Illinois same-sex couple set to be first to wed - NTV 27/11/13 02:23 from Top Stories - Google News | Lesbians, prostitutes the target of Nigeria's Sharia vice squad 27/11/13 03:49 from Uploads by AFP

» Lesbians, prostitutes the target of Nigeria's Sharia vice squad
27/11/13 03:49 from Uploads by AFP
Lesbians, prostitutes the target of Nigeria's Sharia vice squad In Nigeria's northern city if Kano, enforcers of Sharia law patrol the streets looking for evidence of un-Islamic behaviour -- homosexuality, western haircut... From...

» Illinois same-sex couple set to be first to wed - NTV
27/11/13 02:23 from Top Stories - Google News
ABC News Illinois same-sex couple set to be first to wed NTV The Supreme Court has agreed to consider dismissing free-speech claims against two Secret Service agents for their role in a 2004 protest in Oregon against President George W. ...

Guantanamo Detainees 'Trained As CIA Agents'

» Guantanamo Detainees 'Trained As CIA Agents'
27/11/13 04:13 from Sky News | World News | First For Breaking News
The secret programme was deemed a worthwhile risk as prisoners helped the US find and kill al Qaeda operatives, a report says.

Housing data brightens U.S. economic growth outlook - R

• » President Tackles The Economy - Fox 2 KFXV
  27/11/13 01:51 from Top Stories - Google News
  President Tackles The Economy Fox 2 KFXV Less than a week to go before the prelaunch of the Obamacare website, President Obama toured Dreamworks animation with studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, a top campaign donor getting a firsthand loo...
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• Housing data brightens U.S. economic growth outlook - Reuters

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27/11/13 07:09 from Reuters: International TBILISI (Reuters) - Five years after it fought a war with Russia, Georgia is preparing to defy its former Soviet masters again by initialing an accord on strengthening ties with Europe

» Five years after war, Georgia defies Russia over Europe
27/11/13 07:09 from Reuters: International
TBILISI (Reuters) - Five years after it fought a war with Russia, Georgia is preparing to defy its former Soviet masters again by initialing an accord on strengthening ties with Europe. 

Despite Russia's concerns, Tbilisi will initial the accord on deepening trade and other cooperation with the EU on Friday at a summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.

It expects to sign the final agreement next year and hopes Moscow will adopt a warmer policy towards it as it tries in the long term to join NATO and the EU.

"I think that in the long run it's in Russia's interests to resolve political disputes between our countries," he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stepped up pressure on former Soviet republics hoping to move closer to Europe on Tuesday by warning that they would face "years of economic turmoil", including higher unemployment and lower living standards.

Moldova, another former Soviet republic, is also defying the warnings and will initial an agreement on closer ties with the EU in Vilnius.

Ukraine had been expected to sign an association agreement in Vilnius, allowing it to join a free trade area with the bloc. But after months of Russian warnings over gas supply cuts and trade restrictions, Kiev changed its mind last week and said it would rebuild economic ties with Moscow instead.

M.N. comments: Putin's policy of opposing the European integration trend for the Western part of FSSSR is irrational and short-sighted. It is another sign of neo-stalinist isolationism and "Great-Russian ("Veliko-Russkiy") nationalism, chauvinism and insecurity. If anything, Russia will eventually benefit from this trend because in due time it will be extended to herself, not formally, by the paper agreements, but effectively and factually. This trend should be hailed and encouraged, especially in regard to Ukraine and other nearby countries. 
Think about "zis", Wolodimir; and think hard: "zis" is a very serious issue. 

See also:  EDITORIAL - NYT: Vladimir Putin Clings to the Past - November 20, 2013

» Ukraine Still Without Support Deal With Russia
27/11/13 06:56 from WSJ.com: World News
Ukraine hasn't reached a final deal on potential financial support from Russia after abandoning a pact with the EU but plans to hold talks early December.

