Topolánek, Paroubek discuss government crisis, latter calls for quick agreement

Political leaders entered into a further round of negotiations to solve the ongoing government crisis on Friday, with Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek and the head of the opposition Social Democrats Jiří Paroubek meeting for talks. Neither party would say what had been discussed after the meeting, though Mr Paroubek said later at a press conference that he wanted a solution to the government crisis before the week was out. Mr Paroubek also spoke with the head of the Communists Vojtěch Filip on Friday morning. The Civic Democrats and Social Democrats have tentatively agreed to form a caretaker cabinet, comprising ministers from both parties and potentially also the Communists, to tide the Parliament over until early elections.

Rob was a predictably tedious anarchist, with tediously predictable views. Standing beneath a hanged effigy of Sir Fred Goodwin, he explained how the police work. "They aren't here for us, they're here for the bankers," he told me. "But mainly, they are here for a fight."

Having just watched protesters smash up the Royal Bank of Scotland, I was not in the mood. Not only was Rob wrong, I told him, he was the worst kind of wrong -- a clichéd wrong. Seven hours later -- seven hours of detention without food or water -- I had come to believe that I was the one who had been naive.

Wednesday's police operation against G20 protesters was, by most accounts, a success. Minimal violence, stoical police, and London back up and running a few hours later. But there is another story. It is the story of how a largely peaceful protest that happily coexisted with a Starbucks and an HSBC -- each just one brick arc from anti-capitalist destruction -- eventually turned violent. Most of all, it is the story of how the police wilfully criminalised and alienated 4,000 innocent people.

[Murdoch Alert]

Belgian lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to lodge a formal protest with the Vatican over the Pope's controversial stance on condom use for tackling the spread of AIDS. The pope said last month that condoms "aggravate the problem".

AFP - An EU-Ukraine plan to modernise gas pipelines in the ex-Soviet republic was crafted with no input from chief supplier Russia and is "unfeasible," Gazprom head Alexei Miller said Friday, Interfax reported.

Speaking at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Miller said he had talks with counterparts from E.ON Ruhrgaz AG of Germany, ENI of Italy and Gaz de France and said they too took a dim view of the EU-Ukraine deal.

"We have a united view -- this document was put together without participation of the main players in Europe's gas market; Russia, as supplier, and European firms that are the main consumers of Russian gas," Miller said.

(Yes, this does appear to not belong to the Economy section.)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Members of France's lower house of parliament have adopted the principal and most contested provision of a new anti-piracy bill, which grants state agencies the right to cut off a Web user's Internet access in case of illegal downloads.

The two rebel Civic Democrat MPs, Vlastimil Tlustý and Jan Schwippel, who voted against their party to topple the government in last Tuesday's no-confidence vote are back in the headlines. This Thursday, both men announced their candidature for the eurosceptic party Libertas.cz ahead of June's European elections. I spoke to former finance minister Vlastimil Tlustý about what made him vote against Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek's cabinet, and why, despite representing Libertas.cz at the polls, he had decided to remain a member of the Civic Democratic Party:

...Can I ask you about the funding of Libertas.cz - who is funding this party? "I am not informed. The proposal to be a candidate dates from last Friday, and to be frank, I don't know." Are you worried about now being a candidate for a one-issue party. The Civic Democrats have clear views on social reforms, healthcare reforms and so on, while Libertas.cz doesn't just yet? "I am not worried. Look at the Civic Democrats today. They do nothing, no reforms at all. They destroyed not only tax reforms but also pension reforms and healthcare reforms and so on. I am sure that I will actually have more chance to represent the original programme of the Civic Democrats in Libertas than in the Civic Democratic Party itself."

The cowardly EU « Europe not EU

I am back from my holidays and a blogging hiatus to find that  EU finds it easier to rally behind a mindless G20 Obama love-in on fiscal and bank bailouts than it is to hold a summit on preserving jobs.

EU heads of state and government have decided to run away from cancel a Prague meeting, originally scheduled for May 7, which aimed to bring together national leaders with businesses and trade unions.

Only last week, the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso was insisting that it would be a "fundamental error" not to hold the summit.

"Our public opinion would not understand, it would be unacceptable that EU leaders meet at the highest level and that they discuss the problems of the banks and not social problems. That they discuss the problems of the financial sector and not that of employment. That would be really unacceptable," he said on Mar 18.

(Mr. Waterfield still liberally mixes the EU and its institutions and constituting national governments.)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

In France and Germany on Friday, US President Barack Obama said he wanted to renew the trans-Atlantic partnership. Part of that alliance, though, involves more European troops for Afghanistan, he said. Unexpectedly, Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons.

Madagascar's army-backed transitional authority, led by Andry Rajoelina (photo), has called for the organisation of a presidential election in October 2010 during a reconciliation conference held in the capital Antananarivo.

In front of the presidential palace in Islamabad, 300 protesters against the destruction of Swat Valley schools defy the government. "[President] Asif Ali Zardari, where were you when we needed you? What have you done for us?" they shout.

