When history is all said and done, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet Union will be the seeds in which the first World War sown. The first battle would have been the splitting apart of Yugoslavia. The Serbs attempted to keep it together, but with a weakened Russia it was eventually defeated by the EU, US, and NATO with its regional allies and Al-CIA-Duh mercenaries. The ultimate end was the break-up of the country (not that I am opposed to such things; I'd like to see Kashmir and Palestine get a vote), and an eventual western presence due to events in Kosovo. Thus those those events lead us to where we are today.
"Democracy American Style – Macedonia
May 18th, 2015
By Michael Collins
Macedonia is about to experience Democracy American Style. The nation’s misfortune is simple. It occupies strategic territory of keen interest to the United States and Russia.
“Russia's Stroitransgaz said on Thursday it will build a gas pipeline across Macedonia, which could eventually be used as part of a route to supply Europe with Russian gas via Turkey”. Reuters, Mar 12In January, Russia fired Ukraine as its natural gas transit for Europe. The pipeline across Ukraine was ideally positioned for this function. However, Ukraine’s practice of failing to pay for the natural gas it used and the outright hostility of the Kiev junta toward Russia were simply too much. Russia gave notice that the spigot would be turned off permanently in 2019. (Image: WikiCommons)
As an alternative to the Ukraine pipeline, Russia struck a deal with Turkey to sell it all the natural gas it wanted. In addition, Turkey agreed to put a gas portal at the Greek border for interested European nations.
Enter Macedonia (on the northern border of Greece). The announcement of Russian pipeline deal on March 12 put the small nation in the cross hairs of the Obama administration and Congress. Allowing Russia a backdoor to sell Europe natural gas challenged the economic and political war against Russia. The U.S. and its puppet governments in London, Paris, and Berlin give lip service to free markets. But, when it comes to Russia, political goals trump commerce.
The last time a country started to cooperate with Russian natural gas commerce in 2014, the U.S. and it’s European Union puppets coerced Bulgaria to reverse course at great expense to the country and its people.
Will Macedonia get the message and fall in line?
NATO Narco State and NGOs Target Macedonia
The government of Macedonia and its upstart leader needed to be taught a lesson. After all, if Macedonia successfully defies the U.S. will, the people of the puppet states might elect leaders that actually stand up to the dictates from Washington.
Stories appeared from the usual suspects, i.e., the corporate media, about corruption in the administration of Macedonia’s Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. On March 29, the leader of the opposition party charged Gruevski with taking bribes based on taped conversations that appeared shortly after the Russia – Macedonia pipeline deal of March 12. Charges and counter charges carried the story further. The press failed to mention that corruption has been a mainstay of Macedonian politics since independence in 1991. Even if true, the charges are just more of the same.
U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs) activated their ever-present democracy cadres paid for by the U.S. Congress. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spends hundreds of thousands of dollars in Macedonia promoting “Civic Engagement in Legislative Advocacy and Public Policy Dialogue.” The George Soros funded Open Society Foundation is on the ground in Macedonia providing “… coordinated actions that have prompted the government to improve accountability and transparency.” Like serpents in a swamp, the NGOs lay in wait for any signs of deviation from the projects of the U.S. financial and political elite.
Parallel to NGO agitation, Macedonia charged Albania with stirring up violent acts by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. Attacks on police in the city of Kemerovo resulted in the injury and deaths of police and security forces. When Macedonia cleared out the terrorists, the Albanian foreign minister asked for an investigation of police abuse. This is highly ironic given the fact that Albania is seen as a major center for narcotics trafficking. Albania is also the location of one of the largest U.S. overseas military bases, Fort Bondsteel.
Predictable but Effective
There’s a simple goal for the latest democracy festival in Macedonia. It’s the same goal as its recent predecessors in Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. The big man in charge isn’t cooperating. Time to bring him some serious democracy. And sure enough, just hours ago, the British started to create the reality on the ground in Scopje, Macedonia’s capitol:
Tens of thousands of protesters in the Macedonian capital Skopje have demanded the resignation of long-serving Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. BBC May 17
It’s the same storyline that showed up after the Russia - Macedonia pipeline deal in early March. But, in the world of propaganda, the BBC represents the heavy artillery.
What Next?
