http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/5/12/nation/11279421&sec=nation



Bush found guilty of war crimes

KUALA LUMPUR: The War Crimes Tribunal has convicted former US President George W. Bush and seven of his associates as war criminals for torture and inhumane treatment of war crime victims at US military facilities.

However, being a tribunal of conscience, the five-member panel chaired by tribunal president judge Lamin Mohd Yunus had no power to enforce or impose custodial sentence on the convicted eight.

“We find the witnesses, who were victims placed in detention illegally by the convicted persons and their government, are entitled to payment of reparations,” said Lamin at a public hearing held in an open court at the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Crimi­na­lise War yesterday.

He added that the tribunal’s award of reparations would be submitted to the War Crimes Commission and recommended the victims to find a judiciary entity that could enforce the verdict.

The tribunal would also submit the finding and records of the proceedings to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the United Nations’ Security Council.

On Thursday, head of the prosecution Prof Gurdial Singh Nijar said Bush had issued an executive order to commit war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Five former Iraqi detainees, who were tortured while being detained in various prisons, including Guantanamo Bay, were called to give their testimonies before the Tribunal during the trial which started on May 7.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/12/world/europe/spain-protests/?hpt=hp_t1

Thousands in Spain revive May 15th protests to rail against cuts, government



Madrid (CNN) -- Chanting "they don't represent us," tens of thousands in Madrid railed early Sunday against Spain's government and austerity cuts -- venting their anger on the first anniversary of the so-called May 15 protest movement.
The government earlier had given a 10 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) Saturday deadline for the crowd in the central Puerta del Sol plaza to disperse.
Yet while their numbers appeared to thin somewhat by early Sunday, they remained a loud and vibrant presence in the square -- as a large number of police, stationed at a nearby government building and along side streets, looked on and let them be.
Throngs of like-minded demonstrators also gathered over the weekend in Barcelona and about 80 other cities around Spain.
The coordinated events marked the return of the "indignados" -- or the outraged, as the protesters became known -- who led Europe's first serious and significant anti-cuts and anti-austerity grassroots movement. Similar demonstrations decrying governments' attempts to get their budgets in order, sometimes by slashing public funding, later emerged elsewhere around Europe.
In Madrid this weekend, marchers from the north, south, east and west descended on Puerta del Sol plaza on Saturday evening.
For hours, demonstrators shouted, jumped, sang and waved white handkerchiefs. Their most dramatic moment, though, may have been their quietest: when they held their hands aloft, silently, in a "silent shout" before erupting in cheers.
If and when the crowd dissipates early Sunday, they are expected to return. The government has OK'd three more days of protests in Madrid, meaning similar scenes could play out into the middle of the week.
The number of demonstrators evident in Madrid over the weekend were strong, though they appeared to be slightly fewer than those who had gathered in the same spot -- in what's known as ground zero of the movement -- a year earlier.
Back then, protesters encamped in Madrid and other cities made their voices heard. The tens of thousands of people who turned out in the initial days grew to an estimated 6 million protesters over the following months, in a nation of 46 million people.
Since then, Occupy camps around the world have come and gone.
The new protests organized by the May 15 movement are different in at least one key respect: a new conservative government is now in control, having taken over in December.
Spain's economic crisis also has worsened since last year. The nation has slipped back into a recession, the unemployment rate has risen to 24% overall and more than 50% for those under age 25, and the government has enacted billions of dollars in austerity cuts, along with some tax hikes, to reduce the budget deficit.
"We are really tired of this situation," said Madrid protester Paola Alvarado, a purchasing agent. "And the new government is the same. They steal our money and give it to the banks."
Spain's austerity protests have been largely peaceful to date, with only occasional clashes between protesters and police, and some arrests in cities like Barcelona and Valencia.
And prior the latest protests, the new government -- which has vowed to maintain order and prevent a repetition of encampments in Madrid and beyond -- urged police commanders to use "common sense" as to how they dealt with the latest round of public dissent.
In recent months, Spanish trade unions, traditionally the protest leaders, have been at the forefront of demonstrations against the austerity cuts and labor market reforms, with the May 15 movement barely visible.
"Maybe the most important thing is it awakened a consciousness, beyond concrete changes, to make historic change possible," said Jon Aguirre Such, who was a movement spokesman a year ago but now spends more time on his architectural cooperative for urban planning.
"I think everyone who took part in the May 15 movement made history. They can take away from us many things, but not our memory and our dream," Aguirre said.
The original May 15 movement is credited with helping stop dozens of housing evictions. Activists pressured bank and court officials to delay or stop foreclosures on delinquent mortgages.
But Ignacio Urquiza, a sociologist who has studied the movement for the left-leaning Fundacion Alternativas, said there has been little big-picture change as to government policies and operations.
"The demonstrations didn't do more than expose -- for a brief time -- some issues. But Spain's economic crisis and political system have not changed. They are the same as last year," he said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/spaniards-rage-against-austerity-grim-economy...

