Britain's first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe". Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid) by Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority.Mr Malik made clear that he was not equating the situation with the Holocaust but warned that many British Muslims now felt like "aliens in their own country". He said he himself had been the target of a string of racist incidents, including the firebombing of his family car and an attempt to run him down at a petrol station."I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he said. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost - and still is in some parts - to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.
Britain's first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe".
Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid) by Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority.
Mr Malik made clear that he was not equating the situation with the Holocaust but warned that many British Muslims now felt like "aliens in their own country". He said he himself had been the target of a string of racist incidents, including the firebombing of his family car and an attempt to run him down at a petrol station.
"I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he said. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost - and still is in some parts - to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.
Knife crime has overtaken terrorism as the top priority for the Metropolitan Police as one of Britain's most senior officers admitted that the fight to stop teenagers carrying weapons was not working. Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said today that the battle against knife crime has become "the No 1 priority" for the Met as the 18th teenager to die a violent death in the capital this year was named. To try and stem the rising tide of young deaths he has ordered all senior officers to look at their current operations and see if any personnel can be diverted to help tackle the rise in stabbings. In May the Metropolitan Police launched the high-profile Operation Blunt 2 - involving taking airport style metal detectors onto the streets and instituting Section 60 powers, allowing officers to search youths within a certain geographical area.
Knife crime has overtaken terrorism as the top priority for the Metropolitan Police as one of Britain's most senior officers admitted that the fight to stop teenagers carrying weapons was not working.
Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said today that the battle against knife crime has become "the No 1 priority" for the Met as the 18th teenager to die a violent death in the capital this year was named.
To try and stem the rising tide of young deaths he has ordered all senior officers to look at their current operations and see if any personnel can be diverted to help tackle the rise in stabbings.
In May the Metropolitan Police launched the high-profile Operation Blunt 2 - involving taking airport style metal detectors onto the streets and instituting Section 60 powers, allowing officers to search youths within a certain geographical area.
Has anyone bothered to compare casualties from stabbing to, say, household accidents (not to mention car accidents, lighting strikes or early lung cancer)?
sigh again. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
There's more people slipping and dying in their bathroom each year. Or struck by lighting. Or beaten to death by their companion/husband.
Jeez. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The Metropolitan Police is only for London, not for the whole country.
The murder rate for the 12 months to May'08 was 168, and in January-June 08 there were 20 stabbings of teenagers, by teenagers.
There is also a growing problem with gang violence involving teenagers.
You can choose to not care and make jokes about lighting bolts. I suppose 168 murder cases in all of london are not enough to drive policy either - let's abolish the Metropolitan Police. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
Don't put words in my mouth, please. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The term "postcode wars" refers to a modern day phenomenon that make some estates no-go areas for Islington youths. For feuding gang members, stepping over the "front line" between N1 and E8 can mean death. Numerous killings, including the 2005 murder of Essayas Kassahun in Old Street, have been linked to the phenomenon. Ms Woolcock said: "This is not something hyped up by the media. It is very real and happening every day. They have their own language and there are signs for each postcode area. It is very dangerous for young men to be caught in the wrong place." She will be "in conversation" with Nicola Abel-Hirsch of the British Psychoanalytical Society tonight.
Ms Woolcock said: "This is not something hyped up by the media. It is very real and happening every day. They have their own language and there are signs for each postcode area. It is very dangerous for young men to be caught in the wrong place."
She will be "in conversation" with Nicola Abel-Hirsch of the British Psychoanalytical Society tonight.
MOSCOW: A bomb exploded during an outdoor concert in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, early Friday, injuring dozens of people. The blast, believed to have been caused by a homemade explosive device, occurred about 1:00 a.m. as revelers were celebrating Belarus's Independence day, said Aleksandr Lastovsky, a spokesman for the Minsk police department. More than 20 people were injured, he said, describing the bombing as "an act of hooliganism." Belarus's interior minister said up to 40 had been injured, Interfax news reported. There were no immediate reports of fatalities. No suspects have been identified "Very shortly we will determine whether this was a terrorist act of something else," Vladimir Naumov, the interior minister, said.
