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If you're looking for a good laugh this week, you probably can't do better than Tuesday's White House press conference. Reporters asked spokesman Josh Earnest about the confirmation of two Obama-appointed ambassadors whose confirmation was only possible because Democrats manipulated Senate rules earlier this year to make it easier to approve executive-branch nominees. By the narrowest of margins, two people completely unqualified to represent U.S. interests abroad were confirmed to serve in relatively important countries they know nothing about. Colleen Bell, the new U.S. ambassador to Hungary, is a former soap opera producer who couldn't name a single strategic interest...

Sandro Magister at his blog Chiesa has a fascinating look at the relationship of Pope Francis with the evangelicals who have made such devastating inroads among the Catholic populations in South America: ROME, November 19, 2014 – With the mastery for which it is known all over the world, the Washington-based Pew Research Center has conducted a survey on a massive scale that gives substance to a fact that was already known in general terms, the startling decline of Catholic membership in the Latin American subcontinent: > Religion in Latin America. Widespread Change in a Historically Catholic Region In the...

Rising Turkish Menace: U.S. and NATO Ally Wants Islamic Advance in Latin America By Julio Severo The president of Turkey has re-written history by claiming Muslim explorers, not Christopher Columbus, discovered America. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chief of America’s NATO ally, said November 15 that Islamic sailors found the New World in 1178. He said, “Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus.” Turkey is the only Islamic nation in the NATO. His theory — which is supported only by Islamic historians — came to light in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of...

In 2005, then Pope Benedict quoted from an obscure medieval text which declared that the Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Islamic faith, was "evil and inhuman", enraging the Muslim population and causing attacks on churches throughout the world before an apology was issued. Reacting within days to the statements, speaking through a spokesman to Newsweek Argentina, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio declared his "unhappiness" with the statements, made at the University of Regensburg in Germany, and encouraged many of his subordinates with the Church to do the same. "Pope Benedict's statement don't reflect my own opinions", the then Archbishop of Buenos...

Will the UN Security Council Impose a Palestinian State?Posted By Joseph Puder On November 3, 2014 @ 12:25 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 6 Comments January, 2015 does not bode well for Israel at the United Nations (UN). The UN Security Council (UNSC) will officially induct five newly elected non-permanent member-states replacing outgoing Rwanda, S. Korea, Australia, Argentina and Luxembourg, representing all the global regions. Unfortunately for Israel, the incoming states, particularly Venezuela and Malaysia, are hostile to the Jewish state. The other three, Angola, New Zealand, and Spain are pondering their position on recognizing Palestine as a full member-state...

Buenos Aires has bigger air power problems Argentina has expressed interest in buying 24 Gripen E fighters from Brazil, which has just inked a licensing deal with Sweden permitting the South American country to manufacture its own copies of Saab’s new single-engine fighter. “Our willingness to cooperate with Argentina, our neighbor and ally, is total,” Brazilian defense minister Celso Amorim said. If you’re British and you’re worried—don’t be. A few Gripens will barely begin to restore the badly-depleted Argentine air arm, which lost up to a third of its 409 warplanes during two months of brutal fighting with U.K. forces...

Brazil and Argentina are to hold negotiations over the possible procurement of Brazilian-made, but Swedish-designed, jet fighters. GAVIAO PEIXOTO, Brazil, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Brazil and Argentina are to begin negotiations over the purchase of Swedish-designed Gripen fighters to be manufactured in Brazil. The decision was announced in Brazil by visiting Argentine Defense Minister Agustín Rossi. Brazil's Ministry of Defense said the talks over the possible purchase of 24 Brazil-produced Gripens would include not only the conditions of purchase but also Argentina's participation in the production of the Saab-designed aircraft. "Our willingness to cooperate with Argentina, our neighbor and ally,...

New Iraqi defense minister Khaled al-Obeidi has delivered his first official speech, insisting that the Kurdistan Region must hand back terrorists that have been living in the KRI. Al-Obeidi is a Sunni, was approved as the new Iraqi defense minister along with Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, a Shia, who was appointed interior minister. “The Kurdistan Region should hand back criminals who have been charged with terrorist acts to the federal government, so they can face justice,” said Al-Obeidi. “The Kurdistan Region security forces and Iraqi police should arrest all those criminals, as they are threats to the security and stability of...

Venezuela’s Tarek El-Aissami The Americas Report | Oct 03, 2008  By Nicole Ferrand [...] Mr. El - Aissami is a Venezuelan national of Syrian descent who, before becoming Minster of Interior and Justice, occupied the position of Deputy Interior Minister for Public Security. His father, Carlos Aissami, is the head of the Venezuelan branch of the Iraqi Baath political party. Before the invasion of Iraq, he held a press conference in which he described himself as a Taliban and called Osama Bin Laden, "the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden." Tarek's great-uncle Shibli el-Aissami was a prominent ideologist and...

