European businesses would choose the UK's ex-leader, Tony Blair, as the new EU president, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, featuring as other front-runners for the position in a fresh poll.

The survey was carried out by financial news channel CNBC Europe, with Mr Blair supported by 37 percent of respondents, Ms Merkel 23 percent and Mr Juncker 12 percent of pollsters, UK daily the Guardian reported.

Tony Blair and Angela Merkel are the two most popular personalities for the top EU job among businesses

The British Labour leader was mentioned as a possible candidate for the new post already last year, mainly after French President Nicolas Sarkozy signalled he would back him.

But the idea also sparked some objections in other European capitals, with Chancellor Merkel herself reportedly arguing against such a choice.

The creation of a new EU president post - to be held for two and a half years and partly replace the current six-month rotating chairmanship of the bloc's member states - is still an open question due to the failed referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty, which would have introduced institutional changes to how the EU is run, including the new position.

LONDON: Some call it the biggest hack of military computers; perhaps it was just a big embarrassment.

Gary McKinnon -- accused of breaking into military and NASA computers in what he claims was a search for UFOs, allegedly causing nearly $1 million in damage -- has lost his appeal for extradition to the United States.

McKinnon, 42, an unemployed computer administrator, allegedly broke into 97 computers belonging to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense from a bedroom in a north London home.

His attacks between 2001 and 2002 allegedly shut down the Army district responsible for protecting Washington, and cleared logs from computers at the Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey that tracks the location and battle-readiness of Navy ships.

Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic has arrived at the detention unit of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague where he is to be tried. He'll appear before the court Thursday.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic will make his first appearance before the UN's Yugoslav war crimes court on Thursday to enter a plea on genocide charges, the court said.

  

"The initial appearance of Radovan Karadzic has been scheduled to take place Thursday, July 31, at 4 p.m. in Courtroom I before Judge Alphons Orie," the court said in a statement Wednesday.

 

Earlier Wednesday, Karadzic, 63, was seen being whisked through the main entrance of the detention unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in a motorcade at 7:10 a.m. local time after an overnight flight from Belgrade.

The European Union will only be able to move closer together if a smaller group of courageous states take the lead, writes political scientist Werner Weidenfeld in an exclusive essay for DW-WORLD.DE.

Werner Weidenfeld is the director of the Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP) at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and visiting professor at the Remnin University of Beijing.

The enlarged EU continues to makes its influence felt far beyond its frontiers. The heterogeneity within the bloc has, however, grown as a result of new members joining over the last few years. Economic, social and political differences continue to exist between the member states despite the steps towards convergence.

Ideas about how the body called the EU should develop in the future have become increasingly divergent. It will become more and more difficult to achieve greater integration simultaneously. This should not just be regarded as a problem, but also as an  opportunity for the future of Europe.

Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has called for a group of EU states to develop a military force capable of reacting to crises around the world. He said the bloc needs a flexible defense policy.

A group EU nations should form a "pioneering group" to deal with issues of European security and defense, Fischer said Tuesday, July 28, at the presentation of a European Council on Foreign Relations study.

 

"We must recognize the reality of a 'multi-speed Europe' on defense," said Fischer, one of the council's co-chairs. "The reluctant should not be bullied, but neither must they hold the others back."

 

Fischer added that the bloc needed to take a "flexible approach" to cooperation between states on key issues in order to move forward after the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, which foresees creating a new post to steer European foreign and security policy.

MOSCOW: For many Russians, it is bad enough that the president of Ukraine is pushing to join NATO and to eject the Russian Navy from its Black Sea port. But over the weekend, the confrontation over Ukraine's attempts to shrug off Russian influence reached an even more painful emotional pitch - with a new tug of war over history, identity and power.

President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine chose the 1,020th anniversary of the advent of Christianity in the Slavic kingdom that predated both Ukraine and Russia - a date that each country claims as a founding event of its nationhood - to issue a public plea for Ukraine's Orthodox Christians to gain independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.

