UK plans to create Internet Piracy General with power to appoint militias, create lawsA UK government source claims a new Bill will give the Secretary of State unprecedented powers to pass laws on online piracy without debate and confer investigative and enforcement powers to record labels and movie studios, giving them access to personal information and files.
Politics / The World / Europe
revealed 
Inside a secret CIA “torture” prison
ABC News has uncovered the site of one of the CIA’s secret European prisons: inside a fancy-pants horse riding school in Vilnius, Lithuania.
EU Presidency: a bogus, pompous, ludicrous, overpriced job
The European Union doesn’t need a President, says George Walden: the EU is not a country, and pretending it is is a dangerous farce that will impede the body’s ability to work effectively.
Europe’s first President: Herman Van Rompuy
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy has been named the first President of the European Union. Former British PM Tony Blair reportedly snared the job first, but bowed out to appease Europe’s centre-right majority.
The new EU President: meet the contenders
The European Union will announce its new President this week, following a rather sketchy closed-door process. HuffPo introduces the candidates and the bookies’ odds on their chances.
How the Nazis stole Christmas
A new exhibition of Nazi paraphernalia in Cologne shows how the Nazi Party tried to take Christ out of Christmas with swastika cookies and hand grenade tree decorations. Many of their “paganised” Christmas carols are still unwittingly sung today.
Former British Corporal: My entire unit abused Iraqi civilians
A former British soldier convicted of war crimes in Iraq claims his entire unit physically abused Iraqi detainees, kicking and punching them while down, threatening to set them alight and holding guns to their heads.
Thatcher is dead — the cat, not the former British Prime Minister
“Thatcher has died”: This text message sent by Canadian Transport Minister John Baird to a person at a gala dinner informing them that his beloved cat, named after the Iron Lady, had died, sent MPs into a panic.
The last great Nazi trial
In November, former Nazi concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk will appear before a Munich court, charged with 27,900 counts of accessory to murder. With time running out to prosecute other ex-Nazis, the case marks the end of an era in world history.
Brown gets revenge on Murdoch: Sky loses Ashes
Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Sports will lose its exclusive rights to live coverage of The Ashes, in a move insiders say is “revenge” over the Sun’s criticism of PM Gordon Brown.
Dr David Nutt is not the new Galileo
Dope-loving Britons are hailing Dr David Nutt — the UK government drugs advisor whose views on cannabis got him sacked — as a “modern-day Galileo”. Get real, says Brendan O’Neill: Galileo was a pioneer; Nutt is a famewhore.
Before the fall: Gorbachev on 1989
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev reflects on the events of 1989, the real end of the Cold War, and the advice he can give Obama about ending a war in Afghanistan.
A right return to the centre
There’s a surprising global political trend occurring, even in traditionally liberal countries: a rise of the right. But it’s a right lean on economics — not social issues — that’s popular. Pollies are balancing the centre, says Fareed Zakaria.
Crikey wrap: remembering the fall of the Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall, 20 years ago today, reunited Germany and marked the official end of the 40-year Cold War. Crikey intern Michelle Loh does a wrap of what the pundits are saying.
Letter from...: Fall of the Berlin Wall: the 20th anniversary
The overzealous, over-event-managed celebration of 2009 — with circuitous, one-way routes, logjam entries and cops with machine guns — was a strange ossification of the spontaneity of 1989, writes Ben Gook from Berlin.
Why the fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t really matter
Forget the fall of the Wall in 1989, says Niall Ferguson, the truly revolutionary, world-changing events took place a decade earlier: the USSR invaded Afghanistan, the UK elected Thatcher, China began opening up to the West, and Iran became an Islamic Republic.
Gorbachev: The battle over climate change is the new Cold War
On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has a message for the leaders of today: climate change is your Wall.
PHOTO GALLERY: A now and then peek at the East/West German border
Photographer Jürgen Ritter spent much of the eighties recording the East/West German border. Over 20 years on, he revisits the sites to compare how much they’ve changed, moving from death strips to kids’ soccer ovals.
Why Karadzic is not getting a fair trial
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic’s plea to be allowed more time to prepare his defence against serious of charges, including two counts of genocide, is in fact an entirely legitimate one.
Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to be “raped with broken bottles” in Uzbekistan
The former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan claims the CIA sent terror suspects to the country as part of its extraordinary rendition program, where they were “raped with broken bottles” and were forced to watch their children tortured in front of them, to gather intelligence.
Europe gets a new constitution — sort of
The big news in Europe this week is the final ratification of the Lisbon treaty, which provides a new constitutional structure for the European Union. But where’s the euroscepticism gone? Has the EU proved its ‘socialist plot’ claims wrong?
Former communist countries don’t like capitalism
Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell and communism in Eastern Europe crashed down with it. Except, capitalism and democracy are less popular now in Russia, Czech Republic and East Germany than they were in 1991. What, greed isn’t good?
David Nutt: Governments should get real on drugs 
Was the fall of the Berlin Wall a planned government plot?
Was the iconic fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago not due to the accepted story of a stuff up at a press conference and then a spontaneous protest, but rather a well orchestrated political plan between both governments?
Drugs vs. booze
Debate is heating up in the UK after the government’s former chief drugs adviser, Dr David Nutt, was sacked over his views that cannabis is less harmful than cigarettes and alcohol. Now the scientific community is coming to his defence.
