Region

For a couple of hundred dollars or less an arms dealer can illegally source a blank end user certificate with the required signatures and stamps – needed to transfer weapons across international borders – and “if no one checks its authenticity (often the case) he can ship his wares to the world’s hotspots with minimal risk, for maximum profit,” said the SAS in 2008.

The arrival of Lt. Gen. Vicente Díaz de Villegas who claimed to have retired and to be traveling as an ordinary tourist to Venezuela naturally put Sebin, the country’s intelligence service, on alert. Villegas cited tourism as the purpose of the visit and journalism as his occupation in the entry form, and stopped at the Alba hotel,

Athens – The Greek authorities are failing to tackle a rising wave of xenophobic violence that has left migrants afraid to walk the streets, says a [Human Rights Watch report](http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/10/greece-migrants-describe-fear-streets).

Thousands of peoples from Haiti and other Caribbean countries have been risking their lives trying to escape by sea from difficult living situations in their homelands, the [UN](http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=42470&Cr=haiti&Cr1=) warns.

Dr. Jill Stein’s Green Party vice-presidential running mate, Cheri Honkala, is a single mother who has firsthand experience with homelessness. In 2011, she ran as the Green Party candidate for sheriff of Philadelphia on a platform of ending foreclosures and halting evictions. “Large sections of the population are just sitting out….”

As Spain’s prime minister announced deep austerity cuts in order to secure funds from the EU to bail out Spain’s failing banks, the people of Spain have taken to the streets once again for what they call “Real Democracy Now.” This comes a week after the government announced it was launching a criminal investigation into former CEO of Spain’s fourth-largest bank, Bankia.

“The situation in Israel and Palestine is very simple,” said Noam Chomsky during a meeting with Tomas Hirsch, Humanist and Former Chilean Presidential Candidate. According to Chomsky, the real problem is Washington. Israel could not do what it is doing today unless it had the support of the US and it has been that way for over 35 years.

Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutiérrez, a reporter for the Christian radio station Stereo Naranja, was shot dead with two of his cousins on 8 July in Villanueva in the northern department of Cortés while on holiday visiting his family.

He was to have taken part in celebrations on 21 July marking the first anniversary of the station, located in Sonoguera in the department of Colón.

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, yesterday approved a bill on third reading that will allow the authorities to compile a website blacklist, fuelling concern about Internet filtering and censorship. The bill will have to be passed by the upper house and ratified by President Vladimir Putin before it takes effect.

We reproduce here part of an investigation carried out by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism [BIJ](http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/07/11/inside-the-citys-best-connected-lobby-group/) on the workings of the City of London, the Financial District at the centre of a system that affects every aspect of ordinary people’s lives.