Let’s look to the recent past for the answer. In Libya, there were protests, supposed use of military force against the protesters, and international outrage. In Syria, we saw the same scenario. Ukraine required more effort but the U.S. and its puppets used the same scenario.
Here is where the latest chapter in foreign destabilization is headed:
- Macedonian leader is a crook! (Never mind endemic corruption in Macedonia over time.)
Macedonian opposition leader accuses PM of corruption, AP, Mar 26
- Grave concerns by the U.S. and its European Union puppets about current leader (this is the clear signal that it’s game on).
German Ambassador to Skopje urges resignations over wiretapping scandal, Focus, Apr 29
“Western powers on Monday questioned the Macedonian government's commitment to democracy and European values over its failure to address allegations of abuse of power, piling pressure on leader Nikola Gruevski following a weekend of bloodshed.
“In a statement read out by U.S. ambassador Jess Baily, the envoys criticised Skopje's failure to address the "many allegations of government wrongdoing arising from the disclosures" published by opposition leader Zoran Zaev.” Reuters, May 11 (Authors emphasis)
- Thousands rally to protest the crooked leader
Thousands Rally in Macedonia for PM Resignation, Voice of America, May 17
- Behind the scenes manipulation by U.S., EU, NGOs with possible false flag implicating the current leader.
- Much commotion, some bloodshed, and, in a stunning conclusion, democracy prevails and the evildoer, the bad guy leading Macedonia, is replaced.
Creative Commons 3.0
--MORE--"
Also see: US Attempted Color Revolution in Macedonia
So what brought me to bring the Balkans into my war coverage at this moment?
"In Greece, a familiar financial crisis poses new danger; Europe’s leaders scramble to stop Athens collapse" by Anthony Faiola Washington Post June 04, 2015
BERLIN — European leaders are again racing to forge a final-hour deal to save Greece from financial collapse. But this time, the price of failure could be as geopolitical as economic.
The problem is, it would eventually be better for the Greek people to drop out.
After months of stalemated talks, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece was locked in a meeting in Brussels Wednesday on a new set of European terms — billed as a take-it-or-leave-it deal — aimed at unlocking critical funds to pay its bills.
Those in control of Greece’s purse strings — the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank — have essentially frozen Greece’s ongoing bailout because of refusal by the country’s far-left government to maintain harsh austerity measures in exchange for cash.
PFFFFT! They just scooped up all surplus cash and are getting ready to raid pensions and salaries! Far-left my a$$!!
The terms were not disclosed, and central to any breakthrough will be the prime minister’s response. But if the Greek leader — a political maverick whose administration has hurled insults against its creditors — decides to back it, he still needs to sell any compromise to his party and a Greek public weary of the cutbacks, layoffs, and lean times.
Looks like the banker's mouthpiece doesn't like him.
There is also a huge perception gap.
Some EU leaders see it as a crisis of Greece’s own making after decades of unchecked state spending and reluctance to impose limits after joining the eurozone more than a decade ago. Greek officials increasingly believe they can never restore growth unless freed from the tough cost- control demands set by their European partners.
All sides involved have one big problem. Greece is quickly running out of cash, and says it will put paying salaries and pensions above paying foreign debt.
That is the REAL RUB!
A key test comes Friday, when Athens must scrape together a $330 million payment to the International Monetary Fund or risk going down the path of default.
‘‘If there is no prospect of a deal by Friday or Monday, I don’t know by when exactly, we will not pay,’’ Nikos Filis, a spokesman for Tsipras’s Syriza Party, told Greek television on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The drama amounts to déjà vu.
I thought I felt funny.
Greece has time and again appeared on the brink of collapse — the match that lights the fires of regional calamity. Yet the stakes are somewhat different than in the past.
The last time Greece looked this bad — in 2012 — markets reeled from fears that a debt default would trigger a new global financial crisis.
That's what the alternative media has been saying as the propaganda pre$$ minimizes such things.
But in the years since, Italy, Spain, and other weak-link economies in the region have shored up their financial defenses, partially shielding themselves — and Europe — by slashing budget deficits and enacting reforms.
And their populations are also extremely unhappy at banker-imposed austerity from the political cla$$.
