Commercial

Flat Refusal: India Dismisses US Offer of F-16 Jets
India's defense minister expressed that India is not interested in acquiring US F-16 fighter aircraft despite aggressive lobbying by Lockheed Martin. In what can be seen as a sharp denial to the US, India has dismissed a proposal made by Lockheed Martin Corp to build F-16 fighter jets in India. [...]
Save
Paris may ban imports of US shale gas – minister
French Energy Minister Segolene Royal said she is examining legal means to ban the import of shale gas from the United States. According to media reports, she told lawmakers in the National Assembly that France should prohibit fracked gas imports within its borders due to a ban on hydraulic fracking introduced for environmental reasons. [...]
Save
Extra $1.44 trillion needed to rectify US infrastructure problems
Small things can make all the difference, but so can $3.32 trillion – the amount required by the American Society of Civil Engineers to rectify the US’ major infrastructure weaknesses. Even worse, ignoring the problem will only make it more expensive. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has released a study and an estimate revealing how expensive and expansive the crumbling infr [...]
Save
Where does the money come from? Erdogan children’s immeasurable wealth questioned by German Bild
The German newspaper Bild has raised questions as to how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s children amassed their vast wealth, including one fortune worth tens of millions, when their father only earns some €50 thousand a year as head of state. [...]
Save
‘People before profits!’ Thousands rally against TTIP, US corporate rule, GMO & wars in Rome (VIDEO)
Tens of thousands came out in the capital of Italy to decry the secretive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal between the EU and the United States, which protesters believe would push Europe into corporate slavery. [...]
Save
In This Passionate Anti-Fracking Town, Civil Disobedience Just Became Protected Civic Duty
Order sanctioning citizen direct action called "one of the boldest moves to stop the natural gas industry's attacks on our communities, climate and democracy." For one community attempting to stop fracking wastewater injection wells, civil disobedience just became a sanctioned civic right. [...]
Save
‘Today Marks the End of TTIP’: Greenpeace Leak Exposes Corporate Takeover
Confirming that the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) amounts to "a huge transfer of power from people to big business," Greenpeace Netherlands on Monday leaked 248 secret pages of the controversial trade deal between the U.S. and EU, exposing how environmental regulations, climate protections, and consumer rights are being "bartered away behind closed doors." [...]
Save
Norwegian Accolade to Aeroflot: From ‘Soviet Junk’ to Aviation Star
A few decades ago, Russia's Aeroflot was notoriously considered to be among the world's worst airlines. Now it ranks among the world's best. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten took a closer glance at the miraculous transformation. Today, Aeroflot's fleet consists mainly of new and modern Boeing and Airbus aircrafts, the average age being just 4.5 years. [...]
Save
Even the British govt’s own TTIP assessment says US-EU deal has ‘lots of risks and no benefit’
The British government’s sole assessment of the shadowy Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal indicates there are “lots of risks and no benefit,” according to documents seen by Global Justice Now. [...]
Save
BMW widens luxury lead over Mercedes, Lexus
DETROIT -- BMW topped Mercedes-Benz in U.S. luxury sales during November and widened its lead over its German rival for the year. Sales at BMW AG’s namesake brand in November rose 3.2 percent to 32,003, as deliveries of the X3 sport utility vehicle more than doubled. For the year, BMW's U.S. sales grew 4.4 percent to 311,398 vehicles. [...]
Save
Russia & Iran negotiate canal from Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf
Moscow and Tehran are holding talks on digging a ship canal from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, said Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanai, speaking to students in St. Petersburg. Any canal linking the two has to go through Iran. "Yes, this issue is being discussed", said the ambassador on Thursday without specifying details, quoted by TASS. [...]
Save
“No Safe Pipelines”: TransCanada Admits Keystone Spill Bigger than First Claimed
The oil spill that shut down a portion of the Keystone 1 pipeline in South Dakota last weekend is much bigger than initially estimated, TransCanada admitted on Thursday—almost 100 times bigger, in fact.The fossil fuel company said the "potential volume" of the spill in Freeman, discovered by a passerby on Saturday, was about 18,600 gallons, or 400 barrels. [...]
Save
First to Fall? Panama Papers Bring Down Iceland PM, Portending Future Fallout
In the first instance of a prominent politician taken down by the 11.5 million documents leaked in the Panama Papers, Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned on Tuesday after fully 10 percent of Iceland's population rallied in protest of his wife's secret, offshore shell company holding millions. [...]
Save
HSBC, Coutts & Rothschild: British banks help the 1% evade tax, #PanamaPapers suggest
Big British banks have allegedly been helping the rich and powerful ferret away their wealth beyond the taxman’s reach for decades, according to explosive revelations in the Panama Papers. Some of the world’s biggest banks were implicated in the largest data leak in history on Monday, including Britain’s HSBC, Coutts, and Rothschild, and Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse. [...]
Save
‘Biggest bribery scandal’: US, UK, Australia launch probe into mass oil industry corruption
An investigation into a massive global oil bribery scandal has been launched by authorities in the US, Britain, and Australia, after leaked confidential files indicated that some of the world’s most powerful corporations were part of the racket. [...]
Save
Snowden Warns World Against Trusting Privacy to Tech Giants Like Microsoft
The whistle blower who exposed the totality of the America’s mass domestic surveillance program suggested that users should look to free and open source software to preserve their privacy. On Saturday, NSA whistle blower spoke to the Free Software Foundation’s LibrePlanet2016 conference [...]
Save
Germany wants its gold back
The Bundesbank has announced plans to repatriate some of Germany’s gold reserves from abroad. At least half of the country’s gold would be transferred to Frankfurt by 2020, according to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. Weidmann says 366 tons of gold worth €11.5 billion have been delivered to Frankfurt so far. "There are now about 1,400 tons or 41.5 percent of our gold reserves here," t [...]
Save
‘This is What Consumers Want’: General Mills to Start Labeling GMOs
Environmental and consumer advocacy groups hailed decision by food manufacturer and called on Congress to follow suit. General Mills will start labeling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in all its food products, thanks to Vermont's impending GMO law and the failure of the 'voluntary labeling' law in U.S. Congress this week. [...]
Save
Russia’s New Nuclear Engine to Enable Spacecrafts to Reach Mars in 45 Days
A nuclear engine currently being developed in Russia by the nuclear agency Rosatom and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will allow a spaceship to reach Mars in an unprecedentedly short period of just 1.5 months, Rosatom’s General Director Sergei Kirienko said Wednesday. [...]
Save
No need for a perfect match: New method allows kidney transplants from ‘any’ donor
Patients in need of a kidney transplant have up to now been required to find a nearly-perfect match as the immune system tends to reject most transplanted organs. However, a recent study suggests that with a new approach transplants can come from any donor. The study showed that patients whose immune system was technically incompatible with the kidney transplant they received were more likely t [...]
Save
Tongue in Cheek: Mercedes Sends Centenary Greetings to Rival BMW
Mercedes-Benz has congratulated BMW on their centenary with a friendly advertisement and a less benevolent hint. BMW received a “Happy 100th birthday!” message from its long-time domestic rival Mercedes-Benz in a cool little video posted on Facebook. /* */ The video’s opening showed the signature BMW grille, but in the next five seconds it became clear how [...]
Save
Assembly of Russia’s Soyuz Rocket With Earth-Sensing Satellite Completed
The assembly of Russia’s Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket carrying an advanced Resurs-P Earth remote sensing satellite has been completed, Russian Roscosmos state corporation said in a statement on Wednesday. The rocket is expected to lift off on Saturday at 18:56 GMT. [...]
Save