26/11/13 10:48 from Uploads by AFP Global gangs target Australian pupils as drug mules Australian authorities warn that high school students are being recruited by international drug syndicates to help them bring illicit substances into the cou... From: AFP news agency Vi...

» Global gangs target Australian pupils as drug mules
26/11/13 10:48 from Uploads by AFP
Global gangs target Australian pupils as drug mules Australian authorities warn that high school students are being recruited by international drug syndicates to help them bring illicit substances into the cou... From: AFP news agency Vi...

26/11/13 17:41 from WSJ.com: World News A pair of American B-52 bombers flew over a disputed island chain in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, U.S. officials said, in a direct challenge to China and its establishment of an expanded air-defense zone

"Zis is my water!" 
"Drink it up then; put up or shut up, you..."

» U.S. Jets Challenge China's Air Defense Zone
26/11/13 17:41 from WSJ.com: World News
A pair of American B-52 bombers flew over a disputed island chain in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, U.S. officials said, in a direct challenge to China and its establishment of an expanded air-defense zone.



"I said so!"



"And I did so!" 

» US sends B-52s over China-claimed waters - USA TODAY
26/11/13 17:34 from Top Stories - Google News
NDTV US sends B-52s over China-claimed waters USA TODAY NAHA, OKINAWA, Japan — An American carrier battle group and a flotilla of Japanese warships will arrive Wednesday near a vast stretch of ocean claimed by China in what is shaping up...

» US Bombers Fly Over China's Air Defence Zone
26/11/13 16:50 from Sky News | World News | First For Breaking News
The US flies two B-52 bombers over China's controversial new Air Defence Identification Zone during a training flight.

» US B-52s flew over China's newly declared air zone, official says - CNN
26/11/13 16:30 from Top Stories - Google News
NDTV US B-52s flew over China's newly declared air zone, official says CNN (CNN) -- Two U.S. military aircraft flew into China's newly claimed and challenged air defense zone over the East China Sea, a U.S. official said, an acti...

» Defying China, U.S. aircraft fly over East China Sea without notification
26/11/13 16:07 from Reuters: International
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers on a training mission flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, defying China's declaration of a new airspace defe...

» U.S. Flies B-52s Into China’s Expanded Air Defense Zone
26/11/13 15:22 from NYT > International
Two long-range American bombers have conducted what Pentagon officials described as a routine training mission through international air space recently claimed by China.

» US bombers fly into China’s defence zone
26/11/13 15:08 from FT.com - World
America insists that it will continue to operate in what it considers to be international air space despite a Chinese declaration over the zone in the East China Sea

» China Sends Aircraft Carrier to South China Sea for Training
26/11/13 14:18 from Voice of America
China has sent its only aircraft carrier on a training mission in the South China Sea, where Beijing is engaged in tense territorial disputes with several of its neighbors. State media say the Liaoning departed Tuesday from its home port...

26/11/13 12:32 from WSJ.com: World News Pope Francis laid out his first major mission manifesto since becoming the head of the Catholic Church, calling for the Church to renew its focus on the poor and launching an attack against global capitalism

» In Major Document, Pope Francis Presents His Vision
26/11/13 12:32 from NYT > International
In the pope’s first significant piece of written work, Francis called on Christians to create a more compassionate church that champions the poor.

Vincenzo Pinto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In Road Map, Pope Urges Battle for Poor

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO 11:32 AM ET

Pope Francis on Tuesday presented a vision for his papacy, urging Catholics to create a more compassionate church in an increasingly secular and money-oriented society.

• 76 Comments

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November 26, 2013

In Major Document, Pope Francis Presents His Vision

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis presented the vision for his papacy on Tuesday, calling on Catholics to battle what he called the “globalization of indifference” to create a more compassionate church that champions the poor as it works to achieve social justice in an increasingly secular and money-oriented society.

