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Posted: 19 January 2012
In days incompetent Royal Bank of Scotland bosses want to pay themselves astronomical bonuses from our taxes! But we can stop these fat cats swallowing more cream.Despite losing the bank £750 million in the last six months, RBS executives are spending a fortune lobbying the government and now want to get another £500m in bonuses! It’s a scandal at a time when cuts are biting all of us. But George Osborne heads up the body that will negotiate the deal. If we raise a massive public stink, the Chancellor could be shamed into rejecting RBS’s outrageous claim.
We don’t have long to stop this offensive corporate greed -- RBS executives meet on Wednesday. Let's deliver a deafening 100,000 strong petition to Osborne to force a drastic cap on RBS bonuses and ban the use of our money to lobby the government.Sign to stop the great fat-cat rip-off, and then share this with everyone.
Friday, 20 January 2012
Avaaz - Osborne: Stop the RBS Fat Cats
PressTV - Ofcom revokes Press TV's UK license
Ofcom revokes Press TV's UK licenseOfcom Chief Executive Ed RichardsIn a questionable move and without offering a valid response to the Press TV CEO's letters, the British Office of Communications (Ofcom) has revoked Press TV's broadcasting license and finally removed the channel from the Sky platform.Ofcom has revoked Press TV's license for what it calls breaching of the broadcasting code.
Earlier, Ofcom also hit Press TV with a fine of 100 thousand pounds. The British media regulator stepped up pressure on Press TV after the news channel covered British police crackdowns on anti-austerity protesters in London and other British cities.
Ofcom is said to have close ties to Britain's royal family. And the cables released by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks show that Press TV's programs on the royal wedding, which many in the country described as extravagant, angered the royal family.
Many observers have also noted that the British government's hostile campaign against Press TV has its roots in the channel's extensive and transparent coverage of the role that the British government played in the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Press TV has extensively given coverage to Britain's support for autocratic Persian Gulf monarchies and even given legitimacy to the dictatorial regimes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
In January, Press TV's CEO Mohammad Sarafraz sent a letter to Ofcom questioning the independence of the British regulatory body given that the British Secretary of State has the power to appoint or remove from office Ofcom's chairman and its members, and even to dissolve the entire organization.
Sarafraz also pointed out that Ofcom is funded by loans and Grant-in-Aid from the British Government.
He further pointed to Ofcom's “glaring contradiction” in its dealings with Press TV. “Ofcom wants to revoke the broadcast license because it has determined that Press TV Ltd. does not have control over the broadcast. Yet at the same time, Ofcom sentences Press TV Ltd. to pay a financial penalty for the broadcast of something Ofcom says it has no control over! How can you possibly explain your paradoxical performance?”
Sarafraz stressed that Ofcom's bid to revoke Press TV's license will not prevent the channel from broadcasting the truth about the British Royal regime.
“It is futile to attempt to conceal the truth from the people of Britain, and those that want to hear our alternative voice will find a way despite your efforts,” he said.
SS/HMV/HGH
GLOBAL COALITION URGES BAHRAIN AND MOROCCO TO JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
GLOBAL COALITION URGES BAHRAIN AND MOROCCO TO JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Morocco Can Further Demonstrate its Commitment to the Rule of Law
Rabat/New York—The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC)—a global network of more than 2,500 non-governmental and civil society organizations—called on Bahrain and Morocco to demonstrate their commitment to international justice and the rule of law by ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and acceding to the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC). The Coalition has selected Bahrain and Morocco as the focus for its January 2012 Universal Ratification Campaign (URC), a monthly campaign launched to encourage countries to join the Rome Statute system.
In two separate letters dated 11 January 2012 to King of Bahrain HM Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and King of Morocco HM Mohamed VI, the Coalition urged both governments to demonstrate their commitment to international justice and the rule of law by ratifying the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC—the first permanent international court capable of trying perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.At a time when sweeping changes are occurring across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Coalition believes that Morocco and Bahrain can further strengthen this growing movement in the region towards ending impunity by joining the ICC.
“Transformational changes in the region require a new impetus to advance government accountability and justice reforms, including through the International Criminal Court,” said Brigitte Suhr, director of Regional Programs. “Morocco and Bahrain are each well placed to lead the field. Morocco initiated significant headway in the area of judicial reforms and should reaffirm its commitment ratifying the Rome Statute, and Bahrain should do the same to show its commitment to put recent violence in the past.”
