EU PUSHES 3RD WORLD DEREGULATION

OBAMA DECEPTION IS ON YOUTUBE PARTS 1 OF 12 WATCH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FRW-Lvw0vs

THIS IS THE CRAZIEST STORY YET FROM THE NEW WORLD ORDER ELITES. RON PAUL AND BARR ARE TERRORISTS.....WOW.
http://www.infowars.com/secret-state-police-report-ron-paul-bob-barr-chuck-baldwin-libertarians-are-terrorists/

Secret State Police Report: Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Libertarians are Terrorists Kurt Nimmo Infowars March 11, 2009

Alex Jones has received a secret report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) entitled The Modern Militia Movement and dated February 20, 2009. A footer on the document indicates it is unclassified but law enforcement sensitive,in other words not for public consumption. A copy of the report was sent to Jones by an anonymous Missouri police officer.

The MIAC report specifically describes supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as militia influenced terrorists and instructs the Missouri police to be on the lookout for supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties. Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) provides a public safety partnership consisting of local, state and federal agencies, as well as the public sector and private entities that will collect, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate information and intelligence to the agencies tasked with Homeland Security responsibilities in a timely, effective, and secure manner,explains the MIAC website.MIAC is the mechanism to collect incident reports of suspicious activities to be evaluated and analyzed in an effort to identify potential trends or patterns of terrorist or criminal operations within the state of Missouri. MIAC will also function as a vehicle for two-way communication between federal, state and local law enforcement community within our region.MIAC is part of the federal fusion effort now underway around the country.As of February 2009, there were 58 fusion centers around the country. The Department has deployed 31 officers as of December 2008 and plans to have 70 professionals deployed by the end of 2009. The Department has provided more than $254 million from FY 2004-2007 to state and local governments to support the centers,explains the Department of Homeland Security on its website. Missouri is mentioned as a participant in this federal intelligence effort.

Last month, the ACLU issued a news release highlighting the activity of a fusion center in Texas as the latest example of inappropriate police intelligence operations targeting political, religious and social activists for investigation, in particular Muslim civil rights organizations and anti-war protest groups.The MIAC report does not concentrate on Muslim terrorists, but rather on the so-called militia movement and conflates it with supporters of Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, the so-called patriot movement and other political activist organizations opposed to the North American Union and the New World Order. The MIAC document is a classic guilt by association effort designed to demonize legitimate political activity that stands in opposition to the New World Order and its newly enshrined front man, Barack Obama. In September of 2008, Missouri sheriffs and prosecutors organized truth squads to intimidate people opposed to Obama and threatened to arrest and prosecute anybody who ran misleading television ads.Missouri governor Matt Blunt eventually denounced the use of police state tactics on the part of the Obama-Biden campaign. MIAC claims members of a rightwing militia movement organized in the 1990s — generally in response to the Oklahoma City bombing and the events at Waco — continuously exploit world events in order to increase participation in their movements. Due to the current economical and political situation, a lush environment for militia activity has been created and supposedly exploited by constitutionalists and white supremacists,the latter an oft-employed canard used to demonize activists as dangerous and potentially violent lunatics. MIAC notes many of the political issues cited by the so-called patriot movement — the Ammunition Accountability Act, the impending economic collapse of the government, the possibility of a constitutional convention, the North American Union, Obama’s Universal Service Program, and the implementation of RFID, issues that are not limited to the patriot movement but are shared by a wide array of political activists.

The MIAC document includes a map of the North American Union not dissimilar from one released by NASCO, the North America SuperCorridor Coalition (see the NASCO map here).The MIAC report is similar to one created by the Phoenix Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Joint Terrorism Task Force during the Clinton administration (see page one and page two of the document). The FBI document explicitly designates defenders of the Constitution as right-wing extremists. The MIAC report expands significantly on the earlier document. In order to artificially heighten the perceived threat threshold, MIAC rolls in Christian Identity, white nationalism, militant anti-abortion activists, opposition to illegal immigration, and income tax resistance. MIAC deceptively blurs the lines between these disparate political ideologies and underscores the possibility for violence in a summary of the organizational structure of the militia movement and a section describing how members strive to train in combat readiness.The MIAC effort to characterize Libertarians and Constitutionalists as racists is reminiscent of an attempt by the corporate media in early 2008 to portray Ron Paul as a racist by attempting to link him to a series of vaguely racist newsletters produced in the 1980s. Paul did not exercise editorial control over the newsletters and went so far as to apologize for them, but this did not prevent the corporate media from characterizing him as a racist. According to MIAC, opposition to world government, NAFTA, federalization of the states, and restrictive gun laws are a threat to the police. The militia subscribes to an anti-government and NWO mindset, which creates a threat to law enforcement officers. They view the military, National Guard, and law enforcement as a force that will confiscate their firearms and place them in FEMA concentration camps,the document claims in a section entitled You are the Enemy.

In regard to supposed militia movement literature and media, the MIAC report mentions Aaron Russo’s America: Freedom to Fascism and William Luther Pierce’s The Turner Diaries — the latter was penned by the former leader of the white nationalist organization National Alliance and the former by a Libertarian filmmaker. In order to underscore the absurdity of the MIAC attempt to link Pierce’s novel and Russo’s anti-tax documentary, it should be noted that the late Aaron Russo was Jewish and The Turner Dairies posits a Zionist government in America (or ZOG, the Zionist Occupation Government) run by Jews.The award-winning film Zeitgeist, featuring Alex Jones, is also mentioned as terrorist material.The MIAC report is particularly pernicious because it indoctrinates Missouri law enforcement in the belief that people who oppose confiscatory taxation, believe in the well-documented existence of a New World Order and world government (a Google search of this phrase will pull up numerous references made by scores of establishment political leaders), and are opposed to the obvious expansion of the federal government at the expense of the states as violent extremists who are gunning for the police. It specifically targets supporters of mainstream political candidates and encourages police officers to consider them dangerous terrorists.MIAC is attempting to radicalize the police against political activity guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If Missouri police indoctrinated by MIAC propaganda overreact to political activists and supporters of Ron Paul in their state and injure or kill people involved in entirely legal and legitimate political activity, MIAC, the governor of Missouri (his name appears on the MIAC document), and the DHS and federal government should be held directly responsible and prosecuted the fullest extent of the law.

Sarkozy: France should rejoin key NATO command By DEBORAH SEWARD, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 11, 8:11 pm ET

PARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy forcefully defended his intention to return France to the heart of NATO's military command after 43 years away and insisted Wednesday that staying outside the alliance's highest echelons any longer would weaken France.

Sarkozy said he would write to other NATO members to announce his decision after a debate next week in the French parliament. The French leader's drive to end the rift with the United States over its participation in NATO has aroused old and fierce passions among both leftist and some conservative lawmakers fearful that a closer relationship with the American-led alliance could limit France's cherished ability to act independently on the world stage.In a speech Wednesday, however, an animated and at times defiant Sarkozy insisted that France's independence will not be in question —a clear message to critics at home — and said France will maintain control over its nuclear arsenal.In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle abruptly pulled France out of the NATO command and evicted all allied troops and bases, including its military headquarters, from France in an effort to assert sovereignty over its own territory.

De Gaulle's blunt assertion of French independence at the height of the Cold War came as a shock at the time and caused a rift with Washington that deepened in 2003 when France kept its troop out of the American-led invasion of Iraq.

