Quote

Thomas Paine's version of "you didn't build that":

"Separate an individual from society,and give him an island or a continent to possess,and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end,in all cases,that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore,of personal property,beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice,of gratitude,and of civilization,a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came"
Submitted by Leah

02 Dec

News and Analyses, A Foreign Perspective

Australian spy agency offered to share data about ordinary citizens

Secret 5-Eyes document shows surveillance partners discussing what data they can pool about their citizens without some privacy restraints imposed by other countries

• Secret 5-Eyes document shows surveillance partners discussing what information they can pool about their citizens

• DSD indicated it could provide material without some privacy restraints imposed by other countries such as Canada

• Medical, legal or religious information ‘not automatically limited’

• Concern that intelligence agency could be ‘operating outside its legal mandate’………………………………

anti government protesters control kiev

Masked protesters in Kiev, Ukraine. Photograph: Sergei Grits/AP

Kiev anti-government protestors control parts of the city
Police keep their distance as President Viktor Yanukovych’s government ponders next move.
Throngs of anti-government protesters remained in control of parts of central Kiev on Monday morning, as police kept their distance and Viktor Yanukovych‘s government pondered its next move.After huge protests on Sunday, during which several hundred thousand people took to the streets of Kiev to call for the president’s removal, protesters erected makeshift barricades around Independence Square – the hub of the 2004 Orange Revolution. Nearby, the main City Hall building was taken over by protesters without police resistance on Sunday evening.
- Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is among senior officials linked to war crimes, according the Navi Pillay who heads the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights. Photograph: AP
- Top Syrian officials involved in war crimes – UN investigators
- 2 Dec 2013: President Bashar al-Assad among those linked to evidence of crimes against humanity in civil war, says human rights official……………….
- Binyamin Netanyahu’s £1,000 candles add to whiff of extravagance
  
  2 Dec 2013: Further details of Israeli prime minister’s spending on luxuries revealed as country suffers under harsh austerity measures………………….
- Syrian refugees put strain on Jordan schools amid fears for ‘lost generation’
  
  2 Dec 2013: Tensions rise despite double shifts and extra teachers to cope with tens of thousands of displaced school-age Syrians…………………
Fast food workers are seeking a wage of $15 an hour.Richard Drew/AP
Fast food workers plan strikes in 100 US cities this week
Fast-food workers are planning strikes in 100 cities across the country Thursday in an effort to step up pressure on chains including McDonald’s, Wendy’s and others to pay $15 an hour, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Such actions have picked up significant momentum since 200 fast-food workers walked off the job in November 2012 as part of a daylong strike at more than 20 New York.

“There’s been pretty huge growth in one year,” Kendall Fells, one of the main organizers in the movement, told The New York Times. “People understand that a one-day strike is not going to get them there. They understand that this needs to to grow.”

This will be the first time strikes are held in some of the cities, including Charleston, S.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Pittsburgh. Organizations called Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, as well as the Service Employees International Union, are among the groups backing the movement. SEIU is also demanding that restaurants allow workers to unionize without being retaliated against……………………………