Called “Evangelii Gaudium,” (the Joy of the Gospel), the document offers the Roman Catholic Church a road map of sorts for navigating the complexities of the modern world, with the Gospel as a compass for what the pope called “a new phase of evangelization, one marked by enthusiasm and vitality.”

The document, a papal pronouncement known as an apostolic exhortation, was the first major written work Francis has created since he was chosen eight months ago to lead the 2,000-year-old church.

It challenges the church to “abandon the complacent attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way,'” to find novel, “bold and creative” ways to speak to the faithfuland to make the church more meaningful.

The 84-page document is essentially a compendium of what Pope Francis has said in dozens of speeches and sermons since he became pope in March. “It is the fruit of personal reflection,” the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said at a news conference. “There is coherence between the words of the documents and the actions of the pope.”

An apostolic exhortation does not define Church doctrine, and the document makes clear that some issues – like abortion, or the ordination of women – are not up for discussion.

But there is an acknowledgment too, that the world has changed, and that the church must change with it. It is time, Pope Francis said, for “still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church,” in particular “in the various other settings where important decisions are made.”

The local church must have greater say in decision-making, and the renewal of the church can only gain strength if it begins from the bottom up, the pope said.

Bishops and priests on the ground have a better sense of the needs of the faithful, as well as their frustrations, and parishes should become a critical part of the church’s evangelization and outreach. A parish should be a point of “contact with the homes and the lives of its people,” and not a “useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed cluster made up of a chosen few,” he wrote.

» Pope Criticizes Economic Inequality
26/11/13 12:32 from WSJ.com: World News
Pope Francis laid out his first major mission manifesto since becoming the head of the Catholic Church, calling for the Church to renew its focus on the poor and launching an attack against global capitalism.

Using unusually blunt language, he sharply criticized the market economy. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality, wrote the pontiff in the 224-page document known as the Apostolic Exhortation.

"Such an economy kills," wrote Pope Francis, denouncing the current economic system as "unjust at its roots" and one "which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation." Such a system, he warns, can give birth to a new "tyranny," which "unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.".

» Pope Francis denounces 'trickle-down' economic theories in critique of inequality - Washington Post
26/11/13 16:20 from Top Stories - Google News
Telegraph.co.uk Pope Francis denounces 'trickle-down' economic theories in critique of inequality Washington Post Pope Francis on Tuesday sharply criticized growing economic inequality and unfettered markets in a lengthy paper ou...

» Pope wants big Church changes
26/11/13 12:52 from CNN.com - World
Pope Francis calls for renewal, major changes in the Roman Catholic Church -- from the top down.

» Pope attacks 'tyranny' of markets in manifesto for papacy - Reuters
26/11/13 11:34 from Top Stories - Google News
Washington Post Pope attacks 'tyranny' of markets in manifesto for papacy Reuters VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny" and beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and...

» Pope Francis attacks 'tyranny' of markets - Hindustan Times
26/11/13 12:11 from Top Stories - Google News
Montreal Gazette Pope Francis attacks 'tyranny' of markets Hindustan Times Pope Francis called for renewal of the Roman Catholic Church and attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny", urging global leaders to fig...

Pope urged Vladimir Putin to protect human dignity - romereports.com | Pope Francis And Putin Meet For First Time 26/11/13 05:13 from Sky News | World News | First For Breaking News | Pope Meets Putin At The Vatican - RFERL

Pope meets with Russian president Vladimir Putin, urging him to protect 'human dignity'

 romereports·5,680 videos

Published on Nov 25, 2013

Vladimir Putin made his way to the Vatican on Monday afternoon, to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican\'s Apostolic Palace. During their 35 minute meeting the Pope urged Vladimir Putin to protect human dignity. As a gift, the president gave the Pope an Byzantine icon of Our Lady of Tenderness.

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Визит в Ватикан - http://www.kremlin.ru

25 ноября 2013 года, 22:30  Ватикан

Ключевые слова: внешняя политика, Ватикан

"And zis is my Mom!"
"Oh, how nice to meet her..."

