Corruption is Everywhere > Spies tried to force me to take anti-Russia stance – Serbian minister; Timoshenko outs 'scam of the century'; Pr Charles and Bin Laden money

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Spies tried to force me to take anti-Russia stance – Serbian minister

Serbian interior minister claims foreign spies have been pressing him

into taking anti-Russia stance

FILE PHOTO. Aleksandar Vulin. © Global Look Press / MOD Russia

A major foreign intelligence service has been pressing Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin over his attitude towards Russia and China, the official revealed on Saturday. The minister expects a large media campaign against him to kick off next week.

“One of the largest intelligence services in the world, if not the largest, told me that my stance was unacceptable and that if I do not change [it] and do not abandon the policy that I am pursuing ... then I will not be a member of the government and they will do absolutely everything to smear me,” Vulin told media outlet Pink.

A media campaign against him is expected to begin next week, Vulin claimed. Despite the pressure, the minister said he refused to cooperate in any way with the foreign spies. “I haven’t worked and won’t work for anyone except for the Serbian people, the Serbian state, and I won’t be completely loyal to anyone, except for the president of all Serbs, Aleksandar Vucic,” the minister said.

The condition was that I start working for this foreign intelligence service. I will not, even at the cost of my own life.

The minister also urged the country’s president to keep Serbia neutral, as well as to maintain good relations with Russia and China, regardless of external pressure.

Top Serbian officials have repeatedly said the country faced mounting foreign pressure amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Belgrade, however, has refused to join any anti-Russian sanctions or other hostile acts by the collective West, maintaining that Serbia will continue pursuing its own interests, while keeping its long-standing ties with Moscow.

Vulin has taken a particularly strong position amid the ongoing crisis. Early in July, the minister said the US and the EU have been openly pressing Serbia into becoming “a NATO foot soldier” in order to become “someone who wants to engage in a conflict with Russia.”

“We are very clear: We will not engage in a conflict with Russia, we will not engage in other people’s wars, we will not be someone else’s foot soldiers,” he declared back then.

Ukrainian MP reveals ‘scam of the century’

Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz gas company has sought to embezzle $8 billion,

Yulia Timoshenko claims

FILE PHOTO: Yulia Timoshenko, an Ukrainian MP and the head of the 'Fatherland' party.

©  Global Look Press / Dimitrios Karvountzis

Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz gas company is supposedly running a massive embezzlement scheme as it seeks to get billions of dollars from the government for alleged gas purchases even though Ukraine presumably does not need additional gas for the winter, Yulia Timoshenko, an MP and the head of the ‘Fatherland’ party, claimed on Monday.

According to Timoshenko, the lawmakers were about to pass several bills that would grant Naftogaz additional funding for gas purchases ahead of the winter. One of them would grant the company “compensation” from the budget that was worth 150 billion hryvnas ($4.08 billion) to purchase an additional six billion cubic meters of natural gas abroad.

 The government planned to use international financial aid provided to Ukraine by Western nations for that “compensation,” Timoshenko’s party wrote in a statement last week. According to Timoshenko herself, Naftogaz also sought to request another 150 billion hryvnas ($4.08 billion) from the budget to increase its authorized share capital and then use the money to buy the gas. 

Timoshenko, who also served as Ukraine’s prime minister between 2007 and 2010, also argued that this additional gas purchase for the upcoming winter heating season was not needed at all. According to the MP, Ukraine already produces and stores enough gas for the winter and might even get up to seven billion excessive cubic meters of gas during the upcoming heating season.

On Monday, Timoshenko claimed that Naftogaz was still planning the “scam of the century” by embezzling up to 264 billion hryvnas ($7.18 billion) and “sending them to offshores.” She also called on the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky to organize a meeting between his administration officials, MPs, and independent experts, as well as diplomats from the G7 nations to discuss the situation.

“Could the president not be aware? Are you not aware of the ‘scam of the century’ that Naftogaz is currently implementing?” she wondered in her post.

The lawmaker said that the Ukrainian MPs are set to discuss the relevant bills later in July. Last week, her party said it had blocked bills to supposedly prevent embezzlement by Naftogaz. RT could not independently verify Timoshenko’s claims related to the Naftogaz activities. Neither the Ukrainian presidential office nor the company itself have commented on the issue yet. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the Ukrainian media reported that Naftogaz creditors had rejected the company’s request for a two-year debt payment freeze. Naftogaz made the proposal earlier this month, citing “significant economic and business decline in Ukraine” caused by the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Naftogaz is Ukraine’s largest state-owned oil and gas company and a major source of income, accounting for almost 17% of the country’s total state budget revenue last year.

