Pootie-Poot* Museum Opens in Russia

Vladimir Putin Museum Opens in Russia
No, you didn’t misread the title, a museum centered on Russia’s Controversial president Prime Minister has been set up in Strelna, near Sankt Petersburg. Apparently, this small museum dedicated to Vladimir Putin is set up on one of the upper floors of Lindstrom Villa, an iconic structure that hosted the 2006 G-8 summit. The villa was leased to Konstaninovsky Co., owned by Oleg Rudnov, the boss of most of Sankt Petersburg’s media outlets, and a close friend of Putin. In return, ...

Putin looks for ways to modernize economy
KHABAROVSK, Russia, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he expects the country's Foreign Intelligence Service to help modernize Russia's economy. "At a time when we are facing a problem related to modernization of The Economy, assistance from the intelligence services is not superfluous," Putin said in an Ria Novosti report. Putin said Russia would not violate the laws of other entities to establish the goals. Putin also didn't rule out that he could lead in a pro-Kremlin...

Hospital 'set up' for Putin visit, doctor tells TV show
A cardiologist is in serious trouble with his local authorities after telling Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that he had been conned while on an official visit to a regional Hospital. Ivan Khrenov, a doctor from the Ivanovo region in Western Russia, phoned into to a four-hour question-and-answer session with Mr Putin that was aired live on Russian television on Thursday. Mr Khrenov told Mr Putin that during a recent visit to an Ivanovo hospital, a Potemkin village had been set up by the...

Russian whistle-blowing doctor fears dismissal (AP)
Moscow – A Russian cardiologist said he feared dismissal and beating after phoning Vladimir Putin to say that an impressive Hospital display for the premier was faked. And then, Putin called him back. Ivan Khrenov told Putin during a live call-in show Thursday that his bosses instructed doctors and nurses to show fake pay slips and pose as recovering patients surrounded by new equipment during the premier's November visit to a Hospital in the central town of Ivanovo. Khrenov told Putin t...

Iraqi PM To Name Cabinet Monday
(NewsCore) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki will present his cabinet Monday, potentially bringing an end to nine months of political impasse after inconclusive March Elections. The announcement came Saturday as parliament voted to overturn Controversial bans placed earlier this year on three members of a Sunni-backed political bloc for their alleged ties to ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. "Mr. Maliki has officially asked to present his cabinet to parliament on Monday," an aide sa...

France, Germany, UK, others urge EU budget freeze
The letter, addressed to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said that the European Union's joint Budget should not grow faster than the rate of Inflation in the bloc's post-2013 long-term budget. "European public spending cannot be exempted from Member States' considerable efforts to get their public spending under control," the letter, which was released by the French presidency, said. The EU's 27 countries will start talks in mid-2011 on the long-term budget, which runs from 2...

France, Germany, UK, others urge EU budget freeze
Paris | Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:13am EST Paris (Reuters) - Britain, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands called on Saturday for the EU Budget to be frozen until at least 2020, in a joint letter to the European Commission. The letter, addressed to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said that the European Union's joint Budget should not grow faster than the rate of Inflation in the bloc's post-2013 long-term budget. "European public spending cannot be exempted from member sta...

France, Germany, UK, others urge EU budget freeze
Paris | Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:13am EST Paris (Reuters) - Britain, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands called on Saturday for the EU Budget to be frozen until at least 2020, in a joint letter to the European Commission. The letter, addressed to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said that the European Union's joint Budget should not grow faster than the rate of Inflation in the bloc's post-2013 long-term budget. "European public spending cannot be exempted from member sta...

Iraqi lawmakers lift ban on Sunni politicians
BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament on Saturday lifted a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians barred from running in national Elections last March after being accused of having ties to Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. The vote brings Iraq closer to a unity government and an end to months of political turmoil that began when the March 7 election failed to produce a clear winner. It paves the way for broader Sunni participation in the emerging government, headed by Shiite Incumbent Prime Minister No...

Fury at claim that doctors posed as patients for Vladimir Putin visit
A RUSSIAN cardiologist has said he fears dismissal and a beating after telling Vladimir Putin that an impressive display at his Hospital was faked for the Prime Minister's visit. Mr Putin visited a Hospital in mid-November in the central town of Ivanovo where he saw new medical equipment and met doctors boasting about salaries of $1,000 a month. The visit was televised. Ivan Khrenov told him during a live call-in show th ADVERTISEMENT at the sophisticated equipment he was shown during the visi...

Cameron denies backroom deals in EU budget battle (AFP)
Brussels (AFP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday hailed his alliance with France and Germany in a campaign to keep EU spending under control but denied backroom deals to win them over. Fresh from victory after pressing the EU Parliament to limit a hike in next year's Budget, Cameron rallied support from the other two powerhouses for a drive to restrict European Union spending during an EU summit held to check the Eurozone's Debt crises. "All around Europe, cou...

The Best World Photos of the Week
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, speaks with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at an EPP party meeting ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. Disagreements over how to fight Europe's Debt crisis deepened as a two-day summit of European leaders began on Thursday, meanwhile violent Protests and uncertainty have fueled investors' concerns. When the dust settled, Chancellor Merkel won agreement to change the Lisbon Treaty to head off future currency crises. (AP Phot...

