“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to back the principle of a Palestinian state while Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is a “dead end”.”

–Well, so much for concessions saving the company. The logic that concession bargaining will save corporations like this from failure is crazy when you look at the numbers that are actually causing the bankruptcy.

–Of course, I am a hypocrite for posting this, but Fisk makes a good point. Also, it makes me laugh that he writes about such serious things most most the time — like genocide — but, can still write about how many papers he reads between Paris and Beirut.

The New York Times have confirmed that U.S. forces are now operating within Pakistan.

“The use of the American-trained special counterterrorism forces, jets and mobile units was a sign of the military’s seriousness of purpose in this fight”

Meanwhile in Pakistan’s most populous city: Ethnic violence erupts in Karachi | Al Jazeera English

–Revolution, anyone?

Some entertainment news.

“After Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity made a seemingly impromptu offer last week to undergo waterboarding as a benefit for charity, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann leapt at it. He offered $1,000 to the families of U.S. troops for every second Hannity withstood the technique. … Olbermann’s offer was quick. Besides the $1,000 per second, Olbermann said he’d double it if Hannity acknowledges he feared for his life and admits that waterboarding is torture. … “The idea of putting somebody in a position they have volunteered for, for charity, to respond to their own unsupportable claims, is in many ways priceless,” Olbermann said.”

–Pilger takes a slice out of the Obama Democrats.

–QUEEN’S PARK RALLY – ONTARIO IS ON THE MOVE: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2009, 11:30 am. Other towns in Ontario are listed on the link above.

–This article by the publisher of Harper’s Mag, John MacArthur, is making its rounds through the interwebs. Have a read.

–The AFL-CIO continues to show that it is out of touch with what the workers of the US want. There are only Gompersist and apologist reasons not to include single-payer health care as an option on their own survey. They could go further by asking which type of single payer they would want.

–A review of the IMF numbers.

–See below. The people of New Brunswick need real solutions to our economic troubles, not ideologically driven experiments from right-wing(nut) think tanks.

–The NB Liberal government couldn’t govern itself out of a wet paper bag.

Michael Lebowitz’ “The Path to Human Development” is being distributed as a pocket-sized booklet by Socialist Project. It is a must read for those interested in advancing Socialism.

The New Brunswick government’s income tax reduction plan will give the biggest benefits to a small group of the province’s wealthiest citizens, a CBC News review shows.

The group, which includes just over 1,300 of the top business executives, medical and legal professionals, senior government officials and retired millionaires will split more than $30 million a year in tax savings when the plan is fully implemented in 2012, about 10 per cent of the entire program.

The Fightback Editorial Board is presenting this draft document for discussion amongst Canadian workers, youth and revolutionaries. Here they explain how Canada is not immune to the crisis of capitalism. The task of this document is to gauge the impact of the economic crisis on consciousness and politics so that revolutionaries may orientate their forces for maximum effect.

The bill, which is slated to be introduced on Tuesday by Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) — an uber-Israel supporter –, advocates the imposition of tough sanctions against countries that sell refined petroleum, including gasoline, to Iran.

Washington accuses Tehran of nuclear weapons development — a charge rejected by both Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, which has so far made “21 unannounced inspections” of the country’s nuclear facilities.

The United Arab Emirates has become the world’s third-largest importer of weapons after China and India, rising from 16th place in just four years, a Swedish think tank, the Stockholm International Peace Research Insititute (Sipri), says.

The UAE bought 80 F-16E combat aircraft from the United States and 50 Mirage 2000-9 fighters from France over the last four years. Sipri found that Israel was the second largest receiver of arms in the Middle East, with 22 per cent of the region’s imports, followed by Egypt with 14 per cent. Iran accounted for only five per cent of transfers to the Middle East for 2004 to 2008.

A leader of the banned Kurdish Workers Party, a civilian and a cop were killed during the government raid.

Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde, the Peruvian foreign minister, told the country’s congress on Monday that Rosales had been granted asylum. “The Peruvian government, in accordance with its historical tradition and commitment to international law, has decided to grant asylum to the Venezuelan citizen Manuel Rosales,” Belaunde said in the Peruvian congress.

Rosales is unable to explain $60,000 in income and accuse him of embezzling the funds and avoiding attempts to bring him to justice.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez congratulated Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa for his “decisive and historic victory” in Sunday’s presidential elections, in which 51% of Ecuadorans re-elected Correa to a second term.

–It strikes me as funny that in the land of supposed capitalism, where the media are quick to attack other countries for protecting their major industries, you can get such a story in the business press. Now, this is not a socialist move, it is the same as the past where the government bails out the business at a loss to taxpayers, only then to sell it back to the capitalists also at a loss.

The Globe and Mail have a similar article pointing out that the union will hold substantial shares of the company. However, this is not a good deal for the workers since the union will have very limited input into the running or management of the company. Should be interesting where this goes.