Prince Charles agreed to take £1million from Bin Laden family 

for his charity despite objections from advisers

Charles said to have accepted funds from two half-brothers of Osama Bin Laden

Agreement made following private meeting between Charles and Bakr Bin Laden

The payment came despite protestations from his advisers to return the money

Charles reportedly warned of reputational damage if it became known to public

By JAMIE PHILLIPS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 15:57 EDT, 30 July 2022 | UPDATED: 16:01 EDT, 30 July 2022

The rest of this article can be found at Daily Mail.

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Military Madness > NATO's Bluff Called by Russia; ISIS-K Bolstered by US-Trained Troops; Russia's Drone Inventory; Prince Charles 'Great Reset' Requires Military-Style Campaign

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Russia explains why there is no more diplomacy with NATO

1 Nov, 2021 13:19

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left,

arrive for a meeting in New York in September 2021. © Sputnik / Russian Foreign Ministry

Past negotiations between Moscow and NATO wound up achieving nothing as the US-led military bloc was more interested in lecturing the Russian side and looking to score political points, the country’s top diplomat has claimed.

Speaking to reporters in Rome after the G20 leaders’ summit on Sunday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the efforts of long-running Russia-NATO Council meetings, designed to reduce tensions, had largely failed. According to him, “when there were still meetings between the council and our representatives, they only wanted to teach us how to live.”

“Every time, they demanded to convene the council to discuss Ukraine. Their whole interest was whipping up propaganda and putting pressure on Russia,” Lavrov argued. “We rely on facts, and the facts are that NATO does not want any co-operation with us.”

“We rely on facts, and the facts are that NATO

does not want any co-operation with us.”

Sergey Lavrov

Last month, the bloc announced it would expel eight Russian diplomats from its Brussels headquarters, reportedly over claims of involvement in undisclosed ‘espionage’. In response, Moscow said it would suspend all direct bilateral ties with NATO, bringing home its entire delegation and shuttering the bloc’s offices in Moscow.

Since then, Lavrov has claimed that the state of relations between Russia and NATO can’t be described as “catastrophic,” because “to be catastrophic you have to have at least something.” Instead, he said, there are now no formal ties between the two, and the Kremlin has instead built relations with individual member states on their own.

The bloc’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, has insisted it is ready for constructive talks with Moscow, insisting that “the proposal to convene a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council remains relevant. And now it depends on Russia whether it will react in a positive way.”

However, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has written off the offer as empty rhetoric. “Yes, we heard the statement by Mr. Stoltenberg about his alleged readiness to discuss security issues with Russia,” she confirmed. “There is nothing behind these statements in practical terms.”

US-trained Afghan soldiers & spies joining ISIS terrorists

to ‘resist’ Taliban – reports

1 Nov, 2021 01:49 / 

A suspected ISIS member sits blindfolded in a Taliban Special Forces car in Kabul, Afghanistan,

September 5, 2021 © Reuters / WANA

The Taliban has long accused Washington of funding ISIS, and now they’re indirectly right, as a growing number of US-trained Afghan soldiers and intelligence officials are joining the terrorist group’s ranks to fight the Taliban.

The US spent a staggering $88 billion arming and training Afghanistan’s military, only for Afghan forces to crumble before the Taliban’s lightning fast reconquest of the country in August. Though the Taliban have promised amnesty to these personnel, stories of violent reprisals have circulated, and according to the Wall Street Journal, a “relatively small, but growing” number of former Afghan soldiers and spies are flocking to the only outfit currently resisting Taliban rule – Islamic State terrorist group.

Islamic State’s Afghan offshoot, IS-K, is eagerly absorbing these US-trained recruits. According to the former security officials and Taliban members the Wall Street Journal spoke to, some former government troops have joined for a paycheck, and others for lack of a better alternative to Taliban rule. 

“If there were a resistance, they would have joined the resistance,” former spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil told the paper, adding that “For the time being, ISIS is the only other armed group.”

