The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
At least 19 people were trampled to death on their way to the Love Parade techno music festival in Duisburg, Germany. The festival-goers were crushed in a tunnel on their way to festival grounds, according to police. At least 19 people died after a stampede broke out at the Love Parade techno music festival in the western German city of Duisburg on Saturday. Authorities in Duisburg scheduled a press conference for Sunday to detail the cause of the mass panic. The tragedy occurred in a tunnel on the way to the festival grounds as police were trying to prevent people from entering the overcrowded site. Thousands of fans had been walking along a hundred-meter pathway toward the festival for several hours. In interviews with German media, eyewitnesses questioned the safety of the 200-meter (650-foot) long and 30-meter wide tunnel that served as the Love Parade's main access. There was also some concern ahead of the festival that Duisburg's former railway freight yard would not be able to accommodate all the party-goers. In an interview with Der Westen, organizers said the venue could hold up to 500,000 people. Some 1.4 million people were estimated to have attended the event, about 200,000 less than the previous year's Love Parade in Dortmund.
At least 19 people died after a stampede broke out at the Love Parade techno music festival in the western German city of Duisburg on Saturday. Authorities in Duisburg scheduled a press conference for Sunday to detail the cause of the mass panic.
The tragedy occurred in a tunnel on the way to the festival grounds as police were trying to prevent people from entering the overcrowded site. Thousands of fans had been walking along a hundred-meter pathway toward the festival for several hours.
In interviews with German media, eyewitnesses questioned the safety of the 200-meter (650-foot) long and 30-meter wide tunnel that served as the Love Parade's main access.
There was also some concern ahead of the festival that Duisburg's former railway freight yard would not be able to accommodate all the party-goers. In an interview with Der Westen, organizers said the venue could hold up to 500,000 people. Some 1.4 million people were estimated to have attended the event, about 200,000 less than the previous year's Love Parade in Dortmund.
German officials confirmed on Sunday that 19 people died and 342 were injured during the mass panic that turned Saturday's Love Parade in Duisburg into a tragedy. Prosecutors have launched an investigation, with initial questions focusing on the organizers' crowd control strategy. In 1989, the Love Parade started in Berlin as a peace demonstration. On Saturday, the festival, held in Duisburg since 2007, ended in disaster when a mass panic resulted in the deaths of 19 partygoers. A further 340 were injured in the stampede. The deaths took place as partygoers were pushing through a highway underpass leading to the festival grounds, the only entrance to the party for the 1.4 million people in attendance. According to some accounts, organizers at one point closed the entrance to the party venue, a former freight train station, for an hour but did not prevent more people from streaming into the tunnel. The resulting crush of people fueled both tempers and the resulting panic.
German officials confirmed on Sunday that 19 people died and 342 were injured during the mass panic that turned Saturday's Love Parade in Duisburg into a tragedy. Prosecutors have launched an investigation, with initial questions focusing on the organizers' crowd control strategy.
In 1989, the Love Parade started in Berlin as a peace demonstration. On Saturday, the festival, held in Duisburg since 2007, ended in disaster when a mass panic resulted in the deaths of 19 partygoers. A further 340 were injured in the stampede.
The deaths took place as partygoers were pushing through a highway underpass leading to the festival grounds, the only entrance to the party for the 1.4 million people in attendance. According to some accounts, organizers at one point closed the entrance to the party venue, a former freight train station, for an hour but did not prevent more people from streaming into the tunnel. The resulting crush of people fueled both tempers and the resulting panic.
t was a scene to warm the heart: a delighted student in mortar board and gown had just heard that she had graduated with 110 e lode (the equivalent in Italy of a starred first-class degree). In the front row of the audience, her father burst into applause, beaming with undisguised pride.The ecstatic parent, however, was Italy's scandal-prone prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. And by last night the graduation of his daughter, Barbara, at a ceremony in Milan last Tuesday, had touched off yet another controversy involving the Berlusconi family.In a letter to the press and subsequent interviews, a professor at Barbara Berlusconi's university deplored what she claimed was an attempt by the chancellor to secure funding from one of the world's richest men by promising his daughter a teaching post.
t was a scene to warm the heart: a delighted student in mortar board and gown had just heard that she had graduated with 110 e lode (the equivalent in Italy of a starred first-class degree). In the front row of the audience, her father burst into applause, beaming with undisguised pride.
