Article: 'The 9 Biggest Myths About ISIS'

The 9 Biggest Myths About ISIS By Zack Beauchamp http://www.vox.com Posted 2014-08-23 06:14 GMT http://www.aina.org/news/20140823021434.htm

Appears an interesting overview.

Don't know enough about the Middle East to assess how accurate that overview is.

However, there's no mention of the US role in stirring up the conflict in the Middle East, so this could just be a one-sided US biased view.

Anyway, it's one for the Middle East politics buffs, I guess.

Saudi Arabia - UN Human Rights Council Member - Beheaded 19 since August 4th

Saudi Arabia Sustains UN Human Rights Council Membership Despite Beheading 19 People in 17 Days Human Rights Watch: 'Another dark stain on the kingdom's human rights record.' Maria Khan By Maria Khan August 22, 2014 22:57 BST Saudi Arabia, a member of the UN Human Rights Council, has beheaded 19 people since August 4, reported the Human Rights Watch (HRW). Out of the 19 people who were beheaded, eight where convicted of non-violent offences, seven for drug smuggling, while one was charged with sorcery. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/saudi-arabia-sustains-un-human-rights-council-membership-despite-beheading-19-people-17-days-1462308

Unbelievably, SA is also a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

Saudi Arabia - Shia cleric Ayatollah Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who has been sentenced to death by crucifixion and beheading

Protest demands Saudi regime frees dissident cleric Saturday, August 23, 2014 By Tony Iltis, Melbourne Protesters took to the streets of Melbourne on August 16 to condemn human rights abuses by Saudi Arabia and to call for the release of Shia cleric Ayatollah Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who has been sentenced to death by crucifixion and beheading for calling for religious freedom in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is both an absolute monarchy and a theocracy. The regime promotes a Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam, notorious for narrowly defining Islam and intolerance toward other beliefs. The oil-rich kingdom, created with Western support in the early 20th century, claims ideological legitimacy from possession of the holy cities Mecca and Medina. Less than a quarter of the population are Wahhabi. Paradoxically, while Saudi Arabia is the closest ally of the US in the Arab world, its brutally repressive, misogynist and theocratic system provides much of the evidence for Islamaphobic Western propagandists making the case that Islam is violently anti-democratic. Western reporting of the wave of unrest in the Arab countries since the beginning of 2011 ignored large protests in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, where most of the country’s fossil fuel industry is based. The Eastern Province is home to most of the Shia minority, who form 10 to 15% of the Saudi population but are viewed as heretics by the Wahhabi establishment. Nimr was condemned to death for speaking out in support of protesters and calling for freedom of religious belief. Speakers at the rally said that Nimr’s message was that Sunni and Shia Muslims, and non-Muslims, should all be free and equal, not just in Saudi Arabia, but throughout the Middle East. Speakers condemned Saudi and Western support for religious sectarian forces in Iraq, Syria, and other countries of the region, and condemned the IS (Islamic State) terrorist group for its brutality and genocide of religious minorities such as the Yazidi and Christian communities. Speakers also drew attention to Saudi Arabia’s de facto alliance with Israel and pledged solidarity with the Palestinians. Marching to the Human Rights Commission, protesters’ chants and signs called for democracy, peace, religious freedom and independence for Palestine and condemned the Saudi regime, the US, Israel and IS. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57150

Blown away by this information.

Saudi Arabia is a US business partner (Shell).

RUSSIA'S MIKHAIL FRIDMAN & ORS buy DEA from GERMANY'S RWE

Germany clears RWE unit sale Posted on » Saturday, August 23, 2014 FRANKFURT: Germany's economy ministry approved the sale of utility RWE's oil and gas unit DEA to a Russian investor, despite tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis. The go-ahead announced yesterday removes the biggest hurdle for the 5.1 billion euro ($6.9bn) sale, a major plank in RWE's struggle to reduce a debt burden of more than 30bn euros. As part of the deal, Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman and his co-investors will get stakes in about 190 oil and gas licences or concessions in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Relations between Russia and the West were already deteriorating over Ukraine, when the deal was announced in March. Deputy Economy Minister Stefan Kapferer said the government found that the deal would not endanger Germany's energy supply and the buyer consortium's European Union base had also been a decisive factor. The EU's antitrust watchdog has already given the green light but regulators in a few other countries, which RWE declined to name, have yet to give their approvals. DEA has operations in about a dozen countries, including Britain, Norway, Denmark and Egypt. The German government could theoretically have used a clause in its foreign trade law that allows it to block takeover deals that threaten 'public safety and order', but it would have been an unprecedented move. RWE, Germany's largest power producer, has earlier said it expected the deal to be finalised this year. http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=384437

