Foreign Companies Buying Up Dutch Tech Startups
For the sixth time this year, a promising young Dutch high-tech company has been bought up by a large foreign concern. This time, it is Epyon, a producer of chargers for electric cars, Het Financieele Dagblad reported yesterday. The fast-growing company from Rijswijk, set up by three students from the university of Delft, makes equipment that can speedily recharge electric cars. It has been swallowed up by Swedish-Swills multinational ABB, which makes electric engines and generators for everything from wind turbines to trains. The takeovers do not indicate that Dutch multinationals like Philips have no eye for home-grown pearls, according to experts. “It mainly shows that high-tech is a global business and that large companies would prefer to buy new technologies than to develop them themselves,” according to Sake Bosch of venture capital provider Prime Ventures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Pensioners Are Falling Behind, Ministry Admits
Germany’s 20 million pensioners are going to find life increasingly tough with the government confirming for the first time that benefit payments are rising at well below the pace of inflation. Calculations prepared by the federal Labour Ministry have found that the purchasing power of the government pension has shrunk considerably in the past 10 years and old-age poverty is increasing in the long term, according to daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, which has seen the figures. The figures were given to the socialist Left party after its chairman Klaus Ernst asked the government for precise numbers on how the real value of the pension had changed since 2001.
The answer from the Labour Ministry revealed that from 2001 to 2010, consumer inflation ran at an average of 1.36 percent while pension benefits rose at 0.82 percent per year, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported, adding that this was the first time the government had acknowledged the shortfall in figures. Pensions are currently rising at an annual rate of 0.99 percent per year against an inflation rate of 2.3 percent, the paper added. According to the Left party’s calculations, the real value of the pension has fallen 7 percent in the past decade.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: The “Indignant” Continue to Protest
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JULY 4 — Despite the draconian austerity measures provided for in the Medium-Term Economic Plan having already been endorsed by the Greek Parliament, the “indignant” movement is continuing its protest rallies in several cities across the country. Last night, for the 40th day in a row, thousands of citizens gathered at their usual meeting place downtown in Syntagma square, in front of Parliament.
Aside from the anti-government chants regarding the austerity measures, the protesters were shouting anti-police slogans due to the force’s behaviour during last week’s events, while late in the evening there were reports of clashes involving protesters and police; the latter used tear gas.
During the protests, a large group of demonstrators marched before the Civil protection ministry in protest against the government’s decision to stop vessels flying the Greek flag or a foreign flag from leaving the country’s ports to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Islands for Sale, Turkish Company Interested
A Turkish businessman is eager to buy at least three Greek islands which were put to sale due to economic crisis in this country. Fiyapi’s Executive Board Chairman Fikret Inan is planning to purchase at least three of six Greek islands put up for sale, and to set up a company in Greece in order to buy the islands in case of any obstacle he may face during the purchasing process. “I will implement a hotel and villa project in a Greek island, similar to a project I am planning to implement in 400,000-square meter Garip Ada I have purchased in Dikili (Aegean town) worth 35 million USD,” Inan told Anatolia news agency on Tuesday.
The islands Inan is willing to buy are each close to Italy, Greece and Turkey. “We have not notified anything official that the islands will not be sold to Turks. They may have reservations, and they told us that they can sell them and negotiations will continue,” Inan said. Inan said he would establish a company in Greece and buy the islands through that company. “If we are able to fulfil this project, we can establish a bridge between Turkey and Greece,” Inan said. Inan said the price of Greek islands was ranging between 3 million and 20 million Euro, and he had allocated 20 million Euro to purchase three islands and 80 million Euro more to construct facilities on those islands. The six islands on sale are Lihnari, Kaltsonisi, Amorgos, Kardiotissa, Nafsika and Vouvalo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Greece’s Political Elite Ruined the Country
The latest tranche of loans from the EU and the IMF has helped buy debt-ridden Greece some time. But the Greeks will find it hard to get back on their feet. Their country has been ruined by three political dynasties, which created a bloated system of cronyism that is hard to change.
George Provopoulos, governor of the Bank of Greece, believes torpedoing the austerity package, as the country’s conservative opposition tried, would have been “suicide.” Still, Provopoulos also believes Greece has “reached the limit” and that it would be impossible to squeeze any more out of the people. In remarks to the conservative newspaper Kathimerini, he spoke about what he saw as the root cause of the crisis. “There is little doubt that the failings of (the existing social and political) system hindered the implementation of policies that would have averted the existing ills,” he said. “We are paying the price of past mistakes.”
The emergency financing will help Greece through the next months and it will buy the rest of the EU some time — time in which the euro crisis may ease somewhat. But it’s unlikely that it can save Greece. The last few decades have seen an elite, with the Papandreou, Karamanlis and Mitsotakis families at its core, establish a system of economic patronage. They threw around billions the government didn’t actually have and showered friends and relatives with prosperity that was all based on credit. These leaders bloated their country’s administration so that everyone could have a piece, and created a bureaucratic monster in the process.
The political parties’ business dealings were always more about favors than policies. Anyone with access to public funds used them to buy friends and voters, who were then beholden to the party — and to the family running it. The result for Greece has been a feudal democracy, where the generations come and go, but the names remain the same: Papandreou and Karamanlis and Karamanlis and Papandreou, with a Mitsotakis thrown in every now and then. No other European democracy has seen the like.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Introducing George Soros
New York hedge fund manager George Soros is one of the most politically powerful individuals on earth. Since the mid-1980s in particular, he has used his immense influence to help reconfigure the political landscapes of several countries around the world?in some cases playing a key role in toppling regimes that had held the reins of government for years, even decades. Vis à vis the United States, a strong case can be made for the claim that Soros today affects American politics and culture more profoundly that any other living person. Much of Soros’s influence derives from his $13 billion personal fortune, which is further leveraged by at least another $25 billion in investor assets controlled by his firm, Soros Fund Management. An equally significant source of Soros’s power, however, is his passionate messianic zeal. Soros views himself as a missionary with something of a divine mandate to transform the world and its institutions into something better?as he sees it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Legal Challenge to Greece Aid: ‘The Greeks Would be Well Advised to Exit the Euro Zone’
Germany’s high court on Tuesday began hearing a legal challenge to the 110-billion-euro aid package provided to debt-stricken Greece in 2010. Retired economics professor Joachim Starbatty is one of those behind the case — and he expects the court to prove him right.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mark Steyn: Liberty and Loss
Today America is divided between those who see no problem with a bloated, wasteful four-trillion-bucks-a-year behemoth, and those who understand it’s killing the country. A betting man might wonder how long this “free and great people” will wish to remain “together”, especially when the spendaholics’ policies seem consciously designed to fracture the citizenry: The old vs the young, the latter crippled by debt run up by the former. Government union workers vs a beleaguered small-business class, working till it dies to pay for the lavish pensions of those who retire in their 50s. Poor Hispanics vs poor whites, both chasing jobs that no longer exist. Young Hispanics vs old whites: 83 per cent of Medicare beneficiaries are white; 70 per cent of births in Dallas’ biggest hospital are Hispanic. In a post-prosperity America, that would seem an unlikely recipe for social tranquility.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spiegel Interview With Allianz CEO: ‘Greece Has an Opportunity to Attract Investment’
In a SPIEGEL interview, Allianz CEO Michael Diekmann discusses the participation of private creditors in a new bailout for Greece, the German insurance giant’s contribution to the aid package and his proposal for a long-term solution to Athens’ problems.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA’s Shuttle Program Cost $209 Billion — Was it Worth it?
