Truck full of gas cylinders set on fire, three stabbed in Australia terror attack

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A Somali-born man set fire to a pickup truck laden with gas cylinders in the center of the Australian city of Melbourne on Friday and stabbed three people, killing one, before he was shot by police in a rampage they called an act of terrorism.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing any evidence.

The utility truck carrying barbecue gas cylinders burned on busy Bourke Street just before the evening rush hour as the driver stabbed bystanders and attacked police.

The cylinders did not explode and the fire was put out in 10 minutes, by which point the attack was over.

“We are still trying to piece together whether the vehicle was lit then he got out the car or whether he got out the car and then the vehicle took flame,” Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton told reporters.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-security/truck-full-of-gas-cylinders-set-on-fire-three-stabbed-in-australia-terror-attack-idUSKCN1NE0JS

Exclusive: Mystery company named by murdered Maltese journalist is linked to power station developer

VALLETTA/DUBAI, (Reuters) - In February 2017, the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia wrote in her blog about a mystery company in Dubai called 17 Black Limited. She alleged it was connected to Maltese politicians, but offered no evidence.

She was unable to discover who owned the company, and it remained unclear whether 17 Black had any significance.

Eight months later Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb, prompting an international outcry. No evidence has emerged that connects her death to any of her journalism. But her killing did renew interest in her many different claims, leading to media reports about such subjects as banking regulation and Malta’s sale of passports. Now Reuters and other media have begun to unravel another mystery, that of 17 Black.

Two people familiar with the subject in Malta said a report by Malta’s anti-money laundering watchdog had identified Yorgen Fenech, the chief executive of a Maltese property developer, as the owner of 17 Black. A third person familiar with the subject in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said account records at a bank in Dubai identified Fenech as the owner of 17 Black. Reuters last month reviewed UAE banking correspondence that described Fenech as the owner and signatory of a 17 Black account at Noor Bank in Dubai.

Fenech is a director and co-owner of a business group that won a large energy concession from the Maltese state. In 2013, that group was granted the right by the Maltese government to build a 450 million euro ($517 million) gas power station on the island

The ownership of the company is significant because of another document, an email written in December 2015 by accountants for two senior figures in Malta’s government. That email was discovered by Maltese financial regulators among documents obtained from the accountants’ firm, according to a person briefed on the investigation. Its existence has been reported before and its authenticity has not been challenged.

The two senior political figures concerned are Konrad Mizzi, who was Malta’s energy minister from 2013 to 2016, and Keith Schembri, the prime minister’s chief of staff. Mizzi conceived and promoted the idea of offering the power station concession.

According to the December 2015 email, Panama companies owned by Mizzi and Schembri stood to receive payments from 17 Black for services that were unspecified. The email said the Panama companies expected 17 Black to be a “main target client,” with payments of up to $2 million expected within a year. The email made no reference to the gas power station energy scheme and there is no evidence the payments went ahead.

It remains unclear why the Panama companies owned by two senior political figures expected to receive money from 17 Black.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malta-daphne-offshore-exclusive/exclusive-mystery-company-named-by-murdered-maltese-journalist-is-linked-to-power-station-developer-idUSKCN1NE18M

Myanmar authorities drop 'incitement' charges against journalists

YANGON (Reuters) - A Myanmar court dismissed on Friday a case against three senior journalists from the country’s largest private newspaper, after authorities in the city of Yangon agreed to drop the charges.

Eleven Media’s chief reporter, Phyo Wai Win, and two editors, Kyaw Zaw Lin and Nayi Min, were arrested on Oct. 10 for incitement after publishing an article that quoted lawmakers raising questions over spending by the Yangon city government.

They were freed on bail on last month after President Win Myint ordered authorities to try to settle the dispute through negotiation.

“The case was dismissed today at the court,” said defense lawyer Kyee Myint. “We welcome it.”

Yangon’s regional government is headed by Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein, a protégé of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a member of her National League for Democracy party.

He has demanded an apology and said on Thursday he would press ahead with a legal case against the media group if he did not get one through the negotiations, as recommended by the president.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-journalists/myanmar-authorities-drop-incitement-charges-against-journalists-idUSKCN1NE18C

The precursor to a cashless economy. closer everyday

Sanctioning The Sanctioners: De-Dollarization & De-Americanization is an Idea Whose Time Has Come

The imposition of sanctions on Washington by a world whose development is being grievously impeded by its brutal and asphyxiating hegemony is overdue.

The world that is invites us at seminal moments to contemplate the world that is not in obeisance to the understanding of history and historical events as the story of the roads not taken.

Regardless, the well from which US hegemony sustains itself, including militarily, is the position of the dollar at the apex of the global economy. Without the dollar as the world's primary international reserve currency, US hegemony is unsustainable, making it the soft underbelly of the Empire it has fashioned in its name and image.

Thus de-dollarization (amounting for all intents to de-Americanization) is an idea whose time has come, just as de-Romanization was in and around the 5th century.

Such a course is obviously pregnant with risk - after all, no Empire leaves the stage of history without a struggle on the part of its elite, and normally they collapse as a result of social breakdown within and external pressure combined in a prolonged and untidy sequence - but we have arrived at a moment when the continuation of the status quo is death itself.

Hope and salvation today lies in the ever-closer relationship being forged between Russia and China. It is one that increasingly takes on the character of an anti-hegemonic alliance, which itself may well (hopefully) develop into an anti-hegemonic bloc of sorts with the inclusion of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and the DPRK.

No matter what does come our way, there is no denying that the world's day of Jubilee will have arrived when the 'truly' free world meets to agree the raft of economic and trade sanctions to be imposed on Washington.

For the Malaks in Tehran of this world, it is a day that cannot come soon enough

https://www.sott.net/article/400033-Sanctioning-The-Sanctioners-De-Dollarization-De-Americanization-is-an-Idea-Whose-Time-Has-Come