Without doubt, concern of financial fallout lingers and could grow, particularly if Greece is forced out of the 19-member euro currency union. During the Group of Seven finance ministers meeting in Dresden last week, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew urged a quick deal, warning that delays were courting ‘‘an accident.’’
But in Washington and the major capitals of Europe, economic fears are at least being equaled by worries that Greece could become a quasi-failed state on Europe’s strategically vital southeastern flank, one of the frontline regions for economic migrants and others seeking to reach the EU.
Hitler had to shore it up before attacking the Soviet Union.
Greece’s neighborhood is growing more troubled.
Yes, it presented Hitler with a problem. Should he help Mussolini or leave him to his fate? He decided to help, and at first all went well.
Macedonia — Greece’s neighbor to the north — saw a raid by ethnic Albanian insurgents last month that left 22 dead. Its capital, Skopje, is convulsing in antigovernment protests.
Oh yeah?
Officials and analysts on both sides of the Atlantic are growing more concerned that Greece, if no deal is reached soon, could stumble into a scenario similar to Argentina’s devastating economic collapse in the early 2000s.
Related: World War III: South American Sphere
Bank accounts could be restricted or frozen, even as some deposits are potentially converted from euros to a weaker domestic currency. It could see the return of high inflation, lightning-fast collapses of governments, and the return of the kind of political violence that rocked Greece in past decades.
Look at the banker's servants all of sudden caring about your money (after they gave Cyprus a haircut and shave!)
So who took it anyway?
Greece is on the verge of losing control of its porous borders, posing a potential security risk for the rest of Europe.
And now the migrants are coming at them in waves.
From ports in Turkey, a record wave of refugees pour across the narrow straits and onto a multitude of Greek islands.
Oh, they are getting refugees from Turkey, too? Just when they were getting along!
--more--"
Back to Macedonia:
"Rally demands Macedonian leader quit" Associated Press May 18, 2015
SKOPJE, Macedonia — Tens of thousands of protesters gathered Sunday in the center of the Macedonian capital to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
The government of the tiny, landlocked Balkan nation of about 2 million people is reeling from a massive, long-running wiretap scandal and a gun battle a week ago between police and ethnic Albanian gunmen that left 18 dead in a border town.
In a region with a long and bloody history of ethnic conflicts and political instability, the developments have caused consternation both domestically and abroad.
Zoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, was one of the politicians who addressed the crowd. In January, Zaev began releasing a cache of wiretapped conversations and contended that Gruevski was behind the mass wiretapping of more than 20,000 Macedonians.
The conversations purport to reveal corruption at the highest levels of government.
No!
Gruevski, who has won successive elections since 2006, angrily rejects the accusations.
He accuses Zaev of participating in a coup plot backed by unnamed foreign spy agencies.
Gee, I wonder who he could mean.
--more--"
That was a one-day wonder from NoPP (no printed paper purchase) garbage.
NDUs:
"Greece resorts to rare method in order to pay back IMF loans" by Nicholas Paphitis and Derek Gatopoulos Associated Press June 05, 2015
ATHENS — Greece pulled the emergency cord Thursday in its fraught bailout talks, choosing to bundle together its four payments due to the International Monetary Fund this month into one on June 30 — a course last followed three decades ago by Zambia.
The delay is allowed under IMF rules, but it provides a stark sign of how Greece is struggling to make ends meet without the vital rescue loans that have been withheld since last summer, as Athens and its creditors fail to agree on economic reforms.
It's the loans that have put them in this bind!
The move follows the failure of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a left-leaning leader, to break the stalemate with creditors at a late-night meeting with European Commission head Jean Claude Juncker and the top official representing Greece’s peers in the eurozone. The talks will resume ‘‘within coming days,’’ officials said.
On his return to Athens, Tsipras told government officials that ‘‘extreme proposals will not be accepted by the Greek government. Everyone must understand that the Greek people have suffered greatly over the last five years and some people must stop playing games at their expense.’’
That is the kind of stuff for which bankers bend you over.
Without a deal, Greece will not get the $8.1 billion remaining from its $310 billion bailout fund, which it has been relying on for five years. Without the money, it will struggle to pay upcoming debts and the country could soon go bankrupt — a possible preamble to a forced exit from the euro and a return to a financial stone age with a devalued version of its old national currency.
