World News Thread & Breaking News!!

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

delft

Brigadier
What will this do to the relations between US and Germany:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

14 July 2014 Last updated at 12:15 GMT
'Export ban' for arms maker SIG Sauer over Colombia guns

Germany has imposed an export ban on arms maker SIG Sauer after guns manufactured by the German company were found to have been sold to the Colombian police, German media report.

Under German law, arms exports require a special licence which is not normally granted for countries where there is armed conflict, such as Colombia.

Colombia says it bought almost 65,000 SIG Sauer pistols for its police force from the US Department of Defense.

SIG Sauer denies any wrongdoing.

Headquarters raided

German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters NDR and WDR say that German export officials imposed the ban at the beginning of July.

The German federal office for export controls has also reportedly launched a probe to determine whether SIG Sauer is a "reliable exporter".

Prosecutors in the state of Schleswig-Holstein raided SIG Sauer's headquarters earlier this month.

The prosecutors were already investigating the company over alleged illegal weapons exports to Kazakhstan and recently widened their probe to include the alleged illegal sales to Colombia.

According to a joint investigation by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung and NDR, SIG Sauer sold the guns to the US knowing they would be exported to Colombia despite not having a licence to do so.

But SIG Sauer says it complied with all the legal requisites required for the export.

'Calm'

Between 2009 and 2011, the company shipped thousands of guns to its subsidiary in the US state of New Hampshire.


German officials say they granted the required licence for those exports after receiving written assurances by US officials that the weapons would remain in the United States.

However, Colombian police officers say they have been issued with SIG Sauer weapons bearing the inscription "Made in Germany".

The Colombian defence ministry confirmed it had purchased almost 65,000 SIG Sauer pistols from the United States since 2006.

Colombian defence officials said they had bought the guns directly from their US counterparts through the Foreign Military Sales Programme.

Under the programme, the US can sell "defence articles and services" to foreign countries when the US president "formally finds that to do so will strengthen the security of the US and promote world peace".

"We are completely calm about this purchase, because it was done legally government to government. If Germany requires some sort of explanation, it should come from the US," a Colombian defence official told newspaper El Tiempo.

US ban?

In a statement, SIG Sauer also said that after their sale to the US, the responsibility for the weapons lay with Washington.

"We have International Import Certificates (IC) issued by the relevant US authorities for all of our shipments. Through an IC the country declares that the goods - once they have entered the country - will come under its rules governing exports and therefore come under its responsibility," the statement reads.

SIG Sauer said it was not aware of any wrongdoing on its part and would fully co-operate with the investigation.

According to German government guidelines, a country which does not stop an unlicensed shipment could be banned from receiving future arms exports.

US authorities have not yet commented on the allegations.

The US spent billions of dollars helping equip and train the Colombian military and police in its effort to combat drug trafficking and left-wing rebels.

More than 220,000 people are estimated to have been killed in five decades of armed conflict in the South American nation.
Click to expand...
 
TerraN_EmpirE

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Notation:Sig Sauer is one of the worlds leading gun makers. Particularly popular are there P22x series which makes up some of the worlds top issued handguns. SIG also makes the Sig550 which is considered the creme da la Crema of assault rifles so well liked is it its standard issue to the Swiss guard, making it a Holy Assault rifle.... Batman. Now Sig has two standing contracts with the US DOD the M11 compact side arm and the Mk.25 mod 0 Aka P226 USN. SIG also manufactures the P229 in standard issue for the US secret service the people who protect the President of the United States of America...
Sig is also attempting to get a US Socom contract for a compact suppressed PDW to replace the MP5 Navy.
however American contracts are handled by Sig Sauer USA a subsidiary based in New Hampshire. Which includes full manufacturing capabilities.
 
T

texx1

Junior Member
So long IMF and World Bank.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


BRICS nations to create $100bn development bank

The leaders of the five BRICS countries have signed a deal to create a new $100bn (£583m) development bank and emergency reserve fund.

The BRICS group is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The capital for the bank will be split equally among the five participating countries.

The bank will have a headquarters in Shanghai, China and the first president for the bank will come from India.

Brazil's president Dilma Rouseff announced the creation of the bank at a BRICS summit meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil on Tuesday.

A new player

At first, the bank will start off with $50bn in initial capital.

The emergency reserve fund - which was announced as a "Contingency Reserve Arrangement" - will also have $100bn, and will help developing nations avoid "short-term liquidity pressures, promote further BRICS cooperation, strengthen the global financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements".

The creation of the BRICS bank will almost surely create competition for both the World Bank and other similar regional funds.

BRICS nations have criticised the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for not giving developing nations enough voting rights.

One of the goals for the bank - whose creation has been discussed for some time - would be to increase the amount of money loaned to developing countries to help with infrastructure projects.
Click to expand...

For people wondering about the economic prowess of BRICS

LJrYwAO.jpg
 
Miragedriver

Miragedriver

Brigadier
Mysterious giant hole appears in Siberia

A team of Scientists travel to the site of a huge crater in Northern Russia to investigate this unusual geographical occurrence

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


What leads me to believe that this is not a sink hole (and I have seen several) is the mounding of soil around the hole. This is not the normal occurrence of a sink hole.



I will now get back to bottling my Malbec
 
D

delft

Brigadier
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a large newspaper published in Munich, points today to the view of a former CIA station chief in Berlin Joseph Wippl, till 2003, that Germany should react more strongly to the recruitment of paid spies. As the Ukrainian situation develops slowly and US doesn't apologize for the spying Germany and US are driven further apart despite the efforts of Merkel.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

In the mean time Putin threatens to react to the US sanctions presumably by such measures as closing the Northern Supply Network.
The EU also extents its sanctions but the remain insignificant.
 
P

PanAsian

Major
Malaysian Airlines again!? This is a really bad year for them.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


KIEV Thu Jul 17, 2014 11:58am EDT

(Reuters) - A Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine by militants on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard, a Ukrainian interior ministry official was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The aircraft, which other sources said was a Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, came down near the city of Donetsk, stronghold of pro-Russian rebels, Anton Gerashchenko said, adding that it was hit by a ground-to-air missile.

There was no further confirmation of the report, although Ukrainian officials said local residents had found wreckage.

Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed it had lost contact with its flight MH-17 from Amsterdam. "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace," it said.

Gerashchenko was quoted as saying: "A civilian airliner travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has just been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft system ... 280 passengers and 15 crew have been killed."

Interfax-Ukraine quoted another Ukrainian official as saying the plane disappeared from radar when it was flying at 10,000 metres (33,000 feet), a typical cruising altitude for airliners.

It came down at Torez, near Shakhtersk, some 40 km (25 miles) from the Russia border. The area has been the scene of fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels.

Ukraine has accused Russia of taking an active role in the four-month-old conflict in recent days and accused it earlier on Thursday of shooting down a Ukrainian fighter jet - an accusation that Moscow denied.

(Reporting by Richard Balmforth and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Peter Millership)
Click to expand...
 
Miragedriver

Miragedriver

Brigadier
Advice for journalists in China: Hire a lawyer

Investigative journalists in China have always had to bow to censorship and worry about being arrested. But this year, the Communist party has stopped them from working altogether

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!



So how is this different than in other parts of the world? In some countries the journalist cooperate with the government and are extensions of the press office.



I will now get back to bottling my Malbec
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top