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» World Briefing | Europe: The Vatican: Putin Meets the Pope
25/11/13 20:53 from NYT > Europe
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Monday, and their first encounter was primarily focused on the Middle East.     

» Putin and the pontiff: Not as odd a couple as you might think - Christian Science Monitor
26/11/13 15:47 from Top Stories - Google News
Christian Science Monitor Putin and the pontiff: Not as odd a couple as you might think Christian Science Monitor They made a distinctly odd couple, but Pope Francis and Vladimir Putin found common ground yesterday when they met at the V...

» Berlusconi breaks with government ahead of Italy Senate showdown
26/11/13 15:10 from Reuters: International
ROME (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's center-right party declared on Tuesday it would vote against Italy's 2014 budget, confirming its break with the ruling coalition a day before the Senate moves to expel the media tycoon over a tax frau...

» Pope Francis And Putin Meet For First Time
26/11/13 05:13 from Sky News | World News | First For Breaking News

The Pope and Vladimir Putin discussed the Middle East and problems faced by Christians as they met for the first time.

Pope Francis And Putin Meet For First Time: 

"Fess up, boy!" 
"What the f... does he want from me?!" 

Free Pussy Riot! Free Pussy Riot! Free Pussy Riot! 

Pope Meets Putin At The Vatican

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"And now we can lock horns, Pa-pa'!" 
"You better be sure whom you are trying to play with, you little devil!" 

• 

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TEXT SIZE 

November 25, 2013

Pope Francis has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was the first time the Russian leader has met with the pontiff.

The Vatican said in a statement that during the 35-minute audience, the two discussed "the urgency of favoring concrete initiatives to a peaceful solution to the [Syria] conflict that will favour the path of negotiations."

Putin is also scheduled to meet with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

On November 26, Putin will travel to Trieste for talks with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

It is Putin's first trip to Italy since he visited as prime minister in 2010.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP

Will Francis go to Moscow? Russian Orthodox size up new pope

Susan Rice meets Hamid Karzai as tensions rise over troops agreement - 11/25/2013 - G | Washington's fleeting Latin America pivot - 11/25/2013 - GP | Ukraine hit by media censorship and cyber attacks - 11/25/2013 - GP

• Susan Rice meets Hamid Karzai as tensions rise over troops agreement - 11/25/2013 - G

• Washington's fleeting Latin America pivot - 11/25/2013 - GP

• Ukraine hit by media censorship and cyber attacks - 11/25/2013 - GP

Iran's Nuclear Triumph - 11/25/2013 - WSJ | INFORMATION AGE: Snowden and His Fellow Fantasists - Declassified NSA documents disprove his claim that he could legally wiretap anyone - WSJ

• Iran's Nuclear Triumph - 11/25/2013 - WSJ

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Iran's Nuclear Triumph

Tehran can continue to enrich uranium at 10,000 working centrifuges.

Updated Nov. 24, 2013 10:18 p.m. ET

President Obama is hailing a weekend accord that he says has "halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program," and we devoutly wish this were true. The reality is that the agreement in Geneva with five Western nations takes Iran a giant step closer to becoming a de facto nuclear power.

Start with the fact that this "interim" accord fails to meet the terms of several United Nations resolutions, which specify no sanctions relief until Iran suspends all uranium enrichment. Under this deal Iran gets sanctions relief, but it does not have to give up its centrifuges that enrich uranium, does not have to stop enriching, does not have to transfer control of its enrichment stockpiles, and does not have to shut down its plutonium reactor at Arak.

Related Video

Editorial page editor Paul Gigot on Congressional support for sanctions. Plus, does the deal make an Israeli strike more likely? Photos: Getty Images

Mr. Obama's weekend statement glossed over these canyon-sized holes. He said Iran "cannot install or start up new centrifuges," but it already has about 10,000 operational centrifuges that it can continue to spin for at least another six months. Why does Tehran need so many centrifuges if not to make a bomb at the time it pleases?