The United States and NATO warmly welcomed Sarkozy's comments.

We are delighted that after a 43-year absence France is back where it belongs, in the command structure of the alliance it helped found,U.S. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said.France is a NATO member, but has remained outside the central decision-making core for four decades.The time has come to put an end to this situation," Sarkozy said, arguing that new threats require greater international military cooperation, not less. It is in France's interest and that of Europe. In concluding this long process, France will be stronger and more influential.Sarkozy lamented that fact that France has no major command in NATO, that it did not participate in defining top-level strategy or military objectives even though it has troops under NATO command.He firmly rejected opposition criticism that France would be forced to follow the alliance's line even on military missions it opposed.Some tell me this choice would be a betrayal of Gen. de Gaulle, an alignment with Washington ... and that after all, if we had been in the military command, we would have been forced to take part in the war against Iraq in 2003. Lie! Lie! Sarkozy has long promised the step and is expected to formalize it with a letter to NATO's leadership before a summit April 3-4 in Strasbourg to celebrate the alliance's 60th anniversary.While Sarkozy does not need parliamentary approval for the move, his government will face a no-confidence vote in parliament next week on the subject after a parliamentary debate.This process of rapprochement with NATO is but a stone in a vaster process that aims to strengthen and develop the nation's independence, he said.After taking note of the result of the debate, I will write to our allies to inform them of my decision.

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said Wednesday that nothing justified what she called Sarkozy's hasty quest for closer ties with NATO.Sarkozy spoke at the end of a daylong conference in which French officials staunchly defended the country's anticipated return into NATO's integrated military command.The Americans understand perfectly well that having weak allies serves nothing,he said. NATO's leadership is eager for a greater French role. NATO would welcome this step, alliance spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels, calling it a win-win situation that would bolster European defense.French troops have been participating in NATO missions since the mid-1990s, including those in Bosnia, Kosovo and now Afghanistan. Today, France is among the top five contributors to allied military operations and the No. 4 benefactor to alliance budgets for NATO operations.Morrell, the U.S. Defense spokesman, said the U.S. was looking forward to even greater French involvement. Although their troops have been bravely fighting alongside ours in Afghanistan, it is welcome news to have them fully re-integrated in all NATO military matters and we look forward to working even more closely with them in the decades to come,he said. Upon returning fully to NATO, France expects to receive two command posts, one in Norfolk, Virginia, responsible for defining the strategic transformation of the alliance and another in Lisbon, Portugal.

MEPs agree top secret category for EU documents
HONOR MAHONY 11.03.2009 @ 17:27 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs have called on the European Commission to be more ambitious in its transparency proposals while at the same time introducing an 'EU classifed' category protecting top secret documents for up to 30 years.A vote on Wednesday (11 March) saw the European Parliament agree a series of amendments to the EU law governing citizens' access to documents, but the final vote on the reformed legislation was postponed in a bid to put pressure on the commission to make the law more user-friendly.The parliament's overhaul of the 2001 transparency law, drawn up by UK Labour MEP Pat Cashman, extends the legislation to cover electronic data. It also says documents must be processed within two weeks - the commission had suggested a month - and suggests all documents should be placed on one website shared by EU institutions.Eurodeputies also agreed a new top secret category for documents whose unauthorised disclosure could harm the interests of the European Union or its member states.This category could apply for up to three decades and must be justified.EU ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, who had criticised the EU commission for presenting a proposal that would result in more secrecy, welcomed the MEPs' move.I am very pleased that the European Parliament has, in effect, asked the commission to rethink and modify its proposals. I very much hope that the Commission will agree to do so.It obliges EU institutions to ensure publication of all legislative documents, the Council to make public how national governments vote and what they propose in EU Council meetings and the commission to keep updated registers of all documents,said Italian Liberal MEP Marco Cappato.

MEPs divided

Transparency and the ease with which citizens can access documents has long been a thorny issue in the EU, and has resulted in several court cases. Statistics show that the Council and Commission turn down one third of applications for information access, while the Parliament refuses around 20 percent.The European Commission has in the past complained about the administrative burden of being transparent, while what constitutes a document and why it may be withheld from the public eye have prompted long-running struggles with the EU ombudsman. One of the most sensitive issues and a major reason for document secrecy is to protect commercial interests - such as when the commission is investigating competition and merger cases. MEPs themselves are split on this.After the vote, centre-right Charlotte Cederschiöld welcomed the fact that amended legislation would now go back to committee to be further debated, speaking about the balance between openness and full protection of sensitive private and commercial data.Reacting to Wednesday's vote, commission spokesman Joe Hennon said the commission had taken note of the amendments and was willing to seek a compromise.He said the commission has concerns about one or two of the amendments raised but refused to go into details until negotiations are taken up again at committee level.The law is likely to be passed under the Swedish EU presidency, starting in July, with agreement needed between MEPs, the commission and member states. Sweden, who will drive the EU agenda as presidency country, has long been one of the most progressive member states on transparency issues.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

SPECIAL CONFERENCE MAR 23-24,2009,ALL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS WILL BE THERE,ALL THE EU MEMBERS WILL BE THERE,AND THE G-20 WILL BE THERE.THIS SAME GROUP OF EU,BANKERS,G-20 WILL ALSO BE IN LONDON IN APRIL TO LAY PLANS FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER,ESPECIALLY THE G-20.https://futurefinance.wsj.com/index.php

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU MAR 12,2009

09:30 AM -4.94
10:00 AM -18.48
10:30 AM +58.44
11:00 AM +102.26
11:30 AM +67.30
12:00 PM +93.42
12:30 PM +123.85
01:00 PM +154.03
01:30 PM +129.50
02:00 PM +150.21
02:30 PM +184.86
03:00 PM +201.19
03:30 PM +206.20
04:00 PM +239.66 7170.06

S&P 500 750.74 +29.38

NASDAQ 1426.10 +54.46

GOLD 926.10 +15.40

OIL 46.77 +4.44

TSE 300 8313.26 +302.24

CDNX 843.58 +19.68

S&P/TSX/60 506.64 +18.26

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -21.03%
S&P -20.14%
Nasdaq -13.02%
TSX Advances 888,declines 604,unchanged 309,Volume 2,833,107,394.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 359,Declines 325,Unchanged 355,Volume 160,807,521.

Dow -7 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -60 points at low today.
Dow +111 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $918.40.OIL opens at $43.26 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -60 points at low today so far.
Dow +184 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,573,declines 992,unchanged 78,New Highs 4,New Lows 98.
Volume 2,939,252,972.
NASDAQ Advances 1,779,declines 721,unchanged 111,New highs 5,New Lows 90.
Volume 817,432,137.
TSX Advances 750,declines 488,unchanged 269,Volume 1,064,701,518.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 235,Declines 207,Unchanged 241,Volume 81,505,589.

$11.7 TRILLION Financial ROBBERY to the BANKS,plus $787 BILLION Stimulus Bill = Total cost so far $12.5 TRILLION and OBAMA wants even more BILLIONS.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -60 points at low today.
Dow +252 points at high today.
Dow +3.46% today Volume 488,664,635.
Nasdaq +3.97% today Volume 2,147,483,648.
S&P 500 +4.07% today Volume N/A

Dows biggest 3 day rally since late NOVEMBER,08.
Dow gains 9% over last 3 days.
Nasdaqs biggest 3 day rally since late OCTOBER,08.
Nasdaq gains 12% over last 3 days.
S&Ps biggest 3 day rally since late NOVEMBER,08.
S&P gains 10% over last 3 days.
Dow,Nasdaq have not risen for 3 straight days since late JANUARY.
Stocks close near days HIGHS.

