The Caravan - What Up Steve?

Union support, affidavits boost lawsuit's efforts to halt Canada-China investment deal

 

Union support, affidavits boost lawsuit's efforts to halt Canada-China investment deal

" Unions, citizen groups, and environmentalists have joined a growing chorus alarmed about a secretive investment deal with China, voicing their support yesterday for a First Nation's lawsuit seeking to halt the agreement.

The groups said they are concerned about the lack of public consultation and aboriginal consent, and provisions allowing companies to sue governments over legislation, contained within the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA). "

" "This deal would critically impact every provincial government's ability to make autonomous decisions directly affecting the well-being of their citizens," said Hupacasath First Nation councillor Brenda Sayers. "Our environmental laws have been gutted, so there's very little environmental protection or process around how resources are removed... This is a very big deal for Canada. It is critical for Canadians, at this point in time, to pay attention to this."

The lawsuit presents an opportunity to educate people about the "secretive and extreme" FIPA deal, said Jamie Biggar, executive director of Leadnow.ca. After the agreements came to light last autumn, the advocacy organization fundraised more than $30,000 among its 225,000 members to support Hupacasath's injunction request. "

" "The reason why these negotiated behind closed doors -- the reason this is not going to Parliament and why it's not being brought in front of the public -- is because, for past trade agreements, the government has realized the public does not support [them]," "

" "These free trade agreements give corporations power over governments, and limit a government's ability to put regulations and laws in place to protect the rights of citizens, the land and natural resources of our country," she said. "If corporations think that rules and regulations to protect our labour rights, human rights or our environment get in their way, they can sue our government.

"With no debate or consultation, the Harper government is prepared to undermine our rights -- labour rights we have fought for as unions, human rights, democratic rights and the right to protect our environment, and most importantly, the rights of First Nations over lands and resources."
With tensions rising in the province over Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, and Kinder Morgan's plans to expand its own pipeline from the Alberta oil sands, some have suggested the real intent of the FIPA may be to lock in oil exports to Asia. "

Chinese Idiom: Subduing the Enemy Without War 不戰屈人

"According to ancient Chinese general Sun Zi (孫子), or Sun Tzu, author of the famous military classic “The Art of War” (孫子兵法), this is the ultimate strategy that should always be attempted first before resorting to battle.

Sun Zi believed that the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s army without fighting, captures the enemy’s cities without attack, and overthrows the enemy’s nation without a lengthy operation."

Lead Now

" If the Canada-China FIPA passes, China’s companies could sue Canada if any Canadian government - including our provinces - makes any decision that put our health, jobs and environment before their profit. Worse yet, these suits would be decided by unaccountable arbitrators in secret courts outside our legal system.



That’s not how Canada is supposed to work. We live in a democratic federation, and our provinces should have to consent to any major federal decision that would undermine their authority. Our provinces can defend their constitutional powers from FIPA. If Christy Clark, BC’s premier, acts now to defend the rights of British Columbians, she could stop Harper from locking us into FIPA for 31 years. "

We need to send a flood of messages to ensure our premiers act. Please join us:
http://www.leadnow.ca/stop-fipa-bc

" Four months ago, Prime Minister Harper quietly announced that he wanted to pass the biggest trade deal in a generation without a single vote in Parliament. Your campaign raised the alarm about the danger of FIPA’s secret investor-state courts. You united Canadians, divided Harper’s caucus and made him think twice about ratifying this bad trade deal.

The Hupacasath First Nation are taking this FIPA to court to defend their rights. "

" FIPA would expose Canada to lawsuits from China’s massive companies in secret investor-state courts -- outside Canada’s legal system -- that have a track record of systematically ruling against the interests of Canadians. Under this system, Canada has already been sued more than any industrialized country in the world. 

Investor-state lawsuits undermine our democratic control. "

" Our provinces have defended our rights before. In the 1990s, BC played a leadership role in the successful fight against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). A BC legislative committee publicly studied the MAI and expressed serious concerns about the fact that it would expose Canada to investor-state arbitration. It found that if the federal government fails to gain the express consent of the province, “the Province must vigorously defend its authority on behalf of all British Columbians."