Spaniards rage against austerity, grim economy



Photo credit: AP | Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the "Indignados" movement in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday May 12, 2012. Spanish activists angered by grim economic prospects planned nationwide demonstrations Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of their protest movement that inspired similar groups in other countries. The protests began May 15 last year and drew hundreds of thousands of people calling themselves the Indignant Movement. The demonstrations spread across Spain and Europe as anti-austerity sentiment grew. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

MADRID - (AP) -- Spaniards angered by increasingly grim economic prospects and unemployment hitting one out of every four citizens protested in droves Saturday in the nation's largest cities, marking the one-year anniversary of a spontaneous movement that inspired similar anti-authority demonstrations across the planet.
The country's Interior Ministry said 72,000 people marched against the government's tough austerity measures in Madrid, Barcelona and six other large cities -- but protesters claimed the turnout was much higher.
The epicenter of the protest was in the capital of Madrid, where at least 30,000 people flooded into the central Puerta del Sol plaza in the evening, vowing to stay put for three days.
Authorities warned they wouldn't allow anyone to camp out overnight as protesters did last year but the demonstrators stayed put after a midnight deadline to leave and more than 2,000 riot police on duty made no immediate effort to force them out.
"I'm here to defend the rights that we're losing and for the young people who have it so tough," said 57-year-old middle school teacher Roberto Alonso. "They're better educated than ever. But they don't have work. They don't have anything. They're behind and they'll stay that way."
At least 22,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona, Spain's second largest city. Marches were also held in Bilbao, Malaga and Seville, and sympathizers from other countries held protests across Europe.
The protests began May 15 last year and drew hundreds of thousands of people calling themselves the Indignant Movement. The demonstrations spread across Spain and Europe as anti-austerity sentiment grew.
Spain is in dire economic straits, prompting fears it may need a bailout similar to those requested by Greece, Ireland and Portugal. It is in recession, and unemployment stands at almost 25 percent -- the highest among the 17 countries using the euro. One in two Spaniards under the age of 25 are out of work.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government has enacted deep spending cuts to reduce the national debt, but many people blame those measures for deepening families' financial plight.
Javier Colilla, a 27-year old university student, said he showed up to protest in Madrid because Spain's economic situation seems like it will spiral into chaos.
"We've had this crisis for four years, but it feels like it's just starting," the fine arts major said.
Colilla lives with his parents, sees zero prospect of getting a menial job after graduation and thinks he may never be able to buy an apartment.
"Right now I'm thinking my best option will be to go to Germany where I can wash dishes, make a little money and learn German," he said. "The prospects of getting a job in Spain are practically inexistent."
He said the government austerity cuts targeting "health and education, but rescuing banks are wrong. They need to find other places to cut."
A year ago, the "indignados" pitched tents and occupied town and city squares across Spain for weeks. Demonstrators clashed with police who eventually moved in to evict them.
"We are here today to celebrate one year since the ... movement started and though we have achieved some things the situation is much worse now, so we need to keep fighting to get things better and that's why we are here today," said 40-year-old activist Ana Pancorvo.
Antonio Barroso, a London-based Europe analyst for the Eurasia Group consulting firm, said the protests will probably "have no impact on the the (Spanish) government's strategy" to appease international investors by sticking with its controversial austerity drive.
Protests also took place Saturday in other European cities, and were planned in South American countries including Brazil and Chile.
In Britain, several hundred anti-capitalist protesters from the Occupy movement marched peacefully through London's financial district, rallying outside the offices of international banks.
Hundreds also took to the streets in Brussels and Lisbon, Portugal, but the turnout was lower than last year.
The protesters called for governments to enact measures including a global tax on financial transactions and ensure more democratic international financial bodies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/16/leveson-inquiry-jack-straw-rebekah-b...

