Over 500 smokers sign up for criminal case against tobacco firms

DutchNews, May 30, 2016

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Between 500 and 600 people have so far signed up to support a lawsuit accusing the tobacco industry of grievous bodily harm, the Telegraaf says on Monday. 

A Dutch lawyer and a lung cancer patient are planning to take tobacco companies to court for producing cigarettes designed to turn people into addicts as quickly as possible and appealed in April for supporters. 

Lawyer Benedicte Ficq and cancer victim Anne Marie van Veen are putting together a criminal case against cigarette producers, arguing that out of court settlements do not go far enough.

‘I want to see tobacco firms prosecuted for deliberately damaging people’s health,’ Ficq told television programme RTL Late Night in April.

Ficq and Veen argue that tobacco firms cannot hide behind the freedom of choice of people to smoke because they are deliberately influencing smokers’ behaviour by adding addictive chemicals such as nicotine to cigarettes.

Related Articles:

Dutch lawyer starts criminal case against tobacco firms

California raises tobacco buying age to 21

The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest docu-series - official trailer

The Truth About Cancer: A Global 

Quest docu-series - official trailer

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. 

The Next Ones to Fall

There's something potentially coming that you should know about, and I've reported it before two other times. But I want you to hear it again. What other very large industries don't have integrity, but also have a great deal of money? Prepare for the crumbling of big pharma in America. It is starting now and when the reports happen and the movie is created [smile], Americans will wake up to the fact that they have an enormously wealthy industry that keeps people sick for money.

You're not going to like it and you're not going to tolerate it. Watch. What I say today is not fortune telling, dear ones. I am reporting the potentials of Human nature before me. I'm reporting that awareness is starting to grab that which is inappropriate on this planet, what you call old energy, and slowly is beginning to move it to a place you never thought it would go. It's a place of integrity that your parents told you was impossible for large institutions, but here you are living it. Along with this also will be changes in the very large business of insurance, as we told you before. …”

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS" – Sep 29, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“…I'm in Canada and I know it, but I will tell those listening and reading in the American audience the following: Get ready! Because there are some institutions that are yet to fall, ones that don't have integrity and that could never be helped with a bail out. Again, we tell you the biggest one is big pharma, and we told you that before. It's inevitable. If not now, then in a decade. It's inevitable and they will fight to stay alive and they will not be crossing the bridge. For on the other side of the bridge is a new way, not just for medicine but for care. Paradigms that have not yet been thought of, which don't represent any system that currently exists, will be created and developed by young minds who have concepts that the seniors don't know about. Things that don't have integrity today will fall over tomorrow. Just get ready. It's all part of what's on the other side of the bridge. And the old energy won't like it, and they will object. …”

Panama Papers law firm closes Jersey, Gibraltar offices

Yahoo – AFP, May 28, 2016

Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm says it will close its offices in Jersey
 and Isle of Man -- two Crown dependencies of Britain -- and Gibraltar -- a British
overseas territory jutting off from Spain (AFP Photo/Rodrigo Arangua)

Panama City (AFP) - The law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers revelations is closing its offices in the British-dependent territories of Jersey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar, it Tweeted.

Mossack Fonseca "will be ceasing operations" in those territories, "but we will continue serving all of our clients," it said.

"This decision has been taken with great regret, as Mossack Fonseca has had a presence in these locations for more than 20 years," the Panama-based law firm added.

The office closures were part of a strategy to "consolidate our service office network," it said.

The announcement came nearly eight weeks after the first reports about the Panama Papers emerged, divulging details taken from nearly four decades of records from Mossack Fonseca's computer archives.

Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca created an offshore company for 

Vancouver billionaire David Ho even though he was facing criminal charges

They revealed that many prominent leaders, politicians, celebrities and wealthy individuals around the world used Mossack Fonseca to start up or run offshore entities to hold their assets.

Although offshore companies are not in themselves illegal, the sudden publication of the information drew attention to possible tax avoidance and money laundering crimes in some cases, and embarrassed some figures trying to keep their finances secret.