Though IS-K and the Taliban are both Islamic fundamentalist groups, their ideologies differ. The Taliban are a predominantly Punjabi nationalist organization with no stated goals beyond Afghanistan’s borders, and a tolerance for the country’s other Muslim sects. IS-K, by contrast, view Shiites and other Muslim sects as apostates and aim to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate, as IS attempted to do several years ago in Iraq and Syria.

Initially suppressed by the Taliban, IS-K mounted a resurgence amid the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, carrying out a suicide bombing outside Kabul Airport in August that killed around 200 Afghans and 13 US troops. For the US military, it was the deadliest day in Afghanistan since 2011.

It is unclear what “critical expertise in intelligence-gathering and warfare techniques” these new recruits will bring to IS-K, given that the supposedly 300,000-strong Afghan military they came from folded before the Taliban in a matter of weeks, with its members often fleeing or surrendering without firing a shot.

However, the fact that these US-funded fighters are signing up to a hardline terror group within months of the US leaving Afghanistan illustrates a problem that decision-makers in Washington evidently haven’t learned from in four decades of experience. 

Just as the US-funded Afghan Mujahideen would eventually morph into the Taliban in the late 1980s and 1990s, and the Afghan military is on track to bolster ISIS-K’s ranks, the disaffected Iraqi soldiers left without a job following the US invasion in 2003 ended up providing a steady stream of recruits for ISIS several years later.

Of course, the quality of these 'soldiers' has to be rather questionable.

The US security establishment has already begun to sound the alarm about ISIS-K’s resurgence, with US Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl telling the Senate last week that the group could be in a position to attack the West from Afghanistan within six months. 

So, it sounds very much like the USA is not happy about their US-trained Afghan soldiers bolstering ISIS-Ks ranks as they present more of a danger to the USA than the Taliban.

The Taliban, at least publicly, are unperturbed. “We are not faced with a threat nor are we worried about them,” Mawlawi Zubair, a senior Taliban commander, told the Wall Street Journal. “There is no need, not even a tiny need, for us to seek assistance from anyone against ISIS.”

Russia reveals size of growing drone army

2 Nov, 2021 15:43

Russian Ministry of Defense conducts a test-flight of a new reconnaissance drone in 2019.

©  Russia’s Defense Ministry

The Russian military is expanding its arsenal of unmanned vehicles, allowing operators to watch and engage hostile forces from the safety of command posts miles away from the action, President Vladimir Putin has revealed.

During a meeting with defense chiefs in the south-coast city of Sochi, Putin disclosed that the country has at least 2,000 drones for use in reconnaissance missions and, increasingly, to play combat roles. According to him, scientists and engineers now “need to continue working on them, working as hard as we have been recently, using artificial intelligence and the most up-to-date achievements of modern technology.”

“We know very well how unmanned aircraft has proven itself in armed conflicts in recent years, how effective and also how dangerous it can be for us, bearing in mind what we saw in Syria – terrorist attacks using unmanned aerial vehicles. We have learnt to repel these attacks, and we are doing it quite effectively,” the Russian president went on.

In July, Russian state-backed developers unveiled a deadly new Orion-E drone, equipped with rockets and bombs, that could destroy both tanks and armored infantry carriers while flying at high altitude.

Several weeks ago, Moscow used the Zapad 2021 military exercises to show off new unmanned combat robots that can destroy tanks without putting Russian ground units in harm’s way.

According to a report last month by specialists at one of the country’s top military academies, Russia would be able to repel any incoming amphibian craft along the country’s vast coastline using a huge fleet of attack drones to conduct an air assault before the targets were able to reach the shore.

Prince Charles calls for ‘military-style campaign’ to force

‘fundamental economic transition’ & combat climate change

May the Queen live forever!

2 Nov, 2021 02:20

Britain's Prince Charles delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)

in Glasgow, Scotland, November 1, 2021. ©  Reuters / Yves Herman

The heir to the British throne warned the audience during his speech at the COP26 climate conference that world governments had no choice but to engage in a “military-style campaign” across an otherwise-doomed planet.

The countries of the world must put themselves “on a war-like footing” to address the looming climate crisis, Prince Charles said in his opening speech to the climate conference in Glasgow on Monday. He warned the assembled heavies that climate change posed “an even greater existential threat” than the Covid-19 pandemic.