Let’s call on our premiers to use every tool they have - political and legal - to stop the Canada-China FIPA from being ratified unless the secret investor-state courts are removed, public consultations are held in every province, and our provinces consent to the deal through a democratic vote in their legislature. "

With hope and respect,

Emma, Jamie, Matthew and the whole Leadnow.ca team

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: Chinese need for conflict is deeply ingrained

" "China has a “deeply ingrained” need to spar with Japan and other Asian neighbors over territory, because the ruling Communist Party uses the disputes to maintain strong domestic support, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview.

Clashes with neighbors, notably Japan, play to popular opinion, Abe said, given a Chinese education system that emphasizes patriotism and “anti-Japanese sentiment.” "

‪Brainwashed School Children in China 2009‬

China Anti Japanese Student Brainwashing 2012

How can you support your leaders when they provide support for the objectives of the Communist Party of China and it's campaign of one-world hatred and oppression. We should not do business or provide resources to a force that is so anti-human. Below is footage of what martial law under Chinese Communist occupation looks like. Is Canada next?

In Tibet you can be arrested for merely walking outside your door and saying:
 "long live the Dali Lama".

It's sad, the Chinese have been trained to hate from a young age, like the Hitler youth.
At one point you can see about 50 Chinese with guns cuffing a scared old woman and laughing.
  

LEAKED Video from Tibet Show China's Ongoing Brutal Repression On Tibetans

This is what martial law looks like, we have to stop the New World Order.

China's sensitivity over Tibet

Chinese Police Detain, Beat Tibetan Protesters

" Of the 104 Tibetans who set themselves on fire since February 2009, 22 were under the age of 18, Save Tibet said. They have taken part in the fiery protests to demonstrate against the Chinese regime’s policies in Tibetan areas, calling for cultural and religious freedom, as well as the return of the Dalai Lama. "

Australian Legislator Proposes Criminalizing Organ Tourism

" He related a recent discussion he had with a doctor: A patient told the doctor that they would not be attending treatment the following day, because they were going to China, where their donor was about to be shot. “That’s a chilling prospect,” Shoebridge said, “and one which we have a moral duty to address.” "

" While Chinese officials admit—after years of denials —that organs come from prisoners, they do not specify which types of prisoners. Available evidence suggests that in large part, the organs have come from practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted in China since 1999.

The research of two Canadians, human rights lawyer David Matas, and former parliamentarian David Kilgour, indicates that from 2000 to 2005, 41,500 organs were harvested from Falun Gong prisoners. The consultation paper produced as part of Shoebridge’s bill amendment includes reference to the Kilgour-Matas report. Gutmann estimates the figure was 65,000 by 2008. "

Why can't Canada's wealthiest province break even? Blame the paradox of plenty.

" To most Canadians this curious disclosure seems confounding, if not paradoxical. How can "the economic engine" of Canada run five government deficits in a row yet promise prosperity for the nation? Is no one in charge? "

"Terry Lynn Karl, the acclaimed author of Paradox of Plenty, describes the petromania resource curse more directly: Easy access to oil wealth lowers "financial discipline within bureaucracies and leads to reckless budgetary practices. Most importantly, it preempts efforts to mobilize domestic resources through taxation" which, in turn, creates more dependence on oil."

" Alberta must "redirect the revenues gained from the sale of resources away from the government's budget and toward saving," conclude the pair. "

" "As we noted previously this is the solution to the problem of energy price volatility that has been successfully employed by energy-rich Norway and that has been frequently urged upon the Alberta government. Unfortunately, it is a solution that has eluded the government of Alberta." "

"Easy wealth seems to discourage hard thinking, the same way scarcity stimulates innovation."

" In a petro state politicians and business leaders become so tied to the perverse incentives of mining oil, says Terry Lynn Karl, that they "develop networks of complicity based on the classic exchange between the right to rule and the right to make money." "

" How do you know when you live in petro state? Here are some key signs:

When your government pays 30 per cent of its road, education, and hospital bills with finite and volatile hydrocarbon revenue.

