The new Canterbury Commissioner of Police

Gumball 3000 Kim Schmitz aka Kim Dotcom

Iraqi Kurd leader hints at secession

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The president of Iraq's self-rule Kurdish region demanded Wednesday that Shiite leaders agree on sharing power with their political opponents by September or else the Kurds could consider breaking away from Baghdad.

The warning by Kurdish President Massoud Barzani in an interview with The Associated Press underscores that Shiite domination in Iraq's government is reviving secession dreams that the now departed American military had tried to contain.

"What threatens the unity of Iraq is dictatorship and authoritarian rule," Barzani said in a 45-minute interview in his sprawling office outside of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region he leads in northern Iraq. "If Iraq heads toward a democratic state, then there will be no trouble. But if Iraq heads toward a dictatorial state, then we will not be able to live with dictatorship."

Read more here

U.S. Military Defeated in Vietnam: Part 1- Quantity over Quality

U.S. Military Defeated in Vietnam: Part 10 - We are Still Clueless

WA threat to split from Canberra

PREMIER Colin Barnett says WA will split from Canberra if the Federal Government doesn't reward the state for driving the national economy.

"That's not a threat. It's reality," Mr Barnett said.

While he said a formal separation from the rest of Australia was not on the agenda, relations with Canberra would become "negligible" if revenue created in the state kept being shifted east.

And he said the ramifications would not just be for the national economy, but for the broader Australian society including sport.

"There would be very little relationship and the WA economy would be fully integrated as part of Asia," he said.

"It's a trend you may see over the next 20 years.

Read more here

The Promised Land

Here's Why You Need To Be Watching Europe's Secessionist Movements

Scotland's bid for independence looks likely to change the way that the UK works (to some degree at least), but do secessionist movements have a wider impact?

We've taken a look at Europe's various secessionist movements to show you exactly why you need to watch the situation in Scotland, and why it may have a big impact on the EU.

Read more here

Admiral General Aladeen Greets New Zealand

Euro zone turmoil boosts London property stampede

 Buyers from southern Europe to the fore

* "The Greeks are coming"

By Tom Bill

LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Worsening financial and political turmoil in southern Europe caused a surge of interest in London property last month with buyers from Greece and Spain showing strongly among investors seeking a safe haven for their money.

The number of Greeks searching for homes costing more than 1.5 million pounds ($2.4 million) on the website of property agent Savills jumped 39 percent in April compared with the average of the preceding six months, the company said.

Read more here

Swiss Light Bicycle Infantry for Mountain Warfare

Inside Switzerland's Secret Forts

By Eric Margolis Contributing
Foreign Editor Canoe.ca
7-9-2

ST. MAURICE, SWITZERLAND -- "I shall show those insolent herdsmen and cheesemakers!" thundered Adolf Hitler in 1940, after Switzerland refused to allow the German Army to pass through its territory to outflank France's Maginot Line forts. Soon after France's defeat, Hitler and Mussolini ordered their general staffs to complete Plan von Menges, the invasion and partition of Switzerland by the combined armies of Germany and Italy.   But the Axis never invaded tiny Switzerland, then a nation of only 5 million. The reason was not, as revisionists claim, because they needed Switzerland for banking. Other neutrals - America, Spain, Turkey, Sweden, Portugal - were also available for finance and trade. Or because the Swiss co-operated with Hitler's Germany, an outrageous myth concocted by American lawyers and politicians seeking to soak the wealthy Swiss.   In 1940, when America was still neutral to Hitler, Swiss fighters shot down 11 intruding Luftwaffe aircraft.   The true reason was Switzerland's fierce national determination to remain free, backed by its top-secret National Redoubt - an immense system of over 100 mighty forts and thousands of casemates and bunkers buried deep in the heart of the Alps.   In July, 1940, as Europe was surrendering or being overrun by invincible German armies, General Henri Guisan convoqued all senior officers of Switzerland's citizen army to Rutli Meadow and issued his famous order: "Fight to your last cartridge, then fight with your bayonets. No surrender. Fight to the death." The world's oldest democracy would stand alone against Hitler and Mussolini. The Germans and Italians decided against attacking Switzerland because of the casualties they would have faced.   Switzerland's 700,000 soldiers were given the grim command to be ready to leave behind their homes, wives and children, then retreat into the mountain fortress system, which had only enough food and shelter for the army.   Each high Alpine valley was to become a little Thermopylae; every Alpine fort another Verdun. Working round the clock, in two years Swiss engineers created over 100 powerful artillery and infantry forts dug into granite mountainsides. Switzerland's secret Alpine Redoubt exceeded in size, strength, firepower - and, of course, effectiveness - France's famed Maginot Line, hitherto believed to be the world's mightiest fortress system. Read more here

Richest People of The Middle East

Farage: What gives you the right to dictate to the Greek and Italian peo...

Farage: I owe no allegiance to the EU flag

DEBT LIMIT - A GUIDE TO AMERICAN FEDERAL DEBT MADE EASY

New Zealand's National Debt Clock:

New Zealand's National Debt Clock

Public debt	33.7% of GDP (2011 est.)
Revenues	$61.94 billion (2011 est.)
Expenses	$75.31 billion (2011 est)

31 December 2010, net foreign debt was 

NZ$253 billion, or 132% of GDP

500,000 Military Rifles In The Hands Of The Swiss

This is a SIG 550. It’s designed to destroy anything standing within its 400 m trajectory. And there are over 500 thousand of them kept Swiss homes.

Guns and shooting are a strong Swiss tradition. Basic military training is mandatory for young men, and afterwards they’re required to keep their weapon at home.

Marc Heim is the Ticino representative for the lobby group ProTell.

MARC HEIM: This was my father’s military rifle and of course he got to keep it when he was finished. I have my grandfather’s military rifle hanging on the office wall. This was mine when I did service. It’s quite an old one it was introduced in 1957 and used until 1990. And this is my son’s. It’s the current model. That’s what’s being used today. That’s what we’ll be using the shoot the Feldschiessen today.

The Feldschessen, or Tiro Federale in Campagna as it’s known in these parts is an annual Swiss event and the largest shooting festival in the world. Roughly 200 thousand people come out to target practice all across the country. ammunition is provided by the government.

Heim goes regularly to this range, and it’s often a family affair.

HEIM: It was organized by the government to have a very high state of readiness for the Swiss military and population. The target has always been that within 24 to 48 hours, Switzerland could mobilize a pretty large army. I mean, even by European standards.

But it wasn’t the militia that sparked Heim’s interest in guns as young man. It was an unassuming trip to a holocaust museum.

HEIM: I was going through all the exhibits and the soaps and the lampshades made of people’s skin, and while I was looking, I heard a funny noise, and there was an old woman, maybe two metres from me. She was trying not to cry. She was sort of sobbing very quietly. She was sort of holding it back. If she had been a few more meters away I wouldn’t have heard her. And that’s when it all hit me. I promised myself I will never be in her situation. I would want to be free and never in a situation where they could just march us off to ovens or prisons.or just take away our freedom.

HEIM: The key to freedom is the ability to be able to defend yourself, and if you don’t have the tools to do that then you are at the mercy of anyone who wants to put you away. And the tools for that are guns.

 The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence.     Cicero