Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001, 2006,  © Antony Jay. 1996, 2001, 2006. Department of the University of Oxford, Index reference page. 296: 2 

“Whatever it is that the government does, sensible Americans would prefer that the government does it to someone else. This is the idea behind foreign policy.” ( *1991) - P.J O’Rourke. b. 1947 (American humorous writer and journalist)

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001, 2006,  © Antony Jay. 1996, 2001, 2006. Department of the University of Oxford, Index reference page. 296: 4

“Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit” - “A venal city to perish, if a buyer can be found”  (speaking of Rome) -  Sallust 86 – 35 BC, Roman Historian

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001, 2006,  © Antony Jay . Index Reference Page. 345: 6

Retaliating just days after the EU’s planned Oil Embargo upon Iran was current news, President Ahmadinejad’s government in its majlis (Parliamentary Assembly building - see http://www.majlis.ir/) will hold an emergency debate this Sunday to discuss placing a ban upon the sell of oil to the European Union as early as the beginning of February.

Delegates from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are expected to visit the country since receiving an official invitation from the regime on December 21 2011.( *http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/iaeairan/iaea_reports.shtml) for more info on the dates of previos inspections).

Having escorted scientific observers around their nuclear enrichment plants in the past, their negotiations seem to repeatedly breakdown when the topic of the purification of Uranium is concerned and whether their intention in emulifying these phosophoric chemicals is designated for domestic use or militaristic purposes. 

Weblinks: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/27/iran-could-shut-down-eu-oil-exports-next-week-lawmaker-threatens/

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/27/64748964.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/27/us-markets-oil-idUSTRE7AD06820120127

http://www.lenziran.com/2012/01/majlis-did-not-vote-for-emergency-debate-on-the-bill-related-to-dual-nationality/

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/market_reports/38306/oil-prices-surge-after-iran-prepares-to-cut-off-oil-supplies-to-europe-38306.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,811507,00.html

http://www.president.ir/en/

http://www.farsinet.com/

http://tehrantimes.com/economy-and-business/94843-imf-warned-on-harmful-outcomes-of-halting-iranian-oil-exports-

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/SCBI/ReproductiveScience/WildEquids/MeetTheEquids/fact-onager.cfm

http://www.thewilds.org/what/animal_onager.asp

Jelly on a plate,
Jelly on a plate,
Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble,
Jelly on a plate.  (Children’s Song Lyrics.  http://www.myvoxsongs.com/  © 2012 Myvoxsongs Ltd )

Trading in the cosmetic surgery market until March 2010, a  the founder of a Poly Implant Prothese (PIP)  a private Healthcare business,  (adjoined to an industry over the last decade with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19 percent – valued at $2.2 billion annually in Europe, has been arrested in recent days by French Police at his home in the south of the country.

Named as Jean-Claude Mas, sought by Interpol since 2011, the 72 year-old CEO who is said to fled to Costa Rica after the company fell into  liquidation and ceased operating, faces criminal negligence prosecution charge for offering between  35,000 and 45,000 women, of varying nationalities service treatment whereby their breast implants were made of an industrial grade of silicon (i.e Baysilone, Silopren and Rhodorsil. see: http://uk.tv.ibtimes.com/breast-implant-scandal-grips-women-around-the-world/2914.html). 

As an economic decision, the company switched from buying quantities of a medical grade of silicon to a cost-effective. fuel additive substitute in 2005.

Weblinks:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women_shealth/9040315/Breast-implant-scandal-PIP-founder-arrested.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/Latin-America-worried-over-French-breast-implants/videoshow/11217955.cms

http://www.mhra.gov.uk/NewsCentre/CON137888

http://www.consultingroom.com/Treatments/PIP-Breast-Implants

http://www.rjw.co.uk/legal-services/clinicalmedical-negligence/cosmetic-surgery-claims/breast-reduction-claims/

http://www.asianage.com/international/french-police-arrest-boss-breast-implant-company-111

http://www.breastenhancementnow.com/pip-breast-implants-latest-update

http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market-insight-top.pag?docid=153913646

https://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/PR2011/PR105.asp

Australia a South Pacific allie to the Northern Hemisphere and international community member at the UN, will participate in the political reinforcement an oil embargo against the Iranian Government, spatially incorporating ‘coercive diplomacy’ into its powerplay in tandem with what multi-consensual action the EU and other Western states have delegated over for many months while the Ahmadinejad regime continues to defy innumerable sanctions upon it.