MOSCOW: A bomb exploded during an outdoor concert in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, early Friday, injuring dozens of people.
The blast, believed to have been caused by a homemade explosive device, occurred about 1:00 a.m. as revelers were celebrating Belarus's Independence day, said Aleksandr Lastovsky, a spokesman for the Minsk police department. More than 20 people were injured, he said, describing the bombing as "an act of hooliganism." Belarus's interior minister said up to 40 had been injured, Interfax news reported. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
No suspects have been identified
"Very shortly we will determine whether this was a terrorist act of something else," Vladimir Naumov, the interior minister, said.
In the West, the 1968 generation is generally seen in a postive light. But the heroes of the 1968 uprising in Prague see themselves as historical failures. The uprising known as the "Prague Spring" was crushed by the Soviets in August 1968. No one remembers now exactly which office the new employee from Prague moved into, that summer day in 1970. He is said to have been very nice, tall and with a friendly smile, and he took up quarters in the second story of a gray administrative building on the outskirts of Bratislava. The communist government had sent him there to oversee forestry equipment maintenance in the Slovak capital. The nice new employee was a man named Alexander Dubcek, and one year previous he had still been first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Party leaders had stripped him of power in April 1969, and later demoted him to a forestry job. Now Dubcek rode the tram to work; sometimes he would generously offer his seat to the secret service men who followed him conspicuously. Alexander Dubcek was the hero of the so-called "Prague Spring," the 1968 uprising crushed by the Soviets almost exactly four decades ago. Dubcek was a reformer who wanted to give communism a "human face" -- and he became a Czechoslovak icon as well as the hope of reformers in other socialist and communist countries. But Czechoslovakia's experiment became its tragedy on the night of August 21, 1968, when the armies of fellow Warsaw Pact countries invaded. Students in Prague graffitied on a building wall, "Lenin, wake up, they've gone mad." Images of desperate people standing up defenseless against the tanks drew worldwide attention and widespread sympathy for the rebellion of little Czechoslovakia against the huge Soviet Union.
In the West, the 1968 generation is generally seen in a postive light. But the heroes of the 1968 uprising in Prague see themselves as historical failures.
The uprising known as the "Prague Spring" was crushed by the Soviets in August 1968. No one remembers now exactly which office the new employee from Prague moved into, that summer day in 1970. He is said to have been very nice, tall and with a friendly smile, and he took up quarters in the second story of a gray administrative building on the outskirts of Bratislava. The communist government had sent him there to oversee forestry equipment maintenance in the Slovak capital.
The nice new employee was a man named Alexander Dubcek, and one year previous he had still been first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Party leaders had stripped him of power in April 1969, and later demoted him to a forestry job. Now Dubcek rode the tram to work; sometimes he would generously offer his seat to the secret service men who followed him conspicuously.
Alexander Dubcek was the hero of the so-called "Prague Spring," the 1968 uprising crushed by the Soviets almost exactly four decades ago. Dubcek was a reformer who wanted to give communism a "human face" -- and he became a Czechoslovak icon as well as the hope of reformers in other socialist and communist countries. But Czechoslovakia's experiment became its tragedy on the night of August 21, 1968, when the armies of fellow Warsaw Pact countries invaded. Students in Prague graffitied on a building wall, "Lenin, wake up, they've gone mad." Images of desperate people standing up defenseless against the tanks drew worldwide attention and widespread sympathy for the rebellion of little Czechoslovakia against the huge Soviet Union.
