This morning's key headlines from
GenerationalDynamics.com
- Iran announces a new finger-amputating machine for thieves
- Greek statistics official charged with colluding with EU and IMF
- Smog smothers Greece as homeowners burn wood to stay warm
- Egyptian protesters defy president Morsi's 'state of emergency' curfew
- U.S. military plans to set up drone base in Niger on Mali border
Iran announces a new finger-amputating machine for thieves
Iran's new finger-amputating machine (Fars/IRNA)
Iran's official government news service Fars/Irna has unveiled
something that could be out of Edgar Allan Poe's horror stories: A
medieval-looking contraption that amputates fingers. Official photos
show two masked men, dressed entirely in black, hold a blindfolded
man's hand in a vice while another turns a wheel that operators a
rotary blade that performs the amputation. Historically, amputating a
finger is the standard punishment for thieves. Independent (London) and Fars ISNA
Greek statistics official charged with colluding with EU and IMF
It's almost impossible, these days, for any crooked government
official in any country, perpetrating even the most massive of crimes
defrauding the public, to be investigated and charged, but Andreas
Georgiou, head of Greece's Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT),
has managed to find a way. This is really mind-boggling. According
to the charges, Greece's budget deficit should have been computed as
4% of GDP in 2009. But, the charges continue, Georgiou colluded with
the EU and the IMF to fudge the figures so that the budget deficit
came out at 15.6% of GDP -- higher than Ireland's at 14.3% -- in order
to justify the May 2010 bailout and its drastic austerity measures.
Some Greek commentators and politicians have seized upon these
allegations as evidence of a wider plot against Greece or proof that
the country was a victim of sinister forces from within and abroad.
Kathimerini
Smog smothers Greece as homeowners burn wood to stay warm
A steep increase in the cost of heating oil is causing many people in
Greece to switch to wood-burning, at half the cost, to keep warm
during the cold winter months. The vast appetite for wood has
encouraged extensive illegal logging - by local residents for private
use but also by organized gangs. Forestry workers have even been
attacked by illegal loggers wielding axes or guns, creating a "Far
West-style situation." However, the wood-burning is creating a severe
health hazard, because of heavy smog that contains not only wood
particles, but also particles of noxious varnishes and synthetic
coatings from burnt furniture.
Kathimerini
Egyptian protesters defy president Morsi's 'state of emergency' curfew
Protesters torched police vehicles in downtown Cairo on Monday, and on
Monday evening, the three Suez Canal cities -- Suez, Ismailia and Port
Said -- witnessed mass demonstrations in defiance of the state of
emergency curfew announced by president Mohamed Morsi on Sunday. Many
shops and street cafes remained open after the curfew, and in
Ismailia, residents organized football (soccer) games in front of
government headquarters in a show of defiance. Violent clashes are
continuing, but the army is not interfering or trying to impose the
curfew.
Al-Ahram (Cairo)
U.S. military plans to set up drone base in Niger on Mali border
The United States and Niger signed an agreement on Monday that paves
the way for a U.S. military drone base in the country, near the border
with Mali, allowing for up to 300 military service members and
contractors in the base to operate the drone aircraft. The new base
will permit monitoring of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and
will gather intelligence for French warplanes targeting strikes
against jihadists in Mali.
AFP
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