Ad astra per aspera
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union has spent at least €14 million in subsidies to firms convicted of illegal fishing, a new report has revealed. Some 36 law-breaking vessel owners with 42 convictions between them received €13.5 million between 1994 and 2006 according to an investigation by Fishsubsidy.org, a group of researchers investigating the recipients of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union has spent at least €14 million in subsidies to firms convicted of illegal fishing, a new report has revealed.
Some 36 law-breaking vessel owners with 42 convictions between them received €13.5 million between 1994 and 2006 according to an investigation by Fishsubsidy.org, a group of researchers investigating the recipients of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy.
Why are Pew interested in fishing subsidies?
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With plans for the EU's new diplomatic corps entering their final stage, EU capitals have quietly begun to negotiate over who will take the top jobs up for grabs. The office of EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is aiming to submit a draft organigram for the External Action Service (EAS) to EU diplomats in Brussels on 17 March.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With plans for the EU's new diplomatic corps entering their final stage, EU capitals have quietly begun to negotiate over who will take the top jobs up for grabs.
The office of EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is aiming to submit a draft organigram for the External Action Service (EAS) to EU diplomats in Brussels on 17 March.
MEPs have called on the European Commission to increase transparency around ongoing negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), or risk legal action in the European Court of Justice. The parliamentary resolution, passed by 663 to 13 votes in favour in Strasbourg on Wednesday (10 March), also calls on the commission to refuse to support internet cut-off as a penalty for online copyright infringement.
MEPs have called on the European Commission to increase transparency around ongoing negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), or risk legal action in the European Court of Justice.
The parliamentary resolution, passed by 663 to 13 votes in favour in Strasbourg on Wednesday (10 March), also calls on the commission to refuse to support internet cut-off as a penalty for online copyright infringement.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Over 60 percent of Brussels-based lobbying consultancies have yet to sign up to the European Commission's lobby register, almost two years after it was first launched. According to a fresh survey of the commission's initiative by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (Alter-EU) to be published on Thursday (11 March), of the 286 lobbying consultancies known to provide such services in the European capital, only 112, or 39.2 percent have signed up to the registry.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Over 60 percent of Brussels-based lobbying consultancies have yet to sign up to the European Commission's lobby register, almost two years after it was first launched.
According to a fresh survey of the commission's initiative by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (Alter-EU) to be published on Thursday (11 March), of the 286 lobbying consultancies known to provide such services in the European capital, only 112, or 39.2 percent have signed up to the registry.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The President of Lithuania has underlined the country's EU status as a marker of development on the 20th anniversary of its split from the Soviet Union. "Breaking away from the USSR and the Soviet repressive system was the foundation stone of the achievements we have today. Lithuania is a free and democratic state, a fully fledged member of the EU and Nato," Ms Dalia Grybauskaite, who came to power on the back of her reputation as EU budgets commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday (11 March).
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The President of Lithuania has underlined the country's EU status as a marker of development on the 20th anniversary of its split from the Soviet Union.
"Breaking away from the USSR and the Soviet repressive system was the foundation stone of the achievements we have today. Lithuania is a free and democratic state, a fully fledged member of the EU and Nato," Ms Dalia Grybauskaite, who came to power on the back of her reputation as EU budgets commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday (11 March).
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An MEP from the eurosceptic UK Independence Party became embroiled in controversy on Wednesday (10 March) after making disparaging remarks about EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, becoming the second MEP from the party to offend the chamber in recent weeks. In a debate on Wednesday on the development of an EU Arctic policy, William, Earl of Dartmouth, questioned whether countries such as Greece and Cyprus, on the southern shores of the European Union, should be seeking to have a policy on the Arctic.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An MEP from the eurosceptic UK Independence Party became embroiled in controversy on Wednesday (10 March) after making disparaging remarks about EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, becoming the second MEP from the party to offend the chamber in recent weeks.
In a debate on Wednesday on the development of an EU Arctic policy, William, Earl of Dartmouth, questioned whether countries such as Greece and Cyprus, on the southern shores of the European Union, should be seeking to have a policy on the Arctic.