RECORD LOWS DOW
-Sept 30,1996 5,882.17
-Oct 30,1996 5,993.23
-Nov 6,1996 6,177.71
-Dec 16,1996 6,268.35
-Apr 15,1997 6,587.16
-Apr 21,1997 6,660.21
-Apr 28,1997 6,783.02
-May 1,1997 6,976.48
-May 7,1997 7,085.65

RECORD LOWS S&P 500
-Sept 5,1996 649.44
-Sept 6,1996 655.68
-Sept 11,1996 667.28
-Sept 12,1996 671.13
-Oct 1,1996 689.08
-Oct 28,1996 697.26
-Nov 4,1996 706.73
-Nov 5,1996 714.14
-Dec 17,1996 726.04

END OF NATIONS-EU TAKEOVER AND THE LISBON TREATY
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4291770489472554607&hl=en

Nobel-prize winner backs world currency correspondents in Astana, Kazakhstan | March 11, 2009 Article from: Agence France-Presse

KAZAKH President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won backing for his plan for a single world currency from an intellectual architect of the euro currency, Nobel-prize winner Professor Robert Mundell.Nazarbayev, speaking at an economic forum in the glitzy new capital he has built on the Kazakh steppe, defended his proposal for the acmetal world currency saying it might look kind of funny but was not. And he received intellectual support from the Canadian economist Prof Mundell, who helped lay the intellectual groundwork for Europe's single currency. I must say that I agree with President Nazarbayev on his statement and many of the things he said in his plan, the project he made for the world currency, and I believe I'm right on track with what he's saying,Prof Mundell said, adding the idea held great promise. Mr Nazarbayev and Prof Mundell urged the Group of 20 leading developed and developing economies to form a working group on the proposal at their summit on the global economic crisis in London on April 2.We should deliver our thoughts and the thoughts of this conference to the leaders of those countries,Mr Nazarbayev said, referring to the G8 and G20 nations.

Mr Nazarbayev, who has held his post since Soviet times and has seen his oil-rich state hit badly by the crisis, unveiled his proposal last month and said yesterday the UN should oversee the currency's introduction. Though a boost for what might seem an other-worldly plan, Prof Mundell has previously suggested single currencies are only appropriate for countries with similar economies. Mr Nazarbayev's coining of acmetal combines the Greek word acme,meaning peak or best, and capital.

Brussels pushing finance deregulation in third world
LEIGH PHILLIPS 11.03.2009 @ 17:27 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - While EU and other global leaders have talked tough about re-regulating the financial sector in the wake of the economic crisis, they remain committed to pushing through banking deregulation in the developing world via trade deals.This strategy is undermining poverty reduction in these countries and is reproducing the same type of circumstances that led to the crisis in the first place, warns a new report published on Wednesday (11 March) by the World Development Movement, an UK-based anti-poverty NGO.Both via the WTO negotiations on a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and potential EU bilateral or regional trade deals with 34 countries in Latin America, Asia and the Mediterranean, the bloc continues to push for the lifting of restrictions on how Western banks operate in developing countries. The EU In 2002, via GATS global trade talks, requested that 94 countries open up their financial industry, 20 of which were least developed countries and 30 were low income countries. A financial services component of GATS would mean that countries would not be able to introduce new rules that are more restrictive than those already operating, making it difficult to pass laws on risky trading such as short-selling or to limit the numbers of service providers or the number of transactions.All new financial services would also have to be permitted, giving the green light to the very same complex financial products that have been held responsible for the creation of the toxic asset problem in the north. Also under GATS, full ownership by foreign banks would be allowed, which can make it hard for a host country's financial supervisor to monitor the foreign bank's activities and to ensure it is acting in the interests of the host country. Even in the EU, the problem of foreign bank ownership is exacerbating the crisis in the east. The tap of credit to much of eastern Europe - where most of the banks are owned by Austrian, Swedish and other EU parent companies - today has been all but turned off, as the owners focus on provision of credit in their home markets.

After seven years of talks, however, countries are still haggling over a GATS deal, and the EU has sought bilateral and regional trade deals to get over the impasse.The bilateral strategy, known as Global Europe, seeks to remove regulations on European financial service companies, along with other liberalising measures in a range of sectors, in case a deal at the WTO level is not reached.The EU trade deals already signed with Chile and Mexico contain substantial chapters on financial services, while the Caribbean Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU signed in October last year contains many of the financial liberalisation clauses proposed in GATS. Similar pressure on central American nations is being brought to bear to open up their financial sectors.The report reveals that where banking liberalisation has occurred, looking in particular at India and, crucially, Mexico - home to one of the most liberalised financial sectors in the world, with 80 percent foreign ownership, poor people and small businesses see their access to credit, bank accounts and other financial services restricted. At the same time, where such credit does exist, it is in the form of credit cards, car loans or mortgages, boosting spending on consumer items rather than productive sectors of the economy such as farming or manufacturing.

On Monday (9 March), UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown himself spoke out against the do as we say, not as we do attitude of Western countries regarding economic policies promoted to the developing world.At an international development conference in London, he announced that he would push the World Bank and other wealthy nations to create a new fund for developing countries to help the poor through the crisis, although he did not attach any figures to the idea.While there, he criticised the imposition of economic orthodoxy on the developing world.Too often in the past our responses to such crises have been inadequate or misdirected - promoting economic orthodoxies that we ourselves have not followed and that have condemned the world's poorest to a deepening cycle of poverty,he said.The World Development Movement (WDM) however, says that there is an acute contradiction between such leaders' words and deeds in pushing for financial deregulation in the third world.On the one hand, Gordon Brown has developed a mantra of tough talk on the re-regulation of banks, said Benedict Southworth, the director of WDM.On the other, together with other European leaders, he is aggressively pushing free trade deals which demand that developing countries follow a deregulated and liberalised banking model.That model has clearly and spectacularly failed here and has also failed poor people in the developing countries, she added.The study highlights how the presence of European banks in developing countries has resulted in foreign banks cherry-picking the richer customers, resulting in an overall decline in services and credit for others, and notably to rural areas.In urban areas where foreign banks are concentrated, low-income householders and small businesses struggle to meet the criteria to open an account, let alone to receive a loan.In response, WDM is calling for financial services liberalisation to be reoved from from proposed bilateral and multilateral EU trade deals.An official with the European Commission told EUobserver that they were studying the report very closely, but that the report's authors had confused liberalisation with deregulation.Market access for European financial service providers in no way restrains the ability of countries to regulate financial services,the official said.The question is whether such moves become protectionist.

EU banks named in dirty money report
PHILIPPA RUNNER 11.03.2009 @ 10:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe's biggest banks are happy to do business with corrupt regimes in Africa and Central Asia, according to a new report by UK-based NGO, Global Witness.As late as November 2007, Barclays in Paris held a private account for Teodorin Obiang, the study says. A scion of the ruling family in Equitorial Guinea, Mr Obiang in the past 10 years spent €4.5 million on sports cars even as 20 percent of children die before their fifth birthday due to poverty in the oil-rich country.