When NASA’s space shuttle program was announced back in 1972, it was billed as a major advance — a key step in humanity’s quest to exploit and explore space. The shuttle would enable safe, frequent and affordable access to space, the argument went, with flights occurring as often as once per week and costing as little as $20 million each. But much of that original vision didn’t come to pass. Two of the program’s 134 flights have ended in tragedy, killing 14 astronauts in all. Recent NASA estimates peg the shuttle program’s cost through the end of last year at $209 billion (in 2010 dollars), yielding a per-flight cost of nearly $1.6 billion. And the orbiter fleet never flew more than nine missions in a single year.
A chief criticism of the shuttle program is that it prevented more ambitious manned exploration missions. There is merit to that argument, experts say. After all, NASA’s Apollo programput boots on the moon in 1969, just 12 years after the space age began. But it’s been four decades since the last manned lunar landing, and in that time, NASA has made little discernible progress toward the next logical giant leap: getting people to Mars. Instead, since 1981, the shuttle has kept zipping around the planet over and over again, just a few hundred miles above Earth’s surface. “It kept us limited to low-Earth orbit,” said space policy expert John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington Universtity and author of “John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Indeed, some NASA officials have voiced dissatisfaction with the agency’s post-Apollo focus on the shuttle and the International Space Station, which shuttle missions have helped build since 1998.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
That Gallup Poll on Jews and Obama
Gallup has found no significant change in the president’s popularity among Jews after the controversies of the past few months. Gallup measures his approval at 60 percent, statistically unchanged from the 64 percent previously measured-but significantly changed from the 80 percent he registered a few months into 2009.
This doesn’t mean Jews won’t vote for him again, and in landslide numbers, in 2012-especially if the Republicans put up someone Jews decide to despise. But which Jews vote or don’t vote for Obama doesn’t matter all that much except when it comes to conversations around the seder table. Where it matters-where Obama’s team is clearly worried and where it is seeking to come up with counterarguments to give to surrogates-is money. It’s one thing to cast a single vote as the member of a small minority community to which outsized attention is paid. But Jews are uncommonly generous givers, both philanthropically and politically, and while they might still cast a vote for Obama, they might give him nothing. Or half what they gave him in 2008.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who Owns the Moon Camera? U.S. Government vs. Apollo Astronaut
If the government throws a camera away on the moon and an astronaut then picks it up and saves it, does it become his to own and sell? That’s more or less the question to which the U.S. government is seeking a federal court answer in the case “United States of America vs. Edgar Mitchell,” which was filed in Miami last Wednesday (June 29). The lawsuit, which names the sixth man to walk on the moon as the defendant, asks the court to declare a movie camera that was used during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission as the “exclusive property of the United States.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Attack on Border-Free Travel: Boycott Call Enrages Danish Politicians
A suggestion by a German politician that vacationers boycott Denmark now that the country has introduced tougher border controls has angered leaders in Copenhagen. But the European Union is also concerned that the new customs regime is bad for Europe. Denmark’s decision to increase customs controls on its borders with Germany and Sweden has not gone down well in Europe . And now, politicians in Copenhagen are firing back at a suggestion from the Europe minister in the German state of Hesse that vacationers boycott Denmark. Jörg-Uwe Hahn, a member of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), told the tabloid Bild that “if Denmark reintroduces border controls during the vacation season, I can only advise people to turn around and go on vacation in Austria or Poland.” Hahn has also called for the issue to be placed high on the agenda of the next meeting of Europe ministers from German states.
“Freedom of travel is one of Europe’s most visible achievements,” he was quoted as saying in the Danish daily Jyllandsposten. “Those who assail it … are carving away at the European idea. “ Hahn’s comments come as Denmark began more intense customs checks on its borders with Germany and Sweden. Fifty additional agents took up their posts on Tuesday morning in a move that the European Commission has warned could violate the Schengen Agreement, the treaty which established border-free travel in Europe in 1985. There are now 25 members of the free-travel zone with Bulgaria and Romania expected to join later this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bat Ye’or: On Geert Wilders’s Acquittal
The acquittal of Geert Wilders has deeper meanings for Europe’s future than it appears at first glance. As Geert Wilders said: it is a victory for truth. But what does truth mean in international policy? Do we not see that in Eurabia the words ‘justice and peace’ are travesties for submission to injustice and terrorism? Here one needs to know the extensive system of lies spread at every political and cultural level in Eurabia, to understand the Copernican revolution achieved by Geert Wilders. A victory performed by a single unarmed man, constantly threatened by death and whose only defence was his courageous and unbending commitment to say the truth. A truth buried by the whole Eurabian transnational and international system created since the 1970s…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Border Controls Pass, Despite Objections
European Commission vows to hold Denmark to its EU agreements on border controls
The stricter border controls are a reality. As early as Tuesday 50 more customs agents will be stationed at Denmark’s borders, carrying out more “controls” and spot checks on vehicles arriving from neighbouring EU countries. The move is part of the government’s “permanent border control” agreement, which passed parliament on Friday and was immediately approved for funding by the Finance Ministry. The opposition attempted to have the agreement thrown out, but failed to secure a majority. As expected, the agreement was passed by a single vote — with 90 MPs supporting and 89 opposing. Some 30 of the new customs agents are to be stationed at the Danish-German land border; ten are assigned to ferry terminals at Rødby and Gedser. Another ten will be on the Øresund Bridge and the ferry at Helsingør, both connecting to Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Customs Checks to Cause ‘No Delays’
Denmark on Tuesday is to deploy 50 customs officials on its borders with Germany and Sweden, but has vowed to respect EU law and not to cause delays for travellers and lorries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Keeps Close Eye on Danish Customs Controls
The European Commission said Tuesday it would closely monitor Denmark’s controversial deployment of customs agents to ensure it does not violate the European Union’s open border rules. Denmark was scheduled to resume customs controls at the borders with Germany and Sweden on Tuesday after parliament approved the measures last week despite concerns voiced by Brussels and Berlin. “The commission will strictly monitor the implementation of this first phase to ensure that European law is fully respected,” Michele Cercone, the home affairs spokesman for the European Union’s executive arm, told a news briefing. Danish authorities have told the commission that the customs agents would conduct “spot checks based on a risk analysis,” Cercone said. The Danish government has defended the move, saying random border checks are in line with the Schengen passport-free travel area and that the aim is to combat the smuggling of illegal goods and drugs, not control travellers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Presidency: Poland Shifts Into Top Gear
Milan Jaroš / Respekt
With its rapidly changing capital, its new motorways and EU subsidised farmers, Poland is creating a new identity for itself, less pro-American and more and more europhile. A report.