Actually, as I linked above a return to national currency and the drachma would -- in the long run -- be best for Greece. Unhooking from these colo$$al centralized banking systems is best in any regard.
‘‘The Greek authorities have informed the fund today that they plan to bundle the country’s four June payments into one, which is now due on June 30,’’ IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said. ‘‘The decision was intended to address the administrative difficulty of making multiple payments in a short period.’’
Under an IMF rule from the 1970s, countries can ask to bundle together multiple payments if they fall within a single calendar month. Not since Zambia in the mid-1980s has a country made the request, according to the IMF.
Still, the request buys time for the government, which has already scraped the barrel of its finances by forcing local officials, hospitals, and universities to lend it their cash reserves. Its first IMF payment of about $340 million was due on Friday, part of a total $1.8 billion due to the fund this month.
That made the Greek people furious.
Greece has bigger payments due to the European Central Bank this summer and can’t meet them without the rescue cash. Inability to repay creditors or pay pensions and public sector salaries may cause havoc involving capital controls and an unprecedented departure from the 19-country eurozone.
For now, Thursday’s IMF postponement does not appear to impact Greek banks’ ability to draw on vital emergency credit from the Greek central bank, as permitted by the European Central Bank. An ECB spokesman declined to comment on the move.
At an emergency meeting with ministers Thursday, Tsipras called a parliamentary debate for Friday on the course of the bailout negotiations.
His party, Syriza, leads a coalition with the right-wing Independent Greeks and holds a majority of 12 seats in the 300-member Parliament. Growing dissent in his party has fueled talk of another snap election in the heart of the summer, which Syriza would probably win, according to opinion polls.
This after he pi$$ed of the troika. Hmmmmm.
However, the uncertainty would likely further damage the economy, which is back in recession after a brief bout of growth.
The finance ministry said reforms and tax measures advocated by the three institutions providing Greece’s rescue loans — the IMF, ECB, and the European Commission — would ‘‘significantly deepen’’ poverty and unemployment.
‘‘After four months of negotiations, the institutions have tabled proposals whose implementation, in the opinion of the finance ministry, lack the ability to solve the riddle of the financial crisis that the policies of the past five years have aggravated,’’ a ministry statement said.
Why would they want to solve what they created and are still profiting from?
--more--"
Related: World War III: Battle For the Mediterranean
Seeing as we are heading back that way....
"Kurdish party worker killed in Turkey" Associated Press June 05, 2015
ANKARA, Turkey — Assailants fired on a campaign vehicle belonging to Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party and killed its driver, officials said Thursday, in the latest violence against politicians or political parties ahead of Sunday’s general election.
The governor’s office said an investigation had been launched.
The attack comes weeks after bomb explosions at two HDP offices injured six people in southern Adana city and neighboring Mersin and days after officials said two supporters of a small Islamist party were killed in a fight with Kurdish party supporters in southeastern Turkey.
ISIS is in goddamn Turkey now. Wait, Turkey helps train ISIS.
The motive for the latest attack was not known but the party is frequently accused by the ruling AKP party and by nationalists of links to Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
On Thursday, clashes broke out in the northeastern city of Erzurum between HDP supporters and people opposed to the party staging a rally there.
The rally went ahead and the HDP blamed the clashes on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who have been leading a fierce election campaign, often speaking out against the Kurdish party....
--more--"
Related:
"The UN refugee agency urged the European Union on Thursday to take in far greater numbers of refugees than planned as the number of desperate Syrians fleeing conflict continues to grow. UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Turk told EU lawmakers that the numbers of migrants entering the European Union via Turkey into Greece had increased significantly recently and that most of those coming were Syrians. Some Iraqis, Somalis, and Eritreans were using this route, too, he said. Syria’s conflict is now in its fifth year, and Turk said this means that ‘‘a certain sense of hopelessness sets in among the Syrian refugee population’’ and drives them to more desperate ways of finding sanctuary."
And how many terrorist have filtered back to become false flag patsies, huh? The goddamn agenda-pushing propaganda never ends. In fact, it's being bulldozed and bucket-loaded these days.
