CASH D' ETAT

"Nicolas Sarkozy is contemplating a 200,000-pounds-an-hour job with a bank which already employs his old friend Tony Blair." 

Read more on the Daily Mail.

Tutu does the right thing...

Photo: Getty Images

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has declined to appear next to Tony Blair at a leadership summit in South Africa.

Read more on the BBC.







LATEST NEWS

Tutu calls for Blair & Bush to be sent to the Hague
BBC

Yu and You

The Island dispute between China and Japan appears to be heating up again having cooled down on Friday. A group of pro Chinese activists were deported by Japan back to China yesterday. China called the decision a "wise" move. Today a flotilla of some 20 Japanese boats headed to the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, the group of vessels are due to arrive at the small Japanese territory on Sunday. This display of sovereignty will likely provoke a response from China. Japan meanwhile is likely to bolster her control in the area.

Read more on the DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE or on Xinhua.


LATEST NEWS

Chinese nationalists protest Japanese nationalists visit to the disputed Senkaku Islands
Russia Today

Chinese ships enter disputed Islands area
BBC

The new Miss World goes to..

Winner of Miss World goes to WenXia YU of China.
In second place, Welshwoman Sophie Moulds and in third place Australia's Jessica Kahawaty.

1st. Miss China

3rd. Miss Australia

2nd. Miss Wales

Has Syrian Vice President Defected?

"Conflicting reports emerged Saturday about whether Syria's vice president has defected."

Read more on CNN.

To Understand China.

It cannot be understated how significant the book "Art Of War" is to China and her people. To anyone looking to do business in China this is essential.

Sun Tzu, the 500BC military strategist's teachings for centuries were a closely guarded secret. The Japanese exposed this secret to the world after occupying China in WW2. The strategies to this day can be applied to modern life whether it be law, war, governance or even family life.

"Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate."

To understand China behaviourally either locally or internationally, no politician or businessman should assume he or she does without reading Sun Tzu's strategies. Sun Tzu was effectively China's Machiavelli.

3D printed meat...

Billionaire Peter Thiel is to invest in producing 3D printed meat.

"Billionaire Peter Thiel would like to introduce you to the other, other white meat. The investor’s philanthropic Thiel Foundation’s Breakout Labs is offering up a six-figure grant (between $250,00 and $350,000, though representatives wouldn’t say exactly) to a Missouri-based startup called Modern Meadow that is flipping 3-D bio-printing technology originally aimed at the regenerative medicine market into a means to produce 3D printed meat"

Read more on POPSCI.

ASSANGE - ANTI "DETENTE" and a theory

Julian Assange

Julian Assange was yesterday granted asylum to Ecuador. The left wing playboy has been threatened with arrest should he attempt to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Julian Assange fascinates many even enchants them with his evident bravery. An admirable quality. Yet few question the motives of Julian's brinkmanship. 

First and formost where is Julian ethnically from? The name Assange derives from Ah Sang or Mr. Sang a Chinese emigre that settled on Thursday Island in the early 1800's. Mr. Sang's descendants later moved to the Australian continent. Meanwhile his maternal ancestors came to Australia in the mid 1900's from Scotland and Ireland.  

Earlier this year in May Chinese defence strategist Li Xiaojun warned Australia to choose a "godfather". Essentially telling Australian people that they must choose between China or Britain and U.S. 

Julian in the 1990's

What about Julian Assang(e)'s early life? In 1987, aged just 16, Julian began hacking under the name "Mendax" derived from "splendide mendax" which means "nobly untruthful".

A suitable alias for a supposed champion of freedom? In 1991 Assange/Mendax was caught in the act hacking into the master terminal of Canadian Telecoms company Nortel. Here's the interesting part, unknowingly Nortel has been hacked consistently for over ten years because executives at the company had crackable passwords. Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009, turning what used to be a powerhouse in the industry into a buffet for rivals. Coincidently the accused of the 10 year long campaign are said to be Chinese hackers.

When Julian/Mendax hacked Nortel they used password cracking software and even boasted that they could sell the information to competitors. Perhaps Mendax did just that? When Nortel filled for bankruptcy in 2009, one of the most interested buyers of the company happened to be Chinese tech giant Huawei. The Chinese company's bid spooked Nortel's customers and the offer was scuttled. Huawei is said to be an arm of the Chinese military. Nortel presumably didn't know at the time the reason for their "mismanagement" and poor company projections. The 10 year hacking campaign was only discovered this year in 2012. This could be coincidence but then again Nortel was a very specific target selected by Assange.

Actor George Assang (no 'e") of Thursday Island

Why Ecuador? Ecuador is now client state of China. After Ecuador's default of foreign debt in 2008 amounting to billions of dollars which it's president considers "illegitimate". Mr Correa also described foreign lenders as "monsters". President Correa clearly assumes himself as a man of morals, then why in December 2011, did he approve a $1bn loan commitment from China. Since Ecuador's default Correa's government has borrowed up to $7.25bn from China, that's 16% of Ecuadors total outstanding debt according to Fitch Ratings. What does China receive in return for her generosity? Oil. This is but one instance of the hypocrisy of Correa's government.

