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Wednesday 06.13.2012

Where Silver trumps central planning
By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com
The current worldwide political landscape is full of examples where the politics and economy connect. In fact, economic policy is largely driven by politics in most countries around the globe.
The European Union replaces democratic leaders with technocrats
In the European Union, technocratic leaders are gradually replacing those who have been democratically elected.
This sets up a "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" situation in terms of EU monetary union versus a considerably more challenging objective of an integrated European cultural union.

US Gold, Silver mine output declines sharply in March: USGS
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): United States gold and silver mine production declined sharply in March this year as compared to March 2011, as per latest figures released by United States Geological Survey (USGS).
According to USGS data, country's gold mines production declined by 4.1% (or 800 kg) year-on-year to 18,700 kilograms (kg) in March and a slight increase compared with February. While its silver mine production declined sharply by 22% (or 22600 kg) year-on-year to 80,400 kg in March 2012 and down by 3% month-on-month.

This Time, Europe Really Is on the Brink
by Niall Ferguson and Nouriel Roubini - Spiegel.de
The European Union was created to avoid repeating the disasters of the 1930s, but Germany, of all countries, has failed to learn from history. As the euro crisis escalates, Berlin should remember how the banking crisis of 1931 contributed to the breakdown of democracy across Europe. Action is urgently needed to stop history from repeating itself.
Is it one minute to midnight in Europe?
The failure of German public opinion to grasp the dire state of affairs in Europe today is inviting a repeat of precisely the crisis of the mid 20th century that European integration was designed to avoid.

Threat Spreads Across Europe
[Google title for free article pass]
Borrowing Costs Rise Across Continent as World Bank Sees Global Impact From Crisis
By SUDEEP REDDY And BRIAN BLACKSTONE - WSJ.com $$
Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain continued to surge on Tuesday, escalating calls for bigger steps from euro-zone leaders amid a new warning that the crisis is dragging down even the world's resilient emerging economies.
Spain's 10-year borrowing costs touched 6.80% before settling at a euro-era closing high of 6.72%, the second straight jump in the two trading days since European officials announced a bank bailout of as much as €100 billion ($126 billion) that was intended to calm markets. That fueled fears that the government itself could need its own rescue from the rest of Europe.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde warns world risks triple crisis
Lagarde says world risks falling incomes, environmental damage and social unrest without more sustainable approach to growth
By Phillip Inman - Guardian.co.uk
Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has warned that the world risks a triple crisis of declining incomes, environmental damage and social unrest unless countries adopt a more sustainable approach to economic growth.
Ahead of the Rio+20 Earth summit later this month, she said the rich should restrain their demands for higher incomes while there are still 200 million people worldwide looking for a job and poverty is on the rise.

Jim Rogers on EU Spain Bank Bailout
Jim Rogers on Spain Bank Bailout - 11th June 2012. Jim's advice is "Let them go bankrupt". I agree....

EC preparing secret plans for Greek euro exit
Legal advice on capital controls, including limits on withdrawals from Greek bank accounts, and emergency border restrictions, has been provided by the European Commission to eurozone governments drawing up plans for Greece to leave the euro.
By Bruno Waterfield - Telegraph.co.uk
Commission officials confirmed on Tuesday that "these elements" of contingency planning for a Greek exit from the single currency have been discussed by the "euro working group" (EWG) of Treasury officials and junior finance ministers over the last six weeks.
"There are indeed discussions, and we are asked to clarify what is foreseen in the EU treaties," said a Commission spokesman. "Some people are working on scenarios. We are providing information on EU law as guardian of the treaties."

EU states seek advice on Greece exit scenarios
BY VALENTINA POP AND NIKOLAJ NIELSEN - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Tuesday (12 June) confirmed it is giving legal advice on possible capital controls and border checks should Greece leave the eurozone.
"We are the guardians of the EU treaty and we provide info to whomever asks what is possible under European law to cover these scenarios. This doesn't mean we are preparing a particular plan," commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said during a press conference.

Bundesbank scuppers all talk of EU banking union
Germany's central bank has shot down EU proposals for a European banking union, warning categorically that eurozone liabilities cannot be shared without a fundamental shift towards fiscal and political union.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Andreas Dombret, a key board member of the Bundesbank, said the grand plan by Brussels is premature and unworkable as constructed. "A banking union is a sensible way forward as long as liability and control are aligned. What I mean is you don't give somebody your credit card if you don't know what he or she is going to do with it."
Mr Dombret said a pan-EMU deposit-guarantee scheme and a debt resolution fund would require "a genuine, democratically legitimated fiscal union" and a new treaty.