In 1968 Soviet soldiers brutally crushed a democratic uprising in the Czechoslovakian capital Prague. According to recently emerged files, seen by SPIEGEL, Brezhnev actually hesitated a long time before sending in the tanks. Many died when Soviet moved into Prague in August 1968. Leonid Brezhnev headed to State Dacha Number 1 in Yalta, on the Crimean peninsula, just as he did every summer. It was August 13, 1968, and the Soviet leader was faced with a decision. Should he send tanks and soldiers to Czechoslovakia, because the comrades there were acting up, or should he give them one more chance? The Communist Party in Prague had declared "democratic socialism" in the spring, upsetting the leaders of the other Warsaw Pact nations. Hard liners in Moscow were pushing for a military strike against the renegade reformers. But according to newly discovered documents, Brezhnev hesitated for a long time before finally ordering in troops on the night of August 21. The decision-making process that led to the invasion can be reconstructed through documents SPIEGEL has recently gained access to. The documents are being published this week in a two-volume book by an international team of historians.
In 1968 Soviet soldiers brutally crushed a democratic uprising in the Czechoslovakian capital Prague. According to recently emerged files, seen by SPIEGEL, Brezhnev actually hesitated a long time before sending in the tanks.
Many died when Soviet moved into Prague in August 1968. Leonid Brezhnev headed to State Dacha Number 1 in Yalta, on the Crimean peninsula, just as he did every summer. It was August 13, 1968, and the Soviet leader was faced with a decision. Should he send tanks and soldiers to Czechoslovakia, because the comrades there were acting up, or should he give them one more chance?
The Communist Party in Prague had declared "democratic socialism" in the spring, upsetting the leaders of the other Warsaw Pact nations. Hard liners in Moscow were pushing for a military strike against the renegade reformers. But according to newly discovered documents, Brezhnev hesitated for a long time before finally ordering in troops on the night of August 21.
The decision-making process that led to the invasion can be reconstructed through documents SPIEGEL has recently gained access to. The documents are being published this week in a two-volume book by an international team of historians.
Stanislav Grof - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
July 1, 1931 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a pioneering researcher into the use of altered states of consciousness for purposes of healing, growth, and insight. Grof received the VISION 97 award granted by the Foundation of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel in Prague on October 5, 2007.
Was also referring to the stories we were told among the Leary circle that Dubcek was a head. Skennah Kowa
The European Union and Russia said on Friday they had agreed on what areas should be covered by a wide-ranging partnership treaty without setting a deadline for it. Speaking after a first round of talks in Brussels on Friday, July 4, the two sides said negotiations on a new pact to replace an agreement signed in 1997 had been "positive" and fruitful but declined to set a timeframe to conclude the deal despite pressure from countries such as Germany. "There is nothing more harmful for any negotiating process than a deadline," Russian envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov told a news conference with his EU counterpart, EU Commission Director General Eneko Landaburu. Landaburu said he shared Chizhov's assessment. The two sides have agreed to meet again in September.
Speaking after a first round of talks in Brussels on Friday, July 4, the two sides said negotiations on a new pact to replace an agreement signed in 1997 had been "positive" and fruitful but declined to set a timeframe to conclude the deal despite pressure from countries such as Germany.
"There is nothing more harmful for any negotiating process than a deadline," Russian envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov told a news conference with his EU counterpart, EU Commission Director General Eneko Landaburu.
Landaburu said he shared Chizhov's assessment. The two sides have agreed to meet again in September.
A plan by the Italian government to fingerprint undocumented Roma and Sinti has sparked outrage among human rights groups and the EU who warn identifying people based on ethnicity can set a dangerous precedent Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's plan to take a census of all Roma and Sinti people living in some 700 camps in Italy as part of a broader crackdown on crime was slammed by rights groups on Thursday, July 3. "We are very worried about discrimination according to race or religion," Marco Impagliazzo, president the Community of Sant'Egidio, said at a press conference in Rome on Thursday. "This approach violates Italian and European law and calls to mind painful memories, such as the Vichy regime of (Nazi-collaborating, World War II) France," Impagliazzo said. He handed out a copy of one camp dweller's form, which contained his photograph, his fingerprint, and the words "Roma from Serbia" and "Orthodox" filled in under the headings "ethnic origin" and "religion."
