LONDON: With his brooding aspect and sagging poll numbers, Prime Minister Gordon Brown had seemed to personify the bleak mood of a world traumatized by collapsing house prices, lost jobs and banks that would not lend. But that was last week. After devising a bank rescue plan that has now been endorsed by European and American officials -- and sent global stocks soaring immediately afterward -- he is being celebrated worldwide and has revived a political career that the "commentariat," as Brown disdainfully refers to the chattering classes, had predicted would soon be at an end. While Brown, 57, has moved up in the polls, he still trails his younger conservative rival, the fresh-faced David Cameron, 42, whose months of deft parliamentary jabs helped define Brown as a leaden, out of touch leader.
LONDON: With his brooding aspect and sagging poll numbers, Prime Minister Gordon Brown had seemed to personify the bleak mood of a world traumatized by collapsing house prices, lost jobs and banks that would not lend.
But that was last week.
After devising a bank rescue plan that has now been endorsed by European and American officials -- and sent global stocks soaring immediately afterward -- he is being celebrated worldwide and has revived a political career that the "commentariat," as Brown disdainfully refers to the chattering classes, had predicted would soon be at an end.
While Brown, 57, has moved up in the polls, he still trails his younger conservative rival, the fresh-faced David Cameron, 42, whose months of deft parliamentary jabs helped define Brown as a leaden, out of touch leader.
Everyone else still thinks he's an idiot. And they're not going to stop thinking he's an idiot as jobs go south, and public services are trashed.
Nearly 10,000 jobs are to be lost and up to 100 courts could close as budget cuts hit the public sector.The Timeshas learnt that more than £900 million must be saved at the Ministry of Justice in the next two years, threatening initiatives that include Gordon Brown's programme to tackle knife crime. The news comes as figures revealed that inflation hit a 16-year high of 5.2 per cent last month, driven by soaring gas and electricity bills. Analysts predict that the spike will also blow a £3 billion hole in Britain's welfare budget because the annual increase in pensions and benefits is pegged to the September figures. With most experts forecasting that unemployment will exceed government estimates, the bill for welfare payments is almost certain to rise further. A confidential presentation made to officials by Suma Chakrabarti, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, detailed the savings required from the department 18 months after it was set up. They include the loss of 9,891 jobs in the prison, probation and court services - more than a tenth of the workforce - with one in three coming through redundancies. These cuts, along with a freeze on new recruits or the use of agency staff, could lead to the closure of up to 100 courts.
Hard-working families don't seem to matter when Gordon is the one sacking them. keep to the Fen Causeway
To recap - so far the G7 have committed more than a trillion in total, and the only long-term benefit is likely to be an agreement by the banking industry to trim its bonus culture.
We haven't avoided a depression yet, because the systemic problems are still systemic.
And now we're all supposed to trim our belts because there's no cash for important things.
Wankers.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe has breathed a sigh of relief after markets reacted positively to its coordinated rescue of the banking sector. But the Brussels summit of EU leaders (15 to 16 October) is expected to see criticism of the strategy, as well as scepticism over ambitious climate change goals in the uncertain economic times. Back to the family photo - for some EU leaders the fourth time since September at the invitation of French presidency Almost completely overshadowed by the financial crisis, the Lisbon treaty part of the summit agenda will boil down to Ireland's report on reasons why the Irish voters rejected the document, with answers on if and when Dublin could repeat the referendum due in December at the earliest. For several leaders, it is the fourth time in less than two months that they are gathering under the initiative of France - currently holding the EU's six-month rotating presidency - following an extraordinary session on Georgia and two previous gatherings on the financial crisis. Paris is hoping that the October summit will give a definite, EU-wide stamp of approval to the bank rescue and lay the groundwork for a grand finale at the end of the year - a December summit that would put both climate change and the Lisbon treaty solution on the list of French presidency achievements.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe has breathed a sigh of relief after markets reacted positively to its coordinated rescue of the banking sector. But the Brussels summit of EU leaders (15 to 16 October) is expected to see criticism of the strategy, as well as scepticism over ambitious climate change goals in the uncertain economic times.
