ECB ups the pressure on Greece and its promises to renegotiate its debt

Pressure is growing on Greece and it finance minister to toe the line and stick to its financial commitments.

The European Central Bank on Wednesday brought forward a ban on the debt-stricken country using its bonds as collateral for cash.

It means that a waiver that allowed Greece to swap its junk-related debt for money will now expire on February 11, weeks earlier that the previous deadline of February 28.

Greek banks will still have access to funds through the ECB’s emergency lending programme but even here there are moves to tighten up conditions for access to that financial mechanism.

Read more: ECB ups the pressure on Greece and its promises to renegotiate its debt | euronews, world news

EU: Hollande and Merkel head to Kiev, Moscow with peace plan

French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are due in Kiev Thursday for talks on ending the country’s ongoing crisis before heading to Russia to present a draft peace plan on Friday.

“Together with Angela Merkel we have decided to take a new initiative,” Hollande told a news conference. “We will make a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”

He said that he and Merkel had worked together over the last several days to draft a text they hoped would be acceptable to both sides of the conflict. He added that France was not in favour of Ukraine joining NATO.

“It will not be said that France and Germany together have not tried everything, undertaken everything to preserve the peace,” the French president said.

Read more: Europe - Hollande and Merkel head to Kiev, Moscow with peace plan - France 24

Ukraine: Poland cool on Ukraine military aid - "US military aid to Ukraine not a good idea"

The EU should hold back from sending military lethal aid to Ukraine, Polish Europe Minister Rafal Trzaskowski told euronews on Wednesday, amid calls in the US to send defensive weapons to Kyiv.

“We are not we taking any military solution into account because military solutions are completely off the table because we do not want to destabilize the situation any further,” Trzaskowski said in an interview.
“We have to use of the tools that are at our disposal,” he said.

“We do not want to destabilise the situation but every state has to analyse the situation and obviously will no-one say that none of the options are possible.”

When asked by euronews why he thought the EU’s current policy of restrictive measures would change Moscow’s behaviour, Trzaskowski said: “Sanctions are just a tool for showing our determination. Obviously no one says they are going to be a wonderful solution for everything. We know it is very difficult to influence Russia’s policy.”

Poland has played a leading role in the diplomatic charge to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, with the country’s former foreign minister Radek Sikorski crafting a deal with two EU counterparts to see ex-president Viktor Yanukoyvch step down.

Read more: Poland cool on Ukraine military aid | euronews, Europe

Global Arms IIndustry

The sales of arms and military services by the SIPRI Top 100—the world’s 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies (excluding China, ranked by their arms sales—totalled $402 billion in 2013.

This is a decrease of 2.0 per cent in real terms compared to Top 100 revenues in 2012, continuing the decline that started in 2011, but at a slower rate. Despite three consecutive years of decreasing sales for the Top 100, total revenues remain 45.5 per cent higher in real terms than for the Top 100 in 200.

North America and Western Europe continue to dominate the global arms industry and comprised 69 of the Top 100 companies for 2013. They accounted for 84.2 per cent of the total arms sales of the Top 100.

Fact Sheet Top100 2013.pdf

Christianity in Europe: "Rather Green Than Dead" -The De-Christianized Europe

Joseph Puder writes in Frontpage magazine "that in many of the European countries, the shrinking attendance and affiliation has forced churches to close down, or be sold to the ever growing Muslim communities there"..

It also reflects the decline of the Christian faith in Europe -- both Catholic and Protestant.

This phenomenon bodes ill for Europe, whose Christian faith sustained and enriched it for centuries. Christianity today, more than ever before, can be a unifying factor in a continent that has lost faith in the future.

This loss of faith is manifested in the decline of fertility rates, marriages, and children. Conversely, the influx of millions of young Muslims with high fertility rates has transformed the educational system in Europe, where in some grammar and high-schools, Muslim children (mostly of North African parentage) count for over 50% of the pupils. It has also impacted on the culture and politics of Europe.

In today's Europe the subliminal statement emanating from the political and cultural elites is "we would rather be Green (Muslim) than dead." It is a symbol of submission, lack of will, and resignation. Europe has essentially lost its will to fight for its faith and culture. Decades of elevating multi-culturalism by the elites into a "religion" of sorts, has removed European pride in their national heritage. How can one explain European mega-mosques in Rome, Helsinki and the one being constructed in Cologne, Germany? No Christian churches (not to mention synagogues) or bibles are allowed in Saudi Arabia, nor are new churches permitted to be built in Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, or Iran.

A Pew Research Center and Wall Street Journal survey (2010) shows that the number of people in the Western European states that are unaffiliated is staggering. In the Netherlands it is 42.1%, in France 28%, in Germany 24.7%, UK 21.3%, and Italy 12.4%. These figures do not, of course, indicate that in Italy, 87.6% are regular churchgoers. It only means a nominal affiliation with a church. This is occurring in Italy, at the heart of the Catholic Church where the Vatican is located.

