Influential US senator 'faces corruption charges'

Robert Menendez, the senior senator from New Jersey, will face corruption allegations according to reports. The senator is alleged to have used his position to help the businesses of a friend.

Deutsche Welle, 7 Mar 2015

The US Justice Department is preparing criminal corruption charges against Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, American media reported on Friday. Citing anonymous sources briefed on the case, the report reveals that the charges center on allegations that Menendez used his office to promote the business interests of a donor in exchange for gifts.

Responding to the allegations reported by CNN, Senator Menendez's office denied any wrongdoing: "As we have said before, we believe all of the senator's actions have been appropriate and lawful," read the statement from Tricia Enright, Menendez's communications director.

In March 2013, when Menendez was the influential head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he is still the top Democrat today, The Washington Post reported he was under investigation by a Miami grand jury.

According to CNN, the corruption charges are related to an investigation involving a Florida doctor who is a close friend of Menendez and who has donated large sums of money to the senator's campaigns. Salomon Melgen, a prominent ophthalmologist, is reported to have businesses in the Dominican Republic, and Menendez is alleged to have intervened on his behalf from his congressional office.

Tricia Enright countered the accusation by saying Melgen was one of the senator's "closest friends for decades" and that "many false allegations have been made about this manner - allegations that were ultimately publicly discredited." Robert McDonnell

es/gsw (AFP, Reuters)

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M503 route a path of peace: TAO chief

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-06

Zhang Zhijun talks to the press. (Photo/CNS)

Zhang Zhijun, minister of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the M503 flight route that goes along the Taiwan Strait's median line is a path of peace between Taiwan and China, but refused to reveal when the route will be implemented, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

During a press conference with reporters on Thursday, the official said the route will only be used by civilian aircraft and is set up to resolve the problem of crowded airspace around the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas. The aircraft will fly closer to China and within the Shanghai Flight Information Region, said Zhang, who added that the International Civil Aviation Organization has approved the route and assigned a code for it.

He said Taiwanese and Chinese officials reached an initial agreement over the issue on March 2 in Shanghai, when Chinese authorities agreed to a delay in the adoption of the M503 route and the three feeder routes W121, W122 and W123. W121 connects with Dongshan, W122 connects with Fuzhou, and W123 with Xiamen.

Zhang said the route will be a good thing for both Taiwanese and Chinese travelers and that commentators should not read too much into the politics of it.

In January, China declared the plan to launch the north-south M503 route without consultation with Taiwan along with the three other east-west feeder routes, which immediately drew protest from the Taiwanese government.

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Archangel Michael: Peace on Earth is Not a Dream

Role of Ferguson police chief and mayor must be examined

The Justice Department’s scathing Ferguson report shows that the government is paying attention, Harvard law scholar Charles Ogletree told DW. He says Ferguson is not an isolated case and suggests what to do about it.

Deutsche Welle, 5 March 2015

Charles Ogletree is a law professor at Harvard University and the founder and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice. Among his students at Harvard were both Barack and Michelle Obama.

DW: Seven months after the shooting of Michael Brown, the US Justice Department released a report detailing racial bias in the Ferguson police department. What is the most important thing you have learned from that report?

Charles Ogletree: The most important thing is that the Justice Department is paying attention and realizes that there is a problem. The second thing is that I was very surprised when I learned after the death of Michael Brown that even though African-Americans were in the majority in the community in Ferguson, they weren't when it came to the police force, the city council or when it came to getting involved in the community. That was a shocking piece of evidence for me to find. Since then I have been saying that Ferguson has to be a classic 21st century city that is going to turn around and where people are going to get involved. I think that is going to make a big difference in Ferguson and St. Louis and other parts of Missouri as well.

There appear to be many incidents detailed in the report that seem to violate the US Constitution, but apparently the Justice Department does not think it can file a civil rights suit. Do you agree with that assessment?

Charles Ogletree

I do agree with that. And I am glad that Eric Holder before he leaves is moving to think about that. This report talks about the disparity in Ferguson in particular as it applies to people of African-American descent.