Also see: World War III: Sub-Saharan Africa
"Floods, fuel combine to ignite gas station explosion, killing 150 in Ghana" Associated Press June 05, 2015
ACCRA, Ghana — Flooding in Ghana’s capital swept stored fuel into a nearby fire, setting off a huge explosion at a gas station that killed 150 people and set alight neighboring buildings, authorities said Thursday.
The blast took place as dozens of people sought shelter at the gas station and in nearby shops in central Accra to escape the torrential rains. The disaster raised anew concerns over the city’s inadequate infrastructure.
TV footage showed corpses being piled into the back of a pickup and other charred bodies trapped amid the debris. Flood waters around the site hampered rescue and recovery efforts.
Officials at a nearby hospital said its morgue had reached capacity.
President John Dramani Mahama visited the scene Thursday, calling the death toll catastrophic and offering condolences to families of the victims. He didn’t give a breakdown of the death toll, but the figure appears to include people killed in the explosion, others who drowned at the blast site trying to escape the flames, and still more who drowned elsewhere in the city.
Michael Plange, who lives a few blocks away, said many people had taken shelter under a shed at the station from the rain and were hit by the explosion.
The flooding ‘‘caused the diesel and petrol to flow away from the gas station and a fire from a nearby house led to the explosion,’’ said Billy Anaglate, spokesman for Ghana’s national fire service.
In addition to the dead at the gas station, local media reported, many drowned in various parts of the city following two days of torrential rains.
The explosion is likely to intensify criticism of the government’s failure to improve the infrastructure.
Who stole their money?
Though the downpours this week have been especially bad, heavy rains in June are not unusual, yet drainage systems in Accra remain inadequate.
--more--"
The rest of the coverage dried up.
UPDATE:
"The artifacts were retrieved this year from the wreck site of a Portuguese slave ship that sank on its way to Brazil while carrying more than 400 enslaved Africans from Mozambique, and ‘‘represents one of the earliest attempts to bring East Africans into the trans-Atlantic slave trade.’’
"Francis strives to give peace a chance in battle-worn Bosnia" by John L. Allen Jr., Associate editor June 6, 2015
Bosnia today is a country of 3.8 million people with the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, as well as a fragile peace among Muslims, Orthodox, and Catholics constantly at risk of falling apart.
That’s why Pope Francis spent Saturday in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, with the motto of his one-day visit being “Peace be with you!”
Despite the success of the US-backed 1995 Dayton Accords in ending a feral three-year civil war that left 100,000 Bosnians dead and made Sarajevo synonymous with snipers and ethnic cleansing, nobody’s under the illusion that stability will necessarily endure.
Bosnia presently is divided into a Serb Orthodox republic and a Muslim-Catholic federation, and few seem truly satisfied. Many Serbs want to secede; Muslims are seeking a unified country, which they would likely dominate; and the mostly Croat Catholic minority is demanding its own autonomous region.
Reminders of the trauma of the war years came from two priests and a nun who told Francis their stories....
--more--"
So what brought me to bring the Balkans into my war coverage at this moment?
"In Greece, a familiar financial crisis poses new danger; Europe’s leaders scramble to stop Athens collapse" by Anthony Faiola Washington Post June 04, 2015
BERLIN — European leaders are again racing to forge a final-hour deal to save Greece from financial collapse. But this time, the price of failure could be as geopolitical as economic.
The problem is, it would eventually be better for the Greek people to drop out.
After months of stalemated talks, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece was locked in a meeting in Brussels Wednesday on a new set of European terms — billed as a take-it-or-leave-it deal — aimed at unlocking critical funds to pay its bills.
Those in control of Greece’s purse strings — the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank — have essentially frozen Greece’s ongoing bailout because of refusal by the country’s far-left government to maintain harsh austerity measures in exchange for cash.
PFFFFT! They just scooped up all surplus cash and are getting ready to raid pensions and salaries! Far-left my a$$!!
The terms were not disclosed, and central to any breakthrough will be the prime minister’s response. But if the Greek leader — a political maverick whose administration has hurled insults against its creditors — decides to back it, he still needs to sell any compromise to his party and a Greek public weary of the cutbacks, layoffs, and lean times.
Looks like the banker's mouthpiece doesn't like him.
There is also a huge perception gap.
