PoliticsLibya: Libyan rebels: Advances — are we at the tilt point? and more ...

VOA News.com  (June27,2k11)

Voice Of America is a USA govt-established broadcasting (radio mostly)
agency for news and interpretation in as positive a way as possible toward
our nation and its government.  If it's propaganda, it's certainly American
propaganda -- to counter the falsehoods circulated in certain quarters of
the listening and webwiewing publics who heavily rely worldwide on the
VOA for radio transmission of information, info that sometimes may
actually prove determinative of whether some among their listeners live or
die.  — Owlb

— Also see the refWrite editorial comment,
below the news update on Libya, by Politicarp.

Africa 

 June 26, 2011

Libyan Rebels claim advances 

in Western Mountain

VOA News

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Photo: AFP/Patrick Baz

A Libyan rebel looks at the tail of a rebel MIG-23 jet in Benghazi on June 26, 2011 at the site where the jet crashed after it was shot down on March 19, 2011.

Rebels in Libya's western mountains say they have advanced and are battling leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces in a strategic town 80 kilometers southwest of the capital, Tripoli.

Opposition commanders said Sunday's fighting on the outskirts of Bair al-Ghanam follows weeks of intense clashes in the Nafusa Mountains that have pushed government troops steadily back toward the capital.

The town is significant because it is only 30 kilometers from Zawiya, a key western gateway to Tripoli and home to a crucial oil refinery. Opposition forces seized Zawiya in March before pro-Gadhafi fighters retook the city.

A ship carrying 106 Libyans arrived in Tripoli early Sunday from the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi. The ferry was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported about 300 people to Benghazi from Tripoli on Friday.

Meanwhile, African Union leaders meeting in Pretoria said Mr. Gadhafi has agreed to stay out of negotiations to end Libya's more than four-month-old civil war. The AU said in a statement Sunday that it "welcomes Mr. Gadhafi's acceptance of not being part of the negotiation process."
read all of this VOA news report ...

refWrite editorial comment:

Libya  — is it tilt-time?

It sure seems that way.  

But, full disclosure, this reformational Christian news horse, refWrite, early on came to the support of the rebels against 

the régime of Omar Gadaffi the Tent Dwelling 

All - but - (Self-) Crowned Desert King of the Libyans.

Today has brawt such good news to news analysts who with professional

knowledge looked forward to the political removal of the woud-be king of

the Libyans.  He, his dynasty, and his upper echelon political and military

staff —must be cast out!  That is the only way Libya's rebels can open the
way further for a democratic government,

— Politicarp

PoliticsGlobal: UN Human Rights Council: Ratifies the 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' framework for 'Business and Human Rights'

 Today the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the "Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the UN Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework", 

drafted by UN Special Representative on business & human rights John Ruggie.  

The press release regarding the action by the Council is available here:

http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/1006797

The text of the Principles is available here.

We will add the full text of the resolution alongside the item linked to above, as soon as we receive it – we will also include the resolution in our Weekly Update, says the burgeoning Business&Human Rights bureaucracy brand-new this last year or so.

PoliticsGlobal: UN Human Rights Council: Ratifies the 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' framework for 'Business and Human Rights'

 Today the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the "Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the UN Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework", 

drafted by UN Special Representative on business & human rights John Ruggie.  

The press release regarding the action by the Council is available here:

China: Cyber Attacks: USA 'grills' re a 'hacked political site' published by Change.com

---------------------------------
InfoWeek (June15,2k11)
--------------------------------

-- InfoWeek materials re-posted here by Owlb

U.S. Grills China 

about Cyber Attacks

Chinese IP addresses have been implicated in numerous, recent distributed denial of service attacks, which top State Department officials see as a human rights issue. 

By J. Nicholas Hoover InformationWeek

June 15, 2011 12:45 PM

(click image for larger view)

Slideshow: Inside DHS' Classified Cyber-Coordination Headquarters

In another sign that the United States government is concerned with the threat of cyber attacks originating from China, a top State Department official recently raised the case of a hacked U.S. political site directly with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to a letter released by the political group Change.org.

The site, which offers tools for online political campaigns, began to be victimized by distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks in mid April, soon after it carried a petition for China to release Chinese artist Ai Weiwi, who helped design the centerpiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, and who was imprisoned earlier this year in the midst of a Chinese crackdown on political dissent.

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The attacks raised the ire of congressional leadership, as both House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., condemned the attacks and called on the State Department to take action and bring the hackers to justice.

In response, the State Department not only condemned DDOS attacks, like the one Change.org experienced, that are "designed to stifle free speech on the net," but also raised the issue directly with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in late April, according to a letter from the State Department to Rep. DeLauro that was released by Change.org. The letter indicates that deputy assistant secretary of state Dan Baker raised the issue of the attack with the Chinese government during a dialogue on human rights.

2010 Threats: Why they happened and the tools available to thwart them.

Take a quick look back to prepare for future threats.

"The Department will continue to press China on the importance of an open and unrestricted Internet," says the letter, written by acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs Joseph Macmanus. "As part of the State Department's Internet freedom initiative, we support efforts to protect groups and individuals from such attacks."