William, Earl of Dartmouth, questioned whether countries such as Greece and Cyprus, on the southern shores of the European Union, should be seeking to have a policy on the Arctic.
A court in Azerbaijan on Wednesday rejected an appeal of two bloggers who were put in jail last year for alleged hooliganism and assault, despite accounts from witnesses that they had been the ones attacked. Both had run satirical blogs criticising the Baku government.
The pro-Western Liberal coalition government in Moldova has decided to table constitutional changes in order to avoid early parliamentary elections this fall due to several failed attempts of the house to elect the country's president. A referendum on the matter will take place by 16 June.
A French politician of Algerian origin "is the wrong type of person" to head the country's top anti-discrimination body, a senior member of the ruling UMP party said Wednesday, claiming it would be better to have someone "of French stock." Gérard Longuet told France Info radio that French-born Malek Boutih, one of the nominees to run anti-discrimination body HALDE, was "the wrong type of person." Longuet, who is the UMP leader in the French Senate, said in the interview he preferred the HALDE's outgoing president, former Renault boss Bernard Schweitzer. "Schweitzer comes from the old Protestant bourgeoisie," said Longuet. "He's perfect."
The UMP is about to take a bashing in the regional elections, and this is only the most egregious of their calls to the far right electorate. They're making a point, to scrape up what support they can, of repeating they are going to leglislate against the burqa in public.
Social workers in les Bosquets have their work cut out for them: 7,000 people - the vast majority of which are ethnic minorities - live in often run-down buildings and the unemployment rate reached 25 percent in 2008. The area is so hard to reach that it becomes a sort of ghetto far removed [15 km] from the City of Lights and its sumptuous attractions. In January alone, the women of the association were contacted by 240 of les Bosquets' female residents.... These women who work to close the gap between France and its immigrant families are now present in most underprivileged neighbourhoods in the country. They also seem to interest some of the highest-level French authorities: last June, Jean-François Copé, the president of the ruling centre-right Union for a Popular Movement Party (UMP) in France's National Assembly, suggested sending social workers from these associations to talk to women who wear the head-to-toe Islamic headscarf, the 'burqa', and their husbands. The objective was to try "to understand how one could get to that point" and to explain to these couples the implications of a possible law banning the burqa in the public sphere, a proposition which has sparked much debate in France. Read more...
These women who work to close the gap between France and its immigrant families are now present in most underprivileged neighbourhoods in the country. They also seem to interest some of the highest-level French authorities: last June, Jean-François Copé, the president of the ruling centre-right Union for a Popular Movement Party (UMP) in France's National Assembly, suggested sending social workers from these associations to talk to women who wear the head-to-toe Islamic headscarf, the 'burqa', and their husbands. The objective was to try "to understand how one could get to that point" and to explain to these couples the implications of a possible law banning the burqa in the public sphere, a proposition which has sparked much debate in France.
Read more...
Ms Dati defends Sarkozy's "rainbow" government. "He wanted gender parity in his government, with women at responsibility roles, which never happened before, and also with different backgrounds, different social conditions, and also different ages as he is very young also," she says.
...pourtant intemporel. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
At the height of the controversy, everyone seemed to have an opinion about the law. More than sixty public personalities--including actresses Emmanuelle Béart and Isabelle Adjani, philosopher Élisabeth Badinter, former government ministers Corinne Lepage and Yvette Roudy, and activist Fadela Amara--appealed to Chirac in the pages of Elle magazine to pass a law banning the foulard. Few voices were heard in defense of both laïcité and Muslim girls' civil right to attend school. Among these were comic book artist Marjane Satrapi, who wrote in the Guardian that to forbid schoolgirls to wear the veil was as repressive as forcing them to wear it, and philosopher Pierre Tévanian, who argued that laïcité applied to institutions, not people. Read more....
Read more....
emphasis added to levity Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Scott's broad and exhaustive research makes for a bracing account of the debate.
Scott on Conversations with History, discussing her book, cited in Lalami's article, The Politics of the Veil:
Cat: "light of laïcité" -- alliteration
Picture Copé with a snout, small eyes and a corkscrew tail. Now picture Marianne exhorting Copé as she colors his lips bright red, with the caption: "Go forth to les Bosquets and bring them the good news of laïcité."
