The US-funded CANVAS, “Otpor” who helped overthrow the government of Serbia offered revolution consultancy to "Arab Spring" movements

Potent News Interview with Michel Chossudovsky

 Another organization which is OTPOR! OTPOR! was an organization involved in Serbia in the year 2000. It was not a pro-democracy organization, it was actually an organization which shunted the 2000 elections in which Kostunica, who was the runner-up together with Milosevic, would have won in any event. But they prevented the second round of elections from occurring. And they essentially established the conditions for regime change. That was a colored revolution.

 

The Double Standard That Lets Elites Survive Even Catastrophic Failures

Reuters 

 

To be taken seriously, those who critique the powerful must be flawless, whereas society forgives the most egregious errors in judgment of the elites themselves. 

Ψήφο εμπιστοσύνης κι από τη Βουλή για Ρέντσι

Η κυβέρνηση του Ματέο Ρέντσι εξασφάλισε πριν από λίγο την ψήφο εμπιστοσύνης της Βουλής με 378 θετικές ψήφους, 220 αρνητικές και μια αποχή.

Κατά την ομιλία του στην βουλή, ο Ιταλός πρωθυπουργός τόνισε ότι «πρέπει να ληφθεί υπόψη ότι ο υπόλοιπος κόσμος τρέχει με την διπλή ταχύτητα από εκείνη της Ευρώπης» και ότι «μέσα στην Ευρώπη η Ιταλία αντιμετωπίζει μεγαλύτερες δυσκολίες απ' ό,τι άλλες χώρες».

Πυρηνικός αφοπλισμός - η ανθρωπιστική διάσταση

Η δεύτερη διάσκεψη σχετικά με τις Ανθρωπιστικές Επιπτώσεις των Πυρηνικών Όπλων διήρκεσε  δύο ημέρες (13-14 Φεβρουαρίου) και διεξήχθη στη Ναγιαρίτ στο Μεξικό. Τα πέντε κράτη με πυρηνικό οπλοστάσιο (NWS) της Συνθήκης Μη Διάδοσης των Πυρηνικών Όπλων (NPT), η Κίνα, η Γαλλία, η Ρωσία, το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο και οι ΗΠΑ, δεν ήταν μεταξύ των 146 κρατών που συμμετείχαν.

Αυτό αντικατοπτρίζει τις αποκλίνουσες απόψεις σχετικά με τις διαδρομές προς τον πυρηνικό αφοπλισμό και την πολιτική για τα πυρηνικά όπλα, καθώς και μια ανησυχία μεταξύ μερικών κρατών σχετικά με την αυξανόμενη δυναμική της «ανθρωπιστικής διάστασης» του πυρηνικού αφοπλισμού. Οι P5, για παράδειγμα, ανησυχούν πως η ανθρωπιστική πρωτοβουλία θα μπορούσε να αποσπάσει τον έλεγχο της διαδικασίας αφοπλισμού από την υπάρχουσα «βήμα-βήμα», ενώ οι χώρες χωρίς πυρηνικά οπλοστάσια (NNWS) ανησυχούν για τις πιθανές επιπτώσεις στην επίτευξη συναίνεσης για τη διαδικασία αναθεώρησης της NPT. Οι ανησυχίες αυτές θα μπορούσαν να αποδειχθούν μια πρόκληση για το καθεστώς της μη διάδοσης των πυρηνικών όπλων πριν από τη διάσκεψη αναθεώρησης της NPT τον Μάιο του 2015.

Ukraine Turns From Revolution to Recovery

The uprising in Kiev has apparently reached its conclusion. President Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition reached an agreement, negotiated by the Polish, German and French foreign ministers. The parliament is now effectively in charge, deciding who will be ministers and when elections will be held, whether to dismiss judges and so on. It isn't clear whether the parliament can fire the sitting president without impeachment and trial, but all of this is now moot. What is interesting is that the Polish, French and German foreign ministers negotiated an outcome that, for practical purposes, ignored the Constitution of Ukraine. It sets an interesting precedent. But for Ukraine, the constitution didn't have the patina of tradition that a true constitution requires, and few will miss Yanukovich. 

The question now is whether all of this makes any real difference in Ukraine or the world. There is a new temporary leadership, although it is still factionalized and the leaders of the factions have not fully emerged. The effect of hostile gunfire will forge unity in Kiev for a while, but in due course, ideology, ambition and animosity will re-emerge. That will make governing Ukraine as difficult as in the past, particularly because the differences among the neo-Nazis, the liberals and groups in between -- all of which manned the barricades -- are profound. A government of national unity will be difficult to form.

Η Αλβανία παραιτείται από την «Τσαμουριά»

Το θέμα των τοπωνυμιών, το οποίο έχει γίνει εμπόδιο στην κυκλοφορία εκατοντάδων χιλιάδων μεταναστών παραμένει σε ένα κρίσιμο σταυροδρόμι.

Η επίλυση αυτού του αδιέξοδου,  μοιάζει να τελειώνει με την καταφυγή στις διεθνείς συμβάσεις.

Food banks are booming even in Britain's most affluent areas

In wealthy towns, families hit by falling incomes and benefit cuts are increasingly being forced to rely on charity handouts

 

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who criticised the cuts, is made a cardinal at the Vatican Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

 

Volunteers have sounded the alarm over a growing reliance on food banks in one of the richest areas in Britain.

Don't get too excited about Yulia Tymoshenko: in both Ukraine and Syria, no one is speaking for the people

By Kate Maltby  

A poster of Tymoshenko in Kiev (Photo: AP)

Last month I met Ahmad Tu'mah, the Interim Prime Minister of Syria – that is to say, the leader in exile of the rebels’ international Syrian National Coalition, the holder of a mythical title in an imaginary state. As I watch crowds gather for a glimpse of Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister of the Ukraine, one of Tu’mah’s sentences strikes me. He’d been asked about the Russian-brokered deal to neutralize Assad’s chemical weapons. He snorted at the idea that Russia could be a partner for peace. “That dirty deal is so morally corrupt”, he said, “that its only logical conclusion is that Assad will win the Nobel peace prize”.

Analysts touting Ukraine's East-West division are just plain wrong.

Throughout the crisis in Ukraine, experts real and imagined have persistently invoked the country's vaunted East-West "divide." According to this interpretation, Ukraine is neatly divided into two homogeneous, coherent, and irreconcilable blocs. The implicit message is that partition is inevitable and desirable. As Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev for the pro-Russian and "separatist" Kharkiv on Feb. 22, analysts feared he would ignite a civil war between Ukraine's irreconcilable factions. But as is often the case with such binary oppositions, they conceal and obfuscate more than they reveal and clarify, creating a simplistic image of a complex condition. 

Israel, Jordan Sign Gas Deal While Kurdish Oil Battle Lives On

This week in energy we feel compelled to head to the Middle East, where we have seen movement on Israeli gas—another boon for US-based Noble Energy Inc.—and the hydrocarbons showdown between the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), two issues we have covered extensively during the past two years.

The big news is that Israel and Jordan have signed a deal that will see Israel supply Jordan with $500 million in gas from the Tamar natural gas field in the Mediterranean, which started producing in March last year.