President Rafael Correa was once hailed by environmentalists worldwide for his new constitution that recognised "the rights of nature" in 2008. With terminology like "Pacha Mama", a phrase used by Ecuadors indigenous Quechua people that means "Earth Mother".

The second instance of Correa's hypocrisy is that despite this courting of the worlds liberalists. President Corea is to push through a bid that involves a huge $1.77bn open-pit copper mine in the Amazon. The 450,000 acre site has ignited the country's indigenous minority. 

Aside from all of the mentioned above Ecuador frequently jails journalists. The campaign group Committee to Protect Journalists ran a piece that was titled "Ecuador not fit to champion free expression". Yet Mr. Correa contests this. Earlier this year in February major U.S. news outlets criticised the Ecuadorian President's media laws. The Washington Post  said the President should be known for "the most comprehensive and ruthless assault on free media underway in the Western Hemisphere". New laws came into force on February 4th which will restrict journalists when reporting about the 2013 presidential campaign in the country. Several Ecuadorian journalists have said that such laws amount to censorship.

In 2011, Mr. Correa filed a libel against the El Universo newspaper for allowing a former editor to write a column which accused the president of being a "dictator". The writer including the paper's three directors were sentenced to 3 years in jail on top of fines totalling $40million.

The reason why Mr. Julian Assang(e)/Mendax chose Ecuador for asylum was not because of Ecuador's 'flourishing' free speech, nor it's pristine rainforest. It was a political choice, one that may ironically mean the end of the Wikileaks the world fell in love with.

LATEST NEWS & NEWS

Anti - Wikileaks hackers take down Russia Today's website
Russia Today

Ecuador may appeal to the ICC
DIGITAL JOURNAL

US and China turn to war games to build cyber detente
THE AGE

I've heard of a Mexican stand off..
DAILY MAIL - Debate

Australia prepping for Assange extradition
Russia Today

Ecuador seeks assurances
BBC

Anonymous take down UK Ministry of Justice site
Russia Today

Viewpoint: A risky Ecuador-Assange alliance
BBC

SEAL's go crime fighting...

The U.S. Navy SEALS may be used to hunt the most wanted criminal in the world, Mexican drug lord "El Chapo" Guzman. 

"According to anonymous Mexican and U.S. military sources cited by Proceso magazine (translated from Spanish), the plan involves sending Navy SEALs by helicopter after the Sinaloa Cartel kingpin, who is rumoured to be hiding in the mountains of the western Mexican states of Sinaloa and Durango. The SEALs would be divided into two teams — one would land and attack, and the other would stay airborne — assisted by three unmanned drones packing missiles"

Read more on WIRED.

North Korea open for business..

Two of the founding fathers of Capitalism

"Chinese investment in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and business links between the two countries are expected to increase sharply in the near future, with priority being given first to the development of two special economic zones aimed at attracting foreign investment.

A director from China's Ministry of Commerce told China Daily on Tuesday that work on the two zones in the DPRK had already reached a substantive stage, after ground was first broken at the sites in December.

Although China's investment in the DPRK is still relatively small, the director surnamed Dong from the ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, said it will "gain speed in the future, and the two sides will get closer and closer."

Read more on CHINA DAILY.

Invest in North Korea?

http://dot2dotnews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/invest-in-north-korea-probably-not.html

No fly zone..

The Syrian opposition has renewed calls for a no fly zone over Syria. 

"The president of the Syrian National Council, Abdelbaset Sieda, told The Associated Press that such a move by the international community would show President Bashar Assad’s regime that his opponents around the world are serious."

Read more on TIME.

Solar flannel..

Photo: Reuters 

China's domestic solar industry is close to bankruptcy.

Read more on CHINA DAILY.

Gene-doped superspies...

"In The Bourne Legacy, Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross, a superspy who’s been pharmaceutically tweaked to jump higher, think faster, punch harder, hear better and tolerate extreme cold. The surprising thing is, this type of gene-doped warrior is not a total figment of filmmaker Tony Gilroy’s imagination."

Read more on WIRED.

Russia and Iran missile dispute..

Russia and Iran have been locked in dispute after Russia surprisingly refused to supply Iran with surface-to-air missile systems.

"Unless Tehran retracts its lawsuit over Moscow's refusal to deliver S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, Russia will take a tougher stand on the Iranian nuclear issue, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday.

"We have already made it clear to Iran that lawsuits are not helping the development of our relations,” the newspaper quoted a Russian presidential administration source as saying. “But our requests to retract these documents from court went unnoticed."

Moscow is prepared to stop supporting Tehran over its nuclear program, he said."

Read more on Russia Today.

Mugshot Yourself..

Take a photo of yourself, click a button and your morphed into some of the baddest criminals of the late 1800's.

Via the Daily Mail.

UK assisting Syrian rebels...

William Hague has said that the UK is working alongside Syrian rebels so as  to prevent al-Qaeda from gaining a foothold in the country. He stressed this assistance does not include armaments.

"Mr Hague insisted that Britain was not “taking sides in a civil war” but that the risk of a future power vacuum meant there was a need to establish contacts with those who may govern the country in future."

Read more on the Telegraph.