The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.
AFP - Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday tightened his grip on power as one of his closest allies became the new prime minister and his party succeeded in forming a ruling coalition. The new coalition replaces the outgoing government of his arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko, who Yanukovych defeated in February 7 presidential elections, and gives the new president control over all Ukraine's man power centres. Immediately after its formation, the coalition nominated Mykola Azarov -- a dour ex-finance minister who was born in Russia and is seen as a steadfast Yanukovych ally -- as the new prime minister. The nomination was predictably approved by Yanukovych and then confirmed by parliament in a vote. Azarov has been mocked by critics for his poor command of Ukrainian but is also seen as an experienced economic manager.
AFP - Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday tightened his grip on power as one of his closest allies became the new prime minister and his party succeeded in forming a ruling coalition.
The new coalition replaces the outgoing government of his arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko, who Yanukovych defeated in February 7 presidential elections, and gives the new president control over all Ukraine's man power centres.
Immediately after its formation, the coalition nominated Mykola Azarov -- a dour ex-finance minister who was born in Russia and is seen as a steadfast Yanukovych ally -- as the new prime minister.
The nomination was predictably approved by Yanukovych and then confirmed by parliament in a vote. Azarov has been mocked by critics for his poor command of Ukrainian but is also seen as an experienced economic manager.
Yanukovych's close ally and former Finance Minister Mykola Azarov has been voted in as Prime Minister by the Ukrainian parliament after Yanukovych secured a coalition majority. Azarov's appointment received 242 of 450 assembly votes. The coalition is made up of Yanukovych's Regions Party, the Communist Party, the Litvyn bloc and the People's Party.
Yanukovych's close ally and former Finance Minister Mykola Azarov has been voted in as Prime Minister by the Ukrainian parliament after Yanukovych secured a coalition majority.
Azarov's appointment received 242 of 450 assembly votes. The coalition is made up of Yanukovych's Regions Party, the Communist Party, the Litvyn bloc and the People's Party.
'Forms constitutional coalition government', surely?
During a moving ceremony remembering the victims of last year's school shooting in the town of Winnenden, President Horst Koehler on Thursday said Germany's gun laws were still too lenient. The German government had pledged to take measures to prevent access to dangerous weapons last year. "Both houses of parliament and the governments of all German states must bring the process of toughening our gun laws forward," Koehler said in front of hundreds of mourning guests. He added that "gun clubs should also aid in the process of preventing general access to deadly weapons. Much has already been done, but much more must follow - so that people capable of committing dangerous acts can't threaten our schools with attacks like this one."
During a moving ceremony remembering the victims of last year's school shooting in the town of Winnenden, President Horst Koehler on Thursday said Germany's gun laws were still too lenient. The German government had pledged to take measures to prevent access to dangerous weapons last year.
"Both houses of parliament and the governments of all German states must bring the process of toughening our gun laws forward," Koehler said in front of hundreds of mourning guests.
He added that "gun clubs should also aid in the process of preventing general access to deadly weapons. Much has already been done, but much more must follow - so that people capable of committing dangerous acts can't threaten our schools with attacks like this one."
Three Turkish nationals went on trial in Germany on Thursday, accused of raising money to help finance a series of terrorist attacks in Turkey. Prosecutors claim all three suspects, two men and one woman, have recruited members for the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C), a radical Marxist-Leninist group that has mounted bomb attacks in pursuit of its goal of overthrowing Turkey's government. The woman, 34-year-old Nurhan E., was allegedly the head of the European wing of the DHKP-C and raised a total of 840,000 euros ($1.1 million) for the organization. Ahmet I., 40, is accused of leading the group's Cologne cell, and Cengiz O., 36, of heading the regional Westfalia cell.
Three Turkish nationals went on trial in Germany on Thursday, accused of raising money to help finance a series of terrorist attacks in Turkey.
Prosecutors claim all three suspects, two men and one woman, have recruited members for the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C), a radical Marxist-Leninist group that has mounted bomb attacks in pursuit of its goal of overthrowing Turkey's government.
