An Italian court handed down sentences Thursday in Genoa against 13 police officers accused of violence against protestors at the 2001 G8 summit in the city but acquitted several high-ranking officers in the case. Shouts of "shame, shame!" from many of those in the courtroom's public gallery accompanied the late evening reading of the verdicts and sentences, which came after some 11 hours of deliberations by judges. Among those attending the evening court session were people who were beaten when police raided a school that was being used as a headquarters by anti-globalization groups during the Group of Eight summit. Prosecutors had asked for a combined total of more than 100 years of jail for the 29 defendants, many of whom had been indicted on charges of assault and causing grievous bodily harm related to the raid at the Diaz school. Judges acquitted 16 of the defendants, including three who currently serve as top police and security officials in Italy.
Shouts of "shame, shame!" from many of those in the courtroom's public gallery accompanied the late evening reading of the verdicts and sentences, which came after some 11 hours of deliberations by judges.
Among those attending the evening court session were people who were beaten when police raided a school that was being used as a headquarters by anti-globalization groups during the Group of Eight summit.
Prosecutors had asked for a combined total of more than 100 years of jail for the 29 defendants, many of whom had been indicted on charges of assault and causing grievous bodily harm related to the raid at the Diaz school.
Judges acquitted 16 of the defendants, including three who currently serve as top police and security officials in Italy.
A day before the European Union heads into partnership talks with Russia, its major energy supplier to the east, Brussels has unveiled an strategy outlining how it hopes to wean the 27-country bloc from the fickle oil and gas dealer. "We will not stand idly by while we sleep walk into Europe's energy dependence crisis," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said as he presented a detailed, multi-faceted scheme every bit as ambitious as the EU's very much related climate and energy package. "We must shield European citizens from the risk that external suppliers cannot honour their commitments," he said, without mentioning Russia. The EU's Energy Security and Solidarity Action Plan, issued on Thursday (13 November) by the European Commission, primarily proposes a diversification of energy sources towards central Asia, the Mideast and Norway. The EU currently depends on foreign sources for almost 54 percent of its energy consumption, including 61 percent of its gas. According to the commission, this figure will climb to 84 percent by 2030.
A day before the European Union heads into partnership talks with Russia, its major energy supplier to the east, Brussels has unveiled an strategy outlining how it hopes to wean the 27-country bloc from the fickle oil and gas dealer.
"We will not stand idly by while we sleep walk into Europe's energy dependence crisis," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said as he presented a detailed, multi-faceted scheme every bit as ambitious as the EU's very much related climate and energy package.
"We must shield European citizens from the risk that external suppliers cannot honour their commitments," he said, without mentioning Russia.
The EU's Energy Security and Solidarity Action Plan, issued on Thursday (13 November) by the European Commission, primarily proposes a diversification of energy sources towards central Asia, the Mideast and Norway.
The EU currently depends on foreign sources for almost 54 percent of its energy consumption, including 61 percent of its gas. According to the commission, this figure will climb to 84 percent by 2030.
How about levelling the playing field by matching costs across transport alternatives to encourage the use of the best and discourage the use of the worst ? Rather than driving around in your chauffeur driven fleet of luxury mobiles, how's about using the bus ? How about using an electric bus ? How about prioritizing all sorts of things that make things better instead of throwing subsidies around at industries and ideas that make things worse ?
that or STFU. Cos credibility is hard to come by when you keep doing what you're doing. keep to the Fen Causeway
But I won't believe anything until they assign a budget.