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's plan to take a census of all Roma and Sinti people living in some 700 camps in Italy as part of a broader crackdown on crime was slammed by rights groups on Thursday, July 3.
"We are very worried about discrimination according to race or religion," Marco Impagliazzo, president the Community of Sant'Egidio, said at a press conference in Rome on Thursday. "This approach violates Italian and European law and calls to mind painful memories, such as the Vichy regime of (Nazi-collaborating, World War II) France," Impagliazzo said.
He handed out a copy of one camp dweller's form, which contained his photograph, his fingerprint, and the words "Roma from Serbia" and "Orthodox" filled in under the headings "ethnic origin" and "religion."
BERLIN: The upper house of the German Parliament on Friday passed into law new measures aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by agreeing to double the amount of power from renewable energy sources and changing methods for generating electricity. The measures pushed through by the Bundesrat, which represents the premiers of Germany's 16 states, was a victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel, a conservative who has been in power since late 2005 and is a former environment minister, has made climate change a cornerstone of her domestic and foreign policy. But she has come under immense pressure from industry, particularly the automobile sector. It has lobbied hard, and so far successfully, against linking the cost of registering new cars with the amount of carbon dioxide they emit.
BERLIN: The upper house of the German Parliament on Friday passed into law new measures aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by agreeing to double the amount of power from renewable energy sources and changing methods for generating electricity.
The measures pushed through by the Bundesrat, which represents the premiers of Germany's 16 states, was a victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel, a conservative who has been in power since late 2005 and is a former environment minister, has made climate change a cornerstone of her domestic and foreign policy.
But she has come under immense pressure from industry, particularly the automobile sector. It has lobbied hard, and so far successfully, against linking the cost of registering new cars with the amount of carbon dioxide they emit.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission will next week offer €1 billion from the EU's unspent agriculture funds to help farmers from poorest countries boost their food production. The move was announced by EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at a Brussels international conference entitled "Who will feed the world?" on Thursday (3 July), organised by the European Parliament and France, currently holding the bloc's rotating chairmanship. Net food importers are in serious trouble, says the EU's agriculture commissioner. ( Mrs Fischer Boel argued that while the EU had taken "immediate action" to support higher agriculture outputs in Europe, it must now concentrate on helping the poorest countries which are facing deadly consequences from the current food price hikes across the globe. "I think there are two sides of the coin: there are those who are food exporters and can take advantage of food exports to improve the economy on their own country. But those who are net food importers are in serious trouble," she told journalists. "Within the European Union, we will come forward ... with a package to make possible for the net food importing developing countries to get money for seeds and for fertilisers to improve their own production facilities," the commissioner added.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission will next week offer €1 billion from the EU's unspent agriculture funds to help farmers from poorest countries boost their food production.
The move was announced by EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel at a Brussels international conference entitled "Who will feed the world?" on Thursday (3 July), organised by the European Parliament and France, currently holding the bloc's rotating chairmanship.
Net food importers are in serious trouble, says the EU's agriculture commissioner. (
Mrs Fischer Boel argued that while the EU had taken "immediate action" to support higher agriculture outputs in Europe, it must now concentrate on helping the poorest countries which are facing deadly consequences from the current food price hikes across the globe.
"I think there are two sides of the coin: there are those who are food exporters and can take advantage of food exports to improve the economy on their own country. But those who are net food importers are in serious trouble," she told journalists.
"Within the European Union, we will come forward ... with a package to make possible for the net food importing developing countries to get money for seeds and for fertilisers to improve their own production facilities," the commissioner added.
