Trial of activists spotlights problems in Austrian justice system

The corruption plaguing the Austria’s justice system has been dramatically highlighted by the trial of 13 animal rights activists under a new paragraph introduced to deal with organised crime.

Though millions of euros have been spent, and a 200,000 page report compiled, it has become evident Judge Sonja Arleth has failed to find any evidence that any crime at all was committed by the activists, who have had their lives ruined by arrests and imprisonment in some cases of 110 days as well as a lengthy trial.

The latest bizarre twist came when an undercover police agent, who had spent 16 months with the group and who found no evidence of any criminal action, but whose report had been removed from the file, took to the witness stand.

Judge Arleth said the undercover agent would take the witness stand in a separate room and wearing a disguise, but uproar broke out on Wednesday when the activists claimed that the supposed witness was not the actual agent, sparking fears that they were about to be set up. The trial had to be halted as police dragged protestors away.

EUROPE AT CROSSROADS: Feudal economy and political system? Or market and democracy?

Ahead of a key meeting of eurozone finance ministers  in Brussels today on how to rescue the euro,Germany’s conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Social Democrat Chancellor Werner Faymann have paired up forming an unlikely Batman and Robin to try to save the people of Europe from an unprecedented economic meltdown engineered by the banks, bondholders and hedge funds for their profit.

In spite of intense pressure, Merkel and Faymann have rejected the creation of eurobonds and demands to expand the  EU’s €440bn bail-out fund, and they deserve our full support.

These measures, they rightly say, would only heap yet more debt on Germany, the eurozone’s strongest economy – and this, at a time when the country’s economic forecasters such as the IMK are predicting that the country could even enter a recession in 2012.

Support for Ireland’s government plunges to a historic low

The Irish Times – Thursday, December 16, 2010

Government feels brunt of public’s anger

DAMIAN LOSCHER, Managing Director Ipsos MRBI

ANALYSIS: Relatively unscathed by Budget cuts, over-65s alone buck the anti-Government trend

TODAY’S IRISH Times /Ipsos MRBI poll lays bare the public anger towards how the Government is managing the country. Satisfaction with the Government’s performance has slumped to 8 per cent, the lowest level recorded in more than 25 years of polling.

Fieldwork for this latest poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday of this week, one week after the Government delivered the first of at least four tough budgets, and almost one month since the IMF and the ECB arrived in Dublin to deliver a rescue package for the economy.

 Read more at: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1216/1224285654743.html

RIOTS SWEEP EUROPE: The Age Of Rage: Europe Is Exploding

Britain, Italy, Russia & Greece paralyzed as 2011 shapes up to be year of mass civil disobedience

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Riots are sweeping Europe and the age of rage continues to intensify as the financial terrorists who caused the economic collapse now meter out the punishment for their own wrongdoing. Britain, Italy, Russia, and Greece are all gripped with unrest as 2011 shapes up to be the year of civil disobedience.

- The fallout from last week’s violent student fees demonstrations in London continues to reverberate as authorities prepare to introduce water cannons as a means of forcibly subduing protesters and banning protests altogether.

Read more at: http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-age-of-rage-europe-is-exploding.html

Martial Law: UK Police Chief Mulls Banning Protests

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 15, 2010

UK police chief Sir Paul Stephenson is considering whether to ask the British government to ban protest marches altogether in response to last week’s student riots, a move that would place Britain under a de facto state of martial law.

Read more at: http://www.infowars.com/martial-law-uk-police-chief-mulls-banning-protests/

Nigel Farage: The People are holding you in contempt, Mr Barroso

Youtube
Dec 16, 2010

Farage again points out that Barroso was not democratically elected, to which Barroso brags that he was elected in secret by his own cronies. Farage points to recent Wikileaks cables which show that world leaders hold little or no respect for Barroso.

Read more at: http://www.prisonplanet.com/nigel-farage-the-people-are-holding-you-in-contempt-mr-barroso.html

EU profiteering on the back of Ireland’s difficulties – Doherty

EU profiteering on the back of Ireland’s difficulties – Doherty

Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty has accused the European Union of profiteering on the back of Ireland’s economic difficulties after it was revealed tonight that there will be an additional 3% interest rate on European funds for Ireland as part of the EU/IMF deal.

IMF and EU stripping of Greek assets accelerates

Greece unveils seven-bln-euro privatisation plan

(AFP) – 4 hours ago

ATHENS — Debt-stricken Greece has unveiled a three-year privatisation plan to raise 7 billion euros, or 9.3 billion dollars, through the sale and exploitation of state companies and other assets.

The finance ministry said on Thursday that the Socialist government intended to draw “at least one billion euro” in 2011 from the partial sale, joint management or outright privatisation of hundreds of properties.

EU poised to make power grab for Switzerland?

Juncker says EU incomplete without Switzerland

BERLIN | Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:53am GMT

BERLIN Dec 15 (Reuters) – Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker called for Switzerland to join the European Union, saying in a newspaper interview released on Wednesday that the 27-member bloc was incomplete without the Swiss.

“It remains a geostrategic absurdity that we have this white spot on the European map,” Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, said of Switzerland in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit.

Read more at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE6BE0VT20101215

Berlusconi faces challenge from new alliance

Opposition leaders in Italy have launched a movement called“the third pole” by Italy’s media to oust Silvio Berluscon’s coalition government following a narrow defeat in a parliamentary vote.

More than 100 members of parliament in the two chambers are going to fight local elections in the spring on a joint platform. The new movement includes Gianfranco Fini as head of his new Future and Liberty party, Pier Ferdinando Casini as leader of the Catholic UDC, Francesco Rutelli of the small Alliance for Italy, several deputies of the Sicilian Movement for Autonomy.´