Acknowledging that tackling climate change “will take trillions, not billions of dollars,” he admitted that some countries, “many of whom are burdened by growing levels of debt, simply cannot afford to go green.” The prince then proposed a solution beloved by green-minded billionaires around the globe: “putting a value on carbon, thus making carbon capture solutions more economical.” 

Carbon credits – which effectively allow companies to buy rights to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide – have been the focus of climate change jet-setters for years, unlocking the ‘value’ of nature’s commons without forcing the emitters-in-chief to actually cease their environmentally-unfriendly activities. 

The prince issued a plea for “countries to come together to create the environment that enables every sector of industry to take the action required,” without specifying what exactly that action might be – only that it must involve a “military-style campaign” if it hopes to achieve success.

Here we need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector. With trillions at its disposal, far beyond global GDP and with the greatest respect beyond even the governments of the world’s leaders, it offers the only real prospect of achieving fundamental economic transition.

He reminded the attendees that “the eyes and hopes of the world are upon you” because “time has literally run out,” presumably referring to event organizers’ insistence that it would be one of the last chances to rope the world’s governments into committing to carbon-cutting goals that would keep planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above “pre-industrial” levels. That was the goal agreed upon in Paris in 2015, and for deep-pocketed environmentalists like the prince, it remains an absolute-must in order to “lay the foundations for a sustainable future.”

Does a 'sustainable future' include the future of the poor and middle-class? Or does it just include the elite and wealthy people?

The conference was a high-enough priority that leaders like Prince Charles and US President Joe Biden flew their less-than-sustainable private jets to Scotland for the occasion, hosted by UK PM Boris Johnson. The decision to hold such a gathering in-person during a global pandemic may have contributed to several regrets on the conference’s invitations list, as China’s Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not travel to the event.

The prince on Sunday deemed the conference the “last chance saloon” to save the planet after declaring last week that world leaders faced a “dangerously narrow” window to fight climate change. Predicting environmental catastrophe has become something of a hobby for the royal, who was also an early proponent of the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” and its now-ubiquitous “Build Back Better” slogan.

Corruption is Everywhere > Not Surprisingly, The French Gov't; A Royal Foundation; Political Courts in Belarus, The EU Commission

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French financial prosecutors launch second investigation

into former PM Francois Fillon

3 Sep, 2021 12:27

Former French Prime minister Francois Fillon and his wife Penelope arrive at Paris' courthouse,

on February 26, 2020. © Michel Stoupak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Ex-French Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s lawyer confirmed on Friday that the retired politician is facing a second investigation by financial prosecutors, as investigators probe whether payments to an assistant broke the law.

Fillon’s legal representative, Antonin Levy, told French television station BFM that the former prime minister was facing an investigation over allegations he used public funds to pay an assistant to help him write his 2015 book ‘Faire’.

“We’re not talking about a novel, nor a fiction. We’re talking about a book that expresses the political vision of a lawmaker,” Levy stated, adding: “If a politician cannot write a political book, what’s the point of being a lawmaker?”

The National Financial Prosecutor’s office (PNF) has not confirmed whether an investigation is underway. Using public funds to pay someone for private gain is a violation of French law.

If a probe has been launched by the financial prosecutors, it would mark the PNF’s second investigation into Fillon in recent years.

In June 2020, Fillon was sentenced to five years in prison, with three suspended, as well as being handed a €375,000 fine ($445,140) after being convicted of embezzlement and concealment of a crime. The charges related to an allegation that he had paid his wife €1 million ($1.19 million) euros over several years to work as his parliamentary assistant. The former leader’s wife, Penelope Fillon, was also given a three-year suspended sentence and a €375,000 fine. Fillon and his wife have denied the charges and are currently appealing the sentence.

According to Fillon’s lawyers, the new investigation dates back to 2017, “the same time as the original probe,” but Levy claims it was kept aside “to discredit” Fillon and “sully further his name” while he is appealing his original conviction.

The French are good at that! They usually have some trumped-up charge in their back pockets against Marine Le Pen which they bring out just before each election.

Prince Charles’ ex-valet steps down as head of his charity, as he

reportedly offered knighthood & citizenship to rich Saudi donor

5 Sep, 2021 13:58

FILE PHOTO. Britain's Prince Charles greets guests at Dumfries House. © AFP / Andrew Milligan;

(inset) Michael Fawcett. © Reuters / David Bebber

Michael Fawcett, a close aide of Prince Charles, has recused himself from leading the British royal heir’s foundation, after being accused of trading favours for money donated to the prince’s renovation project.