Until March 2007, BNP Paribas was involved in billions of euros of syndicated loans to the Angola ruling elite-linked oil firm Sonangol, Global Witness writes.

Deutsche Bank has still not made clear to the NGO what happened to the €2 billion or so of Turkmenistan's natural gas income, which it was holding for the country's notoriously cruel dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, when he died in January 2007.The international banking system is complicit in helping to perpetuate poverty, corruption, conflict, human suffering and misery,the Global Witness paper says.

Coming ahead of the G20 finance summit in London on 2 April and in a climate of hostility to big bank secrecy caused by the financial crisis, the report calls for regulation of bank dealings with PEPs(politically-exposed persons) and a name-and-shame campaign by FATF (the Financial Action Task Force).The Paris-based FATF is a little-known international anti-money laundering body with 34 members, including 15 of the richest EU states and the European Commission. Of 10 EU states surveyed which are also FATF members, none complied with the body's full set of recommendations on issues such as making money laundering illegal or forcing banks to carry out enhanced due diligence on PEP-type clients.Global Witness' paper, Undue Diligence, reads like a roll call of the most respectable financial institutions in Europe.HSBC and Banco Santander are named in connection to the Obiang family. Credit Lyonnais allegedly helped Gabonese President Omar Bongo place funds abroad. Societe Generale is said to have done similar work for the ruling family of Congo-Brazzaville.Fortis bank is accused of helping the former ruler of Liberia, Charles Taylor, fund conflict in east Africa by processing payments for government-linked timber firms. The list of banks implicated in the Angola loans includes Commerzbank, KBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, ING and Standard Chartered.If [banks] cannot identify the ultimate beneficial owner of the funds ...and if they cannot identify a natural person (not a legal entity) who does not pose a corruption risk, they must not accept the customer as a client," the NGO said.An article which appeared on 8 March on a Turkmenistan opposition website, the Chronicles of Turkmenistan, broadens the debate.The story points the finger at French construction company Bouygues for allegedly giving current President Gurbanguly Berdymukahemmedov an €80,000 Mitsubishi Evolution X while bidding for contracts for a new airport building and palace complex.

A CHRISTIAN CAN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT GODS INNOCENT CREATED BABBIES BEING MURDERED THROUGH MILLIONS OF ABORTIONS BUT CRAZY ENVIROMENTAL NUTS CAN TRAP EU LEADERS IN A MEETING.......NOW WE SEE HOW OCCULTIC THIS CONTROLLING NEW AGE ENVIRMENTAL MOVEMENT OF NUTS CAN BE,JUST LIKE THE CRAZY TREE HUGGERS AND CRAZY ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AS WELL.

Eco-activists blockade finance ministers meeting
LEIGH PHILLIPS 10.03.2009 @ 17:17 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Hundreds of activists from Greenpeace, the campaigning environmental NGO, blocked all the exits to the EU Council of Ministers building in Brussels on Tuesday (10 March), trapping inside finance ministers from the 27 member states for several hours.The 340 mostly young protesters from across Europe mounted the direct action, more radical than the many demonstrations that regularly take place outside EU institution buildings in the Belgian capital's European quarter. They were trying to highlight the failure of ministers to commit to funds for carbon emissions reductions and climate change adaptation measures in the developing world.

Finance ministers are giving billions of taxpayers' money to failed banks, but we're here to make sure they also put money on the table to tackle climate change, said Thomas Henningsen, a campaigner with Greenpeace International.If the planet were a bank, they would bail it out.The activists said they were sealing in the finance ministers, in Brussels to discuss both the economic crisis and to consider proposals published in January by the European Commission on what stance to take at the upcoming UN conference in Copenhagen in December. There, a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol - due to expire in two years - is to be negotiated.

Climate finance in the developing world

Climate finance for the third world has become the main focus of discussion in the lead-up to the Copenhagen meeting. If the EU and US stump up significant chunks of cash for cutting emissions and climate adaptation, developing countries may in return commit to considerable CO2 reductions even though it is the industrialised north that is responsible for most of the emissions that caused the problem. Last week, EU environment ministers meeting in Brussels failed to commit funds for climate finance in the developing world. It is not expected that the finance ministers will either, leaving the decision to be taken by premiers and presidents when they meet from 19-20 March at their spring summit in Brussels.The Greenpeace activists marched past security outside the building at its two entrances at 11:00 a.m., and then sat down, blocking the doors until federal Belgian police, local Brussels police and some units from zones beyond the capital handcuffed and dragged the protesters away into a phalanx of paddy wagons two hours later.Three activists were injured as a result of the police actions and are currently in hospital.Agnes de Rooij, a campaigner with Greenpeace International, said that the group had no plans to mount a similar action during the leaders' summit.

Ocean acidification, Netherlands flooded

The action took place as climate scientists meeting this week in Copenhagen ahead of the UN conference later in the year have said that data on global warming shows that earlier predictions were wildly over-optimistic.On Sunday, the scientists warned that previous estimates of sea-level rises due to global warming of around 20 to 60 centimetres by 2100 were too low, and that a rise of about a metre is now more realistic.Such a rise would result in low-lying areas - notably most of the Netherlands, but also Bangladesh, Florida, and the Maldives having disastrous flooding.Worse still, if average global temperatures increase by four degrees, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets would likely entirely melt. A melting of the Greenland sheet would lift sea levels by seven metres. A melting of the Antarctic sheet would lift sea levels by 60 metres. On Tuesday, scientists from Bristol University revealed at the meeting that the world's oceans are undergoing a dangerous acidification process not seen in 65 million years. The gathered experts are this week to publish an update to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. Many studies issued since 2007 show that carbon emissions are increasing faster than previous projections, meaning that recommended CO2 reduction targets of 25-40 percent by 2020 on 1990 levels are insufficient.The EU has committed itself to CO2 reductions of 20 percent by 2020, and 30 percent by the same date if other wealthy nations agree to similar targets.

Chrysler Canada issues plant closure warning By Randall Palmer MAR 11,09

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Chrysler LLC warned on Wednesday it might close its plants in Canada unless it got sufficient labor concessions, as well as government aid and resolution of a tax dispute.Failure to satisfactorily resolve these three factors -- the labor costs, government assistance and of course the transfer tax -- will place our Canadian manufacturing operations at a significant disadvantage relative to our manufacturing operations in North America and may very well impair our ability to continue to produce in Canada,Chrysler President and Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said.

He told reporters after his testimony to the House of Commons finance committee that his direct tone was needed to lay out the facts in a serious situation.Bottom line, we needed to be very, very clear, and ambiguity doesn't help the process. These are the things that Chrysler needs, he said. I thought when I came up here today the Canadian government wanted to hear what are the true facts.The biggest sticking point appeared to be the cost of labor. He said Chrysler's labor costs in Canada, all inclusive, were C$75 ($58) an hour, C$20 an hour more than at Canadian transplants such as Toyota and Honda.He said the labor cost gap was being eliminated in the United States but remained high in Canada, and he said the Canadian Auto Workers agreement reached with General Motors Corp over the weekend would not eliminate even half of Chrysler's labor cost gap.The current agreement with GM is unacceptable and we have to break the pattern,LaSorda said.Some analysts have calculated the agreement with GM as yielding C$6 or C$7 in cost savings.Complicating Chrysler's situation is a dispute over back taxes related to transfer pricing, with Canada saying it should have paid more Canadian taxes and less in U.S. taxes for the period 1996-99.LaSorda said Chrysler was asking that no further deposits be required of it until the tax authorities render a final decision but recognized that the government itself could not intervene in that dispute.