I've been working with the local Finnish office of Natural Interest. They have developed a piece of software containing an enormous database of sources for energy consumption - everything from a plugged in but unused phone charger, to a Supertanker. Using the software they can calculate the carbon footprint of companies, organizations, events, buildings etc. You can't be me, I'm taken
That's the media's read, not the actual content of the document, which is a lot more focused on demand-side policies, energy efficiency and savings than is made out (of course, Barroso's comments, as quoted, don't help). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
"We will not stand idly by while we sleep walk
aah, astral projection...
i always knew barrozo was an Enlightened One, master of spacetime! ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU concerns about Russia's nuclear safety and human rights standards will not get much attention in Nice on Friday (14 November), as French President Nicolas Sarkozy celebrates his role in ending the Georgia war. Two internal documents on EU-Russia relations prepared by the European Commission and EU diplomats ahead of the summit point to mounting environmental concerns about Russia's defunct nuclear submarines and ageing power plants. Here come the Russians: but a decrepit army and a tottering economy stand behind President Medvedev's ambitions "More than 200 nuclear reactors and some 20,000 spent fuel elements coming from dismantled submarines and icebreakers are stored in poor conditions," in north west Russia, the EU analysis - seen by EUobserver - says. "Russia has prolonged the lifetime of its first generation nuclear reactors, some of which are of the Chernobyl type and close to the EU's border," it adds, noting that an EU-Russia nuclear safety group last met in 2005. The EU has earmarked €40 million to help Russia control the spread of chemical weapons and fissile materials, including retraining some 30,000 weapons scientists at the International Science and Technology Centre in Moscow. But Russia says the centre has already "fulfilled" its task, with financial contributions going down in 2008.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU concerns about Russia's nuclear safety and human rights standards will not get much attention in Nice on Friday (14 November), as French President Nicolas Sarkozy celebrates his role in ending the Georgia war.
Two internal documents on EU-Russia relations prepared by the European Commission and EU diplomats ahead of the summit point to mounting environmental concerns about Russia's defunct nuclear submarines and ageing power plants.
Here come the Russians: but a decrepit army and a tottering economy stand behind President Medvedev's ambitions
"More than 200 nuclear reactors and some 20,000 spent fuel elements coming from dismantled submarines and icebreakers are stored in poor conditions," in north west Russia, the EU analysis - seen by EUobserver - says.
"Russia has prolonged the lifetime of its first generation nuclear reactors, some of which are of the Chernobyl type and close to the EU's border," it adds, noting that an EU-Russia nuclear safety group last met in 2005.
The EU has earmarked €40 million to help Russia control the spread of chemical weapons and fissile materials, including retraining some 30,000 weapons scientists at the International Science and Technology Centre in Moscow.
But Russia says the centre has already "fulfilled" its task, with financial contributions going down in 2008.
NICE, France: French President Nicolas Sarkozy undercut the American rationale for a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe on Friday by saying that the system would do nothing to improve European security. Sarkozy's comments were the strongest to date by an American ally against the missile-defense plans, which have infuriated Russia despite the Bush administration's insistence that they are aimed at protecting Europe from Iran. "Deployment of a missile defense system would bring nothing to security in Europe ... it would complicate things, and would make them move backward," Sarkozy said after a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev smiled and pointed his finger at Sarkozy in approval after the comments from the French president. The remarks came at the end of a week in which the United States and Russia rejected each other's proposed solutions to the standoff over the missile plans, making it increasingly likely that it will not be resolved before U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
NICE, France: French President Nicolas Sarkozy undercut the American rationale for a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe on Friday by saying that the system would do nothing to improve European security.
Sarkozy's comments were the strongest to date by an American ally against the missile-defense plans, which have infuriated Russia despite the Bush administration's insistence that they are aimed at protecting Europe from Iran.
"Deployment of a missile defense system would bring nothing to security in Europe ... it would complicate things, and would make them move backward," Sarkozy said after a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev smiled and pointed his finger at Sarkozy in approval after the comments from the French president.
The remarks came at the end of a week in which the United States and Russia rejected each other's proposed solutions to the standoff over the missile plans, making it increasingly likely that it will not be resolved before U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
With Russia's backing for the G20 summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a new security and defence arrangement between the EU, Russia and the US to be agreed at a summit mid-2009, calling both on Moscow and Washington to refrain from deploying missiles until that date. Mr Sarkozy was speaking at a press conference on Friday (14 November) following the EU-Russia summit held in Nice, alongside his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. President Dmitri Medvedev got French support on security and defence matters, despite not having fully complied with the ceasefire agreement in Georgia "As acting EU council president I propose that mid-2009 we gather for instance within the OSCE [Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe] to lay the basis of what might be a future EU security arrangement ...which would of course involve the Russians and the Americans," Mr Sarkozy said, backing an idea originally proposed by his Russian counterpart. He also expressed his "preoccupation" with Mr Medvedev's threat to deploy short-range missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, bordering Poland and Lithuania.