Leveson inquiry: Jack Straw used to gossip with Rebekah Brooks
Former justice secretary reveals he regularly arranged to meet the then Sun editor as they made the same train journey



Leveson inquiry: Jack Straw revealed he regularly met Rebekah Brooks between 2007 and 2009
Jack Straw arranged to meet Rebekah Brooks for a gossip once a week when they commuted on the same train when he was justice secretary and she was editor of the Sun, the Leveson inquiry has heard.

Straw, the former Labour cabinet minister, told the inquiry on Wednesday that they made the arrangement to sit together and used to "gossip about personalities" and what "was in the papers" as they took the hour-long journey from Charlbury in west Oxfordshire to London.

He revealed his meetings just moments after railing against politicians who had too close a relationship with journalists and criticising the press for "recording" his profession as "personality, conflict-based".

Straw said his media policy was "don't have favourites" because politicians were like "shares", in that when they get too close to journalists their price is "over-valued and there is then a crash".

He told Lord Justice Leveson he was an old friend from University of Leeds days with Paul Dacre, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail, and generally one of Labour's fiercest critics in the national press. But in contrast with Brooks, he only met Dacre about once a year.

Straw, who had previously been one of Tony Blair's closest allies as home secretary, had the justice portfolio between 2007 and 2010.

He said the commuting arrangement with Brooks "stopped when she became chief executive of News International" in 2009.

Asked what he would talk about he said: "We would talk about what was in the papers, what was the gossip about personalities, that sort of thing."

But he added they could never get into too confidential a discussion because it was a busy commuter line.

"There were all sorts of people around ear-wigging so there was a kind of limit to what one was going to say either way," Straw said.

He remained a friend of Brooks and was one of several top politicians at her wedding to Charlie Brooks in June 2009, along with David Cameron and the then prime minister Gordon Brown.

Earlier the inquiry heard how the Sun had been "ruthlessly hostile" to the Labour party and that owner Rupert Murdoch enjoyed playing "a power game" with politicians, according to Straw.

Unlike other witnesses to the inquiry, such as Alastair Campbell, who testified earlier this week that the Sun backed Labour because it was a winner, Straw was of the view that the News International tabloid did have the power to make or break politicians' fortunes.

"Few of us who took part, for example, in the 1992 general election, are in any doubt that the Sun's approach lost us seats. That was the purpose [of the hostile coverage] and it is disingenuous for anyone to deny it," Straw said.

He added: "The Sun played a huge part in the fortunes of the Labour party."

The 1992 election saw the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock "knocked mercilessly" by the Sun. He was pilloried as a "Welsh windbag" and on the day of the election the Sun splashed with the headline "If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights".

Straw said the Sun attacked members of the Labour party in the runup to the election. Just days before polling day in April 1992, the paper branded him "a hypocrite for preaching socialism from the luxury of three houses". He complained that this was already in the public domain but that now "every burglar in west Oxfordshire knew that the one day of the year" his house would be empty, was election day. His house was burgled and property stolen but when he complained to the Sun he got the "glazed-eye look", Straw said.

He said he had a run-in with Brooks when she was editor of the News of the World and had launched the campaign for "Sarah's law" to allow parents to check whether people with access to their children were sex offenders. At the time Straw was home secretary.

"I felt there were better ways of controlling the predatory instincts of sex offenders than having them bluntly subject to a mob outside their doors," he added.

He said newspapers should "calm down about the effects of autonomy from politicians" and acknowledge that statutory regulation would not been state control. That, he said, was "nonsense".

Straw said he believed newspapers had debased public discourse about government and democracy and had contributed to the low turnout at elections because they portrayed politics as "boring" and "completely self-serving".

In a barbed remark about journalists, he said: "As John Major famously said, 'the only people who've never made a mistake are the people who have never made a decision'. To which I would simply add: they are called journalists."