News of the closure of Mossack Fonseca's offices in Jersey and Isle of Man -- two Crown dependencies of Britain -- and Gibraltar -- a British overseas territory jutting off from Spain -- was reported earlier this week by local media in those territories and the BBC.

The law firm in Panama did not confirm the information on Thursday when contacted by AFP.

While its tweets Friday said those closures were happening, they made no mention of another report circulating this week in US media, about Mossack Fonseca's affiliate in the state of Nevada resigning as the agent for 1,000 companies it administered there. 

Singapore kicks out Swiss bank linked to Malaysia's 1MDB

Yahoo – AFP, Elizabeth Law, 24 May 2016

Singapore's central bank has ordered the closure of the local branch of Swiss bank 

BSI, which has been linked to a scandal at Malaysia's troubled state fund 1MDB

(AFP Photo/Manan Vatsyayana)

Singapore (AFP) - Singapore's central bank on Tuesday said it was kicking out Switzerland's BSI Bank, which has been linked to a global money-laundering scandal that has embroiled neighbouring Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak.

In the toughest legal action so far in the crisis rocking Malaysian state fund 1MDB, Switzerland also disclosed it had launched criminal proceedings against the parent firm BSI SA for "deficiencies" in its internal organisation.

“BSI Bank is the worst case of control lapses and gross misconduct that we have seen in the Singapore financial sector," Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said in a statement.

MAS said it had asked state prosecutors to investigate six senior executives of BSI Bank for possible criminal offences and fined it Sg$ 13.3 million ($9.6 million) for 41 breaches of Singapore's laws against money laundering.

Among those facing investigation is former chief executive Hans Peter Brunner.

Two Singaporean executives of the bank are already facing criminal proceedings in the city-state, which is Southeast Asia's financial hub and hosts more than 200 banks.

BSI has been operating as a merchant bank in Singapore since November 2005, offering private banking services to wealthy individuals.

The last time Singapore stripped a merchant bank of its status was in 1984, when the local branch of Jardine Fleming was shut down for "serious lapses" in its advisory work.

Najib, who founded 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in 2009, has battled allegations that billions were looted from the investment vehicle in a vast campaign of fraud and embezzlement stretching from the Middle East to the Caymans.

Swiss bank BSI has been linked to a global money-laundering scandal at 

Malaysia's state fund 1MDB (AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman)

Denials

The fund, which ran up more than $11 billion in debt in a series of much-questioned investments, has steadfastly denied money was stolen or that it was in financial trouble.

Najib also faced questions after the Wall Street Journal revealed $681 million in transfers to his personal bank accounts.

But since the scandal erupted last year, Najib has weathered the allegations by curbing scrutiny by authorities, purging officials demanding accountability, and stifling media reporting.

He insists the $681 million was a gift from the Saudi royal family, most of which he returned. A Saudi official in April said that was true, but only after weeks of silence that cast doubt on the claim.

In a series of more recent reports, however, the newspaper said Malaysian investigation documents indicated more than $1 billion in 1MDB-linked money had been funnelled to Najib.

Najib and 1MDB vehemently deny that claim.

Najib has faced calls to resign but has tightened his grip on the ruling party and thwarted domestic investigations. His position is not seen as under imminent threat.

Singapore's MAS said it was "working closely" with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), which has already approved the sale of the BSI parent firm to another Swiss-based bank, EFG International.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said Tuesday that it had opened criminal proceedings against BSI SA "based on information revealed by the criminal proceedings in the 1MDB case".

In Singapore, former BSI Bank relationship manager Yak Yew Chee is undergoing a criminal investigation for his dealings with a unit of 1MDB. His bank deposits have been frozen.