With Russia's backing for the G20 summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a new security and defence arrangement between the EU, Russia and the US to be agreed at a summit mid-2009, calling both on Moscow and Washington to refrain from deploying missiles until that date.
Mr Sarkozy was speaking at a press conference on Friday (14 November) following the EU-Russia summit held in Nice, alongside his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
President Dmitri Medvedev got French support on security and defence matters, despite not having fully complied with the ceasefire agreement in Georgia
"As acting EU council president I propose that mid-2009 we gather for instance within the OSCE [Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe] to lay the basis of what might be a future EU security arrangement ...which would of course involve the Russians and the Americans," Mr Sarkozy said, backing an idea originally proposed by his Russian counterpart.
He also expressed his "preoccupation" with Mr Medvedev's threat to deploy short-range missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, bordering Poland and Lithuania.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France proposed a time-out today in the dangerous arms race prompted by Washington's plans to position a missile defence shield in Europe. Speaking after hosting an EU-Russian summit in the southern city of Nice, Mr Sarkozy proposed that a security summit be held next summer at which Russia, the United States and Europe could hammer out a long-term security framework. He added that the proposed missile shield would do "nothing" to help European security. Mr Sarkozy appears to have won the agreement of his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, who threatened last week to site short-range nuclear missiles in the western enclave of Kaliningrad, on the borders of the EU. "I have suggested that in mid-2009 we could meet within a framework to lay the foundations of what could possibly be a future pan-European security system," Mr Sarkozy said at a joint press conference with Mr Medvedev. "This would bring together the Russians, the American and the Europeans."
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France proposed a time-out today in the dangerous arms race prompted by Washington's plans to position a missile defence shield in Europe.
Speaking after hosting an EU-Russian summit in the southern city of Nice, Mr Sarkozy proposed that a security summit be held next summer at which Russia, the United States and Europe could hammer out a long-term security framework. He added that the proposed missile shield would do "nothing" to help European security.
Mr Sarkozy appears to have won the agreement of his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, who threatened last week to site short-range nuclear missiles in the western enclave of Kaliningrad, on the borders of the EU.
"I have suggested that in mid-2009 we could meet within a framework to lay the foundations of what could possibly be a future pan-European security system," Mr Sarkozy said at a joint press conference with Mr Medvedev. "This would bring together the Russians, the American and the Europeans."
A top Italian court has allowed doctors to cut life support to a coma patient, though euthanasia isn't legal in the country. Meanwhile in Britain, a 13-year-old won the right to refuse a potentially life-saving surgery. Italy's top appeals court on Thursday, Nov. 13, upheld a July ruling allowing for the removal of feeding tubes supporting a woman who has been in a coma for 16 years. Thirty-five-year-old Eluana Englaro's case has fuelled controversy over euthanasia in mostly Catholic Italy where church authorities have spoken out against her elderly father Beppino's wish to terminate her life. Eluana fell into a coma after a 1992 car accident.
Italy's top appeals court on Thursday, Nov. 13, upheld a July ruling allowing for the removal of feeding tubes supporting a woman who has been in a coma for 16 years.
Thirty-five-year-old Eluana Englaro's case has fuelled controversy over euthanasia in mostly Catholic Italy where church authorities have spoken out against her elderly father Beppino's wish to terminate her life. Eluana fell into a coma after a 1992 car accident.