If Germany's largest power producer is selling off to reduce debt, could it be that things aren't too good in the economy or is this just them overreaching and wanting to scale back risk?

Anyway, some Russian investor has the go ahead to acquire DEA and it looks to be just a bit of red tape holding things up.

Mikhail Fridman is a Russian Ukranian-Jewish businessman - wikipedia here.  Second richest person in Russia.  Among others, founded:

"Genesis Philanthropy Group whose purpose is to develop and enhance Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide." wikipedia

Involved in the luxury house privatisation sale scandal.  Officials:  "were indicted for "appropriation of managed property committed by an organized group on a particularly large scale".  But slap on the wrist response, so state endorsed??

Ukraine - National Bank of Ukraine - Ceiling Limit Bumped re Mandatory Sale Receipts in Foreign Currency

National Bank increases mandatory currency sales to 100%, from 50% Journal Staff Report KIEV, Aug. 20 – The National Bank of Ukraine, effective August 21, 2014, has upped the ceiling limit to 100% from 50% for the mandatory sale of receipts of companies and private entrepreneurs in foreign currency on the Ukrainian interbank forex market. This is stipulated in NBU resolution No. 515 dated August 20 on the regulation of the situation on the forex market, which will be in effect until November 21, 2014. The document also retains a clause under which payments for exports or imports of commodities should be effected within 90 days. http://www.ukrainianjournal.com/index.php?w=article&id=19027

Guessing the National Bank of Ukraine is the reserve bank.

Do not understand 'mandatory sale of receipts' part. 

Not really clear on any of this.  This is a look-up job.  LOL

Didn't know that you can sell what you're owed on stock market, if that's what this is.

The foreign currency part would mean that they really *want* foreign currency - so that's where the mandatory fits in, I guess.

UKRAINE - Selling UAH 2 million bonds

Business Ukraine places UAH2 billion hryvnia-pegged domestic bonds at 19% Journal Staff Report KIEV, Aug. 20 – Ukraine, with the participation of Deutsche Bank at a primary auction on August 15, placed 2.5-year hryvnia-pegged government domestic loan bonds worth over UAH 2 billion among nonresidents, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk told reporters. "We've placed securities worth $200 million via Deutsche Bank at 19% in hryvnias. This means that they [foreign investors] believe that stability will be seen in Ukraine and there will be no exchange rate fluctuations," the premier said at a meeting with farmers in Cherkasy region on Tuesday. http://www.ukrainianjournal.com/index.php?w=article&id=19026

Not up on this type of info.
Guess this is 2 billion worth of foreign investment that's being sold?
That would then make it a foreign debt - because investors must be paid.

SERBIA - Won't introduce anti-Russian sanctions

EU candidate Serbia says will not exploit Russian embargo August 23, 2014 Serbia said on Friday it would not subsidise exports to Russia, after the European Union urged the Balkan country - a candidate for accession to the bloc - not to exploit the Kremlin's ban on Western food imports. Serbian food producers hope to take advantage of the trade row but the West-Russia stand-off over Ukraine has put Serbian authorities in a tight spot, caught between their ambition to join the EU and economic and political ties with Russia. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he had received an aide-memoire this week from an EU official in Belgrade calling on Serbia to refrain from boosting exports to Russia, as a matter of solidarity with the bloc. Vucic told a news conference Serbia had not planned to subsidise exporters to Russia but also would not join the Western sanctions on Moscow. [...] http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-economy/189/1216377/

Well done, Serbia.

But if they join EU, will they still have the ability to opt out of EU decisions?
Expect that's not the case, so why join EU?