SKOPJE: Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski began negotiations on Monday to form a new coalition government that will try to get the country's EU and NATO ambitions back on track. A row with Greece over the Balkan country's name, coupled with a June 1 election marred by violence and fraud, have stalled Macedonia's bid to join NATO and cast doubt over its chances of opening accession talks with the EU this year. Gruevski's conservative VMRO-DPMNE won the healthiest parliamentary majority in over a decade, but will seek to join forces with at least one of the two main ethnic Albanian parties for the sake of stability. Since splitting from Yugoslavia in 1991, Macedonia has sought ruling coalitions that include an Albanian party. This has taken on greater significance since a 2001 Albanian insurgency fought for greater rights and representation for the country's 500,000 Albanians. Gruevski was handed the mandate by President Branko Crvenkovski on Monday.
SKOPJE: Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski began negotiations on Monday to form a new coalition government that will try to get the country's EU and NATO ambitions back on track.
A row with Greece over the Balkan country's name, coupled with a June 1 election marred by violence and fraud, have stalled Macedonia's bid to join NATO and cast doubt over its chances of opening accession talks with the EU this year.
Gruevski's conservative VMRO-DPMNE won the healthiest parliamentary majority in over a decade, but will seek to join forces with at least one of the two main ethnic Albanian parties for the sake of stability.
Since splitting from Yugoslavia in 1991, Macedonia has sought ruling coalitions that include an Albanian party. This has taken on greater significance since a 2001 Albanian insurgency fought for greater rights and representation for the country's 500,000 Albanians.
Gruevski was handed the mandate by President Branko Crvenkovski on Monday.
They are the forgotten victims of the Berlin Wall. The East Germans who were killed attempting to flee through Bulgaria. At least 18 were shot by border guards, mowed down with as few scruples as those murdered along the death strip that was Germany's inner border. Gunter Pschera was killed by a Bulgarian border guard in 1967. It starts with the smell, the cloying odor of decay, growing behind the brown steel doors, its dull impact becoming more penetrating in the semidarkness. Finally, the next steel door reveals the source of the smell, the bodies of three men, shockingly naked, ready to be autopsied. The walls and floor of the basement room, the size of a large kitchen, are tiled. This is Sofia, and this is the old autopsy chamber at the city's Military Medical Academy. The room is still in use today. He was lying in this room, on one of these tables: 19-year-old Michael Weber, 1.70 meters (5' 6") tall, a muscular young man with a normal build and little body fat. Weber's body was brought in discreetly through an access tunnel and removed just as inconspicuously. His parents came to Sofia to see their son one last time, before the body was incinerated and the remains flown back to Leipzig via Berlin. According to the report filed by Bulgaria's notorious State Security Agency on July 14, 1989, both parents behaved "very reasonably." They gazed at their dead son. They were shown the body from the side that had remained relatively recognizable. What they couldn't see is detailed in the autopsy report, prepared by Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Slatko Nikolov Kolev, the head of the forensic medicine division of the Bulgarian People's Army. The Webers' son was killed by a bullet fired at close range, perhaps 1.5 to 2 meters (5 to 7 feet). It crashed through the left side of his face, his neck and his chest, before coming to rest in the back, just below the right armpit. It shattered his cheekbone, upper jaw and two cervical vertebrae, crushed his spinal cord and ripped apart his chest aorta and his right lung. Michael Weber bled to death in the foothills of the Pirin Mountains in southern Bulgaria, 150 meters (492 feet) from the Greek border. The autopsy report states that he died quickly.
They are the forgotten victims of the Berlin Wall. The East Germans who were killed attempting to flee through Bulgaria. At least 18 were shot by border guards, mowed down with as few scruples as those murdered along the death strip that was Germany's inner border.
Gunter Pschera was killed by a Bulgarian border guard in 1967. It starts with the smell, the cloying odor of decay, growing behind the brown steel doors, its dull impact becoming more penetrating in the semidarkness. Finally, the next steel door reveals the source of the smell, the bodies of three men, shockingly naked, ready to be autopsied. The walls and floor of the basement room, the size of a large kitchen, are tiled. This is Sofia, and this is the old autopsy chamber at the city's Military Medical Academy. The room is still in use today.
