JAN 2 SIT ECON Y POLITICA
Articles selected by Hugo Adan
GLOBAL RESEARCH
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Influence
of Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide (Glyphosate) on Growth of Pathogenic Bacteria:
Study By Global Research News,
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Monsanto’s
Roundup ‘Weedkiller’ (Glyphosate) Feeds Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, Study
Finds By Sayer Ji,
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The
Century Of The Self: Controlling The ‘Dangerous Crowd’ In An Age Of Mass
Democracy By Tyler Durden,
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History
Lesson: America Is the Same Oligarchy It Was over a Century Ago By Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton,
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“The
Interview”: Cybersecurity Investigators Raise Doubts about North Korean
Responsibility for Sony Hack By Niles Williamson,
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INFORMATIONCLEARINGHOUSE.INFO
Is War in the Cards for 2015? By
Patrick J. Buchanan. Before going home, Congress voted to levy new
sanctions on Russia and authorized U.S. lethal weapons to be sent to Kiev to
enable Ukraine to retake Luhansk and Donetsk and perhaps Crimea.
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2015 Will Be All About Iran, China and Russia.
By Pepe Escobar. The Masters
of the Universe/Washington combo won’t give up their strategy
to make Russia a pariah state cut off from trade, the transfer
of funds, banking and Western credit markets and thus prone to regime
change.
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The Incredible US "Peace Plan" For
Syria. By Thierry Meyssan. The
"peace" plan of the "liberal hawks" consists therefore in
achieving the original goals by dividing Syria in two: an area governed by
Damascus and another by "moderate rebels" (read: the Pentagon).
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What Would Happen if the Int’l Criminal Court
Indicted Israel’s Netanyahu?. By Juan Cole.
Getting a conviction on Article VII should be child’s play for the prosecutor.
Getting a conviction on Article VII should be child’s play for the prosecutor.
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REBELLION
Poder popular, Estado y luchas sociales . Bryan Seguel. Conversación con Franck Gaudichaud (Parte 2)
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La revolución infatigable. Oliverio Comte. Cuba a 56 años de la victoria
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Cuba: una epopeya de 56 años. Atilio A. Boron
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Un año decisivo Peru. Gustavo Espinoza
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Las derrotas y la resistencia. Guillermo Almeyra
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ZERO HEDGE
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015 - 17:07
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Oliver
Stone's New Movie: "Ukraine: The CIA Coup" Coming To A Theater Near
You, "the West has
maintained the dominant narrative of 'Russia in Crimea' whereas the true
narrative is 'USA in Ukraine.' The
truth is not being aired in the West. It’s a surreal perversion of history
that’s going on once again, as in the Bush pre-Iraq ‘WMD’ [Weapons of
Mass Destruction] campaign... with CIA
fingerprints on it."
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Mario Draghi's Statement: A Fistful Of
Keynesian Fallacies by Patrick Barron via Mises Canada, sub- by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015, Mario Draghi’s latest
statement is full of Keynesian fallacies, to wit: QE in Europe contained
not one, not two, but four fantastical Keynesian fallacies. 1. That price
stability is a worthy goal. No, monetary stability is essential, so that prices
may reflect the true preferences and productive limitations of the market in
order to allocate scarce resources. 2. That low inflation or even deflation is
harmful. No, in a economy with increasing productivity prices will fall,
benefiting all of society. Preventing prices from falling or, as ECB President
Draghi desires, encouraging price inflation, causes the Cantillon Effect,
whereby early receivers of the new money benefit at the expense of later
receivers. 3. That GDP is a good measure
of an economy’s success. if this were the case, then Zimbabwe would be a huge
success story. GDP simply adds up the monetary prices of goods sold, so higher
prices on the same or even slightly lower volume of sales necessarily will be
interpreted by Keynesian economists as success. 4. That monetary expansion can
spur an economy to greater prosperity. If this were the case, then counterfeiters
would be doing all of us a big favor. Monetary expansion distorts the structure
of production, sending more resources to the expansion of enterprises further
removed from final consumption. Go to: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-02/mario-draghis-statement-fistful-keynesian-fallacies
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2015
Will Be All About Iran, China And Russia. Submitted by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015. Fasten your seatbelts; 2015 will be a whirlwind
pitting China, Russia and Iran against what I have described as the Empire
of Chaos.
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China's
"Illusion Of Prosperity" Exposed: Forget Ghost Cities, Meet Ghost
Factories. Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015 - 21:40. Having
exposed the 20+1 charts of China's demise previously, we move to Exhibit
(a) in the "illusion of prosperity" that keeps the dream (looking)
alive to the outside (mostly Western get-rich-quick fast-money) world - China's
Zombie Factories...