Straw told Leveson he was in favour of radical reform of press regulation, which had "palpably failed" over the past 50 years.

He said some sort of "statutory" regime which would provide remedies for fast-tracking cases of defamation and breaches of privacy.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-18/banks-funding-has-frozen-says-anz-chief/40...

European funding markets frozen: ANZ chief



ANZ boss Mike Smith says funding markets in the eurozone are frozen amid instability in the region.


ANZ Bank chief executive Mike Smith says European wholesale funding markets for banks have effectively frozen as financial markets panic amid ongoing instability in the eurozone.
Global share markets have not posted a single day of gains all week, and the Australian share market has closed at its lowest level since November last year, as Greece lurches towards a new round of elections and investors fret about a looming banking crisis in Spain.
Speaking in Melbourne, Mr Smith said funding markets in Europe were "essentially closed" as investors headed for the exits, although markets in Asia and the United States remained open.
"This is what happens in this sort of situation," Mr Smith said.
"Confidence goes, investor appetite gets stopped, people are all about capital preservation. They’re just not willing to invest, and credit markets always get hit first."
Australian banks raise around a third of their funds on overseas markets but Mr Smith says ANZ has already completed most of its fund raising for the year.
"While we will see volatility as the European crisis unfolds, the situation is more manageable than 2008 when we had the shock collapse of Lehman's and Australian banks are well placed right now," Mr Smith said.
"ANZ has already completed its 2012 funding task and we have really had two years to anticipate and to plan for the scenario that's now unfolding in Greece and southern Europe."
Credit Suisse director of interest rate strategy Jarrod Kerr says either way, it will cost borrowers more.
"It has the potential to drive the cost of bank funding higher, which means that the banks will have to pass on more of that increased cost to their customers," Mr Kerr said.
"And if the RBA is on hold then that means that interest rates potentially rise, but if the RBA cuts rates then I think the banks will pass on less to their customers."
Rate cut
Mr Kerr believes the Reserve Bank may have to cut the official cash rate below 3 per cent as banks' borrowing costs rise. It is currently at 3.75 per cent.
"They could easily cut below 3 per cent," he said.
"For now, I think the RBA will do another 50 [basis points]. I think that they'll either do it in June or July."
In February, Fitch Ratings agency downgraded its ratings for three of the big four banks from AA to AA-, citing their exposure to offshore markets.
In explaining the move, Fitch Ratings senior director John Miles said around 30 per cent of the banks' funding comes from offshore wholesale markets, which are easily rocked when investors lose confidence.
"The particular issue there - and this is why it's a reassessment of risk - is that it's become apparent since 2007 that the reliance on this source of funding can be vulnerable due to swings in confidence," Mr Miles said.
The share market closed in the red for the fourth consecutive day today, with the ASX 200 index shedding 2.7 per cent to finish at 4,047.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3aqPZDiKs5aElAlJQqPEVT03SKA?...

NATO protesters occupy Chicago streets

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/us/chicago-protests-draw-thousands-before-nato...

Chicago Protests Draw Thousands Before NATO Event



Officers lined Daley Plaza in Chicago at a rally on Friday.

(note* it_is_the_light - freemasonic black and white

symbol just like the police in australia)

By MONICA DAVEY and STEVEN YACCINO
Published: May 18, 2012

CHICAGO — Several thousand demonstrators, many of them nurses, filled a plaza in the heart of downtown Chicago on Friday for the first major rally in what is expected to be a weekend of protests as President Obama and foreign leaders gather in the president’s hometown for a NATO summit meeting.

In a plaza named for former Mayor Richard J. Daley, members of the National Nurses United union, wearing green felt caps, called for a “Robin Hood tax” on Wall Street. Some demonstrators later marched through the streets of downtown, at times deflecting police efforts to stop them but eventually scattering as scores of police officers, some in riot helmets, arrived in a pack of unmarked white vans and blocked off access to the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River.

One demonstrator was seen ripping at a giant banner posted along the bridge promoting the NATO meeting, the first to take place in an American city outside of Washington. The police, who lined the streets downtown in clusters, reported at least one arrest during Friday’s sometimes tense march.

