Bahrain and Iran in diplomatic row over union proposal

BBC – It follows official Iranian calls for demonstrations against a proposed union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. A summit of the Gulf states discussed the proposal on Monday but did not reach any decision on the matter. Bahrain’s Sunni royal family has accused Iran of supporting mass protests by the nation’s Shia majority. The proposed union was presented as a first step in a larger integration between all six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) members. Read article

Saudi and Bahrain expected to seek union: minister

Reuters – Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are expected to announce closer political union at a meeting of Gulf Arab leaders on Monday, a Bahraini minister said, a move dismissed by the opposition as a ruse to avoid political reform. Read article

Greece bailout crisis: President seeks unity government

BBC – If the president’s bid fails, another election will have to be held. Earlier, Pasok became the third party to fail in coalition talks when leader Evangelos Venizelos formally returned the mandate to the president. Last Sunday, voters backed parties opposed to Greece’s bailout deal, which requires deep budget cuts. Read article

Nigel Farage warns of EU ‘mass unrest’ and ‘revolution’

BBC – He told the European Parliament the rise of “extreme” parties “could cause the rebirth of National Socialism” in countries such as Greece. Mr Farage, whose party wants the UK to leave the EU, urged an end to the eurozone project. It was “headed the wrong way”, he said. In Greece, the leader of the left-wing Syriza bloc, Alex Tsipras, has tried to form a government following inconclusive elections on Sunday. He has described the EU-International Monetary Fund bailout, and its resulting austerity measures, as “barbaric”. Read article

Russia President Putin will miss G8 Camp David summit

BBC – Mr Putin, who was inaugurated as President this week after an absence of four years, told US officials he was busy finalising his cabinet. He will send the outgoing president, Dmitry Medvedev, who replaces him as prime minister, instead. The two presidents will now hold talks at the G20 meeting in Mexico in June. Read article

Keep cutting or EU aid stops, Greeks told

Telegraph – The political turmoil triggered market turbulence yesterday as shares fell on fears that Greece will be forced out of the euro within months. Concern that the problems may spread pushed up the price of borrowing for Spain and Italy. Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, warned that unless Greece implemented £12 billion of new austerity measures next month the EU will stop aid “tranches”, a move that would cause the collapse of public services and make the Greek state bankrupt. Read article

Cameron says Euro needs single government: report

Reuters – A successful euro zone requires a single government if it is to work properly, British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday. Read article

German government forced to hand over secret documents that exposed euro flaws – before they became a reality

DailyMail – The German government has been forced to hand over hitherto secret documents that expose the flaws of the euro – and the misgivings of European politicians – in the years before it became a reality. Der Spiegel news magazine made a successful request for the release of the euro files at a time when the odds on Greece quitting the common currency within 18 months rise to 75 per cent and the chances of a complete shattering of the eurozone have never been higher. Read article

Brazil Forging Strategic Alliance with Africa

IpNews – The Brazilian government of Dilma Rousseff is taking firm steps towards stronger relations with Africa, such as the creation of a special fund to finance development projects together with multilateral lenders like the World Bank. Read article

Video Of The Week – If I Wanted America To Be A Dictatorship

China, South Korea Start Talks on Free-Trade Pact

Bloomberg – Asia’s biggest and fourth-biggest economies would form a market with annual trade that rose 19 percent in 2011 to $246 billion, according to China’s customs data. A free trade accord is strategic from both economic and political standpoints, given the proximity to North Korea, said Kwon Hyuk Jae, research fellow at Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul. “Both can gain much for economic growth and closer ties will help beef up regional security,” Kwon said. Read article

China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy in five years

After years of double digit expansion China is trying to slow its economic growth to a more sedate annual rate of 7.5pc.