Martin M. Šimecka
The carriages of the single Warsaw metro line are as crowded with passengers in the morning as any underground line in the world. But compared to Prague or Vienna — not to mention Paris or London — there is one oddity: all the passengers are Poles. Foreigners or visitors aren’t yet exactly pouring into Warsaw. And at first glance, that doesn’t seem surprising.
The dominant feature of the Polish capital remains the Palace of Culture skyscraper, built in the style of the Stalinist era, and the wide boulevards bulldozed in the fifties through the ruins of the war-torn city don’t encourage walking. And to hide from them in cafe’s, where there ought to be an Internet connection, is almost impossible.
And yet this city has something exciting about it. Warsaw, as indeed all of Poland, is pulsing with energy and changing from one day to the next. Cranes bristle across the skyline. Just a short walk from the centre, along the river Vistula, the mighty ring of the new stadium is going up. Poland is getting ready for the European football championship in 2012. Before that, however, there awaits a different task: since July 1, Poland is now chairing the European Union.
The presidency comes at a time when Poland has been dramatically changing its view of the world, and also at time when it has become the sixth largest economy in the EU and is already a bigger trading partner for Germany than Russia. There is no doubt that Poland’s influence on European affairs will only grow.
A country divided
In a quiet passage to Nowy Swiat street, a youthful-looking Marcin Zaborowski sits in an office with an impressive library. “The keyword of this country today is modernisation,” he explains. “New highways, new infrastructure, and a new foreign policy.” Zaborowski is the Director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) and believes deeply in this change. Until recently he lived in Britain, one of two million mainly young Poles who had fled Poland for other EU countries. A year ago he won the competition for this job, returned home with his British wife and decided to stay.
Foreign policy in Poland is, point-blank, a matter of life and death. When four years ago, following the electoral defeat of the national Conservatives, Poland switched from being a eurosceptic troublemaker to an ardent supporter of European integration, and even began to talk normally with its age-old enemy, Russia.
Some Poles perceived the switch as a betrayal of national interests. The camps are entrenched in their positions: on the one side is the liberal government of Donald Tusk, who advocates a new international orientation, and facing it is the conservative right, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The tensions and mutual aversion dividing politicians, voters and the media could be cut with a knife.
Long live shale
The surprisingly rapid transformation of Poland into a pro-European country is due not just to the new generation of elites, but to other factors as well. One disappointment has been the evolution in recent years of American interests, which have shifted to other parts of the world. Secondly, there is an increasing economic confidence in the country, the only one in Europe to have weathered the global crisis without a recession: today growth stands at four percent, and — most significantly — vast reserves of shale gas have been discovered.
The third phenomenon is the change in public opinion. While in 2004 the European Union was viewed positively by barely 50 percent of Poles, that figure today is nearly 80 percent. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski can therefore rely on the fact that the vast majority of the population are in tune with his policies. So what made the Poles all of a sudden the biggest euro-optimists in the EU?…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Merkel Under Fire for Saudi Tank Deal
Germany’s centre-right coalition on Tuesday came under increasing fire from both the opposition and Angela Merkel’s own conservatives for a controversial arms deal to supply 200 Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia despite its questionable human rights record. News agency Reuters reported that most of the parliamentary leadership of Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) raised objections to the sale at a meeting on Monday. The environmentalist Greens planned to raise the issue in the Bundestag on Tuesday. News magazine Der Spiegel reported at the weekend that the German government had given the green light to the sale of Leopard 2 battle tanks, which would reap more than €1 billion for the country’s arms industry but reverse its long-held policy not to supply heavy weaponry to the Arab kingdom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin ‘Playing With Fire’ In Saudi Tank Deal
The German government’s approval of the sale of “Leopard” tanks to Saudi Arabia has outraged opposition parties in Berlin, and the ruling conservatives aren’t happy about it either. Commentators say the deal undermines principles of German foreign policy and could exacerbate the crisis in the Arab region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Industry is Skeptical About Major Rare-Earths Find
A recently-published paper by Japanese researchers reporting vast deposits of rare earth elements in the Pacific has made headlines across the world. In Germany, the news is being met with skepticism.
The deposits are between 3,500 to 6,000 meters below sea level. Although the scientists say that extraction will be easy due to the high concentration of minerals, most experts agree that it will be a number of years before mining can begin. “A mine like this takes five to seven years to start up, said Professor Franz Meyer, mineralogist from the University of Aachen. “Underwater mining can take even longer to get going.” There has been no indication from the researchers as to when mining could begin, and it is unclear who will have ownership of the reserves.
The electronics industry has been hit especially hard, as rare earths are used in a range of electronic items, from televisions, to LEDs, to mobile phones. “At the moment we have a very difficult situation,” said Andreas Gontermann, chief economist at Germany’s Electrical and Electronics Industry Organization (ZVEI). “We hope that through re-opening rare earth mines in Australia and Canada, things will become easier by mid-2012.” “For the future it could be interesting, but I don’t expect it will make any difference in the short to mid-term,” said Carsten Rolle, Energy and Commodities Chief at the Federation of German Industry (BDI).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iceland: A New Constitution, Via Facebook
Sydsvenskan Malmö
Begun after the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent fall of the government under popular pressure, Iceland’s citizen revolution continues. The most recent example is that all internet users are called upon to draft the country’s next constitution.
Ellen Albertsdóttir
During the financial crisis, Icelanders’ mistrust of the political world skyrocketed. The citizens are just as wary of political power as they are of banks. Confidence has fallen to a historic low. Last year, only 10.5% of Icelanders said they had “high confidence” in the Althing, the Icelandic Parliament. Many feel betrayed.