Italy's debt worries add urgency
to Merkel's dream of integration
Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister, is due to meet France's Francois Hollande on Thursday in Rome and protecting Italy from Spanish contagion ought to be high on the agenda.
By Damian Reece - Telegraph.co.uk
There simply isn't enough money under current bail-out arrangements to rescue Italy should it require help. And markets are once more preparing for that eventuality.
Rome became a fully paid-up member of the 6pc-plus club on Tuesday as its cost of borrowing jumped to 6.14pc. Its predicament is different from Spain's and Spain's was different from Greece's. But that didn't stop Spain needing financial aid.

Globalist Plan: European Union Police State Lockdown
By Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
European Union apparatchiks are preparing to lockdown Europe following Greece's exit. From theAssociated Press today:
Olivier Bailly said Tuesday that, legally, limits could be imposed on movement of people and money across national borders within the EU if it's necessary to protect public order or public security — but not on economic grounds.
"Some people are working on scenarios," he said, but refused to identify individuals or organizations.
EU finance bosses have discussed controlling ATM withdrawals, subjecting the citizens of member states to rigorous border checks, and imposing capital controls "as a worst-case scenario should Athens decide to leave the euro," Reuters reports.

EU monitors heading to Madrid, despite 'Men in Black' claims
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Spain's €100 billion bail-out will be accompanied by EU-IMF supervision of banking reforms, EU and German officials said on Monday (11 June) - contradicting Madrid's claims that no "men in black" will come to the country as they did to Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
"We will work with the European Central Bank, the European Banking Authority and the International Monetary Fund [IMF] on conditionality. But no new conditions on fiscal policy or on structural reforms are needed," economics commissioner Olli Rehn told MEPs in Strasbourg on Monday evening.

Obama blames Europe for US economic problems?
On Friday, President Obama gave a speech on the state of the US economy. Significant parts of his address, however, were dedicated to Europe. President Obama blamed the Euro crisis on many difficulties America is facing now. Is this fair that five months before the election, Obama is trying to shift the blame for the poor economic data overseas? Former Reagan administration official Dr. Paul Craig Roberts joins Abby Martin to discuss it.

Oil Prices Fall to 8 Month Low
as Spanish Bailout Fails to Ease EU Debt Crisis
By James Burgess - OilPrice.com
Following in the footsteps of Greece, Portugal, and Ireland, Spain has now become the fourth nation to approach the European Union and request a bailout, since the debt crisis began nearly three years ago.
Europe's debt crisis is slowing economic growth in the region and reducing fuel use. Oil prices are being influenced by the situation in Europe as traders and analysts try to predict the future economic health of the region, and therefore the demand for oil products. Initial hope that the €100 billion ($126 billion) bailout would succeed in alleviating economic pressure was brief, but in the end oil actually fell to an eight month low in New York.

Postal chief: If we do nothing, we're Greece
By Jennifer Liberto @CNNMoney
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- The head of the U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday that if the service doesn't cut costs and Congress fails to act, it's going to be in the same dire straits as Greece.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe drew chuckles from a group of postal policy conference attendees by comparing the beleaguered, indebted Postal Service to the beleaguered, indebted nation.
He said that Greece's ratio of debt compared to gross domestic product is 1.61 and the U.S. Postal Service's ratio of debt compared to revenue is 1.51.

Myth of Perpetual Growth is killing America
Everything you know about economics is wrong
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, everything you know about economics is wrong. Dead wrong. Everything. The conclusions of economists are based on a fiction that distorts everything else. As a result economics is as real as one of the summer blockbusters like "Battleship," "The Avenger" or "Prometheus."
The difference is that the economic profession is a genuine threat, not entertainment. Economics dogma is on track to destroy the world with a misleading ideology.
Why? Because all economics is based on the absurd Myth of Perpetual Growth. Yes, all theories and business plans based on growth are mythological.

Treasurys extend losses after 3-year auction
Turmoil in European debt, euro doesn't phase U.S. bonds
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices extended losses slightly on Tuesday, erasing the prior session's rally, after the Treasury Department's sale of 3-year notes garnered poor demand from a key group of investors.
The relative safety of U.S. debt was seen as less desirable as stocks rose despite the Spanish bank bailout, coming Greek elections and rising Italian yields.

Hubris as the Evil Force in History
By Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
I have always been intrigued by the Battle of Bull Run, the opening battle of the US Civil War, known to southerners as the War of Northern Aggression. Extreme hubris characterized both sides, the North before the battle and the South afterwards.
Republican politicians and their ladies in their finery road out to Manassas, the Virginia town through which the stream, Bull Run, flowed, in carriages to watch the Union Army end the "Southern Rebellion" in one fell swoop. What they witnessed instead was the Union Army fleeing back to Washington with its tail between its legs. The flight of the northern troops promoted some southern wags to name the battle, the Battle of Yankee Run.

Government posts $125 billion deficit in May
by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
(Reuters) - The government posted a budget deficit of $125 billion in May, more than twice the level registered in the same month last year.
The budget has become a key point of political contention in Washington during this election year. Economists worry another budget impasse like the one that cost the United States its AAA credit rating last year could be in store at the end of 2012, potentially derailing a fragile economic recovery.

JPMorgan doomsday scenario revealed
Impact of hypothetical $50bn 'catastrophic' loss presented
By Tom Braithwaite in Washington - FT.com
Just as JPMorgan Chase's chief investment office was engaging in disastrous lossmaking trades, other parts of the bank were working out what would happen if it suffered a "catastrophic, idiosyncratic event".
In March, Gregory Baer, deputy general counsel, presented a plan to policy makers and bankers to show the results of a hypothetical $50bn loss. It showed the bank would fail, shareholders would be wiped out and Jamie Dimon, chief executive, would be fired.

Dimon's sorry, sees profitable quarter for bank
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — On the eve of a high-profile hearing on the bank's trading loss of at least $2 billion, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said he expected the lender to produce a "solidly profitable" quarter as he apologized again for the blowup.
Dimon released his testimony in advance of a Senate committee hearing on the trading losses of the bank's chief investment office. That unit, which Dimon said is charged with managing a $350 billion portfolio in a "conservative manner," instead produced a loss.

ING agrees to forfeit $619 million
Bank illegally moved billions for Cuban and Iranian entities
By Jerry Seper-The Washington Times
Amsterdam-based ING Bank N.V. agreed Tuesday to forfeit $619 million to the Justice Department and the New York County District Attorney´s Office for conspiring to illegally move billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned Cuban and Iranian entities.
It is the largest ever forfeiture against a bank in connection with an investigation into U.S. sanctions violations.
Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who heads the Justice Department's National Security Division, said the bank "knowingly and willfully" conspired to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the Trading With the Enemy Act (TWEA) and New York state laws.

Major payment processor suspects personal info
may have been scooped up in recent break-in
AP - WashingtonPost.com
ATLANTA — A major processor of credit and debit cards suspects the fallout from a recent security breach may be worse than it initially believed.
Global Payments Inc. discovered computer hackers may have broken into systems containing personal information about an unspecified number of shoppers.
The Atlanta company learned about the intrusions as investigators dug deeper into a series of break-ins that stole data from as many as 1.5 million credit card accounts. The breach was first reported in late March.

The Elite Are Attempting To Convince Us
That Killing Off Our Sick Grandparents Is Cool And Trendy
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
What should be done with elderly Americans when they become very seriously ill? Should we try to save their lives or should we just let them die? Unfortunately, there is a growing consensus among the "intellectual elite" that most elderly people are not going to have a high enough "quality of life" to justify the expense of costly life saving procedures. This philosophy is now being promoted very heavily through mainstream news outlets, in our television shows and in big Hollywood movies. The elite are attempting to convince us that killing off our sick grandparents is cool and trendy. We are being told that "pulling the plug" on grandma and grandpa is compassionate (because it will end their suffering), that it is good for the environment and that it is even good for the economy. We are being told that denying life saving treatments to old people will dramatically reduce health care costs and make the system better for all of us. We are being told that it is not "efficient" for health insurance companies to shell out $100,000 for an operation that may extend the life of an elderly person by 6 months. But the truth is that all of this is part of a larger agenda that the elite are attempting to advance. As I have written about previously, the elite love death, and they truly believe that reducing the population is good for society and good for the planet. Sadly, population control propaganda has reached a fever pitch in recent months.

