Wenn die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika keine taktischen Atomwaffen einsetzen, werden sie sich schwer tun, Nordkorea zu besiegen. Abgesehen davon stecken Boden- und Luftstreitkräfte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika bis zum Hals in Afghanistan und im Mittleren Osten fest, ihre Ausrüstung ist verschlissen und das Finanzministerium der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika hat kein Geld

Former president Nelson Mandela has been discharged after spending nine days in hospital, the presidency said on Saturday.

A former minister from a prominent political dynasty, Salam won the backing on Thursday of the Saudi- and Western-backed March 14 political coalition after talks brokered in Saudi Arabia. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose seven parliamentary seats hold the balance of power, also backed him.

Tammam Salam, a 68-year-old lawmaker and a former culture minister, was asked by President Michel Suleiman to head a new government. Lebanon‘s parliament strongly endorsed Salam, who is widely seen as a consensus figure, with 124 lawmakers in the 128-seat legislature voting in favour of his nomination.

The prominent Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, has been subjected to a wave of hate mail and calls for prosecution for incitement to violence since writing an article defending the throwing of stones by Palestinian youths at Israeli soldiers.

The Council of Settlements in the West Bank have demanded the opening of a police investigation into the Haaretz newspapers and its journalist, Amira Hass, following the publication of an article yesterday which addressed the issue of Palestinian rights to throw rocks as a means of self-defence.

For years, Palestinian detainees and prisoners have complained about sleep deprivation, painful and prolonged handcuffing, humiliation, beatings and medical neglect. By international standards, this is torture.

Im Gegensatz zum Ethos des nicht Plünderns, wird der andere Purim-Ethos des Sich-Freuens , streng eingehalten. Deshalb hat der verstorbene Siedlerführer Hanan Purat „Fröhliche Purim!“ gesagt und zwar kurz nachdem ein Kiryat Arba–Bewohner 29 palästinensische Gottesdienstbesucher in der Abrahamsmoschee in Hebron am 25. Februar 1994 massakrierte — in dieser Woche vor 19 Jahren.

Ministerpräsident Yitzak Rabin, der empört von Dr.Baruch Goldsteins Massaker an Palästinensern war, bestrafte Hebrons palästinensische Bewohner: Ausgangssperren, Absperrungen von Straßen, Gassen und Läden; und Straßensperren gaben dem jüdischen Siedlungsbau in Hebrons Altstadt einen großen Antrieb. Die andere Seite der Freude: Tausende der palästinensischen Bewohner der Altstadt wurden gezwungen, auf Grund der Schikanen und der Eliminierung ihrer Einkommensquellen wegzugehen. Es ist die Rechnung der Schadenfreude. Um der etwa 500 Juden willen, wurde ein Gebot veröffentlicht, um das Leben von rund 200 000 Palästinenser zu unterbrechen.

von Marc-Stephan Arnold, Beijing

(..) Wahlen in Deutschland. So wie es derzeit aussieht, wird sich die neue Partei „Alternative für Deutschland“ (AfD) einen nicht unerheblichen Teil der Stimmen sichern können – viele Indikatoren deuten darauf hin, dass für diese ausgewiesene Anti-Euro-Partei (AfD) ein riesiges Wählerpotenzial existiert (bei einer Online-Umfrage des Nachrichtenmagazins Focus stimmten in kürzester Zeit mehr als 43.000 Teilnehmer ab – über 94 Prozent davon gegen den Euro!).

Italy‘s caretaker cabinet on Saturday said it had approved a decree to pay some 40 billion euros of the state‘s debts to private companies over the next 12 months

The European Commission is currently drafting a directive on bank safety which would incorporate the issue of investor liability in member states‘ legislation.

The idea to bail-in banks with depositors’ money will soon be more than just an idea – or a “Cyprus template” as Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said two weeks ago. It will be decided through an EU directive, as economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn announced on Saturday in a television interview.