The President also said that "Iran has committed to halting certain levels of enrichment and neutralizing part of its stockpiles." He is referring to an Iranian pledge to oxidize its 20% enriched uranium stockpile. But this too is less than reassuring because the process can be reversed and Iran retains a capability to enrich to 5%, which used to be a threshold we didn't accept because it can easily be reconverted to 20%.

Mr. Obama said "Iran will halt work at its plutonium reactor," but Iran has only promised not to fuel the reactor even as it can continue other work at the site. That is far from dismantling what is nothing more than a bomb factory. North Korea made similar promises in a similar deal with Condoleezza Rice during the final Bush years, but it quickly returned to bomb-making.

As for inspections, Mr. Obama hailed "extensive access" that will "allow the international community to verify whether Iran is keeping its commitments." One problem is that Iran hasn't ratified the additional protocol to its International Atomic Energy Agency agreement that would allow inspections on demand at such sites as Parchin, which remain off limits. Iran can also oust U.N. inspectors at any time, much as North Korea did.

Then there is the sanctions relief, which Mr. Obama says is only "modest" but which reverses years of U.S. diplomacy to tighten and enforce them. The message is that the sanctions era is over. The loosening of the oil regime is especially pernicious, inviting China, India and Germany to get back to business with Iran.

We are told that all of these issues will be negotiated as part of a "final" accord in the next six months, but that is not how arms control works. It is far more likely that this accord will set a precedent for a series of temporary deals in which the West will gradually ease more sanctions in return for fewer Iranian concessions.

Iran will threaten to walk away from the talks without new concessions, and Mr. Obama will not want to acknowledge that his diplomatic achievement wasn't real. The history of arms control is that once it is underway the process dominates over substance, and a Western leader who calls a halt is denounced for risking war. The negotiating advantage lies with the dictatorship that can ignore domestic opinion.

Mr. Obama all but admitted this himself by noting that "only diplomacy can bring about a durable solution to the challenge posed by Iran's nuclear program." He added that "I have a profound responsibility to try to resolve our differences peacefully, rather than rush towards conflict." Rush to conflict? Iran's covert nuclear program was uncovered a decade ago, and the West has been desperately trying to avoid military action.

Iran nuclear talks at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. Associated Press

The best that can be said is that the weekend deal slows for a few weeks Iran's rapid progress to a nuclear breakout. But the price is that at best it sets a standard that will allow Iran to become a nuclear-capable regime that stops just short of exploding a bomb. At worst, it will allow Iran to continue to cheat and explode a bomb whenever it is strategically convenient to serve its goal of dominating the Middle East.

This seems to be the conclusion in Tehran, where Foreign Minister Javad Zarif boasted that the deal recognizes Iran's right to enrich uranium while taking the threat of Western military action off the table. Grand Ayatollah Ali Khameini also vouchsafed his approval, only days after he denounced the U.S. and called Jews "rabid dogs."

Israel has a different view of the deal, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a "historic mistake." He and his cabinet will now have to make their own calculations about the risks of unilateral military action. Far from having Israel's back, as Mr. Obama likes to say, the U.S. and Europe are moving to a strategy of trying to contain Israel rather than containing Iran. The French also fell into line as we feared they would under U.S. and media pressure.

***

Mr. Obama seems determined to press ahead with an Iran deal regardless of the details or damage. He views it as a legacy project. A President has enormous leeway on foreign policy, but Congress can signal its bipartisan unhappiness by moving ahead as soon as possible to strengthen sanctions. Mr. Obama warned Congress not to do so in his weekend remarks, but it is the only way now to stop the President from accommodating a nuclear Iran. 

-

INFORMATION AGE

Snowden and His Fellow Fantasists - WSJ

Declassified NSA documents disprove his claim that he could legally wiretap anyone.