Gerald Celente -
Bill Meyer Show on KMED Radio - June 8, 2012

Retirement age must rise - OECD
By Emily Jane Fox @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As life expectancy continues to rise, a new report suggests that governments need to raise the age of retirement in order to keep up.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said that by 2050, the average woman and man can expect to live roughly 24 and 20 years beyond retirement age respectively, up from 20 and 17 years in 2010. At the same time, retirement ages across many countries have stayed the same.
Without a change, the Paris-based economic think-tank said governments won't be able to pay for more people needing retirement funds for longer periods of time.

North Dakota Votes for Measure
to Dump Confiscatory Property Taxes
By Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
The people of North Dakota will go to the polls today and decide if the state should abolish property taxes. The measure is opposed by the state Chamber of Commerce, agribusiness, government unions, politicians and others feeding at the public trough
As should be expected, the establishment media is attempting to demonize the move. "Measure 2, as the proposal is called on the ballot, would require state government to make up for property tax revenue lost by local governments but doesn't specify how," reports USA Today.

The Problem With Property Taxes
Attorney Robert Hale of Empower The Taxpayer of North Dakota talks about the key principles regarding property taxes, and what makes the regressive property tax the most oppressive, unfair and universally hated of all taxes, and for good reason.

Holder Refuses to Provide Testimony
on Kagan's Involvement in Obamacare
By Terence P. Jeffrey - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) - Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to provide written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to"questions for the record" submitted to him by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.) that focus on Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's involvement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--AKA Obamacare--while she was President Barack Obama's solicitor general.
Question: "Are you aware of any instances during Justice Kagan's tenure as Solicitor General of the United States in which information related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and/or litigation related thereto was relayed or provided to her?"

'Unnecessary' and 'Political': Why Unions Are Bad For America
We asked you to tell us if unions were necessary to restore wealth to average American families. Some of you said yes. Some of you said no. There's a comment section below. Keep talking to us.
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
I was in a union and 'unions are unnecessary'
I worked in a unionized refinery and my personal experience has been that unions are unnecessary. As an engineer, I was unable to touch any tools, provide any assistance to our technicians and operators for "taking work away from a union employee." While not always the case, the union gave protection to the laborer to be extremely lazy and unproductive because as long as he showed up to work on time, there was no way he could get fired. The technicians and operators started at $28.00 an hour, which was more than I made as an engineer. Obviously they have a much lower ceiling and top out pretty quickly, but that is an enormous amount of money for someone who can get away with being lazy as he wants. Also, during lead ups to labor negotiations (there were two big ones while I was there), there was ample evidence of sabotage to the plant while engineers were being trained to operate the refinery in the event of a strike. I cannot for the life of me understand why one would put people at risk in order to protect their job.

More Student Debt, Please:
Why College Students Don't Borrow Enough
If more students took out loans,
they might be more likely to stay in school
By Jordan Weissmann - TheAtlantic.com
After the months of teeth gnashing and media panic over America's ballooning student debt burden, what I'm about to suggest will strike some readers as a bit ... nuts. But consider this possibility: U.S. undergraduates aren't deep enough in debt. They should take out more loans.
It sounds inconceivable. Outstanding student loans have shot up to around $1 trillion, a roughly four-fold increase since 2003. Thirty-eight percent of undergraduates now borrow for school, and more than half of full-time students do so, according to the most recent Department of Education statistics. The default rate, meanwhile, is increasing.

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DETROIT CITY COUNCIL REFUSES TO DROP LAWSUIT THAT WILL BANKRUPT DETROIT IN FOUR DAYS
by BEN SHAPIRO - Breitbart.com
Yesterday, Detroit Mayor and former NBA star Dave Bing failed to convince Detroit's City Council to push for dismissal of a lawsuit that would challenge the city's agreement with the state to restore fiscal stability. "[O]nce we run out of money," said Bing, "there is no way that we can run this city – and that's the risk that we're up against as we speak here today."
Based on the lawsuit, which is an attempt by the city to overrule an agreement with the state that requires budget cuts, the state of Michigan is threatening to hold back $80 million in funding. "They don't seem to be backing down at all, so I don't want to play this game of roulette and keep our citizens at risk," pled Bing.

Agenda 21: Kansas Lawmakers Endorse Measure
Opposing U.N. Sustainability Plan
By John Celock - HuffingtonPost.com
The Republican-controlled Kansas House of Representatives on Thursday adopted a resolution condemning the United Nations' Agenda 21 environmental action plan, which focuses on sustainable development.
Kansas lawmakers adopted the non-binding resolution following intense debate over what supporters believe is the U.N.'s attempt to "indoctrinate" the public on sustainability issues and its desire to control the local government planning process. Agenda 21 was adopted by world leaders during a 1992 climate change summit in Brazil. It has not been ratified by Congress and does not have the force of law in the United States.