At a press conference held at the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office jointly hosted by  Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and his departmental counterpart Mr William Hague, the former Aussie PM is on record as saying:

“The actions taken in Brussels yesterday (Monday) on sanctions by the European Union, we in Australia will undertake precisely the same parallel action for Australia. The reason is very clear – the message needs to be delivered to the people of Iran, the wider political elites of Iran, as well as the government of Iran, that their behaviour is globally unacceptable.” – Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.

Website: http://www.hfw.com/publications/client-briefings/iran-sanctions-update-australia3

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/killing-iranian-nuclear-scientists-is-counterproductive-and-wrong/251340/

http://www.fas.org/press/events/20111012_irannuclear.html

http://www.dfat.gov.au/un/unsc_sanctions/iran.html

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20120123/eu-adopts-oil-embargo-sanctions-package-against-iran-120123/

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/

http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/australia-joins-eu-in-banning-iranian-oil-imports/story-fn59nm2j-1226252898984

http://www.irantracker.org/us-policy/sanctions-iran-reactions-and-impact

http://www.irantracker.org/

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/24/world/europe/iran-australia-sanctions/index.html

http://www.baronage.co.uk/bphtm-02/moa-15.html

http://www.fleurdelis.com/fleur.htm

http://theglobalherald.com/europe-and-us-put-pressure-on-iran-with-warships-in-the-gulf/27252/

http://www.heraldica.org/topics/fdl.htm

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fleur-de-lis

(Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, Oxford University Press 1996, 2001, 2006,   © Antony Jay, 1996, 2001, 2006. Department of the University of Oxford, England. Index reference page.  125: 4

”All politics is local” – Thomas (‘Tip’) O’Neil. 1912 – 94 (American Democratic politician; Speaker of the House of Representatives 1977-87

Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, Oxford University Press 1996, 2001, 2006,   © Antony Jay, 1996, 2001, 2006. Department of the University of Oxford, England. Index reference page. 295: 10

With luggage ready for transitting along an airport carousel to Florida (America’s 27th state, see http://www.50states.com/), Republican nominee Newt Gingrich,  a former US House of Representatives Speaker and co-author of Contract with America, campaign literature published during the country’s 1994 Congressional election (see: http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/the-contract-with-america-implementing-new-ideas-in-the-us) defied all expectations this past Saturday by winning at the Charleston South Coralina primaries, by 40% of the vote.

Being the third state to stage a  most cantabile county-led husting event, as either candidates or carpetbaggers Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum rumbustiously eke out  1,144 of a  delegate vote in order to secure the chance of one of them running against the Presidential incumbent since 2009, Barack Obama, (see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/), Mit Romney who has recently been entangled up in an issue relating to his tax-returns (see: http://www.newsy.com/videos/romney-s-tax-return-dilemma/) retrieved 28% from the poll.

Sunshine and statistics will euphemistically be the nature of the game in Florida on the 31st of January 2012.

Weblinks: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/8987725/South-Carolina-Republican-primary-polls-open-live.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-4riAMfRqM

http://www.euronews.net/newswires/1340663-us-republicans-romney-gingrich-vie-for-south-carolina-win/

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/From-the-Wires/2012/0123/Mitt-Romney-super-PAC-outspending-rivals-20-to-1-in-Florida

http://www.americanthinker.com/

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2011/03/08/polls-show-republican-2012-presidential-race-is-wide-open

http://www.newt.org/

http://www.mittromney.com/

http://romneyfacts.com/cjtk.php

http://graceforgrace.com/2011/08/25/mitt-romney-charitable-donations-exceed-other-christian-2012-candidates/

http://www.wbobradio.com/2012/01/18/mitt-romney-sent-millions-to-mormon-church/

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/mitt-romney-sent-millions-to-mormon-church/