That’s why transparency must be the foundation of the new constitution being designed for the country. Since last April, the Althing’s Constitutional Council has published weekly accounts of the broad outline of its draft proposals on its internet site. Everybody is invited to share ideas on the site or through social networks.
The Constitutional Council is thus present on Facebook and Twitter and regularly posts videos on YouTube. Furthermore, its meetings are open to the public and broadcast live on its website and on Facebook. The idea of opening up to outside input, known as crowdsourcing, which consists of entrusting a task to a non-defined group of people, particularly on the internet, is gaining ground. Using it this way, however, is a first. On Facebook, the idea has garnered international enthusiasm.
Living in a country of only about 320,000 souls does have advantages in terms of flexibility. More than half of the inhabitants have a Facebook account — and those that don’t can participate in the debate on the Constitution Council’s website. The risk posed by this type of democratic project is that only an elite of passionate people will take part. But that’s how democracy functions; those that play truant carry no weight.
Icelanders are leaving their malfunctions behind them
At least, most people will have the chance to participate in the debate. According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development statistics, over 80% of Icelandic homes are equipped with broadband internet access. Furthermore, the final draft of the constitution must be approved by referendum before coming into force.
The new constitution has thus a better chance of responding to the citizens than the current constitution which was hastily stitched together. When Iceland proclaimed independence from Denmark in 1944, it, pretty much, kept the Danish Constitution.
This time the changes will be more far-reaching. In the proposed document there are strong measures to protect nature and the country’s common resources. The draft proposal emphasises the rights of future generations, which is undoubtedly a first in a constitution.
But this can also be seen as a response to the destruction of Iceland’s natural habitat by US aluminium producer, ALCOA. During the construction of the gigantic Kárahnjúkar hydroelectric complex in 2006 [destined to supply energy to ALCOA’s Fjardaal plant] a large section of wilderness was destroyed north of the Vatnajökull glacier. Before construction began, 50,000 Islanders demonstrated against the complex.
Since then, Icelanders have, unfortunately, not been lacking in reasons to protest. But we can also see the financial crisis as the opportunity to make a new start. Little by little, Icelanders are leaving their malfunctions behind them. What is being discussed today on Facebook is nothing less than a proposal for a new country: For a second chance.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan to Send Seven Trash Compactors to Naples
(AGI) Milan — Milan is sending seven trash compactors to Naples to help the city face its garbage collection emergency. Milan’s mayor, Giuliano Pisapia, said he spoke to Naples’ mayor, De Magistris, and deputy-mayor, Sodano, on the phone, who were said to be “pleased for the help.” Pisapia said, “ Milan has already contributed in the past to help all cities in difficulty. We analyzed the situation in depth and ensured that Milan can provide seven compacting machines.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Vatican Archive Contains Secret Papers on Armenian Genocide
(AGI) Rome — Monsignor Sergio Pagano said that Vatican documents on Turkey’s Armenian genocide will form part of an exhibition. The prefect of the Vatican archives explained that the papers will be included in an exhibition of documents from the Vatican secret archives at the Capitoline Museums, which opens next February. It will be the first time some of these precious pieces will have been put on display. The Monsignor was speaking during the presentation of the ‘Lux in arcane’ exhibition, this morning at the press room of the Holy See.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Damages Manoeuvre ‘Irks’ Northern League
Ministers ‘deeply upset’ by budget article
(ANSA) — Rome, July 5 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has provoked a sharp reaction from his coalition partner, the Northern League, after appearing to use the budget reform bill to excuse his company from a 750-million-euro damages award.
On Tuesday a media conference with Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti and Northern League ministers including Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Simplification Minister Roberto Calderoli, was cancelled in Rome amid oppposition to the legislative move which critics said would protect Berlusconi’s company, Fininvest.
Reliable sources told ANSA that the League ministers were surprised last Thursday when they discovered an article in the legislation and were “deeply upset” about the move.
The legal move, which the media has dubbed “Save Fininvest”, was criticised by Michele Vietti, vice-president of the Council of Magistrates (CSM), the judiciary’s self-governing body which said it violated the “principle of equality for all citizens before the law”.
Welfare minister Maurizio Sacconi, from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, said the 47-billion-euro financial reform package passed by the government was fair and the latest criticism arose from a “particularly poisonous political climate”.
“It should be evaluated on its own even if it also applies to the premier,” Sacconi said of the contested article.
The former head of the centre-left Democratic Party, Dario Franceschini, called for Justice Minister Angelino Alfano to clarify the government’s position on the law.
The Democratic Party, the main opposition group, claimed the ministers were forced to cancel their media conference on Tuesday because of the “tornado” that had erupted over the Berlusconi move. In August last year Alfano denied suggestions that the government was considering judicial reform to help the premier avoid paying the award to his long-time business rival Carlo De Benedetti for the early 1990s breakup of the Mondadori group.
“Where will I find the money if the judges sentence me?”, Berlusconi reportedly asked friends at the funeral of an Italian Senator in Milan on June 15.
The article at the centre of the law would freeze payments such as Fininvest’s payment until Italy’s highest appeal court, the Court of Cassation, has ruled on a final appeal.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Trash Fires Burn in Naples
Dump site unannounced
(ANSA) — Naples, July 5 — Firefighters battled around 30 separate trash fires in Naples early Tuesday where uncollected waste still covers much of the southern Italian city suburbs.
The blazes set by protesters came on the heels of a Monday announcement from Mayor Luigi de Magistris in which he said that the rubbish crisis was nearing an end, admitting however that a dump site had yet to be determined.
A central government measure passed last week permits the Campania region to export refuse to other parts of the country, yet it was strongly opposed by the powerful Northern League party.
“They’ve slammed the door in the face of Naples and Campania,” said de Magistris of the League before thanking the unnamed regions who have expressed willingness to help Naples and the surrounding regions.
The European Union recently chastised the Italian government and threatened sanctions over the thousands of tonnes of trash that have covered city streets and the surrounding province in recent weeks.
Armed police escorts had recently begun accompanying garbage trucks as exasperated protesters had resorted to tipping over dumpsters, blocking traffic and setting fire to the growing piles of waste choking the daily flow of city life.
Naples and the surrounding region of Campania have suffered similar crises periodically for a number of years.
The previous public outcry occurred last November when weeks of clashes and rising trash piles brought Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi to the city.
It was then that the premier, who won plaudits by sorting out a similar emergency in 2008, made a vow to clear the streets in three days.
But the problems have returned partly because of technical failures in local incinerators and the lack of investment in other landfill sites.
The issue is further complicated by the role of the local mafia, or Camorra, and claims that they have infiltrated waste management in Naples and dumped toxic waste on sites near residential areas.
