American Buddhist Net

Monday, 7 July 2008
By Arifa Akbar

Perhaps, when the architect Daniel Libeskind produced his grand plans for an art museum and office tower designed to inspire civic pride in the heart of Milan, he should not have been surprised when Italy's gaffe-prone Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said the bent structure emanated a "sense of impotence" because it is not manly enough.

But Libeskind, an American born in Poland, was so outraged that he accused Mr Berlusconi of being a xenophobe who proffers "repugnant" politics, according to the The Art Newspaper. The war of words culminated in the premier's latest threat this month to withdraw planning permission for the museum.

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By Chris Buckley
July 3, 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) - China made a barely veiled swipe at French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday and state media warned he can expect a cold public shoulder if he attends the Beijing Olympics after he threatened not to go over Tibet.

Sarkozy has said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Games in August, with his choice depending on how talks go between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys.

China often lashes out at foreign leaders for meeting the exiled Dalai Lama or criticizing its policies in Tibet, which it calls an internal affair.

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WARSAW (AFP) — Polish President Lech Kaczynski announced in an interview published Tuesday that he will not sign the EU's Lisbon Treaty, saying it was pointless after Irish voters rejected it in a referendum last month.

"For the moment, the question of the treaty is pointless," Kaczynski was quoted as saying in the online version of the daily Dziennik.

The Polish parliament voted in April to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, a key reform treaty meant to streamline EU decision-making, but it needs the signature of the president to become definitive.

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Thirty years after his murder we may finally get to know the truth about Aldo Moro, says Robert Fox

June 30, 2008

Thirty years ago this Sunday, the Italian statesman Aldo Moro was seized by the Red Brigades and eight weeks later his body was dumped in downtown Rome. It was the most spectacular assassination by the Red Brigades and the most significant killing of a leader in Europe during the entire Cold War.

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The scientific dictatorship is moving quickly towards its goal of a one world government nightmare police state.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=2908

EU Constitution Kingpin: We Will Ignore Referendums

Admits Lisbon Treaty was intended to confuse public into acceptance

Steve Watson & Paul Watson / Infowars.net | Friday, June 27, 2008

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, author of the rejected European Constitution, has effectively stated that the votes of citizens in EU member states will have no bearing on the future actions of the European Parliament.

The former President of France has told media that referendums, such as last week’s key Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty, will simply be ignored by bureaucrats in Brussels as they may hinder the progress of European integration.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 1:20am BST 25/06/2008

The ultra-Europeans have overplayed their hand. We can now glimpse a chain of events that will halt, and reverse, this extremist push towards an Über-state that almost no one wants.

The attempt to override the triple "No" votes of the French, Dutch, and Irish peoples has brought the EU to a systemic crisis of legitimacy. A line too many has been crossed. Any sentient citizen can see that the process has become unhinged.

While "Europe" blunders on as if nothing has happened, it is now an open question whether the Lisbon Treaty - née Constitution - will ever come into force, whether the EU will ever acquire the machinery of an economic, diplomatic, and military power, and whether the euro will ever have a polity to back it up.

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By Kate Kelland Sat Jun 21, 12:19 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The owner of a tiny island in off Scotland declared its independence from the United Kingdom on Saturday, saying he wanted the territory, population one, to be a crown dependency like the Channel Islands.

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Shetland Action: Statement of intent

Cory Doctorow, June 17, 2008

When I was in Sweden last weekend, everyone was up in arms about the new Swedish proposal to empower the national spy agency to listen in on all phone calls and network transactions that "cross the border" (due to the way Swedish telcos manage their tariffs, this would include virtually every mobile phone call, whether or not the speakers were in Sweden at the time). The vote on this takes place tomorrow, and the Swedes are pissed. From Slashdot:

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PARIS (AP) — The French state and Internet service providers have struck a deal to block sites carrying child pornography or content linked to terrorism or racial hatred, Interior Minister Michel Alliot-Marie announced Tuesday.

The plan, part of a larger effort to fight cybercriminality, is to go into effect in September when a "black list" will be built up based on input from Internet users who signal sites dealing with the offensive material, the minister said.

The announcement comes on the heels of a similar deal in the United States, also announced Tuesday. There, three service providers — Verizon, Sprint and TimeWarner Cable_ have agreed with New York state officials to block child pornography sites nationwide.

Alliot-Marie said all service providers in France have agreed to block offending sites but did not name them.

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Telus Leading "End of Internet" with PPV Spark Product

This is not verified, but worth viewing: Secret Plan To Kill Internet By 2012 Leaked?

WARSAW (AFP) — Polish forces will be out of Iraq by the middle of October, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich confirmed in a radio interview Saturday.

"At the end of June, I will hand over to the Iraqis responsibility for the whole province" of Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, Klich told Radio RMF FM.

"It will be an important ceremony which will end our political responsibility for the whole region," he said, adding that the last Polish soldier will exit Iraq "in mid-October".

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By the way, the "talks" that China is supposedly engaging in with representatives of the Dalai Lama have gone nowhere and almost certainly are being used by China as a delaying tactic to keep Tibet out of the headlines until after the Olympic Games, at which time the world's attention will move elsewhere. ABN
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24 May 2008

China has criticised Gordon Brown for taking part in talks with Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.

The two men had a 30-minute discussion at the Archbishop of Canterbury's official residence, Lambeth Palace in London, on Friday.

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Gordon Brown has discussed relations between China and the people of Tibet in talks with the Dalai Lama.

The 30-minute private meeting was "warm and constructive", a Downing Street spokesman said.

The prime minister and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader also discussed human rights and ways to help China in the aftermath of the 12 May earthquake.

