Die Ratingagentur Moody‘s hat die Bonitätsnote Griechenlands am Mittwoch um drei Stufen auf Caa1 gesenkt. Moody‘s begründete den Schritt mit dem wachsenden Risiko, dass es der Regierung nicht gelingen werde, die Finanzlage ohne eine Umschuldung zu stabilisieren.

Moody‘s on Wednesday cut Greece‘s credit rating by three notches to an extremely speculative level on debt restructuring worries and warned that more downgrades could come.

The publicly owned regional Nord/LB bank said in its first quarter earnings report that it holds a combined €719 million ($1 billion) in Greek sovereign and private debt…

The bank said in its full earnings report published Tuesday that it views „a haircut on Greek sovereign debt as likely and has therefore taken precautionary steps.“

ls erste Bank in Deutschland hat die NordLB Forderungen an griechische Schuldner abgeschrieben. Im Bericht zum ersten Quartal schreibt die Bank, dass sie einen Schuldenschnitt auf griechische Staatsschulden für wahrscheinlich halte und dafür Vorsorge getroffen habe. Die NordLB hält 719 Millionen Euro an griechischen Staats –und Unternehmensanleihen.

Internationales Expertenteam exhumiert Leiche und wertet Militärberichts aus dem Jahr 1973 aus. Zwei Einschusslöcher gefunden

Die Kämpfe fanden im Stadtteil Hassaba statt, wo sich der Familiensitz des oppositionellen Stammesführers Scheich Sadek al-Ahmar befindet. Soldaten der Präsidentengarde versuchten vergeblich, das Stadtquartier unter ihre Kontrolle zu bringen. Bereits am Dienstag war die Strom- und Wasserversorgung des Stadtteils gekappt worden.

Q: Can you tell us something about your involvement in the Swiss banking business?

A: I have worked for Swiss banks for many years. I was designated as one of the top directors of one of the biggest Swiss banks. During my work I was involved in the payment, in the direct payment in cash to a person who killed the president of a foreign country. I was in the meeting where it was decided to give this cash money to the killer. This gave me dramatic headaches and troubled my conscience. It was not the only case that was really bad but it was the worst.

It was a payment instruction on order of a foreign secret service written by hand giving the order to pay a certain amount to a person who killed the top leader of a foreign country. And it was not the only case. We received several such hand written letters coming from foreign secret services giving the order to payout cash from secret accounts to fund revolutions or for the killing of people. I can confirm what John Perkins has written in his book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. There really exists just a system and Swiss banks are involved in such cases.

Two French lawyers said they planned to initiate legal proceedings against French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday for crimes against humanity over the NATO-led military campaign in Libya.

Jacques Verges and Roland Dumas (R and L in the photo respectively) offered to represent the families who fell victims of the NATO bombing campaign.

Dumas, a former socialist minister, said the NATO mission, which was meant to protect civilians, was in fact killing them.

He denounced what he described as ’a brutal assault against a sovereign country’ and said he defends victims of NATO bombings.

Again reiterating that a default was not in the cards for Greece, …

(31.05.) European finance officials will meet in Vienna on Wednesday to thrash out Greece‘s debt problems, with a second bailout…
Athens needs a scheduled instalment of the loan, worth 12 billion euros, to pay its bills in July…
the country will receive the new loan in return for additional spending cuts and a faster rate of privatisations.

The vote could come as early as Wednesday afternoon.

Several lawmakers, including Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, testified before a House committee that President Obama is in violation of the War Powers Act for failing to get proper congressional approval to continue U.S. operations against Libya.

The War Powers Act, passed in 1973 over President Nixon’s veto, allows presidents to use force in emergencies but supposedly requires them to seek and receive congressional approval within 60 days. It was intended to prevent open-ended escalations such as occurred in Vietnam.

Dennis Kucinich’s War Powers Act vote to end US involvement in the war in Libya, known as House Concurrent Resolution 51, will get a vote in the House tomorrow. In a letter to supporters, Kucinich laid out his reasons for calling up the vote:

This vote shouldn’t be necessary, of course. The United States Constitution requires congressional authorization to go to war. The administration has disregarded the Constitution. Instead, they have spun the conflict as a minor intervention or as part of NATO, but the fact remains that we’re bombing another country and we pay, by far, the largest percentage of NATO’s military bills. This is a war that we’re leading – and it’s a war that violates our Constitution and the War Powers Act. It’s time we end this war.

Congress must find its voice and the American people must call upon Congress to take the Administration off the war path.

The United States Constitution requires congressional authorization to go to war. The administration has disregarded the Constitution. Instead, they have spun the conflict as a minor intervention or as part of NATO, but the fact remains that we‘re bombing another country and we pay, by far, the largest percentage of NATO‘s military bills. This is a war that we‘re leading – and it‘s a war that violates our Constitution and the War Powers Act. It‘s time we end this war.

Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War
Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed
Forces from Libya.

Bei Testpersonen, die häufig Handys nutzen, kam es einigen der Studien zufolge zu einer Häufung bestimmter Hirntumore. Welchen Einfluss die Strahlung darauf gehabt hat, ist aber noch unklar. Um eine Gefährdung auszuschließen oder diese konkret nachzuweisen, seien in den kommenden Jahren weitere Untersuchungen notwendig.

Lyon, France, May 31, 2011: The WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer1, associated with wireless phone use.