Back to the family photo - for some EU leaders the fourth time since September at the invitation of French presidency
Almost completely overshadowed by the financial crisis, the Lisbon treaty part of the summit agenda will boil down to Ireland's report on reasons why the Irish voters rejected the document, with answers on if and when Dublin could repeat the referendum due in December at the earliest.
For several leaders, it is the fourth time in less than two months that they are gathering under the initiative of France - currently holding the EU's six-month rotating presidency - following an extraordinary session on Georgia and two previous gatherings on the financial crisis.
Paris is hoping that the October summit will give a definite, EU-wide stamp of approval to the bank rescue and lay the groundwork for a grand finale at the end of the year - a December summit that would put both climate change and the Lisbon treaty solution on the list of French presidency achievements.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As EU leaders in Brussels meet to debate Russia relations and diplomats in Geneva discuss Georgian security, one Polish aid worker aims to remind politicians of the stark realities of the conflict via a vandalised flag. Henryk Wlaszczyk - who did not want EUobserver to name the organisation he works for in case it is denied access to future war zones - arrived in Georgia at the height of the conflict on 11 August. He was based in Gori and travelled in the South Ossetia border region. Gori - the birthplace of Stalin - after Russian troops left in late August "The Russians attacked the university in Gori, which was shelled with high-calibre ordnance," he said. "When we entered we saw fires, books scattered everywhere. Then we noticed how the Russian soldiers had attacked the university flag and the EU flag, which was full of holes from bullets and bayonets. This symbol of the EU countries and of Georgian aspirations was an object of direct physical hatred." The medical worker picked up the flag and aims to pass it on to European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering in the coming days, to show the war was not just a scrap over bits of Georgian land, but a clash between two bordering ideologies and "empires" - the EU and Russia.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As EU leaders in Brussels meet to debate Russia relations and diplomats in Geneva discuss Georgian security, one Polish aid worker aims to remind politicians of the stark realities of the conflict via a vandalised flag.
Henryk Wlaszczyk - who did not want EUobserver to name the organisation he works for in case it is denied access to future war zones - arrived in Georgia at the height of the conflict on 11 August. He was based in Gori and travelled in the South Ossetia border region.
Gori - the birthplace of Stalin - after Russian troops left in late August
"The Russians attacked the university in Gori, which was shelled with high-calibre ordnance," he said. "When we entered we saw fires, books scattered everywhere. Then we noticed how the Russian soldiers had attacked the university flag and the EU flag, which was full of holes from bullets and bayonets. This symbol of the EU countries and of Georgian aspirations was an object of direct physical hatred."
The medical worker picked up the flag and aims to pass it on to European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering in the coming days, to show the war was not just a scrap over bits of Georgian land, but a clash between two bordering ideologies and "empires" - the EU and Russia.
Georgian and Russian officials have begun their first direct talks since the conflict over Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia in August. The talks in Geneva - which are be mediated by the UN, the EU and the OSCE - are aimed at encouraging stability and security in the Caucasus. But they are unlikely to provide a solution to the dispute, diplomats say. In August, Russia fought a brief war to repel Georgian troops trying to regain control of South Ossetia. Moscow later recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia - another Georgia's rebel region - as independent states, drawing condemnation from Tbilisi and Western leaders.
Georgian and Russian officials have begun their first direct talks since the conflict over Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia in August.
The talks in Geneva - which are be mediated by the UN, the EU and the OSCE - are aimed at encouraging stability and security in the Caucasus.
But they are unlikely to provide a solution to the dispute, diplomats say.
In August, Russia fought a brief war to repel Georgian troops trying to regain control of South Ossetia.
Moscow later recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia - another Georgia's rebel region - as independent states, drawing condemnation from Tbilisi and Western leaders.
Spanish Prime Minister Jorge Luis Zapatero has received an invitation to visit President Raoul Castro in Cuba next year, but has not yet decided to go, AFP writes. Spain has led the EU in normalising relations with the authoritarian Communist state, seeing EU sanctions scrapped earlier this year.
Euroshareholders, a pan-European club of shareholder groups, on Wednesday asked the board of Fortis bank to step down without any compensation. The move follows the bank's near collapse, with shareholders worried directors will now spend more energy defending their actions than running the business.