When your province posts five budget deficits in a row during a so-called "bitumen boom."

When the government approves 100 bitumen projects over a ten-year period without a cumulative impact assessment.

When your government fires the Chief Elections Officer, Lorne Gibson, in 2009 for doing his job and reporting on widespread electoral fraud.

When your government estimates that cleaning up toxic waste in the tar sands will cost more than $20 billion but asks industry to set aside only $1 billion.

When the province's oil and gas regulator argues in Queen's Court that it owes "no duty of care" to Albertan landowners or the province's groundwater.

When a bunch of Calgary lawyers decide that the best market for their self-branded "ethical oil" are Chinese national oil firms directed by the world's leading moral philosophers, the Communist Party of China. "

Fracked Gas Won't Solve Energy Crunch: Report

" Governments and financial analysts who think unconventional fossil fuels such as bitumen, shale gas and shale oil can usher in an era of prosperity and energy plenty are dangerously deluded, concludes a groundbreaking report by one of Canada's top energy analysts. "

" The latest panaceas championed by industry and media talking heads are too expensive and will deplete too rapidly to provide either energy security or independence for the United States, concludes the 62-year-old geologist who worked for Natural Resources Canada for 32 years as a coal and gas specialist. "

Unconventional fossil fuels all share a host of cruel and limiting traits says Hughes. They offer dramatically fewer energy returns; they consume extreme and endless flows of capital; they provide difficult or volatile rates of supply overtime and have "large environmental impacts in their extraction." "

‘Cancer Villages’ in China Acknowledged by Regime

" The Chinese regime for the first time admitted the existence of so-called “cancer villages”—areas near factories and polluted waterways where cancer rates have increased to startlingly high levels.

Over the years, Chinese environmental activists have said there is a strong link between increased cancer rates and industrial pollution—in part due to corrupt officials looking the other way when developers and businesses violate environmental regulations. Investigative journalist Deng Fei in 2009 showed some of the worst-hit areas using Google maps. "

Fracking: Feds Throw Wrench in High Profile Lawsuit

" The $33-million lawsuit alleges that Encana, one of Canada's largest natural gas producers, drilled and fracked shallow coal bed methane wells directly in the local groundwater supply between 2001 and 2004 near Rosebud, Alberta and thereby polluted Ernst's water well with enough toxic chemicals and methane to make it flammable. "

Ai Weiwei world famous artist Persecuted for belief in Compassion

North Korea set to conduct intermediate-range missile test

Syrian Rebels Attack Hezbollah

A Toothless Trade Secret Strategy

Housing Bubble 2.0? – Why The US Property Market Is Headed For Another Crash

Spouses of Canadian Cabinet Ministers hold portfolios of publicly-traded securities

Spouses of ministers hold portfolios of publicly-traded securities

Ottawa Citizen

“The spouses of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and seven other Conservative cabinet ministers are holding portfolios of publicly-traded securities without having to put the assets into blind trusts.

Harper himself lists no stock holdings, suggesting that the couple’s financial investments are made in her name. In August, they took out a joint loan from the Bank of Nova Scotia. Its value or purpose were not publicly disclosed.

Harper’s office refused to say which stocks his wife’s portfolio contains, or whether any of them are among the Alberta energy companies whose future performance could depend on upcoming cabinet decisions about pipeline policy and Chinese investment in the oilsands.”

So politicians get to buy and sell stocks, and make decisions that affect the value of those stalks. Nexen stockholders got a 65% premium on the deal. If the politicians know ahead of time the outcome of company announcements there is really very little risk matched to a very high return.

The conflict of interest is clear. Sell Canada off and make millions as a "commission" on every transaction. We need to regulate this.

It is psychopathic to make money off of handing the world over to a totalitarian dictatorship.

ChineseFirms Bringing Own Workers a Global Pattern: Expert

“But he said usually the countries that allow Chinese firms to import their own labour or other questionable business practices are underdeveloped dictatorships, adding it's "bizarre" Canada has allowed it.