On the government aid front, he said Chrysler Canada was seeking $2.3 billion in aid from Canada, representing a quarter of the $9 billion being requested of the United States, and he said the request it made of Canada was denominated in U.S. dollars but the Canadian government had made clear it would be in Canadian dollars -- meaning around C$2.3 billion or $1.8 billion U.S.Chrysler has 9,400 direct employees in Canada, including its financial operations. Another 25,900 work at Chrysler dealerships. Including suppliers and retirees, it said 100,000 Canadians depended directly or indirectly on Chrysler Canada.The Canadian operations make half a million vehicles a year, selling 230,000 in the Canadian market. In 2007 it became the highest seller of vehicles in Canada.(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Andre Grenon, Bernard Orr)

What If the EU Fractures, China Stagnates, or the U.S. Economy Worsens? Vinod Dar March 11, 2009 | about stocks: ACWI / EEM Vinod Dar

There are no economic and financial seers. No one, as far as we can tell, has access to future facts. At best, we have clever opinions based on imperfect reasoning and partial understanding of even present and past facts. However, we are all obliged to act in some fashion to make or preserve income and wealth. Action entails having some view of the world as it may unfold within an investment horizon. The search for a consensus view is both futile and often most harmful.The paragraph above establishes the context for this essay, which is an exercise in supposal and conjecture. Suppose certain big things happened in the world economy - what consequences would ensue and what investment actions would then be required?

The Supposals
EU Fractures: German money is the EU’s cement. Germany, however, is only a middle sized nation with a second tier economy. Germany’s 80 million people cannot bail out Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, as well as finance the $145 billion “Germany Fund” to prop up listed companies and also meet continuing large regular payments to the EU. The German economy is contracting even faster than the US economy. Many Germans feel they have atoned enough for the Nazis and German guilt cannot be monetized endlessly by its neighbors. In the absence of a great deal of German money, the EU will crack, then fracture and perhaps split into a small core with one set of rules and a much larger periphery with another set of rules but no common foreign or defense strategies or even alliances. NATO will become a talking club at best. The Euro will cease to exist as nations seek to regain currency/interest rate control as instruments of economic policy. European unemployment will reach the low teens, with some nations seeing unemployment in the high teens.

China Barely Grows: A heavily export dependent economy cannot be vigorous while global trade is shrinking, domestic fixed investment is falling and consumers are conserving cash. There are no growth drivers. China’s economic growth rate falls to between 1% and 5% per annum for several quarters, resulting in sharply rising rural poverty, urban unemployment, real estate distress and rising violence. This compels the Chinese Communists to turn increasingly and repressively inward, run larger and larger budget deficits, use its SWF and other agents of the State to buy scores of billions of dollars of commodity assets abroad (and use this buying power to further Resource Imperialism) and substantially increase military spending to ensure the loyalty of its military, intimidate neighbors and dominate sea lanes in Asia. The US-China economic nexus frays badly and China becomes increasingly intolerant of US hectoring.US Economy Worsens: from a state of rising unemployment, low interest rates and negligible inflation or mild deflation to a multi-quarter period of unemployment above 10%, high interest rates and high inflation as public policy steadily debases the dollar and chokes innovation.

Consequences
Given the supposals above what might be some of the consequences over the next few years? Those delineated below are illustrative and far from exhaustive.

1. Global Fragmentation: Interference with the free flow of trade, capital and labor increases while global trade compresses significantly. As a result regional, sub-national, linguistic, ethnic, sectarian, cultural and even tribal identities become more attractive for billions of people and several current nation states either become even more decentralized or break up entirely. The number of so called sovereign states grows appreciably as politicians and tribalists exploit fragmentation.European nations most vulnerable to partial or complete fragmentation include Spain (up to 6 sub-nations), Italy (North splits from the rest), UK (Scotland wanders away), Belgium, and Ukraine. In Asia, Pakistan is an obvious candidate for disintegration while separatism will increase in India and China without a formal break up. Russia and its neighbors may see more autonomous regions. In the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey will be vulnerable to Kurdish aspirations for more self government and assertion of identity. Lebanon may disappear as a nation. Africa will be subject to more fragmentation since the fracture lines are many and true, long established, nation states are few.In the New World, disunity will also increase from Canada to Argentina, but actual secession may be unlikely. The US will not be immune from people choosing to emphasize regional, linguistic and cultural identification and loyalty over the Nation. The great risk to the US is that fewer people will have reverence or even a correct understanding for the living Constitution, which is what makes the US the exceptional nation it is. The cultural and geographic divisions within the US may become distressingly pronounced.The opportunistic reaction to global fragmentation will be to create or recreate superregional zones of influence. The AngloSphere has been discussed for many years now as a trading, linguistic (English), and military association anchored by the US in the West and India (now the largest English speaking nation in the world) in the East, with English speaking Africa in the middle, incorporating over a third of the global population. The SinoSphere, anchored by China and including Japan and Siberia (where the illegal and legal Chinese immigrants will soon exceed the native population) is a candidate. Less likely candidates include a large RussoSphere (including Iran and its clients), a SunniSphere, and a HispanoSphere, but smaller versions are feasible. There will be no EuroSphere because there is no European nation around which such a sphere of influence can be organized and sustained.

2. Rise of Haven States: These are a corollary of global fragmentation. There will be 2 kinds of haven states: the failed states that are domiciles for Narco and Islamo-terrorists, and the stable states that are the refuge of private capital and corporations. While Africa and East Asia will provide the failed states, the stable states may well be found in the island nations of the Pacific and Caribbean and the small reconstituted mini-nations of Europe.The failed states will elicit repeated local but expensive wars of suppression by large nations or spheres and ensure terrorist attacks all over the world will continue for a generation. The stable states will compete among themselves to provide security and anonymity for private capital. The combination of global fragmentation and haven states will allow very large, well organized and very rich multinational criminal organizations to function. In addition to drugs and weapons, of course, there will be organizations that specialize in human trafficking, counterfeiting, commercial espionage, financial fraud and piracy of both physical and intellectual property.

3. Attempts to Create Private Currencies: Private currencies are neither new nor novel. Many have existed in the past, some niche currencies exist today (e.g loyalty points, frequent traveler bonuses, coupons, vendor credits, IOUs) and no doubt there will be more in the future. The motivation will be to seek shelter from debased currencies. The primary impetus will be to find a store or stores of value and the secondary to find a medium of exchange. Physical resources will be the basis for such currencies. These resources will be large, accessible and intrinsically valuable to people in different cultures, polities and spheres of influence. Candidates include oil, natural gas, coal, uranium, iron ore and the perennial gold and silver. Niche private currencies based on electricity or bandwidth may be attempted in limited geographies A basket of such physical resources may offer the best prospect with symbolic representations of these real things serving as exchange medium.