Fawcett, who used to be a personal valet to Prince Charles and has remained a close and powerful confidant to the presumed future king, has landed in hot water over claims of corruption raised against him. A damning letter he allegedly wrote to an aide of a rich Saudi businessman points to a transactional deal, which involved giving him British citizenship and knighthood as a reward for his generous donations.

In the letter reported by the Mail on Sunday, Fawcett wrote to an aide of Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz that “in light of the ongoing and most recent generosity of His Excellency,” he is “happy to confirm to you, in confidence, that we are willing and happy to support and contribute to the application for Citizenship.”

The letter states that both applications “will be made in response to the most recent and anticipated support” of the Dumfries House Trust, which Fawcett headed at the time the letter was written in 2017.

Dumfries House is a historic estate in Ayrshire, Scotland, which Prince Charles purchased in 2007 and spent millions of pounds on renovating. Bin Mahfouz donated six-figure sums to the effort and had some parts of the property named after him in recognition. In October 2014, the Saudi businessman was a guest at the manor, when a fountain named in his honour was unveiled by the Prince himself.

The letter also promised assistance with bin Mahfouz’s request for British citizenship and knighthood.

“I can further confirm that we are willing to make [an] application to increase His Excellency’s honour from Honorary CBE to that of KBE in accordance with Her Majesty’s Honours Committee,” the document read, according to Mail.

The abbreviations refer to the third and second highest grades of the Order of the British Empire, the latter of which comes with automatic peerage for British subjects. Bin Mahfouz was given the honorary version of the CBE – a special category reserved for foreign recipients and managed by the Foreign Office – in November 2016.

The honour was reportedly bestowed on the Saudi businessman at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace from the hands of Prince Charles. The event was not recorded in the Court Circular, which lists official engagements by members of the royal family. Government documents say that the Queen awarded bin Mahfouz his CBE “for services to charities in the UK”.

The Mail alleged that bin Mahfouz was initially offered the fourth grade of the merit, the OBE, but it was upgraded to the CBE thanks to Fawcett’s intervention. The newspaper cited an email from William Bortrick, which said the Prince’s associate “needs to keep to his side of the bargain and sort out the Hon OBE immediately”.

The same email dated 2014 was cited separately by The Times on Sunday as saying that “more money will flow” once the CBE goes through. It also states that bin Mahfouz was promised the merit for donating £1.5 million ($2 million) to the Prince’s restoration projects at Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey, a 15th-century location in Caithness that now serves as one of Charles’ Scottish residences.

Bortrick is an aristocratic insider and alleged “fixer” in Britain, who chairs the prestigious genealogical publisher Burke's Peerage. He was photographed at Dumfries House during the fountain-unveiling event in 2014.

A spokesman for bin Mahfouz denied his participation in any cash-for-influence schemes, stating to the media that in the past “His Excellency had expressed an interest in applying for citizenship but in the end decided not to pursue that further.”

Ahead of the publication of the letter's contents, Fawcett temporarily stepped down as head of the Prince's Foundation, Charles’ charity organisation, pending an inquiry into the allegations. Fawcett was appointed head of the foundation in 2018.

“Michael fully supports the ongoing investigation and has confirmed that he will assist the investigation in every way,” the foundation said.

Fawcett has decades of closeness with Prince Charles. He began service to the British royal family in 1981 as a footman to the Queen, before being transferred to the Prince’s household, ultimately becoming his personal valet. In that capacity, he famously squeezed toothpaste on his royal master’s brush and performed other menial tasks. The Prince once remarked that he can “manage without just about anyone except Michael.”

When you have a pretend democracy, which is common in this part of the world, it is convenient to lock up your political foes for the next couple of elections. 

Belarusian opposition figure Kolesnikova handed 11 years behind bars

for role in post-election protest movement against Lukashenko

6 Sep, 2021 10:52

FILE PHOTO. Maria Kolesnikova. © AFP / Sergei GAPON

A court in Belarus has sentenced one of the country’s most prominent opposition politicians to more than a decade in prison over allegations that she attempted to overthrow the government of veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko.