The ecstatic parent, however, was Italy's scandal-prone prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. And by last night the graduation of his daughter, Barbara, at a ceremony in Milan last Tuesday, had touched off yet another controversy involving the Berlusconi family.
In a letter to the press and subsequent interviews, a professor at Barbara Berlusconi's university deplored what she claimed was an attempt by the chancellor to secure funding from one of the world's richest men by promising his daughter a teaching post.
LONDON -- Perhaps the only consistent thing about Britain's socialized health care system is that it is in a perpetual state of flux, its structure constantly changing as governments search for the elusive formula that will deliver the best care for the cheapest price while costs and demand escalate. Even as the new coalition government said it would make enormous cuts in the public sector, it initially promised to leave health care alone. But in one of its most surprising moves so far, it has done the opposite, proposing what would be the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948. Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England's $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers.
LONDON -- Perhaps the only consistent thing about Britain's socialized health care system is that it is in a perpetual state of flux, its structure constantly changing as governments search for the elusive formula that will deliver the best care for the cheapest price while costs and demand escalate.
Even as the new coalition government said it would make enormous cuts in the public sector, it initially promised to leave health care alone. But in one of its most surprising moves so far, it has done the opposite, proposing what would be the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948.
Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England's $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers.
Britain Plans to Decentralize National Health Care
Decentralize ... is that the equivalent of the US terminology "privatize"? In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
the issue is as much about who controls and for whose benefit. Right now the NHS is run by medical staff for medical staff and patient comfort and convenience, let alone cost are way way down the list. Procedures require effective management for efficiency and, although in the medium term costs will be reduced, in the short term disruption costs may be very high with parallel practices to maintain continuity.
This requiress a centralised control of expensive expertise to manage.
Equally the choice of medicine may seem like a no-brainer, but cost effectiveness is best maintained centrally. there are treatments for cancer which are simply not cost effective, however attractive they may be. For instance there is a new cancer treatment which costs £50 K a month and prolongs life by about 6 - 9 months. If it was a cure, I would agree that it we pay the price. but it isn't, it simply lengthens the dying. Now, however much I can understand that a dying person might think that an extra day, let alone half a year is worth any price worth paying, across a population it simply cannot be justified.
those decisions at local level are political poison, careers can be ruined. but an national level they can be justified and enforced.
this policy is stupid, short-sighted, expensive and massively counter-productive. All in all, a typical poltician's intervention keep to the Fen Causeway
So, what is it that they propose to "decentralise"? By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
Thursday's ruling by the International Court of Justice offered surprising clarity: Kosovo did not break international law when it declared indepedence in 2008. German commentators acknowledge that this is a blow for Serbia, but many see an opportunity for Belgrade to reassess its stance towards Pristina. The ruling by the International Court of Justice on Thursday didn't go Serbia's way. By stating that Kosovo's unilateral secession in 2008 did not violate international law, the United Nations body has likely cleared the way for even more countries to recognize Europe's newest state. While the decision by the court, based in The Hague, is non-binding, it effectively destroyed Belgrade's efforts to strangle Kosovo's nationhood at birth. The government in Serbia had sought an opinion on Pristina's 2008 declaration of independence from the ICJ. Meanwhile, separatist movements across the globe may take courage from a ruling which seemed to give self-determination as much weight as territorial integrity.
Thursday's ruling by the International Court of Justice offered surprising clarity: Kosovo did not break international law when it declared indepedence in 2008. German commentators acknowledge that this is a blow for Serbia, but many see an opportunity for Belgrade to reassess its stance towards Pristina.
The ruling by the International Court of Justice on Thursday didn't go Serbia's way. By stating that Kosovo's unilateral secession in 2008 did not violate international law, the United Nations body has likely cleared the way for even more countries to recognize Europe's newest state.
While the decision by the court, based in The Hague, is non-binding, it effectively destroyed Belgrade's efforts to strangle Kosovo's nationhood at birth. The government in Serbia had sought an opinion on Pristina's 2008 declaration of independence from the ICJ.
Meanwhile, separatist movements across the globe may take courage from a ruling which seemed to give self-determination as much weight as territorial integrity.
The Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber. The Sunday Times claimed to have seen a letter from the US administration to the Scottish government before the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. It said the US government did not want Megrahi released from prison. But it said a compassionate release would "preferable" to transferring Megrahi to a jail in Libya. Alex Salmond said the documents would "vindicate" the Scottish government.
The Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
The Sunday Times claimed to have seen a letter from the US administration to the Scottish government before the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.