And that tells me that you have to change things and make sure that people are going to school, make sure they are not being arrested for bogus civil matters by the police who use that as a way to make money, make sure that they have a responsibility to vote.

Only 1 out of 5 people in Ferguson vote. And that is really against the trend, particularly when President Obama, my former student and a mentee of mine, was running in 2008 and 2012 we saw enormous numbers of African-Americans come out to vote because there was a black candidate that they liked. But it didn't happen in significant numbers in Ferguson. So there is a lot of change that needs to happen.

I know this is a little controversial, but I think there needs to be an examination of the mayor and the police chief to decide whether they are the right people to lead Ferguson forward. They have spoken here and we have had people listen to them. We had people protest the fact that we even invited them. But I think this means that this city should be one of the top cities in America in the 21st century. That is what I hope will happen with these changes in the process of how people get involved in politics and in the survival of the folks in Ferguson.

If you agree that the Justice Department can't bring a civil rights suit, do you think the Justice Department should file a criminal suit?

That's the harder one. They are limited in what they can do criminally. They tried to do something in the Rodney King case [beaten by Los Angeles police in 1991, ed.] here in the United States. They are trying to be effective in one way or another. I think it is very hard because all they can focus on is civil rights violations – and I think there are civil rights violations – but it's very hard to prove them. I would be very surprised if the Department of Justice brought a suit that could stick and that would have some impact on what's happening in Ferguson. I don't think that they can. I doubt that they will.

A striking detail in the report is the fact that traffic fines were the second-biggest source of income for the city of Ferguson and that city officials urged law enforcement to drum up even more revenue that way. What does that tell you?

It tells me that race matters and it matters in the wrong direction that people are being falsely arrested in order to get money from the people. And it also reinforces that folks don't feel that they don't have a real responsibility to engage in running for office, in being elected for office and voting for candidates and holding jobs that will make their families more successful. All these things stem from the fact what African-Americans see in Ferguson: that they are treated differently and treated with less respect and dignity by the police force. That's why, one, African-American people need to stand up and be strong and, two, the people of Ferguson need to have leaders who represent them in a fair and conscientious way and not simply look at their race and ignore their rights.

Is Ferguson an extreme and isolated case or do you think other communities have similar problems?

I have to say it is not isolated even tough it is extreme. If you look at what's happening in Chicago and the problems that city has had. If you even look at what's happening in parts of Boston - Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury – you see the distinction of African-Americans being arrested, jailed, dropping out of school, not working. I think that becomes a problem. It's a national problem in so many communities. I don't want to cite all the different cities, but if you go to Newark, New Jersey, if you go to parts of Harlem, New York, if you go to Cleveland, if you go to Illinois in many states you see that problem. It's not a Southern problem, it is a national problem that is affecting communities around the United States. I hope that Ferguson will be an example of what other communities can do as well if they move in the right direction.

If you think the Justice Department can't do anything legally, what concretely can be changed in Ferguson?

I think it is going to be adults educating their children that things can make a difference. I think back as a kid whose parents – my mother was from Arkansas, my father was from Alabama – and they came to California and I was born in 1952. And they had a sense that there was segregation and discrimination and there was a whole list of laws that made it impossible for them to succeed, but they wanted to make sure that there son, their first child, me, would finish high school. And then, because I did well in high school it was not a surprise that I was the very first in my family to finish high school and then go and finish college - and then go to law school. And that is what we have to do.

My son and my daughter, due to my wife who has been exceptional and made sure that they finish high school, made sure that they went to college and finished college and made sure that they have great jobs now. So it has to be a transformative experience that means that you are lifting up the generations behind you and then as you do that you are going to make sure that the generations behind you are lifting up the generations that are behind them as well. That's what we are trying to do and that is going to make a big difference. 

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Yellen Seeks to Avert ‘Capture’ by Banks

Jakarta Globe, Bloomberg, Ian Katz, Mar 04, 2015

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference
at the Federal Reserve in Washington. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, countering criticism from members of Congress, said the central bank was trying to avoid being too cozy with the Wall Street firms it supervises and wants to ensure that regulators aren’t afraid to confront the financial industry.