Gerald Celente RT America - 11 June 2012

More than seven in 10 US teens jobless in summer
By HOPE YEN - AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - Once a rite of passage to adulthood, summer jobs for teens are disappearing.
Fewer than three in 10 American teenagers now hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16-to-19-year olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.
And teen employment may never return to pre-recession levels, suggests a projection by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What Flame's Connection To Stuxnet Really Means
By CARL FRANZEN - TalkingPointsMemo.com
Flame, a notorious piece of malware discovered in late May to be infecting and stealing information from hundreds of computers in the Middle East and Europe, shares something in common with the equally infamous Stuxnet malware that reportedly damaged an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010: The two types of malware contain some of the same source code that allowed them to be installed in the first place, according to a new analysis posted online by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs revealed on Monday.
Specifically, what Kaspersky Labs researchers uncovered was that an earlier version of Flame, named "Tocy.a" and first detected in October 2010, is highly similar to a portable executable file found inside Stuxnet, called "Resource 207."

WWDC 2012: Maps, Siri on the iPad, Facebook integration, Facetime over cellular, Passcard and more
By Hayley Tsukayama - WashingtonPost.com
Siri's coming to the iPad, and she's bringing Facebook with her.
Apple announced Monday that Siri, introduced with the last iPhone, will also be coming to the new iPad with much more functionality.
Siri got some serious upgrades, including the ability to launch apps (!), dictate Facebook updates and the ability to find out the score to the latest game. The assistant can look up movie trailers through a partnership with Rotten Tomatoes, the report said. The company is also offering Facebook integration in much the same way it offers Twitter integration: good news for social creatures.

Apple, Google Just Killed Portable GPS Devices
By Damon Lavrinc - Wired.com
If it wasn't obvious before, it's crystal clear today. The dedicated portable GPS device is dead, with Apple and Google playing pallbearer to Garmin, Magellan and TomTom's hardware businesses.
Between last week's hastily organized Google Maps event, where the search giant showed off a new interface, new features and — most importantly for Android users – offline map downloading, andApple's new Maps app announcement at WWDC, a dedicated device for mapping and navigation comes across as superfluous. Or even worse, incredibly low-tech.
Smartphone adoption continues unabated, and with it, built-in, carrier-installed and third-party mapping apps are flourishing.

Former 'God's Banker' could blitz Vatican
with cache of secret documents
RT.com
The former head of the Vatican Bank has become the Papacy's Enemy Number One, after police discovered a trove of documents exposing financial misdeeds in the Holy See. The banker now reportedly fears for his life.
Earlier this week police conducted a dawn raid on the house and office of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. Investigators say they were looking for evidence in a graft case against defense and aerospace firm Finmeccanica, which was formerly run by a close friend of Gotti Tedeschi.
Instead, as it turns out, police stumbled upon an entirely different find.

Rense & Dr Bill Deagle -
Fukushima Radioactive Death & Economic Destruction
The full effects of Fukushima are yet to show around the world, and they will include an economic collapse.

Group Calls Military Bibles a National Security Threat
By Todd Starnes - Foxnews.com
The U.S. Military has revoked its approval of a series of military-themed Bibles, reportedly over trademark issues. Now, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is demanding that all remaining versions of the Bibles be removed from base exchanges — calling them a "threat to national security."
The military series of Bibles were published by B&H Publishing, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest non-Catholic denomination. They published four versions of the Holman Christian Standard Bible – representing the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

Puppet show at UN-supported Palestinian NGO:
Replace cigarettes with machine guns
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik - PalWatch.com
A Palestinian NGO, the Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society organization, performed a puppet show for children in East Jerusalem to promote non-smoking. The educational message delivered by the puppets instructed children to replace cigarettes with machine guns:
Puppet: "I, and many other youth like me, think that cigarettes will help us to grow, to turn into men. Jerusalem doesn't need men who hold cigarettes. It needs men who hold machine guns, not cigarettes."