ROME: A decision by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France not to extradite a former member of the Red Brigades, the group that terrorized Italy throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, has provoked outrage in Italy and stirred dormant tensions between the two countries. The decision also raised questions about the role played by the first lady of France, Carla Sarkozy, who had visited the former member, Marina Petrella, last week and personally assured her that she would not be extradited. Petrella was convicted of involvement in murder and other crimes in Italy, and in 1993 fled to France, where President François Mitterrand had a policy of granting asylum to leftist Italian militants if they renounced violence. But later French governments moved away from that policy, and Petrella was jailed in August 2007. Last August, she was released after her health deteriorated because of severe depression. She had stopped eating, her lawyer, Irène Terrel, said by telephone on Tuesday. "She just wanted to die," Terrel said.
ROME: A decision by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France not to extradite a former member of the Red Brigades, the group that terrorized Italy throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, has provoked outrage in Italy and stirred dormant tensions between the two countries.
The decision also raised questions about the role played by the first lady of France, Carla Sarkozy, who had visited the former member, Marina Petrella, last week and personally assured her that she would not be extradited.
Petrella was convicted of involvement in murder and other crimes in Italy, and in 1993 fled to France, where President François Mitterrand had a policy of granting asylum to leftist Italian militants if they renounced violence. But later French governments moved away from that policy, and Petrella was jailed in August 2007.
Last August, she was released after her health deteriorated because of severe depression. She had stopped eating, her lawyer, Irène Terrel, said by telephone on Tuesday. "She just wanted to die," Terrel said.
"Later government"??? It was a decision by Nicolas F$%$cking Sarkozy. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
What I deplore is that the Italian government, especially this one, actively shields rightwing terrorists now living abroad while pursuing only those on the left.
It is appropriate today that Gaetano Pecorella who was designated as a rightwing candidate to the highest judiciary office in Italy, La Consulta was denied support by the opposition because he is under investigation for having attempted to bribe a state witness in the trial against Delfo Zorzi for the fascist bombing of the Bank of Agriculture in 1969 that left a dozen dead.
Let's get the picture: Berlusconi's top lawyer at the time who doubled as head of the Commission for Constitutional Reform also held down a job as defendant of the notorious fascist terrorist Delfo Zorzi. While defending Zorzi he allegedly sought to bribe a key witness.
While Berlusconi's goons aid and abate fascist terrorists abroad his Minister of Justice Roberto Castelli actively sought the extradition of Battisti and Petrella.
You can buy Zorzi's clothes through any number of his high fashion stores. One's called "Oxus", or any variation thereof.
Petrella doesn't handle Gucci, Armani or whatever. She's just very sick.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union - with some eight million undocumented migrants on its soil, but short of high-skilled migrants - is set to give a new boost to its ambition to establish common immigration and asylum policy. However, organisations active in the area have expressed "strong reservations", claiming that the security approach is getting the upper hand. Brussels officials estimate that some eight million undocumented migrants are currently in the EU At this week's top-level summit in Brussels (15-16 October), EU leaders are expected to formally back the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, a set of political commitments in five areas - regular and irregular immigration, border controls, asylum policies and co-operation with countries of origin and of transit. The pact states that the 27-nation bloc "does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants hoping to find a better life" within its territory.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union - with some eight million undocumented migrants on its soil, but short of high-skilled migrants - is set to give a new boost to its ambition to establish common immigration and asylum policy.
However, organisations active in the area have expressed "strong reservations", claiming that the security approach is getting the upper hand.
Brussels officials estimate that some eight million undocumented migrants are currently in the EU
At this week's top-level summit in Brussels (15-16 October), EU leaders are expected to formally back the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, a set of political commitments in five areas - regular and irregular immigration, border controls, asylum policies and co-operation with countries of origin and of transit.
The pact states that the 27-nation bloc "does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants hoping to find a better life" within its territory.
(but we'll protect you if you give us all necessary powers...) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The International Monetary Fund is sending a team to Ukraine after the former Soviet country requested assistance to help stem a growing economic crisis. At a news conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko dodged the question of whether Ukraine was seeking IMF help, instead offering broad assurances that there was no need for panic. But a spokesman for the IMF said a delegation is due in Ukraine on Wednesday "to discuss economic policies."