Navarro added the controversial Nexen deal also showcases ineptitude in dealing with China by Canada's leaders.

"I saw a young Trudeau supporting this and, my god, somebody needs to take him over to Africa and watch how the Chinese do business there and see what it's like," he said.
"That man is out of his depth."

The Federal Ministry of Human Resources and Development Canada has not answered three recent requests by the Tyee to clarify how many Chinese miners are already working in Hudson's Hope, B.C., a separate project than the Tumbler Ridge mine.

Meanwhile the federal government has dedicated resources to effectively argue on the side of HD Mining in its court case with two unions trying to keep information about how the miners ended up in Canada confidential, offering a deal to release some of the information as long as it wasn't made public.”

 

HumanRights Day in Beijing Smothered by Police

“Hundreds of Chinese activists were arrested in Beijing on Dec. 10 after they protested against human rights abuses near the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership compound and elsewhere in the capital.”

Why I think we are absolute idiots if we approve CNOOC take-over of Nexen

By Elizabeth May on 18 September 2012 - 9:35pm

 http://www.greenparty.ca/blogs/7/2012-09-18/why-i-think-we-are-absolute-idiots-if-we-approve-cnooc-take-over-nexen

It is hard to know how else to put it. I don’t want to get anyone freaked out or overly alarmed, but are we paying any attention?
Attention should be paid to the fact that the Prime Minister has signed a deal with President Hu of China that promises investor protection. The text of said deal is not yet before the House of Commons, but everything I read about it (including from business analysts at Heenan Blaikie and Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt) anticipates the deal will include investor-state provisions similar to those in Chapter 11 of NAFTA.
Chapter 11 of NAFTA allows corporations from Mexico or the USA to claim damages against Canada if any level of Canadian government (municipal, provincial or federal) causes them to experience less profits than they had anticipated. Canada has actually repealed a law limiting a toxic gasoline additive when the US-based manufacturer sued under Chapter 11 — and we paid $10 million plus in damages. This outrage only gets more outrageous if the claims for multiple millions in damages come from a non-democratic enormous economy to which we have hitched our wagon as a compliant resource colony.
When will Mr. Harper share the text of this investor agreement with Parliamentarians? When will it be shared with Canadians? It was signed on September 8th when both Harper and Hu were in Russia. It must now be ratified. Assuming all the Conservative MPs who are worried about selling out our country to China do what they always do and submit to the will of the Boss, it will become a trade obligation. China will, if offended by any new health, labour, or environmental law, be able to make a claim for damages. I have already witnessed the chilling effect of Canada knowing a US based corporation can sue under Chapter 11. It was rumoured that former Liberal Health Minister Allan Rock refused to ban cosmetic use of pesticides for fear of Chapter 11 claims by US pesticide manufacturers.
What happens when Canadian laws, passed democratically, are struck down in hotel room arbitrations launched by the Communist Party of China?
I pay attention to things that CNOOC’s CEO says in public. In the August 29, 2012, Wall Street Journal, CNOOC CEO Wang Yilin said, “Large-scale deep-water rigs are our mobile national territory and a strategic weapon.” OK, so the bitumen isn’t mobile – until you mix it with diluents and stick it in a pipeline. But the oil sands do become Chinese territory. What did he mean about “strategic weapon?”
Are there national security implications?
I would love to trust in a national security review under the 2009 amendments to the Investment Canada Act, except that Stephen Harper specifically rejected the advice of the blue ribbon panel (struck after the Minmetal attempt to buy Noranda) that Canada needed a clear, objective definition of “national security.” The experts thought we should have a definition and use it to assess any takeovers of Canadian companies by foreign interests — particularly state-owned enterprises. Our PM rejected the advice. Instead the Canada Gazette for the 2009 amendments says that “national security” cannot be defined. It is, apparently, a fluid term.
Smart people I respect, like Andrew Coyne, say “don’t worry — there’s no national security threat when you cannot take the resource out of the country.” But then I run into stories like this:

Beijing hints at bond attack on Japan

Jin Baisong from the Chinese Academy of International Trade – a branch of the commerce ministry – said China should use its power as Japan’s biggest creditor with $230bn (£141bn) of bonds to “impose sanctions on Japan in the most effective manner” and bring Tokyo’s festering fiscal crisis to a head.

