Georgian President Saakashvili eats his tie on TV live (video)

Georgian President Saakashvili eats his tie on TV live (video)
16.08.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/ussr/106115-georgia_saakashvili-0

The BBC has recently aired a TV report, in which Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili ate his tie.

The report was about the situation in the area of the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia. The footage showed Saakashvili making a call to a top Western official. It could be clearly seen that Mr. Saakashvili was having a nervous breakdown.

Watch the video here
(around 1:02)

Mikhail Saakashvili has been staying in the full glare of publicity for several weeks already. Specialists of medicine have questions about his mental state, Rossia TV channel says.

His statements, which he makes on one and the same day, may often contradict to each other. Russia’s well-known psychologists claim that the Georgian leader is a mentally unstable individual. Specialists say that Saakashvili’s ambition exceeds his capabilities.

Such mental unbalance leads to irresponsible political decisions, which lead to chaos, human deaths and humanitarian catastrophes.

The Russian foreign minister said Thursday that Georgia could "forget about" getting back the two separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Medvedev also met with their leaders in Kremlin this past week, raising the prospect that Moscow could absorb the regions even though the territory is internationally recognized as being within Georgia's borders.

US President Bush does not even think to stop making ridiculous statements regarding the conflict.

"The world has watched with alarm as Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatened a democratic government elected by its people. This act is completely unacceptable to the free nations of the world, Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Mr. Bush of course believes that the bombing of Yugoslavia, the incursion in Iraq, the recognition of Kosovo’s independence and many other criminal acts are absolutely acceptable to the free nations, of which the USA is the most outstanding example.

Needless to say that it will never occur to either Mr. Bush or Ms. Condoleezza Rice to speak about the nightmare that thousands of South Ossetian residents had to experience after Georgia’s attack on the republic. They do not want even to hear about it.

US major media outlets, controlled by the White House, do not want to report the truth about Georgia’s aggression either. A US girl of South Ossetian origin happened to stay in the unrecognized republic during Georgia’s attack on the territory. She was lucky to leave the troubled nation safe and sound. However, when she appeared in a program of Fox News channel, the TV host did not even let the girl speak a word of truth.

No comments from the Peanut Gallery.

Russian forces pulled back Saturday from positions in a town not far from Georgia's capital after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a cease-fire deal, but his foreign minister said the broader withdrawal would be contingent on further security measures.

Russian soldiers had dug shallow foxholes in the center of Igoeti, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Tbilisi, but abandoned them later in the day. Tanks and troops were still in place on a hillside on the edge of Igoeti and there was no immediate signs of a pullout from the strategic city of Gori, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) up the road.

The military movement came around the same time that officials said Medvedev had signed a cease-fire deal that set the stage for a Russian troop withdrawal after more than a week of warfare in the former Soviet republic that lies at the heart of increasing tensions between Russia and the West.

The agreement, also signed a day earlier by Georgian President Mikhail Saakshvili, calls for both Russian and Georgian forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting erupted Aug. 8. Georgia had launched a massive barrage to try to take control of the Russian-backed separatist region of South Ossetia; the Russian army quickly overwhelmed the forces of its small U.S.-backed neighbor, and Moscow's troops drove deep into Georgia.

The Russian seizure of territory, including Gori and its positions in Igoeti, raised fears that Russia was aiming for a permanent occupation of the country that once was part of its empire. The cease-fire calls for Russian troops to pull back to positions they held in South Ossetia before the fighting but allows allowing limited Russian patrols in Georgia just outside the province.

Medvedev signed the order in the Russian resort city of Sochi, where the president has a summer residence, Medvedev spokesman Alexei Pavlov said. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later said Medvedev had ordered its implementation.

But Lavrov, in televised remarks, also said the Russian pullback would take place "as further security measures are taken." Asked how much time it would take, he responded: "As much as is needed."

He was not specific about the security measures but accused Georgia of undermining security. "This depends not only upon us," Lavrov said.

"We are constantly encountering problems from the Georgian side, and everything will depend on how effectively and quickly these problems are resolved," he said.

While Russian forces abandoned the center of Igoeti, they dug into positions on a hillside with a view of the area, possible defensive positions as their comrades withdraw.

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Georgian war crimes I
16.08.2008 Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/106116-georgianwarcrimesi-0

On the night of 7/8 August, Georgian Armed Forces (backed by the USA) murdered 2.000 civilians in South Ossetia. This treacherous act of mass murder has been totally ignored in the western press and by the US leadership. We therefore present photographic evidence for the benefit of George Bush and Condoleeza Rice. Maybe now they will start mentioning the Georgian war crimes that started this sorry episode.

