Over half of Britain’s employers will impose wage cuts or freezes in the new year, business organisation the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has revealed: here.
The recession is disproportionately hitting disabled people in terms of employment and poverty, a leading disabilities charity has warned: here.
Five years after gaining office in the “Orange Revolution,” Viktor Yushchenko faces defeat in an election in which the same oligarchic forces vie for power as in 2004. Meanwhile ordinary Ukrainians endure the ravages of the global economic crisis: here.
Five years after the “Orange Revolution,” and with the country mired in economic crisis, the same oligarchic politicians vie for power in an election that has generated little enthusiasm among the Ukrainian people: here.
The humiliating defeat of incumbent Viktor Yushchenko in Sunday’s Ukrainian presidential election represents a serious blow to the strategic interests of the United States: here.
Yanukovich wins second round: here.
International monitors have confirmed that Ukraine’s presidential election was free and fair, putting pressure on the country’s prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to concede defeat: here.
Defeated Ukrainian premier Yulia Tymoshenko withdrew her legal challenge to the presidential run-off vote at the weekend because the court refused to consider documents that she claimed showed election fraud: here.
Stepan Bandera and the Holocaust: here.
To the Stulp today.
A goldcrest, hanging upside down from a small coniferous tree branch. A jay. Great spotted woodpecker and nuthatch sounds.
Today, still ice on the Pluismeer lake; so, no little grebes or black-necked grebes now.
This video from the USA is called Robert Greenwald Discusses Afghanistan War on The Ed Show.
Missiles form US Predator drones struck a village in Pakistan over the weekend, killing at least 13 people. The attack coincided with reports of intensified operations by US assassination squads on the Afghanistan side of the border: here.
German military commanders and politicians are intent on using the recent massacre at Kunduz to circumvent restrictions imposed on the German army following the crimes it committed in the Second World War and permit “targeted killings”: here.
The escalation is bitterly unpopular in France. An Ifop poll shows 82 percent opposition to additional troop deployments and 65 percent opposition to the military presence in Afghanistan: here.
Awkward Drone Questions for Obama: here.
This video from the USA says about itself:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A House representative said Thursday she is requesting an investigation after learning a CNN reporter was put on the federal no-fly list shortly after his investigation of the Transportation Security Administration.
By Barry Grey in the USA:
Disturbing questions in thwarted US plane bombing28 December 2009
The nearly catastrophic attempt to blow up a US passenger jet during its final approach to Detroit Metro Airport on Christmas Day raises a number of serious questions.
While many details of the attempted terror attack and the biography of the would-be suicide bomber remain sketchy, widely-reported facts that have been corroborated by US officials make clear that the near-destruction of the airliner was the result of a colossal and as yet unexplained security failure.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was overpowered by other passengers and crew members when he attempted to set off an explosive device he had taped to his person and smuggled onto Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam.
In November, or six months ago (press accounts differ), Abdulmutallab’s father, a retired banker and former Nigerian government minister, told US Embassy officials in the Nigerian capital that he was concerned about his son’s extreme religious views and activities. The Washington Post on Sunday quoted a “senior administration official” as saying the father had warned of his son’s “radicalization and associations.” Some press reports say the father also spoke with US intelligence officials and Nigerian security agencies.
The family had evidently lost contact with Abdulmutallab, who six months ago said he was breaking off relations. Family members reportedly said they believed he had gone to Yemen, the birthplace of his mother.
US officials say that as a result of the father’s warning, Abdulmutallab was placed on a counter terrorism database in November, but they nevertheless had no actionable grounds for barring him from flying or subjecting him to any special pre-boarding search or questioning.
The media is dutifully and uncritically parroting these explanations, but they strain credulity. Since 9/11, there have been innumerable reports of people being barred from flying by government security officials for no apparent reason. One of these was the late Senator Edward Kennedy, who in 2004 was placed on the Homeland Security Department’s “no-fly” list and prevented from boarding a shuttle from Washington DC to Boston.
See also here.
My Daughter’s on the No Fly List: here.
Right-Wingers Call For Racial Profiling: “There Should be a Separate Line [For] Anybody With the Name Abdul”: here.
A leading Democrat in the US Senate called Sunday for a huge expansion of the federal no-fly list: here.