Writing in the Communist Party newspaper China Daily, Mr. Jin called on China to invoke the “security exception” rule under the World Trade Organisation to punish Japan, rejecting arguments that a trade war between the two Pacific giants would be mutually destructive.

Separately, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported that China is drawing up plans to cut off Japan’s supplies of rare earth metals needed for hi-tech industry.

- The Telegraph, September 19, 2012

OK, maybe he’s just threatening to destroy Japan’s economy. Maybe he doesn’t mean it. Maybe the WTO wouldn’t let him do it…. but then there was the Sino-Forest fraud, busted by the Ontario Securities Commission:

OSC puts the spotlight on Sino-Forest gatekeepers

In its allegations Tuesday, the OSC noted that auditors Ernst & Young “were not made aware” of Sino-Forest’s “systemic practice of creating deceitful purchase contracts and sales contracts.” The commission makes no further comment on the audit firm’s work. A spokeswoman for Ernst & Young could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The OSC issued a report in March calling on boards, underwriters, auditors and stock exchanges to improve the practices for listing foreign companies on Canadian stock exchanges, saying there has been a broad lack of “skepticism” about business practices in emerging companies like China.

- Globe and Mail, May 22, 2012

There’s a beautiful term: “broad lack of skepticism.”
It makes me nervous that Chinese companies are merely branches of the Chinese government. The Communist Party hierarchy appoints the boards of directors of CNOOC, Sinopec and Petro-China.
When I read in the business pages that Petro-China wants to bid on construction of the Enbridge pipeline, and read in the same story that Chinese companies are very competitive in their bids because of low labour costs, I picture the labourers who built the national dream of Pierre Berton’s imaginings… with a brutal and nasty history. We have a temporary foreign workers programme. It could happen. And the bitumen going through the proposed pipeline is to go to Chinese supertankers to Chinese refineries.
Losing sovereignty to China makes me nervous. I don’t want to be intolerant. But I want us to trade items made in Canada, by Canadians, to China. I don’t like the idea of China owning Canada. It makes it hard for us to point out to the Chinese government that it must start respecting human rights. We need to be really forceful in advocating for religious and political freedom in China. How do we do that when they have veto power over Canadian laws? And then there are issues of global tensions. Mr. Harper and John Baird are talking tough to Iran. But what about the fact that, while we claim we are exerting sanctions on anyone doing business with Iran, Sinopec, now a major stake-holder in Syncrude, is Iran’s number one customer for oil? Or, that Chinese oil money helps prop up Bashar al-Assad?
So, bottom-line, the Nexen-CNOOC deal doesn’t have me nearly as freaked out as the investor deal Stephen Harper signed in Russia. But when I think about the idea of “net benefit” I just don’t see any answer but “no.”

Canada Turning into Chinese Colony

Skip the first part It gets interesting at 2:00 into the video.

I'm going to have to quit the conservative party and join the Greens.


Also look what's in the news today:

Legislation that would give police and spies easier access to information about Internet users threatens to turn Canada into a surveillance society

This combined with the governments support of torture
and detention without trial. What the hell is going on?

I feel betrayed, my country has been stolen.

News

Cell Phones Tracking our Every Move Worldwide

Beijing Monitors Citizens’ Whereabouts via Mobile Phone

Beijing's Blueprint for Tackling Mass Incidents and Social Management

Emails: Insiders worried over abuse of powers at Homeland Security

Google Funds Web Tool For Underground Freedom Fighters

Google Accuses China of Tampering With Gmail

Crises Nudge Debt Loads to Brink

The PLA’s "Orient Express": Militarization of the Iron Silk Road

Taiwan’s Intelligence Chief Warns about the PLA’s Growing Strategic Weapon Systems

