Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev announced substantial progress in crucial nuclear arms talks and on military cooperation after their much-anticipated first summit in the Kremlin on Monday.

Negotiators on both sides reached a framework agreement on replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires Dec. 5, with a deal that will cut their arsenals to the lowest level of any U.S.-Russia arms control agreement, both presidents told reporters after more than three hours of talks Monday afternoon.

The statement of Nicholas Sarcozy that Burqa is not welcome in France, that it is a symbol of oppression and not of religion has raised serious debate all over. It is France again where five years ago the display of religious markers, head scarf, Sikh turban, and Jewish skull cap in schools was banned. Public servants cannot use the same in place of work.

Unmanned weapons are condemned by Lord Bingham as 'beyond the pale'

The use of unmanned drones as weapons of war in conflicts around the world has been called into question by one of Britain's most senior judges. Lord Bingham, until last year the senior law lord, said that some weapons were so "cruel as to be beyond the pale of human tolerance".

from Crikey .....

How banks and advisors raided retirees' nest eggs during GFC

Glenn Dyer writes:

Australia's banks, fund managers, investment banks and other "advisors" appear to have staged a massive legal raid on the nest eggs of investors and retirees over the past year, extracting billions of dollars from companies and their small shareholders through a deluge of discounted placements and quasi-rights issues.

Comedian Al Franken has been declared the winner of Minnesota's junior seat in the Senate.

The Democratic upstart and alleged funnyman was running against Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent. The result was so close it set off a legal squabble that will no doubt ensure new cars for untold legions of Minnesota lawyers.

The issue eventually came down to thousands of absentee ballots. In the end, justices of the state's Supreme Court ruled for Franken. He squeaked in by a razor-thin margin, 312 votes out of the nearly 2.9 million cast and is expected to be sworn in next week.

US Vice-President Joe Biden has hinted the administration will not restrain Israel if it decides on military action to remove any Iranian nuclear threat.

Mr Biden told ABC television the US could not "dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do".

Mr Biden also said President Obama's offer of dialogue with Iran remained.
Mr Obama has given Iran until the end of the year to talk about its nuclear programme, which Iran insists is for energy purposes only.

Western countries are concerned Tehran is working to acquire a nuclear weapons capability.

Acclaimed historian Howard Zinn told Truthout: "The Mexican War, presented as something we were doing because Mexicans had fired on our soldiers ... no, we were going to Mexico because we wanted to take forty percent of Mexican land. California, Arizona, Nevada ... all of that beautiful land in the Southwest that was all Mexico. I'll bet there are very few Americans today who live in that area and know that it belonged to Mexico. Or they may ask, how come all these names? How come Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Santa Ana, how come?"

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

Saddam Hussein left open the possibility that he had weapons of mass destruction rather than appear vulnerable to neighbouring Iran, according to declassified FBI documents.

The FBI reports, released on Wednesday (local time) are based on interrogations of the former Iraqi leader.

As Americans celebrate July 4th, they can contemplate that the union of "free and independent states," like the former British colonial power, has evolved into its final manifestation--a complete whore house. While Members of Parliament in London charge their expense accounts with every personal expenditure, including the rental of adult xxx-rated films, an American newspaper put the reporting of public policy out to bids until politico.com blew the whistle.

The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, a development that has startled and dismayed nuns who fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition.

After Obama apologized for the strike which the Afghan government claimed killed well over a hundred ordinary country folk, came the report that the families of those killed, and subsequent Afghani dead falling in harms way of the US military, continuing as before, can apply to receive up to $2,000 compensation. This is the price the great United States of America puts on an Afghan or Pakistan human being, while awarding $100,000 to families of Americans who die while fighting and killing wherever.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has ridiculed recent comments by Opposition spokesman Joe Hockey about tax cuts.

The tax breaks promised before the election start from today.

Yesterday Mr Hockey said it would have been legitimate for the Government to scrap them because of the global financial crisis.

"There would have been a legitimate justification for the Government to say 'our economic recovery will be slower if we are running a big deficit', and I think it should have been considered as part of the mix," he said.

It began more than six years ago with a lie, followed by another lie, and another lie, and then two more, ten more, a hundred, a thousand, an avalanche of lies from heads of state and hatchet men and well-fed media types more interested in getting the interview than in getting the facts.

It began with lies like this:

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

- Dick Cheney, Vice President Speech to VFW National Convention 8/26/2002

... and this:

Malcolm Turnbull has sought refuge from negative opinion polls and the OzCar affair in the politically safer territory of Afghanistan.

The federal Opposition leader visited Australian Defence Force members in Kandahar and Tarin Kowt that they have the support of all Australians during a visit to the strife-torn country.