At a news conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko dodged the question of whether Ukraine was seeking IMF help, instead offering broad assurances that there was no need for panic.
But a spokesman for the IMF said a delegation is due in Ukraine on Wednesday "to discuss economic policies."
Banana importers Dole and Del Monte have been fined 60 million euros ($82 million) for running an illegal price-fixing cartel, the European Commission said. The importers, along with the Chiquita company, are accused of discussing prices and their pricing intentions in weekly phone calls between 2000 and 2002. Europe's top antitrust watchdog on Wednesday, Oct. 15, ordered Dole to pay 45.6 million euros for its role while Del Monte/Weichert has been fined 14.7 million euros. Chiquita escaped a penalty because it tipped off authorities about the cartel.
The importers, along with the Chiquita company, are accused of discussing prices and their pricing intentions in weekly phone calls between 2000 and 2002.
Europe's top antitrust watchdog on Wednesday, Oct. 15, ordered Dole to pay 45.6 million euros for its role while Del Monte/Weichert has been fined 14.7 million euros. Chiquita escaped a penalty because it tipped off authorities about the cartel.
Politician Cem Özdemir is set to soon become Germany's first national party leader of Turkish descent. As head of the Green Party, he will break through a glass ceiling that still persists for most of the country's estimated 2.5 million ethnic Turks. Green Party chairman-designee Cem Özdemir: "The number of German voters with migrant backgrounds is increasing -- not only Turks, but other communities as well." Cem Özdemir raises his vodka-orange and winks. "Serefe ." He seems to relax. There was a crowd outside the bar, packed into Berlin's KulturBrauerei for the mid-September Radio Multikulti festival, and the way to the small upstairs table had been full of random greetings and handshakes.
Politician Cem Özdemir is set to soon become Germany's first national party leader of Turkish descent. As head of the Green Party, he will break through a glass ceiling that still persists for most of the country's estimated 2.5 million ethnic Turks.
Green Party chairman-designee Cem Özdemir: "The number of German voters with migrant backgrounds is increasing -- not only Turks, but other communities as well."
Cem Özdemir raises his vodka-orange and winks.
"Serefe ."
He seems to relax. There was a crowd outside the bar, packed into Berlin's KulturBrauerei for the mid-September Radio Multikulti festival, and the way to the small upstairs table had been full of random greetings and handshakes.
The war in Georgia has provoked unprecedented levels of patriosm in Russia. The majority of the population supported their army's actions in the Caucasus. And even the fiercest critics of the Kremlin have now become proud Russians. Members of the Kremlin-loyal youth organisation "Nashi" wave flags and hold a banner during a protest in front of the US embassy in Moscow during the Georgia war. I never thought I'd see the day when regular Russians, without any prompting, would voluntarily and passionately defend the actions of the Kremlin in conversations with a foreign friend. But at a garden party in a Moscow suburb one evening at the height of Russia's flash war with Georgia in August, I was accosted by several old friends who were bursting to explain to me why Moscow had no choice but to send the 58th Army into Georgia, that it in no way constituted "aggression," and that Russia was clearly acting according to humanitarian concerns. "Why do you [Westerners] always paint Russia black, even when we're just trying to save our own citizens from genocide?," Sasha, a professor of political science asked me. "We've been facing a creeping invasion of our country by NATO for years, but thank God our leaders are finally taking action to stop it," said Andrei, an executive with a big Western-based multinational corporation. I was astounded. I personally believe that Russia had a half-way decent case for its actions, and I've argued as much in print. But I'd never before heard, or ever expected to hear, any of my friends -- a fairly broad spectrum of intellectuals, businesspeople, a couple of diplomats -- sounding like a news broadcast on Russian state TV. Nowadays, virtually all of them do. These are people who, in the past like most educated Russians, would automatically assume that a Kremlin official was lying if his lips were moving. Things have definitely changed.
The war in Georgia has provoked unprecedented levels of patriosm in Russia. The majority of the population supported their army's actions in the Caucasus. And even the fiercest critics of the Kremlin have now become proud Russians.