Extracted from Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001, 2006, © Antony Jay. 1996, 2001, 2006. Index reference page: 193: 3

“In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slave, the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy” – Ivan Illich 1926 – American Sociologist (first published within “Tools of Convivality”, 1973. See http://toolsforconviviality.digress.it/)

Extracted from Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001, 2006, © Antony Jay. 1996, 2001, 2006. Index reference page: 194: 9

May 29 2007, a group of security personnel of Canadian firm Gardaworld are abducted from an Iraqi/ Baghdad Finance ministry, (see: http://www.garda-world.com/whatwedo/services/middle_east_iraq/). Named as Alec MacLachlan, Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell, Alan McMenemy, many appeals to their captors were forthcoming from the families of these men ( see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UudPCRnflo&feature=relmfu). 

Held within the custody of the British authorities, the bodies of these contract staff have been officially re-assigned to the relevant next of kin and repatriated to their homesteads, formalities which have been undertaken by the British Embassy in Iraq from 2009 onwards.  Outnumbered by militants on the day they were kidnapped, they were assigned to protect an IT consultant/technology advisor Peter Moore, employed by Consulting Firm BearingPoint Inc ( * http://www.bearingpoint.com/en-other/)

Central to the demands of the hostage takers was the request to secure the prompt release of a certain Shia cleric named Moqtada al-Sadr from the custody of the US Military in Iraq mid-way through the conflict, which was brought to end in December 2011.

Weblinks: http://www.privatemilitary.org/pmcs.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9029387/Body-of-Iraq-hostage-Alan-McMenemy-handed-to-British-embassy-in-Iraq.html

http://www.privatemilitary.org/private_military_companies.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/20/body-iraq-hostage-alan-mcmenemy?newsfeed=true

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/20/alan-mcmenemy-body-of-hostage-kidnapped-in-2007-returned-to-british-embassy_n_1219854.html

http://www.itn.co.uk/home/37472/Alan+McMenemy27s+family+Now+we+can+grieve

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/07/30/wife-of-dead-scots-hostage-alan-mcmenemy-pleads-for-his-return-86908-21557818/

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA518602

http://isanet.ccit.arizona.edu/portlandarchive/krahmann.pdf

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/blackwater_usa/index.html

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/mercenary.htm

http://www.thebeginner.eu/business/all-in-global-business/475-the-business-of-war-private-military-companies

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0102/hc05/0577/0577.pdf

http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Petersohn_Outsourcing.pdf

http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/corporations-and-conflict/private-armies

http://www.newser.com/story/135471/its-over-iraq-war-ends-today.html

Bangkok is indeed a target-rich environment with a history of terrorist attacks, but today Hezbollah and other militant and criminal groups rely on the city as more of a business hub than anything else.

If Hezbollah or some other transnational militant group were to carry out an attack in the city, it would have to be for a compelling reason that outweighed the costs.

The suspect was identified as Atris Hussein, who was born in Lebanon but acquired Swedish citizenship and a passport after marrying a Swedish woman in 1996. Hussein was arrested on immigration charges as he was trying to board a plane at Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok’s main international airport.

Police said another suspect is still at large and possibly already out of the country. Hussein’s arrest on Jan. 12 was followed by a statement the next day from the U.S. Embassy warning U.S. citizens in Bangkok of the potential foreign terrorist threat in the country and encouraging them to avoid tourist areas. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Israel, issued similar warnings. Thai police have responded by increasing security in tourist areas like Bangkok’s Khao San Road and the island of Phuket. Read More »

This excerpt has been republished by www.jotl.wordpress.com

Attribution for this article goes to www.stratfor.com

Weblinks:

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/17/3374767/police-explosives-were-to-be-sent.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2104620,00.html

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Thai-Authorities-Investigate-Terror-Links-to-Stockpiled-Explosives-137471548.html

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16150408

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/15/thai-second-bomb-suspect-bangkok

http://www.chiangraitimes.com/news/5248.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3582921.stm

http://www.bangkokairportonline.com/

http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/index_en.php

http://thailand-business-news.com/news/top-stories/34394-terrorism-in-thailand-the-swedish-connection

http://thailand.prd.go.th/

Comments? Send them to feedback@stratfor.com

(Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University, 1996, 2001, 2006, Copyright attributed to Antony Jay, 1996, 2001, 2006. Index reference page. 179: 9. ( Edward Heath – Arthur Henderson)

“Cowardice asks the question “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks the question “Is it popular?” But conscience asks the question “Is it right?” – Martin Luther King, American Civil Rights leader.

(Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press. 1996, 2001, 2006. Copyright attributed to Antony Jay, 1996, 2001, 2006. Index reference page. 218: 4 (David Maxwell Fyfe, Lord Kilmuir – Martin Luther King).

Pathological murderers serving whole-life sentences under English law for crimes committed some thirty or forty years ago, and of whom have instigated several ”sub judice”  claims to the British High and Appeals Court for the legal system to comute their mandatory terms, and without any notable success, have been replied to from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) since filing a repository lawsuit to Strasbourg with a resounding  message to the convicts, that they’re incarceration will last as long as they live.  

Among the most notorious of these phlegmatic criminals are the names of Jeremy Bamber, Ian Brady, Douglas Vinter, Peter Moore and Scottish Serial Killer Dennis Nilsen, (with ECHR applications being made by Vinter and Moore in December 2009). 

The raison d’etre for these plaintiff’s challenge to the judicial decision passed down on them in the UK was founded upon the premise that whole-life tariffs which condemned inmates to die behind bars, was inhumane and contravened human rights law.

An excerpt of the ECHR’s ruling reads as thus:

“All three applicants had committed particularly brutal and callous murders. To date, Vintner has only served three years of imprisonment, Bamber 26 years and Moore 16 years. The court did not consider that these sentences were grossly disproportionate or amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment and there had therefore been no violation of article three.”  ECHR (European Commission on Human Rights).

On the day of the verdict, supporters of Jeremy Bamber read this statement on his behalf.

“If the state wishes to have a death penalty, then they should be honest and re-introduce hanging. Instead this political decision that I must die in jail is the death penalty using old age or infirmity as the method.”  – associates c/o Jeremy Bamber 

Weblinks:

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/homicide_murder_and_manslaughter/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reysjNt8c8s

http://echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/16D05FDF-4831-47EC-AE6D-A2C760B0B630/0/DG2ENHRHAND082006.pdf

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/02/117_38769.html

http://www.forensic.gov.uk/html/media/case-studies/f-31.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9020370/Killers-can-die-in-jail.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/31/jeremy-bamber-ukcrime

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/crime-justice/index.html

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/research/statistics/child_homicide_statistics_wda48747.html

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/887679-life-term-in-prison-to-mean-life-for-murderers-say-judges

http://www.murderuk.com/one_off_Douglas_Vinter.html

http://www.murderuk.com/serial_peter_moore.html

http://www.biography.com/people/dennis-nilsen-17169676

Quote extracted from Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press,1996, 2001, 2006.  © Antony Jay, 1996, 2001, 2006. Department od the University of Oxford, England. Index reference page:  291: 8.

On a three day official trip across Asia,with visits to Beijing and Tokyo built into a works schedule, the UK’s Government Treasury Minister /Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne arriving in Hong Kong yesterday has addressed an Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong as of this morning ( 9.20-10.45 UTC – Coordinated Universal Time ) where he spoke of discussions underway interco-operatively between the UK Treasury and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (see: http://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/index.shtml) to develop London into a trading centre (er) for the floatation of the yuan/renminbi, market liquidity, the designing of ” on the balance of transfers’” investment bank saleable financial products.

An inchoate business plan, with dual collegiality, both countries are to use this opportunity as the catalyst for solidifying the ethos consecrated within their partnerships as corporate entities. European and Chinese banks, most notably HSBC Plc, Bank of China Ltd, Deutsche Bank, AG and Barclays Plc, will participate in a public sector forum to thrash out the exact arrangements.