Royal Society report calls for mass depopulation, drastic reduction in energy consumption

The Royal Society – Rapid and widespread changes in the world’s human population, coupled with unprecedented levels of consumption present profound challenges to human health and wellbeing, and the natural environment. This report gives an overview of how global population and consumption are linked, and the implications for a finite planet. Read Report

Thousands in Japan protest Asia Pacific trade pact

Brecorder – Thousands of farmers rallied in Tokyo on Wednesday against an Pacific-wide free trade pact as Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s prepares for a visit to the United States. Noda had reportedly been looking to announce Japan would become a full-fledged participant in talks on framing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during his trip to Washington next week. But fierce opposition, including from within his own party, means he is unlikely to be able to give Barack Obama the good news on a pact the US president has pushed, partially as a way to counterbalance China’s growing economic might. Read article

UN security council clears way to send 300 observers to Syria

Guardian – The UN security council has voted to dramatically expand its monitoring mission in Syria, paving the way for up to 300 peacekeepers to be deployed to a country which has been brought to the brink of civil war in 13 months of violence. The resolution called on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, as well as armed opposition groups, to cease all violence and for the government to respect its commitment to the security council to withdraw heavy weapons. Read article

Ousted Maldives President Claims Obama Approved Islamist Coup

Breitbart – both the United States and India moved swiftly to recognize his successor, former vice president Mohammed Waheed Hassan, without taking the trouble to find out what had really happened, he says.
“We did so much to make the Maldives more liberal,” he said. “To suddenly see the United States, so quickly — they could have held onto their horses for a few minutes and just asked me — so quickly to have recognized the status quo, that was very sad and shocking.” Read article

Video Of The Week – The Shocking Truth of the Pending EU Collapse

South Sudan eases crisis by withdrawing from disputed oil area

Independent The immediate prospect of a broader war between the two Sudans receded yesterday after South Sudan withdrew its forces from disputed oil fields that are claimed by the northern government. South Sudan said it would make an “orderly withdrawal” from the Heglig fields it occupied last week in response to appeals from the UN and world leaders. Read article

Benelux Army in the Making

Defence Talk – The armies of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are to be largely merged into a Benelux army. The three countries will make a joint statement today at a NATO meeting in Brussels, according to Defence Minister Hans Hillen. The alliance calls itself the Northern Group within NATO. The minister said on BNR radio that “in a short while, joint paratroops must be trained.” Also, “we can jointly train in the airforce, and join forces in the area of equipment.” Read Article

News Archive In Focus – New World Order (1,083 articles)

Despite various interpretations of the term, the “new world order” has been used to refer to any new period evidencing a dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power. The most common theme of the new world order has been an orchestration of events, which – by design or by default – ultimately lead to a new notion of global governance.For a comprehensive view of the news about a New World Order, read our archive of 1,083 articles CLICK HERE

UN’s Ban says situation in Syria is ‘highly precarious’

BBC – Mr Ban said he has seen “troubling” evidence of ongoing violence. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a global arms embargo and further sanctions if the government continues to break the ceasefire. The BBC’s Ian Pannell in northern Syria reports seeing numerous breaches of the ceasefire over the last week. Read article

UN says South Sudan seized Heglig oil field illegally

BBC – South Sudan says it will only withdraw from Heglig if the UN deploys monitors there. In Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir continued his verbal attacks threatening to teach the south a “final lesson”. On Wednesday he had threatened to bring its government down. The BBC’s James Copnall in Juba, South Sudan, says the next decisive step is likely to be Sudan’s attempt to retake Heglig by force. Read article

Hungarian PM attacks EU ‘blackmail’ over IMF loan

AFP – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban attacked the European Union for imposing political conditions on an EU-IMF loan desperately needed by Budapest, in an interview on Friday. “Creating political conditions — for example over the justice system — would amount to blackmail, which is unacceptable within the European Union,” Orban told national radio MR1 in his weekly interview. “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) does not set financial conditions, but the EU is flirting with the idea of imposing political conditions,” Orban added. Read article

At Nuclear Talks, Iran and 6 Nations Agree to Meet Again

NYtimes – Testing Iran’s willingness to negotiate seriously on its nuclear program was the purpose of this meeting, European and American officials said. That was a low bar to hurdle and represented no real breakthrough, and there were no negotiations here on specific steps or proposals. The lack of concrete detail is likely to lead to political criticism of President Obama as the presidential election campaign unfolds and will make the meeting in Iraq even more important. Read article

IMF funds drive caught in global power shift

Reuters – Tensions among some of the world’s leading economies are on a boil over a plan to raise new resources for the International Monetary Fund to contain the euro zone debt crisis and a quest by emerging economies to win more say in the global lender. World finance leaders gathering in Washington next week will focus on proposals for countries to contribute more money to the IMF so it is better prepared in case of a fallout from any further escalation of Europe’s debt crises. Read Article