“The risk of regulatory capture is something the Federal Reserve takes very seriously and works very hard to prevent,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for a speech in New York on Tuesday night.

“It is important that anyone serving the Fed feel safe speaking up when they have concerns about bias toward industry, and that those concerns be addressed.”

The Fed has been criticized by Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who say it’s deferential to large banks.

The issue was the subject of a Senate hearing in November following allegations by Carmen Segarra, a former examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who said her colleagues had been too soft on Goldman Sachs.

At the hearing, Warren told New York Fed President William C. Dudley that he needs to fix a “cultural problem” or “we need to get someone who will.”

The Fed has also come under fire from Republicans, including Richard Shelby of Alabama, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who called for more Fed transparency and greater congressional oversight at a hearing Tuesday.

Yellen, in her speech to the Citizens Budget Commission, also took aim at ethical lapses at large banks supervised by the Fed.

Follow the law

“We expect the firms we oversee to follow the law and to operate in an ethical manner,” she said.

“Too often in recent years, bankers at large institutions have not done so, sometimes brazenly.”

Such incidents “raise legitimate questions of whether there may be pervasive shortcomings in the values of large financial firms that might undermine their safety and soundness,” she said.

Global regulators, including the Fed, are trying to tighten oversight of financial benchmarks that are used to price everything from student loans to mortgages, oil and currencies.

The world’s largest banks have paid billions of dollars to settle allegations of rigging Libor and other interest rates. Six firms, including Citigroup and UBS, paid $4.3 billion in November to settle probes into the manipulation of foreign-exchange rates.

Forest versus trees

Yellen spoke broadly about efforts to ensure financial stability, saying the Fed is focusing more on the “forest” of the financial system rather than the “trees” of individual banks.

“We cannot eliminate the possibility of another crisis, but we can make a crisis less likely and less damaging by limiting excessive risk-taking by firms we oversee and by helping ensure that the most systemically important firms are better prepared to weather a crisis,” she said.

The Fed this week will announce the first results of this year’s so-called stress tests of the biggest banks, which are intended to see if they can maintain adequate capital cushions and keep lending in a hypothetical crisis scenario.

“In the decades of relative financial stability leading up to the crisis, it is fair to say that the Fed focused too much on individual firms and not enough on their role in the financial system and the implications of those firms’ operations for financial stability,” Yellen said.

Yellen said the financial system has become safer since the crisis.

The “high-quality liquid assets” of the largest US banks have increased by about one-third since 2012, and their reliance on short-term wholesale funding has “dropped considerably.” The amount and quality of capital, and the strength of liquidity at large banks, are “greatly improved.”

Risk management

She said the Fed sees “some evidence of improved risk management, internal controls, and governance at large firms. But large firms still have room for improvement in this area, and supervisors will be watching closely.”

Banks’ so-called living wills, annual hypothetical plans for a fast and orderly bankruptcy, “still have a number of shortcomings,” she said.

The Fed “expects these institutions to make substantial progress in the coming months, which will leave firms and the government better-positioned to manage the failure of a large institution.”

Bloomberg

Related Article:

Biggest Global Banks Go to Pieces Under Pressure From Regulators

UBS Whistle-Blower Says Bank Has ‘Global’ Issue With Tax Evaders

Jakarta Globe, Fabio Benedetti-Valentini, Mar 04, 2015

Republican Guards walk in the rain during a ceremony to welcome Quebec
Prime Minister Philippe Couillard during a ceremony in the courtyard of the
 Hotel des Invalides in Paris on March 2, 2015. (AFP Photo/Philippe Wojazer)

The former UBS Group banker whose cooperation with the U.S. helped expose tax evasion by thousands of Americans says the Swiss bank used similar practices elsewhere and he’s eager to help European governments.

“It’s not a U.S. issue, it’s not a French issue, it’s a global issue. UBS is the problem,” Bradley Birkenfeld said in an interview the day after testifying in a French investigation into similar allegations against UBS. “They’ve been doing it in every market: the Greek market, the Spanish market, the Italian market, the Scandinavian market, the German — I can go on and on, you get the picture.”