On Monday, a judge at Minsk Regional Court handed down the ruling to Maria Kolesnikova, finding her guilty of a range of offenses, including conspiracy to seize power. She will spend 11 years behind bars, while fellow activist Maxim Znak will be locked up for 10 years on similar charges.

Kolesnikova was a key part of the three-woman campaign team that stood against Lukashenko in last summer’s presidential election. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who stood as the group’s candidate, and activist Veronica Tsepkalo have both since fled the country amid a crackdown on the opposition. However, Kolesnikova reportedly refused efforts to deport her and is even said to have torn up her passport to avoid being sent over the border to Ukraine.

Responding to the decision, Tikhanovksaya wrote online that “Maria and Maksim are the heroes for Belarusians,” saying, “the regime wants us to see them crushed and exhausted.” She posted a video from the courtroom in which the pair can be seen smiling, while Kolesnikova makes a love heart symbol with her hands. The opposition argues the charges are politically motivated.

The only one of the three campaigners to have worked in politics prior to the election, Kolesnikova served as an advisor to Viktor Babariko, who had been one of the Eastern European nation’s most prominent opposition figures. Once tipped as a successor to Lukashenko, Babariko was sentenced to 14 years in jail in July over claims he was involved in a fraud scheme.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in cities across Belarus after last summer’s election, which the opposition, and many international observers, say was rigged in Lukashenko’s favor. Activists calling for new polls were met with a heavy-handed police response, with tear gas, stun grenades and widespread arrests.

Also on Monday, local media reported that a 58-year-old Russian woman detained in Belarus would face trial for allegedly slandering Lukashenko. She is said to have tweeted that the veteran leader was responsible for an act of “terrorism and sky piracy” over his government’s grounding of a passenger jet and the arrest of activist Roman Protasevich, in May. If convicted, she faces five years in jail. Protasevich’s girlfriend, a Russian national, is also being held by authorities in the country, and Moscow is understood to be providing consular support.

Former EU commissioner to face bribery charges

linked to €60mn tobacco scandal

6 Sep, 2021 17:05

© Getty Images / C. Devan

Former European Commissioner John Dalli is set to face charges over an attempt by his aide to reverse a ban on snus, a form of smokeless tobacco, in a bribe worth €60 million (over $71 million), prompting the official to resign.

On Monday, the Times of Malta unveiled that Dalli, who formerly served as the European commissioner for health, will appear before court on September 17 over claims of his involvement in a multimillion-euro bribery scandal with a Swedish tobacco company.

Tobacco - Minister for health!!!! Great!

The bribery charges in question link back to Dalli’s aide, Silvio Zammit, who had allegedly tried to obtain a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match to reverse the European Union’s ban on snus in 2012. The sale of snus has been banned in the European Union since 1992, except in Sweden.

Snus (/snuːs/ SNOOSS, Swedish: is a tobacco product, originating from a variant of dry snuff in early 18th-century Sweden. It is placed between the upper lip and gum for extended periods.

Brussels’ Anti-Fraud office, known by the acronym OLAF, was subsequently required to investigate the allegations. The results of the five-month investigation found that there were “a number of unambiguous and converging circumstantial evidences gathered in the course of the investigation” that suggested Dalli was aware of the bribery attempts, yet did not stop them, forcing him to hand in his resignation.

The former official, however, still upholds his innocence, recently slamming the charges as being merely part of a “campaign” against him, and that it is “fraud”.

Dalli has appealed on a few occasions for damages from the European Union’s Court of Justice over his 2012 resignation. In February 2021, the court rejected his claim for €1 million for the European Commission’s alleged “unlawful conduct”.

Zammit was charged in December 2012 with bribery and trading in influence in Malta in relation to the events. Meanwhile, in June 2013, the Maltese police commissioner stated that the country “does not have enough evidence to start criminal proceedings” against the former EU Health Commissioner.

Iraqi Christian Archbishops Barred from Entering Britain for Ceremony

Did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed?

Is someone flexing his power?

Is someone anti-Christian? 

    Mor Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf © Safin Hamed / AFP

Two Iraqi archbishops were denied entry to Britain for an important Syriac Orthodox Christian ceremony because they could not prove they had sufficient funds to support themselves while in the country.

The Home Office barred the two clergymen from the consecration of the Cathedral of St. Thomas in Acton, west London, the first Syriac Orthodox Church in the city, fearing the men would overstay their permits and claim asylum.