Some EU leaders see it as a crisis of Greece’s own making after decades of unchecked state spending and reluctance to impose limits after joining the eurozone more than a decade ago. Greek officials increasingly believe they can never restore growth unless freed from the tough cost- control demands set by their European partners.
All sides involved have one big problem. Greece is quickly running out of cash, and says it will put paying salaries and pensions above paying foreign debt.
That is the REAL RUB!
A key test comes Friday, when Athens must scrape together a $330 million payment to the International Monetary Fund or risk going down the path of default.
‘‘If there is no prospect of a deal by Friday or Monday, I don’t know by when exactly, we will not pay,’’ Nikos Filis, a spokesman for Tsipras’s Syriza Party, told Greek television on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The drama amounts to déjà vu.
I thought I felt funny.
Greece has time and again appeared on the brink of collapse — the match that lights the fires of regional calamity. Yet the stakes are somewhat different than in the past.
The last time Greece looked this bad — in 2012 — markets reeled from fears that a debt default would trigger a new global financial crisis.
That's what the alternative media has been saying as the propaganda pre$$ minimizes such things.
But in the years since, Italy, Spain, and other weak-link economies in the region have shored up their financial defenses, partially shielding themselves — and Europe — by slashing budget deficits and enacting reforms.
And their populations are also extremely unhappy at banker-imposed austerity from the political cla$$.
Without doubt, concern of financial fallout lingers and could grow, particularly if Greece is forced out of the 19-member euro currency union. During the Group of Seven finance ministers meeting in Dresden last week, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew urged a quick deal, warning that delays were courting ‘‘an accident.’’
But in Washington and the major capitals of Europe, economic fears are at least being equaled by worries that Greece could become a quasi-failed state on Europe’s strategically vital southeastern flank, one of the frontline regions for economic migrants and others seeking to reach the EU.
Hitler had to shore it up before attacking the Soviet Union.
Greece’s neighborhood is growing more troubled.
Yes, it presented Hitler with a problem. Should he help Mussolini or leave him to his fate? He decided to help, and at first all went well.
Macedonia — Greece’s neighbor to the north — saw a raid by ethnic Albanian insurgents last month that left 22 dead. Its capital, Skopje, is convulsing in antigovernment protests.
Oh yeah?
Officials and analysts on both sides of the Atlantic are growing more concerned that Greece, if no deal is reached soon, could stumble into a scenario similar to Argentina’s devastating economic collapse in the early 2000s.
Related: World War III: South American Sphere
Bank accounts could be restricted or frozen, even as some deposits are potentially converted from euros to a weaker domestic currency. It could see the return of high inflation, lightning-fast collapses of governments, and the return of the kind of political violence that rocked Greece in past decades.
Look at the banker's servants all of sudden caring about your money (after they gave Cyprus a haircut and shave!)
So who took it anyway?
Greece is on the verge of losing control of its porous borders, posing a potential security risk for the rest of Europe.
And now the migrants are coming at them in waves.
From ports in Turkey, a record wave of refugees pour across the narrow straits and onto a multitude of Greek islands.
Oh, they are getting refugees from Turkey, too? Just when they were getting along!
--more--"
Back to Macedonia:
"Rally demands Macedonian leader quit" Associated Press May 18, 2015
SKOPJE, Macedonia — Tens of thousands of protesters gathered Sunday in the center of the Macedonian capital to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
The government of the tiny, landlocked Balkan nation of about 2 million people is reeling from a massive, long-running wiretap scandal and a gun battle a week ago between police and ethnic Albanian gunmen that left 18 dead in a border town.
In a region with a long and bloody history of ethnic conflicts and political instability, the developments have caused consternation both domestically and abroad.
Zoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, was one of the politicians who addressed the crowd. In January, Zaev began releasing a cache of wiretapped conversations and contended that Gruevski was behind the mass wiretapping of more than 20,000 Macedonians.
The conversations purport to reveal corruption at the highest levels of government.
No!
Gruevski, who has won successive elections since 2006, angrily rejects the accusations.
He accuses Zaev of participating in a coup plot backed by unnamed foreign spy agencies.
Gee, I wonder who he could mean.
--more--"
That was a one-day wonder from NoPP (no printed paper purchase) garbage.