4. More Divergence in Worldwide Birth Rates: Global fertility rates are falling everywhere and quite rapidly but from quite different levels, which means that demographic momentum is very different in different nations. The divergence in fertility rates will increase. Birth rates will fall even further below replacement rates in Europe, Canada, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey and even Iran (whose total fertility rate is now only slightly above France). Of the advanced economies, the US will continue to be the exception with a fertility rate equal to the replacement rate (but with fertility rates in the South, Southwest and Mountain States markedly higher than in the rest of the country) and immigration providing the population boost. In Africa, the Indian Sub-Continent, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, however, fertility rates will remain well above replacement rates.The demographic winter in Europe, Russia, Japan and South Korea will turn bitterly cold in the next 10 years largely because of pessimistic populations while China, several parts of Latin America, Iran and a few Middle Eastern nations will slide into a deepening demographic Autumn, driven by either national pessimism or public policy. The US will continue to enjoy a demographic late Summer while Africa and the Indian Sub–Continent will provide a hugely disproportionate fraction of the world’s babies. Russia will have the worst demographic profile in the world, followed by China, which will only foster greater nationalism, resentment towards other nations and greater willingness to use force in dealing with real or manufactured threats, internal and external. The demographic winter nations will record longer and longer periods of economic stagnation. Russia’s fortunes will depend almost entirely on the price of energy and minerals .Therefore, Russia will pursue a foreign policy of creating instability in world energy and mineral markets to boost the risk premium of its exports and force the pace of its nuclear technology exports.

5. Global South Will Reject US and EU Energy and Environmental Policies : As the economic, military and moral leverage of the West over the Global South declines while China, India and Brazil assume more power, the Global South will decisively reject the energy and environmental policies and prescriptions of the US, Japan and EU. Energy and food security are the two great imperatives of the Global South. Both require enormous and swift increases in electricity production (this will be explored in a subsequent essay). The only massively scalable generation technologies available in the next two decades are coal, natural gas and nuclear. Therefore, coal and nuclear followed by natural gas generation will be extensively deployed across the Global South, led of course by China and India. Indeed the Global South may well seize technological leadership in coal and nuclear generation and advanced very high voltage transmission systems from the West and hence rapidly gain global market share in power generation and transmission markets and also bid engineering and construction management talent away from the West.

6. In the US, Large Declines in Professional Capacity: Professional capacity will shrink by over 50% in finance and real estate (from peak) and by over 25% in the legal, consulting, accounting, retailing, media, fashion, advertising, non-profits and advocacy, fine dining and high end lodging industries. This shrinkage will be net of newly created solo and small group practices or emerging niche firms or freshly constituted small but very specialized and highly skilled, very lucrative, partnerships and LLCs. Some of the surplus professionals will, of course, move on to other opportunities or start small businesses based on their general competence and relationships. Some will leave the country; a few will disappear into the growing underground economy to facilitate the exodus of people fleeing from unfair taxes and unreasonable regulations (bad and expensive government), but many will face years of grinding downward mobility and only episodic employment.

7. In the US, the Emergence of the Home as the Locus of Many Activities: For millions of American families the residence will again gather up several functions that migrated away from the home about 125 years ago. The home, once more, becomes the domicile for income producing work (the home commercial operation-HCO), healthcare, eldercare/aging in place, childcare, schooling/learning/apprenticeships, entertainment, exercise, and even growing food and making wine, depending on size of the property, electricity and natural gas utility tariffs, and zoning. The extended family also enjoys a revival where the personalities and quality of intergenerational relationships permit. The extended family reduces per capita household costs, increases the range of activities that can be undertaken, improves the quality of care, enhances both personal and neighborhood security and allows fairly sophisticated HCOs to function.

Economic and demographic pressures and advances in multiple technologies, software applications and home oriented professional and logistical services converge to facilitate this rebundling of functions. The increasing power and specialization and fallings unit costs of design, collaborative, supply chain, revenue stream and relationship management software; the increasing power and falling costs of home based computing and communications; affordable and compact high 9s power quality equipment; very potent but compact laser cutting equipment and the impending (3 to 4 years) arrival of practical desktop fabrication makes it possible to undertake a rather large array of high value added commercial and fabrication operations at home while creating quite elaborate and sophisticated but cheap supply, logistics, distribution, marketing and remote work sharing/management networks.In addition, technology platforms and applications will allow many existing but tiny and inefficient home based businesses to expand to critical mass. HCOs with annual revenues of tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars become both attractive and practical. The combination of necessity and feasibility will allow hundreds of thousands of HCOs to exist, taking the home based office or business to a much higher level of economic value added and employment in the US, while also fostering cultural changes that cannot really be anticipated.The growth of HCOs will be aided and accompanied by the growth of social network financing, micro lending, micro private equity financing, micro M&A, HCO insurance, community banking (as thousands of new community banks are created in the next several years) and special purpose vendor and distribution/marketing channel financing. Home based schooling will also grow markedly given necessity, the availability of family members to teach and the recent emergence of an extensive advocacy and support service infrastructure, particularly in the South.

Home healthcare, aging in place and eldercare will be facilitated and stimulated by the availability of affordable home based defibrillators, dialysis equipment, sophisticated labs on a chip, life support equipment, and remote bio-medical monitoring, sensing, diagnostics and intervention tools, pressure and movement sensors and very inexpensive, long lived, low power, wireless temperature, vibration, moisture and gas sensor webs that can turn a bedroom into a mini life support/life extension facility. Many specialized home healthcare/eldercare services will emerge to provide support services and advice to families.The home will become an important emerging market for large corporations and HCOs will be diversified and easily accessible sources of supply. In parallel, local community colleges and vocational/technical schools will witness a surge in enrollments while traditional high overhead universities, including elite schools, will see enrollments drop by a fifth to a quarter. Formal, paid, apprenticeship programs will become popular with millions of young people.The author is no better (and likely worse) at trying to divine consequences than the interested reader. Indeed, the reader should view these consequences as an amusing template and conjure his or her own structures and trajectories. The more actionable these consequences the better the reader will be served in making investment choices. Remember, though, the most significant consequence will be the one we did not foresee. Those tempted by linear extrapolation of the most recent past should remind themselves that we are in an economic episode not an economic change of universe. This too will pass in a few (3 to 4?) years. We are sliding into a deep valley but not an abyss. There is another side which we will reach and then climb up and out. Of course, it will look different on the other side but for many shrewd or merely lucky (and the select few who are both shrewd and lucky) investors, innovators and risk takers it will be a much better place.

OH NOW WATCH THE WORLD TRY TO OUTLAW GUNS BECAUSE OF THE 10 DEAD IN ALABAMA SHOOTING YESTERDAY AND 16 DEAD IN SCHOOL SHOOTING IN GERMANY TODAY.

After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws By MATTI HUUHTANEN, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 11, 9:36 am

ETHELSINKI – Several European countries have restricted gun laws in the wake of school massacres, gang violence and other gun-related crimes:Finland announced plans Wednesday to impose stricter restrictions on firearms, including raising the minimum age for handgun ownership from 15 to 20. The proposal was prompted by two school massacres within a year in which lone gunmen opened fire on classmates and teachers.