RT Spanish started broadcasting in Argentina on Thursday, which makes it the first foreign TV channel on national television in the Latin America country. It will be available for over 80% of the country’s 42 mln population. A joint initiative of the two countries was made possible by the presidents of Russia and Argentina, Vladimir Putin and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who inaugurated the 24/7 broadcast during a video conference. President Putin said he was sure that “the launch of a Spanish-language Russian channel in Argentina will make Russia much more understandable and will promote the further rapprochement between the...

contempt a day earlier for attempting illegal moves to service its debt. The move aims to prove that Argentina can meet its debt locally and sidestep a U.S. court ruling that recently pushed it into its second default in 13 years. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Relations between Argentina and the United States have sunk so low the South American nation's president is blaming the Obama administration for her country's debt crisis and suggesting Washington might even want to have her killed. "If something was to happen to me, nobody should be looking to the east, but...

October 2, 2014Linette Lopez Argentina's Merval stock index is down about 7% Thursday after taking an 8% beating Wednesday as well. The selling off is all likely due to Wednesday's news that the country's Central Bank head, Juan Carlos Fabrega, resigned from his post. The rumors that he was out started swirling around in the Argentine media Wednesday morning. Fabrega was in favor of negotiating with the group of hedge fund creditors whose lawsuit for over $1.3 billion in sovereign debt tipped the country into default at the end of July. Reports also indicated that he did not get along...

New York Judge Thomas Griesa has declared Argentina to be in contempt of court for refusing to pay debt owed to bond holdouts, though stopped short of issuing sanctions.

(Asuncion / Rome) Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, dismissed yesterday from his office by Pope Francis, sees himself as a victim of an intrigue, which he describes as "ideological persecution." In an open letter to the Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the bishop wrote that Pope Francis will have to answer for his decision before God. At the same time Bishop Livieres announced that he has as yet no knowledge of the contents of the investigation report of the Papal Visitor, Cardinal Santos Abril. As a "son of the Church,"...

The Argentine government has used drones to catch out wealthy tax evaders who had not declared mansions and swimming pools. Unmanned aircraft were dispatched over an upper class area of Buenos Aires and discovered 200 homes and 100 pools that had not been detailed on returns. Tax officials said the drones took pictures of luxury houses standing on lots registered as empty. The evasions found by the drones amounted to missing tax payments of more than $2 million and owners of the properties have been waned they now face large fines. Use of drones has been expanding in Argentina and...

ReutersSeptember 22, 2014 Argentine President Cristina Fernandez on Monday will meet bondholder and billionaire financier George Soros, who is suing a U.S. bank caught in the middle of the country's latest debt default, a government minister said. The meeting comes as Fernandez's leftist government struggles to kick-start growth and contain runaway consumer prices after failing to complete a June interest payment to Soros and other holders of bonds restructured after a previous default. Soros' portfolio also includes a 3.5 percent stake in Argentina's state-controlled energy firm YPF. Buenos Aires has frequently cited the Hungarian-born magnate's investments in the country as...

Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of a new long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur that has taken the crown for largest terrestrial animal with a body mass that can be accurately determined. Measurements of bones from its hind leg and foreleg revealed that the animal was 65 tons, and still growing when it died in the Patagonian hills of Argentina about 77 million years ago. “To put this in perspective, an African elephant is about five tons, T. rex is eight tons, Diplodocus is 18 tons, and a Boeing 737 is around 50 tons,” said study author and paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara at...

Tyler Durden 09/05/2014 Just weeks after defaulting (yet again) on its debt (whether technically or not), and shortly after raising the minimum wage by 31% (to $523 a month) amid runaway inflation, it appears Argentina has gone full-Venezuela. As WSJ reports, the great minds that 'run' Argentina have decided to pass legislation (dubbed "the supply law") letting the government regulate private-sector prices, profit margins and production levels. The opposition is up in arms, "this is absolutely ridiculous. It's part of a very primitive ideology that says government officials should decide what people should make, how much they should make and...

Scientists have unearthed the skeleton of a previously unknown, massive dinosaur species that may be the largest land animal ever found.The specimen named Dreadnoughtus schrani is exceptionally complete, with about 70 percent of its bones recovered. Scientists believe the creature, which lived about 77 million years ago, measured 85 feet (26 meters) long and weighed about 65 tons, heavier than a Boeing 737.

One of the world’s legendary investors is upping his bet on Argentina’s shale oil and gas industry in a show of confidence for shale production in South America’s largest unconventional prize —and a big boost for both supermajors and smaller players making big waves in the heart of new discovery areas. George Soros has doubled his stake in YPF SA, the state-owned oil company in Argentina, which sits atop some of the world’s largest shale oil and gas resources, and is about to get even larger following a new discovery over the last couple of weeks of a second key...