NDUs:
"Greece resorts to rare method in order to pay back IMF loans" by Nicholas Paphitis and Derek Gatopoulos Associated Press June 05, 2015
ATHENS — Greece pulled the emergency cord Thursday in its fraught bailout talks, choosing to bundle together its four payments due to the International Monetary Fund this month into one on June 30 — a course last followed three decades ago by Zambia.
The delay is allowed under IMF rules, but it provides a stark sign of how Greece is struggling to make ends meet without the vital rescue loans that have been withheld since last summer, as Athens and its creditors fail to agree on economic reforms.
It's the loans that have put them in this bind!
The move follows the failure of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a left-leaning leader, to break the stalemate with creditors at a late-night meeting with European Commission head Jean Claude Juncker and the top official representing Greece’s peers in the eurozone. The talks will resume ‘‘within coming days,’’ officials said.
On his return to Athens, Tsipras told government officials that ‘‘extreme proposals will not be accepted by the Greek government. Everyone must understand that the Greek people have suffered greatly over the last five years and some people must stop playing games at their expense.’’
That is the kind of stuff for which bankers bend you over.
Without a deal, Greece will not get the $8.1 billion remaining from its $310 billion bailout fund, which it has been relying on for five years. Without the money, it will struggle to pay upcoming debts and the country could soon go bankrupt — a possible preamble to a forced exit from the euro and a return to a financial stone age with a devalued version of its old national currency.
Actually, as I linked above a return to national currency and the drachma would -- in the long run -- be best for Greece. Unhooking from these colo$$al centralized banking systems is best in any regard.
‘‘The Greek authorities have informed the fund today that they plan to bundle the country’s four June payments into one, which is now due on June 30,’’ IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said. ‘‘The decision was intended to address the administrative difficulty of making multiple payments in a short period.’’
Under an IMF rule from the 1970s, countries can ask to bundle together multiple payments if they fall within a single calendar month. Not since Zambia in the mid-1980s has a country made the request, according to the IMF.
Still, the request buys time for the government, which has already scraped the barrel of its finances by forcing local officials, hospitals, and universities to lend it their cash reserves. Its first IMF payment of about $340 million was due on Friday, part of a total $1.8 billion due to the fund this month.
That made the Greek people furious.
Greece has bigger payments due to the European Central Bank this summer and can’t meet them without the rescue cash. Inability to repay creditors or pay pensions and public sector salaries may cause havoc involving capital controls and an unprecedented departure from the 19-country eurozone.
For now, Thursday’s IMF postponement does not appear to impact Greek banks’ ability to draw on vital emergency credit from the Greek central bank, as permitted by the European Central Bank. An ECB spokesman declined to comment on the move.
At an emergency meeting with ministers Thursday, Tsipras called a parliamentary debate for Friday on the course of the bailout negotiations.
His party, Syriza, leads a coalition with the right-wing Independent Greeks and holds a majority of 12 seats in the 300-member Parliament. Growing dissent in his party has fueled talk of another snap election in the heart of the summer, which Syriza would probably win, according to opinion polls.
This after he pi$$ed of the troika. Hmmmmm.
However, the uncertainty would likely further damage the economy, which is back in recession after a brief bout of growth.
The finance ministry said reforms and tax measures advocated by the three institutions providing Greece’s rescue loans — the IMF, ECB, and the European Commission — would ‘‘significantly deepen’’ poverty and unemployment.
‘‘After four months of negotiations, the institutions have tabled proposals whose implementation, in the opinion of the finance ministry, lack the ability to solve the riddle of the financial crisis that the policies of the past five years have aggravated,’’ a ministry statement said.
Why would they want to solve what they created and are still profiting from?
--more--"
Related: World War III: Battle For the Mediterranean
Seeing as we are heading back that way....
"Kurdish party worker killed in Turkey" Associated Press June 05, 2015
ANKARA, Turkey — Assailants fired on a campaign vehicle belonging to Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party and killed its driver, officials said Thursday, in the latest violence against politicians or political parties ahead of Sunday’s general election.
The governor’s office said an investigation had been launched.
The attack comes weeks after bomb explosions at two HDP offices injured six people in southern Adana city and neighboring Mersin and days after officials said two supporters of a small Islamist party were killed in a fight with Kurdish party supporters in southeastern Turkey.