The government has said it will present a plan within one month outlining a proposed solution to the crisis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
OIC Blasts Islamophobia in Holland
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has denounced anti-Islamic acts in the Netherlands, blaming a number of Dutch politicians for supporting Islamophobia.
The foreign ministers of OIC member states issued a statement during a Tuesday meeting in the Kazakh capital, Astana, condemning acts of Islamophobia in the Netherlands. The communiqué also expressed concern over the hateful and provocative remarks made by a number of Dutch politicians against Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). “Repeated cases of insult to individuals or their beliefs by people, organizations or radical groups, especially when supported by governments, are unacceptable and cause grave concern,” the OIC foreign ministers said.
The document, released during the 38th OIC ministerial conference in Astana, further called for immediate measures to prevent such acts. Meanwhile, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has issued a separate statement in which he condemned Dutch rightist lawmaker Geert Wilders for his insulting remarks against Islam, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and his wives.
“Wilders has taken a dangerous path, endangering the peace and harmony of civilizations by spreading hate against Islam and Muslims in his own country as well as in other European countries,” Ihsanoglu said in his statement. “Insult to Islam and to the honored Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), has reached a stage that can no longer be tolerated under any pretext, including freedom of speech,” he added. Ihsanoglu called on the Dutch government to take the necessary measures to stop the Islamophobia campaign by Wilders, and expressed concerns over Amsterdam’s silence on the issue which he said could endanger the country’s relations with the Muslim world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Six Uranium Traffickers Arrested in Moldova
“On Monday police arrested in Chisinau six people seeking a buyer for a small amount of uranium,” the country’s Prosecutor General, Vitalie Briceag, told AFP.
“The police have learnt that they had found a potential customer, a citizen of a Muslim country in Africa,” he said.
An interior ministry spokesperson said one of the suspects was in possession of a small container of Uranium-235.
The Moldovan authorities received assistance from Germany, Ukraine and the United States in their investigation, the prosecutor said.
[…]
Since the fall of the Communist bloc, experts have issued repeated warnings about the trafficking risks posed by former Soviet republics such as Moldova, an impoverished nation bordering EU member Romania and Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Euro-Islam | [Return to headlines] |
State Minister Calls for Denmark Holiday Boycott
With Denmark poised to reintroduce customs checks at its borders after decades of unfettered travel in Europe, a German state minister has called for people to boycott holidays to the Scandinavian country. Europe Minister and deputy premier in the state of Hesse, Jörg-Uwe Hahn, told daily Bild’s Tuesday edition that people should “vote with their feet” to show their disapproval of the Danish government’s policy, which many critics say breaches the Schengen Agreement allowing passport-free travel within most of Europe. Denmark is set to hold its first customs checks at its land borders with Germany and Sweden on Tuesday morning. “If Denmark reintroduces border controls in the holiday period, I can only advise doing a U-turn and taking a holiday rather in Austria or Poland,” said Hahn, a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party. This would constitute a “vote with the feet by which you would be able to show the Danish government what you think of their policy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Strauss-Kahn Bid for French Presidency is ‘Weakest Scenario’
A new complaint, filed in France for alleged attempted rape, may put an end to Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s presidential ambitions, despite strong approval ratings and the near-collapse of the US case.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Parents Guilty of Högsby ‘Honour’ Killing: Court
The parents of the 23-year-old man previously convicted of the murder of 20-year-old Abbas Rezai, are guilty of the crime, according to Göta Court of Appeal, sentencing them both to ten years in prison. Rezai was found dead in an apartment in Högsby in southern Sweden in November 2005. Police revealed at the time that he had been scalded with hot oil, hit with a variety of objects, and repeatedly stabbed in the back and chest, with the majority of the wounds sustained after his death. He was also almost entirely scalped and one of his fingers had been partially chopped off. The man was allegedly killed because of his relationship with the family’s 16-year-old daughter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Party Seeks Anti-Powerpoint Voters
An international movement vowing to rid to world of dull presentations and related software, such as Microsoft’s PowerPoint, has founded a political party in Switzerland. The Anti-PowerPoint-Party (APPP) said it fighting for people’s right not to be subjected to the use of PowerPoint and other presentation software. The party said it is battling on behalf of about 250 million citizens worldwide, including business executives and students, who are obliged to give or attend presentations — a requirement that the group dubs “a grievance.” “The goal of the movement is to decrease the number of boring presentations worldwide and that those who want to renounce PowerPoint will not have to justify themselves in the future,” said a note on the movement’s website. The APPP stresses that it does not want to abolish PowerPoint or other software entirely, only the obligation to use it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Saboteurs Among us: Danish Border Controls Shake EU Foundations
With the reintroduction of border controls, the Danes are calling into question one of the EU’s greatest achievements. Unfortunately, there has been little protest in Brussels and other European capitals. There is growing fatigue regarding European integration — and that is a bitterly disappointing trend. When he was still the governor of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber seized every opportunity to curse Brussels officialdom. So it ought to give pause to people that the same Stoiber is today lamenting a “renaissance of nationalism” in European capitals. “I am concerned that Europe is crumbling,” the former leader of Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party said in Brussels last week. He has been appointed by the European Commission to reduce EU bureaucracy.
The Schengen Agreement eliminating internal border controls is considered to be a milestone of European integration. No single European Union policy has generated as much enthusiasm among the citizens of Europe as the freedom of borderless travel. Driven by the EU-critical and latently xenophobic Danish People’s Party, the move by the Danish government this week to reintroduce border controls , even if only spot checks, is shaking the foundations of Europe. The development is serious, and is part of a trend. Anti-Europeans are on the rise in other parts of Europe as well. In Holland, a minority government is tolerated by right-wing populist Geert Wilders, in France President Nicolas Sarkozy is competing for votes in the upcoming election with Marine Le Pen of the Front National and in Italy, the right-wingers in Umberto Bossi’s Lega Nord are part of the government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Duchess of Cambridge at Risk of Anorexia Says Italian Expert
Rome, 4 July (AKI) — The 29-year-old Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, is at risk of the contracting the slimmers’ disease anorexia, according to an Italian expert.
“You only need look at the pictures from the current visit to Canada to see that she really has lost a lot of weight and that she’s bordering on anorexia,” Fabiola De Clercq told Adnkronos.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s royal tour of Canada and the United States is taking place from 30 June to 10 July.
Before her marriage in late April, the duchess went on the low-carbohydrate Dukan diet and De Clercq said she is concerned what effect the super-slender trend-setter could have on young women.
“As happens increasingly often in the case of fashion models, the young duchess’s appearances risk becoming an advert for anorexia,” said De Clerq, who is the founder of Italy’s Association for the Study and Research of Anorexia (ABA).
