(20.4.2017) Italy‘s Constitutional Court threw out Zaia‘s original plan to ask voters if they wanted Veneto to secede from Italy or keep control of 80 percent of tax revenue collected in the region.

Instead the question on the ballot paper will be: „Do you want Veneto to be given further forms and particular conditions of autonomy?“

(24.11.2014) Without initial membership in the European Union, an independent Catalan state could not appeal to the Central Bank of Europe to finance its debts, said Vidal, a member of a pro-Catalan independence expert group.

„But there is a solution for this,“ Vidal said in the interview adding that „another state with solvency, basically speaking of Israel and Germany, will serve as our temporary bank.“

(11.11.2013) This morning the president of the Government of Catalonia, Artur Mas, reiterated that „Israel is a strategic country for Catalonia in many ways“ and that the government‘s aim with this trip is to „strengthen our cooperation and maintain the good relations between the two countries“ since diplomatic relations were restored in 1986. “Israel is a country Catalonia should interact with in the best possible conditions“ Mas declared, and „we, having cooperated together for years, wish not to abandon this relationship, we want to emphasise it“.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in recent weeks came out in favor of Iraqi Kurdish independence, had no comment Sunday about the independence referendum in Catalonia.

Netanyahu’s spokesman David Keyes directed inquiries on the matter to the Foreign Ministry where spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon, when asked Israel’s stand on the issue, replied: “We see it as an internal Spanish matter.”

(13.11.2015) The list of Israeli officials includes Netanyahu, former defense minister Ehud Barak, former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, former minister of strategic affairs Moshe Yaalon, former interior minister Eli Yishai, minister without portfolio Benny Begin and vice admiral in charge of the operation, Maron Eliezer.

The Israeli officials face charges in the case, opened by the National Court, following the attack by Israeli security forces in 2010 on the Freedom Flotilla ship bound for Gaza on a humanitarian mission.

(5.2.2017) When your bluff is called you need to up the stakes to avoid total defeat, so those parties have since applied a cynical political strategy to delay everything until a millenarist event brings independence as a gift bestowed by the international community, sparing themselves a full-blown confrontation with Spain. “We go slowly because we go far,” they say.

Back in 2006, the idea of secession was dismissed by most Catalans as a radical overreaction to the decades of tension between Barcelona and Madrid over cultural and economic issues.

A lot can change in 11 years.

Inserting political considerations into the professional bureaucracy out of a desire to distribute jobs to cronies would deal a critical blow to the functioning of the government

„If you told me an asteroid fell it would mean the same to me. There‘s absolutely no sense, no reason he did this,“ said his brother Eric Paddock.

The attacker was first shot by a soldier on patrol duty protecting the train station. Another police officer quickly came forward to handcuff the assailant, who had fallen to the ground from being shot.

A man suspected of carrying out a knife attack in the French city of Marseille, in which two women were stabbed to death, had been arrested and then released by police the day before the incident, the Paris public prosecutor said on Monday.

Der spanische Ministerpräsident Mariano Rajoy hatte dem Referendum jede Gültigkeit abgesprochen. Menschen konnten sogar mit selbst ausgedruckten Stimmzetteln teilnehmen. Das Verfassungsgericht hatte das Referendum zuvor untersagt. Rajoy nannte die Abstimmung eine Inszenierung. „Es hat in Katalonien kein Referendum gegeben“, so der konservative Politiker.

The suspected gunman was identified as Stephen Paddock, a Nevada resident. He was found dead in his hotel room.

The delegation headed by the deputy commander of the Iranian Cyber Police for international and legal affairs, Hossein Ramezani, attended the 5th Europol-INTERPOL Cybercrime Conference in The Hague.

With the theme of ‘Actively united for a safer cyberspace’, the conference, which was attended by more than 420 delegates from 68 countries, underscored the importance of developing a comprehensive global response which encompasses all stakeholders including police, the private sector, academia, governments and international organizations, according to the official website of the Interpol.

Khatallah has been awaiting trial since 2014, when he was captured by a team of U.S. military and FBI officials in Libya and transported on a 13-day journey to the United States aboard a Navy vessel.

Prior to his capture, he was part of a revolutionary militia group aimed at overthrowing the Gaddafi regime.