With Orthodox church notables from around the world looking on, Yushchenko asked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the titular spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, to bless the creation of an independent Ukrainian church - "a blessing," he said, "for a dream, for the truth, for a hope, for our state, for Ukraine."

The Ukrainian president - who claims that Russian agents tried to murder him with poison that left him with a pockmarked face - snubbed the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Alexei II, giving him a businesslike handshake after warmly kissing Bartholomew on both cheeks.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Schools, playgrounds, hospitals and other public sites with contaminated soil could remain polluted as the result of a back-room deal between Germany, France and the UK on European legislation covering soil degradation and clean-ups.

Two years ago, the European Commission proposed a directive that would see member states obliged to identify and clean sites polluted by industry. The bill was also to require the designation of farm land at risk of different forms of degradation such as erosion, landslides and becoming too salt-ridden.

Soil absorbs up to 20 percent of carbon emissions

The proposal was blocked by the three countries at last December's European Summit, together with Austria and the Netherlands. France, currently chairing the six-month rotating EU presidency, had said it would attempt to revive negotiations on the bill, a move initially welcomed by environmental groups.

But Paris has not yet put the topic on any agenda at the official level before the October summit and is currently co-ordinating unofficial meetings between the five blocking countries.

Almost one out of two French-speaking Belgians would like to join France if their country splits up, a new survey says, amid a deepening political crisis in the host-state of the European Union's top institutions.

Forty nine percent of people in the south-lying Belgian region of Wallonia said they would support "rattachment" - a re-joining - with France in the event of a break-up with the northern Dutch-speaking region of Flanders.

The Manneken Pis statue in Brussels: who would it belong to if Belgium divorced?

The figure shows a huge jump from 29 percent six months ago, even though just 23 percent of Walloons believe the country might actually fall apart, an Ifop poll for Belgian and French papers Le Soir and La Voix du Nord found.

On the French side, 60 percent of respondents would like to join-up with their Belgian neighbours, up from 54 percent in previous surveys. The majority in favour is even higher in bordering regions such as Pas-de-Calais.

Europe hasn't really made a mark in the public consciousness. Without new ideas and their effective communication nothing will change, says German journalism professor Gerd Kopper in an exclusive essay for DW-WORLD.DE.

Professor Gerd G. Kopper is a retired professor of journalism at the University of Dortmund in Germany. He initiated the Erich-Brost Institute for Journalism in Europe and was its director from 1999 to 2006.

 

There's no dearth of criticism about "Europe" in today's media landscape. Unfortunately, a huge amount of it is nothing more than regurgitated gobbledygook. Many media studies have shown that detailed research of European policies and a balanced criticism of it are the exceptions to the rule.

 

This image of "Europe" painted by the media -- often a mixture of sarcasm about apparent bureaucracy, exaggerated accusations and hidden nationalism in many countries -- is a dominant one.

 

But there is another more tangible and practical Europe that works perfectly but about which hardly anything is reflected on or reported: Trade, financial ties, tourism and scientific exchange work well in Europe. And all the statistics and assessments show that these areas are functioning better and better.

Washington is set to electronically collect data on all European visitors who currently enjoy visa-free travel to the United States. An online registration system, first kicking-in on a voluntary basis, will ask for a number of personal data, including on health.

The Electronic System of Travel Authorisation (ESTA) - presented by US Department of Homeland Security representative Jackie Bednarz on Monday (28 July) - is designed to track high-risk passengers and will be officially launched on 1 August.

The new system will add a fresh burden to passengers keen to visit the US

The procedure will become mandatory only on 12 January 2009, with all passengers from visa vaiwer programme countries - including children - required to receive an authorisation to travel before they board a US-bound airplane or vessel.

On top of 15 EU states - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK - the obligation will also apply to Andorra, Australia, Brunei, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Singapore and Switzerland.

The UK's biggest domestic supplier today heaped misery on households after hiking gas and electricity bills.

British Gas, which has 15.9 million customers, is raising gas bills by 35 per cent and electricity prices by 9 per cent. Average dual fuel prices will jump 25 per cent.