Russia protests:
tens of thousands voice opposition to Putin's government
'March of Millions' goes ahead in Moscow and other cities despite thunderstorms and absence of key opposition figures
By Howard Amos in Moscow - Guardian.co.uk
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russiaon Tuesday in the first major demonstrations against the government since Vladamir Putin was sworn in as president on 7 May.
Despite thunderstorms and the absence of key opposition figures, the "March of Millions" went ahead in the capital – a day after searches conducted by armed police in the homes of opposition activists and their families. Leading activists, including blogger Aleksei Navalny, socialite Ksenia Sobchak, and liberal organiser Ilya Yashin, were prevented from attending because they had been summoned for questioning byRussia's Investigative Committee in connection with the violence at the last rally on 6 May.

Drone Warfare Foretells an Ever-Expanding and Illegal War
By William Pfaff - Truthdig.com
The disclosure that current American drone warfare operations are directed from the presidential office in the White House, with the president himself selecting persons to be assassinated by unmanned American drone aircraft in the Muslim countries where the United States now is militarily engaged, has ignited protests on moral, legal, political and strategic grounds.
The protests concern the nature of these attacks, which disregard national sovereignties, the laws of war and the principles of American and international law, and are justified by the consideration that terrorists don't obey the law either. The attacks must be described as assassinations because, as no state of war has been declared to exist between the United States and these persons or their states, they are unlawful killings.

US Military Wants Drones in South America, But Why?
By Spencer Ackerman - Wired.com
Flying, spying robots are addictive. Every military commander who has them wants more. Those who don't have them covet their colleagues' supply. And according to Air Force planning, they're about to go to the military's redheaded, drone-poor stepchild: the command overseeing South America.
That's according to Gen. Norton Schwartz, the outgoing Air Force chief of staff. As Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk drones start to leave the Afghanistan war behind, Schwartz told a Washington audience on Monday, they'll go to "operational missions by previously underserved" regional commands — Pacific Command and Southern Command, per National Defense magazine. While US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia have loaded up on drones, they've largely been left out of the unmanned escalation.

Russia's independence day: Calls for freedom from Putin
Tens of thousands brave weather, tough law
By Marc Bennetts - Special to The Washington Times
MOSCOW | Tens of thousands of Russians filled the streets of central Moscow on Tuesday to rally against the 12-year rule of PresidentVladimir Putin, braving torrential rain and the threat of vastly increased fines for protest-related offenses.
"We will win and win very soon," protest leader Sergei Udaltsov told a cheering crowd. "This year, we will free Russia."
At least 50,000 people held a peaceful march earlier through the capital's downtown boulevards chanting "Russia without Putin" and "Putin is a thief" as a police helicopter hovered above them.

U.S. Blasts Russia Over Syria
Clinton Says Moscow Is Sending Attack Helicopters,
as Syrians Paint Clash as Sectarian Civil War
By SAM DAGHER And NOUR MALAS - WSJ.com
The Obama administration accused Russia of sending attack helicopters to Damascus, linking Moscow to Syria's deadly unrest on a day the United Nations' top peacekeeper said the conflict now bears the hallmarks of a civil war.
A shipment of attack helicopters is "on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday, heightening pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's staunchest international backer.

Hillary Clinton accuses Russia
of delivering attack helicopters to Syrian regime
US secretary of state says Moscow is lying about weapons deliveries as senior UN official likens Syrian conflict to civil war
By Chris McGreal - Guardian.co.uk
The US has accused Russia of risking a dramatic escalation of the conflict in Syria by shipping attack helicopters to the regime in Damascus.
Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, went on to allege that Moscow is lying about weapons deliveries to Syria by falsely claiming they are not being used to suppress the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

"We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria," said Clinton. "They have, from time to time, said that we shouldn't worry, [that] everything they're shipping is unrelated to [Syria's] actions internally. That's patently untrue, and we are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically."

Annan wants powers to 'twist arms' over Syria
By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press - WTOP.com
GENEVA (AP) - U.N. envoy Kofi Annan has asked governments with influence to "twist arms" to stop escalating violence in Syria, amid few signs that international pressure is having any measurable effect on the fighting.
Syria has intensified its onslaught against the opposition in recent days, ignoring an Annan-brokered ceasefire plan, mounting international condemnation and increasing economic pressure aimed at the government of President Bashar Assad.

US: Russia sending Syria attack helicopters
By BRADLEY KLAPPER - Associated Press - WTOP.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration said Tuesday that Russia is sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and warned that the Arab country's 15-month conflict could become even deadlier.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was "concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria."
She said the shipment "will escalate the conflict quite dramatically."

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