Chinese Regime’s New Missile Troubles Taiwan

Researchers Unravel Horrors of Organ Harvesting in China

China Executes Thousands

Chinese Dissident Gets 10 Years for Writing Essays

Chinese Activist Detained For Subversion

UN Demands Chinese Lawyer's Release

Gao Zhisheng Wins Freedom of Expression Award

Tibetan Celebrations Suppressed

China’s Drinking Water Crisis

Putin’s Energy Games Turn Increasingly Erratic

Ukraine Set To Take Over Transneft Oil Product Pipeline

News

China determined to rival US nuclear arsenal

No transparency over nukes, China tells US

Wikileaks: 16 More Secrets on China to Follow

China blocks report on North Korea's new nuclear facility, UN diplomats say

Chinese Police Crack Down on Foreign Reporters and Lawyers to Quell a ‘Jasmine Revolution’

Chinese Police Smother Jasmine Protests

Ambassador's Name Blocked in China after protest

Uyghurs Targeted Amidst Reform Call

Chinese Police Crack Down on Banned Tibetan Songs

North Koreans Take to the Streets

North Korea, South Korea standoff heats up as war games begin

Russia unveils huge rearmament drive

Russia Vows to Sell Missiles to Syria

Russian Government Helpless as Rebels Expand Operations in Kabardino-Balkaria

South Stream Project Contravenes EU’s Energy Market Legislation

Towns in Gadhafi Stronghold Falling

Pro-Gadhafi forces fight rebels in 2 cities

UN Accuses Belarus of Arming Ivory Coast Military in Violation of Embargo

News

China Targets U.S.

China's development of Quantum Teleportation a Serious Threat

PLA Expands Network of Military Reconnaissance Satellites

Pentagon Takes Aim at China Cyber Threat

Canada Calls on Chinese Embassy to Give Back Journalist's Passport

Political Persecution Tears a Chinese Family Apart

Activist Detained in Beijing

The Caspian Sea: China’s Silk Road Strategy Converges with Damascus

Analysis: Iran Gas Ambition Requires China to Crack LNG Secret

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S.

Extremist Muslims in UK Threaten Civil War

Kurdish PKK Using PJAK to Isolate Turkey

Round Seven? The Houthi Rebellion in Northern Yemen

Al-Shabaab’s Unavoidable Clash with Somaliland Democracy

The Tricks of Hezbollah

Germany charges two over Iran exports

Report: Saudi Judge Considers Paralysis Punishment

Russia Throws Open French Warship Buy to Tender

Chavez Signs Law That Will Kill Private Brokerages

Body of kidnapped mayor dumped in northern Mexico

Rebels kill 3 Indian peacekeepers in Congo

The Erosion of America's Middle Class

Difficult economic times ahead, CBO warns

News

Hidden cause of great recession and next financial crisis? Debt

The Next Wave Of The Housing Crisis: Much More Pain In 2010, 2011

Taiwan’s aging Naval capabilities

Strategic Implications of China's Access to the Rajin Port

One year later Gao Zhisheng remains missing

Tibetan Students Stage Protest

Thousands in Russia protest government in 'Day of Wrath'

Russia’s violent and corrupt police

Russia Looks East and Sees Storm Clouds: Part One

Russia Looks East and Sees Storm Clouds: Part Two

Russian secrets for sale, no questions asked

North Koreans fear the country is on the verge of a new famine

Will Palestinian leaders again turn to violence to shore up domestic support

Iranians train Taliban to use roadside bombs

Why Hugo Chávez's friends can't save his petrostate

Army, Drug Gangs Battle in Mexico Amid Blockades

Ethiopian PM Says He Will Authorize Jamming VOA

Preliminary Design Of Free Electron Laser Weapon Completed

Bill Calls for Establishment of First U.S. Rare Earth Minerals Stockpile

General David Petraeus tipped as Republican 2012 presidential candidate

Report: Canada Needs Defense Industry Road Map

Days of Darkness

The rise of a Nazi Superpower:

“We have a rightful sense of superiority."