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Why
The Stock Market Casino Is Dangerous: The Case Of Looney Tunes In the Sand
Dunes. Submitted by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015. Meet Emerge Energy Services: the poster boy for
the “irrational exuberance” that has become institutionalized throughout the
length and breadth of the Wall Street casino. Today’s
Wall Street Journal story coming just five months after last summers
potboiler is therefore not simply an update on a speculation gone horribly
wrong. It’s actually a template for the deluge to come.
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Mark Spitznagel Explains How To Make A
Fortune (Or Go Broke) Submitted
by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015
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Obama
Sanctions North Korea For Sony Hack Which Was Perpetrated By Disgruntled Former
Employee, Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015
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Merkel
Ally Fuchs: Draghi, Stop Talking QE, "We Shouldn't Pump Money" Into
Struggling EU Nations, Submitted
by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015, Germany has come out swinging
to remind the world that it won't stand idly by as the nation's taxpayers are
thrown under the bailout-the-EU-or-else bus. Michael Fuchs, deputy
parliamentary floor leader of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, told Deutschlandfunk
radio on Friday: "We shouldn't pump extra money into these states,
but rather make sure they continue along the reform path." As Reuters reports, Fuchs further added, "I'd be
grateful if (ECB President Mario) Mr Draghi would make statements along these
lines."
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Another
Shale-Bubble Bursts: Oil's Plunge Is Not 'Unequivocally Good" For This
Group, Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015.
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The
Elephant Dragon In The Room: China's Hard Landing, In 21 Charts Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. Today we update where China
stands on its path to a very hard landing. As the charts below show, what has
been so far a controlled descent is rapidly sliding out of control.
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Low
Prices Lead To Layoffs In The Oil Patch, Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. Less drilling will not
only lead to a loss of jobs for oil workers, but the services that pop up
around drilling sites – restaurants, bars, construction, and more – are feeling
the slowdown as well. States like Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and
Louisiana have seen their economies boom over the last few years as oil
production surged. But the sector is now deflating, leaving gashes in
employment rolls and state budgets. With such extensive dependence on oil
for prosperity in these states, the pain will mount if oil prices stay low.
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These
19 States Just Hiked The Minimum Wage: Here Come The "Unintended
Consequences" Submitted by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015 the reality at the micro level, is that increasingly
more Americans are seeing their work status transformed from full-time to
part-time status, earning less in the process, having no healthcare and
retirement benefits and virtually no job security. As a result, starting this
year, some 19 states just increased their minimum wage threshold, with 3 more
states due to follow later in 2015. This takes place at the state level because
for numerous reasons, there simply wan't enough of a consensus to pass this at
the Federal level.
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Mario Draghi Op-Ed: "Lay Down Your
Rights... In A New Institutional Order" Submitted
by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015 by
Mario Draghi, originally posted at Project Syndicate, 1. There is a
common misconception that the euro area is a monetary union without a political
union. But this reflects a deep misunderstanding of what monetary union
means. 2. If European monetary union
has proved more resilient than many thought, it is only because those who
doubted it misjudged this political dimension. They underestimated the ties
among its members. 3. Yet it is also clear that our monetary union is still
incomplete. This was the diagnosis offered two years ago by the so-called
“Four Presidents” But what does it mean to “complete” a monetary union? it
means having conditions in place that make countries more stable and prosperous
than they would be if they were not members. They have to be better off
inside than they would be outside.. 4. This implies two main things. First,
we have to create the conditions for all countries to thrive independently. The
second implication of the absence of fiscal transfers is that countries
need to invest more in other mechanisms to share the cost of shocks. 5. A key
part of the solution is to improve private risk-sharing by deepening financial
integration. Indeed, the less
public risk-sharing we want, the more private risk-sharing we need. 6. So,
to avoid prolonged local slumps, it is critical that national fiscal policies
can perform their stabilization role. 7. This is a further reason why we
need economic union: markets would be less likely to react negatively to
temporarily higher deficits if they were more confident in future growth
prospects. By committing governments to structural reforms, economic union
provides the credibility that countries can indeed grow out of debt. 8- And
for this reason, to complete monetary union we will ultimately have to deepen
our political union further: to lay down its rights and obligations in a
renewed institutional order. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-02/mario-draghi-op-ed-lay-down-your-rights-new-institutional-order
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2015: The Year Of Living Uncertainly by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015 The rash of
“unexpected” declines in PMI’s this morning in the US, of all places, seems to
have abraded at least somewhat the pervasive belief in the American
“decoupling.” But... The FOMC sees 5% GDP and a serious workdown in
the unemployment rate; credit markets are worried about how
continued mistreatment of economic fundamentals may mean another disastrous
trip like the one from the housing bust to the Great Recession. Worse
than that, the treasury curve, in particular, may be going a step further by envisioning
that we may already have replicated that period and are now very deep within
it.