Separately, former BSI Bank wealth planner Yeo Jiawei, also a Singaporean, faces seven charges including forgery, money laundering, cheating and perverting the course of justice. He is in police custody and scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

Malaysian PM Najib Razak has been under fire over allegations that billions of dollars

 were stolen from a state firm he founded, and his own admitted acceptance of a

murky $681 million overseas "donation" (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Related Articles:

Malaysia cross-party alliance demands removal of PM

US subpoenas Goldman Sachs in 1MDB scandal investigation – report - New

United States Seeks to Recover More Than $1 Billion Obtained from Corruption Involving Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund - New

Switzerland opens criminal probe into Malaysian state fund

Swiss prosecutor asks Malaysia to help investigate 1MDB fund irregularities

Malaysia clears PM in scandal, says Saudis provided 'donation'

Philip Morris 'abused rights' seeking to sue Australia: court

Yahoo – AFP, 16 May 2016

An international tribunal on Monday finally unveiled a secret ruling confirming it had rejected a bid by tobacco giant Philip Morris to sue Australia over its plain packaging laws, calling the attempt "an abuse of rights".

In its heavily-redacted 186-page ruling dating from December 17, 2015, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) said it had no jurisdiction over the case brought by Philip Morris.

In 2012, Australia became the first country to mandate that cigarettes must be sold in plain packages, in a bid to reduce smoking rates. This initiative has since been followed by other nations including France and Britain.

But big tobacco firms including Philip Morris have launched legal challenges against such laws, arguing the new rules impinge on their trademark intellectual property.

Philip Morris, manufacturers of some of the world's most recognisable brands, including Marlboro, lodged the challenge with the arbitration court based in The Hague in 2011 after the plain-packaging legislation was first passed, using a 1993 trade deal between Australia and Hong Kong that included foreign investment protections.

Tobacco Firms Lose Plain Packet Challenge

But the PCA found in its animous ruling that "the main and determinative, if not sole, reason" for a restructuring of the company as far back as 2005 was to enable it "to bring a claim under the treaty, using an entity from Hong Kong" after it received ample warnings that such legislation was being considered.

"The record indeed shows that the principal, if not sole, purpose of the restructuring was to gain protection under the treaty in respect of the very measures that form the subject matter of the present arbitration," the court ruled.

"The tribunal cannot but conclude that the initiation of this arbitration constitutes an abuse of rights," the court added.

The court therefore found that Philip Morris's claims were "inadmissible" and it was "precluded from exercising jurisdiction over this dispute."

The ruling came after a closed-door hearing held in Singapore in February 2015.

Canberra had welcomed the decision saying "plain packaging is a legitimate public health measure."

Related Articles:

Dutch MPs set to vote for new tobacco packaging with gruesome images

Study Finds ‘Disturbing’ Health Warnings on Cigarette Packaging Are Effective

Row over Marlboro-funded research that undermined plain cigarette packs

Dutch lawyer starts criminal case against tobacco firms

Bloomberg and Gates launch legal fund to help countries fight big tobacco

California raises tobacco buying age to 21

World Day Against Child Labor highlights conditions on US tobacco farms

The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest docu-series - official trailer

The Truth About Cancer: A Global 

Quest docu-series - official trailer

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. 

The Next Ones to Fall

There's something potentially coming that you should know about, and I've reported it before two other times. But I want you to hear it again. What other very large industries don't have integrity, but also have a great deal of money? Prepare for the crumbling of big pharma in America. It is starting now and when the reports happen and the movie is created [smile], Americans will wake up to the fact that they have an enormously wealthy industry that keeps people sick for money.

You're not going to like it and you're not going to tolerate it. Watch. What I say today is not fortune telling, dear ones. I am reporting the potentials of Human nature before me. I'm reporting that awareness is starting to grab that which is inappropriate on this planet, what you call old energy, and slowly is beginning to move it to a place you never thought it would go. It's a place of integrity that your parents told you was impossible for large institutions, but here you are living it. Along with this also will be changes in the very large business of insurance, as we told you before. …”