“Just look at how many very young female converts Pierre Dukan’s diet there were after the Royal Wedding.
“Today, even women aged 45-50 dream of being like svelte 15-year-olds,” she said.
De Clerq said she is worried a perilous message is being conveyed that it’s desirable to be thin at all costs, even at the expense of a woman’s health.
“When very young women enter the downwards spiral of eating orders, even their future fertility is at risk.
“The first warning before it is too late is when their periods stop — a phenomenon whose dangers are often underestimated,” De Clercq concluded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
5,200 Year-Old Rock Drawings of Earliest Ancient Egyptian Celebrations Unearthed
Egypt’s Antiquities Authority says archaeologists have unearthed a 5,200-year-old rock drawing depicting a royal festival during Ancient Egypt’s earliest dynasty. The ministry says the scenes were part of a series of rock drawings featuring hunting, fighting and celebrations along the banks of the Nile River. Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement Monday the scenes represent the first unearthing of a complete drawing of a royal festival during Dynasty Zero, when the earliest foundations of Ancient Egyptian culture are believed to have been formed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya After Gaddafi
By Victor Kotsev
TEL AVIV — Should the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) disband the Libyan security forces and army, like the United States did, controversially, in Iraq, or should it preserve them and hope that their loyalties will switch? Apparently, this is a question worrying top British officials, as Bloomberg reported recently [1].
That contingency plans for Libya’s future, once Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is removed, have advanced so far, is hardly a surprise; neither is the indirect suggestion that the Western-led alliance would then face a quagmire trying to pacify the country. What is significant is that those discussions are now becoming increasingly public, indicating a surprising confidence that Gaddafi’s fate is sealed.
Given the realities on the ground and the ever-increasing signs of NATO’s desperation, this show of confidence could mean one of two or three things. It could be a bluff, perhaps designed to put pressure on Gaddafi to “retire” [2]. Such a bluff is strengthened by the thus far unsuccessful, but also increasingly public, campaign to assassinate the colonel. Not long ago, American Admiral Samuel J Locklear became probably the first NATO official to admit that the alliance is actively targeting the Libyan leader [3].
Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Tuesday that Gaddafi had indeed agreed to step down. However, so far there has been no other confirmation of this, and meanwhile the rebels retracted their offer for him to stay in the country if he surrenders power [4].
It is hard to imagine such an agreement being implemented successfully, particularly after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity for him and a couple of others. The fate of Liberia’s Charles Taylor, who went into exile under similar circumstances but was eventually betrayed by Nigeria, is surely fresh on Gaddafi’s mind.
Louis Moreno-Ocampo, ICC’s chief prosecutor, promptly poured oil into the fire. “Gaddafi will face charges,” he said soon after the warrants were announced. “The arrest warrants are not going away … I don’t think we will have to wait for long.”
A bluff could also serve to pay lip service to hardliners among the alliance (the French government comes to mind) and the rebels, while preparing to settle for much less. In this scenario, a partition of Libya would be in the works, into a western part ruled by the colonel and an eastern part under the rebels’ control.
However, this option also faces considerable obstacles. In the long term, it suits neither the rebels (who do a poor job of covering up their weaknesses and who would thus constantly feel threatened) nor Gaddafi (who would likely wait for an opportune time to try to retake the east by force), and can be expected at best to be a temporary solution, a way for NATO to cut its losses.
Western officials are unlikely to be thrilled by the idea, either: for, once they declared that Gaddafi “must go”, accepting anything less will mean acknowledging a defeat. We can expect France — playing the bad cop in this arrangement — to resist this outcome vehemently.
It does not help that the battlelines are far from neat, and there are considerable pockets of rebel territory in the west, specifically around the coastal city of Misurata. This would make any division of the country difficult and messy, to say the least. It would increase the chances of a subsequent flare-up of violence.
Alternatively, NATO could be in the final preparation stages for a ground invasion of Libya; numerous analysts, including Russian government officials, have speculated for months that this is where the war is going.
A week or so ago, the air campaign passed the 100-day mark, and significant cracks are already visible in the coalition. Italy has threatened to pull out, ostensibly due to the heavy toll on civilians that the bombings are causing. The heated congressional debates in the United States betray little overall political appetite for further military action. Reports claim that some British officials, too, are becoming hesitant about the war. Costs are mounting. According to most assessments, it would be difficult for NATO to continue the campaign much past the end of the summer.
On the ground, the stalemate continues. Despite frequent reports of advances, the rebels seem unable to pose any significant threat to Gaddafi’s rule in the capital Tripoli. Time is not on their side, and not only due to NATO’s constraints: a growing number of reports question their own credibility and war crimes records as well as those of Gaddafi. If the deadlock is not broken relatively soon, they risk being both defeated and discredited, and their Western backers face a thorough humiliation…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Salafite Attack on Lawyers, Six Arrested
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 4 — Six Salafis who are held responsible for last week’s attack on several lawyers (of whom two have been injured) in Tunis were arrested today by the examining magistrate of the Tribunal of first instance of Tunis.
The attack took place outside the courthouse in the capital, two days after a Salafite group attacked and damaged film theatre AfricArt, in the centre of Tunis, where A film by Nadia El Fani was scheduled to be screened.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gas Pipeline Attack; Israel, National Interests Hit
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JULY 4 — The new attack on the gas pipeline which runs through northern Sinai (Egypt) marks a hit against the security of the countries in the region which it supplies, including Egypt and Israel, according to a top official from the Israeli Defence Ministry, Amos Ghilad. The latter, who has close ties with the higher-ups in Cairo, was speaking in an interview with ‘Radio Jerusalem’ .
“Gas is one of the main pillars of regional stability. It’s up to Egypt to do everything within its power to guarantee gas supplies in the future”. Ghilad believes Egypt’s authorities place great importance on the gas pipeline working properly; it has already been sabotaged three times in the last months, including last night at the Nagah pumping station, in the Bir Abdi region.