Mikhail Saakashvili announced a ceasefire on 7th August. While doing so, his armed forces were getting ready to push into South Ossetia, a Republic that should have had a referendum back in 1991, under the Soviet Constitution, upon the secession of Georgia, for its people to vote freely and fairly on autonomy. Georgia did not respect its legal obligation.

Why has the western media not mentioned this, or the war crimes committed on 7/8th August?

Why have George Bush and Condoleeza Rice given their unconditional backing to the war criminal and mass murderer Mikhail Saakashvili? To what extent were the US military advisors envolved in this savage act of murder? How to explain the American English voices heard among the fleeing and panic-stricken defeated military forces once Russia entered the fray?

The photos we present here are proof of what happened. The camera does not lie.

Has the reader seen these photos published elsewhere? Has the reader heard the leaders of the USA refer one single time to these war crimes?

Or has the reader heard George Bush and Condoleeza Rice repeat time and time again the same message, supporting Georgia’s leadership, and tacitly giving their approval to this act of butchery?

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

PRAVDA.Ru

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Is Condoleeza Rice stupid?
16.08.2008 Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/106114-condoleezaricestupid-0

Has the US Secretary of State got her cassette stuck? For a week now she has been reiterating the same phrase “Russian forces must leave Georgia now” and for a week now the world has been informed of Georgian war crimes against Russians in Ossetia. The war crimes happened, the Russians call the shots now, Ms. Rice. Like it or lump it.

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? OK her boss is, we all know that and that’s why nobody pays any attention to what he says or if they do, it is to have a good laugh at how such an imbecile could supposedly rule the roost in Washington (when everyone knows it is Cheney and his energy and arms lobbies). So Bush gets a discount, like the uncle that farts at family dinners, like the retarded nephew who belches swearwords after his third litre of Coke, like the simpleton that sits outside the church on Sundays begging for money informing everyone that he is an astronaut on Thursday afternoons.

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? She claims to be a Russian expert but her command of the language was recently exposed as being basic/elementary level on a Russian radio programme, just as her grasp of what is going on in Russia today seems beneath the informed blogger level.

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? How can this female purport to broker events between an evil regime in Tblisi supported by her own evil regime in Washington, and Russia, while not mentioning one single time the war crimes committed by Georgia against Russian peacekeepers and civilians?

So we come to the conclusion that she is either stupid, or incompetent, or downright evil. If she didn’t know about Georgia’s war crimes, when everyone else did, she is incompetent (as she proved as National Security Advisor during 9/11). If she knows about the war crimes and fails to mention them, as Secretary of State, she is plain stupid and if she purposefully covers them up, maybe because her own armed forces were involved, then she is one evil piece of work, as many of us suspected all along.

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? Or incompetent? Or just plain evil?

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

PRAVDA.Ru

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金融相「投資信託も対象に」　証券優遇税制見直しで

　茂木敏充金融担当相は17日、民放のテレビ番組に出演し、株式投資の活性化に向けた証券税制の見直しについて「株式だけでなく投信も含めれば相当のメリット（がある）」と述べ、投資信託も優遇税制の対象に入れたいという考えを明らかにした。その理由として「小口取引の人がもっと投資に向かうためのインセンティブ（動機づけ）が必要だ」と指摘した。

　証券税制の見直しをめぐっては、自民党の麻生太郎幹事長が経済対策として1人当たり300万円までの株式投資の配当金を非課税とする案を提唱するなど、様々な意見が出ている。金融相も今夏の税制改正要望に何らかの見直し案を盛り込む方針を表明している。

　茂木金融相は番組終了後、記者団に対し「麻生幹事長の案は（配当金ではなく）投資額300万円の人を念頭に置いたものだと思う」と指摘。そのうえで小口取引の拡大や税制上の利点を考慮すると「株式だけでなく、投信も対象とした方がいい」と強調した。

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企業の海外利益、非課税に　経産省が税制改正案

　経済産業省は日本企業が海外で稼いだ利益の国内還流を促す税制改正案を固めた。25％以上出資している海外子会社から受け取った配当を非課税にすることが柱となる。経営のグローバル化が進む中で企業は税率の低い海外に利益を残す傾向を強めている。こうした海外利益を日本に戻して国内投資などに振り向けやすくする狙いで、2009年度税制改正に向けて財務省との調整に入る。

　新興国の成長などを背景に日本企業が海外で稼ぐ傾向は年々強まっており、製造業の連結売上高に占める海外の比率は5割近くになっている。一方で、企業の海外現地法人の内部留保残高が膨らみ続け、経産省の調べでは06年度は過去最高の17兆2000億円に達した。