Germany, where a gunman killed at least 11 people Wednesday, raised the legal age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21 following a 2002 shooting in Erfurt that killed 16 people, including 12 teachers.Belgian lawmakers passed strict new gun control laws in 2006 in reaction to the racially motivated shooting deaths of a toddler and her black baby sitter in Antwerp.Swiss citizens are demanding a referendum aimed at confining army weapons to military compounds and banning private purchases of pump-action rifles and automatic weapons — following a spate of suicides and homicides.The Portuguese Parliament is currently discussing a government proposal to tighten gun laws, including denying bail to anyone suspected of a gun crime.

Denmark's government said last week it will raise the penalty for illegal gun possession as part of a crackdown on gang violence that has killed three people and injured 25 in recent months.European Union lawmakers proposed tighter gun control across the bloc last year, including guidelines saying that only people over 18 not deemed a threat to public safety could buy and keep guns. EU members have until 2010 to adopt the measures.In addition, some U.S. states have recently tightened gun laws as well:

Colorado, a year after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, made it a felony to buy a firearm for another person who should know the transaction is illegal, barred anyone from giving a firearm to a juvenile without the consent of the parents; made it illegal for a person not to try to prevent a juvenile from committing a gun crime; and increased the penalty for possession of a weapon by a felon.But three years later, the state expanded gun rights instead, by requiring sheriffs to issue gun permits to people who pass a criminal background check, prohibiting local governments from making gun laws more restrictive than the state's, and abolishing local registries of gun owners.In Virginia, where a student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 before committing suicide April 16, 2007, the governor signed an executive order requiring that anyone ordered by a court to get mental health treatment be added to a database of people barred from buying guns.

Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer MAR 11,09

WINNENDEN, Germany – A 17-year-old wielding a Beretta 9 mm pistol burst into classrooms at his former high school Wednesday and gunned down students — some of whom died with their pencils still in hand — in a rampage that ended with 15 dead before he took his own life, authorities said.There was no immediate indication of motive, but the gunman's victims were primarily female: eight of nine students killed were girls, and all three teachers were women. Three men were killed later as the suspect, identified by police as Tim K., fled.I heard two shots and then screaming, said a 15-year-old student who gave her name only as Betty. At first I thought it was a joke, but then someone called Run, run! and I saw students jumping out of the windows and took off running.The gunman — dressed in all black — took students in the first classroom completely by surprise, evidenced by the morbid scene that awaited the first officers to arrive, said regional police director Ralf Michelfelder.

Children were sitting at their tables, with pencils still in their hands, their heads fallen over on the table, he said. Most of them had shots in their head — it must have all happened in seconds.The dark-haired teen, shown wearing glasses in pictures on German television, apparently took the weapon from his father's collection of 16 firearms along with a multitude of ammunition, police said. His father was a member of the local gun club and kept the weapons locked away except for the pistol, which was kept in the bedroom.Police said the suspect was a German teen who was a below-average student at the school of about 1,000 pupils, but managed to graduate last year.He was lower than average, and he wasn't engaged in school events,Michelfelder said.

A sister of the suspect attends the school.

Police received an emergency call from the school at 9:33 a.m. The first officers responded about two minutes later, said Baden Wuerttemburg state interior minister Heribert Rech. They heard shots on the second floor and ran upstairs, catching a glimpse of the suspect on a staircase, Rech said.He fired a shot at the police and then fled, killing his last victims in the school — two teachers — on his way out, Rech said.Our officers were very quick, Rech said.Through the immediate police intervention they were able to prevent a further escalation of the crime.After fleeing the school, the suspect ran into downtown Winnenden, a town of 28,000, where he shot two people walking by a psychiatric clinic, killing one and wounding the other, police said.The gunman then hijacked a car and forced the driver to head south while threatening his life from the back seat, triggering a land and air manhunt involving 700 police officers and four helicopters, according to Stuttgart prosecutors.The driver swerved off the road to avoid a police checkpoint and managed to escape, while the suspect fled from the car into an industrial area in the town of Wendlingen, about 24 miles (40 kilometers) from Winnenden.He entered a car dealership, where he shot and killed his final victims — a salesman and a man shopping for a car — and then went back outside, prosecutors said.He opened fire on police swarming the area, who shot back and hit the suspect, who fell wounded to the ground, Michelfelder said.But he got back up, reloaded his weapon, and fled into what turned out to be a dead-end street. Police found him there dead, having apparently shot himself in the head. Two police officers suffered serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.

The death toll was close to that of Germany's worst school shooting.

In the 2002 shooting, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany. Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor's note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21. German Chancellor Angel Merkel called the shooting a horrific crime.It is hard to put into words what happened today, but our sadness and sympathy goes out to the victims' families,Merkel said. The European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, France, stood in silence for a minute, to honor the victims. It is our task as responsible politicians in the European Union and, indeed, all the member states to do our utmost that such deeds can be prevented,said EU assembly president Hans-Gert Pottering, a German.

Ala. gunman left list of those who wronged him By JESSICA GRESKO and DESIREE HUNTER, Associated Press Writers MAR 11,09

SAMSON, Ala. – The gunman who killed 10 people and committed suicide in a rampage across the Alabama countryside had struggled to keep a job and left behind lists of employers and co-workers he believed had wronged him, authorities said Wednesday.The lists found in Michael McLendon's home included a metals plant that had forced him to resign years ago and where he ended up killing himself Tuesday to end the rampage, District Attorney Gary McAliley said. Also on the list were a sausage factory from which he suddenly quit last week and a poultry plant that suspended his mother, McAliley said.The pages torn from a spiral notebook included names of co-workers who he felt had wronged him, including one who reported him for not wearing ear plugs, another who made him clean a meat grinder and a supervisor who didn't like the way he cut pork chops, McAliley said.We found a list of people he worked with, people who had done him wrong, said McAliley in an interview outside the charred house where the rampage began.Investigators offered no immediate explanation for why McLendon targeted relatives and others who weren't on the list as he fired more than 200 rounds in a roughly 20-mile trail of carnage across two counties near the Florida state line.

The district attorney said a piece of paper found in the house he shared with his mother also included the names of nine lawyers in the area. He said McLendon apparently wanted to hire a lawyer in a dispute with members of his family over getting a family Bible returned to him, but details weren't clear.McLendon began his killing spree across three southern Alabama communities by burning down his home, and ended it by taking his own life at Reliable Metals, where he worked until 2003. McAliley said he believes McLendon had planned more violence at the Pilgrim Pride plant in Enterprise, where his mother worked, and the place he recently quit, Kelly Foods in Elba.McLendon's complete work history wasn't immediately known, but he left the metals plant in Geneva in 2003 and apparently worked at Pilgrim's Pride before joining the sausage factory in 2007.Lt. Barry Tucker of Alabama Bureau of Investigations said at a news conference that McLendon was somewhat depressed about job issues but that investigators don't believe the shootings were job-related.

There's no specific indication of This is why I did it,said Tucker who wouldn't release a motive.Federal court records show McLendon and his mother are among Pilgrim Pride employees who filed a lawsuit in 2006 against the Pittsburg, Texas-based poultry firm over claims of unfair compensation. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.The district attorney said records found in the home indicate Lisa McLendon was accused of misstating her hours but was due to resume work March 17. The company wouldn't comment on the reason she was suspended.In the span of about an hour, McLendon, 28, set his home on fire, killed five relatives and five bystanders and committed suicide in a standoff at the plant.

