How the Mafias Came to Slovakia

The slain Slovak journalist was investigating the Calabrian and his connections to then-Prime Minister Fico when he was killed.

Kuciak found that a young female assistant of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had once co-owned a business with Vadalà — and that the Italian had allegedly scammed the European Union out of 120,000 euros in agricultural subsidies.


Fico has ties to organized criminal groups Kuciak was investigating; Krajmer was inexplicably present at the murder scene shortly after the bodies were found; Fico, Krajmer and Kočner were connected to one another in various ways

Cleaning Cash Amid Slovakia’s Peaks

Journalists were about to publish an investigation into the Vadalas in Slovakia when Jan Kuciak, a member of the reporting team, was murdered.

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One never fully investigated angle involved Fruitpoint BV, a Dutch fruit importer from whose docks the Aquinos picked up some of their drug-laden containers.

Portugal' State Corruption, Mr Barroso, the EU, etc

Would EU imagine that choosing Mr. Barroso (one of the main responsible for Portuguese huge institutional corruption, blatant inequalities, culture of the promiscuity, resilient brutality, general stupidity and inescapable decadence, whom may be embroiled in the not yellow submarine case)* as EC's president, for more than a decade, and Constâncio, who was the portuguese central bank governor (for more than 10 years...) and didn't see nothing on the portuguese bank system corruption, as ECB's vice-president, comes without any consequence?

* only the Submarine and Pandur cases had 40 million euros "under the table". Him (the fag who - with the other one - represents the worst of the Portuguese State Mafia) holds still Portugal's vice prime-ministery, after all... So, it was a terrific &(almost) complete parliamentary cleaning of the 40 millions "gloves" for the submarine and Pandur's deal. How... very... terrific... country... Glup...


In the framers’ view, corruption in the broader sense of using public office for private ends was essentially the opposite of public virtue, and was therefore a central threat to the life and health of the republic. 

The parties of the centre-left and the centre-right are allowing Europe to drift into the economic equivalent of a nuclear winter.

Islamic State insurgents in Iraq have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used child soldiers in what may amount to systematic war crimes that demand prosecution


Originating in Romania and eventually spreading to the U.S. and presumably other countries, the Romani had been around for years and years, killing families and abducting the young girls as wives for their sons, and possibly the inverse as well since at least 1909. 


GDP in Italy has declined by 9% since 2000. It’s unimaginable! I don’t think communist Czechoslovakia would have survived such a long-term decline. At the same time, industrial output declined in the same period by 25%! One quarter of the economy simply disappeared.’


Where Mario Draghi now wants to start buying up Greek and Cypriot junk loans, simply because that’s all they have left to sell. That’s where we stand today. We’re back to toilet paper as the only thing that represents any value.


The "liberal system": London property company is charging £255 a week for 'studio apartments' as small as three metres by three metres

"In areas of Syria under [Isis] control, particularly in the north and north-east of the country, Fridays are regularly marked by executions, amputations and lashings in public squares," 

"Despite Moscow's hollow denials, it is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and south-eastern Ukraine,"

Despite the failures in financial regulation evident during the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis and calls for improvement of relevant regulatory structures, proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets. The draft Financial Services Annex sets rules which would assist the expansion of financial multi-nationals – mainly headquartered in New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt – into other nations by preventing regulatory barriers. 

“If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”

"France is a free country which shouldn't be aligning itself with the obsessions of the German right," he said, urging a "just and sane resistance".

From the moment it became clear that the anti-independence campaign had secured a modest win, people in the Yes camp started asking themselves : "Will we get another chance? If so, when?" Well my instinct is to advise the SNP to be cautious on this question, because we know from Quebec that there is indeed a public tolerance for a repeat referendum on independence, but only if the circumstances and timing are right.
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After all, the (bogus) argument that a No vote was the only way to keep Scotland in the EU was a key part of the anti-independence campaign's pitch. The SNP would still have to be careful to ensure that it was not running ahead of what the public is willing to tolerate, but it's conceivable that in those circumstances there might be considerable sympathy for a much earlier repeat referendum to get an independent Scotland back into the EU (and out of a Tory/Ukip hell-hole) as soon as humanly possible. (if the EU still exists...)

Australia bans reporting of multi-nation corruption case involving Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam

A senior member of India’s Socialist Party, Abu Azmi, apparently said he wanted women who were forced to have sex against their will to be put to death at the same time as their attackers.

Italy's inconclusive justice

There's barely one iconic crime from the post-war years that has persuaded the country that, yes, justice has been done: the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Ustica crash, the Bologna railway station bombing, the Piazza Fontana atrocity, the Monster of Florence murders, the murder of Luigi Calabresi, the "caso Cogne" … none has ever been satisfactorily, convincingly resolved. Instead the country seems to split into innocentisti and colpevolisti (those who believe in the innocence or guilt of the accused) and the heated debates continue for decades. guardian

Note: in Portugal my teacher Padre Max was killed (April 2 - 1976) by a sofisticated (for the 70's) bomb engine and no one was found guilty. It was the Right (of course) - because they never accepted a priest of the catholic church to be in an far-left political party - but the Right had very known faces.

