Malta

Car-Bomb Kills “One-Woman WikiLeaks” Who Led The Panama Papers Revelations

by

– Car-Bomb Kills “One-Woman WikiLeaks” Who Led The Panama Papers Revelations: 

Meet Daphne Caruana Galizia, the journalist who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption in Malta.

A blogger whose posts often attracted more readers than the combined circulation of the country’s newspapers, Caruana Galizia was recently described by Politico as a “one-woman WikiLeaks”.

To John Dalli, a former European commissioner whom she helped bring down in a tobacco lobbying scandal, Galizia is “a terrorist.”

To opposition MPs, she’s a political force of nature, one who fortunately has her guns aimed at the other side of the aisle.

“She single-handedly brought the government to the verge of collapse,” says one MP. “The lady has balls,” says another.

Galizia’s mantra was simple: blog relentlessly about the “cronyism that is accepted as something normal here. I can’t bear to see people like that rewarded.”

Her blogs were a thorn in the side of both the establishment and underworld figures that hold sway in Europe’s smallest member state.

Read moreCar-Bomb Kills “One-Woman WikiLeaks” Who Led The Panama Papers Revelations

Daphne Caruana Galizia killed in Malta car bomb blast

by

– Daphne Caruana Galizia killed in Malta car bomb blast:

Daphne Caruana Galizia, a prominent investigative journalist in Malta, has been killed after a powerful bomb exploded in her car, police said, in an incident that stunned the small island country,

The 53-year-old had just driven away from her home in Mosta, a town outside Malta’s capital of Valletta, when the bomb went off on Monday, sending the vehicle’s wreckage spiralling over a wall.

The force of the blast reduced her car to pieces and catapulted the journalist’s body into a nearby field, witnesses said. She leaves behind a husband and three sons.

Caruana Galizia ran a hugely popular blog in which she relentlessly highlighted cases of alleged high-level corruption by politicians from across party lines.

Read moreDaphne Caruana Galizia killed in Malta car bomb blast

Controversial Weedkiller Glyphosate is Finally Banned in Malta

by

– Controversial Weedkiller Glyphosate is Finally Banned in Malta:

Weedkillers containing both the controversial glyphosate and POE-tallowamine can no longer be sold in Malta, and their use will be completely banned come April.

Source: www.timesofmalta.com

The ban comes days afer the release of a study showing the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup caused liver disease in rats. The findings are the first to show a causal link between its consumption at a real-world environmental dose and a serious condition.

The dose, given to rats as part of the study over two years, was thousands of times below what is allowed by regulators worldwide, but the animals ultimately suffered from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Read moreControversial Weedkiller Glyphosate is Finally Banned in Malta

Malta Set to Become First European Country to Fully Ban Glyphosate

by

– Malta Set to Become First European Country to Fully Ban Glyphosate:

Malta is set to become the first EU country to ban the use of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, which was reauthorised by the European Commission this month despite Malta’s opposition.

Malta-glyphosate

Source: www.timesofmalta.com

An Environment Ministry spokeswoman told the Times of Malta that the government had begun the process of banning the chemical, which is considered a “probable human carcinogen” by the World Health Organisation cancer agency.

Read moreMalta Set to Become First European Country to Fully Ban Glyphosate

Imminent Intervention? Greece, Italy, & Malta Close Airspace For Aircraft From Libya

by

– Imminent Intervention? Greece, Italy, & Malta Close Airspace For Aircraft From Libya:

Weird things are happening in the Mediterranean Sea. Almost simultaneously three countries in the Mediterranean have closed their airspace and territories for aircraft departing from Libya. The exceptions are very few and involve the transport of military and evacuees. At the same time, three NATO exercises are taking place but the airspace closure and directly little to do with that.

…

* * *

PayPal: Donate in USD
PayPal: Donate in EUR
PayPal: Donate in GBP

Children in the UK are more likely to die before they reach their fifth birthday than in any other western European country except Malta

by

– UK child death rate among worst in western Europe, say experts (Guardian, May 3, 2014):

Study’s authors surprised by poor performance after they find only Malta has more deaths of children under five
Children in the UK are more likely to die before they reach their fifth birthday than in any other western European country except Malta.

When Countries Go Broke

by

– When countries go broke (Sovereign Man, Oct 14, 2013):

It’s become almost cliche these days to point out how many governments are broke beyond belief.

In Japan, where the country’s debt level already exceeds 200% of GDP, the government has to finance 46% of its budget by issuing more debt.

Read moreWhen Countries Go Broke

U.S. Government Ready To Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion For A Drug-War Air Force (Wired)

by

The US government (CIA) hates competition:

– Veterans Today’s Gordon Duff: Obama’s Drone Strikes On Pakistan Not Targeting Terrorists, But Securing $80 Billion US Opium Empire

– Afghanistan: Opium Cultivation Rose Substantially In 2012 (New York Times)

– Afghan Opium Poppy Farming Increases 20%, Fuelled By High Opium Prices (Guardian)

– CIA Created Afghan Heroin Trade (Veterans Today)

– Afghanistan: Is Creating A ‘Narco-State’ Considered ‘Nation-Building?’ (Veterans Today)

– Brought To You By Poppy Bush, Obama Bin Bush And Al-CIAda: Photos Of U.S. And Afghan Troops Patrolling Poppy Fields June 2012 (Public Intelligence)

