Cameron: Help me save Team GB

Read this on BBC


7 February 2014 Last updated at 13:23 ET

Summoning up the spirit of the Olympics, David Cameron called on Britain's "quiet patriots" to save Team GB or what he called "our United Kingdom".

He was all too aware that the Scottish Nationalists would portray him as a remote English Tory lecturing Scotland from hundred of miles away.


He knew too that Alex Salmond would use his intervention to demand that he travelled North to debate with him.


Why? Because this is a debate about fear as well as hope and the First Minister wants to raise the spectre of a majority Conservative government unrestrained in its desire to cut spending, benefits and, even, ties to the EU.


Today the Prime Minister took a calculated risk to call on those who thought they were mere spectators - those without a vote, in particular the around 800,000 Scots who've moved South - to help the people of Scotland make up their minds.


What made the Olympics special was in large part the crowds.


Today David Cameron seemed to say - If Scotland won't listen to me, maybe they'll listen to you.


The Olympics, while in their grandeur, can cause quite an image blow to political figures.  The Russian Olympics not only have affects in Russia concerning Vladimir Putins image, but right close is Great Britain.  The PM there, David Cameron, gave a rally speech to help boost his image.   It appears to be a pre-attempt at damage control or a preparation incase something in the future is going to happen regarding what the other critics will say about him in GB. 

Iran sending warships close to US borders

Read this on FOX


FoxNews.com Published February 08, 2014


A senior Iranian naval commander says his country has sent several warships to the Atlantic Ocean, close to U.S. maritime borders for the first time.  The commander of Iran's Northern Navy Fleet, Admiral Afshin Rezayee Haddad, is quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying Saturday that the vessels have already begun the journey to the Atlantic Ocean via waters near South Africa.


"Iran's military fleet is approaching the United States' maritime borders, and this move has a message," Haddad reportedly said, according to Fars, a semi-official Iranian news agency.
Iranian officials said last month that the fleet consisted of the destroyer Sabalan and the logistic helicopter carrier Khark, which will be on a three-month mission. The ships are carrying some 30 navy academy cadets for training along with their regular crews.


Haddad says the fleet is approaching U.S. maritime borders for the first time. The Islamic Republic considers the move as a response to U.S. naval deployments near its own coastlines. The U.S. Navy's 5th fleet is based in nearby Bahrain -- across the gulf from Iran.


Iran has regularly deployed warships to the Gulf of Aden off the eastern coast of Africa to fight privacy and protect commercial ships.  It has also sent its warships to Syrian waters in recent years.
In 2012, Iran said it aims to put warships in international waters off the U.S. coast within the next few years, and extend its reach as far as Antarctica.


Iran has a history of its crazy war ambitions with the US.  I think that they should not be placing warships around the international waters.  It only creates further tension, and Iran wants to be a world player, then maybe they should fix their economy first.  The Middle East conflicts are very concerning as they also involve Europe, and the U.S.,  but it is very hard to get them to stop what they are doing when yet we can do it ourselves too.  Diplomats and foreign visits might create desired results, if not, then we should address the underlying issues.

Who Made That Nigerian Scam?

Read this on the NYTimes


By DANIEL ENGBER

The Nigerian scam may seem like a scourge of the Internet age, but it actually predates email. Before we started getting all-caps proposals in our inboxes, con men in West Africa plied their trade by fax and paper letter. Some of the first scams to make their way to Western Europe arrived by telex in 1989 and 1990, when businessmen in Britain started hearing that a wayward tanker of Nigerian crude could have its cargo claimed for bargain prices — in exchange, of course, for some cash upfront. Before then, Nigerian fraudsters aimed their grifts at locals.

One scheme was the “wash-wash,” a literal money-laundering in which the mark is shown a valise of supposed bills blackened with Vaseline and iodine and promised a cut if he pays for an expensive cleaning agent.

Advance-fee or 419 scams, known by the section of the Nigerian criminal code that outlaws fraud, took on a global character when oil prices crashed along with the national economy. A newly installed military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida, cut salaries for civil servants and the military and ended price supports for the local currency. Within three years, the country’s inflation rate was greater than 38 percent.