The Anglican churches in the UK are not faring any better. Anglican churches in Britain are being sold and transformed into mosques. A similar phenomenon is taking place in Germany and the Netherlands with Lutheran and Dutch Reform churches. Vatican Insider reported (11/9/2012) "About twenty Anglican churches In Great Britain 'shut up shop' each year. This persistent phenomenon has led the Church of England to publish a list of religious buildings it is prepared to sell." Marco Tosatti in the Vatican Insider writes, "The trend of converting churches into mosques is not just limited to the (Middle) East; according to Fr. Lazzara it is a common phenomenon across central and northern Europe."

 In the Netherlands, as many as 250 buildings, where Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists had prayed for over a century, were sold. Amsterdam's Fatih Camii mosque had once been a Catholic Church. The Church of St. Vincetius was auctioned off along with its liturgical furnishings and used in a 'profane' way."

Read more: The De-Christianized Europe

Privacy Rights versus Corporate Objectives: Europe’s Expanding ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ - "Mixing Apples and Pears"

European officials are pushing an idea that will encourage autocrats everywhere to demand greater censorship on the Internet. They want companies like Google and Microsoft to abide by the European Union’s recently recognized legal principle of a “right to be forgotten” not just in the 28 countries of the union but everywhere.

In May, the European Court of Justice ruled that individuals could ask Internet search sites to remove links to web pages that contained “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” information about them in the results page for searches of their names. Google, which is the dominant search engine in Europe, has removed more than 250,000 links since that ruling.

But the company says it only removes links from results displayed on its websites for European countries like Google.fr in France or Google.de in Germany but not from results on its non-European sites, including Google.com, the primary site in the United States.

European policy makers say this approach fails to protect the “right to be forgotten” because it is easy for people to search on Google.com or using virtual private networks to find links that are not displayed in their countries.

As a result, European regulators and judges are demanding that Google and other companies remove links covered by the right-to-be-forgotten principle from all results pages in all countries and regardless of where the search takes place.

This would allow Europeans to decide what information citizens of every other nation can access. Google has, so far, refused to comply with these demands, but it may find it harder to resist once European officials enshrine the right to be forgotten into law, which officials are negotiating now.

The European position is deeply troubling because it could lead to censorship by public officials who want to whitewash the past. It also sets a terrible example for officials in other countries who might also want to demand that Internet companies remove links they don’t like.

For example, the military government of Thailand could decide that it wants Facebook and Twitter to remove content that runs afoul of that country’s strict lèse-majesté law everywhere in the world. Autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey might feel emboldened to try to silence critics not just in their own countries but elsewhere by levying fines on Internet businesses or blocking their websites entirely.

European officials argue that it is unfair to liken the right to be forgotten to attempts to muzzle free speech in other countries. After all, the European Union is trying to protect the privacy of individuals, not squelch public debate.

But if European regulators get their way, Internet companies would be left in the awkward position of determining when government requests to censor information universally are legitimate and when it is not. No business should have that power.

Note EU-Digest: The New York Times is mixing Apples and Pears - what is in question are individual privacy right's of European Citizens, not the right of Censorship by Governments, as the New York Times implies. In other words, if an individual in Europe does a search on Google, that information should not be used by Google, or anyone else for commercial purposes, or any other other purpose, for which the individual did not give any prior approval. Pretty straight-forward
.

Read more: Europe’s Expanding ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ - NYTimes.com

ISIS: Its time to take off the gloves and combat ISIS with more effective measures

REWARD FOR KILLING OR CAPTURING AN ISIS  EXECUTIONER

Japan ordered heightened security precautions Sunday and said it would persist with its non-military support for fighting terrorism.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday he is "infuriated" by the purported beheading of journalist Kenji Goto by the ISIS and vowed to hold the terror group responsible.

The killing of Goto, a freelance reporter whose work focused on refugees, children and other victims of war, shocked Japan, which until now had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.

But is all this going to stop ISIS doing more of their despicable deeds. Not likely.

What is required are more drastic measures.

First of all the Press should stop glorifying or even publicizing the deeds and actions of these barbaric deranged criminals. ISIS should certainly not be referred to in the Press as  "the Islamic State", because they are not a state, and they do not represent basic Islamic values in any way or form. 

YouTube, Twitter and Facebook must stop ISIS from accessing their sites. This is not  an issue about Freedom of Expression but rather about giving the liberty to a criminal organization to operate freely on the Internet.

Governments, Corporations, Including Media Empires, and Wealthy Citizens Should Start Putting Their Money Where Their Mouth is To Help Weed Out This Problem, Rather Than Just With Lip Service, Or In the Case of Governments, By Areal Bombardments. 

Instead,  Large Sums Of Money Should Be Offered To Local Citizens In ISIS Occupied Areas For  Capturing ISIS Leaders and Executioners Dead Or Alive.

It Should Be Made Profitable For Local Citizens In The Middle East To Chop Of An ISIS Head. 

Obviously, This Would Also Work Perfectly In Any Area Of The World Where Jihadists operate.




EU-Digest