A far larger “anti-NATO” march was expected on Sunday, and violent images from earlier global gatherings, like a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999, have left some in Chicago on edge — businesses closed, windows boarded and the Loop oddly quiet.

For some, the outcome of the weekend’s protests will be viewed as a trial of the strength of the Occupy movement months after the groups emerged in cities around the nation with messages about income inequality. Demonstrators have been arriving on buses from Occupy-related groups around the country, and some observers have suggested that the number of protesters who ultimately appear here will serve as a sign of the movement’s current state.

“This is the spring — this is the rising,” said Christina Cooke, a member of an Occupy group from Buffalo who took part in the march here. “Everyone is still here after the long winter. We are still active with more passion than we’ve ever had.”

Occupy Chicago’s own efforts had never drawn quite the national attention of some other cities — places like Occupy Wall Street in New York and the encampment in Zuccotti Park, or in Oakland, Calif., where protesters this month clashed with officers in riot gear, who fired tear gas. Here, the protests never escalated to violent altercations. Last October, efforts by the Chicago protesters to stay overnight in Grant Park, the city’s front lawn beside Lake Michigan, were quickly halted with about 300 arrests.

By Friday night, the police confirmed that at least 13 people had been arrested over several days of protests leading up to the NATO meeting, which starts on Sunday.

Protesters said that at least nine other people had been taken into custody by the authorities on Wednesday night inside a home on the city’s South Side, on suspicion, some local media reports said, of making Molotov cocktails, but the police declined to comment or even confirm additional arrests, saying the case was continuing.

http://www.news.com.au/business/crisis-summit-world-leaders-at-odds-over-how-to-...

CRISIS SUMMIT: World leaders at odds over how to solve the eurozone crisis



German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have differing views on how to solve the eurozone crisis. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
US President Barack Obama has thrown his weight behind French calls for more pro-growth policies in Europe, as G8 leaders huddle at Camp David for a summit darkened by Greece's possible eurozone exit.
Obama set the stage on Friday for a fractious meeting of world leaders by forging an alliance with new French President Francois Hollande over the need to jolt Europe back to growth.

Fearing Europe's economic crisis is poised to worsen - with dangerous repercussions for the US economy and perhaps Obama's chances of re-election - Obama weighed in, risking the ire of German Chancellor Angela
Merkel who has championed an austerity-first approach.

Shortly before welcoming Merkel and other leaders to his famed presidential retreat outside Washington, Obama noted that events in Europe held "extraordinary" importance for the United States.

The G8 needs to discuss "a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda," he said.

To kick-off the summit a tie-free Obama greeted leaders shortly after dusk at the threshold of his wood cabin for an informal dinner that lasted more than two hours.

But the dressed-down atmosphere did little to relieve tensions, which have been stoked by the belief that two-years of painful cuts demanded by Germany and others have undercut Greek growth and made recovery more difficult.

In what may have been a telling moment, Obama greeted Merkel at his Laurel Lodge with a cordial: "How've you been?"

When her response came: a shrug and pursed lips, Obama conceded: "Well, you have a few things on your mind."

Publicly, European leaders have attempted to smooth over the splits within the G8, insisting austerity and stimulus need not be mutually exclusive.

"We need to take action for growth while staying the course in terms of putting our public finances in order. Stability and growth go together, they are two sides of the same coin," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the summit.

But with Greece's fiscal crisis apparently approaching denouement, those good words may be sorely tested.

Two years of austerity have resulted in crippling unemployment and while Greeks say they are overwhelmingly in favour of staying in the eurozone, there is little appetite for more budget cuts.

Diplomats say major new initiatives are unlikely to come from the G8 summit, but Obama's intervention tips Europe's political calculus toward pro-growth policies before European officials gather in the coming weeks to thrash out concrete measures.

G8 leaders will hold their main discussions on Europe's fiscal plight on Saturday at Camp David's rustic collection of cabins on the wooded Catoctin Mountain in Maryland, outside Washington.

Friday night's dinner discussions focused heavily the ongoing bloodshed in Syria and Iran's contested nuclear program ahead of talks between global powers and the Islamic Republic in Baghdad later this month.

According to a senior US official there was broad agreement on the need for political transition in Syria, where a revolt and government crack down has left 12,000 dead.