Many of the world's up-and-coming new powers neither embrace nor aspire to the Western model of liberal democracy. This makes the idea of an "alliance of democracies" a nonstarter. The new powers include authoritarian regimes and they demand a role in global governance. Russia is ready to cooperate, if the West is ready to take it seriously. Compete, confront, or cooperate. One of these verbs will define the next era of Russia's relations with the West. The new industrial revolution in Asia, above all in China and India, has led to the redistribution of the world's wealth in favor of new leaders. In the 1980s and 1990s, globalization favored developed nations, but now the tables have turned. Still more critical in the long term is the West's declining moral and intellectual authority in defining the international agenda. It has made too many mistakes and has used too much self-serving rhetoric. At the same time, thinkers from "the second new world" are not being listened to or are too shy to speak up. Thus an intellectual vacuum has emerged. As people and their leaders fail to understand what is happening and where to go, they often resort to outdated recipes. All of these changes clearly mark a new stage in international development. The Cold War was followed by 12 to 14 years of the post-Cold War era. The dawn of the 21st century saw the end of this period and the beginning of a new one that I call NEC -- a New Era of Competition, Confrontation, or Cooperation. This will be a period of transition, uncertainty, and competition. The weakening of the traditional democratic model of development has dealt a serious blow to the ideal of political democracy, which has suffered from the economic success of authoritarian nations. China is doing much better than the more democratic -- but far from fully democratic -- India. A partially democratic Kuwait is lagging behind the monarchies of the Persian Gulf. A democratic Lebanon and the Palestinian state ruled by democratically elected radicals are in the throes of civil war. Their more authoritarian neighboring Arab states are doing better.
Many of the world's up-and-coming new powers neither embrace nor aspire to the Western model of liberal democracy. This makes the idea of an "alliance of democracies" a nonstarter. The new powers include authoritarian regimes and they demand a role in global governance. Russia is ready to cooperate, if the West is ready to take it seriously.
Compete, confront, or cooperate. One of these verbs will define the next era of Russia's relations with the West. The new industrial revolution in Asia, above all in China and India, has led to the redistribution of the world's wealth in favor of new leaders. In the 1980s and 1990s, globalization favored developed nations, but now the tables have turned. Still more critical in the long term is the West's declining moral and intellectual authority in defining the international agenda. It has made too many mistakes and has used too much self-serving rhetoric. At the same time, thinkers from "the second new world" are not being listened to or are too shy to speak up. Thus an intellectual vacuum has emerged. As people and their leaders fail to understand what is happening and where to go, they often resort to outdated recipes.
All of these changes clearly mark a new stage in international development. The Cold War was followed by 12 to 14 years of the post-Cold War era. The dawn of the 21st century saw the end of this period and the beginning of a new one that I call NEC -- a New Era of Competition, Confrontation, or Cooperation. This will be a period of transition, uncertainty, and competition.
The weakening of the traditional democratic model of development has dealt a serious blow to the ideal of political democracy, which has suffered from the economic success of authoritarian nations. China is doing much better than the more democratic -- but far from fully democratic -- India. A partially democratic Kuwait is lagging behind the monarchies of the Persian Gulf. A democratic Lebanon and the Palestinian state ruled by democratically elected radicals are in the throes of civil war. Their more authoritarian neighboring Arab states are doing better.
People do notice these things. keep to the Fen Causeway
The new labelling scheme has been proposed by Britain to put pressure on Israel to fulfil a broken promise to stop developing settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Consumers in supermarkets across the EU would be made aware their purchases were giving financial support to the Israeli occupation. Israel's policy of building Jewish communities on the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law. The plan has echoes of the labelling system for South African fruit and vegetables during apartheid which led some British consumers to deliberately shun produce from white-run South Africa. But Israel feels the labelling idea is part of a broader attempt by left-wing elements in Britain to ostracise the Jewish state.
The new labelling scheme has been proposed by Britain to put pressure on Israel to fulfil a broken promise to stop developing settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
Consumers in supermarkets across the EU would be made aware their purchases were giving financial support to the Israeli occupation.
Israel's policy of building Jewish communities on the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law.
The plan has echoes of the labelling system for South African fruit and vegetables during apartheid which led some British consumers to deliberately shun produce from white-run South Africa.
But Israel feels the labelling idea is part of a broader attempt by left-wing elements in Britain to ostracise the Jewish state.