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中国産の輸入物価が上昇　日本の物価上げ要因に

　中国からの輸入品が日本に物価上昇圧力をかけ始めている。中国産の割合が5割を超す輸入品の輸入物価を調べたところ、衣類や玩具、オーディオなどの物価が前年より軒並み上昇。ここへきて上昇基調がはっきりしつつある。中国はこれまで安価な工業製品を供給する「デフレ輸出国」と位置付けられてきたが、上昇が続けば製品の値上げを通じて日本の消費者物価を押し上げる可能性もある。

　日銀がまとめた7月の輸入物価指数によると、ポロシャツや手袋は前年同月に比べて9％上昇。今春あたりから上昇ペースがじりじりと速まっている。パジャマやトレーナーも4％上がっている。輸入衣類では中国産のシェアが8割に上っており、輸入物価の上昇が先行きの値上げ圧力となりそうだ。

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英銀ＨＳＢＣのＣＥＯ「富裕層向けを強化」　日本の拠点増やす

　【ロンドン＝吉田ありさ】英銀最大手ＨＳＢＣのマイケル・ゲーガン最高経営責任者（ＣＥＯ）は日本経済新聞記者らと会見し、新興国ファンドなどの需要増を踏まえ、日本で富裕層向け金融ビジネスを強化する方針を明らかにした。長期的に拠点数を30―60に増やす考えだ。

　ゲーガン氏は「現在は米国の信用力の低い個人向け住宅融資（サブプライムローン）関連損失で余力を失った、ほかの米欧銀が日本で事業を手控えており、グローバル展開する我々がシェアを得る好機」と指摘。傘下の香港上海銀行が今年から始めた富裕層向け個人金融サービスについて「顧客の反応が良く、我々が得意とする新興国ファンドなどグローバル運用商品への需要が急増している」と述べ、シェア獲得に自信を示した。年内に7カ所に増やす予定の拠点網は「長期的には30―60カ所に増やしたい」と表明した。

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証券各社：新興国で事業拡大　基盤強化へ投資銀行業務

　国内の証券会社が、インドやブラジルなど新興国で事業拡大に力を入れている。新興国には、日本企業の進出が相次いでいるほか、日本や欧米の株式市場が低迷しているため、成長著しい新興国で収益基盤を固める。各社は株式売買の取り次ぎ業務や、Ｍ＆Ａ（企業の合併・買収）に関する助言など投資銀行業務を手がける方針だ。

　野村ホールディングスは今年、インドでムンバイなどの証券取引所の会員権を取得し、株などの取り次ぎに必要な資格を得た。現地法人の人員を増強し、インド株専門の調査部門も新設する。また、インドのデジタルメディア企業のリアル・イメージ社に対して１６００万ドル（約１７億円）の出資を決めるなど、現地企業への投資も積極化させる。野村幹部は「米国の低所得者向け高金利住宅ローン（サブプライムローン）問題で、欧米金融機関の体力が弱まっている中、新興国で基盤を築き、投資家のニーズに応えたい」と話す。

　三菱ＵＦＪ証券は今月、インドの財閥、タタグループ傘下の金融会社、タタ・キャピタルと業務提携した。Ｍ＆Ａなどで協力し、インド株売買の取り次ぎも行う。タタグループとは、みずほ証券も今年、インド企業に投資するファンドの設立などで提携した。

　大和証券グループ本社は７月、ブラジルのイタウ銀行グループと証券業務で提携。ブラジルの債券や南米の株式で運用する投資信託を、国内の投資家に販売する。昨年に資本提携したベトナムの証券大手、サイゴン証券との関係も強化する。今年４月に役員を派遣し、同証券株の追加取得も検討している。また、ムンバイやアラブ首長国連邦（ＵＡＥ）のドバイにも支店や現地法人を新設している。

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中国：６月の対日野菜輸出が大幅回復　山東省

　１７日の新華社電によると、中国山東省対外経済貿易庁はこのほど、同省の６月の対日野菜輸出が前月比４７％増の４万１８６１トンに上ったことを明らかにした。１月末に明らかになった中国製ギョーザ中毒事件の影響で一時大きく落ち込んでいたが、「大幅に回復した」（新華社）としている。

　中国全体の六月の対日野菜輸出は前月比３０％増の７万９８６９トンで、山東省は５２％を占める。同省はギョーザ事件後、輸出促進のため農産物の安全管理を強化し、残留農薬対策などに一段と力を入れたという。