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS" – Sep 29, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“…I'm in Canada and I know it, but I will tell those listening and reading in the American audience the following: Get ready! Because there are some institutions that are yet to fall, ones that don't have integrity and that could never be helped with a bail out. Again, we tell you the biggest one is big pharma, and we told you that before. It's inevitable. If not now, then in a decade. It's inevitable and they will fight to stay alive and they will not be crossing the bridge. For on the other side of the bridge is a new way, not just for medicine but for care. Paradigms that have not yet been thought of, which don't represent any system that currently exists, will be created and developed by young minds who have concepts that the seniors don't know about. Things that don't have integrity today will fall over tomorrow. Just get ready. It's all part of what's on the other side of the bridge. And the old energy won't like it, and they will object. …”

CIA spy tip-off led to arrest of Mandela: report

Yahoo – AFP, May 15, 2016

Nelson Mandela was eventually freed from prison in 1990 and went on to
become South Africa's president between 1994 and 1999 before dying in 2013
aged 95 (AFP Photo/Trevor Samson)

London (AFP) - A tip from a CIA spy to authorities in apartheid-era South Africa led to Nelson Mandela's arrest, beginning the leader's 27 years behind bars, a report said on Sunday.

Donald Rickard, a former US vice-consul in Durban and CIA operative, told British film director John Irvin that he had been involved in Mandela's arrest in 1962 which was seen as necessary because the Americans believed he was "completely under the control of the Soviet Union", the report in The Sunday Times newspaper said.

"He could have incited a war in South Africa, the United States would have to get involved, grudgingly, and things could have gone to hell," Rickard said.

"We were teetering on the brink here and it had to be stopped, which meant Mandela had to be stopped. And I put a stop to it."

Irvin's new film "Mandela's Gun", about the months before the anti-apartheid leader's arrest, is due to be screened at the Cannes film festival this week.

Palestinians take part in ceremony to unveil a sculpture of the first 

democratically elected South African president and anti apartheid leader 

Nelson Mandela, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, April 26, 2016. 

Palestinians honored Mandela unveiling his statue on a square in Ramallah, 

on South Africa's Freedom Day that is observed annually to commemorate the 

first post apartheid elections held on April 27, 1994. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Mandela was eventually freed from prison in 1990 and went on to become South Africa's president between 1994 and 1999 before dying in 2013 aged 95.

Zizi Kodwa, national spokesman of Mandela's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, called the revelation "a serious indictment".

"We always knew there was always collaboration between some Western countries and the apartheid regime," he told AFP.

He claimed that though the incident happened decades ago, the CIA was still interfering in South African politics.

"We have recently observed that there are efforts to undermine the democratically elected ANC government," he alleged. "They never stopped operating here."

"It is still happening now -- the CIA is still collaborating with those who want regime change."

Rickard, who was reportedly employed by the CIA until 1978, died in March, two weeks after talking to Irvin in the US.

The CIA declined to comment.

Related Article:

Former diplomat admits CIA involvement in Nelson Mandela arrest

US pharma firm Pfizer stops availability of products for lethal injections

Pfizer has announced it 'strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment' and is to stop making them available. The US concern joins a long list of others taking similar measures.

  

Deutsche Welle, 14 May 2016

Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, is to stop making its powerful drugs available for executions, according to a report in the New York Times on Friday.

Pfizer joins over 20 US and EU pharma firms that have stopped making their drugs available. The EU banned exports of a sedative used to carry out lethal injections in the US in 2011.

"We are enforcing a distribution restriction for specific products that have been part of, or considered by some states for, their lethal injection protocols," Pfizer said on its website. "Pfizer strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment."

Breaking News: Pfizer has blocked its drugs from being used in lethal injections https://t.co/ou2Nk0szoc

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 13, 2016

Effective immediately, Pfizer said it would closely screen and restrict the wholesale distribution of the seven products: propofol, pancuronium bromide, potassium chloride, midazolam, hydromorphone, rocuronium bromide and vecuronium bromide.

The US corporation headquartered in New York City called on its partners not to resell the drugs to correction agencies.

The move means there are no remaining sources approved by the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) of lethal injection drugs in the US.

