Europe

NOVANEWS http://www.thenation.com/article/162270/europes-homegrown-terrorists Gary Younge Two weeks after the fatal terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005, in London, and one day after another failed attack, a student, Jean Charles de Menezes, was in the London Underground when plainclothes police officers gave chase and shot him seven times in the head. Initial eyewitness reports said he was wearing a suspiciously large puffa jacket on a hot day and had vaulted the barriers and run when asked to stop. Anthony Larkin, who was on the train, said he saw “this guy who appeared to have a bomb belt and wires coming out.” Mark Whitby, who was also at the station, thought he saw a Pakistani terrorist being chased and gunned down by plainclothes policemen. Less than a month later, Whitby said, “I now ...

NOVANEWS John Key confirms IsraHelli victims of Christchurch quake sparked SIS interest, but says so far there are ‘no evidence they were anything other than backpackers’ New Zealand Prime Minister John Key downplayed reports of “suspicious behavior” by groups of IsraHellis who were in Christchurch during the February 22 quake, Ynet learned Wednesday. Key commented on the matter during a visit in the United States Tuesday, adding that the matter was under New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) investigation. He stressed that although Ofer Mizrahi, the IsraHelli who was killed during the devastating quake, was found to be in possession of five passports, none of them were New Zealand passports. Key noted that carrying multiple passports was not illegal in New Zealand. “In the v...

NOVANEWS By Ulme Muld Some 100 members of the European Parliament (EU) have sent Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, a shameful letter against Palestine’s declaration of an independent state in September 2010. The signatories include the Baltic States, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all of whom declared their independence against a similar authoritarian state: the Soviet Union “It is precisely because we believe in the justness of the Palestinian cause that we urge them to refrain from seeking a UN recognition of a unilaterally declared state, a counterproductive step we fear could set back the chances for peace,” said the letter, which was signed by 106 members of the European Parliament representing a range of parti...

NOVANEWS Italy and Spain must pray for a miracle by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard UK Telegraph Once again Europe’s debt crisis has metastasized, and once again the financial authorities face systemic contagion unless they take immediate and dramatic action. If the ECB’s Jean-Claude Trichet is right in claiming that Europe was on the brink of a 1930s financial cataclysm a year ago – and I think he is – it is hard see how the threat is any less serious right now. Fall-out from Greece flattened Portugal and Ireland last week. It is engulfing Spain and Italy, countries with €6.3 trillion of public and private debt between them. Yields on Italian 10-year bonds hit a post-EMU high of 5.3pc on Friday. This is not just a theoretical price: the Italian treasury has to roll over €69bn (£61bn) in August...