The company blamed soaring wholesale energy prices for the move, which follows price increases from rival EDF Energy last Friday.

The price hikes come into effect immediately and will add an extra £262.80 a year to the average dual fuel customer's bill, or 72p a day.

British Gas managing director Phil Bentley said: "We very much regret that we have had to make this decision at a time when many household budgets are already under pressure.

The highest court has ruled against a proposed ban of the governing AKP party. A wafer-thin majority of the 11 judges decided to give the government a reprieve, while handing down a warning.

 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party was not banned by the country's highest court. Turkey's highest court said on Wednesday that it will not ban the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), a decision that avoids plunging Turkey into a political crisis.

The Constitutional Court in Ankara instead handed down a warning to the governing party. The presiding judge Hasim Kilic said after three days of deliberations those against the ban had narrowly won out. Six of the 11 judges had wanted to ban the AKP for allegedly trying to steer the country toward Islamic rule. The ban would have required the votes of seven justices. The court did, however, decide to strip the party of half of its state funding.

The decision is a reprieve for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies in the Islamic-rooted AKP. A ban would have triggered even more political turmoil in the country just days after two bombs killed 17 people in Istanbul. It would also have severely damaged Turkey's image as a democracy as the country seeks to join the European Union.

Why this is good news.

Britain's highest court has ruled that the country's financial regulator acted lawfully when it halted a corruption inquiry into a multi-billion dollar contract between BAE Systems PLC and Saudi Arabia.

The decision overturned an earlier finding by the High Court which criticised the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for ending the investigation, which Tony Blair, the then prime minister, said could jeopardise the so-called "war on terror".

The SFO had been investigating allegations that BAE, one of the world's largest arms makers, ran a multi-million dollar "slush fund," offering sweeteners to officials from Saudi Arabia in return for lucrative contracts as part of the $65bn Al-Yamamah arms deal in the 1980s.

But in 2006, Blair told the SFO to stop its investigation, saying it could threaten intelligence links with Saudi Arabia.

The full memorandum is available in html or pdf.

11. The Commissioner has been concerned for some time by consistent reports establishing that behind individual incidents, occasionally very violent, there was a trend of racism and xenophobia in Italy targeting primarily Roma, Sinti and immigrants from EU or other countries (see also following section). While this Memorandum concentrates on specific measures and policies liable to affect mainly the rights of those people, some broader introductory comments on the need to address that trend seem warranted.
...

13. The hostile environment to non-dominant, vulnerable social groups has recently been fostered by statements of certain national and local political figures as well as by a number of mass media in the country. In meetings with the Commissioner representatives of important NGOs deplored an almost total lack of rejection of xenophobic statements by senior politicians. Representatives of Roma and Sinti felt that such lack of reaction, combined with the "security package", had further encouraged violence and hate speech against their communities. They expressed a fairly dramatic need for protection.
    
14. The Commissioner is seriously concerned about the adoption or preparation by the government of severe legislation which is aimed at ensuring "public security" and imposing a firmer control over immigration, including of EU citizens, and over the presence and movement of Roma and Sinti populations (see sections below). While stronger action against individual criminal offenders may be required, including enhanced international judicial cooperation, the swift adoption of broad packages of the sort currently implemented or considered in Italy entails a clear risk of linking insecurity to specific groups of population and of generating confusion between offenders and foreigners. Such risk should be carefully avoided, if one is not to further feed xenophobic tendencies (the "security package" is further discussed in sections III and IV below)
    

...
32. The Commissioner is following closely and is deeply concerned at anti-Roma and anti-Sinti manifestations in Italy which have been occasionally extremely violent resulting into setting on fire Roma camps, reportedly without effective protection by the Police which has also carried out violent Roma camp raids. Of particular concern is the support which has been provided to such manifestations, directly or indirectly, by certain domestic, national and local, political forces and figures as well as by certain mass media. No information is as yet available on the conclusion of any effective investigation into such incidents by the competent authorities. During his discussion with the Minister of Interior, Mr Roberto Maroni, the Commissioner expressed his serious concern at this situation.
...
36. In this context, the Commissioner notes that by the decision of 7/12/2005 in the case of European Roma Rights Centre v Italy (Complaint No. 27/2004) the European Committee of Social Rights found unanimously that Italy had violated the European Social Charter taken together with the antidiscrimination Article E due to the insufficiency and inadequacy of Roma camping sites, the forced evictions and other sanctions, such as destruction of Roma property, and the lack of permanent dwellings. In the context of this case, the Italian authorities have undertaken before the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to bring the situation into conformity with the Revised European Social Charter.
...
Conclusions and Recommendations

68. The repeated adoption of emergency legislative measures by a Council of Europe member state in order to control migratory movements seems to indicate that the state mechanism is unable to deal effectively with a phenomenon that is not novel and thus should have been dealt with through ordinary legislative or other measures. Moreover, the frequent changes of immigration law act to the detriment of legal certainty, one of the constituent elements of the fundamental principle of rule of law on which the Council of Europe is based.
    
69. The Commissioner is very concerned at the new legislative measures on immigration and asylum which have been adopted or are about to be adopted by Italy. As he informed the Minister of Interior, Mr Roberto Maroni, during his visit, he fears that, despite the authorities' declared intentions, these measures will result in a further social stigmatisation and marginalisation of migrants (including Roma) and in a further rise of anti-immigration and xenophobic climate in the country. The detrimental effects of this legislation on asylum seekers, often obliged to arrive in an irregular manner, is also of special concern to the Commissioner. The authorities' suggestion that the new legislation would not reduce the possibility to apply for asylum should be checked against the practice.
    
70. The Commissioner notes that the impact of restrictive legislative and other measures on irregular migration is much debated, with some experts arguing that they rather ignite in effect irregular migration. He strongly feels that Council of Europe member states should undertake further efforts in order to view and tackle migration as a social, not criminal law, issue. That issue requires comprehensive, long-term and sustainable, national action plans in which host and origin states should work together, having as their priority the effective protection of the human rights of the people who feel themselves obliged to migrate for a better life.
    
71. The Commissioner further notes that, despite a widespread opposite state trend, international law has clearly established the principle that aliens whose only offence is the violation of immigration law should not be treated by transit or host states as criminals or potential criminals. As Article 17, paragraph 3, of the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of their Families prescribes, migrants detained for violation of provisions relating to migration should be held, in so far as practicable, separately from convicted persons or persons detained pending trial. Even though Italy is not a State Party to this Convention, the Commissioner considers this text as a reference for the protection of migrants' rights and the need to avoid their criminalisation. He notes with regret the Government's disagreement on this point.
    
72. The Commissioner is particularly concerned at the criminal law amendment by the above-mentioned Law Decree by which the irregular stay of aliens who commit an offence shall be considered as an aggravating circumstance that will lead to the increase of these persons' sentences. This provision may raise serious issues of proportionality and discrimination based on one's immigration status.
    
73. The introduction of those aggravating circumstances and the purported punishment for irregular entry and for letting accommodation to irregular migrants contravenes a well established position in international law that the irregular entry and stay of an alien should be in principle an administrative offence38. Departing from such well established principle is a serious matter indeed.
    
74. In addition, it is to be noted that, as also mentioned during the discussion that the Commissioner had with the President of Italy's National Judges' Association on 19 June, the criminalisation of irregular migration is likely to strain even further the Italian judicial system, which suffers from the systemic problem of excessive length of judicial (including criminal) proceedings and the backlog of cases. In this context, it should be remembered that Italy is the European state with the highest number of judgments (1,715) delivered against it by the European Court of Human Rights from 1999 to 2007. The majority of these judgments (948) concern the systemic problem of excessive length of judicial proceedings. As at 31 December 2007 Italy was the contracting state with the highest percentage (45%) of judgments delivered against it by the European Court of Human Rights and whose execution was supervised by the Committee of Ministers under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention. The Commissioner recommends that the authorities fully reflect on this additional dimension of the criminalisation of irregular migration and urge them to review, with a view to revoking, the above-mentioned provisions.