Bo Xilai trial..

The wife of Bo Xilai has 'calmly' accepted charges for murdering Neil Heywood. Nothing was said of corruption in China. The charges solely revolved around the murder of the British businessman . The trial lasted one day.

Read more on the BBC or the Telegraph





LATEST NEWS

Mystery third person 'may have been involved in murder of Neil Heywood'
The Telegraph

Global small arms trade visualisation...

The worlds arms trade visualisation created by Google.  Via GIZMODO.

Chinese corporate debt at point of no return..

China's corporate debt ratios are at "dangerous levels" according to economists. 

"China's corporate debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 107 percent in 2011, the highest in the world, Li said at a forum in Zhejiang province on Friday.

A ratio that exceeds 90 percent is considered "dangerous", he said, citing a standard set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development."

Read more on CHINA DAILY.

Mars on Monday..

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is due to touch down on Monday.

Watch the videos below.

Terraform from ArtFx on Vimeo. Via WIRED.

Murderer?

The first picture of WPc Yvonne Fletcher's alleged killer.

"A senior adviser to Libya’s prime minister last month named Salah Eddin Khalifa as the chief suspect in the murder, saying it was “mind-boggling” that Britain had done so little to pursue the perpetrators."

Read more on the Telegraph.

I love unicorns...

Need a new time wasting game? Have a go on CLOP, it's really annoying. Via POPSCI.

Euro warning...

"The parent company of Spanish carrier Iberia and British Airways said it has made contingency plans for Spain's possible exit from the single European currency, the most high-profile acknowledgment yet by a European blue-chip company of the dangers of a euro-zone collapse."

Read more on the WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Deja vu at the U.N.

Guess which other nations voted NO? (Image from the last U.N. vote on Syria)

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to condemn the Syrian regime and deplored acts of violence on both sides. The vote also attacked the failure of the U.N. to agree on how to deal with the al-Assad regime. This time with 133-12 with 31 abstentions.

SYRIA LATEST NEWS 

U.N. resolution on Syria slams regime
CNN

U.N. adopts tough resolution on Syria
Russia Today

Russia denies warships are heading for Syria's Tartus port
BBC

Syrian opposition see Annan failure as vindication of it's armed struggle
TIME

Russia, China change world politics: Syria
CHINA DAILY

Same day delivery..

For the first time ever a space rocket arrived at the International Space Station the same day it was fired up on earth. The Russian spacecraft docked with ISS within just 6 hours of it's departure.

Read more on POPSCI.

Kofi Annan resigns..

The U.N.'s special envoy Kofi Annan has resigned from his post. He stepped down because of "increasing militarisation on the ground" and "the clear lack of unity" at the UN Security Council.

Read more on CNN.

The willy snake...

Scientists discover a new species of blind snake. The snake species was found in the Madeira river Brazil.

Read more on the Daily Mail.

Obama goes covert in Syria...

U.S. president Obama has authorised covert support for the Syrian rebels battling the al-Assad regime, allowing the CIA to conduct clandestine intelligence gathering.

Read more on CNN.

U.S. Navy drone test flight..

The U.S. navy's latest addition to the drone family, the X-47B.

Watch the video showing it in test flight, shame about the corny music. 

Parachuting Teddies in Bearlarus..

www.studiototal.se/teddybears

Europe's last dictatorship in Belarus has been invaded by parachuting Swedish Teddy Bears carrying messages supporting freedom of speech and recent opposition protests. The regime denied the Teddy's had successfully completed their drop over Belarusian airspace. They should have been Panda's.

Read more on Russia Today.

Watch the video from Studio Total

LATEST NEWS

Belarus expels Swedish ambassador
Russia Today

EU backs Sweden in Belarus Teddy stunt row
BBC

Iran In The Chokey..

Wall of victims of 9/11

The U.S. president Obama yesterday announced new sanctions for the Iranian regime covering Iran's oil industry as well as banks in China and Iraq. Will this stop or deter Iran from attempting to develop a nuclear weapon? No, I doubt it, regimes do what they want, no matter how much you isolate them. So long as they have support, the Iranian regime just like that of North Korea will continue to ignore the world and operate outside the box of freedom that Democracy contains. 

Chinese Kunlun bank

These fresh sanctions gently expose how much China supports Iran. The Chinese bank Kunlun is accused of facilitating "transactions worth millions on behalf of Iranian banks". Kunlun is an arm of the Chinese state. China has said that U.S sanctions against Chinese financial institutions "badly violate rules governing international relations and hurt China's interests". China didn't mention that her support for the Iranian regime among others badly violates international relations and hurts U.S. interests. China being a regime itself supports the few that remain. 

On Monday a New York judge ruled that the Iranian government and the Taliban regime were accountable for 9/11 and should pay compensation. Is the U.S preparing formerly to announce Iran as the culprit behind the September 11th attacks?


IRAN LATEST NEWS

Israeli PM says warnings not enough to stop Iran
BBC

Panetta meeting Israeli officials amid Iran nuclear tensions
CNN

U.S.-Israel-Iran Stalemate
TIME

US 'will not' let Iran have nuclear arms
FINANCIAL TIMES