The attack is only one of a number of recent attacks said to originate from China. Google in late Mayannounced that hundreds of its Gmail users, including senior U.S. officials, had been the targets of a spear-phishing campaign that originated in China. A February attack on the G-20 was similarly traced to Chinese IP addresses, and China has also been reportedly eyed in recent attacks on the International Monetary Fund. Leaked State Department cables indicate that the Chinese have been attacking U.S. government agencies and companies since at least 2002.

EconomicsEurope: EuroZone: Will the Zone and Currency collapse of its own weit?

Financial Times email newsletter (June13,2k11)

-- FT material posted here by EconoMix.

Breaking News  The eurozone heads for break up The muddle-through approach to the eurozone crisis has failed to resolve the fundamental problems of economic and competitiveness divergence within the union. If this continues the euro will move towards disorderly debt workouts, and eventually a break-up of the monetary union itself, as some of the weaker members crash out. The Economic and Monetary Union never fully satisfied the conditions for an optimal currency area. Instead its leaders hoped that their lack of monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies would in turn see an acceleration of structural reforms. These, it was hoped, would see productivity and growth rates converge. http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/DW5QE9/IXWCB/26T6TP/5C6JXU/B7/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=13

AP via Washington Post (June15,2k11)

Wis. state workers to begin paying more for benefits in Aug., new lawsuit filed over union law

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By Associated Press, Published: June 15

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin state employees will start paying more for their health care and pension benefits in late August, state officials said Wednesday as a coalition of unions filed a new lawsuit against the GOP-supported plan that strips away collective bargaining rights from most public workers.

The announcement came a day after the state Supreme Court ruled that a lower court judge overstepped her authority when she voided the governor’s polarizing plan to prohibit workers from collectively bargaining over anything except base pay increases no greater than inflation. Local police, firefighters and state patrol are exempt.

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( Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tom Lynn / Associated Press ) - Singing “solidarity forever” and holding their fists in the air inside of the Wisconsin State Capital in Madison, Wis., union members protest the budget repair bill Tuesday, June 14, 2011.

The law also requires workers to pay 12 percent of their health insurance costs and 5.8 percent of their pension costs, which amount to an 8 percent pay cut on average.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was a major victory for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who said the law was needed to help address the state’s $3.6 billion budget shortfall. His proposal — which drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to the state Capitol for weeks earlier this year — thrust Wisconsin to the forefront of a national debate over labor rights.

But the legal battle was not yet over. A coalition of unions filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday arguing that the law violated the U.S. Constitution by taking away union rights to bargain, organize and associate and illegally discriminates among classes of public employees. The lawsuit seeks to block portions of the law taking away collective bargaining rights, but allows the higher pension and health care contributions that the unions agreed to take to move forward.

“Scott Walker has created two classes of public sector workers and that is unconstitutional,” said Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt. “When a legislature discriminates among classes of workers, especially when doing so has more to do with political payback than with any legitimate reasoning, the law has been violated.”

State Department of Justice spokesman Steven Means said he had not seen the lawsuit yet and had no immediate comment. But Walker told reporters the Supreme Court’s decision provided closure and allowed the state to move forward.

Read more of this important news report in WaPo.

-- WaPo materials re-posted by EconoMix

PoliticsOntario: State-supported Catholic and Secularist Schools: McQuinty's Folly

Family Coalition Party's Impact PDF(June16,2k11)

"Is the large (600,000 students; 
over 40,000 teachers), 
fully state subsidized, 
Catholic school system in Ontario, Canada, 
coming to an end?"

Family Coalition Party text excerpt from CatholicInsight.com:

I don't agree with all the positions of analysis and political stance touched upon in this lengthy piece (only excerpted here).  Nevertheless, we think it worthwhile to note how the Family Coalition Party of Ontario, a very small minority party, is bustling with election preparation, anticipating that "the writ will be dropped" in the Fall and an election will ensue. -- Politicarp

Read more ... click on the t+mstamp just below ....

EconomicsGreece: EU: 'Financial Times' says "prepare for worst"

Financial Times 
Exclusive Comment email newsletter (June16,2k11)

Breaking News

-- FT materials posted by EconoMix

Greece and Europe must prepare for the worst

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is out of ammunition. The embattled leader has been gradually losing control of his socialist party for some time, but the trend has sharply accelerated this week, as larger and angrier crowds take to the streets. He now plans to form a new government, but hopes that he can win passage in coming weeks for a new fiscal plan — needed to ensure the next European Union / International Monetary Fund loan tranche, and any future bailout package — are all but dashed. European leaders need to think about what to do next, and quickly. http://link.ft.com/r/9ULF66/XHLWQG/6O6PS/5CG5ZJ/JIKM3Z/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=16 From WORLD 8:41pm Greek deal fails  to ease contagion fears Spanish borrowing costs hit 11-year highs Editorial Evaporating reform of Greece Insight Policymakers can’t kick the can Video Political crisis weighs on Greece June 17,2k11

The A-List: Greek crisis threatens European decade of economic implosion

From day one, immense challenges faced the coalition of international institutions that opted for a liquidity approach to address Greece’s debt solvency problems. Now that this coalition is stumbling and bickering publicly, the outlook for Greece has taken a significant turn for the worse. Even as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou prepares to reshuffle his cabinet, he must know his nation’s predicament is now extremely hard to reverse. http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/YBTIT9/2BHRI/V1F0TJ/7208HE/FW/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=17