The French charged the world’s largest manager of money for the rich last year with laundering the proceeds of tax fraud and ordered the Zurich-based bank to pay 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to cover a potential penalty should the criminal probe result in a guilty finding. The judge leading the probe asked Birkenfeld to come to Paris to testify as a witness, according to a U.S. court decision authorizing the trip.

Birkenfeld’s testimony in the U.S. case helped secure a $780 million settlement with the bank in 2009. He went to prison for his role and is still on probation. In the interview with Bloomberg News, he said that during his years at UBS in Switzerland, he often spoke with colleagues who worked with French clients and understands how they operated.

French probe

“A witness who actively lobbied to get invited, needed to receive special permission to travel due to his court-ordered supervisory release, and never worked in the business in question, should have limited credibility,” UBS said in an e- mailed statement.

On the French case, the bank said, “the matter remains in a formal investigation phase, there is nothing more to add at this point.” Previously, the bank said the French probe has become a “highly politicized process” and that it’s “taken significant and broad steps to ensure tax compliance of our clients and will continue to do so.”

The U.S.-born banker flew to Paris last week and met with investigators led by judge Guillaume Daieff on Feb. 27, he said. In an interview the next day at a hotel near the Arc de Triomphe, Birkenfeld recounted his time at UBS in Switzerland, where he worked from 2001 to 2006. He declined to go into specifics about the judges’ questions.

‘Boys’ club’

He was part of a team that catered to 19,000 U.S. wealthy clients with about $20 billion in assets, he said. As a director, Birkenfeld said he “made good money for the bank and my clients” during his years at UBS.

He said that while he focused on North America, he spoke with his colleagues handling Europeans. UBS managed even more assets from Switzerland for French clients than for Americans, Birkenfeld said.

While he said in the Feb. 28 interview that he doesn’t deny he was “part of it,” Birkenfeld said he wants to use his knowledge of Geneva’s private banking “little boys’ club” to foster public awareness and fight financial misdeeds.

Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his role in the U.S. case and was sentenced to 40 months in prison. After his release, he received a $104 million whistle-blower award from the Internal Revenue Service.

Since UBS handed over account names to the U.S., at least 50,000 U.S. taxpayers have avoided prosecution by disclosing offshore accounts to the IRS, generating more than $7 billion in taxes, interest and penalties.

Birkenfeld said he’s ready to help other authorities as he is with the French, “free of charge.” He is already cooperating with two that he declined to identify.

Birkenfeld turned 50 the day before meeting the judges. He now lives in New Hampshire, and it was his first trip to Europe since 2008.

Bloomberg

Stuart Gulliver in Hong Kong in 2012: leaked files show that the HSBC chief

 executive was a client of the bank’s Swiss subsidiary at the centre of the

scandal. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Georgia halts executions after lethal drug problem

Yahoo – AFP, 3 March 2015

Opponents of the death penalty hold signs in front of the Supreme
Court in Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - The US state of Georgia temporarily halted executions Tuesday after the drug used for lethal injections appeared faulty, authorities said.

The decision came a day after Georgia delayed for the second time the execution of Kelly Gissendaner, convicted of conspiring to murder her husband, when the execution team found that the lethal pentobarbital dose appeared cloudy.

Gissendaner's execution had already been delayed for several days because of wintry weather in the southern state.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the scheduled executions of Kelly Renee Gissendaner and Brian Keith Terrell, have been postponed while an analysis is conducted of the drugs planned for use in last night's scheduled execution of inmate Gissendaner," Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said.

"The sentencing courts will issue new execution orders when the department is prepared to proceed," she added in a statement.

Georgia houses one of the country's biggest prison systems, supervising nearly 55,000 state prisoners and more than 160,000 people on probation.

Gissandaner would have become the 16th female prisoner to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide in 1976, compared with 1,387 men who have been put to death during that period, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Georgia has executed 57 prisoners since 1976, including two so far this year.

Prisoner complaints from the southern state had led to the 1972 moratorium on the death penalty, before it was re-established four years later.