He was lying in this room, on one of these tables: 19-year-old Michael Weber, 1.70 meters (5' 6") tall, a muscular young man with a normal build and little body fat. Weber's body was brought in discreetly through an access tunnel and removed just as inconspicuously. His parents came to Sofia to see their son one last time, before the body was incinerated and the remains flown back to Leipzig via Berlin. According to the report filed by Bulgaria's notorious State Security Agency on July 14, 1989, both parents behaved "very reasonably." They gazed at their dead son. They were shown the body from the side that had remained relatively recognizable.
What they couldn't see is detailed in the autopsy report, prepared by Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Slatko Nikolov Kolev, the head of the forensic medicine division of the Bulgarian People's Army. The Webers' son was killed by a bullet fired at close range, perhaps 1.5 to 2 meters (5 to 7 feet). It crashed through the left side of his face, his neck and his chest, before coming to rest in the back, just below the right armpit. It shattered his cheekbone, upper jaw and two cervical vertebrae, crushed his spinal cord and ripped apart his chest aorta and his right lung. Michael Weber bled to death in the foothills of the Pirin Mountains in southern Bulgaria, 150 meters (492 feet) from the Greek border. The autopsy report states that he died quickly.
The border guards had no option to follow their conscience and many reasons to chase their wallet. The joys of totalitarianism. keep to the Fen Causeway
London's deputy mayor has resigned two months into his post amid claims of financial irregularities. Ray Lewis faced allegations relating to his time as a vicar in east London in the late 1990s and head of a youth academy scheme in 2003. He was placed under Church of England disciplinary measures in 1999.
London's deputy mayor has resigned two months into his post amid claims of financial irregularities.
Ray Lewis faced allegations relating to his time as a vicar in east London in the late 1990s and head of a youth academy scheme in 2003.
He was placed under Church of England disciplinary measures in 1999.
BRUSSELS: The European Commission delivered a sharp response Friday to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France over his recent comments on interest rates and trade policy, underlining European economic policy divisions before the coming Group of 8 summit meeting. Sarkozy has alarmed Britain and the Nordic nations, which traditionally embrace a liberal, free-market economic philosophy, by starting his country's six-month presidency of the EU with a call for greater protection for European voters from the effects of globalization. On Monday, he took issue with the inflation-busting mandate of the European Central Bank, or ECB, saying that the causes of inflation had changed significantly from 20 to 30 years ago and that a big increase in interest rates would have no effect on the price of barrel of oil. Nonetheless, the central bank for the 15-nation euro zone raised its rates Thursday to a seven-year high of 4.25 percent. And before leaving for the G-8 meeting of leaders of top industrialized nations in Japan, the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, endorsed the Frankfurt-based bank's decision. "When it comes to inflation," Barroso said, "I have more confidence in the position of central bankers than politicians. Central bankers are not moved by short-term political pressure." The comment appeared to be a direct reference to Sarkozy.
BRUSSELS: The European Commission delivered a sharp response Friday to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France over his recent comments on interest rates and trade policy, underlining European economic policy divisions before the coming Group of 8 summit meeting.
Sarkozy has alarmed Britain and the Nordic nations, which traditionally embrace a liberal, free-market economic philosophy, by starting his country's six-month presidency of the EU with a call for greater protection for European voters from the effects of globalization. On Monday, he took issue with the inflation-busting mandate of the European Central Bank, or ECB, saying that the causes of inflation had changed significantly from 20 to 30 years ago and that a big increase in interest rates would have no effect on the price of barrel of oil.
Nonetheless, the central bank for the 15-nation euro zone raised its rates Thursday to a seven-year high of 4.25 percent. And before leaving for the G-8 meeting of leaders of top industrialized nations in Japan, the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, endorsed the Frankfurt-based bank's decision.
"When it comes to inflation," Barroso said, "I have more confidence in the position of central bankers than politicians. Central bankers are not moved by short-term political pressure." The comment appeared to be a direct reference to Sarkozy.