Ghilad also stated that Israel is expeditiously returning a certain number of buried corpses belonging to Palestinian militants to the Palestinian National Authority ; some of them have been buried in Israeli cemeteries for decades. This is a goodwill gesture toward Mahmoud Abbas, PNA leader , who has maintained a peaceful environment in the West Bank for some time now. A Palestinian official claims there should be 84 bodies in all, while Ghilad preferred not to mention any specific figures.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Ship to Gaza Express ‘Grief and Dismay’ At Greek Authorities
The Swedish-based Ship to Gaza rights group on Monday expressed “grief and dismay” at Greece’s decision to block the humanitarian flotilla from sailing to the Palestinian territory. In an open letter to Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreaou, the group said it was “with grief and dismay that we passengers and grass roots in the Swedish people’s movement Ship to Gaza received the decision of your government to block our ships from leaving Greek ports to go to Gaza.” “We are aware of the pressure that your country has been under in recent days, and feel sadness for the Greek people and the difficulties that you are enduring at this particular moment,” the statement said, noting the country’s efforts to avoid defaulting on its loans. “Our mission is completely peaceful,” the group added. The group pointed to the fact that they could address Papandreaou in Swedish, as he himself had been forced to seek refuge in the country in the 1960’s, after a military regime was established in Greece.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Israel’s Palace Coup Plotters
On Monday, saboteurs bombed the Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel for the third time since former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February. The move was just another reminder that Israel today faces the most daunting and complex threat spectrum it has ever seen.
From Egypt to Turkey to Iran to the international Left to the Obama administration, Israel faces a mix of military and political challenges that threaten its very existence on multiple levels. To meet these challenges, it is vital for the government and people of Israel to stand strong, unified and determined. The approaching storm will test our resilience as we have never been tested before…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Post 9/11 Wars Take Toll on Lives and Budget: Study
According to a recent study, the post 9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have killed 225,000 people. The study, conducted at Brown University, has also estimated that the wars have cost four trillion US dollars. “The cost of war does not end when the fighting does,” says Professor Catherine Lutz, project supervisor and co-editor of the new study at Brown University’s Watson Institute. Until now there has been no comprehensive framework for determining the financial and societal cost of the wars that have been going on since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. The authors are made up of a group of 20 economists, jurists and political scientists at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. They have estimated that the US has spent between 3.2 and four trillion US dollars (including interest) to date. In their study, the authors have included payments to veterans and extra medical costs for treatment of wounded soldiers as well as military help to Pakistan — the first time that military aid has been taken into account for such a study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Blocks Syrian Assets
Switzerland has blocked 27 million francs (€21.9 million) worth of assets linked to the Syrian regime, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said on Sunday. Financial sanctions and travel restrictions were imposed against 23 key players in the Syrian regime in May, including President Bashar al-Assad, intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk and interior minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Chaar, for their “involvement in the repression against demonstrators.” Contacted by AFP, SECO confirmed information first published in Swiss German paper ZentralSchweiz am Sonntag. “The total sum blocked is 27 million francs,” said a SECO spokeswoman, adding however that she could not specify to whom exactly the assets belonged. More than 1,360 civilians have been killed and thousands more arrested in the Syrian regime’s crackdown against pro-democracy protests since mid-March, according to human rights groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Council of Europe Concerned Over Jailed Deputies
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, JULY 4 — The imprisonment of dozens of local representatives legitimately elected in Turkey is a source of great concern for Congress — said the president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Keith Whitmore in a meeting of the surveillance committee held today in Smyrna. “We do not intend to interfere in the Turkish justice system, but we must insist on the fact that leaving the seats of local representatives elected for such long periods vacant is not in line with what has been sanctioned by the European Charter on Local Autonomy ratified by Turkey,” underscored Whitmore. “When such a large number of elected representatives are prevented from carrying out their duties and cannot therefore follow through on the mandate they have received from citizens, the democratic process is undoubtedly weakened,” the president added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Christian Hospital Under Attack in Pakistan
A group of Muslims tries to seize forcibly a Christian hospital in Taxila, 32 kilometres from the capital Islamabad by making false claims with police. The intervention of Christian leaders and Bishop Rufin Anthony stops the threat.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — An attempt by a group of Muslims to take over the Christian Hospital in Taxila was recently foiled. On Saturday, Malik Nur Muhammad, Malik Riaz and Malik Abdul Razzak, influential local Muslims, filed a First Information Report (FIR) with police against the administration of the hospital. The facility, which is located almost 32 kilometres from Islamabad, was established by United Presbyterian Church. They complainants say they bought the hospital and accuse the administrators of refusing to hand it over. They also accuse the current administration of blasphemy but did not include such an accusation in their original application.
After filing their complaint, Malik Nur Muhammad, Malik Riaz and Malik Abdul Razzak went to the Christian hospital to have the administrators arrested based on their charges. Four members of the staff were held by police. However, the hospital director Ashchenaz M. Lall rejected the claims made by the Muslims.
“The property was not sold,” he said. “Malik Nur and his sons, with the help of a local politician from the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) fabricated a case against the administration of the Christian hospital. The Christian hospital was established in 1922 by missionaries from the United Presbyterian Mission. Only the Presbyterian board holds the right to sell the property. This is an attempt to take over a missionary property by force.”
The Catholic Bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi Rufin Anthony went to the Christian Hospital in Taxila and contacted various Christian activists and leaders.
Upon the involvement of the Catholic Church, the district coordination officer (DCO) in Rawalpindi, Saqib Zafar, also travelled to Taxila where he ordered an immediate investigation into the matter.
“The initial investigation has revealed that the claims made by Malik Nur Muhammad are false,” DCO Zafar said. “There are loopholes in the FIR. It was registered on the backing an influential politician belonging to the PML-N. We will make sure that the culprits are arrested.”
“This is not a first attempt to take over Church or missionary property by force,” Bishop Rufin Anthony told AsiaNews. “The Christian Hospital in Taxila has been targeted by various groups in the past,” the prelate explained.
“The Catholic Church has always stood by the Churches that have been attacked by extremists. We are closely monitoring the situation and I am in constant touch with the authorities. We demand the government arrest the culprits and set an example so that such incidents are not repeated.”
Samson Simon Sharaf, principal of St. Mary’s College and a Catholic activist, also condemned the incident and visited the Christian Hospital in Taxila. “Religious sentiments against Christians were exploited for petty self-interest,” he said, “and could have led to large scale rioting and arson like in Gojra. A big fiasco was averted” (see Fareed Khan, “Eight Christians burned alive in Punjab,” in AsiaNews, 1 August 2009).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Hostages Moved to Pakistan Badlands
A Swiss couple kidnapped on holiday in Pakistan have been smuggled into the tribal belt on the Afghan border, a notorious haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda, a local official said Monday. Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 28, were abducted on Friday while driving through impoverished and sparsely populated Baluchistan province, which borders both Iran and Afghanistan, in southwest Pakistan. “We have information the Swiss couple have been shifted to the tribal areas,” provincial home secretary Zafarullah Baloch told AFP. The semi-autonomous region has been dubbed by Washington as the most dangerous place on Earth and a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda. Parts of the mountainous badlands are subject to American drone strikes against Taliban and Al-Qaeda commanders, and on the ground the region is considered an intelligence “black hole”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Writer Kia Abdullah Mocks Death of Gap Year Students on Twitter
Kia Abdullah, a writer for The Guardian, has sparked widespread condemnation after posting comments on Twitter in which she mocked the deaths of three gap year students in Thailand.
The 29-year-old British Bangladeshi indicated that she felt no sympathy for the three teenagers, who died in a bus crash in the early hours of Tuesday morning, because they were middle class. Describing their travels as a “gap yaar”, Miss Abdullah even said she smiled when she heard the news because two of the young men killed had double barrelled names. Her comments immediately sparked widespread revulsion on the social networking site, with hundreds of people describing her as “sick” and “disgusting”. Bruno Melling-Firth, Conrad Quashie and Max Boomgaarden-Cook, died instantly when the coach they were travelling in to the north of Thailand was involved in a collision with another bus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Women Show Taste for Fast Cars and Whisky.
Reader Theodore Simon writes: “I can attest to that. Here’s a picture I took on the streets of Beijing a few weeks ago, as I watched this woman try to drive her brand new Ferrari off the showroom floor and into the street. She was ultimately defeated by the planter box on the left, which she wasn’t able to maneuver around. And get a load of the roadster in the second picture, which I took through the window of a showroom near my hotel. There were a half dozen even more exotic models on display. Note the FFF dealership name plate on the windshield. There’s lots of money being spent in Beijing and in the other large cities of China. China has become the ultimate consumer society.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Sweetmaker Confirms Nestle Talks
Chinese sweetmaker Hsu Fu Chi confirmed on Monday that it was in acquisition talks with Swiss food giant Nestle, in what could be one of the biggest takeovers of a Chinese company by a foreign competitor. Hsu Fu Chi, listed on the Singapore stock exchange, requested that trading of its stocks be suspended from Monday “to avoid abnormal fluctuation over the company’s shares price and maintain shareholders’ interests.” At the end of the trading day in Singapore, the Chinese firm, which has a market capitalisation of about $2.6 billion, issued a statement to confirm negotiations with Nestle.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Rare Earths Deposit Gives Hope to Technologies Industry
Japanese researchers have reported the discovery of vast deposits of rare earth minerals in international waters east and west of Hawaii, and east of Tahiti in French Polynesia at 3,500 to 6,000 metres below sea level. Currently, China supplies around 95 percent of the world’s demand for rare earth minerals. Over the past few years, it has tightened its grip on the precious resource by restricting exports. This has sparked an increasing number of international search and mining projects for the minerals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vast Reserves of Vital Rare Earths Found in Ocean Bed
The deep sea gold rush has just got more frenzied. Copious reserves of “rare earth” mineral deposits have turned up in the sediments in the floor of the Pacific Ocean. These metals are vital to many green-energy and electronic technologies, such as hybrid car batteries. They were thought to be in short supply: a recent US Geological Survey estimate put world reserves at 100 million tonnes. But now Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo, Japan, and his team have found the minerals in such high density that a single square kilometre of ocean floor could provide one-fifth of the current annual world consumption. Two regions near Hawaii and Tahiti might contain as much as 100 billion tonnes.
Though some rare-earth deposits are found in Russia, other former Soviet states and the US, China controls 97 per cent of the world’s supply. Mining from the ocean floor will open up this market, which will be welcomed by many governments and companies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights Farce: Meet the Serial Criminal Who Cannot be Deported
Abdi Sufi, a serial criminal whose legal appeal has prevented Britain deporting hundreds of undesirable immigrants, is already back on the streets.
Mr Sufi, 24, has at least 17 convictions for crimes including burglary, fraud and indecent exposure since he entered the UK illegally eight years ago. But an attempt by the Home Office to send him back to his homeland of Somalia has been thwarted by judges in Strasbourg, who ruled last week that he would face the risk of inhumane treatment if he was returned. He is now living freely in London. The ruling in the key test case means that more than 200 further Somalis appealing against deportation, most of them convicted criminals, will be able to remain in Britain. Critics say the ruling illustrates how human rights legislation is being exploited by lawyers and foreign criminals to make a mockery of British justice. Sufi’s case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights by the AIRE Centre, a legal advice body which has received funding from the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the European Commission. Because the Home Office lost, both sides’ costs will be paid by British taxpayers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spaniards Flock to Germany, Many Eastern Europeans Stay Away
Germany’s economic upswing is attracting more highly skilled workers from Poland and southern European countries like Spain, while low-skilled workers from eastern Europe are avoiding the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top Environment Official to Visit Lampedusa Island in Wake of Migrants and Squalor
Palermo, 5 July (AKI) — Italy’s environment minister Stefania Prestigiacomo was on Tuesday due to visit the tiny southern island of Lampedusa to oversee action to clean up the island after thousands of migrants camped there earlier this year in filthy conditions.
The native Sicilian and ally of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi visits Lampedusa during a huge drop in summer tourism. The local economy has suffered as visitors stay away after seeing months of television images of the island inundated by waves of illegal immigrants arriving aboard boats from Northern Africa where where anti-government uprisings have shaken much of the region.
Prestigiacomo will be met by local Lampedusa and Sicilian officials and will pay a visit to the island’s sole migrant detention centre which has suffered from severe overcrowding. Designed to hold a maximum of 850 people, migrants have been forced to share the limited space with twice this number, or more.
In March, Italy drew international criticism when thousands of migrants were forced to camp in the open for weeks on the island in squalid, cold and unhygienic conditions, a situation that also created tensions with the island’s 5,000 inhabitants whose livelihoods depend on tourism and fishing.
The unrest that has hit North Africa and much of the Arab world this year has triggered an influx of migrants to southern Europe.
More than 41,000 migrants have reached Lampedusa since the start of the year.
After a surge of Tunisian arrivals in early 2011 following the unrest in the North African country that toppled longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power, most migrants now reaching Lampedusa and nearby islands have set sail from Libya.
Most hail from sub-Saharan Africa and are more likely to gain political asylum than Tunisians, who are considered economic migrants.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Integral Challenges Physics Beyond Einstein
ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has provided results that will dramatically affect the search for physics beyond Einstein. It has shown that any underlying quantum ‘graininess’ of space must be at much smaller scales than previously predicted. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity describes the properties of gravity and assumes that space is a smooth, continuous fabric. Yet quantum theory suggests that space should be grainy at the smallest scales, like sand on a beach. One of the great concerns of modern physics is to marry these two concepts into a single theory of quantum gravity. Now, Integral has placed stringent new limits on the size of these quantum ‘grains’ in space, showing them to be much smaller than some quantum gravity ideas would suggest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
0 comments:
Post a Comment