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ISM Manufacturing & Construction
Spending Collapse To 6-Month Lows Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. US construction spending
in December dropped 0.3% (against expectations of a 0.4% rise) - the biggest
monthly drop since June. ISM Manufacturing also tumbled from 58.7 to 55.5 -
its lowest since June (missing expectations by the most since January).
Unable to find a silver lining, ISM's Holcomb proclaimed "comments are a
'bit mixed'".
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Babson Capital 1987 Redux: "What Goes
Up Must Come Down" Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. "most investors take a
relatively short-term view and assume that what has happened most recently will
continue. They fail to recognize that economic and market forces are always
working to press companies (and whole industries) back toward their respective
grooves... companies rarely perform way above the industry average or way below
it indefinitely. There is a constant tendency to regress toward the
mean..."
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Un-Decoupling? US Manufacturing PMI Tumbles
To 11-Month Lows. Submitted
by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015 Just as China and then Europe saw weakness
in their manufacturing PMIs, so the US data just hit, printing 53.9 (missing
expectations modestly) and falling for 4 straight months to the lowest since
January 2014's Polar Vortex. Production volumes are also the weakest since
Jan 2014 and the employment sub-index collapsed. Markit warns, "this
suggests a slowdown could become more entrenched."
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5Y German Bond Yield Goes Negative For First
Time Ever Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015 How do you say Japanization
in German? 5Y German bonds just traded at -0.1bp yield (below Japan's 3bp
5Y yield)...
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European Bond Yields Accelerate To Fresh
Record Low Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. As Central Bank
front-runners, front-run each other in a race to the bottom, the rapidly
Japan-ized EU bond market has seen risk (spread 10-20bps lower) tumbles and
yields crash to new record lows this morning. EU bond yields have fallen
for 3 years and the economy has cratered... so what is the purpose of ECB QE?
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Low Prices Lead To Layoffs In The Oil Patch, by
Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com, sub
by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015. 1-
The decline continues to bedevil the
markets. Sensing a rally
was in order, speculators had dumped money into energy stocks throughout the
month of December, hoping to buy up positions at basement prices. 2- This
portends a longer period of low oil prices, and with that, a cutback in
drilling and job losses in the U.S. oil patch. 3- That is going to have an impact on
employment. Less drilling will not only lead to a loss of jobs for oil workers,
but the services that pop up around drilling sites – restaurants, bars,
construction, and more – are feeling the slowdown as well. 4- But it won’t just
be the profligate that feel the brunt of a depressed oil market. Civeo, a
Houston-based company that builds lodging for oil workers, announced on December 29 that it would cut its
workforce by 45 percent because of lower demand for “man camp” trailers. 5- There
are some early signs that a slowdown in drilling could spread to the
manufacturing sector in Texas. 6- a chemical manufacturer, said “lower oil
prices will adversely impact margins. Energy volatility will cause our
customers to keep inventories tight.”. 7- With such extensive dependence on oil
for prosperity in these states, the pain will mount if oil prices stay low. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-02/low-prices-lead-layoffs-oil-patch
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Turkmenistan Devalues Currency By 18%,
Armstrong Warns Of "Economic Collapse On A Global Scale" Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. Martin
Armstrong warns, this is symptomatic of a deflationary contagion that "will
contribute to now force the dollar higher... We are in a major economic
collapse on a global scale. Most people do not understand that this is the real
threat we face."
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2015 Starts As 2014 Ended: Crude Crumbles To
Fresh Lows, WTI Tests $51 Handle Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. following weak European data
(and a recognition of massively offside speculative positioning), WTI has
collapsed over $3 from the highs and is testing towards a $51 handle.
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- The year of dollar danger for the world (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard)
- Draghi Says ECB Prepares Action as Deflation Risk Non-Negligible (BBG)
- Obama Pivots to Lawmakers: New Plan to Advance Policy Goals by Working With Congress Draws Skeptics (WSJ)
- Affordable Care Act Creates a Trickier Tax Season (WSJ)
- Oil pares early gains, trades near $57 as supply glut prevails (Reuters)
- Iran says Saudi Arabia should move to curb oil price fall (Reuters)
- Pimco Fund Trails Peers in 2014 After Missing Rally (BBG)
- Piketty rejects Légion d’Honneur award (FT)
- UK manufacturing activity hits three-month low (BBC)
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Draghi Launches New Year With More QE
Jawboning, Sending Euro To New 4 Year Low, Yields Lower, US Futures Higher Submitted
by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015 Reuters reports, why the Euro sank to a nearly 5 year low
against the USD, was "clear indications that the European Central Bank
will soon embark on outright money-printing." Actually, it was on just
more hollow rhetoric by Draghi, who told German Handelsblatt that "the risk that we don’t fulfill
our mandate of price stability is higher than it was six months ago."