Britain, France, Germany demand EU budget freeze
Three of the European Union's big four states on Saturday demanded a freeze in the EU Budget, saying Brussels cannot carry on spending more money as countries fight to sort their finances out. Britain, France and Germany, backed up by Finland and the Netherlands, told European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso there should be a real terms freeze at 2013 levels, as the EU next year begins negotiations for the 2014-2020 period. The letter, signed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Ger...

Iraqi lawmakers lift ban on Sunni politicians
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's parliament on Saturday lifted a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians barred from running in national Elections last March after being accused of having ties to Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. The vote brings Iraq closer to a unity government and an end to months of political turmoil that began when the March 7 election failed to produce a clear winner. It paves the way for broader Sunni participation in the emerging government, headed by Shiite Incumbent Prime Minister No...

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/17/2010
For the last several days there have been nationalist riots in Moscow, which had to be suppressed by the police. The trouble was sparked by the shooting of a Russian by Muslims from the Caucasus, and the targets of the riots have been people of Muslim ethnicities. Some of the nationalist anger has been directed at Vladimir Putin, and official news reports refer to the rioters as “Racists” and “Hooligans”. In other news, authorities in the Washington Metro have announced t...

Lost in the fog of misinformation
Last spring, it was difficult to turn on the television or radio, glance at a newspaper or drive anywhere in Canada without seeing advertising touting the Harper government’s Economic Action Plan. The stimulus plan had been outlined in the 2009 Budget, then reinforced in the 2010 budget. Everywhere you turned, the government’s communication machine was in overdrive telling Canadians all about it, the subtext being that the Harper government had brought the people all these good job-c...

Presidential crash report rejected
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has criticised as "unacceptable" a Russian report on the Plane Crash that killed Poland's president. Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria and 94 others died in April when their Tu-154 plane crashed in fog near Smolensk airport in western Russia. ...

Obama keeps Bush's vast tax cuts for wealthy
President Barack Obama last night signed into law a sweeping $858bn (£554bn) tax bill that ensures tax-rate cuts introduced by former President George Bush nearly a decade ago will remain in place for another two years, offering a potentially powerful fillip to the flat US economy. The passage of the law on Capitol Hill was the most dramatic evidence yet that Bipartisan Compromise has been unexpectedly resurrected in the weeks after November's Midterm Elections. The deal was largely the one s...

Obama urges nuclear pact passage
President Barack Obama has renewed his call for US senators to ratify an Arms Control treaty with Russia before the Democratic-led Congress breaks up. In his weekly address, Mr Obama said the "safety and security of America" was at stake. The US and Russian presidents signed the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) in April, but ratification has been delayed by disagreements. The treaty requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate to become law. That means that the Democrats nee...

GAO Report on Schools: Pedophile Teachers are Protected
Why do we have to find out about this from the BRITISH MEDIA?   (at this hour, this story is NOWHERE in the California Newspapers) Convicted paedophiles are finding it easy to get jobs in schools because teachers are failing to stop them and hushing up cases of abuse, an official report has found. In nearly three-quarters of school abuse cases the offender already had a criminal record for paedophilia but was allowed to work there anyway. Worryingly, more than half of the offenders
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Convicted child molesters allowed to work in schools with no background checks study finds
Convicted paedophiles are finding it easy to get jobs in schools because teachers are failing to stop them and hushing up cases of abuse, an official report has found. In nearly three-quarters of school abuse cases the offender already had a criminal record for paedophilia but was allowed to work there anyway. Worryingly, more than half of the offenders went on to use their new positions to claim more Victims than they had done before. The report's authors say the figures are so high because tea...

Catholicism, and the Oceans, Will Survive
2010 was a year of turmoil, and of triumph. The year now ending has been one of immense alarm followed by serenity’s sudden rushes to the head. It is hard now to remember the hysteria generated by the tawdry and often appalling Scandal of clerical abuse of young men in the Roman Catholic Church, between February and July. The New York Times appeared to be offering free visits to New York with city tours of all boroughs, capped by five-course dinners in five-star restaurants, for anyone who...

Iraq's Shahristani to stay oil minister: sources
By Suadad al-Salhy Baghdad | Sat Dec 18, 2010 4:51am EST Baghdad (Reuters) - Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, the architect of deals with Oil majors that could vault Iraq into the top ranks of global producers, will keep his job in Iraq's new government, senior officials said on Saturday. "The minister of Oil will stay in his place as the minister of oil," said Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, an official with Maliki's Dawa party and former deputy leader of parliament's Oil and gas committee. ...

Maliki to name Iraq government Monday
Baghdad | Sat Dec 18, 2010 7:32am EST Baghdad (Reuters) - Hussain al-Shahristani will be reappointed Iraqi Oil minister when a new cabinet is unveiled on Monday, senior officials said, keeping in place the architect of plans to turn Iraq into a top global Oil producer. Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, also will remain at his post but a final selection of a new Finance Minister had not yet been made, sources close to Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. Shahristani, a Shi'ite, ...

Iraqi lawmakers lift ban on Sunni politicians
Baghdad — Iraq’s parliament took a major step Saturday toward creating a unity government, lifting a ban on three Sunni Muslim politicians who were barred from running in national Elections last March after being accused of having ties to Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime. The vote brings Iraq closer to ending months of political turmoil following the March 7 election, which failed to produce a clear winner. It also paves the way for broader Sunni participation in the emerging go...