The English-speaking, entrepreneurial class found itself with little buying power and in need of foreign money. “Some of these guys came out and started perpetrating fraud,” says Andrew Apter, an Africa historian at U.C.L.A. “They used the language and insignias and letterhead of financial offices to lure people in.”

I have read about the scams before, and it seems odd that people would believe it coming from Nigeria.  They are not a well developed country, and you would think people would think they would be smarter than that to not fall for it, even if it came from China, or even America.  But yet, our intelligence fails us when we think some crazy person from Nigeria is going to sell us a legitimate product. 

Mexico police find mass grave and severed heads in Michoacan

Read this on BBC


6 February 2014 Last updated at 21:28 ET

Mexican police have found a mass grave containing at least 20 bodies in the small municipality of Tinguindin, in troubled western Michoacan state.

In nearby Zacan, the severed heads of four men were discovered by residents early on Thursday.


Vigilante groups began an offensive in the area a month ago against the notorious Knights Templar drug cartel.


A spokesman for the groups said the killings were probably a revenge attack carried out by the drug cartel.


Forensic experts are trying to confirm when the bodies were dumped in the mass grave.


The severed heads were found lying in the street close to a church, wrapped in rubbish bags and accompanied by a threatening note.


Mass graves of suspected drug gang victims are not uncommon in Mexico. But it is the location of this latest discovery which is of particular concern, says the BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City.


Federal troops were deployed in the state in mid-January after the vigilantes advanced towards the Knights Templar headquarters in the town of Apatzingan.


In a matter of days, they managed to take over several municipalities previously controlled by the gang.


The vigilantes say state and federal police had failed to provide security to them and their families.


They decided to act to rid Michoacan of the Knights Templar cartel, a brutal organisation known for its involvement in drug trafficking and extortion of local businessmen and farmers


Just over a week ago, the vigilantes agreed to join the official security forces, but most of them have so far refused to lay down their weapons.


On Tuesday, President Enrique Pena Nieto pledged to spend $3.4bn (£2bn) on schools, roads, hospitals and other infrastructure in order to address the underlying causes of the unrest.


There have been many reports about the dangerous conditions of Mexico.  Due to drug issues, there have even been effects affecting the cruise line industry where there are lesser people now wanting to travel there because of their safety.  Drugs is an ongoing issue that the government is doing as much as possible right now to fix the problems.  The good people there want safe, educational lives and to not live in fear.  It's hard to have peace in mind when mass graves are found.

Olympics Opening Ceremony Offers Fanfare for a Reinvented Russia

Read this on the New Yourk Times


By DAVID M. HERSZENHORNFEB. 7, 2014

SOCHI, Russia — With an outsize extravaganza that reached deep into the repertory of classical music and ballet, traversed the sights and sounds of the world’s largest geopolitical expanse, soared into outer space and swept across millenniums of history in a celebration of everything from czarist military might to Soviet monumentalism, a swaggering, resurgent Russia turned its Winter Olympic aspirations into reality on Friday night.

After seven years of building to this moment — the opening of what is believed to be the most expensive Olympic Games in history — the message of the over-the-top ceremony was simply this: In a big way, Russia is back.

As if there were any doubt.

(Where Russia may be headed — amid an economic slowdown, continuing rights abuses and suppression of political dissent that have drawn sharp criticism, especially in the West — was a question for another day.)

The Olympics was a time for Russia to show its power and flex its muscles.  I think that judging from the opening ceremonies the Russians put on a good show of confidence to the world that they are a world power player.  They, like many other countries previously have been able to show how much money they can spend and the venues built for future investment can be done.  Russia has been falling behind economically and some think that it cannot compete with America and China, but it can.  Just like Beijing and Vancouver, it will do just fine.

China Snaps Back at U.S. Over South China Sea

Read this on Wall Street Journal




Beijing is refusing to back down in a verbal stand-off with the U.S. over China's territorial ambitions in South China Sea, with China's foreign ministry rejecting comments by a U.S. diplomat that Chinese moves threatened stability in the region.