The justice ministry‘s department of penitentiary administration (DAP) has for the first time released a circular letter regulating everyday life in the hard ‘41 bis‘ jail regime for mafia convicts, sources said Monday.

(2.10.2017) Für ein solches Kalkül spricht, dass Kataloniens Unabhängigkeitsbefürworter für ihr Projekt keineswegs über eine gesicherte Mehrheit unter den Einwohnern der autonomen Gemeinschaft, von denen viele Wurzeln in anderen Teilen Spaniens haben, verfügen. Mit ausreichend Angstmache vor den ökonomischen Folgen wäre eine Abspaltung wohl auch ohne Machtdemonstrationen abzuwenden gewesen. Ihren Aufschwung seit einem Jahrzehnt verdankt die Bewegung vor allem der Krise, in die Spaniens Wirtschaft steuerte. Die EU-gelenkte Politik der sozialen Spaltung, mit der ihr Madrid begegnete, stärkte das Gefühl »Rette sich, wer kann!«

(28.9.2017) Angesichts der angespannten Lage in seiner Heimatregion fordert Kataloniens Außenminister Raul Romeva die EU-Kommission zur Einmischung auf. „Die Demokratie in Spanien zerfällt Tag um Tag. Als Hüterin der EU-Verträge kann die Europäische Kommission nicht länger argumentieren, dass das eine inländische Angelegenheit ist“, erklärte Romeva am Donnerstag in Brüssel.

(2.9.2011) Das bereits in Deutschland unter dem Nebelbegriff „Föderalismusreform“ und „Schuldenbremse“ in 2006 und 2009 erfolgreiche Konzept der massiven Verfassungsverstümmelung durch die etablierten Großparteien wurde nun in Spanien angewandt. Kurz zusammen gefasst zielt diese Strategie auf die sukzessive Rückführung aller staatlichen Aufgaben und Tätigkeiten bis auf die Bezahlung der Banken und die Aufrechterhaltung der dafür notwendigen Repression vor. Die demokratischen Strukturen werden abgebaut und gelähmt. Der Staat soll, wie ein Giftopfer, zuerst gelähmt werden, um dann langsam auszubluten und abzusterben. Den Rest sammelt die „Europäische Union“ ein. Die Bevölkerung wird den Raubrittern des Kapitals zum Plündern freigegeben.

(28.9.2017) DHS spokesman Scott McConnell said notifications to 21 states were “based on a variety of sources, including scanning detected from malicious IP addresses and intelligence information that cannot be publicly disclosed.”

(27.9.2017) Our notification from DHS last Friday was not only a year late, it also turned out to be bad information. To make matters worse, the Associated Press similarly reported that DHS has reversed itself and ‚now says Russia didn’t target Wisconsin’s voter registration system,‘ which is contrary to previous briefings.

Die Geschichte, basierend auf offiziellen Aussagen des DHS, war aus offensichtlichen Gründen sehr attraktiv und löste vorhersehbarer Weise sofortige und scharfe Reaktionen in Politik und Medien hervor, die wiederum viral gingen. Zahlreiche Prominente und Politiker erklärten daraufhin, dass mit diesen „Enthüllungen“ die Legitimität der Ergebnisse der US-Präsidentschaftswahlen von 2016 grundsätzlich in Frage gestellt werde.

Clinton-nahe Hollywoodgrößen sahen schon die Annullierung der Wahlen und die „rechtmäßige Einsetzung von Hillary als unsere Präsidentin“ auf das Land zukommen:

The source said the suspect – who went by eight different identities or aliases – was stopped by police in Lyon on Sept. 29 on suspicion of robbery. He was then released for a lack of evidence.

The suspect’s identity remained unclear, the source added.

(26.8.2017) A Russian political activist who was guarding a memorial to Boris Nemtsov, the Kremlin critic who was assassinated on the street more than two years ago, has been murdered by an unknown assailant.

Ivan Skripnichenko suffered a broken nose when he was attacked on August 15 and his death this week in hospital is thought to have been caused by a blood clot, according to state media.

Russian opposition activist Ivan Skripnichenko died after being attacked by a man angry he opposed Vladimir Putin. Over a month later, nobody has been arrested, his family can’t see his autopsy, and authorities say he probably died of heart disease.