Europe's tangled ties to Gadhafi

The two elderly men were surrounded by scads of beautiful young women, but theirs was the real courtship, a pas de deux between a ruthless North African dictator and a fawning European leader. bellinghamherald

Note: "British-based corporations alone have inked deals worth more than $1 trillion in oil and gas exploration."

Berlusconi faces Ruby sex charge trial

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been indicted to stand trial on charges of paying for sex with an under-age prostitute and abuse of power.

Examining judge Cristina Di Censo said the process would start on 6 April, after prosecutors in Milan asked for an immediate trial. bbc


Bunga-bunga

Bunga bunga is a phrase of mock African origin and uncertain meaning that dates from 1910 if not earlier. By 2010 the phrase had gained popularity in Italy, where it was used in connection with allegations about Silvio Berlusconi. wikipedia


Abramovich is a symbol of Russia's 'rich debauchery'

Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has launched a scathing attack on Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, saying that he is a symbol of Russia's 'rich debauchery'.

Gorbachev also accused the ruling class in Russia of showing indifference to its people.

"They (the ruling classes) are rich and debauched. Their ideal is to be something close to Abramovich. I scorn this idea. I am ashamed of this rich debauchery. I am ashamed for us and the country," the Daily Mail quoted Gorbachev, as saying. dailymail

Protests in Egypt

• 13 people have died as running battles continue
• Arrests of and attacks on journalists
• Egyptian PM apologises for violence

Guardian


BP's manipulation

BP is being investigated by US regulators over alleged manipulation of the gas market, dealing a blow to its attempts to rehabilitate its tarnished reputation following the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Guardian


To destroy artic's ecosystem

LONDON — British oil company BP announced Friday night that Russia's state-owned oil firm Rosneft will take 5 percent of BP's ordinary voting shares in a major stock swap.

In exchange, Rosneft will give BP about 9.5 percent of its shares, BP officials said. Rosneft chairman and Russian deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said the deal was worth about $8 billion. newsok

Translation: british petroleum is going to destroy artic' s ecosystem.


The country of the very, very, funtastic

Italy faces the possibility of a dynastic succession as calls grow for the millionaire daughter of Silvio Berlusconi to enter politics with a view to becoming the country's next prime minister. Telegraph

Berlusconi in ‘protection deal with mafia’

THE billionaire Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, once met a leading mafia godfather to ask for protection, according to testimony gathered over several years by crime prosecutors. The Times

Massimo Tartaglia' s direct action

Massimo Tartaglia struck the Premier in the face with a small statue of the Duomo, the city's world-famous cathedral, as he shook hands with wellwishers on the streets of the city. Telegraph

Let’s save Italy, Let’s save democracy. Let’s ask for Berlusconi’s resignation.

Italy: Unfit for summitry

"This is the way I'm made," said the host of today's G8 summit, amid allegations that he entertained escorts at his homes in Rome and on Sardinia. For those who do not follow the daily instalments of the Silvio Berlusconi soap opera, those allegations come after his estranged wife, Veronica, accused him of picking showgirls as election candidates and attending the 18th birthday party of an aspiring actress and model from Naples. The thrice-elected prime minister continued: "People take me as they find me. And Italians want me." And they do. His popularity has only slipped six points since his wife said she was filing for divorce. It currently stands at 49%. Which raises the question: if Italy wants Mr Berlusconi as its prime minister, should the G8 want Italy?

True, it is harder these days to define the values of the industrialised rich. The G20 is almost certainly a more fitting forum for global matters such as a reserve currency, climate change and trade. The hard question is whether Italy, after a decade of economic drift, now fits the basic requirements for a seat at any international table. Italy ranks 76th on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, which it defines as the freedom to work, consume and invest unconstrained by the state. That is behind such denizens of liberalism as Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Madagascar. Transparency International's corruption index places Italy 55th on its list of the world's least corrupt countries. Italian politicians are seen as less trustworthy than those in Pakistan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

So, when the leaders of the world's largest economies meet today - at Mr Berlusconi's insistence - in an earthquake zone (the stricken city of L'Aquila is still experiencing aftershocks), they are entitled to ask themselves where they have landed - in a first-world country or a third-world one. To judge Italy by the standards of economic freedom, corruption and freedom of the media, the answer is not obvious. Mr Berlusconi is the symptom but not necessarily the entire cause of his country's drift. Italians are not scandalised by him. They are dismayed about being criticised in the foreign press as a result of his antics, but they are not calling for the man himself to go.

Other European countries have coped with charismatic populists. France had a heavy dose of Nicolas Sarkozy in his bling phase, until the French said "ça suffit" and the president changed tack. But that is not happening in an Italy which secretly admires the agility of its leaders in escaping from the tightest of political corners. Until Italians start demanding serious standards from their leaders, the country is perhaps not the best venue for serious world summits. The Guardian, Wednesday 8 July 2009