Members of the Kremlin-loyal youth organisation "Nashi" wave flags and hold a banner during a protest in front of the US embassy in Moscow during the Georgia war. I never thought I'd see the day when regular Russians, without any prompting, would voluntarily and passionately defend the actions of the Kremlin in conversations with a foreign friend.
But at a garden party in a Moscow suburb one evening at the height of Russia's flash war with Georgia in August, I was accosted by several old friends who were bursting to explain to me why Moscow had no choice but to send the 58th Army into Georgia, that it in no way constituted "aggression," and that Russia was clearly acting according to humanitarian concerns.
"Why do you [Westerners] always paint Russia black, even when we're just trying to save our own citizens from genocide?," Sasha, a professor of political science asked me. "We've been facing a creeping invasion of our country by NATO for years, but thank God our leaders are finally taking action to stop it," said Andrei, an executive with a big Western-based multinational corporation. I was astounded. I personally believe that Russia had a half-way decent case for its actions, and I've argued as much in print. But I'd never before heard, or ever expected to hear, any of my friends -- a fairly broad spectrum of intellectuals, businesspeople, a couple of diplomats -- sounding like a news broadcast on Russian state TV. Nowadays, virtually all of them do. These are people who, in the past like most educated Russians, would automatically assume that a Kremlin official was lying if his lips were moving. Things have definitely changed.
"We've been facing a creeping invasion of our country by NATO for years, but thank God our leaders are finally taking action to stop it," said Andrei, an executive with a big Western-based multinational corporation. I was astounded.
"Astounded" by what, exactly? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The Greek islands are facing a Spanish-style development disaster under plans that would demolish building regulations and encourage a construction boom on some of Europe's last undisturbed coastline. Just as other European countries are counting the cost of overdevelopment in coastal areas, Greece's government is seeking to redraw planning regulations and open the islands up to high-density summer homes, from Skopelos to Santorini.Opposition parties have been joined by conservation groups, architects, hoteliers and planning experts in condemning the changes which could come into practice by the end of next month. "We are about to see an explosion of summer house construction along the Spanish coast development model," said Kriton Arsenis, from the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment.
The Greek islands are facing a Spanish-style development disaster under plans that would demolish building regulations and encourage a construction boom on some of Europe's last undisturbed coastline.
Just as other European countries are counting the cost of overdevelopment in coastal areas, Greece's government is seeking to redraw planning regulations and open the islands up to high-density summer homes, from Skopelos to Santorini.
Opposition parties have been joined by conservation groups, architects, hoteliers and planning experts in condemning the changes which could come into practice by the end of next month. "We are about to see an explosion of summer house construction along the Spanish coast development model," said Kriton Arsenis, from the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment.
Meanwhile, the PM and the leader started a (for them) unprecedented joint campaign in the EU in Brussels. They advocate an EU-level regulation body for financial markets (Barroso voiced support) and an explicit strenghtening of the state and the EU in the face of the crisis (heh). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The 1989 Romanian Revolution was kicked off by events in Timişoara (Hungarian: Temesvár, German: Temeschwar). The authorities wanted to evict László Tőkés, an ethic-Hungarian pastor [and later ever-more-insane nationalist politician], but were prevented by his flock forming a 'human shield'. Within days, this showing grew into a mass protest of citizens of all backgrounds. The regime reacted with a bloody clampdown -- the (as we later learnt, exaggerated) news of which ignited the events in the capital Bucharest.
Legal persecution of the two generals ordering the massacre at Timişoara was first hampered by the foul power compromise of the new powers-that-be (who in effect benefitted from the revolution by staging a long-planned coup under its mantle), and later, legal troubles (the two generals were first sentenced in 2000).
Now, the High Court issued its final ruling: 15 years in prison. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Thanks. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
Romania court upholds sentences against 2 generals - International Herald Tribune
Romania's Supreme Court upheld 15-year prison sentences against two retired army generals convicted for their role in killing demonstrators while trying to suppress the 1989 anti-communist revolution that toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The court's ruling Wednesday -- the second in the case in almost a decade -- is final. In 1999, Victor Stanculescu and Mihai Chitac were convicted for the first time of trying to quell the anti-communist revolt in the western city of Timisoara. But in 2001, the country's prosecutor general ordered retrials for the two men in what was seen as a politically motivated move. In 2007, they were again convicted of murder and attempted murder but appealed the ruling. Both generals held senior positions in Ceausescu's regime and they were dispatched to crack down on demonstrators in Timisoara. It was the first city in Romania to protest against Ceausescu's dictatorship -- and 72 people died and 253 were wounded in chaotic shooting. After the revolution, Stanculescu and Chitac took office in the first post-communist government. Chitac became interior minister in 1990 and Stanculescu was industry minister and later defense minister.