Beijing is refusing to back down in a verbal stand-off with the U.S. over China’s territorial ambitions in South China Sea, with China’s foreign ministry rejecting comments by a U.S. diplomat that Chinese moves threatened stability in the region.


The U.S. has recently cranked up rhetoric around Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, urging the country to respect international law and warning China against establishing an air defense zone in the area.


“As a sovereign state, China is fully entitled to take any measures it sees fit as regards air security, including the establishment of an air-defense identification zone, to safeguard national security,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said during a regular press briefing on Friday, calling U.S. comments on the issue “irresponsible.”


Mr. Hong’s comments came two days after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Danny Russell said in testimony on Capitol Hill that the U.S. did not recognize a similar air-defense zone China recently announced over the East China Sea and said China “should refrain from taking similar actions elsewhere in the region.”


Mr. Russell also questioned the legality of the so-called “nine-dash line” by which both China and Taiwan have laid claim to much of the South China Sea and asked China to clarify the reasoning behind it.


“China’s lack of clarity with regard to its South China Sea claims has created uncertainty, insecurity and instability in the region,” he said.


China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea overlap with those of a number of its neighbors, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. Beijing has grown increasingly aggressive in asserting its claims, stoking tensions in waters important for fishing, shipping and oil exploration.


Mr. Hong brushed aside criticism of the nine-dash line on Friday, saying it was established in 1948, a year before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, and had been “supported by successive Chinese governments.”


He also criticized the U.S. for helping to spread “rumors” about issues pertaining to the South China Sea drummed up by “right-wing forces in Japan.”


He did not clarify what those rumors were, though presumably he was referring to Japanese media reports saying China planned to establish an air-defense zone in the South China Sea.


Regarding China, the two countries both want the land not because it is valuable, but because it is a key trading route.  Lots of money from economic growth is placed on the mercy of this dispute.  I think they should both share it.  We seem to think its all about money these days, which is right.  There is much more to this issue though than we can understand fully to get a real clear attitude on it.

Sochi Olympics Organizers Downplay Attempted Plane Hijacking

Read this on Wall Street Journal




IOC Spokesman Says Hijacking During Olympic Opening Ceremony Was a Minor Incident


Olympic officials said there was no security threat from an attempted hijacking of an Istanbul-bound plane during the opening ceremony of the Win.  SOCHI, Russia—Olympic officials played down an attempted plane hijacking that took place during the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Games, saying it didn’t occur over Russian airspace and was beyond the host nation’s jurisdiction.

“Frankly, it seemed like a minor incident,” Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, said of Friday’s attempted hijacking of an Istanbul-bound Pegasus Airlines flight, in which a passenger declared he had a bomb and demanded the plane be rerouted to Sochi. Turkish authorities escorted the plane to a safe landing in Istanbul, where the alleged hijacker was taken into custody.



Sochi 2014 organizing committee president Dmitry Chernyshenko said he hadn’t received threats corresponding to the attempted hijacking. Also in their daily media briefing Saturday, organizers were discreet in describing early demand for Sochi events. They said some perception of low attendance could be attributed to Russian fans not arriving at events early enough.

“We’re trying to inspire our local fans to come earlier,” Mr. Chernyshenko said.

Friday, the Sochi organizing committee said about 80% of the total tickets to the Olympics had been sold by the end of January.



Officials didn’t provide a specific attendance number for the opening ceremony at Fisht Stadium, but said there were no empty seats and that 44,431 people were admitted to the Olympic Park, including those who had obtained grounds passes. The Sochi organizers also faced some criticism for a decision to show, for some Russian television viewers, a pretaped rehearsal of giant snowflakes blossoming into the Olympic rings, after one snowflake failed to change during Friday’s ceremony.  “Some television stations did one thing, some did another. It was a very technical performance. I don’t kind of see what the problem is,” Mr. Adams said.
ter Games in Sochi.


The Olympics in Russia have gotten a lot of criticism lately, and it won't be dying down anytime soon.  Many security threats were prevalent before, during, and after the games which for those who don't understand the news, or don't triple check their sources then they may be misunderstood.  The Sochi officials are doing all that they can to protect the games, and if people are worried about security, than they shouldn't complain about how strict the TSA is.