Exclusive To Rense.com
6-30-12

A security camera inside  the Fukushima 1 nuclear plant reveals the final steps in the demolition of a ferroconcrete structure. A mobile crane-mounted plasma torch cuts through the skeletal remnant of a three-story building, methodically cleaving the few remaining support beams, releasing dust clouds of burnt slake lime.

Though the digital mosaic is often blurry, it’s clear that only one side of the structure is left standing, indicating that the three other walls had been either removed earlier at nighttime or collapsed in the Richter 5+ earthquakes that struck northeast Japan between June 17 and June 22.

The obvious conclusion could be drawn from the scene, which still goes unreported by the media, but once again as throughout this crisis I have always wished to be pleasantly wrong rather than painfully correct. In response to my skeptical query, Japanese activists responded: “It was definitely the No 4 reactor. We have not heard anything else about it. It (the demolition) was done on the day when the nation was focused on the government decision to raise the consumer tax.”

The demolition of Reactor 4 – yet to be officially announced by TEPCO or the Economy Ministry – has been overlooked by the mass media and even the anti-nuclear movement, which are preoccupied by the ongoing protests in the capital Tokyo against the reopening of the Oi nuclear power plant and a parliamentary vote for a higher consumption tax. On June 26, after a divisive debate among his party members, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his supporters in the ruling Democratics introduced a bill doubling the consumption tax – timed to divert public attention from the deteriorating conditions at Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant. If the videoclip is indeed of a collapsed Reactor 4, then Japan and the rest of the world are in for a long hot summer and much worse ahead.

Read more: http://www.rense.com/general95/offic.html

Banking Scandal: How Document Trail Reveals Global Scam

July 2, 2012 1 comment

Monday, 02 July 2012

‘The interest rate rigging scandal that has engulfed Barclays was the result of a coordinated attempt at collusion by traders working for a coterie of leading banks over at least five years, according to a series of lawsuits and legal rulings filed in courts in Asia and North America.

The lawsuits allege the fraud was extensive, spanning at least three continents and involving trades worth tens of billions of pounds. The allegations raise further serious questions about the banks’ ability to police themselves and the role of senior management in monitoring the activities of their employees.

In a 28-page statement of facts relating to last week’s revelation that Barclays had been fined a total of £290m, the US Department of Justice discloses how a network of traders working on both sides of the Atlantic conspired to influence both the Libor and Euribor interest rates – the rates at which banks lend to each other. It was, in effect, a worldwide conspiracy against the free functioning of the market.’

Read more: Banking Scandal: How Document Trail Reveals Global Scam

Army Demonstrates a Weapon That Shoots Laser-Guided Lightning Bolts


By Clay Dillow Posted 06.28.2012

Over at Picatinny Arsenal, the research and development facility and proving ground for the U.S. Army’s weaponry, engineers are developing a device that shoots lighting bolts along a laser beam to annihilate its target. That’s right: lighting bolts shot down laser beams. This story could easily end right here and still be the coolest thing we’ve written today, but for the scientifically curious we’ll continue.

Texas Students Hijack a U.S. Government Drone in Midair

June 29, 2012 1 comment

By Colin Lecher Posted 06.28.2012

The U.S. government, understandably, doesn’t want its drone technology to fall out of the sky and into other peoples’ laps. But being able to hijack a drone and control it? That’s even worse. And a team of researchers has done it for 1,000 bucks.

The University of Texas at Austin team successfully nabbed the drone on a dare from the Department of Homeland Security. They managed to do it through spoofing, a technique where a signal from hackers pretends to be the same as one sent to the drone’s GPS.

Barclays Settles Regulators’ Claims Over Manipulation of Key Rates


By BEN PROTESS and MARK SCOTT
 
A branch of Barclays in London.Andy Rain/European Pressphoto AgencyA branch of Barclays in London.
 
Barclays has agreed to pay more than $450 million to resolve accusations that it attempted to manipulate key interest rates, the first settlement in a sprawling global investigation targeting many of the world’s biggest banks

The British bank struck a deal with regulators in Washington and London, as well as the Justice Department. The settlement is seen as the first in a series of potential cases against other major financial firms.

“When a bank acts in its own self-interest by attempting to manipulate these rates for profit, or by submitting false reports that result from senior management orders to lower submissions to guard the bank’s reputation, the integrity of benchmark interest rates is undermined,” said David Meister, the enforcement director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the American regulator involved in the Barclays case.

Read more : http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/barclays-said-to-settle-regulatory-claims-over-benchmark-manipulation/

Now Facebook Tries to ‘Hijack’ Users’ Email Addresses by Forcing Them to Submit to Own Service


Wednesday, 27 June 2012

‘Facebook is trying to force its 900million users to switch to its own email service.

It is removing the personal email address displayed on an individual user’s profile pages and replacing it with a @facebook.com address – even if the member never uses it.

The social networking site’s email service was launched two years ago but has failed to take off, possibly because most people do not like having multiple mail accounts.’

Read more: Now Facebook Tries to ‘Hijack’ Users’ Email Addresses by Forcing Them to Submit to Own Service

Sweden on Nuclear Facility Alert as Explosives Found at Plant


Friday, 22 June 2012

‘Sweden has raised the alert at all its nuclear facilities after bomb sniffer dogs discovered an explosive device in the back of a truck near Stockholm’s Ringhals atomic power station. Police are investigating the incident.

Although the device lacked a detonator, officers have evacuated the area around the truck and are questioning the driver. Initial reports point to sabotage, with no immediate suspects.’

Read more: Sweden on Nuclear Facility Alert as Explosives Found at Plant