The woman, 34-year-old Nurhan E., was allegedly the head of the European wing of the DHKP-C and raised a total of 840,000 euros ($1.1 million) for the organization. Ahmet I., 40, is accused of leading the group's Cologne cell, and Cengiz O., 36, of heading the regional Westfalia cell.
Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived for a reception with Queen Beatrix on her one-day visit to the Netherlands, before going on to meet the country's Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. The two leaders agreed there should be tougher sanctions against euro zone countries such as Greece, which face default on their finances. This was the only way, Merkel said, that agreements on fiscal stability would be properly respected.
Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived for a reception with Queen Beatrix on her one-day visit to the Netherlands, before going on to meet the country's Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
The two leaders agreed there should be tougher sanctions against euro zone countries such as Greece, which face default on their finances.
This was the only way, Merkel said, that agreements on fiscal stability would be properly respected.
A former member of the Bosnian wartime presidency, Ejup Ganic, who was arrested in Britain last week on suspicion of war crimes, was released on bail by the High Court in London on Thursday. As the London judge read out the verdict, Ganic's son Emir and daughter Emina embraced. "We are very happy with the outcome, it has been very emotional," said Emir Ganic. "This is just the first step. My father is an academic who has never spent a day in prison before."
A former member of the Bosnian wartime presidency, Ejup Ganic, who was arrested in Britain last week on suspicion of war crimes, was released on bail by the High Court in London on Thursday.
As the London judge read out the verdict, Ganic's son Emir and daughter Emina embraced.
"We are very happy with the outcome, it has been very emotional," said Emir Ganic. "This is just the first step. My father is an academic who has never spent a day in prison before."
LONDON (Reuters) - A 400 km per hour railway will cost 30 billion pounds to build over more than a decade from 2017, the government said on Thursday, outlining plans to finally get Britain up to speed with Europe. Britain only has about 110 km of high-speed railway linking London to a underwater tunnel to mainland Europe where France, Germany, Spain and Italy all have much bigger, fast networks.
LONDON (Reuters) - A 400 km per hour railway will cost 30 billion pounds to build over more than a decade from 2017, the government said on Thursday, outlining plans to finally get Britain up to speed with Europe.
Britain only has about 110 km of high-speed railway linking London to a underwater tunnel to mainland Europe where France, Germany, Spain and Italy all have much bigger, fast networks.
The annual report of US State Department on human rights has warned of increasing concern that discrimination against Muslims was on the rise in Europe.The human rights report for 2009 cited Switzerland's ban on the construction of minarets on mosques enacted in November, as well as continued bans or restrictions on head scarves and burqa worn by Muslims in France, Germany and the Netherlands. The report said: "Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has been an increasing concern."Germany and the Netherlands have prohibitions against teachers wearing head scarves or burqa while on the job, and France bans the wearing of the religious garb in public, the report said
The annual report of US State Department on human rights has warned of increasing concern that discrimination against Muslims was on the rise in Europe.The human rights report for 2009 cited Switzerland's ban on the construction of minarets on mosques enacted in November, as well as continued bans or restrictions on head scarves and burqa worn by Muslims in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
The report said: "Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has been an increasing concern."Germany and the Netherlands have prohibitions against teachers wearing head scarves or burqa while on the job, and France bans the wearing of the religious garb in public, the report said
France bans the wearing of the religious garb in public, the report said
Either the journalist or the report is wrong.
US State meanwhile has not been involved in discriminating against Muslims in any way, that's certainly true.
FIFY Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
The Investigative Committee's Moscow branch opened a criminal investigation Wednesday into allegations that traffic police stopped several cars to form a "human shield" across a road as they attempted to detain a petty thief. The incident early Friday came to light after one of the drivers posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) alleging that traffic police pulled him over and ordered him to park his Mercedes lengthwise on the Moscow Ring Road.< He and another driver were told to remain in their vehicles, which were damaged when a silver Audi slammed into both and drove off. The Mercedes driver, Stanislav Sutyagin, said the police told him that no compensation would be paid, despite extensive damage to his vehicle, because the suspect had not been caught.
The Investigative Committee's Moscow branch opened a criminal investigation Wednesday into allegations that traffic police stopped several cars to form a "human shield" across a road as they attempted to detain a petty thief.
