The association made between Romania's decision to offer citizenship for Moldovans and illegal immigration in the EU is an artifical problem, Romania's Foreign Affairs minister Teodor Baconschi declared. He said that even though the international press wrote about this issue, he prefers not to consider it a press campaign on this matter.
Speaking unguardedly at a lunch with ex-colleagues, senior Tory backbencher David Davis repeated a jibe that the David Cameron-Nick Clegg partnership was the "Brokeback coalition". He said Lord Ashcroft had first suggested the comparison with the Oscar-winning film, Brokeback Mountain, about a gay relationship. He also said the Big Society plans were "Blairite dressing", and added that the government "has a mechanism for dealing with the Liberal party, most of whom are inside the coalition. It does not have a mechanism for dealing with the Conservative party, most of whom are outside the coalition." Financial Times journalists overheard the exchange at the Boot and Flogger pub in London's Southwark.
Speaking unguardedly at a lunch with ex-colleagues, senior Tory backbencher David Davis repeated a jibe that the David Cameron-Nick Clegg partnership was the "Brokeback coalition". He said Lord Ashcroft had first suggested the comparison with the Oscar-winning film, Brokeback Mountain, about a gay relationship.
He said Lord Ashcroft had first suggested the comparison with the Oscar-winning film, Brokeback Mountain, about a gay relationship.
I asked just a day ago who in this darling couple wore the high heels and bent over. Dirty stealing bastards! At least they read ET ... there is that. Now where's the fun in that! - Megatron
A new Gallup poll shows that 62 percent of Danes want an exit date to be set for a Danish withdrawal from Afghanistan, irrespective of the situation on the ground in the country, according to Berlingske Tidende. The poll also shows that almost 50 percent want Danish soldiers out of Afghanistan by 2014, with 20 percent accepting the end of 2014 as an exit date. Only seven percent are prepared to leave Danish soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014.
A new Gallup poll shows that 62 percent of Danes want an exit date to be set for a Danish withdrawal from Afghanistan, irrespective of the situation on the ground in the country, according to Berlingske Tidende.
The poll also shows that almost 50 percent want Danish soldiers out of Afghanistan by 2014, with 20 percent accepting the end of 2014 as an exit date. Only seven percent are prepared to leave Danish soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014.
But you may be forgiven (perhaps) for not being aware, from the backwoods of California, of the multiple ways in which the US exercises its hegemony over its vassals. ;)
One person was killed and at least 42 others injured when a tourist train derailed in the Swiss Alps, police say. At least 12 of the injured were said to be in a serious condition. Most of the passengers on the Glacier Express were Japanese tourists, police said. Three carriages came off the tracks and two tipped over in the accident, which occurred on a panoramic route between Zermatt and St Moritz.
One person was killed and at least 42 others injured when a tourist train derailed in the Swiss Alps, police say.
At least 12 of the injured were said to be in a serious condition.
Most of the passengers on the Glacier Express were Japanese tourists, police said.
Three carriages came off the tracks and two tipped over in the accident, which occurred on a panoramic route between Zermatt and St Moritz.
A court in Turkey ordered on Friday the arrest, or in many cases rearrest, of 102 people, including retired military commanders suspected of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government in 2003. This year's investigations into the alleged plot code-named Sledgehammer shocked Turkey and aggravated tensions between the AK Party government and the secularist armed forces.... The arrests highlight a social transition in EU-membership candidate Turkey, as power shifts from traditional secular elites such as the armed forces to a new political class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Mr Erdogan's AK Party.
This year's investigations into the alleged plot code-named Sledgehammer shocked Turkey and aggravated tensions between the AK Party government and the secularist armed forces.... The arrests highlight a social transition in EU-membership candidate Turkey, as power shifts from traditional secular elites such as the armed forces to a new political class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Mr Erdogan's AK Party.
Nineteen people have died and hundreds injured in a stampede at the Love Parade music festival in Germany. Organisers are now saying the festival may never happen again. More than 300 people have been injured in a crush which took place last night at the Love Parade Festival in Duisberg, Germany. The free techno music festival was attended by up to 1.4 million people. The mass panic which caused the stampede occurred in an entrance tunnel to the festival site.
More than 300 people have been injured in a crush which took place last night at the Love Parade Festival in Duisberg, Germany.
The free techno music festival was attended by up to 1.4 million people. The mass panic which caused the stampede occurred in an entrance tunnel to the festival site.
Reports on French radio this morning said the site could only take half a million. Eye-witness reports were pretty shocking.
It is clear now from both eyewitness and police reports that the panic was ignited by the storming of and the falls from that staircase. The professor who made the safety analysis said that "no one could have foreseen this" and blamed the people who climbed that staircase. However, critics say something unexpected can always happen, especially with thousands of drugged youth who can't be expected to behave sanely, and the situation in the tunnel in the half hour prior to the panic was already described by eyewitnesses as critical.
Police mis-organisation is also in discussion: whatever role the tunnel and the staircase and the limited size of the site played, there was the crowding in the tunnel prior to the panic that strained people's nerves and also led some to climb of that staircase. Why didn't police keep more people from entering?
The police trade union, individual policemen talking to the media anonymously, a firefighter with name (talking to lawyers), the original inventor of the Love Parade, and several non-experts say that there were warnings ignored and even a larger-scale police safety plan thrown out, and point the blame at the organisers and the city who just wanted to make money. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
there were warnings ignored and even a larger-scale police safety plan thrown out, and point the blame at the organisers and the city who just wanted to make money.
the phrase "nobody could have foreseen" has a mocking quality keep to the Fen Causeway
Also, SPIEGEL reports (in the above linked article) it has information that at at least one police center, electronic data was wiped. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The Love Parade was started with a trick: it was announced as a political protest march, thus security and cleanup was organised and paid by Berlin. In the last few years however, the political protest trick didn't work, and especially the heaps of rubbish left behind by the partypeople and the protection of parks was a cost factor difficult to meet without sponsors and tickets. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The victims will sue Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, Minister of Foreign Affairs Abigdor Lieberman, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor, Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Minister without portfolio Benny Bergin and Israeli Navy Commander Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom. Due to a legal reform which limited Spanish authority to cases in which the victims are nationals, the lawsuit focuses on three Spanish citizens, the plaintiffs said. Read more...
Due to a legal reform which limited Spanish authority to cases in which the victims are nationals, the lawsuit focuses on three Spanish citizens, the plaintiffs said.
Read more...