A shock is awaiting 2,400,000 Greek taxpayers with annual real income between zero and 5,000 euro. This year, they will have to pay tax even if they have no income at all.

Cyprus Airways President Stavros Stavrou appeared cautiously optimistic over a deal with a Chinese investment company for the acquisition of Cyprus` national air carrier.

A key issue in deliberations with troika envoys this time is also the ongoing recapitalization of Greek banks in the aftermath of the Cyprus banking crisis in March.

As it is noted, the agreement indicates the mutual trust between the two states and establishes the ground for more agreements in the future in fields as the economy, industry, defence, security crime prevention and others, which require the secure exchange and dissemination of classified information.

Eine derartige Enteignung der Anleger könnte eine Kapitalflucht nach Russland zur Folge haben, sagte Putin am Freitag in einem ARD-Interview im Vorfeld seines für den 7./8. April geplanten Deutschland-Besuchs. Den Wortlaut des Gesprächs veröffentlichte die ARD auf ihrer Internetseite.

The first reaction of the governing Popular Party (PP) to Princess Cristina being named as a suspect in the Nóos fraud case unfolding against her husband was one of “concern” for the image of the monarchy and of Spain abroad.

Four of the nine articles of the 2013 budget Portugal’s Constitutional Court studied were considered to be unconstitutional Friday and, as such, null and void, backdated to 1 January when they came into force.

on 3 April 2013, on the front page of the daily paper “ Il Fatto Quotidiano”, there’s the text of a threatening message signed by Cosa Nostra and sent to the antimafia judges in Palermo. The main message coming from someone signing as “a man of honour of the Trapanese family” is this: “No comics or queers in the Government”.

Lower house speaker Laura Boldrini said in a statement on Wednesday that the two chambers of the Italian parliament would meet for a joint session starting on Monday, April 15, and regional representatives could join from April 18.

The presidential palace statement said that in deciding to pardon Romano, Napolitano had “above all, taken into account the fact that the president of the United States, Barack Obama, immediately after his election, put an end to an approach of handling the challenges to national security”

As Matteo Renzi told his deputies and senators, “It’s war now and Pier Luigi won’t find it easy to pull any funny business over the presidential election”

Romeo Dionisi, 62, and Anna Maria Sopranzi, 68, hung themselves in a storage room they owned in the town of Civitanova Marche on the Adriatic coast on Friday, police said. After learning of his sister‘s death, Sopranzi‘s brother, Giuseppe, 72, threw himself into the sea and drowned.

He was a clerk at a shoe company, though he hadn‘t worked for some time. She was a retired artisan. Together, they had no more than 500 euros a month, from her pension, to live off of.

On Friday, they were dead.

“Leaving the euro is a precondition for salvation and recovery but is not enough on its own,” he said. “It is a link in the chain of transformations that have to happen, which includes economic planning, stopping payments to foreign lenders and nationalizing banks.”

Andreas Iliadis löst sein 9-monatiges Schweigen und spricht von einem “gut vorbereiteten Plan zur Vernichtung des gesamten Bankwesens und hauptsächlich der Cyprus-Bank, die sich damals in einem guten wirtschaftlichen Zustand befand“.

Der ungekürzte Artikel des ehemaligen Geschäftsführers der BOC, Andreas Iliadis, wird nachstehend in deutscher Übersetzung wiedergegeben, die wie im griechischen Wortlaut in der 1. Person formuliert ist, die sich auf den Autor und nicht etwa das Team des Blogs bezieht.

One of the biggest mistakes so far in the eurozone crisis was to not properly write down Greece’s debt. The country is therefore stuck in a downward spiral: high levels of debt require more cuts, negatively affecting growth and tax revenues, in turn requiring revised targets and more cuts.

Cyprus’s economy might contract as much as 13 percent this year under the weight of austerity measures and a restructuring of the country’s banks as agreed in return for a bailout, the government spokesman said.

In comparison with March 2012, an increase of 6.840 persons or 18,3% was recorded which was mainly observed in the sectors of trade