Can't say, won't say

In Florida a series of three injections have been used for executions in the death chamber at Florida State Prison: Midazolam hydrochloride, which sedates the inmate; vecuronium bromide, which paralyzes; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. The source of those chemicals is protected under state law.

"The Florida Department of Corrections does not disclose the identities of our drug suppliers," Department of Corrections spokesman McKinley Lewis said.

Finding alternatives

"Executing states must now go underground if they want to get hold of medicines for use in lethal injection," Maya Foa of the advocacy group Reprieve told the New York Times.

Some have switched to alternative methods such as the electric chair and firing squads. In 2015 Utah approved the use of a firing squad as a backup if lethal injection drugs were unavailable. It is so far the only state to do so, although Mississippi is also considering using the method should lethal injection drugs be unavailable. Utah has executed three men by firing squad, the most recent execution of this type being conducted in 2010.

Meanwhile, federal agents in Phoenix in 2015 reportedly seized $27,000 (23.8 million euros) worth of sodium thiopental illegally imported by the Arizona department of corrections, while in 2014 the state of Louisiana obtained hydromorphone for an execution from a hospital without telling hospital officials what it was going to be used for, according to the New York Times report.

The US state of Virginia has executed a prison inmate by lethal injection. More details here http://t.co/QoPsJ02QMc pic.twitter.com/TemYW2nWzQ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 2, 2015

Related Articles:

Oklahoma governor stays man's execution over lethal injection procedures

Dutch pension fund pulls out of Mylan over execution fears

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS" – Sep 29, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“…I'm in Canada and I know it, but I will tell those listening and reading in the American audience the following: Get ready! Because there are some institutions that are yet to fall, ones that don't have integrity and that could never be helped with a bail out. Again, we tell you the biggest one is big pharma, and we told you that before. It's inevitable. If not now, then in a decade. It's inevitable and they will fight to stay alive and they will not be crossing the bridge. For on the other side of the bridge is a new way, not just for medicine but for care. Paradigms that have not yet been thought of, which don't represent any system that currently exists, will be created and developed by young minds who have concepts that the seniors don't know about. Things that don't have integrity today will fall over tomorrow. Just get ready. It's all part of what's on the other side of the bridge. And the old energy won't like it, and they will object. …”

Shell and Exxon secured ‘secret deal’ on Groningen gas production

DutchNews, May 13, 2016

Cracks in the wall of a property damaged by earthquakes. Photo: Graham Dockery

Oil companies Shell and Exxon held secret talks with the economic affairs ministry in 2005 to set levels of production in the Groningen gas field up to and beyond 2020, according to documents obtained by NOS.

The documents show that the two companies exerted pressure on the ministry not to scale back gas extraction despite increasing concern over the increased frequency of earthquakes in the region. 

The Dutch parliament was informed of the talks, which took place in 2005, but only knew of an agreement to set production levels for the next 10 years. The documents obtained under freedom of information legislation show that the deal also covered the years up to 2020, when the gas field is expected to go into decline, and afterwards.

In 2010 a civil servant wrote in a memo that parliament had ‘not been informed about long-term production’ and that the agreement between the oil companies and the ministry ‘limits the policy capacity of the minister’ to set production levels.

In December last year the government reduced the amount of gas to be extracted in Groningen this year to 27 billion cubic metres, following a Council of State ruling. In 2105 33 billion cubic metres was extracted. 

Limit

The 2005 deal allowed a maximum production level of 425 billion cubic metres over the 10 years from 2006 to 2015, higher than the government’s preferred limit of 375 billion cubic metres.

Tens of thousands of homes in Groningen province have had to be shored up because of damage caused by earthquakes that have been linked to gas extraction, and some houses are unsellable. House prices have fallen by as much as 12% in areas worst hit by earth tremors. 

NOS requested the documents as part of an investigation into gas production in 2013, when it reached its highest level for 30 years despite a warning by the regulator (Staatstoezicht op de Mijnen) that extraction needed to be scaled back urgently. 

Parliament

MPs from all parties have called on economic affairs minister Henk Kamp to clarify the allegations. 