Romania's Supreme Court upheld 15-year prison sentences against two retired army generals convicted for their role in killing demonstrators while trying to suppress the 1989 anti-communist revolution that toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
The court's ruling Wednesday -- the second in the case in almost a decade -- is final. In 1999, Victor Stanculescu and Mihai Chitac were convicted for the first time of trying to quell the anti-communist revolt in the western city of Timisoara.
But in 2001, the country's prosecutor general ordered retrials for the two men in what was seen as a politically motivated move. In 2007, they were again convicted of murder and attempted murder but appealed the ruling.
Both generals held senior positions in Ceausescu's regime and they were dispatched to crack down on demonstrators in Timisoara. It was the first city in Romania to protest against Ceausescu's dictatorship -- and 72 people died and 253 were wounded in chaotic shooting.
After the revolution, Stanculescu and Chitac took office in the first post-communist government. Chitac became interior minister in 1990 and Stanculescu was industry minister and later defense minister.
Russia's leading human rights lawyer is at the centre of an investigation by French police after claiming she had been poisoned by a suspicious substance found hidden in her car.Detectives in the town of Strasbourg were examining whether Karinna Moskalenko - the country's most prominent defender of Kremlin opponents - had been deliberately poisoned.Moskalenko said on Monday her husband discovered "large" quantities of a mercury-like substance hidden under her car seat. Moskalenko had been due yesterday to attend the Moscow trial of three men accused of involvement in the murder of the crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, was shot dead two years ago outside her Moscow flat. Two Chechen brothers, Dzhanrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, have been charged with carrying out surveillance on Politkovskaya. A former police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, is accused of giving them technical help.But the trial was overshadowed by Moskalenko's non-appearance. A champion of victims of torture in Chechnya, she represents many of Putin's most high-profile enemies. These include Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oligarch Putin jailed in 2003, and the opposition leader and former chess champion Garry Kasparov.Moskalenko said her husband, a chemist, stumbled across the deadly substance while cleaning the family car. She and her family had been suffering from severe headaches, giddiness and nausea. The illness prevented her from flying back to Russia for yesterday's trial, she said.
Russia's leading human rights lawyer is at the centre of an investigation by French police after claiming she had been poisoned by a suspicious substance found hidden in her car.
Detectives in the town of Strasbourg were examining whether Karinna Moskalenko - the country's most prominent defender of Kremlin opponents - had been deliberately poisoned.
Moskalenko said on Monday her husband discovered "large" quantities of a mercury-like substance hidden under her car seat. Moskalenko had been due yesterday to attend the Moscow trial of three men accused of involvement in the murder of the crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, was shot dead two years ago outside her Moscow flat. Two Chechen brothers, Dzhanrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, have been charged with carrying out surveillance on Politkovskaya. A former police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, is accused of giving them technical help.
But the trial was overshadowed by Moskalenko's non-appearance. A champion of victims of torture in Chechnya, she represents many of Putin's most high-profile enemies. These include Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oligarch Putin jailed in 2003, and the opposition leader and former chess champion Garry Kasparov.
Moskalenko said her husband, a chemist, stumbled across the deadly substance while cleaning the family car. She and her family had been suffering from severe headaches, giddiness and nausea. The illness prevented her from flying back to Russia for yesterday's trial, she said.
Civic leaders have been branded mad in a crackpot scheme to float an entire city's assets on the Stock Exchange - just as world money markets are collapsing.Krakow council leaders want to list all the Polish city's utilities on the money market as a way of raising extra cash for repairs.But critics say the plan will ruin the medieval city."We have just watched millions and millions of pounds disappear into thin air on the world's stock markets. They must be out of their minds," said one.