The incident early Friday came to light after one of the drivers posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) alleging that traffic police pulled him over and ordered him to park his Mercedes lengthwise on the Moscow Ring Road.<
He and another driver were told to remain in their vehicles, which were damaged when a silver Audi slammed into both and drove off. The Mercedes driver, Stanislav Sutyagin, said the police told him that no compensation would be paid, despite extensive damage to his vehicle, because the suspect had not been caught.
CIA accused of poisoning French village | Sydney Morning Herald
PARIS: In 1951 a quiet village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were committed to asylums and hundreds afflicted. For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now an even more extraordinary explanation has emerged, with evidence suggesting the CIA peppered food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind-control experiment at the height of the Cold War. <...> [A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments author] Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the Special Operations Division who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the cursed bread incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the ''secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit'' and explains that it was not ''at all'' caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD. <...> Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated ''local food products''. Albarelli said the ''smoking gun'' was a White House document sent to members of the Rockefeller commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of French citizens who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the "Pont St. Esprit incident". ...
For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now an even more extraordinary explanation has emerged, with evidence suggesting the CIA peppered food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind-control experiment at the height of the Cold War.
<...>
[A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments author] Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the Special Operations Division who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the cursed bread incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the ''secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit'' and explains that it was not ''at all'' caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD.
Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated ''local food products''.
Albarelli said the ''smoking gun'' was a White House document sent to members of the Rockefeller commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of French citizens who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the "Pont St. Esprit incident". ...
Why would the CIA choose that particular town, in a country where the agency was less "at home" than in Italy, Belgium, or Germany, for example? And run a mass experiment in 1951, when tests on individuals to see what the effects of LSD were, were conducted in later years of the decade?
The postwar bread supply was still shaky in 1951, and bread was still often made with a mix of flours including rye. The "Pont St-Esprit incident" was in all likelihood caused by rye ergot ("natural LSD").
"My first tip-off was a 1954 CIA document that detailed an encounter between an official of the Sandoz chemical company (the producers of LSD) and a CIA official in which 'the secret of Pont St. Esprit' was referenced. The Sandoz official went on to say, 'It was not the ergot at all.'" Albarelli says he then obtained through the Freedom of Information Act a partially redacted 1955 CIA report entitled, A CIA Study of LSD-25. "That seemingly comprehensive report contained detailed information on the manufacture, supply, and use of LSD and LSD-type products worldwide. However, nearly its entire section on France and Pont St. Esprit were blacked out." Albarelli requested an un-redacted copy but CIA officials refused to provide one. He continued, "Then I came across a letter written by a Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent who was working secretly for the CIA; this was George Hunter White, who ran the CIA's New York City safe house in 1951-1954. White's letter referenced the Pont St. Esprit experiment. At that point, 5 years into my investigation, I began interviewing former Army biochemists who became very evasive and refused to talk about their work in France. Finally two former intelligence employees confirmed the experiment took place under the auspices of the Army's Special Operations Division and with CIA funding." Lastly, Albarelli explained, "I was given an undated White House document that was part of a larger file that had been sent to members of the Rockefeller Commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. The document contained the names of a number of French nationals who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the 'Pont St. Esprit incident,' linking the former OSS head of secret research projects and the chief of Fort Detrick's Special Operations Division," Said Albarelli. "This, along with one other document, comprised the smoking gun." French Government Queries US re 50s Secret LSD Experiment
French Government Queries US re 50s Secret LSD Experiment
Even if for some reason he could not copy or photograph (at least one of) these documents, surely he could provide quotes from them. The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.
Steven Kaplan, a US historian specialising in French food history and the author of the 2008 book "Le pain maudit" told FRANCE 24: "I have numerous objections to this paltry evidence against the CIA. First of all, it's clinically incoherent: LSD takes effects in just a few hours, whereas the inhabitants showed symptoms only after 36 hours or more. Furthermore, LSD does not cause the digestive ailments or the vegetative effects described by the townspeople." Furthermore, Kaplan deems the whole notion "harebrained". "It is absurd, this idea of transmitting a very toxic drug by putting it in bread," he said. "As for pulverising it [for ingestion through the air], that technology was not even possible at that time. Most compellingly, why would they choose the town of Pont-Saint-Esprit to conduct these tests? It was half-destroyed by the US Army during fighting with the Germans in the Second World War. It makes no sense."