Kilometre-long queue appears as developer sells homes at cost priceA Spanish property developer has been cast as an unlikely Robin Hood for his plan to sell thousands of flats to youngsters and divorced people at cost price. Since Jose Merino announced he would allocate 2,000 cheap homes tomorrow to those who applied on a first come, first served basis, an impromptu campsite has sprung up in Fuenlabrada, south of Madrid, of those who hope to exchange chilly canvas for four walls. The kilometre-long tent city reveals the deep desire among Spaniards to own their home, even in these credit crunch days when getting - still less paying for - a mortgage is a mighty challenge. Flats and houses soared to exorbitant heights during the recent property and credit boom. Now the bubble has burst, and sales are paralysed, but prices are falling only slowly as vendors prefer to hold on rather than sell cheap. Property is still largely out of reach for the young or separated, but Spain remains a country where renting is seen as tantamount to throwing money down the drain.But the frenzy in Fuenlabrada seems something of a dream. Mr Merino's houses are not built yet. He does not even have the plots on which to build. "For the moment, there's no building land," he admits. "There are various options with other developers to buy land around Toledo, or in some town or other south of Madrid."He plans to build 2,100 flats of between 70 and 90 square metres, which would cost between €120,000 (£103,000) and €168,000 (£145,000) each, prices not very different from flats already on offer in Fuenlabrada. Tomorrow at 10am, he will start to sign up members of a future co-operative, who must each contribute €120 euros to a management fund, then wait. Only those between 18 and 35, or who are divorced singles with no home of their own, may apply.
A Spanish property developer has been cast as an unlikely Robin Hood for his plan to sell thousands of flats to youngsters and divorced people at cost price. Since Jose Merino announced he would allocate 2,000 cheap homes tomorrow to those who applied on a first come, first served basis, an impromptu campsite has sprung up in Fuenlabrada, south of Madrid, of those who hope to exchange chilly canvas for four walls.
The kilometre-long tent city reveals the deep desire among Spaniards to own their home, even in these credit crunch days when getting - still less paying for - a mortgage is a mighty challenge. Flats and houses soared to exorbitant heights during the recent property and credit boom. Now the bubble has burst, and sales are paralysed, but prices are falling only slowly as vendors prefer to hold on rather than sell cheap. Property is still largely out of reach for the young or separated, but Spain remains a country where renting is seen as tantamount to throwing money down the drain.
But the frenzy in Fuenlabrada seems something of a dream. Mr Merino's houses are not built yet. He does not even have the plots on which to build. "For the moment, there's no building land," he admits. "There are various options with other developers to buy land around Toledo, or in some town or other south of Madrid."
He plans to build 2,100 flats of between 70 and 90 square metres, which would cost between €120,000 (£103,000) and €168,000 (£145,000) each, prices not very different from flats already on offer in Fuenlabrada. Tomorrow at 10am, he will start to sign up members of a future co-operative, who must each contribute €120 euros to a management fund, then wait. Only those between 18 and 35, or who are divorced singles with no home of their own, may apply.
A key weapon in the fight against wildlife crime could be lost because of changes to European agricultural policy, the RSPB has warned. Landowners and farmers currently lose EU cash if they use "non-selective" methods of bird population control, such as poisoning. However, the EU wants to break the link between Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments and wildlife laws. The RSPB said a change in the rules would be a blow to Scottish wildlife. The multi-millionaire owner of the Glenogil estate in Angus, John Dodd, recently had a record £107,650 in CAP payments withheld by the Scottish Government after police found poisoned baits and illegal pesticides on the estate in 2006.
A key weapon in the fight against wildlife crime could be lost because of changes to European agricultural policy, the RSPB has warned.
Landowners and farmers currently lose EU cash if they use "non-selective" methods of bird population control, such as poisoning.
However, the EU wants to break the link between Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments and wildlife laws.
The RSPB said a change in the rules would be a blow to Scottish wildlife.
The multi-millionaire owner of the Glenogil estate in Angus, John Dodd, recently had a record £107,650 in CAP payments withheld by the Scottish Government after police found poisoned baits and illegal pesticides on the estate in 2006.