By L. GORDON CROVITZ

Nov. 24, 2013 6:52 p.m. ET
Edward Snowden thought he was exposing the National Security Agency's lawless spying on Americans. But the more information emerges about how the NSA conducts surveillance, the clearer it becomes that this is an agency obsessed with complying with the complex rules limiting its authority. Contrary to the fantasies of Mr. Snowden and other critics, the NSA may be dangerously risk-averse.

Last week the NSA responded to demands for disclosure by declassifying a 2,000-page trove of documents, including reports to Congress and internal training materials. They portray an agency acting under the watchful eye of hundreds of lawyers and compliance officers.

These documents disprove one of Mr. Snowden's central claims: "I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the president if I had a personal email," he told the Guardian, a British newspaper.

Hardly. A 131-page PowerPoint deck, used to train NSA officers, details constitutional and regulatory limits on the agency. It emphasizes that warrants are required to access emails or calls involving Americans. One slide warns: "Under NO circumstances may the substantive content of communications be received."

A 52-page directive issued in 2011, "Legal Compliance and U.S. Persons Minimization Procedures," outlines how to avoid emails or phone calls involving Americans. Another training slide warns: "No matter how inconvenient the rules may seem, if we fail to adhere to them, the next set of rules will be far stricter."

Enlarge Image

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The NSA also released the legal arguments the Justice Department used in 2006 to justify collection of phone metadata—the telephone number of the calling and called parties and the date, time and duration of the call.

The legal brief explained that the collection of metadata solves "the following fundamental problem: Although investigators do not know exactly where the terrorists' communications are hiding in the billions of telephone calls flowing through the U.S. today, we do know that they are there, and if we archive the data now, we will be able to use it in a targeted way to find the terrorists tomorrow."

Metadata collection is about connecting the dots linking potential terrorist accomplices. The Clinton administration created barriers to the use of metadata, which the 9/11 Commission concluded let the terrorists avoid detection. Since then, metadata has helped stop dozens of plots, including an Islamist plan to blow up the New York Stock Exchange in 2008.

The Supreme Court this month refused to hear a legal challenge to the collection of phone logs. In 1979, the court held that there is no legitimate expectation of privacy in records of phone calls (as opposed to the calls themselves). The declassified brief from 2006 made clear that such metadata "would never even be seen by any human being unless a terrorist connection were first established," estimating that "0.000025% or one in four million" of the call records "actually would be seen by a trained analyst."

To get approval for a query to test connections among phone numbers, analysts must get approval from one of seven top NSA officials. Listening to the content of calls requires a warrant from a judge.

These privacy protections are poorly understood. Stanford security expert Amy Zegart, who conducted a recent opinion poll, reported on the Lawfare blog that "39% of respondents still erroneously believe (after consistently hearing otherwise from intelligence officials) that the NSA's bulk telephone 'metadata' program includes call content." The only cases so far of NSA officers intentionally violating the rules—other than Edward Snowden—were a dozen cases of agency staff spying on their love interests.

The disclosures by the NSA may begin to set the record straight, but the truth must overcome months of disinformation. Last week, veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward told Larry King he wished Mr. Snowden "had come to me instead of others, particularly the Guardian" with the documents he took. Mr. Woodward said he would have tried to "sort it out and present it in a coherent way." Instead, "people are confused about whether it's illegal, whether it's bad," Mr. Woodward said, adding, "I certainly wouldn't call him a hero."

This month, new FBI head James Comey told a congressional hearing that the NSA is "obsessed with compliance." Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, recently worried at a Georgetown Law conference that "some of the operators may be reluctant to go up the line and take full advantage of the legal authorities we have" due to the "controversies now swirling."

Before the Snowden leaks put the NSA on the defensive, the agency was making the case for more power to gather anonymous data to identify terrorists. That's the debate we should be having.