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Saudi Arabia gives top prize to cleric who blames George Bush for 9/11

Controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik awarded the King Faisal international prize for promoting Islam through his hugely popular Peace TV channel

The Guardian - AFP, 1 March 2015

Zakir Naik siad ‘even a fool will know’ that the 9/11 attacks were an
‘inside job’. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

An Indian television preacher who has called the 9/11 attacks an “inside job” received one of Saudi Arabia’s most prestigious prizes on Sunday, for “service to Islam”.

Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in India, was one of five recipients of the King Faisal international prize from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman during a ceremony at a luxury Riyadh hotel.

The annual prizes are a project of the King Faisal Foundation, established in 1976 by the children of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz who died in 1975.

Naik was honoured for being one of the most renowned non-Arabic speaking promoters of Islam. He founded the Peace TV channel, billed as the world’s only channel specialising in comparative religion.

It has an estimated English-language audience exceeding 100 million, according to his award citation.

“Islam is the only religion that can bring peace to the whole of humanity,” he said in a video biography aired at the ceremony.

In a July 2008 Peace TV broadcast, Naik suggested that al-Qaida was not responsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York’s World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.

“Even a fool will know that this was an inside job,” he said in the video, claiming then-president George W Bush was behind the attacks.

In 2010 Naik was reportedly barred from entering Britain for “numerous comments” which showed his “unacceptable behaviour”.

Naik said on Sunday that he would donate all of his $200,000 prize money to Peace TV.

The other prizewinners were:

In Islamic studies, Saudi Arabia’s Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Kaki for his research on the cultural heritage of the Muslim holy city of Medina

In medicine, Jeffrey Ivan Gordon of the United States, whose research has enhanced understanding of diseases such as obesity, which is a growing problem in Saudi Arabia

Michael Gratzel of Switzerland for his development of solar cells, and co-winner Omar Mwannes Yaghi of the United States for his work in the new field of metal organic frameworks

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Kryon Q&A

Question (2002): Dear Kryon, A friend and I are meditating on the recent shark attacks and feel that it has to do with the planetary changes. We just can’t understand why they have become aggressive. What is the message the sharks are bringing? Why is this happening?

—Thank you,

Maryann

Answer: Indeed there are changes with the environment and also with biology regarding the 12-year grid change. I will first give you what was happening in general: What you are seeing are mammals, amphibians, insects, and even fish that are in areas that are new to them. Every life-form that migrates is effected by magnetics. All life forms that follows certain feeding scenarios and are “following the food” have the potential to be affected. This is due to the changing of the magnetic ley lines of the earth as we have stated before.

The areas where you can see in the ocean most clearly are within those migration patterns closest to the land. Where the ocean interfaces with the land, there are challenges for all these creatures for at least one of their generations. Whales will beach themselves by following old magnetics headings that now “drive” them into peninsula’s and other land areas that were marginally on the edge of their old paths. Birds, amphibians, and insects will be seen to do odd things for awhile.

So these shark fish may be in greater numbers in these coastal areas than in the past, but the increased aggressive behavior was actually something else: There was a tremendous “release” of energy due to the Sept. 11 event. Much like the energy of earthquakes and other earth movement, much of the environment “feels it” coming. We have spoken about how the Sept. 11 event was not a surprise to the earth. [See Lee’s article “Did Kryon give us hints”] So, some of the new actions of these fish were due to an actual energy buildup of coming events... of which you now understand.

If you are paying attention, therefore, you might ask, “Does this mean that Human consciousness issues affect the actual earth?” Yes they do! Finally you may begin to see how global consciousness is tied into the environment, and even to basic physics and reality. They are not separate, and never were. The indigenous knew it, and now the “modern” world is beginning to wonder.

Blessed is the Human Being who understands that what they think, do, and intend, actually drives the reality of the dirt of the planet!

India counters Xi's 'belt and road' with competing project

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-01

Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi meet in New Delhi on Sept. 18,
2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

Chinese president Xi Jinping's "belt and road" initiative to link China with with Europe through Central and Western Asia and to connect with Southeast Asian countries will be met with staunch challenges from India's own competing proposal, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Xi's ambitious strategic plan, announced last year, comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt, a land-based belt from China via Central Asia and Russia to Europe, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a maritime route through the Strait of Malacca to India, the Middle East and East Africa.