He also added that "it’s difficult to say” how much the institution will
have to spend on government-bond purchases.
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Bad News Is Bad News, Stocks & Bond
Yields Tumble After Data Triple Whammy Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. Well this is not supposed to happen. 2015
appears to have started with the "bad news is bad news" meme engaged
as the standard USDJPY-driven opening ramp has collapsed on the back of a
triple whammy of terrible data (US PMI, Construction Spending, and ISM). The
Santa Rally (theoretically due to finish at the close on Monday) is in danger
of not being a no-brainer... Treasury yields are plunging (10Y -6.5bps at
2.10%) Stocks only hope now is a 120.00 bounce in USDJPY.
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Decoupling Just Died: December New Orders
Plunge Below Polar Vortex Level, Optimism Plummets To 2012 Levels. Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/02/2015. As the ISM data revealed
moments ago, we were right to focus on the NSA data, because while the Seasonally
Adjusted (and one still wonders why a survey needs seasonal
adjustments - after all human psychology automatically adjusts for the seasons)
New Orders number tumbled by 8.7, the biggest crash since the 13.1 crash now
blamed on the Polar Vortex (can't blame the weather this time), it was the unadjusted
New Orders number that was the stunner: at 53.5 this was the lowest number
since before even the polar vortex: in fact it was the lowest since July 2013!
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Un-Decoupling?
US Manufacturing PMI Tumbles To 11-Month Lows. Submitted by Tyler
Durden on 01/02/2015. So much for that whole "decoupling" meme...
Just as China and then Europe saw weakness in their manufacturing PMIs, so the
US data just hit, printing 53.9 (missing expectations modestly) and falling
for 4 straight months to the lowest since January 2014's Polar Vortex.
Production volumes are also the weakest since Jan 2014 and the employment
sub-index collapsed. Markit warns, "this suggests a slowdown could
become more entrenched."
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For CNBC, 2014 Was The Worst. Year. Ever. Submitted
by Tyler
Durden on 01/01/2015. The
bottom line: according to Nielsen, is that despite the S&P recording a
whopping 53 all time highs, and the Dow rising over 18,000, the channel that
was once must watch financial TV for mom and pop, and has since devolved
into endless cheerleading of failed policies and rigged markets, namely CNBC,
just suffered its worst year in, well, ever.
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W-B
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The
Conflicts In Afghanistan and Iraq Were “The Most Expensive Wars In U.S.
History” … and They’re Not Wrapped Up Yet Posted on January 2, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog
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If
Quantitative Easing Works, Why Has It Failed to Kick-Start Inflation?. Posted
on January
2, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog
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The
CIA and Other Government Agencies Have Long Used Propaganda Against the
American People Posted on January
2, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog
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THE 4TH
MEDIA
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PRESSTV
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Russia and China mock divide and rule The Empire
of Chaos is as lousy at chess as it is at history, writes Pepe Escobar.
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Iran
rejects report of nuclear deal rejects
a media report that it has reached a uranium shipment deal with the P5+1 group
of world powers.
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‘CIA
behind The Interview production’. worked “hand in gloves” with Sony
Pictures to produce The Interview.
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Syrian
army forces make fresh gains Syrian
army continues its operations against militants in the northwestern province of
Idlib.
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The
significance of the fight for $15
in fast food workers in New York, has been gaining momentum ever since.
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‘US
society imbued with violence’, Rodney
Shakespeare says the US society is imbued with violence and corruption.
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US
advancing Israel’s energy empire, US military strategists are
contemplating the threat of war to redraw the Middle East’s energy architecture
around Israel.
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Hamas
warns of Gaza renovation delay, A top Hamas leader warns the UN of
the consequences of delaying the Gaza Strip’s reconstruction.
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Police
killings of blacks top news of 2014, The police killings of unarmed
blacks in the US was the top news story of 2014, according to a new poll.
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‘US
after altering Iraq politics’, A Baghdad-based commentator says
Washington seeks to influence politics in Iraq.
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Syria
opposition starts meeting in Turkey, Syria opposition starts a
three-day meeting in the northwestern Turkish city of Istanbul.
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Afghanistan
still plagued with insecurity
14 years after the US-led invasion.
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Erdogan
spying case opens in Turkey Turkey begins trying 13 former police
officers accused of spying on former prime minister.
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Kenya
court suspends anti-terror law, over human rights concerns.
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