And, after-all, we don't want their kind in our country, right? Another Christian church in London? Good grief, aren't there enough? 

Mor Timothy Mosa Alshamany, archbishop of Mosul, and his north of Mosul counterpart, the archbishop of St. Matthew’s, Mor Timothy Mosa Alshamany, were said to have been left “very upset.”

“Why did this happen?” asked Syriac Orthodox Church UK archbishop, Mor Athanasius Toma Dawod.

“They have a role in the church. I invited them to share with us the consecration of the cathedral. Our people are still there in the Middle East and I wanted them to share it with me.”

According to Archbishop Dawod, the clerics were told:“First, you might go and not come back; you might apply for asylum. Second, you don’t have enough money to spend there.”

How much money does an Archbishop need to be a guest in England? These are Archbishops of Mosul which is at this moment being reclaimed from ISIS. No Archbishop could abandon his church just when his people need him the most. Was someone looking for an envelope under the table, perhaps?

He added that the decision was “ridiculous” as the men had visas for the United States and Europe’s Schengen area, as well as enough money to travel.

“Why did the British refuse?” Archbishop Dawod asked. “They give visas to people who don’t deserve them.”

A third archbishop, Mor Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, of Homs and Hama in Syria, was also said to have tried to apply for a visa, only to be told by the British embassy in Lebanon that he was unlikely to succeed given his Syrian nationality.

Prince Charles, who attended the ceremony in late November, said it had been “deeply encouraging” as Christians went through “appalling suffering” in Iraq and Syria.

“All visa applications are considered on individual merits and applicants must provide evidence to show they meet the requirements of the immigration rules,” a Home Office spokesman said.

Over 60 percent of Iraqi visa applications and just under 50 percent of those by Syrians were rejected over the last year. The figure was up from 36 and 32 percent respectively in 2010.

I wonder how many Muslim clerics were allowed in during the past year. It's great that Britain is keeping terrorists from entering the country, but Christian Archbishops are not terrorists, or doesn't Home Office know that?

Prince Charles, Defender of the Faith - Did Anyone See That Coming?

Prince Charles takes tough message about Islam… right into the heart of Islam. Who knew he had it in him?

While the President of the United States is extremely reluctant to condemn radical Islamists, and more easily condemns the Christian defence of Europe a millennium ago, other leaders are stepping up to lead the fight against the destructive and murderous ideology.

Prince Charles

The United Kingdom’s Prince Charles is in the middle of a week-long tour of the Middle East, where it is expected that he will deliver a strong message to Muslim leaders regarding the prevalence and growth of the radical Islamist mindset.

According to Mad World News, the Crown Prince intends to demand that Muslim leaders in the U.K, and around the world, stop radicalizing young people, and to show some respect for Western culture and values.

He is also telling them that any Muslims who come to the U.K. need to abide by the English standards that are already in place, and stop trying to force their way of life on the people who were there before them. He should maybe tell the people in the UK.

“The radicalization of people in Britain is a great worry,” the prince told the BBC. “The extent to which this is happening is alarming, particularly in a country like our’s where we hold values dear.”
Ouch! I heard that smack!

The prince is further troubled by how rampant the radical ideology is on the Internet, and how easy it is for young people to be radicalized online.

Such a strong stance against radical Islam and in defense of Christianity has elevated the prince to the historic title of “defender of the faith.”

The prince has lived up to the title by calling out Islam for the persecution of Christians and other minority religions in the Middle East, by unequivocally stating that Christians were in the region first, hundreds of years before the arrival of Islam.

He has strongly denounced the atrocious actions of the Islamic State, and how they have slaughtered and exiled hundreds of thousands of Christians and Yazidis from northern Iraq.  He says that if this continues there may soon come a day when there are no more Christians in the Middle East.

King Abdullah II

“The tragedy is even greater because Christians have been in the Middle East for 2,000 years, before Islam came in the 8th Century,” Charles stated.

The prince’s tour begins with a meeting with King Abdullah II in Jordan, before also traveling to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, where he will also hopefully address the funding for radical Islamic terrorism that originate in those countries. Good luck with that, Your Highness!

We commend Prince Charles for standing up in defense of the Christian faith, particularly in the Middle East, and will pray for his safe and successful return from the region.

We really should be praying for his safety; you know how much Muslims like hearing the truth.