The community's just in disbelief, just how this could happen in our small town, said state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, from the nearby town of Slocomb.This was 20-something miles of terror.At a prayer service at First Baptist Church of Samson, Rev. Steve Sellers made no attempt to explain what would drive someone to commit such an act.

Father, there are times in life when we don't have answers to the question why, Sellers said to several hundred people in the church, where sobs could be heard.I don't know what set a young man off like that, but I too want to pray for his family.

It was not clear how long McLendon had been planning the attack, but authorities said he armed himself with four guns — two assault rifles with high-capacity magazines taped together, a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol — and may have planned a bigger massacre than he had time to carry out.I'm convinced he went over there to kill more people, said Sheriff Dave Sutton. The shooting was the deadliest attack by a single gunman in Alabama history, and plunged Samson, a community of about 2,000 where McLendon grew up and where most of his victims lived, into mourning. The town is so close-knit that the mayor coached McLendon in T-ball when he was a boy, and the dead included the wife and daughter of one of the sheriff's deputies who was sent to chase McLendon. As word about the killings spread, graduates of the local high school scrambled to find their yearbooks, and many realized they knew the gunman. Something had to snap, said Jerry Hysmith, 35, who worked with McLendon at the metals plant in 2001.Among the dead were some of the very people who might have helped explain what set off McLendon — his grandmother, his mother, an uncle and two cousins. This much is clear: McLendon had a hard time keeping a job over the years, and had been forced to resign from his position at a local Reliable Metals plant in 2003, authorities said. Investigators would not say why.That year, he tried to join the police academy, but lasted only a week before flunking out, authorities said. His next known job came in 2007, at a nearby sausage plant operated by Kelley Foods.The company said he quit last week but was considered a team leader and was well-liked by employees.The rampage started around 3:30 p.m., when McLendon put his mother on an L-shaped couch, piled stuff on top of her and set her ablaze, authorities said. Before he left, he also shot four dogs. Investigators did not immediately say whether the woman was dead or alive when the fire was set.

Inside the charred home, a gun safe was left with its door ajar, and military gear, including a camouflage jacket and green military-style backpack, was found about the home. In another room, remnants of his baseball career, including a 1995 All-Star trophy, were prominently displayed.McLendon then drove a dozen miles and gunned down three other relatives and the deputy's wife and daughter on a porch and shot his grandmother at a house next door, sending panicked bystanders fleeing and ducking behind cars. His uncle's wife, Phyllis White, sought refuge in the house of neighbor Archie Mock.She was just saying, I think my family is dead. I think my family is dead,Mock said.McLendon went inside the house and chased his aunt out before driving off, said Tom Knowles, who was at his son's house nearby and saw the shooting. Knowles said McLendon returned moments later in his car as if looking for the aunt, then turned and looked at Knowles.He had cold eyes. There was nothing. I hollered at him. I said, Look, boy, I ain't done nothing to you,Knowles said. McLendon then left for good.Then, McLendon shot three more people at random as he drove toward the metals plant, firing from his car. At the metals plant, McLendon got out of his car and fired at police with his assault rifle, wounding Geneva Police Chief Frankie Lindsey, authorities said. Then he walked inside and killed himself. The victims included the wife and 18-month-old daughter of sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers, who was sent to chase McLendon. Myers did not know then that his wife and daughter were among the dead. His 4-month-old daughter was wounded in the attack. I cried so much yesterday, I don't have a tear left in me, said Myers, who did not know McLendon.I feel like I should be able to walk in the house and my wife would be there, my baby girl climbing on me.Associated Press Writers Jay Reeves in Samson, Gary Mitchell in Mobile and Bob Johnson and Kate Brumback in Montgomery contributed to this report.

EU MIDEAST PECE MEETING SUNDAY
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Egypt hosts stepped-up talks on Mideast prisoner swap by Alain Navarro – Wed Mar 11, 2:03 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt hosted closed-door talks on Wednesday on a prisoner swap between the Islamist movement Hamas and Israel that would set free soldier Gilad Shalit along with hundreds of Palestinians.For a third time in two weeks, Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel returned to Cairo on Tuesday night in an effort to nail down an elusive deal, that could pave the way for a long-term truce for the Gaza Strip.Intensive and tough negotiations are underway on the names of the Hamas prisoners to be traded for Shalit,a source close to the talks told AFP, asking not to be named.Dekel is now expected to spend a second night in Egypt and will pursue talks, in an apparent sign that things are moving,the source said later on Wednesday.He said the two sides were in a race against the clock to seal a deal before an April 3 time-limit for Israeli right-wing hardliner and prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government.Israel has insisted that any agreement for a lasting ceasefire in and around the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip depends on the release of Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian guerrillas in June 2006.Dekel is locked in talks with Egypt's intelligence chief General Omar Suleiman, who has been working to mediate a deal in the absence of direct talks between Hamas and Israel -- which boycotts the group as a terrorist outfit.

The negotiations coincide with talks between rival factions including Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction to try to form a unity government that would be acceptable to the international community.The latest prisoner swap efforts coincide with a visit to Cairo by Mussa Abu Marzuk, the deputy head of Hamas's politburo, for the inter-Palestinian talks.I don't have information on Shalit. I don't even know if he is alive or not,the Damascus-based Abu Marzuk told an Arab newspaper.Only the factions holding him know, and such information comes at a price.He said 450 convicted Islamists were up for release as well as 550 other detainees: youths, women and Hamas political figures.According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Dekel has proposed a deal for the release of 400 prisoners, including 220 with blood on their hands for anti-Israeli attacks.There are some names of terrorists (on the list) whose release would be unacceptable for Israeli public opinion,said the source close to the talks. The question is whether Hamas is flexible enough to remove such names.He said Cairo was preparing a two-stage release: about 300 Palestinians would walk free in return for Shalit's transfer to Egypt, and he would return home once the rest are released.

British lawmaker secretly meets Hamas leader Wed Mar 11, 2:00 pm ET Wednesday, March 11, 2009,

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A renegade British lawmaker who had financial dealings with Saddam Hussein and praised Fidel Castro in Cuba can add this to his resume: an honorary Palestinian passport, awarded during a secret meeting with the prime minister of Hamas.A statement from the militant group that rules Gaza said George Galloway met with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at an undisclosed location Tuesday. Haniyeh's office released a photo of the two men embracing.Not only are you the prime minister of Palestine, but you are our prime minister, too, Galloway told Haniyeh, on footage shown by Israel's Channel 10 TV.Haniyeh has kept largely out of sight since Israel launched a devastating military offensive against Hamas last December in an effort to stop rocket fire from Gaza.The European Union considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization.Galloway entered Gaza from Egypt on Monday, leading an aid caravan for victims of the Israeli offensive.The lifeline from Britain to Gaza is in," he said. Israel allows daily convoys of aid into Gaza and denies that there are shortages of food, fuel or medicine.

Galloway left Gaza on Wednesday through the Egyptian border.

In recent years, the lawmaker has also been expelled from the Labour Party for urging British soldiers not to fight in Iraq, claimed it would be morally justified for an assassin to target then-Prime Minister Tony Blair in response for Britain's support for the war — and lapped up imaginary milk and purred like a cat during his stint on the reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother.Galloway was suspended in 2007 after an investigation found that a charity he set up was partly funded by the Iraqi dictator. On a visit to Iraq in 1994, he told Hussein, Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.Galloway later said he had been referring to the Iraqi people.