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The Dalai Lama arrives in Britain today amid controversy over Gordon Brown's failure to meet the exiled Tibetan leader in Downing Street.

By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 12:41PM BST 20/05/2008

His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso will meet the Prime Minister during his 11-day visit but he will be received at Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, instead of Number 10.

Critics have attacked the decision claiming that the Dalai Lama had been downgraded from a political leader to a spiritual leader in response to pressure from the Chinese government.

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"All power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Information is power. Total information is total power. ABN
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May 20, 2008
Richard Ford

A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials.

The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission from the courts.

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May 20, 2008

LONDON - THE Dalai Lama arrived in Britain on Tuesday for an 11-day visit, notably to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown and address lawmakers, after a trip to Germany that stirred up fresh tension with China.

The Tibetan spiritual leader touched down at London's Heathrow airport from Berlin - one of five cities he visited in Germany to talk about human rights and peace as well as meet lawmakers and address the country's parliament.

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19/05/2008

Three Tibetan monks gave evidence in Spain’s National Court today as part of an investigation into alleged genocide by China’s Communist troops in Tibet.

The monks met an investigative magistrate studying a lawsuit filed by the Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet.

The group alleges that more than one million Tibetans have been killed or have disappeared since Tibet was occupied by Chinese troops in 1951.

“We had thought for a long time that the suffering in Tibet was forgotten in the world because we followed a non-violent approach,” said 77-year-old monk Palden Gyatso. He said he spent 33 years in jail, often enduring torture.

“These days, there is new hope,” he said.

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Mon, 19 May 2008

Berlin - Ignoring criticism from China and from members of her own party, a sole German cabinet minister met Monday at a Berlin hotel with the Dalai Lama, who is visiting adherents of Tibetan Buddhism in Germany for several days. Aid Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul went to Berlin's plush Hotel Adlon to meet with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Her aides rejected suggestions that she was meeting the Dalai Lama, 72, in a private capacity, saying it was part of her world economic-development job to meet important international figures.

Many in her Social Democratic Party have criticized her, saying it was more important to cultivate harmony with Beijing.

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Thu, May 15, 2008

A Dutch policy of forcing some would-be immigrants to pass a language and culture test before seeking a visa is discriminatory, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The rights group said the test essentially targets families from developing nations - in particular, Turkey and Morocco - because citizens of the United States, Japan and other developed nations are exempt.

...Government spokeswoman Gerda de Lange rejected the criticism. The legality of the policy was "debated thoroughly in parliament and by the Council of State before it was passed" in 2006, she said.

"The law is not discriminatory," she said. "There are indeed exemptions for some countries, but that's true of the whole of immigration law."

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Immigration to Netherlands on the Increase

14 May 2008

Berlin - China has protested against a planned meeting between German legislators and the Dalai Lama at the German parliament in Berlin, a leading parliamentarian was quoted as saying Wednesday. The talks with members of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee are due to take place on May 19, the final day of the Tibetan spiritual leader's five-day visit.

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May 12, 2008

LONDON – British officials say Prime Minister Gordon Brown will meet the Dalai Lama next week – but won't be hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader at his official residence.

Brown's office says the men will not hold talks at Downing Street in London but will meet instead at Lambeth Palace. The palace is the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church worldwide.

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Monday , May 12, 2008

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not receive the Dalai Lama at 10 Downing Street, a move seen by many as an effort to appease China, which has accused the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader of masterminding anti-Beijing protest in Lhasa.

Brown will, instead, meet the Dalai Lama in Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, enabling the Prime Minister to claim to the Chinese that he is receiving the exiled leader in spiritual rather than political capacity, The Times daily of Britain said on Monday.

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By Patrick Donahue

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile said it was ``disappointed'' that German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier won't meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader when he visits Germany next week.

The Dalai Lama's Dharamsala, India-based administration submitted a request to meet Steinmeier during the May 16-20 visit, which has been planned for more than 1 1/2 years, said Tseten Chhoekyapa, the Dalai Lama's envoy for central and eastern Europe. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman who declined to be identified confirmed that no meetings were planned.

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08 May 2008

Berlin - The European representative of the Dalai Lama criticized German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday for failing to meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader when he visits Germany next week. Tseten Chhoekyapa said it was unfortunate that Steinmeier had turned down the chance of a meeting on the grounds he had no time. "We think he was badly advised," Chhoekyapa said in Berlin.

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By Claudia Ciobanu

BUCHAREST, May 7 (IPS) - Romania has still not convincingly answered repeated calls from the European Commission and others to clarify allegations that it hosted CIA detention centres and that rendition flights passed through its territory.

Authoritative investigations conducted by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament (EP), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as numerous journalistic reports, claim that Romanian air space was transited by flights used for extraordinary rendition by the CIA (the Central Intelligence Agency of the U.S.).

Some of the investigators, such as Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty, further maintained that secret detention facilities run by the CIA -- often referred to as "black sites" -- were located in Romania.

...Romanian authorities deny having any information regarding passengers aboard any of these flights. Like most other governments accused of participating in the rendition scheme, Bucharest invokes the Chicago Convention on International Aviation which allows civilian flights of the signatory states to transit each other's airspace freely, without the national authorities verifying passengers or cargo unless there are reasons to suspect the convention has been breached. Being owned and nominally operated by private companies, the CIA flights entered Romanian air space as civilian flights.

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3/5/2008
By WILLIAM GRIMES

Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, believed to be the last surviving member of the inner circle of German Army officers who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a briefcase bomb on July 20, 1944, died on Thursday. He was 90 and lived in Altenahr, in the Rhineland-Palatinate.

His death was announced by the German Defense Ministry, which gave no other details.

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