Kamp said in an initial reaction he is unaware of any secret agreements and that he would investigate if required to do so.

Related Article:

Shell calls on government to triple wind farms by 2030

British 'barbarians' need manners lesson, says China paper

Yahoo – AFP, May 12, 2016

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II hosts a State Banquet for Chinese President Xi Jinping,
at Buckingham Palace in London, on October 20, 2015 (AFP Photo/Dominic Lipinski)

Beijing (AFP) - The British media is riddled with "barbarians" who would benefit from a lesson in manners from China's ancient civilisation, a state-run newspaper said Thursday after Queen Elizabeth II called some Chinese officials "very rude".

In a rare diplomatic gaffe, the British monarch was caught on camera at a Buckingham Palace garden party making unguarded comments about a state visit last year by President Xi Jinping that drummed up billions in Chinese investment.

In a rare diplomatic gaffe, Britain's Queen 

Elizabeth II was caught on camera at a 

Buckingham Palace garden party making

 unguarded comments about a state visit last 

year by President Xi Jinping that drummed

 up billions in Chinese investment (AFP

Photo/John Stillwell)

The remarks made headlines worldwide on Wednesday but initially they were largely censored in China, blacked out of BBC World transmissions, according to the British broadcaster.

The Global Times newspaper, which is close to China's ruling Communist Party, blamed the British media for blowing the incident out of proportion and fawning over the footage as if it was "the most precious treasure".

"The West in modern times has risen to the top and created a brilliant civilisation, but their media is full of reckless 'gossip fiends' who bare their fangs and brandish their claws and are very narcissistic, retaining the bad manners of 'barbarians'," it said in an editorial.

"As they experience constant exposure to the 5,000 years of continuous Eastern civilisation, we believe they will make progress" when it comes to manners, it added in the Chinese-language piece, which was not published in English.

London and Beijing have both proclaimed a new "golden era" of relations between the former imperial power -- whose forces repeatedly invaded China in the 19th century -- and the rising Asian giant, now the world's second-largest economy.

Xi's trip in October saw a clutch of contracts announced, which Cameron said were worth almost $58 billion.

At the time the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official mouthpiece, breathlessly portraying the visit as the start of a beautiful friendship.

But in her recorded comments the Queen commiserated with a police commander for her "bad luck" in having to oversee security for Xi and his wife.

Members of the Chinese delegation "were very rude to the ambassador", the monarch said, exclaiming: "Extraordinary!"

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II speaks with Prime Minister David Cameron (2nd R) during a
reception at Buckingham Palace in London, on May 10, 2016 (AFP Photo/Paul Hackett)

'Exposing itself'

A columnist at Chinese website "Today's Headlines" recalled visible mutual discomfort during the three-day sojourn, describing it as "thought-provoking awkwardness" and adding it "primarily arose out of cultural and political differences".

On Chinese social media posters decried Britain's lack of awareness and understanding of Chinese ways, noting "an arrogance which makes them feel they needn't bother to learn".

"Every country's customs are different, OK - not all people must cater to you," wrote a commenter on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Others were ashamed.

"We're already embarrassed by talk about what our average people get up to abroad," said one. "Being embarrassed by our officials abroad is even worse."

The British monarch never expresses overtly political views in public and is known for her discretion, never granting an interview in her 64-year reign.

But her comments came as British Prime Minister David Cameron was recorded calling Nigeria and Afghanistan "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world", heaping scrutiny on the tete-a-tetes of British leadership.

"Even among Western countries, Britain is most frequently 'caught with its pants down' and 'exposing itself'," the Global Times editorial said.

But it added that it would be "unthinkable" for British authorities to have deliberately leaked the royal footage, as "if they had deliberately done so, that would have been truly crude and rude".

The paper shrugged off the Queen's comments themselves as "not a big deal", stating: "Chinese diplomats surely also scoff at British bureaucrats in private."

Li's welcome fit for a Queen as Britain and China sign key deals

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