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| As Americans continue to lose their homes in record numbers, the Federal Reserve is considering making it much harder for homeowners to stop foreclosures and escape predatory home loans with onerous terms. |
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Oooooops?
FlashBack: MSNBC - CIA runs elite Afghan fighting force |
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| Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows. |
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| The financial crisis stretched even farther across the economy than many had realized, as new disclosures show the Federal Reserve rushed trillions of dollars in emergency aid not just to Wall Street but also to motorcycle makers, telecom firms and foreign-owned banks in 2008 and 2009. |
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$9 trillion in funds to borrowers such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, largely at interest rates below 1 percent. |
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| Device fingerprinting is a powerful emerging tool in this trade. It's "the next generation of online advertising," |
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| "Two European megabanks -- Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse -- were the largest beneficiaries of the Fed's purchase of mortgage-backed securities," The Huffington Post's Shahien Nasiripour reported. |
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| The US space agency has created a buzz with its announcement of a press conference Thursday to discuss a scientific finding that relates to the hunt for life beyond the planet Earth. |
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| A former Pakistani army commander said that the disclosure of classified documents by the whistleblower site of Wikileaks is a US plot to create rift among friendly and neighboring states. |
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| Divisions remain within President Barack Obama's deficit commission on politically explosive budget cuts and slashes in Social Security benefits, even as the panel's co-chairmen go public with a revised plan to tame the runaway national debt. |
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| Progressive Review – At least one government agency- The Social Security Administration – is warning employees that even browsing Wikileaks could be a criminal offense. The Review has revceived a copy of an email sent to staffers with the subject line, “Information Security Bulletin: WIKILEAKS.” Here’s the threat: |
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| The United States would be ready to support the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility via an extra commitment of money from the International Monetary Fund, a U.S. official told Reuters on Wednesday. |
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| Canada is under pressure from U.S. officials to further comply with American security rules which in some cases, threatens its sovereignty and the privacy of its citizens. As a result of the war on terrorism, the U.S. government now has more power to restrict air travel and is not only dictating North American, but also international security measures. |
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| The fight against opium in Afghanistan is pushing the problem into Nepal. |
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| California, New Mexico and 10 U.S. Northeastern states may try to create a North American carbon market on their own now that President Barack Obama has given up on cap-and-trade legislation that stalled in Congress. |
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| The U.S. military's mysterious X-37B space plane will complete its maiden voyage with a return to Earth as early as Friday (Dec. 3), Air Force officials said today. |
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Nanny State Alert!!:
Children will be given shopping vouchers for walking to school under a radical Government plan to combat obesity. |
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| Interfaces between the human brain and computers have been in development for a while. Most, however, are designed to allow computers to assist humans, such as people living with a disability. But, what about the computers? Won't somebody please think about the computers? |
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| The U.S. army is to begin using a futuristic rifle that fires radio-controlled 'smart' bullets in Afghanistan for the first time, it has emerged. |
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| The Senate passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510) by a 73 to 25 vote today. The $1.4 billion bill is the first major overhaul of food safety law for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 70 years and gives FDA enhanced responsibility to ensure the nation’s food safety. |
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| A round-up of several stories. |
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| The government terror campaign against innocent civilians continues with a recent report in the Santa Fe New Mexican about a September raid on a small farming school that left children and administrators in shock. According to the report, officials paid a surprise and unwarranted visit to the Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm in Cuarteles, New Mexico, on September 21 to search for marijuana — but they ended up needlessly terrorizing small children and finding only tomato plants in the process. |
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| Today global wealth is more highly concentrated in the hands of the elite than it ever has been at any other point in modern history. Once upon a time, the vast majority of the people in the world knew how to grow their own food, raise their own animals and take care of themselves. |
