Ending 2013: “Five Eyes” get a black eye over Snowden spy tales …
- December 18th, 2013
- Posted by EU Australia
The drip feed of information purloined from American security files continued this year as Edward Snowden, former CIA-NSA contractor, continued the campaign from his Russian sanctuary.
The news of American phone-tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel (picture), provoking an apology from President Barack Obama (picture) who indicated such practices would stop, was matched by complaints from South-east Asia saying Australia was running the Asia-Pacific side of such operations.
Targetted in this were the so-called Five Eyes states that share intelligence, the United States and the old “white Commonwealth”: Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. … Read More »
The Australian government announced this year (27.9.11) that women in the armed forces will be allowed to serve in any frontline combat roles by 2016.
As over six hundred people from the Gaza flotilla were being evacuated from Israel to Turkey (2.6.10), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said it had been pushing for safe conduct of several media workers in that group.
The European Union has demanded that Israel open border crossings to allow humanitarian aid through to the Palestinian Gaza territory, following its seizure of the Gaza flotilla on Monday. 
The date of Mary McKillop’s canonisation has been announced, at the end of a week in which the Vatican also took on the crisis over abuse of children by clergy in Ireland. 
The European Union has contributed $554 million to help rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip.