The IMF has announced that it will sell 403 tons of gold — worth about $13 billion at current prices — to increase its lending capacity. It says that it will accomplish this without disrupting the gold market, although how announcing its plans in advance will help it achieve this goal is not clear.In other news, the famous Italian escort Patrizia D’Addario — who is reportedly the former lover of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — is being investigated for smuggling €1.5 million into Dubai in collusion with a prominent Italian politician. Miss D’Addario allegedly concealed the money in her corset, and used it to buy a car.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, JP, Sean O’Brian, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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IMF to Sell Over 403 Tons of Gold
The International Monetary Fund said its executive board endorsed the sale of 403 tons of gold, worth an estimated 13 billion dollars, to boost its lending capacity to poor countries.
The IMF said in a statement the sales would be “in a volume strictly limited to 403.3 metric tons, with these sales to be conducted under modalities that safeguard against disruption of the gold market.”
[Comments from JD: Be sure to read some of the interesting comments.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Euro: Why Britain is Still Better Off Out
Living under EU rules would have left U.K. in worse shape with few options
Had we joined monetary union in 1999, interest rates set by the European Central Bank would have been near 2 per cent during the mid-years of this decade. This would have been like pouring petrol on the housing fire. The credit bubble would have been even worse.
Once the bubble burst, the UK authorities would have been left with few instruments to cushion the downturn and manage the highest household debt burden in history. Britain would now be facing the sort of debt-deflation spiral under way in Ireland and Spain.
By keeping its freedom of action, Britain has been able to launch “quantitative easing” (printing money) the most radical monetary experiment tried in a modern industrial nation. We do not know yet how this will end. Yet what is clear is that Bank of England was able to act with stunning speed after the debacles of Northern Rock, Lehman Brothers, and AIG, slashing rates to 0.5 per cent. It is buying almost a third of all UK government gilts in order to prevent a repeat of the early 1930s when the money supply was allowed to contract.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bacteria Linked to University Scientist’s Death
September 19, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — There was word Saturday that the death of a University of Chicago scientist may be linked to a bacteria that causes the plague.
The researcher, who died Sunday, studied the genetics of harmful bacteria, including a weakened strain of yersinia pestis.
The University of Chicago says there doesn’t appear to be any threat to the public, and no other illness related to the case has been reported.
The weakened strain does not require the safety precautions associated with working on virulent strains. The modified strain of “y-pestis” has been approved by the Centers for Disease Control for routine laboratory studies, and it is not known to cause illness in healthy adults.
The departments of public health for both Chicago and the state, as well as the CDC, are investigating.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: Remembering Irving Kristol
Funny what you learn from obituaries. Since Irving Kristol passed away at age 89 a couple of days ago, I have picked up a few things I never knew about his career and “neoconservatism” during the time I worked for Irving as an assistant editor — intern — at The Public Interest magazine, then in its original midtown Manhattan location at 10 E 52nd Street.
That was back in the fall of 1983. I was straight out of college, and the job paid about $10,000 a year, plus lunch (a very large lunch, usually from Burger Heaven across the street), and the occasional lottery ticket purchased with office petty cash on the condition, laid down by Irving, that if we won and all became millionaires, none of us could quit our jobs. And it was a great job — lots of reading, talking, smoking (too much) going on in that one room that contained the entire magazine staff, including, of course, Irving.
It was cosy, all right, but never claustrophobic, probably because of the huge office windows onto Manhattan. Irving sat at a desk in the corner, facing into the room…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
DNC Promises ‘Rain of Hellfire’ Against Health Reform Opponents
The increasingly aggressive Democratic National Committee on Friday launched a new “Call ‘Em Out” website targeting prominent Republicans for statements they have made about President Barack Obama’s health reform plans.
“Help debunk the outrageous lies and misinformation about health reform,” the site says.
DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan said: “The message to opponents of change who would lie or misrepresent the truth should be clear. We are going to respond forcefully and consistently with the facts, and you will no longer be able to peddle your lies with impunity. Through tools like ‘Call ‘Em Out,’ you will be met with a rain of hellfire from supporters armed with the facts and you will be held to account.”
[…]
The new site’s opening target is Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. A button urges visitors to “CALL PAWLENTY,” then gives his office number at the Minnesota Capitol.
[…]
Alex Conant, a Pawlenty adviser, replied: “Seriously, why is the DNC’s attack squad so obsessed with T-Paw recently? The DNC’s attacks are a transparent attempt to avoid a serious discussion with Governor Pawlenty and other Republicans over how to fix health care. Rather than blindly trying to undermine Pawlenty, national Democrats could learn something from his record of balancing budgets and reforming health care without raising taxes.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Slams Kansas Town for Censoring Citizen
Rules ban on comments on gambling’s ‘social ills’ violated First Amendment
A federal judge has ruled that town officials holding a public meeting to talk about a massive casino project proposed for their area cannot ban statements about the “social ills” of gambling if they allow discussion of the industry’s benefits.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Monte Belot in Wichita, Kan., concluded that officials in the city of Mulvane violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when the mayor ordered police to escort a known gambling critic out of a public meeting.
Mayor Jim Ford had announced before the meeting that no discussion of “social ills” would be allowed, but then he allowed discussion of social benefits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Union: Don’t Write Up Teachers’ Misbehavior
Negotiations demand staff be given warnings before official reprimand
It’s like a “Get out of jail free” card for everyone.
The teachers’ union is set to seek a free pass for all its misbehaving members in ongoing contract talks with the city, bargaining documents show.
Among the items contained in the teachers’ six-page wish list is a provision that would prohibit teachers from being written up for misconduct unless they had already received a counseling memo — akin to a warning — about their behavior.
Written documentation, by contrast, can be used as evidence against teachers in disciplinary hearings.
But a Queens elementary-school principal, who insisted on anonymity, said adding the extra padding was “simply ludicrous.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baroness Has Been Tonga’d! Border Agency Smash Their Way Into Flat of Attorney General’s Cleaner
[Note: For non-UK readers the title refers to a popular fizzy drink, Tango, which used to run an aggressive advertising campaign featuring victims who had been ‘tango’d.’]
Officers from the UK Border Agency last night dramatically raided the home of the illegal immigrant Attorney General Baroness Scotland employed as a housekeeper.
Four immigration officials in blue boilersuits swooped on Tongan cleaner Loloahi Tapui’s flat in West London just after 3pm, breaking down the door with a 3ft metal battering ram. They spent two hours searching the flat for evidence and are understood to have left with a number of documents, which they sealed in clear bags before transferring them into black holdalls..
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Defence: Today Italian/Maltese Exercise in Sicily
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 18 — Today marks the start of the multinational inter-force ‘Canale2009’ military exercise in the naval and air space facing the bay of Augusta (Sicily). The aim of the operation is to promote cooperation, security and stability in the Mediterranean, with special attention on the area interested by the Countries that signed up for the ‘5+5’ initiative. This will be the 16th edition of the yearly exercise which is set up and coordinated by the Italian armed forces and which also involves sea and air units from other coastal Countries. In particular, invitations have been extended to Countries that signed up for the ‘5+5’ initiative, and Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia have accepted the invitation. Scheduled training activities will focus on combined (i.e. multinational) operations which include marine search and rescue, surveillance of sea areas, and control of merchant traffic to counter illegal activities. Special attention will be paid to the training of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units in underwater activities, units leading inspections on merchant vessels and, generally speaking, anti-piracy activities.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Europe: Will Ireland Do the Indecent Thing?
As the republic prepares to vote — again — on the Lisbon Treaty, Ruth Dudley Edwards explores its love-hate relationship with the EU.
In the bleak Ireland of the early Sixties, the playwright Brendan Behan suggested that the republic should be returned to the Queen with a note apologising for the state successive independent governments had reduced it to. Owing to the then profound anti-Britishness of the Irish public, few agreed, but it is a sentiment one often hears expressed these days, although about Brussels rather than London: “We’ve made such a mess of things, the EU couldn’t do worse.”
And therein lies the biggest problem for the No campaign. When the first referendum was held in June 2008, the Celtic Tiger was sick, but its condition was not thought to be terminal. Still confident after years of prosperity, voters were listening to concerns that Lisbon might, for instance, threaten Ireland’s traditional military neutrality, abolish its permanent commissioner, impose abortion and strike at the incentives for foreign investment through the introduction of tax harmonisation. Fifteen months on, the Tiger is dead and arrogance and hubris have given way to fear.
Does the EU club have a future?
Ireland will hold a new referendum on October 2, and early polls suggest most Irish voters will back the Lisbon Treaty this time round. The treaty’s aim is to improve decision-making within the EU, although opponents believe it will concentrate too much power in Brussels. For it to come into force, all 27 member states must ratify it.
Since the first referendum, there has been a stream of revelations about nest-feathering in high places; about the bankers, politicians, regulators and megalomaniac property developers who have destroyed the economy; about politicians’ expenses that make our MPs look like ascetics; and about waste on a breathtaking scale. The terrified electorate views virtually all of its politicians as corrupt and inept and the country is reverting to its traditional stance of praying for salvation from the Continent.
It was inevitable that a small island on the extreme west of Europe has been, since the Middle Ages, a pawn in bigger boys’ wars. From the Irish perspective, her neighbours were usurpers and land-grabbers. To the English, Ireland was a backdoor through which European enemies might force their way, so it was essential to bring its inhabitants to heel and brutally discourage foreign incursions.
If early clashes between the neighbours were essentially about turf, the English Reformation and subsequent attempts to impose Protestantism on the Irish people added religious sectarianism to the mix, exacerbated in the early 17th century by the arrival of Anglican and Scots Presbyterian planters in the north of the island.
The Irish people, prone to romanticism and self-delusion, encouraged continental powers to intervene militarily and — despite evidence to the contrary — perceived them as idealistic liberators. During the reign of Elizabeth I, a religious crusade of Italian and Spanish troops — financed by the Pope and the King of Spain — backed Irish rebellions in the hope of speeding the restoration of a Catholic monarchy in England. Louis XIV helped the Catholic James II’s Irish campaign against his son-in-law and successor, William of Orange. It was French designs on England rather than notions of universal brotherhood that had them dispatch armies to Ireland in 1796 and 1798 in support of the republicans. Like all continental forays, this was unsuccessful. Although from the 19th century the focus changed to Irish-America, revolutionaries sought German help during both world wars: in 1940, the IRA chief of staff died on a U-boat.
It was the papacy by now that was the ordinary Irish Catholic’s link with Europe. “A bad day today,” observed a friend in the early Seventies to his Cork newsagent. “Yes, but I believe it’s sunny in Rome,” she replied. Independent Ireland was an insular, protectionist and repressive theocracy, haemorrhaging its young and economically dependent on Britain as its main export market. Deliverance came from the EEC, lukewarm though it was about taking on an impoverished, socially backward island which had been neutral in the war. Ireland would demonstrate its pro-Europe DNA with an 83 per cent Yes vote in the 1972 referendum on membership: Denmark’s was 63 per cent.
The republic fell in love with the sugar-daddy it joined in 1973 and was lavished with financial benefits, especially for agriculture, infrastructure, trade and industry:construction sites were proudly awash with blue and gold EU flags proclaiming the source of the funding. There was a huge party on the Dublin streets in January 1999 when the country joined the euro.
It was not just financial liberation: Ireland was dragged out of entrenched and highly discriminatory social conservatism. It was, for instance, because of the EU that the ban on married women working in the public service was raised, and, though it took until 1993, it was the European Court of Human Rights that forced the legalisation of homosexuality. With the simultaneous meltdown of the Irish Roman Catholic church over revelations of child abuse, the new mores became widely acceptable. And the appearance of Ireland was transformed by immigrants from Eastern Europe.
Even more important, membership of the EU had given the country enormous self-assurance. The Irish diplomatic service punched way above its weight, as did most politicians dispatched to Europe: skilled in milking resources for constituency advantage, they proved just as effective at extracting money from EU budgets for the voters back home.
Coupled with the emergence in the early Nineties of a phenomenal growth rate, Ireland was now the EU’s favourite child. In the Commission, Ireland and Britain were equal partners, so the obsession with the wickedness of the old enemy began to dissolve, and slowly the British and Irish governments began to develop levels of trust that would in time give birth to the Good Friday Agreement.
Yet there were still enormous cultural differences. In the Nineties, at an Anglo-Irish conference exploring attitudes to the EU, the English spoke of building up the institutions soberly and brick-by-brick, while the Irish were preoccupied with the vision thing, with allusions to the need to recreate the Holy Roman Empire. Although shivering in the Atlantic, the republic behaves like a Mediterranean country: along with high-sounding rhetoric (a No vote would represent a “spiritual withdrawal” from Europe, the Minister for Finance said recently) comes the solid materialism of the peasant and a disinclination to follow EU rules that don’t suit. “Here’s a metaphor for the EU,” said an Irish friend last weekend. “We have a motorway system which it has largely funded, we have signed up to its regulations about the need for regular rest stops, yet there is nowhere on the network where you can pull in and rest, eat or even get petrol.”
There is little rational discussion on Lisbon going on now, not least because the No groups are mainly republicans, the far-Left and Right-wing Catholics, many of whom are making claims about the EU’s wicked plans that are too crazy to be taken seriously. A poster reading “€1.84 minimum wage after Lisbon?’ — a reduction of 6.81 euros from the present level — is arresting, but the message unconvincing. Ukip has made things worse with leaflets which, inter alia, warn that Turkey’s accession would bring about mass Muslim migration, and have enabled the Yes side to dismiss the party as racist. Nigel Farage, who has thrown himself into the campaign, exemplifies the kind of Englishman the Irish particularly like to hate. Much more attractive to the Irish psyche is the Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney proclaiming that Europe is “more than a bureaucracy, it’s an ideal”.
For the most part, the Yes side — backed by all the establishment parties, the vast majority of business, unions and most of the media —implies that No voters are lunatics bent on destroying the country. The subliminal message is that Ireland should keep its head down and humbly hold out the begging bowl to its Continental betters. Otherwise terrible punishments will follow. Last week, The Irish Times carried an interview with European Commissioner José Manuel Barroso in which he predicted that a No vote could lose Ireland its commissioner, create uncertainly about its place in Europe, threaten jobs and investment and damage the economy.
Charlie McCreevy, Ireland’s commissioner, recently said cheerily that 95 per cent of EU member countries would vote against Lisbon if they had the chance. Some serious voices, like the multi-millionaire businessman Declan Ganley, of Libertas, who fronted the last No campaign and is pro-EU but anti-Lisbon, are trying to force a debate about this democratic deficit as well as about the inevitable loss of sovereignty and accountability that the treaty will bring. “There’s a group-think which emanates from Dublin which is utterly unquestioning of any diktat which comes from Brussels,” he says, noting ruefully that no major politicians will debate with him. His message is that it is Ireland’s duty to save the whole EU from a bad treaty, but the scared public are in no mood to think beyond immediate national interest and its attention anyway is focused on whether the proposed National Asset Management Agency (Nama) will bail out the banks or lead to national bankruptcy.
That moral giant and Europhobe Kevin Myers explained last week why — despite his admiration for Ganley — the No campaign’s scaremongering had caused him to change sides: Ireland was populated by “inept and unrepentant thieves” and he would rather be governed by “a parcel of fork-tongued Euro-reptiles” than by the nauseating, corrupt, useless Irish governing class. Truly, if they win the Yes vote, Irish politicians can take the credit.
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EU’s King Johns Trample Over Magna Cartacharles Clover
Bad King John is a largely forgotten figure, banished to a bit part in Robin Hood films as the man who told the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham to soak the poor as well as the rich. But the document his barons forced him to sign on the island of Runnymede continues to prick consciences wherever justice is denied.
The most famous clause of what was known as the Charter of Liberties when John signed it in 1215 says: “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, nor will we proceed with force against him, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”
Thanks to Magna Carta, citizens may take their governments to court if they believe they have misapplied the law in Britain, the United States, and in the vast majority of other countries. They may not do this, however, in the European Union, something most of its 500m citizens do not realise. When they do realise, they are shocked.
Let me shock you. From the outside, it certainly looks as though individuals and citizens’ groups are entitled to their day in the European Court of Justice, but this is an illusion. In practice, since a first test case concerning the import of clementines in 1962, the court has applied a rigorous and narrow test, insisting that all who wish to challenge an EU decision must demonstrate that it is of “direct and individual concern” to them. It has proved difficult for individuals to argue in practice that a law applies uniquely to them. And it has been almost impossible for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to test whether the law has been applied correctly on behalf of their fellow citizens.
Perhaps it is because we British have come only slowly to the realisation that we are EU citizens, destined to walk through the blue channel with Czechs and Austrians, that this absence of Magna Carta rights in the EU has taken so long to come to a head. Or perhaps we needed events to wake us up.
This year, two environmental groups, the WWF and Greenpeace, tried to put the EU on the spot over the application of its own laws, contending that they had not been applied correctly in the handing out of quotas for overfished North Sea cod and bluefin tuna. (The quotas vastly exceeded those advised by scientists.) Both cases were turned down by the European court on “standing” — the right to participate — one at the beginning of the process, one on appeal. In another case before the court, campaigners are challenging an EU regulation that will increase the levels of pesticide allowed in food. The pesticides case also rests on “standing” as to whether the court will hear the case at all, which is unlikely. As EU law moves tortuously slowly, an appeal is unlikely to conclude before 2014.
There is virtually no other jurisdiction in the world where the decisions of unelected officials affecting the environment and vital resources such as fish, food or fuel are immune from challenge in this way. The super-bureaucrats who set up the European Coal and Steel Community long before Britain joined wanted to close the floodgates to vexatious claims from single-interest pressure groups. But in continuing to deny citizens and their organisations the opportunity to review whether the executive is behaving lawfully in important matters — whether administering the EU budget or the reformed common fisheries policy — the European court now appears to be undermining democracy, accountability and, yes, rule of law.
This Wednesday promises to be the EU’s Runnymede moment. An obscure committee in Geneva is charged with applying an equally obscure treaty, the Aarhus Convention, which deals with the right to information and access to justice on environmental matters and applies to members from 43 countries in Europe and the former Soviet bloc. The compliance committee of the treaty must decide whether the European court was right to deny WWF access to court over the cod quota, particularly as the WWF was a member of a statutory EU body, a regional advisory committee, at the time. The discussion promises to be lively.
Aarhus says that NGOs should have the right to go to court to challenge decisions on “specific activities” if the NGOs have played a part in the decision-making process. The European commission’s lawyers have been primed to counterattack with impenetrable technicalities, but it looks as though Aarhus may have the court over a barrel. And a jolly good thing too.
On my travels around the world to study the mismanagement of the oceans, it became clear that United States waters were better managed than those of Europe (29% of stocks overfished compared with 88% in the EU). Why? Because citizens’ groups had improved the law by bringing action against the government whenever national fisheries law was not applied or was worded ambiguously. There is no reason to suppose this kind of improvement should not happen in areas other than fisheries, such as the EU’s lumbering agricultural policy and even its budget. It just needs the King Johns of Brussels to be kept up to the mark this week by the barons of Aarhus.
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France: Trial Appeal for Paris Metro 1995 Attacks
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 16 — The trial appeal of Algerian Rachid Ramda opened today in Paris. Mr. Ramda was sentenced in 2007 for his role in the three terrorist attacks in the metro of the French capital, in 1995, which killed 8 people and caused 200 casualties. Mr. Ramda, 40, an Islamic fundamentalist, is now serving time in the Fresnes prison, and was sentenced to life in prison in first-instance for abetment of murder and attempted murder in the July 25, 1995 terrorist attack at the Saint-Michel Metrò station, in which 8 people were killed and 150 more injured, and for the attacks in October 2005 in the Maison Blanche and Musee d’Orsay stations, which caused a few dozen casualties.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Voting by Fear is a Sorry State
Confused? You should be. According to the Yes side, if we reject the Lisbon treaty at the second time of asking, the cost of financing our international borrowing will increase and investors will uproot their operations before decamping to friendlier climes. The No side is equally apocalyptic, predicting that a Yes vote will result in abortion on demand, conscription into a European army and a lowering of the minimum wage.
Trade unions on the Yes side are backing the treaty because it secures workers’ rights; trade unions on the No side are opposing the treaty because it undermines workers’ rights. The Yes side argues that voters in Spain and Luxembourg have already passed the treaty in a referendum. The No side counters that the French and Dutch rejected it when they were given the opportunity to vote.
Even Charlie McCreevy, Ireland’s European commissioner, is in a tizzy. Deeply sceptical about Lisbon first time around, the poster boy for the No side last year now says that his reservations are outweighed by the gamble involved in rejecting the treaty, citing our “fragile economic circumstances”.
It is that economic “argument” — really, fear of the unknown — that seems to be finding most resonance among voters. The latest opinion poll shows support for the Lisbon treaty running at 67% when “don’t knows” are excluded, with overwhelming support among the 35+ age groups and the white-collar middle classes. While the No side anticipated that dire economic conditions would leave the government struggling for support, many frightened voters see this as the best reason to give in to Brussels. Not for the first time, self-interest is proving to be a powerful motivator.
Declan Ganley’s decision to re-enter the fray on the No side has not made any appreciable difference. There is still no sign of his Libertas organisation on the ground, either in terms of posters or volunteers. Mr Ganley is now playing second fiddle to Coir, which has been campaigning diligently for months.
If fear is winning the day, then that has much to do with veiled threats that rejecting Lisbon will mean this country is confined to some non-existent second tier of EU membership, or will endanger our membership of the euro. Neither claim is true. While a No vote would raise unjustified questions about our relationship with Europe (a referendum means voters have a choice, does it not?), it would also make the EU think again about how it wants to manage its expansion. It might even encourage the EU to engage in greater consultation with the 500m citizens who are increasingly subject to its rules and regulations.
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Ireland: Lisbon Lies ‘Will Not be Tolerated’
High Court judge and head of the Lisbon Referendum Commission Mr Frank Clarke has warned that those telling lies will have “manners put on them”, and said he will actively intervene in the campaign if provoked.
The bold stance being taken by the respected judge is seen as a key development in a campaign that continues to be surrounded by confusion.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Judge Clarke said that any erroneous statements must and will be clarified and he intends using the full Commission budget of €4.5m to ensure the greatest level possible of understanding. “Our job is to counteract any misapprehensions that are out there about what is or what is not in the treaty. We’ll clarify issues, and if the effect is that it puts manners on people well,” he said.
Setting out his stall, Judge Clarke has this weekend made a new intervention to counter a number of untruths being presented by both sides of the campaign.
He said that the declaration that the minimum wage in Ireland would fall below €2 was false. This has been a major slogan of the Coir No campaign.
“The Irish Government sets Ireland’s minimum wage. There is absolutely nothing in the Lisbon Treaty that gives the EU power to set the minimum wage at all, full stop.”
Commenting on the dangers of intervening directly into a campaign, Judge Clarke said, “While we are being careful not to comment on specific parties, when an issue comes up like the minimum wage then we are more than happy to intervene.”
However, he also said that claims that voting Yes for the Lisbon Treaty is a vote for jobs is misleading as the treaty itself contains no guarantees for this. “Claims that ratifying the treaty will affect job levels are political claims. The treaty itself contains no provisions on this,” he added.
The Commission last month issued documentation correcting many of the untruths peddled during the last campaign on issues like abortion, neutrality and taxation. Judge Clarke pointed to the mistakes made by the earlier commission that it failed to present the high level of detail in a clear manner and said it didn’t focus its attentions on a wide enough audience. “There was a feeling that just putting stuff out on RTE or The Irish Times wasn’t sufficient, so this time I am on radio every week and I am doing a column in The Star.”
A new opinion poll released this weekend conducted by Millward Brown Lansdowne Research revealed that the treaty is set to be carried by a majority. Of those polled, 53 per cent said that they intend voting Yes.
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Italy: Berlusconi Escort ‘Smuggled Cash Abroad in Her Corset’
Bari, 16 Sept. (AKI) — The former prostitute who allegedly spent the night with Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi was paid 10,000 euros to smuggle 1.5 million euros to the Middle East, the regional daily La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno reported on Wednesday.
Quoting an anonymous witness, the newspaper said an unnamed politician paid Patrizia D’Addario to carry the cash inside her corset to the emirate of Dubai, where she reportedly travelled with a delegation from the Italian region of Puglia in February last year.
Prosecutors in Puglia’s regional capital, Bari, were reported to be probing allegations that D’Addario illegally ‘couriered’ the 1.5 million euros, packed inside her corset in wads of 500 euro notes, according the Bari-based Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno.
D’Addario allegedly used the money to buy a black Ford Fiesta car, which she is still uses.
D’Addario is among at least 30 women believed to have been questioned by prosecutors in Rome and Bari in a corruption and prostitution inquiry centred on businessman Giampaolo Tarantini, who allegedly supplied D’Addario and other prostitutes to Berlusconi for a several parties.
The escort’s estranged ex-boyfriend Giuseppe Barba told the daily that D’Addario also travelled to Qatar on the Middle East trip and was travelling “with an important regional politician” but did not name him.
Barba claimed D’Addario and the politician travelled to Rome separately to catch the flight to Dubai “to avoid being seen together”.
Barba and D’Addario ended their relationship soon after she returned from the Middle East, the daily said.
He was convicted of abetting prostitution in 2006, after D’Addario reported him to police, but escaped jail with a plea bargain.
Their relationship then resumed, but soured after they broke up.
In July Barba claimed that D’Addario had tried to knock him and his wife off their motor scooter with her car.
Prosecutors have several photos and audio tapes of conversations D’Addario allegedly recorded on her mobile phone last November when she stayed the night with Berlusconi at his Rome residence.
Some of the audio tapes and transcriptions have been published by left-leaning daily Repubblica and its sister weekly L’Espresso on their websites.
Berlusconi has never denied sleeping with D’Addario but has said he has never paid a woman for sex.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Escort Says Berlusconi is a ‘Fake’
Rome, 15 Sept. (AKI) — Patrizia D’Addario, the Bari escort who allegedly slept with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi last November, has accused him of being a “fake Mr Nice Guy” who manipulated women for his sexual gratification. In an interview with the radical daily Il Manifesto on Tuesday, D’Addario also urged Berlusconi to repeat “to her face” his recent threat that he could send her to jail for 18 years.
“I really thought Berlusconi had an interest in my life and my problem. He tried to win me over, by showing me great sensitivity, but this all just was pure acting,” D’Addario told Il Manifesto.
“The truth is that as I wasn’t interested in his usual offer of work in television, during the intimate moments we spent together, he tried to pull my heartstrings, using the lever of my father’s suicide and other things,” she said.
D’Addario has claimed she spent the night with Berlusconi at his official Rome residence, Palazzo Grazioli, in November in a bid to seek his help for planning permits to build an apartment complex in her native city of Bari.
The man who allegedly invited her to the prime minister’s home, Giampaolo Tarantini, has told prosecutors he supplied women for 18 parties at Berlusconi’s residences in Rome and Sardinia between September last year and January this year.
Some of them were paid 1,000 euros for “sexual services” while others were paid expenses only. The prime minister has always denied paying women for sex or any other impropriety, and he is not under investigation.
D’Addario said her father committed suicide over his failure to make progress with the project.
“Our night together was a long one. He used all his methods of conquest. Berlusconi seemed affectionate, but it was all fake. Now he says he’ll send me to prison for 18 years, I want him to tell me that to my face,” D’Addario said.
Scandal-plagued Berlusconi said last week he was considering legal action against D’Addario, alleging that he had been the “victim of an attack by a person who wanted to create a scandal”.
He added that D’Addario would have to answer before an Italian court for the “four crimes” she had committed, although he did not specify what they were.
“She will have to answer to Italian judges. Suffice it to say that the maximum penalty for the four crimes that this person has committed would amount to 18 years in prison.”
D’Addario is among at least 30 women believed to have been questioned by prosecutors in Rome and in the southern city of Bari over a corruption and prostitution probe centred on Tarantini, who allegedly supplied D’Addario and other prostitutes to Berlusconi.
Prosecutors are in possession of audio tapes of conversations between D’Addario and Berlusconi which she claimed to have recorded during their night together, as well as photos she took at Palazzo Grazioli.
Some of the audio tapes and transcriptions have been published by left-leaning daily Repubblica and its sister weekly L’Espresso on their websites.
Berlusconi never delivered on his promise of help with her Bari building project, D’Addario said.
She accepted Berlusconi’s offer to stand as a centre-right candidate in local elections but failed to get elected.
But D’Addario said it was a burglary at her apartment in which her clothes, diaries, CDs, computer and personal photographs were stolen, that prompted her to go police and tell her story.
Berlusconi, one of Italy’s wealthiest men, is suing four newspapers for publishing what he claims are slanderous articles about his private life.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Parents Angry at Strip Club Sponsorship Deal
San Fiore, 15 Sept. (AKI) — A row has broken out in a small town in the north of Italy over a sponsorship deal between the town’s football club and a local strip club. Parents in the town of San Fiore, 50 kilometres north of Venice, have threatening not to send their children to football practice because they have to wear football shirts and backpacks which advertise the local club called, the Alibi Lap Dance Club Revolution.
The club is located in a major street also known to be frequented by prostitutes, according to a report published in the Italian daily La Repubblica.
“This is not educational. We send our children to play football so that they can live in a healthy environment, but it is useless if the sponsor encourages people to frequent ‘red light’ clubs,” said one of the parents, quoted by the newspaper on Tuesday.
But the managers of the strip club and the San Fiorese football club defended the move and said they would not cancel the arrangement.
The club managers stressed that their establishment was also a restaurant.
“It is not just a place to get a lap dance, but it is also a restaurant where it is possible to dine next to the dancers, which are dressed provocatively,” the club said.
“There is nothing scandalous about it,” said the deputy president of the San Fiorese football club, Mirco Zanette, who added that the football shirts only have the wording “Alibi” and nothing else.
“We have no intention of changing anything. For us, the issue is over.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priests Drive as Much as CEOs
Italian clergy clock more than the average Italian
(ANSA) — Rome, September 16 — Priests in Italy spend as much time behind the wheel as company directors, according to a new auto insurance study. Men of the cloth drive an average 13,100km per year, just 100km less than top corporate executives, but significantly more than the national average.
The report, by online insurance company Assicurazione.it, showed that Italians put 12,500km on the clock over the last year, 5,000 less than they did in 2006.
By profession, small business owners drive the most, at 14,400km per year, followed by doctors, soldiers and company men.
Italian housewives use their cars the least, averaging 10,200km annually.
Regionally, the typical driver in rural Umbria drives the most, posting 15,200km per year, while residents in the northwestern coastal region of Ligura drive the least at 11,427 per year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
National Mourning in Italy for Soldiers Killed in Kabul
(ANSAmed) — ROME — The state funeral for the six Italian soldiers killed in an attack in Kabul on Thursday will be held in Rome on Monday. The country’s cabinet has also decided that the same day will be a day of national mourning, with a minute’s silence being observed in schools and public offices. The Italian army on Friday decided that the six men of the Folgore Brigade (Lieutenant Antonio Fortunato; Sergeant Major Roberto Valente; Lance Corporal Massimiliano Randino; Corporals Davide Ricchiuto, Giandomenico Pistomani and Matteo Muredda) are to be promoted by a rank. The promotions take effect as from Thursday, the day of their deaths. The President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, will greet the bodies on their arrival in Rome and will attend the funeral service, which is to be held in the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls. On Saturday Napolitano is to return from his state visit to Tokyo, where he made it known that he found “there is nothing to be re-examined in the Italian mission in Afghanistan”. Italy’s contribution in Afghanistan, Napolitano continued, “has always been conceived in a balanced way”. Pointing out that the mission had been debite in the Supreme Defence Council, a body which Napolitano himself chairs, the President of the Republic stressed that ‘the agreement between the government ministers who it comprises, from the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the Chief of Staff for Defence and myself on the need to characterise our contribution in Afghanistan as much on the civilian as on the military level. And so the problem is not one of how to re-gauge the Italian contribution: it has always been a balanced one”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New EU Showcase Building to Cost Taxpayers £280 Million
A state of the art building that will cost taxpayers £280 million is to be built in Brussels to showcase the European Union’s growing global ambitions and house the office of a new President.
The cost of the new environmentally friendly building, centred on an “urn shaped” summit meeting room, has already risen by £66.5 million since planning began.
Named the Résidence Palace after an existing Art Deco building it will incorporate, the new summit venue, to be completed by 2013, will have an “umbrella” of solar panels and rain-water recycling facilities.
“The new facade surrounding the atrium and the urn-shaped meeting room area housed within it will together form an urban ‘lantern’ which will be visible as a European landmark in the city,” states a project document.
Over the last 14 years, EU leaders, ministers and diplomats have been meeting in a building called the Justus Lipsius which is regarded as too cramped and drab to represent a body that has grown from 15 member states to 27.
The complex of buildings will also house the offices of a new EU President, “foreign minister” and, possibly, the European diplomatic service created under the Lisbon Treaty, should it be ratified by a second Irish referendum next month.
Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, said the new EU building reminded him of the grandiose imperial ambitions of Land of Hope and Glory.
“It is all a bit, ‘Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set; God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet’,” he said.
“The only thing that will stop the EU achieving its global ambitions is for British voters to get a referendum.”
With almost 27,000 sq metres of floor space, the new edifice is the latest development in a burgeoning euro-quarter in Brussels.
But the new building will not quite rival the sheer scale of the European Commission’s flagship Berlaymont building, which is directly opposite. It has a floor space of 29,000 sq metres.
EU buildings occupy a total of 1.9 million sq metres of office space in Brussels.
Over half of that is occupied by the Commission, which spent £185 million on its offices in 2008.
Built in the 1920s, the existing Résidence Palace houses luxury apartments for officials, commercial offices, a private theatre, simming pool and restaurants.
It was requisitioned in 1940 as the headquarters of the German army during the Nazi occupation of Belgium during the Second World War.
After the war the building was sold to the Belgian state and used to house government departments until they were pushed out by the build up of the EU institutions.
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Poland: Lech Walesa Talks About Missile Shield17th September 2009
Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lech Walesa, has spoken out about media reports that the US has scrapped plans to install a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
“Americans have always cared only about their interests, and all other [countries] have been used for their purposes. This is another example,” Mr Walesa told TVN24. “[Poles] need to review our view of America, we must first of all take care of our business,” he added.
“I could tell from what I saw, what kind of policies President Obama cultivates,” the former president added. “I simply don’t like this policy, not because this shield was required [in Poland], but [because of] the way we were treated,” he concluded.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Stockholm Square Closed After Clashes
Sergels torg in central Stockholm was sealed off on Sunday afternoon as rival demonstrators clashed.
A demonstration began on the square at around midday to protest against the regime in Iran. At around 2pm a further demonstration began directed against Israel and the two groups clashed in a war of words.
“We have had to seal off the square and have to keep the groups apart, there is a tense atmosphere and a lot of verbal abuse being hurled at each other,” Kjell Lindgren at Stockholm police told news agency TT.
“We have redirected traffic heading towards the square as well, there are too many people milling about,” he said.
Two people were detained by police and several more were removed after throwing objects at the demonstrators.
“There are around a hundred demonstrators. How many counter-demonstrators standing around the square is impossible to tell as many curious passers-by have also stopped,” Lindgren said.
According to media reports the anti-Israel demonstration was continuing on the square at 4.30pm on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Girls Suffer Widespread Harassment: Report
Every third young Swede has been subjected to repeated harassment, threats or violence over the past year. Six percent of young girls have been raped, a new report from Swedish researchers shows.
There are large differences between how girls and boys are affected from violence in society.
“Girls are more exposed to sexual violence, while boys are more exposed to physical violence,” Helena Blom, one of the researchers in Sundsvall in northern Sweden told Sveriges Radio’s Ekot news programme.
Over 2,000 young girls and almost 1,000 young men who paid a visit to one of nine selected youth clinics in the spring of 2007 were included in the study.
The young people were given a series of questions to respond to describing their experiences of violence and grade the level of severity.
The survey showed that six percent of girls had experienced the most serious sexual offence — rape.
The research has been conducted in collaboration with Umeå University and the National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women (NCK).
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Christian Nurse in ‘Necklace Ban’
A Christian nurse has been taken off frontline duties after she refused to take off a necklace bearing a cross.
Shirley Chaplin said she believed The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital was trying to prevent her from expressing religious beliefs.
But the trust said the policy had nothing to do with the crucifix specifically, and was motivated by health and safety concerns about patients grabbing necklaces.
Mrs Chaplin, 54, from Exeter, said: “For about 30 years I have worked in the NHS and nursed patients day and night and on no occasion has my cross caused me or anyone else any injury — and to my knowledge, no patient has ever complained about me wearing it.
“The Trust even refused to test the ‘breaking strain’ on the necklace.”
Mrs Chaplin, who is due to retire in eight months, added: “Everyone I have ever worked with has clearly known I am a Christian: it is what motivates me to care for others.”
She claimed other members of staff have been allowed to wear necklaces. The Trust said necklaces of all kinds were banned but admitted there may have been “lapses”.
She said: “This smacks of double standards and appears to discriminate against Christians.
“This blatant piece of political correctness amounts to the marginalising of employees’ personal human rights, a blanket ‘secularising and neutralising’ of the NHS intended to stop Christians from expressing their faith in the public services of the NHS.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Documents Reveal Plans for Huge Rise in Income Tax
The Tories launched a no-holds-barred personal onslaught against Gordon Brown last night, branding him a ‘liar’ who is unfit to be Prime Minister.
In a devastating attack, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne tossed aside the usual political niceties and fired off a full-scale character assassination of the Prime Minister.
Acting with the full authority of David Cameron, Mr Osborne:
Openly accused Mr Brown of ‘lying’ about spending cuts.
Said he could no longer be trusted to ‘hold high office’.
Claimed no other PM — Labour or Tory — would have stooped so low.
Mr Osborne’s broadside came as the Conservatives claimed to have obtained another leaked Treasury document which they said showed that the Government is secretly planning a 3p rise in income tax which would cost the average family an extra £53 a week.
Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, Mr Osborne says: ‘Government in a democratic country ultimately depends on trust. ‘
Politicians may go to great lengths to avoid giving you a full answer to a question but we still find the idea that he or she may be simply lying to you rather shocking.
‘That’s why the convention that you cannot accuse another MP of lying in the House of Commons may be a little arcane but it reflects an understanding that, however bitter the political debate, our system of government depends on our leaders not telling deliberate lies.’
Mr Osborne said he found it hard to say outright that Mr Brown ‘has been lying’ about public spending.
But he had decided to do so because it was ‘impossible’ to reconcile his persistent claims that spending would go up under Labour ‘when his own secret Budget papers were telling him that spending was going to be cut’.
He continues: ‘The Prime Minister has broken that bond of trust with the public. It is difficult to see how he will ever recover his reputation.’
Mr Osborne claims a new set of leaked Treasury documents show the Government is planning to raise an extra £14.8billion in income tax receipts.
The Conservatives say the only way such a large amount of extra tax payments could be raised in a recession is by taking more out of workers’ wage packets.
It is the second time in four days that the Conservatives have claimed to have obtained secret Treasury documents.
However, Labour said the new figures had already been published in April in the ‘Red Book’, which sets out the Budget details in full.
But Mr Osborne said the Government had secretly factored in a 32.5 per cent rise in income tax receipts over four years.
The Tories said it is the equivalent of an extra £2,770 — £53.27 a week — on the annual tax bill of an average family by 2013.
‘Labour’s secret spending plans, which Gordon Brown never wanted to make public, appear to reveal an income tax bombshell,’ said Mr Osborne. ‘Income tax receipts are set to rise by a third.
‘Are they asking us to believe that this is due only to recovery from recession, and the 50p rate?
‘Hard working families will pay a heavy price for Labour’s economic incompetence.’
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UK: Dyke in BBC ‘Conspiracy’ Claim
The BBC is part of a “conspiracy” preventing the “radical changes” needed to UK democracy, the corporation’s former director general has said.
Greg Dyke told a Lib Dem conference meeting he wanted a commission to look into the “whole political system”.
But he said: “I fear it will never happen because I fear the political class will stop it.”
The BBC said its political coverage was taken extremely seriously and was highly regarded by the public.
Mr Dyke said major changes he had wanted to make to the BBC’s coverage of politics had been blocked.
He told the Liberal Vision fringe meeting about the expenses scandal and how it had changed voters’ attitudes: “The evidence that our democracy is failing is overwhelming and yet those with the biggest interest in sustaining the current system — the Westminster village, the media and particularly the political parties, including this one — are the groups most in denial about what is really happening to our democracy.”
‘Westminster conspiracy’
Mr Dyke, who was forced to stand down as director general in 2004 after the Hutton report into the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly, said there had never been a greater separation between the “political class” and the public.
“I tried and failed to get the problem properly discussed when I was at the BBC and I was stopped, interestingly, by a combination of the politicos on the board of governors, one of whom was married to the man who claimed for cleaning his moat, the cabinet interestingly — the Labour cabinet — who decided to have a meeting, only about what we were trying to discuss, and the political journalists at the BBC.
“Why? Because, collectively, they are all part of the problem. They are part of one Westminster conspiracy. They don’t want anything to change. It’s not in their interests.”
He said the expenses scandal had been “British democracy’s Berlin Wall moment” but he feared the opportunity to change the system was fading away.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: End Iran Exile Demo — Archbishop
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged hunger strikers demonstrating against the treatment of 3,000 Iranian refugees in an Iraqi camp to end their protest.
Hunger strikers outside the US embassy in London are demanding the US takes responsibility for Camp Ashraf.
Residents of the camp say an Iraqi raid there in July left several people dead.
Dr Rowan Williams says the situation at the camp is a humanitarian issue “of real magnitude and urgency”, but adds there should be no more loss of life.
The protesters want the US government to take responsibility for Camp Ashraf, which houses more than 3,000 members of the exiled Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran (PMOI).
Iraqi forces took over the camp’s security from the US earlier this year, and the Iraqi government has repeatedly vowed to close it.
Dr Williams met a group of campaigners this week, telling them: “I am in contact with our own government as well as representatives of other governments to urge that the current situation be remedied urgently.”
He said there was a strong argument under international law that Camp Ashraf’s residents were “protected persons”, and that the US and Iraqi governments had an obligation to defend them from violence or abuse.
But he urged the hunger strikers to bring their fast to an end.
“Further loss of life would only compound recent tragic events.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tory Chief Claims Mayoral Selection Was ‘Hijacked’
Snubbed tory leader Nicky Attenborough has launched a scathing attack on her party claiming Monday’s open primary to elect a mayoral candidate was ‘hijacked’. She says the meeting, which was attended by more than 400 people who endorsed Parvez Akhtar as the runner, was a ‘disgrace’ and claims after protesting about a 90-minute delay to get people into the hall that she was told she could ‘always go home’. …
But, in what might be read as a reference to the large number of people who attended from the Asian community, she says, in an email to Conservative Party chairman Eric Pickles: ‘From where I was sitting, I could see the Liberal Democrats on the front row, Labour on the back row and a sea of faces who couldn’t even understand what the candidates were saying.’
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UK: Today Programme’s Jobless Bank Worker ‘Ineligible for Help’ Because He Lives in a Nice Middle-Class House
Alan South was made redundant 18 months ago after a 30-year career in the City as an administrator in banks and stockbroking firms.
His plight came to national prominence after he agreed to let the BBC track his job-hunting progress for a series of features on the flagship breakfast show about people who lost their jobs in the recession.
On last Tuesday’s edition of the programme he accused Working Links, a company that is paid millions of pounds by the Department for Work and Pensions to find placements for the long-term unemployed, of doing ‘absolutely nothing’ to help him.
The 50-year-old divorcee, who has two teenage daughters, believes Working Links lost interest in him after discovering that he lived in a relatively prosperous part of North London, had no history of alcohol or drug abuse and had never been out of work before.
Despite an unsolicited approach from Working Links after his appearance on Today, and an initial offer of help from the company’s employment experts, he was eventually told he was ineligible for assistance unless he signed on at a Jobcentre more than four miles away in Tottenham, one of the most deprived and crime-ridden areas of the country.
After Working Links made its approach in April — through a PR company — Mr South was invited to a meeting with three Working Links career advisers.
Mr South told The Mail on Sunday last night that he left the meeting feeling greatly encouraged.
He said: ‘They said they would market me as “transfer-compatible” so that I could work in other industries, including the public sector. I was quite pumped up about it because this was just the sort of boost I was looking for.
‘They were saying all the right things and I was pretty sure I’d be back in work in a few weeks. Working Links were very keen to promote their services but I think all they were looking for was a bit of free publicity because it all came to nothing.
‘They showed me a Press release about a project they’d worked on in Glasgow involving a group of unemployed people with alcohol and drug problems. I got the impression that it was these kind of people they were targeting.’
Mr South, whose last job was as operations manager at the London office of a French bank, claims he heard nothing from the recruitment agency for more than a month.
With no job offers coming through, he decided to register with Working Links through normal channels by signing on at his local Jobcentre.
When he gave the Jobcentre adviser his address, however, he received another disappointing rebuff.
Mr South said: ‘He said Working Links wouldn’t be able to do anything for me because the part of Enfield where I live hadn’t been designated an area of special economic need by the Government.
‘It’s true it’s a pleasant middle-class area but I don’t think these things should be decided by postcode. I qualify as long-term unemployed because I’ve been out of work for more than a year, but the system doesn’t seem geared up to help professional people like me.’
Working Links is one of several recruitment firms being paid by the Government to find jobs for the long-term unemployed.
Last year, it made an operating profit of £1.3million and turnover rose by 11 per cent to £86million.
Company accounts show that the highest-paid director — thought to be managing director Breege Burke — is on an annual salary of £222,000.
Last night the agency, which is one-third Government-owned, strongly denied letting Mr South down.
A spokesman said: ‘When we approached the BBC, we honestly thought we could help Alan find a job. We would dispute any suggestion that, having said we could help him, we left him in the lurch. We followed the meeting up with emails and phone calls.
‘The problem with where he lives is that the Jobcentre he is registered with falls outside the geographic remit of our employment-zone contract with the Government.
We have offered Alan as much support as we can and given him advice on how to develop his CV.’
Over the past 12 months, the company claims to have helped 16,700 people back into work, a seven per cent increase on the figure for 2007-08.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Voters Demand EU Referendum From David Cameron
A large majority of voters send a powerful message to David Cameron today by demanding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if the Conservatives win the next election.
Seventy per cent of those questioned in an ICM opinion poll for The Sunday Telegraph want a vote even if the treaty, which would establish a president and foreign minister for the EU and see a swathe of powers transferred to Brussels, becomes law in the European Union this year.
Next month, Ireland will hold a second referendum. If the Irish vote “yes”, the treaty would be on course to be ratified across the EU.
The Government has refused to hold a referendum here. The Conservatives, however, have not ruled out offering a vote even if the treaty has become law by the time they come to power.
A “no” vote in Britain would then, according to experts, inevitably lead to Britain withdrawing from the treaty and effectively “de-ratifying” it across the Continent — throwing the EU into chaos and potentially forcing a large majority of member states to draw up a new treaty from which Britain would be excluded.
Today’s findings will pile more pressure on David Cameron and William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, to make a firm ruling on policy as the Irish vote takes place just days before the start of next month’s Conservative conference in Manchester.
Even most voters who say they identify most closely with Labour (64 per cent) want the Tories to offer a referendum if they win power.
The figures follow a warning from Gisela Stuart, a Labour MP who helped draw up the treaty, that it puts the nature of British democracy at stake.
In the ICM poll, a major study of British attitudes towards the EU in the run-up to the Irish vote, 47 per cent said there was no need for a powerful new EU president, one of the treaty’s key provisions and a post for which Britain is officially backing a Tony Blair candidacy. However, 44 per cent back plans for a president.
Well over half of respondents (58 per cent) say more decisions should be taken by individual EU member states rather than by the union as a whole — again in defiance of the treaty which will enact the opposite. Some 24 per cent said the current decision-making process was about right, while only 14 per cent wanted more decisions taken in Brussels.
The poll showed once again that a substantial proportion of the voting population — in this case 40 per cent — thought Britain’s best interests were served by leaving the EU altogether, even though withdrawal is not the policy of any of the three main political parties.
The finding, a high figure compared to other recent polls, appears to reflect an increased euroscepticism in Britain — more than a quarter of voters in this year’s European parliamentary elections backed parties that advocated pulling out of the EU.
In today’s poll 55 per cent thought Britain was best served by remaining in the EU.
British voters also believe their country receives a worse deal from EU membership than its major competitors. Asked which out of four countries did best from the EU, 43 per cent of voters chose France — a particular beneficiary of the much-criticised Common Agricultural Policy — while 25 per cent picked Germany.
Just 10 per cent thought Britain got the best deal of the four, with Italy trailing on eight per cent.
The findings follow the disclosure by The Sunday Telegraph that Britain’s net contribution to the EU will increase from £4.1billion this year to £6.4 billion in 2010-11. Treasury figures showed that Britain is the second biggest net contributor, behind Germany, at present.
The higher contribution is the equivalent of £257 for every household or 3p on the standard rate of income tax.
At the same time José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, has so far refused to meet his pledge of ordering a sweeping review of the union’s finances.
Away from Europe, the poll finds that more than two thirds of voters (69 per cent) think the current level of immigration into Britain of those from outside the EU is too high, with 25 per cent saying it is about right and just two per cent too low.
However, more (53 per cent) prefer the Government’s points-based system of controlling numbers of entrants to the Tory proposal of imposing a cap on numbers, which is backed by 42 per cent.
As the party conference season begins with the Liberal Democrats gathering in Bournemouth this weekend, Mr Cameron is the highest-rated leader in terms of performance. Some 61 per cent say he is doing a good job and 29 per cent a bad job, an overall satisfaction rating of plus 32 per cent.
By contrast Gordon Brown’s rating is minus 32 per cent (32 per cent good job and 64 per cent bad job) while Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, scores plus 25 (52 per cent good and 27 per cent bad).
Miss Stuart, a former health minister, said the Lisbon Treaty breached a fundamental principle that voters should be able to remove politicians who are in power.
“The nature of democracy is really at stake,” she said. “My basic test of democracy is: can I get rid of them?
“Lisbon does not give you, as a citizen, the means to control the executive or the politicians who decide on your behalf, and that’s the hurdle it fails on.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Wife in Muslim Tory Marriage Row Hit by Arson
The mother of four at the centre of the marriage scandal involving Muslim Tory peer Baroness Warsi has been the victim of an attempted arson attack.
Police went to the home of Massarat Bi, whose ex-husband married Baroness Warsi last month, after reports that her car had been vandalised and that someone had doused it in a flammable liquid and tried to set it on fire.
Neighbours are said to have seen the attack.
The car, a light-blue Skoda, was still parked outside Massarat’s two-bedroom house in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, last week. There were streaks of bubbled, blackened paint on the bonnet, sides and rear of the car.
Police are treating the case as a domestic incident and have been interviewing family members.
A family friend said: ‘No one has heard from Massarat and there’s a wall of silence around the family. We have heard that someone tried to set fire to the car.’
The incident happened in the early hours of last Sunday, just hours after The Mail on Sunday revealed that Massarat, whose grasp of English is poor, may not have realised she was being divorced by her husband, Iftikhar Azam.
Massarat is said to have thought divorce papers sent to her home were domestic bills and understood their significance only after showing them to her cousin, a police officer.
In a statement released through the Conservative Party, Mr Azam said: ‘My ex-wife Massarat was represented by solicitors in matrimonial proceedings.’
Mr Azam is now married to Baroness Warsi, who has been promoted as the multicultural face of the Tory Party.
Massarat has lived in the same street in Dewsbury since coming to Britain 18 years ago to wed Mr Azam, her cousin, in an arranged marriage. Most of the families living on the street are also Pakistani Muslims, and her former husband’s parents live only a few doors away from Massarat.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: ‘Police were called to reports of a domestic incident at an address in Dewsbury on Sunday, September 13. No arrests were made and discussions with the family are continuing.’
In last week’s article we said Baroness Warsi and Iftikhar Azam may have travelled to Pakistan together in September 2008, before Mr Azam’s divorce was finalised.
In fact, Mr Azam did not go on the trip — which was organised by the Conservative Party — and Baroness Warsi has never stayed at the Pearl Continental hotel in Islamabad or visited Imran Khan’s farmhouse as suggested. We are happy to set the record straight.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia-EU: Entry Negotiations to Start Again in October
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, SEPTEMBER 16 — Following the agreement on the border dispute with Slovenia, the EU entry negotiations for Croatia will start again at the beginning of October. The EU Swedish presidency will assemble the scheduled intergovernmental conference on October 2, effectively anticipating it of a full two weeks compared to the initial terms, and therefore showing its intention to accelerate Zagreb’s progress towards Brussels, which had been stopped for 10 months by the Slovene veto. The news was reported today by Croatian press agency Hina, quoting a statement issued by the Zagreb’s government in which it announced the decision of the EU presidency. The decision to convene the assembly was made, the statement reads, “following consultations with Slovenia and only after the Swedish presidency took cognizance of the Croatia’s guarantees” on the border dispute which had caused Ljubljana to exercise its right to veto on the negotiations between Zagreb and Brussels; a veto that was lifted after the agreement reached a few days ago by the two former-Yugoslavian countries. The Croatian government also announced that the direct negotiations on the delimitation of Gulf of Piran, in Northern Adriatic, will start again at the same time as the entry negotiations with the EU. Croatia is hoping to close the negotiations by the first half of 2010, to enter the Union in the first few months of 2011.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia-EU: Visas — Problems Over Kosovo Passports Remain
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 17 — Serbia still has some issues to resolve before the need for its citizens to be issued visas to visit Schengen countries can be abolished, as has been scheduled for the start of next year. Passports will have to be issued for Serbs residing in Kosovo and for those of Kosovo origins living abroad. According to a story in today’s VIP Daily News Report on the speech made by Commissioner Jacques Barrot to the European Parliament yesterday, the other conditions Belgrade still has to meet are surveillance of the border with Kosovo and cooperation with the European Eulex mission, as well as drawing up a clear national immigration plan. In Barrot’s view, Macedonia already satisfies all the requisite conditions, while Montenegro has made notable progress in this direction. Last July, the EU Commission recommended that from January first, the need for visas for citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro when visiting countries of the Schengen should be abolished. On September 25, Belgrade will present a report to Brussels on the measures it has taken.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia-Portugal: Exchange Experience in Military Training
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 16 — During the stay in the Special Brigade of the Serbian Army, the Portuguese and Serbian soldiers exchanged their experience in the domain of specialist training and training for special operations, the Serbian Army stated Wednesday. During the visit, members of the two armies had a joint training in climbing and parachute leaps and thus opened possibility for further cooperation between the armies, the statement said.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia to Get a Taste of Saudi Arabia
JUBAIL: An exhibition of photographs, themed “Traditional Saudi Arabia,” will be held in Belgrade, Serbia. It will run from Sept. 30 to Oct. 18. One of only a handful of Serbians currently living in Saudi Arabia, photographer Budislav Bulatovic provides rare glimpses of this fascinating country. Serbian Princess Jelisaveta Karadjordjevic and Serbian Count Radovan Dudvarski will attend the opening ceremony along with other VIPs. For additional information please contact Marina Bulatovic at marina.bulatovic@gmail.com
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
After Killing Christians’ Pigs, Egypt Now Awash in Garbage
Ill-informed slaughter of animals was ‘stupidest thing they ever did’
The pigs used to eat tons of organic waste. Now the pigs are gone and the rotting food piles up on the streets of middle-class neighborhoods like Heliopolis and in the poor streets of communities like Imbaba.
Ramadan Hediya, 35, who makes deliveries for a supermarket, lives in Madinat el Salam, a low-income community on the outskirts of Cairo.
“The whole area is trash,” Mr. Hediya said. “All the pathways are full of trash. When you open up your window to breathe, you find garbage heaps on the ground.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hezbollah: Israelis Have No Right in Palestine
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, SEPTEMBER 18 — The leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has today stated that “the whole of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians” and that Israelis have no rights over it. “The whole of Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people and the Zionists have no claims to that land, be they religious, historical or legal”, Nasrallah said during a TV debate to mark the Day of al Qods (Jerusalem), which was decreed by the late Iranian ayatollah Khomeini for every last Friday of the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan. “Today is the day of Palestinian resistance and of the resistance of Lebanon (or of Hezbollah, ndr) and a day on which to commemorate the Islamic nation and its historic and religious duty in this regard”, Nasrallah added, referring to the jihad, the ‘holy war’. Hezbollah’s position is similar to that of Iran, but different to that of the member states of the Arab League, who say they are prepared to recognise Israel if Israel in turn withdraws from the lands occupied during the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu: Abbas Show Courage
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 16 — Premier Benyamin Netanyahu is expecting PNA President Mahmoud Abbas to “show courage” and has said that Abbas should follows the examples of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and King Hussein of Jordan on the path towards peace agreement with Israel. “Mahmoud Abbas,” Netanyahu told Maariv, “must make a show of courage, he must tell his people that the conflict is over. He has strengthened his position in recent months. He thus has to explain to his people that if he signs an agreement, then the conflict is over. There can be no more requests. It is not possible for them to have a Palestinian state and continue to put forward demands. He must make an extraordinarily courageous gesture, as King Hussein and President Sadat have done before him. You have to be a leader to do it.” In response to the observation by the interviewer that Netanyahu should be prepared for a complete withdrawal from the Territories, the Israeli premier said: “Give me a chance.” He then added: “There are other solutions alongside the withdrawal of the demarcation lines in place until 1967.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Slams Livingstone-Mashaal Interview
The British Government has condemned former London mayor Ken Livingstone for his interview with Hamas head Khalid Meshal published in a UK current affairs publication on Friday.
World Foreign Office Minister, Ivan Lewis, accused Livingstone of handing a “propaganda coup to the leader of a terrorist organization” after an interview with the Hamas leader, who lives in exile in Damascus, appeared in the latest edition of the left-wing political weekly New Statesman.
“Ken Livingstone rightly earned praise for his strong and responsible leadership in the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks on London,” Lewis said on Friday. “It is therefore particularly regrettable that he learned the wrong lessons from history by handing a propaganda coup to the leader of a terrorist organization.”
Britain, along with the European Union and US, deems Hamas a terrorist group and has pledged to isolate it until it adopts the Quartet principles — recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and accepting previous interim peace accords.
“Hamas has not only breached international law by firing rockets at civilian populations in Israel but continues to violate the human rights of Palestinians in Gaza,” Lewis added.
New Statesman described the interview as a “world exclusive.” Popular UK blog “Harry’s Place” disagreed saying it was an exclusive “only in the sense that no other mainstream publication in the world would print it.”
Relations between Livingstone and the Jewish community deteriorated during his time as mayor following a number of incidents, including an invitation to a Muslim cleric who condoned Palestinian suicide bombers. In 2005 Livingstone likened a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard and refused to apologize. The following year, after disagreement over a building project, he suggested that Indian-born Jewish property developers, the Rueben brothers, should “go back to Iran and see if they can do better under the ayatollahs” claiming later he did not know they were Jewish.
New Statesman has also had a strained relationship with the Jewish community over the years. In 2002, the weekly was accused of anti-Semitism when it published a story under the title “A Kosher Conspiracy?” The cover was illustrated with a gold Star of David piercing and dominating a UK flag. In 2007, the magazine compared the Marva and Gadna IDF youth summer programs to Islamic Jihad “summer camps.” In 2006, it sponsored the planting of new olive trees in Palestinian areas as an incentive to take out a subscription to the magazine.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UN Report: Peres, Legitimisation of Terrorism
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, SEPTEMBER 16 — The Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza is a “legitimisation of terrorism” by the UN. The view was stated by Israeli President Shimon Peres. “This report mocks history and does not distinguish between the aggressor and the side that defended itself,” said Peres. “War is a crime and the aggressor is the criminal. The side that defends itself has no choice. The terrorist organisation Hamas, which committed horrendous crimes, opened hostilities,” observed Peres. “For years Hamas perpetrated terrorism against Israel and its sons. This report is in fact a legitimisation of terrorist initiatives and ignores the right-duty of every state to defend itself.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UN Report: Barak, Encourages Terrorists
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 16 — Controversy is growing in Israel after the publication of the Goldstone report on Cast Lead Operation in the West Bank. Defence Minister Ehud Barak, according to a report on military radio, thinks the document is unreasonable and that it will have the effect of encouraging new terrorist attacks by Palestinians. Barak gave instruction to guarantee adequate legal defence for the Israeli offices in the report if called to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The content of the report was also rejected by Gabriela Shalev, Israeli ambassador to the UN who called it unilateral and influenced in a determinate manner by political considerations. Shalev expressed the fear that the report could have negative repercussions for the peace process between Israeli and Palestinians. There were also indignant reactions from various Israeli political leaders from both the left and right. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UN Report: Strong Reactions in Israeli Press
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, SEPTEMBER 16 — The publication of the UN Goldstone Report on the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, which accuses the Israeli army of carrying out war crimes, has aroused a battery of angry reaction in the Israeli press. “A declaration of war,” exclaims Yediot Ahronot, quoting Israeli political sources. “A political bomb,” agrees a Haaretz analyst. “We have to start a battle,” advises Eitan Haber, ex political advisor of Premier Yitzhak Rabin in Yediot Ahronot, according to whom Israel has to fight with its diplomatic army against any attempt to suggest that its military personnel are war criminals. The report has caused particular anger to bubble up in Jerusalem. According to the report, at the heart of the Cast Lead operation was an Israeli political desire to punish the Palestinians of Gaza for their support of Hamas, and not the repeated launching of rockets by Hamas against the Neghev. The report, local press says, ignores almost all of Hamas’ military activity within the Palestinian population; it ignores the accusations of Hamas using civilian shields; it minimises the importance of the launching of rockets on Israel; and it calls for the punishment of Israeli military personnel and not that of Hamas militia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UN Report: Hamas, Bring Israeli Leaders to Trial
(ANSAmed) — GAZA, SEPTEMBER 16 — The Islamic movement Hamas has asked the international community to bring Israeli leaders to trial for war crimes, after the publication of the UN investigative commission’s report on the Israeli offensive ‘Cast Lead’ last winter in Gaza. “The UN report constructs irrefutable proof that the Zionist occupier committed crimes against humanity”, a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, declared in a statement. “After this explicit report, the international community must bring the leaders of the Zionist enemy before the International Criminal Court on the charges of war crimes”. The report of the Goldstone Commission also accused the Palestinian movements of having committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, but for Barhum “the resistance of the Palestinian people constitutes legitimate defence. This resistance is legitimate and guaranteed by international law”. The head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, stated yesterday evening at the opening of the weekly meeting of his cabinet that the UN report “explicitly condemns Israel for the war crimes committed in Gaza”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UN Report: One More Obstacle for Mitchell Mission
(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSA) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 16 — A 500-page report by the UN’s Goldstone Commission into operation Fused Lead has been greeted by a chorus of protest in Israel, uniting right and left, political leaders, diplomats and commentators. The report says that Israel is stained with war crimes in Gaza. “This report risks further complicating the peace process”, said Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev. And this can probably be verified by US President Barack Obama’s envoy, George Mitchell, who was again busy in Jerusalem today to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Today’s meeting with Premier Benyamin Netanyahu also ended without results, meaning that Mitchell will return to Jerusalem on Friday after visits to Cairo and Amman for updates. “We are in the home straight”, said Israeli Minister Dan Meridor. “But we still don’t know if the three-way meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and PNA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) will take place next week. But this isn’t even the main issue: the essential thing is to lay down the kind of peace process we want. Our objective is to support President Obama’s initiative”. But the atmosphere created by the Goldstone Report (‘A declaration of war’, ‘A political bomb’, declared the local press today) will certainly not help the diplomats in their task. “That report is unjust towards Israel”, observed Meridor. “It doesn’t explain how is was possible for one State to fight aggressors operating inside a civilian population”. For his part, Head of State Shimon Peres has accused the UN of encouraging those who practice terrorism, through the report. “It was Hamas who started the hostilities. For years Hamas launched attacks on the children of Israel, they sent their suicide bombers into our cities, killing and wounding civilians. They launched more than 12,000 rockets and mortar bombs on cities and villages, with the sole aim of killing innocent civilians. The report legitimises terrorist activities, while it ignores the rights and duty of a nation to defend itself”. So this was the mood which Mitchell found today in Jerusalem: a political class which feels unjustly dragged into the dock. For its part Hamas, the Palestinian political force most active in opposing any political agreement between Israel and the PNA, which Israel feels has been exempt from international pressure, sees the report as “irrefutable proof” that Israel committed crimes against humanity, and is now calling for the country’s leaders to be tried by the International Criminal Court. Netanyahu has launched an appeal to Mahmoud Abbas to “give proof of political courage” towards a peace agreement, “in the same way as Egyptian President Anward Sadat and King Hussain of Jordan did”. Israel expects him to tell the Palestinians that once they are in control of an autonomous State, the conflict with Israel will be over. Meridor is sceptical about this though: “Mahmoud Abbas has received far-sighted proposals from Olmert, and yet he has rejected them”. So hopes for an agreement are not high for the time being.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
King Abdullah: ‘Let Us Spread Happiness’
JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Saturday congratulated Muslims all over the world on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr and urged them to treat the less fortunate with a spirit of compassion and solidarity.
“Let your Eid be a celebration of love and compassion,” King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan said in a joint message to the nation.
Earlier, the Royal Court announced that Sunday (today) will be the first day of Eid Al-Fitr in Saudi Arabia after a number of people in Taif sighted the Shawwal crescent Saturday evening. The Supreme Court ratified the testimonies of people who sighted the new moon.
The message from the king and the crown prince, which was read out on Saudi Television by Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja, called upon Muslims to strengthen their social bonds.
“Let us spread happiness … and let us spread hope wherever we go and let us make this Eid a great opportunity to enliven the spirit of compassion and cooperation,” the message said.
King Abdullah and Prince Sultan thanked God for bestowing His blessings on the Kingdom and its people.
“Islam is the greatest blessing of God and Eid that comes after the holy month of Ramadan is one of its features,” the message read.
The king and the crown prince urged Muslims in the Kingdom and elsewhere in the world to compete with one another in charitable activities in order to remove and lessen the pain of others.
King Abdullah received a number of telephone calls and cables from Muslim heads of state, including Sultan Qaboos of Oman and King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain, congratulating him on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr. The king and the crown prince sent similar congratulatory cables to world leaders.
In a related development, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), extended his congratulations to Muslims all over the world on the occasion.
“Eid is a harbinger of goodness and hope,” he said while urging Muslims to stand united in order to defend their religion and respective cultures.
The OIC chief urged all member countries to extend their all-out support to the Palestinians to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
He emphasized the need to protect the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem and prevent the move to “Judaize” the city.
Also, the culture and information minister said a new Saudi television channel for children named “Ajyal” would be launched today, on the first day of Eid.
“It’s our duty to present good programs for our children in order to improve their levels of thinking and enhance their various capabilities,” the minister told officials in charge of the channel.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Left Behind by Iraq’s Oil Rush
Critics of the US invasion six years ago often said its ultimate aim was to control Iraq’s vast deposits of oil.
So it is ironic, perhaps, that the first foreign oil company to start drilling operations in the country since 2003 should be from America’s growing rival, China.
A year since it signed a 23-year, $3bn (£1.84bn) deal to exploit the small al-Ahdab field, in Wasit province, south of Baghdad, China’s National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has already struck oil.
But in the next door village of al-Mazzagh, there is rising discontent among residents who say their interests are being forgotten.
The deal with the Chinese is the first test of Iraq’s readiness to host foreign oil concerns — who are jostling for access to what its oil minister Dr Hussein Sharistani calls “the last frontier” for big oil discoveries.
With its budget almost entirely dependent on oil revenues, the government is desperate to boost output — which still barely matches pre-invasion levels — so it has turned to foreign companies for help.
For these companies, there’s been no opportunity like this in decades.
Iraq boasts the world’s third largest reserves of oil, with many potential fields not even tapped.
With many oil enterprises used to working in difficult places, few will be deterred by the still fragile security situation.
Complaints
But the biggest challenge may come from Iraqis living in the oil-producing areas — as the Chinese are finding.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Murdered British Hostage Edwin Dyer ‘Saved My Life’, Says Fellow Victim of Al-Qaeda Kidnap
Behind the brutal execution of the Briton, Edwin Dyer, by an Al-Qaeda kidnap gang in the Sahara lies a moving tale of courage in adversity, reports Colin Freeman
[…]
Certainly, neither Edwin nor his fellow tourists were the kind of people who would have been prepared for such an experience in the first place. Unlike the warzone journalists and private military contractors who have fallen into the hands of militants in Iraq and Afghanistan of late, they were seeking nothing more than a holiday off the beaten track when they signed up with a German tour operating company for a holiday in Niger. The vast desert state, a former French colony, is one of the poorest counties in Africa, but has enjoyed a small boom in tourists drawn by its stunning sand dune landscapes and vibrant Tuarag nomad culture.
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Terrorism: Turkey, 6 Suspected Al-Qaida Members Arrested
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 16 — Six people suspected of being involved in four deadly suicide attacks carried out in Istanbul by Al-Qaida against two synagogues and two British targets (the consulate and a branch of HSBC bank), in November 2003, were arrested today by Turkish police. The news was reported by press agency Anadolu, which announced that all of the arrests occurred in the Bosporus city. On June 10, seven militants of the terrorist Islamic organization led by Osama Bin Laden received a life-sentences for the attacks, which caused 63 victims and hundreds of casualties. The Judges of the Ankara Court of Appeal sentenced 7 of the 74 defendants to life in prison, in the trial for the attacks carried out between November 15 and November, 2003. One of the men sentenced was Syrian Loai Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, who is believed to be the mind behind the attacks. Another 33 men received sentences between 9 months and 3 years, while 15 were acquitted for lack of proofs and 20 will have to face a new trial.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: State Broadcaster Becomes Shareholder in Euronews
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 15 — Turkey’s leading public broadcaster has become a shareholder in Euronews, the international multilingual news channel, and joined the channel’s supervisory board, Anatolia news agency reports quoting a statement by the Turkish broadcaster. Turkish Television and Radio Corporation (TRT) has bought 15.70% of the Euronews shares and became the fourth main partner after France Televisions (25.37%), RAI (22.84%), and RTR (16.94%). The agreement between TRT and Euronews was signed in February 2009 and it came into effect on August 6, 2009 for the launch of broadcast in Turkish on Euronews, the statement said. News in Turkish will be broadcast round-the-clock, as the ninth language of Euronews, alongside Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: ‘Transition Strategy’
Exit talk ‘dangerous’ for troops
(ANSA) — Rome, September 18 — A “transition strategy” and not an exit strategy is needed in Afghanistan so that the Afghan government can take more responsibility for security, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Friday.
Visiting the Italian army’s shrine to the fallen a day after six paratroopers were killed in Kabul, Berlusconi said “we will have to frame a transition strategy to give the new (Afghan) government more responsibility”.
The aim, he said, was to boost the Afghan government’s “ability to guarantee security in the country” to put NATO in the position of being able to draw down its troop numbers.
Berlusconi stressed the importance of protecting Afghan lives but also improving them.
One example he gave was to tarmac the roads in Herat, the western Afghan city where the Italian contingent is based.
Even though this was one of the country’s most modern cities, he said, “there are running sewers that give an impression of neglect, of the Middle Ages”.
Italy and its allies were trying to guard democracy in Afghanistan, he said, but the country was “still very far from modern and civilised existence”.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Italian TV that the time had come for a “turnaround” in the NATO mission, placing more responsibility on the new government of Hamid Karzai.
“It is time to ask, not just to give. It is time to say ‘basta’. It is time to ask those who govern Afghanistan: ‘What is your strategy for the first 100 days, what are your objectives for the first six months’. It is time to set deadlines”.
Both Berlusconi and Frattini said the 500 extra troops Italy sent to Afghanistan to help guard the recent elections would come home by the end of the year, leaving the Italian contingent at 2,795, the fifth-largest in the NATO-led ISAF mission.
The premier stressed that their temporary status had “always” been agreed with Italy’s allies.
Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said talk of an exit strategy would be a “sign of weakness” for the Taliban and would endanger the troops.
He said it was a “mistake” to talk of a definite withdrawal date and added that Italy’s rules of engagement were “adequate and did not need to be changed.
Thursday’s six deaths, Italy’s biggest military loss of life since 19 were killed in Iraq in 2003, sparked calls by government partner the Northern League for a withdrawal of all troops by Christmas.
But the government insisted Italy should not give in to terrorism. At the army shrine, Berlusconi said the six represented the best of Italy.
Writing in a book of mourning with the pictures of the dead, Berlusconi said he was “grief-stricken but proud of the courage and abnegation of our boys”.
“This is the best (of) Italy, which we must take as an example”.
The six were: Lieutenant Antonio Fortunato, 35, from a town near Potenza; Sergeant Major Roberto Valente, 37, from Naples; Corporal Matteo Mureddu, 26, from the Sardinian city of Oristano; Corporal Davide Ricchiuto, 26, born in the Swiss town of Glarus; Corporal Gian Domenico Pistonami, 26, from Orvieto; and Corporal Massimiliano Randino, 32, born in Pagani near Salerno.
Two of them had just returned from leave when a car bomb blew up their armoured vehicles.
Italy will mark a national day of mourning when the six receive a state funeral on Monday.
There will be a minute’s silence in schools and public offices across the nation.
The bodies will arrive home on Sunday, to be greeted by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Pull-Out Ruled Out
Apparent govt rift sealed
by Denis Greenan.
(ANSA) — Rome, September 18 — Italian officials on Friday ruled out pulling troops out of Afghanistan in the face of public pressure and an apparent political rift because of the death of six Italian soldiers in a car bombing Thursday.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said a “transition strategy” and not an exit one was needed to progressively shift more responsibility onto Afghan forces in the wake of the attack, in which two armoured cars carrying ten Italians were hit by a 150kg bomb.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini stressed it was time for the Afghans to shoulder more of the burden against the Taliban and come up with “deadlines” for when they could do so.
Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa weighed in, saying any talk of an exit strategy was dangerous for Italian troops.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano underscored that Italy’s part in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan had always been “balanced” between military and civilian objectives He said the last meeting of Italy’s Supreme Defence Council, which he chairs, had focused on the two aspects in the light of a wider debate opened by US Commander Stanley MChrystal on easing the impact of the anti-Taliban fight on civilians.
The Italian president stressed the agreement between the government and military chiefs on Italy’s goals.
“I do not believe there is anything to revise in the orientation we have adopted,” Napolitano said a day after the car bomb slaying of six Italian soldiers in Kabul prompted a government partner, the Northern League, to demand a full troop pull-out by Christmas.
But the president said he “understood” the need for the United Nations to “remotivate” the mission.
At a cabinet meeting Friday, Berlusconi said Italy had never considered a unilateral withdrawal.
The Northern League representative at the meeting, Legislative Simplification Minister Roberto Calderoli, did not repeat the demand aired Thursday by League leader Umberto Bossi and instead reiterated a proposal that Italian peacekeepers should return from duty in Lebanon and Kosovo.
La Russa, among the most determined in arguing that an Afghan pull-out would represent a capitulation to terrorism, backed Calderoli and envisaged an “almost-complete” withdrawal of troops from Kosovo, beginning shortly. A poll published Friday in the Corriere della Sera newspaper, taken a week before the Kabul bombing, indicated that 58% of Italians wanted the troops out of Afghanistan.
Pollster Renato Mannheimer said the percentage in favour of withdrawal was “bound to rise”.
As the bombing claimed headlines abroad, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it would take “at least five years” to see significant results from NATO’s efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai told ANSA: “We cannot afford to reduce our commitment in Afghanistan now”.
He said NATO’s goal in enabling Afghans to take charge of their security had to be achieved “in an appropriate and measures way”. Appathura said Berlusconi’s emphasis on training Afghans to step up was “broadly in line” with the position of NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
“We don’t want to stay in Afghanistan a moment longer than necessary but we can’t leave too soon,” the spokesman said, stressing the importance of an international conference to focus on the civilian aspects of the situation before the end of the year. “We have to invest more now in order to be able to do less in the future,” he said. President Napolitano will salute the six soldiers when their bodies arrive back in Rome Sunday ahead of a state funeral Monday.
The six were posthumously promoted on Friday, achieving the ranks of captain, warrant officers and sergeants major. The six were: Lieutenant Antonio Fortunato, 35, from a town near Potenza. Sergeant Major Roberto Valente, 37, from Naples.
Corporal Matteo Mureddu, 26, from the Sardinian city of Oristano. Corporal Davide Ricchiuto, 26, born in the Swiss town of Glarus.
Corporal Gian Domenico Pistonami, 26, from Orvieto.
Corporal Massimiliano Randino, 32, born in Pagani near Salerno. Two of them had just returned from leave when a car bomb blew up their armoured vehicles. The funeral will take place at St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Rome’s four the great ancient basilicas of Rome along with St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Peter’s.
In 2003, after Italy’s largest postwar loss of military life, the 19 victims of an Iraq truck bomb attack also received a state funeral at St. Paul’s.
The government has called a day of national mourning on Monday, when schools and offices will observe a minute’s silence.
The same tribute is being shown at all sporting events, including Serie A soccer matches, until Sunday.
Four Italian soldiers wounded when the two ‘Lince’ cars were blown up were said to be in stable condition.
The suicide car bomb also killed 20 Afghan civilians and wounded 60.
A unit from Italy’s security police ROS is set to fly to Kabul to help investigate the car bombing.
Italian police said they might have some of the wreckage of the two army vehicles flown back to Rome.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
India: For Orissa Bishop Government Lying as it Tries to Evade Responsibility in Anti-Christian Violence
Government officials testify before the commission of inquiry set up to look into last year’s anti-Christian violence. Former district collector in Kandhamal talks about illegal conversions to Christianity, whilst police inspector general claims the authorities had no intelligence about Maoist threats against Hindus. For the bishop of Bhubanewsar, they are all in together to rid the State of its Christian minority.
Bhubaneswar (AsiaNews) — “This is ridiculous,” said Mgr Raphael Cheenath, archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubanewsar. “Nearly 50,000 Christians were displaced from Kandhamal, and instead of showing some compassion and solidarity with their suffering, they (the officials) are now desperate to claim their innocence and ignorance”. The bishop is adamant; he will not go for the version of events that some State officials are laying out before the commission investigating last year’s anti-Christian pogrom.
Yesterday retired Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra, the one-man judicial commission set up by the government, heard Gangadhar Singh, district collector in Kandhamal between September 2004 and October 2007.
In his testimony, he said that conversions took place during his tenure in violation of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act. In the same period he saw widespread encroachment on government land, and rising tensions between Tribals and Dalits over the latter’s attempt to change their legal status and gain the same privileges available to the former, including access to land. Whilst exonerating the Church from any direct involvement in these events he did suggest that illegal conversions, land encroachment and Tribal-Dalit tensions were interrelated.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Mgr Chennath said that much of Singh’s testimony is ambiguous and based on outdated information. As far as he is concerned, some officials were asleep at the switch. “Why did they not bring to light the irregularities prior to this?” he asked. “Can they prove what they say? [. . .] The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act was enacted in 1967, and only now after the wave of anti-Christian persecution, do they mention some violations of the law! This is all a game played to make the government appear innocent.”
For the bishop of Bhubanewsar, the officials’ version of events is but the latest chapter “in the game played by government authorities and the Sangh Parivar (Hindu fundamentalist group) to continue persecuting Christians.”
Pogrom victims are in fact still living in insecurity, often far from home, under continuous threats, enduring the boycott of their Hindu neighbours.
“Most shamefully and regrettably, officials are working with the Sangh Parivar to drive out the vulnerable Christian minority from Kandhamal,” he said.
Police Inspector General Arun Sarang was another official who took the stand before the commission of inquiry. He stuck to the version according to which the authorities had no intelligence about Maoist threats against Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, head of the Visva Hindu Parisad (VHP). The swami’s murder set of violent anti-Christian attacks in August 2008.
Sarang again exonerated Kandhamal Christians from involvement in the murder of the Hindu fundamentalist leader. “It is absolutely clear,” he said, “that the assassination was the work of the CPI (Maoist) cadres.”
However, the inspector’s words ring a bit hollow to the Catholic community; more like an attempt to exonerate the authorities from charges that it failed to prevent the violence.
“The police are giving confusing statements before the commission,” Fr Ajay Kumar Singh said. They are “trying to shift the blame to local people, even claiming that they had no information about a threatening letter sent to VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati.” Yet “he was provided with security on the recommendation of a State security panel.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Islamists ‘Ban’ UN Books
Somali schools should stop using “un-Islamic” textbooks distributed by the United Nations, a spokesman for the Islamist group al-Shabab has said.
Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage urged Somalis not to send their children to schools which use such books.
A BBC reporter in the capital Mogadishu says that despite the violence in the country, many schools still operate — and most use UN textbooks.
Extreme Islamist groups control most of southern Somalia.
The writ of the UN-backed government only runs in small parts of Mogadishu.
“Some UN agencies like Unesco are supplying Somali schools with textbooks to try to teach our children un-Islamic subjects,” Mr Rage said at a graduation ceremony for Koranic students, reports the Reuters news agency.
“I call upon all Somali parents not to send their youngsters to schools with curriculum supported by the UN agencies.”
The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says it is not clear whether other al-Shabab leaders share his view.
Our reporter says some schools use textbooks from Saudi Arabia.
Al-Shabab is accused of having links to al-Qaeda.
On Thursday, it carried out a double suicide bombing, killing 17 African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991.
Years of fighting and anarchy have left some three million people — half the population — needing food aid.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Building Backup Nuke Plant in Americas?
Venezuelan site could give Hezbollah door to atomic mischief
Iran may consider a proposal from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to build a backup “nuclear village” in his nation to produce nuclear energy and also to have a safe fall-back production capability in case there is an attack by Israel or the United States on nuclear facilities in Iran, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Chavez, in a visit last week to Iran, proposed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the idea of building a project in Venezuela.
Security sources have confirmed such a “nuclear village” could become the Iranian nuclear production alternative, or a location to hide especially critical nuclear components from attack.
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Russia to Modernize and Train Cuban Military
The chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, visiting Cuba, says his country will help Havana modernize and train its military and that Moscow warships will visit Cuba soon, according to reports published Friday.
The visit by Gen. Nikolai Y. Makarov as well as the head of Russian military intelligence and other high-ranking officers has sparked broad speculation about a possible renewal of the once extremely close relations between Moscow and Havana’s armed forces.
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Spain to Act as Mediator Between Venezuela and Israel
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 16 — Spain is to act as a mediator between Venezuela and Israel, and will represent Caracas in consular affairs in Tel Aviv, said sources from the Venezuelan Government today in a statement quoted by the Europa Press agency. The decision is part of an agreement signed on Friday by Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, during his official visit to Madrid. The Chavez executive broke off diplomatic relations with Israel following the military offensive which took place between last December and January, killing 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. The Ambassador for the Bolivian Republic in Madrid, Isaias Rodriguez, will formulate an agreement with the Spanish authorities “in the next few hours, in accordance with the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, in keeping with international practice”.(ANSAmed).
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Australia: Immigration Not the Only Way to Counter Our Ageing Population
THE Rudd government should be wary about using high levels of immigration in coming decades as a means to counteract the decline in productivity resulting from an ageing population because more over-55s are staying on in their jobs, a population expert warns.
Monash University demographer Bob Birrell said Treasury’s new population estimate for Australia — 35 million by 2050 — was based on immigration levels of about 180,000 a year, a rate that may not be necessary to keep the economy running and will be difficult to provide for in terms of urban infrastructure and services.
“The government seems to have bought the argument that business in Australia needs a high amount of labour force growth to keep it going in the future. The rest of us are going to have to bear the consequences of that,” Professor Birrell said yesterday.
“The government doesn’t seem prepared to explore how we need to make social adjustments; rather, they are relying on the prop of bringing in more people of younger ages to essentially put all the older people to bed.”
In a speech yesterday to launch the new Australian Institute for Population Ageing Research at the University of NSW, Wayne Swan noted the previous estimate of Australia’s future population contained in the last intergenerational report in 2007 — 28.5 million by 2047 — was likely to be well short of the mark.
“Australia’s population is projected to grow by 65per cent to reach over 35 million in 2049, up from around 21.5 million people now,” Mr Swan said.
“This … is largely driven by a greater number of women of childbearing age, higher fertility rates and increased net overseas migration.”
Mr Swan said while the number of people of working age would grow by 45 per cent over the next 40 years, those aged 65-84 would double and those 85 and older would increase by 4.5 times.
“Population ageing will lead to slower economic growth … and it will lead to increasing levels of Australian government spending per person. Together these factors will contribute to significant ongoing financial pressures,” the Treasurer said.
Professor Birrell said research at his Centre for Population and Urban Research earlier this year showed older workers, those aged 55-plus, were tending to stay on in the workforce longer than anticipated. With sustained high levels of immigration added into the workforce mix, the employment prospects of younger Australians were being compromised.
Australian National University demographer Peter McDonald said the recent increase in the birthrate in Australia, up from 1.79 to 1.93 in the past two years, was encouraging.
“The lower the birthrate, the more migrants you need,” Professor McDonald said. “If we had birthrates like those in Germany or Italy we would need to look at greater numbers of migrants.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
France: Immigration; Sarkozy, DNA Tests Are Useless
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 15 — “Everybody knows that DNA tests are useless,” said French president Nicolas Sarkozy, according to some deputies of his party, UMP, with whom he met at the Elysée. His statement follows the heated debate which flared up after the Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, refused to apply the directive, voted two years ago by his predecessor, Brice Hortefeux, which forces families of French immigrants, asking to be reunited to their relatives, to take DNA tests before leaving for France. Two days ago, Besson’s refusal sparked heavy reactions within the UMP itself. “This matter is a clear example of what must not be done,” Sarkozy added, confirming his support to Besson. “Maybe he wasn’t clever, but he was in good faith,” he said. “Now I will take some time to think it over with prime minister Francois Fillon”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Migrant Protests in Ceuta Continue
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 16 — For a third consecutive day, around 200 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who are currently housed at the CETI immigrant centre, have returned to peacefully demonstrating outside the prefecture of Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, requesting to be transferred to Spain. The immigrants, according to Spanish national TV reports, have in some cases been blocked for two years in the autonomous territory, pending paperwork for their reception and repatriation being completed. They are asking to leave the CETI centre, concerned also by several cases of flu which have been recorded in the centre. Through their spokesman, Congolese Gabriel Ylunga, they have assured the media that they will not stop their protests until their situation is resolved. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Congress, Obama Team Up to Kill Marriage Protections
‘Respect’ proposal has nearly 100 members of Congress endorsing homosexuality
Nearly 100 members of the U.S. House are working in lockstep with the Obama administration to try to eliminate protections for traditional marriage in the United States with the “Respect for Marriage Act” that has just been introduced in Congress.
H.R. 3567 was introduced just days ago by U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, and more than 90 co-sponsors.
“This legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law which discriminates against lawfully married same-sex couples,” Nadler said in a statement on his website.The proposal has been assigned to committee.
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‘Gay’ Curriculum Challenges Students’ Faith
‘Does your religion encourage choice or reinforce gender expectations?’
A homosexual advocacy initiative claims that over 250 California schools have registered to show their students a curriculum of films that encourages teens to rethink their sexuality, society and even religion.
The curriculum includes videos made by a San Francisco group calling itself “the best in LGBT media,” and includes a clip in which a boy “comes out” by wearing his mother’s bikini and another that uses Native American spirituality to depict bisexual individuals as “two-spirit” people.
The accompanying discussion guides also encourage students to evaluate their religious traditions based on whether they encourage “choice” in sexuality or “reinforce gender expectations.”
[…]
One group keeping a close eye on how this curriculum will be used is the Pacific Justice Institute, a legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties.
Brad Dacus, PJI’s president, told Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink.com, “These pro-homosexual ‘tolerance’ films, shown to children as young as 12 years old in the seventh grade are a clear breach of parental trust.”
PJI is encouraging concerned parents to stay informed and to ask their school districts if the films will be shown.
Apparently, PJI’s warning stems from the reality that the videos can legally be shown in California schools without informing the parents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Pull an About Face on Global Warming
Imagine if Pope Benedict gave a speech saying the Catholic Church has had it wrong all these centuries; there is no reason priests shouldn’t marry. That might generate the odd headline, no?
Or if Don Cherry claimed suddenly to like European hockey players who wear visors and float around the ice, never bodychecking opponents.
Or Jack Layton insisted that unions are ruining the economy by distorting wages and protecting unproductive workers.
Or Stephen Harper began arguing that it makes good economic sense for Ottawa to own a car company. (Oh, wait, that one happened.) But at least, the Tories-buy-GM aberration made all the papers and newscasts.
When a leading proponent for one point of view suddenly starts batting for the other side, it’s usually newsworthy.
So why was a speech last week by Prof. Mojib Latif of Germany’s Leibniz Institute not given more prominence?
Latif is one of the leading climate modellers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC’s last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Swine Flu ‘Could Kill Millions Unless Rich Nations Give £900m’
UN report says pandemic may result in anarchy unless western world pays for antiviral drugs and vaccines
The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world’s poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer.
The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. If the virus takes hold in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed.
Health ministers around the globe were sent the warning on Thursday in a report on the costs of averting a humanitarian disaster in the next few months. It comes as officials inside the World Health Organisation, the UN’s public health body, said they feared they would not be able to raise half that amount because of the global downturn.
Gregory Hartl of WHO said the report required an urgent response from rich nations. “There needs to be recognition that the whole world is affected by this pandemic and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We have seen how H1N1 has taken hold in richer nations and in the southern hemisphere. We have been given fair warning and must act soon,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Volkswagen L1 Concept
A one-liter car? This moniker describes a car that uses one liter of fuel— about a quarter of a gallon—to propel a car for 100 kilometers, or 62 miles. The one-liter car’s fuel economy translates to almost 240 mpg, and VW has had such a car in its sights for some time now. In 2002, outgoing VW CEO Ferdinand PiÔch, now head of the company’s supervisory board, drove a cigar-shaped prototype from VW headquarters in Wolfsburg to a shareholders’ meeting in Hamburg.
Now the idea of the one-liter car has been resurrected. VW’s biggest news at the Frankfurt auto show was the L1 concept, a prototype that “is close to production” and “will be developed,” the company says. Three ingredients were needed to make it happen: a supremely efficient powertrain, great aerodynamics, and lightweight engineering.
As to the powertrain, VW has opted for a two-cylinder, 39-hp turbo-diesel engine combined with a 14-hp electric motor. There is a stop/start system and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The L1 can reach 100 mph, but fuel economy at that speed drops to a shameful 1.38 liters per 100 kilometers, or 170 mpg.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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