Ministry of Propaganda: "If you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences,"

China announced plans to force Western companies to turn over their most sensitive technology and patents to Chinese competitors in exchange for access to the country's markets.

Internet cafes to be taken over by the government and a declaration that all cellphones should be equipped with surveillance cameras.

Internally, it has carried out more arrests and indictments for endangering state security (thought crime) over the past two years than in the five-year period from 2003 to 2007

also reined in the news media and attempted to control the Internet more vigorously than in the past.

the closer China gets to a variety of firsts -- No. 1 exporting nation and even No. 1 economy in the world -- the more its government seems to exhibit a nagging insecurity and opposition to the West.

Newly powerful China defies Western nations with remarks, policies

Chinese oil giant to buy stake in Argentine firm

News

Japan OKs deployment of missile defense system

Opening Salvos of a New Gas War: Russia Versus the EU and Ukraine

Russia Building New Nuclear Submarines

Analysis: Iranian nuclear threat, Hamas and Hizbullah rockets pose great challenges in '09

Hezbollah Using Mexican Drug Routes Into U.S.

With Eye Against Iran, Arabs Wooing Syria

!!!

Freedom Tower Renamed “One World Trade Center”

U.N. 'Climate Change' Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy

New cameras in police cruisers can analyze thousands of license tags a day

YouTube protest star summoned to White House over content

Obama raised cash after leaving Senate

News

Clampdown Ahead of Tibet Anniversaries

ANALYSIS-Infrastructure left to rot may cripple Russia

Russia's New Energy Doctrine

As it falters, East Europe raises risks

N. Korea Says Launch Imminent — of Satellite or Missile

Iran-Israel Nuclear End Game Now Much Closer

News

China Needs U.S. Guarantees for Treasuries, Yu Says

China to Create Blacklist of Local Journalists

Underground Opposition Party Advocates Democracy in China

Demonstrators Rally In Beijing to Oppose Corruption

Russia Admits China Illegally Copied Its Fighter

Bulgaria's "Overgas," a Russian Spy in Canada, and Gazprom

Report: N. Korea Preparing Massive Long-Range Missile

Iran bulldozes the mass graves of political prisoners

Feinstein comment on U.S. drones likely to embarrass Pakistan

Europe's industrial base may never recover from crisis

As Vacant Office Space Grows, So Does Lenders’ Crisis

Census battle intensifies; GOP leader threatens lawsuit

President's attorneys demand birth, college records be withheld from public

News

China Detains Six For Tibet Great Wall Protest

Investigators Release Report on CCP Organ Harvesting

China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales

Power Pact: Hu's Symbiotic Relations with the PLA

SCO Prepares for Exercise; China Stretches Its Legs

Human Rights Torch to Be Lit to Protest 'Bloody Olympics'

Hundreds Protest in China Over Jailed Tibetan Monk

Tibetan Protest Swells in China's Sichuan

Can Communist China Control Its Toxic Exports?

Georgia Accuses Russia Of Act Of Aggression

Russia: Activist Sent To Psychiatric Unit After Exposing Health Facilities

RUSSIAN FLAG STAKES ENERGY CLAIM AT NORTH POLE

Russia Activates Missile System Around Moscow

GAZPROM TAKEOVER IN HUNGARY LOOMS BEHIND POSSIBLE OMV TAKEOVER

And Now, the UN Cash-for-Visas Program?

Taliban Try Frontal Assault

Pakistan On The Precipice

Iran Shows Off Home-Grown Fighter Jet

Turkey, Iraq Agree to Cooperate on Kurdish Rebels

News

Castro's Spies Still a Threat

Afghan Boy: Taliban Recruited Me to Bomb U.S. Troops

Chavez to head to Russia, Belarus, Iran

Oil Industry Faces Reliability Problem, Not Supply

How to Stop Iran

Online Media Keep Up Pressure on China's Propaganda Czars

China Launches $1 Billion African Trade Fund

Cheap Chinese tires blamed for fatalities

Chinese honey now reported among import dangers

News

Iranian forces crossed Iraqi border: report

Murdoch’s Dealings in China: It’s Business, and It’s Personal

Sudan, China: Darfur Crisis Sparks Louder Calls For 2008 Olympics Boycott

SOUTH STREAM: GAZPROM’S NEW MEGA PROJECT

No standard safety regs with Beijing on food, drugs

Sweden, too, worried about China imports

US Apple Growers Brace for China Rivals

News

New York State Assembly Hosts: 'Exposing Organ Harvesting in China'