Pang Zhongying, an international relations professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, says while Xi has personally invited Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to join the belt and road initiative, New Delhi has never expressed a clear indication of support.

Instead, India will soon be launching its own Project Mausam, a transnational initiative meant to revive its ancient maritime routes and cultural linkages with countries in the region.

Mausam is a "threatening and competing" initiative will pose a major challenge for China's belt and road plans, Pang said, noting that the project intends to stretch from East Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago — all the regions forming the extent of India's cultural influence.

As the primary "organizer" of security and trade in the Indian Ocean, New Delhi has a central and unique role in the region, Pang said, adding that the competing initiatives could turn into a major tussle between the world's two biggest rising powers.

India's economic influence has also been growing, with reports that its national GDP for the upcoming financial year will outdo China and soar to a four-year high of 8.5%.

The Economist even described the competitive dynamics between China and India as akin to the tale of the hare and the tortoise, adding that India's economic prowess could very well eclipse that of China's in the near future.

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The dialogue meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Nov. 8. 

(Photo/Xinhua)

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PKK leader Ocalan calls on Kurdish separatists in Turkey to lay down arms

The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has urged rebels in Turkey to hold a congress on disarmament. The move is aimed to end 30 years of conflict between Kurds and the Turkish state.

Deutsche Welle, 28 feb 2015

Abdullah Öcalan

The statement from Ocalan was read out by Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) on Saturday, in a press conference held jointly with Turkish authorities.

"I call on the PKK to hold an extraordinary congress in the spring months to take a strategic and historic decision to abandon the armed struggle..." Onder said quoting Ocalan (pictured above) and adding "this statement is a historic declaration of the intention to replace the armed struggle with democratic politics."

The fighting between the PKK and Turkish government has resulted in the killings of more than 40,000 people since 1984.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies including the United States. A ceasefire between the PKK and Turkey was declared in 2013 and negotiations have been ongoing since then, but violence has continued to erupt sporadically since then.

Peace process

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan, who attended the Saturday press conference alongside Onder after the two sides met briefly in Istanbul, emphasized the importance of a ceasefire.

"We have reached an important and historical phase in the peace process," Akdogan said.

Abdullah Ocalan has been in prison since 1999 and in talks with the Turkish government since 2012. His statement also included a list of 10 measures the Kurds want the government to agree on to secure peace, including a new Turkish constitution.

According to HDP chairman Selahattin Demirtas, whose deputies have been attending meetings in Ocalan's island prison near Istanbul and the PKK's headquarters in northern Iraq, the disarmament congress would be held after a consensus was reached on the measures outlined in Ocalan's statement.

Saturday's announcement comes amid fighting in Turkey's parliament over a controversial security law written in the wake of deadly pro-Kurdish demonstrations in October.

An estimated 15 million Kurds live in Turkey.

se/rc (AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP)

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Archangel Michael: Peace on Earth is Not a Dream

Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow, February 13, 2015

Archangel Michael will find a way to get his message out. Linda was not planning on giving a reading today, but a caller begged her. And in the course of the reading, AAM sent a message to all of us. Here it is:

Greetings I am Michael, Archangel of Peace, Warrior of Love, bringer of news.

Our time is at hand and you know this. As we nudge, encourage and conjoin with so many upon the planet to bring forth in form not merely in heart but in form, not only the promise of peace but the actuality of peace.

This is not a dream. This is not an unreality. This is not, as some think, ‘pie in the sky.’

This is what our partnership, our sacred union, our co-creation together, is capable of. And always has been. Only now the human vibration, frequency and knowingness has risen to a level where humans are consciously aware that they are able and capable of anchoring peace on Earth with us right now.

This is not merely an exercise of intent, but of will and action. It is a glorious day. It is not a day of defeat. It is not a day of fear. It is not a day of worry. It is a glorious day!

So I reassure you, my beloved one, and I reassure many, peace is at hand. And I thank you for all the assistance, the diligence, all the consistency that you have offered to and with me – you are cherished.

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore." Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”