Steven Kaplan, a US historian specialising in French food history and the author of the 2008 book "Le pain maudit" told FRANCE 24: "I have numerous objections to this paltry evidence against the CIA. First of all, it's clinically incoherent: LSD takes effects in just a few hours, whereas the inhabitants showed symptoms only after 36 hours or more. Furthermore, LSD does not cause the digestive ailments or the vegetative effects described by the townspeople."
Furthermore, Kaplan deems the whole notion "harebrained". "It is absurd, this idea of transmitting a very toxic drug by putting it in bread," he said. "As for pulverising it [for ingestion through the air], that technology was not even possible at that time. Most compellingly, why would they choose the town of Pont-Saint-Esprit to conduct these tests? It was half-destroyed by the US Army during fighting with the Germans in the Second World War. It makes no sense."
agents had sprayed LSD into the air
That would have been the guys going round with face masks on.
LSD also has enamine-type reactivity because of the electron-donating effects of the indole ring. Because of this, chlorine destroys LSD molecules on contact; even though chlorinated tap water typically contains only a slight amount of chlorine, because a typical LSD solution only contains a small amount of LSD, dissolving LSD in tap water is likely to completely eliminate the substance.[4] The double bond between the 8-position and the aromatic ring, being conjugated with the indole ring, is susceptible to nucleophilic attacks by water or alcohol, especially in the presence of light. LSD often converts to "lumi-LSD", which is totally inactive in human beings (to the best of current knowledge).
Suspension of belief, more likely... You can't be me, I'm taken
I wonder what it was suspended in?
Breadcrumbs, apparently.
CIA? St Anthony's Fire "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
This is what it's supposed to look like:
A would-be Tory MP has been slapped down by health chiefs for running an alleged smear campaign against his local NHS hospital. Hospital bosses claim Mark Clarke, the Conservative candidate in Tooting, South London, made "inaccurate" and "unfounded" claims to "undermine" patients' confidence in their local health service. A letter obtained by the Daily Mirror reveals how NHS bosses were forced to write to Mr Clarke over his misleading use of hospital death figures. The letter from Naaz Coker, chairman of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, says a questionaire by the Tory candidate referred to a "terrible scandal of 116 preventable deaths from superbugs at St George's". In fact, infection was the cause of death in only a third of these cases.
A would-be Tory MP has been slapped down by health chiefs for running an alleged smear campaign against his local NHS hospital.
Hospital bosses claim Mark Clarke, the Conservative candidate in Tooting, South London, made "inaccurate" and "unfounded" claims to "undermine" patients' confidence in their local health service.
A letter obtained by the Daily Mirror reveals how NHS bosses were forced to write to Mr Clarke over his misleading use of hospital death figures.
The letter from Naaz Coker, chairman of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, says a questionaire by the Tory candidate referred to a "terrible scandal of 116 preventable deaths from superbugs at St George's".
In fact, infection was the cause of death in only a third of these cases.
Teachers in England should not be banned from membership of the British National Party or any group which may promote racism, a review has concluded.The government commissioned the report last September after a leaked list identified 15 BNP members as teachers. Review author Maurice Smith added his recommendation should be reviewed every year, which ministers have accepted. BNP leader Nick Griffin welcomed what he called a "common sense review" and said it was a great day for democracy. Members of the BNP are barred from the police and prison service. Mr Smith, a former chief inspector of schools, said a ban would be "taking a very large sledgehammer to crack a minuscule nut"
Teachers in England should not be banned from membership of the British National Party or any group which may promote racism, a review has concluded.
The government commissioned the report last September after a leaked list identified 15 BNP members as teachers.
Review author Maurice Smith added his recommendation should be reviewed every year, which ministers have accepted.
BNP leader Nick Griffin welcomed what he called a "common sense review" and said it was a great day for democracy.
Members of the BNP are barred from the police and prison service.
Mr Smith, a former chief inspector of schools, said a ban would be "taking a very large sledgehammer to crack a minuscule nut"