It said the US government did not want Megrahi released from prison.
But it said a compassionate release would "preferable" to transferring Megrahi to a jail in Libya.
Alex Salmond said the documents would "vindicate" the Scottish government.
MADRID -- Bullfighting, seen by many Spaniards as an essential component of their cultural patrimony, could suffer its biggest setback to date on Wednesday when lawmakers in Catalonia will vote on whether to ban fights in their region. Such a ban would be "the most important victory for animal rights that we've had," according to Aida Gascón, the national director of AnimaNaturalis, an organization that has long campaigned against what it considers to be a barbaric and outdated practice. But the animal-welfare values defended by activists like Ms. Gascón have recently been overshadowed by an identity debate over whether bullfighting, so firmly rooted in Spanish traditionalism, still has its place in an independence-seeking Catalonia. It also comes at a time when identity issues top the agenda in other parts of Europe, from Belgium, where regional feuding has scuttled efforts to maintain a stable federal government, to the Balkans.
MADRID -- Bullfighting, seen by many Spaniards as an essential component of their cultural patrimony, could suffer its biggest setback to date on Wednesday when lawmakers in Catalonia will vote on whether to ban fights in their region.
Such a ban would be "the most important victory for animal rights that we've had," according to Aida Gascón, the national director of AnimaNaturalis, an organization that has long campaigned against what it considers to be a barbaric and outdated practice.
But the animal-welfare values defended by activists like Ms. Gascón have recently been overshadowed by an identity debate over whether bullfighting, so firmly rooted in Spanish traditionalism, still has its place in an independence-seeking Catalonia. It also comes at a time when identity issues top the agenda in other parts of Europe, from Belgium, where regional feuding has scuttled efforts to maintain a stable federal government, to the Balkans.
Tony Blair will come under greater pressure over his role in the Iraq conflict this week, as one of the men who tried to slow the march to war in 2003 publicly raises questions over his judgement. Hans Blix, who was in charge of the team of United Nations inspectors checking for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on the eve of the war, will lay bare his disagreements with Mr Blair and the former US president George W Bush in an appearance at the Iraq inquiry on Tuesday.Last night, Dr Blix revived his differences with Mr Blair over Saddam Hussein's arsenal, claiming he always questioned the former prime minister's assessment of the threat posed by Iraq.
Tony Blair will come under greater pressure over his role in the Iraq conflict this week, as one of the men who tried to slow the march to war in 2003 publicly raises questions over his judgement.
Hans Blix, who was in charge of the team of United Nations inspectors checking for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on the eve of the war, will lay bare his disagreements with Mr Blair and the former US president George W Bush in an appearance at the Iraq inquiry on Tuesday.
Last night, Dr Blix revived his differences with Mr Blair over Saddam Hussein's arsenal, claiming he always questioned the former prime minister's assessment of the threat posed by Iraq.
The Christian Democrats have agreed to join informal talks with the free-market VVD party and Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party (PVV) to determine whether it would be possible to form a rightwing coalition. The talks come at the request of former Christian Democrat prime minister Ruud Lubbers, who is the present informateur, in charge of mediating in the negotiations on the formation of a government. VVD leader Mark Rutte and Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders had already agreed on Friday to such private informal talks, without the presence of Mr Lubbers. The Christian Democrats will take part in the talks without conditions, says party leader Maxime Verhagen. However, if the party then decides to go ahead with formal negotiations with the anti-Islam Freedom Party, it would not be prepared to compromise on issues that are central to Christian Democrat values.
The Christian Democrats have agreed to join informal talks with the free-market VVD party and Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party (PVV) to determine whether it would be possible to form a rightwing coalition.
The talks come at the request of former Christian Democrat prime minister Ruud Lubbers, who is the present informateur, in charge of mediating in the negotiations on the formation of a government. VVD leader Mark Rutte and Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders had already agreed on Friday to such private informal talks, without the presence of Mr Lubbers.
The Christian Democrats will take part in the talks without conditions, says party leader Maxime Verhagen. However, if the party then decides to go ahead with formal negotiations with the anti-Islam Freedom Party, it would not be prepared to compromise on issues that are central to Christian Democrat values.
Only in the U.K. (or the U.S.) would 49.7% of the vote be called a landslide...
Labour lost the next election despite getting more votes than the victors. keep to the Fen Causeway
It has already happened in the past, to the PS in 1981, 2007 and, more recently, to the UMP in 2007. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