Weblinks: http://www.economicvoice.com/george-osborne-signs-deal-to-make-london-a-chinese-currency-trading-centre/50027265#axzz1jePKoqvE

http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16150292

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/71134ed0-3fa8-11e1-ad6a-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jeQVt5Xa

http://chinese-network.net/english/index.htm

http://ukinchina.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-china/bilateral-relations

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/000914_nkrumah.shtml

Quote taken from Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001, 2006, Copyright attributed to Antony Jay, 1996, 2001, 2006 (index reference page, 239: 6 (Ken Livingstone/David Lloyd George) Speech at the Mansion House, 9 November 1920)

“In all the relations of life and death, we are met by the colour line”- Frederick Douglass 

1818-95, American former slave and civil rights campaigner. (speech at the Convention of Coloured Men, Louisville, Kentucky, 24 September 1883) Quote taken from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotation, Oxford University Press, 1996, 2001, 2006, Copyright attributed to Antony Jay, 1996, 2001, 2006 (index reference page: 126: 3 – Alec Douglas Home – Joseph Rodman Drake).

Smith & Wesson, to the news of the double murder of an inter-racial Birmingham couple namely Avtar & Carole Kolar at their North-west, Friary Road, Handsworth Wood home on Wednesday of the past week. (see:http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/handsworthwood)

West Midlands Police, since opening a CID investigation, referred to as ”Operation Tiler” (see: http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/np/birminghameast/news/newsitem.asp?id=6829) into the crime, have processed two local men through custody for questioning. Brummies who are said to be of the aged 24 and 41, and detained on suspicion of muder.

The younger of the suspects arrested on Friday (13 January 2012) in connection with the Force’s inquiries has been released on bail from their immediate charge.

Married for some 40 years,  post-mortem examinations have revealled the pair had received traumatic injuries to the head, (quite possibly occipital). The bodies of discovered by their son, Mr Jason Kolar, a serving West Midland Police officer at 8am of that morning.

Appealing to the public to disclose anything they might know, a certain Detective Superintendent Richard Baker of the West Midland Police Constabulary is on record as saying:

“We continue to follow a number of lines of inquiry, and we thank those who have called us so far. We encourage anyone with information to speak to us, no matter how insignificant they feel the detail is” – Detective Superintendent Richard Baker.

Weblinks: http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16149017

http://www.brmb.co.uk/news/headlines/double-murder-in-birmingham/

http://www.mercia.co.uk/news/headlines/double-murder-in-birmingham/

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories//tm_headline=birmingham-double-murder-update-post-mortem-tests-say-avtar-kolar-and-wife-carole-were-killed-by-blows-to-the-head%26method=full%26objectid=30123714%26siteid=97319-name_page.html

http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/latest-news/appeal.asp?ID=4498

http://www.khalidmahmoodmp.co.uk/

http://www.sikhsangat.com/

http://www.brumagem.co.uk/ae_Handsworth-Wood_Birmingham.htm

Constructed by the Italian shipping company Fincantieri Sestri Ponente (see http://www.fincantieri.it/home.aspx), while owned by Carnival Corporation & plc (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=140690&p=irol-index), a passenger cruise liner of their’s named the ”Costa Concordia”,  of a 114,500 Gross Tonnage (GT), carrying  4,200 people on board,  ran aground and keeled ovr off the coast of Isola del Giglio island, near Tuscany, after hitting a reef in the early hours of Friday night/Saturday morning, about a half of one third of a journey from a berth in Savona  towards the port of Civitavecchia, near Rome, tearing a 14.8644 m² (160ft) gash to the underside of it’s hull.

Languishing at a angle of 20 °, when the ship began to subside and take on water, (19:00 GMT – 8:00 ET) initial reports place the of dead at 8, rising from 3 when news of the incident first broke. 

Weblinks:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086527/Costa-Concordia-accident-Pictures-cruise-ship-sinking-coast-Italy-Titanic-like-scene.html

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120114/local/six-dead-as-costa-concordia-runs-aground-off-italian-island.402204

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9014805/Inside-the-luxury-Costa-Concordia-cruise-ship.html

http://www.shipparade.com/cruise%20reviews/costa_concordia/Costa_Concordia.htm