In the letter, the Coalition highlighted a series of developments in the region relating to the ICC during the past year. This included Tunisia’s accession to the Rome Statute and Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC), the Regional Diplomatic Conference on the ICC held in Doha, and comments made by former International Court of Justice Judge Nabil El Arabi when appointed Foreign Minister of Egypt mentioning ratification as a priority. In addition, the National Transitional Council of Libya looked to the Court in order to ensure justice for the Libyan people and representatives of Kuwait and Palestine have stated their intent to join the ICC.
“The ICC is engendering the trust of people seeking justice and relaying the message that there can be no impunity for crimes against humanity in the region and across the world,” said Leila Hanafi, CICC MENA coordinator. “We call on Morocco and Bahrain to take steps now to join in.”
With Vanuatu’s accession to the Rome Statute on 2 December 2011, 120 states have now acceded to or ratified the treaty. To date, the Arab League, consisting of 22 states, has only 4 states parties to the Rome Statute—Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Jordan and Tunisia. Ratification of the treaty would allow Bahrain and Morocco to participate as states parties in the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC
High Times for Poland’s Parliament - Emerging Europe Real Time - WSJ
By Marcin Sobczyk
A Polish libertarian opposition leader tried to smoke a joint at parliament premises Friday as part of his campaign to legalize soft drugs, but was prevented by the house speaker. He burned marijuana incense instead.
- AP
- Controversial lawmaker Janusz Palikot.
Janusz Palikot, the leader of the Palikot Movement, announced in advance his plan to smoke pot at the parliament building, giving the speaker, Ewa Kopacz, time to organize tighter security at the compound in Warsaw. Guards and police officers were instructed not to let parliamentarians bring guests to the building on Friday if they didn’t have authorization from the parliament’s security officers.
Ms. Kopacz reported the Palikot Movement’s leader to a prosecutor, who opened a probe to see if the controversial party leader didn’t “promote or advertise” drugs, which would be a criminal offense. Polish parliamentarians enjoy immunity from prosecution, which can be only lifted by the lower house.
Wearing a cannabis leaf-shaped pin, Mr. Palikot burned incense in front of a crowd of journalists.
“We’ve burned marijuana,” Mr. Palikot said. “It’s incense with a small legal amount of marijuana, which smells like marijuana, bought at a shop in Warsaw.”
He doesn’t expect to get into trouble since the incense was bought legally, he said, adding he had a receipt for it.
Mr. Palikot has made a political career out of courting controversy. While still a member of the ruling Civic Platform party, he once appeared at a press conference with a sex toy in one hand and a gun in the other.
He left the party last year to create his own grouping, which got 10% of the vote in last year’s parliamentary election. Despite having owned a strongly conservative weekly, which once on its front page urged legislators to “stop faggotry,” Mr. Palikot now says he’s an anti-clerical with a libertarian agenda. Among his MPs are Poland’s first transsexual in parliament, Anna Grodzka, and the country’s first openly homosexual parliamentarian, Robert Biedron.
A former businessman who made millions from alcohol production, Mr. Palikot once offended the law by appearing to be drinking publicly after the office of the president at the time, Lech Kaczynski, bought several hundred bottles of liquor.
Mr. Palikot’s campaign to legalize soft drugs stands little chance in Poland. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the leader of the ruling center-right Civic Platform party, said last year he was against legalizing drugs. Poland’s conservative opposition is even more adamantly against it.
AFP: Polish MP 'lights up' for legal marijuana
Polish MP 'lights up' for legal marijuanaWARSAW — Janusz Palikot, the leader of a new party which brought in Poland's first trans-gender and openly gay MPs, launched a drive Friday to legalise marijuana by smoking pot in parliament.
"This is the weed," he told reporters in his office in the lower house of parliament, lighting up a large incense joint containing what he said was a legal quantity of marijuana.
Palikot said his party had submitted a bill to legalise marijuana.
Earlier on Friday, the philosophy graduate known for his flamboyant political stunts, caused a stir when he announced he would "light up" in parliament.
"I want to condemn the hypocrisy concerning marijuana consumption," Palikot told reporters. "Someone said they would smoke a joint in parliament and the reaction was tantamount to someone announcing a coup d'etat."
In April, Polish lawmakers voted to soften their country's strict anti-drug laws by giving prosecutors the option not to charge people detained with small quantities of illegal narcotics.
But complaining the measures give prosecutors too much discretion, Palikot is seeking the full legalisation of marijuana.
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