– Breaking News: Afghanistan – America’s ‘Total Lie War’ (Veterans Today)

– Afghanistan: Heroin Production Rose Between 2001 And 2011 From Just 185 Tons To A Staggering 5,800 Tons/Year (Daily Mail)

– Afghan Opium Production Increases By 61 Percent, Opium Yield Rises 133 Percent From 2010 (AFP)

– War On Drugs Revealed As Total Hoax: US Military Admits To Guarding, Assisting Lucrative Opium Trade In Afghanistan (Natural News)

– Afghan Opium Production ‘Rises By 61%’ Compared With 2010 – Per-Hectare Price Of Opium More Than Doubled (BBC News)


U.S. Special Forces board two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. The State Department uses similar aircraft to try to slow down the drug trade. Photo: DoD

– U.S. Ready to Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion for a Drug-War Air Force (Wired, Dec 4 , 2012):

Unsure how your private security firm makes money as the U.S. war in Afghanistan winds down? One option: Go into the drug trade — more specifically, the lucrative business of fighting narcotics. The State Department needs a business partner to keep its fleet of drug-hunting helicopters and planes flying worldwide. You could make up to $10 billion-with-a-B.

Starting next month in Melbourne, Florida, the State Department will solicit some defense-industry feedback on a contract to help operate its 412 aircraft, based in at least eight nations, before it reopens the contract for bidding. Among the missions the diplomatic corps needs fulfilled: “Provide pilots and operational support for drug interdiction missions such as crop spraying, and the transport of personnel and cargo,” according to a pre-solicitation the department’s bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs released on Friday.

From its headquarters at Florida’s Patrick Air Force Base, the State Department directs 51,000 annual hours worth of air operations. In Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Pakistan, and Guatemala, it mostly performs “counternarcotics and law enforcement activities,” explains State Department spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala, and in Afghanistan it does transportation support as well. Diplomats at the mega-embassy in Iraq also rely on State’s contractor air fleet to move about the country. And in recent years, that fleet has also needed to perform short-term air missions in Sudan, Honduras, Malta, Libya and Egypt. Private-security giant DynCorp currently holds the contract for supporting the diplomatic fleet.

Read moreU.S. Government Ready To Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion For A Drug-War Air Force (Wired)

Mass Downgrade: Moody’s Cuts Credit Ratings Of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia And Malta, WARNS UK, France And Austria On AAA-Rating

by

– Moody’s warns may cut AAA-rating for UK and France (Reuters, Feb. 14, 2012):

Rating agency Moody’s warned it may cut the triple-A ratings of France, Britain and Austria and it downgraded six other European nations including Italy, Spain and Portugal, citing growing risks from Europe’s debt crisis.

– Moody’s cuts ratings on Italy, Portugal and Spain (Washington Post, Feb. 14, 2012):

NEW YORK — Ratings agency Moody’s Investor Service on Monday downgraded its credit ratings on Italy, Portugal and Spain, while France, Britain and Austria kept their top ratings but had their outlooks dropped to “negative” from “stable.”

Moody’s also cut its ratings on the smaller nations of Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta. All nine countries are members of the European Union.

London, 13 February 2012 — As anticipated in November 2011, Moody’s Investors Service has today adjusted the sovereign debt ratings of selected EU countries in order to reflect their susceptibility to the growing financial and macroeconomic risks emanating from the euro area crisis and how these risks exacerbate the affected countries’ own specific challenges.

– Rating Action: Moody’s adjusts ratings of 9 European sovereigns to capture downside risks (Moody’s, Feb. 13, 2012):

Moody’s actions can be summarised as follows:

– Austria: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

– France: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

– Italy: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

– Malta: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

– Portugal: downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2, negative outlook

– Slovakia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

– Slovenia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

– Spain: downgraded to A3 from A1, negative outlook

– United Kingdom: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

S&P Cuts France’s Credit Rating – 9 EU Nations See Ratings Cut

by

See also:

– Marc Faber’s Latest Rant On Global Monetization Wars (Video)

… the majority of European nations deserve a CCC rating …

– The Real Dark Horse: S&P’s Mass Downgrade FAQ May Have Just Hobbled The European Sovereign Debt Market

– France’s credit rating downgraded in latest blow to euro zone (The Globe and Mail, Jan. 13, 2012):

The euro zone’s worst-case scenario of recession and default is looming larger after a mass debt downgrade of France and several other countries, and stalled Greek debt restructuring talks.

Standard & Poor’s stripped France of its prized triple-A rating and slashed the ratings of Italy, Spain and six other European countries Friday, continuing a disturbing pattern of the feared becoming reality in Europe’s smouldering debt crisis.

The move Friday crushed nascent hope that the region’s debt woes might finally be easing after successful bond auctions by Spain and Italy earlier in the week.

The most immediate problem for the euro zone is that France – its second largest economy – will now face significantly higher borrowing costs just as the region slides into recession.

Equally important, the downgrade makes it more expensive for the European Financial Stability Fund to raise cash because France is the fund’s No. 2 backer behind Germany. The EFSF, set up in 2010, is due to raise money in the markets on Tuesday.

Read moreS&P Cuts France’s Credit Rating – 9 EU Nations See Ratings Cut