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| King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told a senior White House official to consider surgically implanting homing devices under Guantanamo Bay detainees’ skin. That’s one of the many potentially embarrassing comments from diplomatic back rooms now being made public by WikiLeaks. |
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| This recent round of so-called leaked documents from Wikileaks now dubbed "Cablegate" shows further confirmation that it is simply a tool being used in a massive psychological warfare operation against the people of the world. |
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| Back during the Cold War, one of the great fears was that the Soviet Union would invade western Europe and absorb it into their socialist empire. But now could essentially that exact same thing happen in the name of free trade? |
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| Washington’s biggest state secrets – from Arab leaders privately begging for air strikes on Iran to American diplomats spying on UN officials – were laid bare Sunday in a massive online document dump. |
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| Trading in credit-default swaps, Wall Street’s fastest-growing business before the credit crisis, has tumbled 40 to 60 percent from three years ago as banks prepare for new regulation of derivatives. |
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| A quick aside in a New York Times article about leaked diplomatic cables is sure to spark renewed interest about the role of the US’ biggest ally in the Gulf supporting terrorism. |
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| Ultra Elitist Environmental Group: Halt Economic Growth, Institute Rationing |
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| The UN has refused access to the Cancun Climate Change Conference to Phelim McAleer, who is well known for asking scientists and politicians difficult questions about Global Warming orthodoxy. |
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| The firm, named G4s, sells the devices to the detention facilities in the occupied West Bank, which provide the necessary means for torture of the Palestinian prisoners, Berlingske Tidende reported on Nov. 23. |
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| It does not surprise me that the Obama Administration responds to the backlash against the unconstitutional fourth amendment violating TSA screening measures by blacklisting air travelers who object to the over reaching intrusive searches at the airports. They are trying to send a chilling effect not to protest the TSA groping and body scanners that has the public in an uproar. |
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| If the recent Hungarian “appropriation” of pension funds, and today’s laughable Irish bailout courtesy of domestic pension funds sourcing 20% of the “new” money was not enough to convince the world just how bankrupt the entire European experiment has become, enter France. |
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| Iran: Nuclear Physicist Killed in Bomb Blast |
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| The CIA is notorious for its Cold War-era experiments with LSD and other chemicals on unwitting citizens and soldiers. Details have emerged in books and articles beginning more than 30 years ago. |
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| “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious — makes you so sick at heart — that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!” – Mario Savio, December 2, 1964 |
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| The Prince of Wales is attempting to extend his influence over Britain’s towns and cities by taking a key role in the neighbourhood planning system under changes launched by the government. |
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| After years of official denial, Russia's lower house of parliament has passed a statement laying the blame for the Katyn massacre of Polish officers during World War II on Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. |
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| Alabama's Anniston Star newspaper is reporting today that Jacksonville, Florida-based Winn-Dixie, one of the largest US grocery store chains, suffered a major problem with its electronic credit/debit card transfer system on Wednesday that resulted in customers being double charged on their purchases. |
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| A United Nations panel overseeing trade in carbon offsets under the Kyoto Protocol decided late on Friday to issue 20 million tonnes of offsets, the information company Point Carbon reported. |
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| Looking for a sign of when the multipolar moment suddenly seemed real? You could do worse than mark the day when Brazil and Turkey -- two of the world's most avidly internationalist emerging powers -- joined together this May to announce they had stepped in to broker a nuclear-fuel swap deal with Iran that potentially -- though sadly not actually -- paved the way toward a peaceful solution to the standoff. Turkey and Brazil aren't superpowers, nor are they permanent U.N. Security Council members. But just as U.S. President Barack Obama came into office preaching a renewed focus on multilateralism, rising powers are reminding us that respect for hierarchy is no longer on anyone's agenda. |
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| Scientists from Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), along with colleagues from the Spanish National Research Council, have successfully developed an identification system in which mouse embryos and oocytes (egg cells) are physically tagged with microscopic silicon bar code labels. They expect to try it out on human embryos and oocytes soon. |
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| Next week, Mexico hosts the UN convention on climate change in Cancún. It is ironic that such an important conference on the environment should take place in a country whose environment has been devastated, and in a city that exemplifies everything you should not do if you wish to protect the environment. |
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| It's been an eventful week in Ireland. Since the announcement by Brian Cowen's Fiana Fáil coalition government that Ireland would request a bailout from the European Union and the IMF, his coalition has fallen apart, his party was humiliated in a by-election, members of his own party are calling for his resignation, and at least 50,000 Irish men and women marched in protest against the bail out. |
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| The average person can barely imagine why World War III would be anything but a civilization-ending event. And, yet, we have heard Neocons ramping up rhetoric that suggests a new world war would be a viable option to correct a dying dollar and economy. Or, perhaps it is simply a sound investment if you are a Globalist. |
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| US diplomats are alleged to have been requested by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to spy on the diplomats of other countries at the United Nations. That was the purpose of the "National Humint Collection Directive," which has been seen by SPIEGEL. The document was signed by Clinton and came into force on July 31, 2009. |
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| The economic downturn has US cable television companies shedding subscribers in record numbers and Americans increasingly "cutting the cord" in favor of cheaper online options, new research shows. |
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| Almost the entire right-hand column of The Drudge Report is dedicated to senseless violence and the raging insanity of Black Friday holiday shopping in America |
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| War would be a lot safer, the Army says, if only more of it were fought by robots. |
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Asking China to Act Like the US - New York Times
Clinton urges China to send signal to North Korea - Economic Times
North Korea can trigger the feared 21st century US-China war - Philippine Star
China says will work to ease "worrisome" Korea standoff - Reuters
Artillery Heard in North Korea; US Carrier Enters Yellow Sea - BusinessWeek
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| “The difference is that in Iceland we allowed the banks to fail,” Grimsson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Mark Barton today. “These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks.” |
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| Europe struggled mightily Friday to keep the debt crisis from engulfing country after country. Portugal passed austerity measures to fend off the speculative trades pushing it toward a bailout and Ireland rushed to negotiate its own imminent rescue. |
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| Another Eurozone country might need a financial bailout soon. Italy – which is the third largest economy that uses the Euro currency – has started plunging in the same direction as Greece and Ireland. It comes as fresh protests sweep across Europe – with people angry at facing tough cuts to pay for it all. RT talks to European Parliament member Nigel Farage, who’s the leader of the UK Independence Party. |
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| The US needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post. |
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| Pension reserve funds to be spent on banks |
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| It is now common knowledge that there is a potential domino effect of European sovereign debt contagion in roughly the following order: |
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| The simple act of removing all of our money from the banks, and doing so in mass on the same day - December 7th - would put a huge scare in the financial barons. |
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| Perplexing is why the FBI, knowing Mr. Mohamud's criminal intent, and upon delivering the bomb to the willing would-be terrorist, would allow him to approach a large public venue and attempt to detonate the device in public view. |
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| Brendan Latimer was knocked down by a herd of fellow protesters during a G20 demonstration at Queen’s Park. |
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| The Homeland Security Department’s customs enforcement division has gone on a Web site shutdown spree, closing down at least 76 domains this week, according to online reports. |
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Over the coming weeks, Americans will be wishing each other “happy holidays” millions upon millions of times. But are these really happy times?
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| Pervasive investor mistrust is deeply troubling and here’s why: If that sentiment becomes cemented in the psyche of the average investor, it could drive them further away from the stock market and create another headwind for a marketplace already starving for greater participation from Main Street. |
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| A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 39% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the federal government currently operates within the limits established by the Constitution of the United States. |
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| Some analysts are warning that the U.S. dollar is in danger of collapse because of the exploding U.S. government debt, the horrific U.S. trade deficit and the new round of quantitative easing recently announced by the Federal Reserve. Other analysts are warning the the euro is in danger of collapse because of the very serious sovereign debt crisis that is affecting nations such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Spain. |
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| The escalating debt crisis on the eurozone periphery is starting to contaminate the creditworthiness of Germany and the core states of monetary union. |
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If only the American people knew...