ISIS is in goddamn Turkey now. Wait, Turkey helps train ISIS.
The motive for the latest attack was not known but the party is frequently accused by the ruling AKP party and by nationalists of links to Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
On Thursday, clashes broke out in the northeastern city of Erzurum between HDP supporters and people opposed to the party staging a rally there.
The rally went ahead and the HDP blamed the clashes on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who have been leading a fierce election campaign, often speaking out against the Kurdish party....
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Related:
"The UN refugee agency urged the European Union on Thursday to take in far greater numbers of refugees than planned as the number of desperate Syrians fleeing conflict continues to grow. UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Turk told EU lawmakers that the numbers of migrants entering the European Union via Turkey into Greece had increased significantly recently and that most of those coming were Syrians. Some Iraqis, Somalis, and Eritreans were using this route, too, he said. Syria’s conflict is now in its fifth year, and Turk said this means that ‘‘a certain sense of hopelessness sets in among the Syrian refugee population’’ and drives them to more desperate ways of finding sanctuary."
And how many terrorist have filtered back to become false flag patsies, huh? The goddamn agenda-pushing propaganda never ends. In fact, it's being bulldozed and bucket-loaded these days.
Also see: World War III: Sub-Saharan Africa
"Floods, fuel combine to ignite gas station explosion, killing 150 in Ghana" Associated Press June 05, 2015
ACCRA, Ghana — Flooding in Ghana’s capital swept stored fuel into a nearby fire, setting off a huge explosion at a gas station that killed 150 people and set alight neighboring buildings, authorities said Thursday.
The blast took place as dozens of people sought shelter at the gas station and in nearby shops in central Accra to escape the torrential rains. The disaster raised anew concerns over the city’s inadequate infrastructure.
TV footage showed corpses being piled into the back of a pickup and other charred bodies trapped amid the debris. Flood waters around the site hampered rescue and recovery efforts.
Officials at a nearby hospital said its morgue had reached capacity.
President John Dramani Mahama visited the scene Thursday, calling the death toll catastrophic and offering condolences to families of the victims. He didn’t give a breakdown of the death toll, but the figure appears to include people killed in the explosion, others who drowned at the blast site trying to escape the flames, and still more who drowned elsewhere in the city.
Michael Plange, who lives a few blocks away, said many people had taken shelter under a shed at the station from the rain and were hit by the explosion.
The flooding ‘‘caused the diesel and petrol to flow away from the gas station and a fire from a nearby house led to the explosion,’’ said Billy Anaglate, spokesman for Ghana’s national fire service.
In addition to the dead at the gas station, local media reported, many drowned in various parts of the city following two days of torrential rains.
The explosion is likely to intensify criticism of the government’s failure to improve the infrastructure.
Who stole their money?
Though the downpours this week have been especially bad, heavy rains in June are not unusual, yet drainage systems in Accra remain inadequate.
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The rest of the coverage dried up.
UPDATE:
"The artifacts were retrieved this year from the wreck site of a Portuguese slave ship that sank on its way to Brazil while carrying more than 400 enslaved Africans from Mozambique, and ‘‘represents one of the earliest attempts to bring East Africans into the trans-Atlantic slave trade.’’
"Francis strives to give peace a chance in battle-worn Bosnia" by John L. Allen Jr., Associate editor June 6, 2015
Bosnia today is a country of 3.8 million people with the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, as well as a fragile peace among Muslims, Orthodox, and Catholics constantly at risk of falling apart.
That’s why Pope Francis spent Saturday in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, with the motto of his one-day visit being “Peace be with you!”
Despite the success of the US-backed 1995 Dayton Accords in ending a feral three-year civil war that left 100,000 Bosnians dead and made Sarajevo synonymous with snipers and ethnic cleansing, nobody’s under the illusion that stability will necessarily endure.
Bosnia presently is divided into a Serb Orthodox republic and a Muslim-Catholic federation, and few seem truly satisfied. Many Serbs want to secede; Muslims are seeking a unified country, which they would likely dominate; and the mostly Croat Catholic minority is demanding its own autonomous region.
Reminders of the trauma of the war years came from two priests and a nun who told Francis their stories....
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