China works against practitioners of Falun Gong through North American news media

Let Us Choose Life Today

Victims of communism finally remembered

TURKMENISTAN BACK IN FORMER USSR’S ORBIT

Russia to increase personnel, aircraft at Kyrgyz air base

Iran Says it is Holding 4th Dual Citizen

U.S. Treasury Bans 4 Iran Firms Over Weapons Role

Report: Olmert offers Golan Heights to Syria

Turks home in on Kurdish militants

The end of the plug? Scientists invent wireless device that beams electricity through your home

Mars rover finds "puddles" on the planet's surface

News

Fifth Family Member Pleads Guilty in Scheme to Export U.S. Defense Articles to China

China exports lead poisoning

Seafood imports from China raised in untreated sewage

China Jails Holdout Couple Who Tried to Self-Immolate

Costa Rica Breaks Relations with Taiwan

North Korean Missile Launch Draws U.S. Criticism

PLAYING CATCH-UP WITH RUSSIA ON CASPIAN ENERGY TRANSIT

KREMLIN, ABKHAZ, SOUTH OSSETIAN LEADERS DELIBERATELY AMBIVALENT ABOUT KOSOVO

Iran Adding Attack Boats in Persian Gulf

Syria ready for war

Hamas and Fatah Forces Clash in Gaza

Venezuela Calls for Leftist Defense Bloc

Turkey Weighs Cost of Military Action In Northern Iraq: Analysts

Turkish Raids Into Iraq Worry U.S.

US gives Filipino informants $10m

Three ETA terrorist suspects arrested in south France

Good news: Immigration Bill Suffers Stunning Defeat

InfoUSA's Gupta Bows Out of Hillary Fundraiser

The Great Media Scandal Keeps Getting Greater: TWA 800

News

History's worst mass killer gets Hollywood makeover

Call for Organ Theft to Top the APEC Agenda

Keep Up Pressure on China, Says Former Top Aide on Anniversary

House Urges China to Press Sudan over Darfur

Young clerk let Tiananmen ad slip past censors: paper

President Bush praises Rebiya Kadeer as a human rights defender

Taiwan Ruling Party to Stir China with Three Referenda

RUSSIA STILL SEES WEST AS PRIMARY ENEMY

RUSSIAN OIL PIPELINE SHUTOFF TO LITHUANIA: WIDER RAMIFICATIONS

Press Freedom Group Cites Hugo Chavez as 'Grave Danger'

Venezuela students spur protest movement

Iraq: No Evidence of Turkish Troop Invasion

Turkey: Troops Crossing Into Iraq

Iran caught 'red-handed' shipping arms to Taliban

Iranian Opposition to Hold Paris Confab

The Syrian-Jihadi "Highway" in Lebanon

Naming names: The Saddam-al Qaida connection

Picture Proof: The Saddam-Al Qaeda Connections

News

Visiting Chinese Official Served With Lawsuit At Hotel

China Crafts Cyberweapons

China Military Power Report 2007

Chinas' Military Power Reports 2002-2007

LRF Italy hosts Lu Decheng to speak about the Tiananmen massacre

Venezuelan station off the air; protesters again clash with police

Chavez Widens Attack on Opposition Media

North Korea may launch more missiles

GAZPROM ACHIEVES AN ANSCHLUSS OF AUSTRIA

Russia Test Fires New Multiple Warhead Missile

Polish official says Russia showing 'mental problem' over missile defense

Look back at Weimar and start to worry about Russia

New York Times: Clintons Benefited from Public Company

WND takes $165 million lawsuit to Supreme Court

Iran Charges Three Iranian-Americans With Spying

Iran's Mystery Man at the United Nations