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| The Wall Street insider trading investigation may lead everyday investors — already rattled by a stock market meltdown, a one-day "flash crash" and the Madoff scandal — to finally conclude that the game is rigged. |
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| Defense Department scientists are set to conduct a second test launch next year of the Falcon HTV-2 experimental superweapon after the first flight this year ended when the autopilot deliberately crashed the unmanned glider into the ocean as a safety measure. |
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| Life insurers are testing an intensely personal new use for the vast dossiers of data being amassed about Americans: predicting people's longevity. |
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| The euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis escalated Friday as the market homed in on Spain as another potential weak spot, leaving officials scrambling to quell investors’ fears. |
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| Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem on Friday warned of the ramifications of a war with Israel. “There is no doubt that closing the horizons to peace may lead to a possible war. This option always exists in our region, as Israel usually outrageously evades the commitment to peace,” he told Russian newspaper Moscow News. |
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| China has warned against military activity near its coastline ahead of U.S.-Korea naval exercises, according to Reuters.China’s Foreign Ministry said in an online posting that naval exercises risks starting a war: “We oppose any military act by any party conducted in China’s exclusive economic zone without approval.” |
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| Ahead of his two-day visit to Germany, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has projected a vision of a 'harmonious economic community stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok' in reaction to the economic crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, said she will "pour some cold water" on the idea. |
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| Since September 11, 2001, the US government has been operating with a demand for the understanding of the people. We, as part of this demand, are to allow certain limitations on our liberty in order to gain a certain level of security. But, given the questionable nature of what are likely exaggerated threats, coupled with Congressional enrichment from these expensive security technologies, the U.S. public is losing both liberty and security, as well as money. |
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| DeLay faces two to 20 years in prison on a conspiracy charge and five to 99 years or life on a money laundering charge. DeLay remains free on bail, with sentencing tentatively set for Dec. 20. |
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| Did you hear about the secret talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban aimed at ending the War in Afghanistan? Well, it turns out the "senior commander" the Afghan government was meeting with... wasn't. |
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| Thousands of children will be hungry and cold if the Government rolls out cost-cutting plans signed off by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it has been claimed.
A leading children's rights campaigner warned any cuts in social welfare payments or the minimum wage will directly affect underprivileged youngsters across the country |
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| When Senators give speeches, they will say that you can't put a price on freedom. But as it turns out you can. You can actually put an exact dollar amount on the Constitution. And that amount is $335,906. |
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| In a race against time, or at least against the 'bond vigilantes', the Irish government is to publish a stiff austerity plan on Wednesday afternoon whose drafting was supervised to by the EU-IMF troika. |
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| Representatives of 194 countries will gather in Cancun, Mexico, on November 29 for the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties (known as COP16), part of the UN Climate Change Conference. The talks will be more subdued than last year's, and no heads of state are expected to attend. |
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| An Israeli infantry soldier takes part in a drill simulating a combat mission at the Israeli army base of Elyakim, in the center of Israel. The Israeli army is using Facebook to expose women who evade military service by pretending to be religious, the Jerusalem Post has reported. |
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| The mortgage documentation mess keeps getting stickier. |
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| The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats. |
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| The voice of controlled opposition wants Americans to believe that the Tester Amendment to S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, elevates the bill to something we should adopt. The Tester Amendment puts a bandaid on a head wound. It does not stop the most lethal agency in American history from seizing control of the food supply from farm to fork. |
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| The majority of Americans believe that recent government intervention into financial markets, the economy and corporate insolvency has reversed the economic downturn which was described by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson as being “on the brink” in 2008. The stimulus, bailouts and unrelenting quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve have thus far been perceived as having averted the further erosion of the U.S. real estate and equities markets. |
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| Is the United States about to go to war with the most bizarre nation on earth? A lot of Americans would actually welcome “the Korean War Part 2″, but before people get too excited it is important to keep in mind that we have never been at war with a nation that actually possesses nuclear weapons. |
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| If you believe conservative activists, smart growth is really a global conspiracy to herd Americans into "human habitation zones." |
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| It is an unfortunate reality that whatever policies are implemented in the UK are eventually implemented here in the United States. It was only a short time before Britain’s increased domestic surveillance, horrid healthcare system, and curtailment of free speech reached the shores of America. |
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| In many ways, the Arctic has become a geopolitical game with mixed messages being sent from all sides. There appears to be a real contradiction in what is being said and what is actually being done to safeguard sovereignty. While Arctic countries have emphasized the importance of resolving conflicting boundary claims through enhanced cooperation, at times, rhetoric has served to fuel rivalries in the resource-rich area. NATO has declared the Arctic a strategically important region with northern member nations individually or collaboratively conducting military and naval operations to showcase their capabilities. |
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| China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. |
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| Nobel Peace Prize winner and champion climate campaigner Al Gore outlined the doom the world is awaiting because of climate change and expressed disappointment at world leaders failing to clinch a treaty to fight the new global terror. Terming the logjam in climate negotiations as a “startling paradox”, the man, whose documentary, The Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar said the year 2010 had seen worst of climate change. |
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