...

Well worth a read for all Europeans. Italy is not the only case although likely the worst at the moment.

BEIJING: The Chinese government confirmed Wednesday what journalists arriving at the lavishly outfitted media center here had suspected: Contrary to previous assurances by Olympic and government officials, the Internet would be censored during the upcoming games.

Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages - politically sensitive ones that discuss Tibetan succession, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown of the protests in Tiananmen Square and the sites of Amnesty International, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.

On Wednesday - two weeks after its most recent proclamation of an uncensored Internet during the Summer Games - the International Olympic Committee quietly agreed to some of the limitations, according to Kevan Gosper, chairman of the IOC press commission, Reuters reported.

Gosper said that he regretted the limitations but that "IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related."

Global trade talks have collapsed as divisions between the US and India over emergency protections for poor farmers proved insurmountable.

The so-called Doha Round of World Trade Organisation talks, which had limped into their second week of what had widely been described as "gruelling" negotiations, were derailed late on Tuesday (29 July) due to disagreement between the US and China and India over a "special safeguard mechanism" that would allow developing countries to temporarily protect their farmers from sudden surges in imports by raising tariffs.

Trade commissioner Mandelson called the collapse 'heart-breaking'

The US blamed the two countries for rejecting a compromise on the mechanism devised by WTO secretary-general Pascal Lamy and further developed by negotiators over the weekend.

The special safeguard mechanism has long been a key demand of the G33, a group of developing countries including China, India, Nigeria, Indonesia and Turkey.

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, embroiled in a high-profile corruption investigation, announced Wednesday that he would resign his office as soon as his party chose a new leader in September.

In a televised public statement made from his official residence in Jerusalem, Olmert said he would not take part in the leadership election for his Kadima Party, opening the way for the next party leader to try to form a new government.

"I have decided not to compete in the primaries in Kadima," he said. "I will resign from my role as prime minister to allow a new leader to form a new government efficiently and quickly."

Olmert had agreed with the Labor Party, his partner in the coalition, to hold the internal election in September to try to keep the coalition together as the corruption inquiry continued.

Friday, 25 July 2008
What's up with the covered bond push?
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Whenever Henry Paulson at Treasury, Ben Bernanke at the Fed and Shiela Bair at FDIC agree on anything, American taxpayers should check for their wallets to see if they are being mugged....

....Covered bonds allow for extension of credit to a bank SIV or trust that will be serviced by income from hypothecated assets on the bank's balance sheet. The assets stay on the bank's balance sheet unless there is a default on the bonds, at which time the assets are forfeit as collateral to the trust vehicle servicing the covered bond.

Last week the FDIC released a policy statement on covered bonds that provides for "expedited release of collateral" if an issuing bank is taken into FDIC receivership or liquidation. The Treasury is expected to release a protocol on best practices for covered bond issuance in a high profile event next week. Hmmmm. What could be up?

If I had to guess, I suspect what we will soon see is something near to the following scenario:

Lists will circulate of troubled banks likely to go into FDIC receivership....

Several of the central players in the recent market dramas ... will go strong and aggressive for the covered bond market. They will go around to their list of troubled banks... They will issue covered bonds to these trouble banks against any assets with real, proveable value left on the banks' balance sheets. They will be praised to the heavens by their friends in Washington as providing timely and necessary liquidity to a troubled banking system, proving the efficiency of the free market, bravely bearing the risk of new credit in exchange for troubled bank assets.

When the troubled bank nonetheless fails, our golden circle creditors get the good collateral in an expedited release from FDIC under its new policy statement. The FDIC is left with all the toxic waste assets and liability for depositor insurance claims, with no prospect of recovery of any value from the insolvent bank liquidation.

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When the FDIC itself becomes insolvent, which it surely must do as this game gets played to its obvious outcome, then the FDIC gets a GSE-style bailout via Treasury finance and the poor taxpayers get reamed again.