 

In less than a year, over 100 schools have been destroyed by Taliban insurgents in the region. Schools for girls were the main target, but boys' schools were attacked as well. And, as for those still standing, many parents have become too afraid to send their children there.

An American military aircraft opened fire Thursday night on Sons of Iraq members who were allegedly spotted placing a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.

The incident, which killed one suspected member of the paramilitary group and wounded two, is the latest sign of the fraying allegiance between the paramilitary groups and the U.S. military.

The U.S. military recently stopped paying the Sons of Iraq, many of whom are former insurgents who were put on the American payroll in 2007 in a high-stakes strategy to quell the insurgency.

Under heavy pressure from the U.S. military, the Shiite-led Iraqi government agreed to assume responsibility for the payments to the predominantly Sunni armed groups and absorb some of them into its security forces.

But in recent weeks, several Sons of Iraq groups have disintegrated and some members have rejoined the insurgency, saying the government has failed to pay them on time and has been slow to admit them into police academies.

More proof Bush's surge tactic in Iraq was designed only to let him slink out of office with violence in Iraq in a lull. As soon as the bribes and protection money stop, those formerly being paid-off rejoin the fight. People need jobs and if they cannot find jobs, then many, at least in Iraq, take up arms.

Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged rockets and gunfire Friday in a disputed area on the countries' common border, where tensions between the two nations' armies have been high since last year. Two Cambodian soldiers were reportedly killed in the gunfight.

 

"The brief clash happened at 7:10 am when Cambodian troops came to investigate the spot where that Thai soldier stepped on a landmine yesterday," Seni Chittakasem, governor of Si Sa Ket province in Thailand said.

 

Both sides accused each other of initiating the skirmish. Cambodian commander General Srey Doek claimed that "the Thais fired rockets and rifles at us, and we responded the same way."

 

Thailand claims Cambodia was to blame. Thailand's foreign ministry immediately accused Cambodia of violating its sovereignty and said it would be sending a note of protest to authorities in Phnom Penh.

 

"We had to retaliate because Cambodians opened fire at Thai soldiers first. We want to reiterate that this area is our territory," ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat told AFP.

 

According to FRANCE 24 correspondent Cyril Payen, this incident comes on the heels of a threat Cambodian PM Samdach Hun Sen made on March 31 that any Thai attempts to enter the disputed territory would be punished.

 

Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was in London at the time of the incident to attend the G20 talks. Payen said, "The Cambodian leader stated that he will not be intimidated by a (Thai) government that was not elected." Veijajiva was appointed to his post after the ousting of predecessor Thaksin Shinawatra.

Ah, nice...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Najib's accession to the premiership completes a transition triggered by elections last year when the ruling United Malays National Organisation party (UMNO) slumped to its worst ever performance.
   
Abdullah, who was widely criticised as weak and ineffective, agreed several months ago to step down amid the fallout from those elections, which reshaped Malaysia's political landscape.
   
When he first came into office Abdullah pledged sweeping reforms including tackling corruption -- seen as endemic both in the ruling party and society at large.
   
In the end, he was punished at the ballot box last year for not making good on those promises, when the opposition won an unprecedented one third of seats in parliament and seized control of five states.

Obama Set to Lift Ban on Family Travel to Cuba

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to lift a longstanding U.S. ban on family travel and remittances to Cuba, a senior administration official said Friday, in what could be an opening gesture toward more openness with the Castro regime.

The move will fulfill a campaign promise and follows more modest action in Congress this year to loosen travel rules.

The president has authority to loosen these rules on his own, and the move is likely meant as a signal of a new attitude toward both Cuba and other Latin American countries that have pressed the U.S. to alter its policy.

The G-20 has agreed on plans to fight the global downturn. But its approach will only lay the foundation for the next, bigger crisis. Instead of "stability, growth, jobs," the summit's real slogan should have been "debt, unemployment, inflation."

Czech trade unions plan mass protest on May 16

Czech trade unions have called upon their members to stage a mass protest against the impacts of the financial crisis upon the Czech labour market on May 16. On Friday, a spokesperson for the Bohemian-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions said that organizers were expecting tens of thousands of Czechs to attend the planned demonstration. According to the trade unions' confederation, the steps the government has taken to battle the financial crisis in the Czech Republic have not helped solve employees' problems. Union representatives said that thousands of lay-offs had been caused by the economic downturn, and the government was using the opportunity to amend the Labour Code in employers' favour.

...The Iran-Venezuela Joint Bank, based in Tehran, has an initial capital base of 200 million dollars, with each nation providing half of the funds, the state broadcaster said.

The Export Development Bank of Iran, which is under sanctions from the US Treasury, was tasked with creating the joint bank with the Venezuelans.

"The capital will be raised to 1.2 billion dollars with the aim of supporting joint economic, industrial and mining projects as well as speeding up the current projects," the report said.

...Chavez on Friday denounced a decision by the Group of 20 in London to commit one trillion dollars to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other global bodies to help struggling economies.

"They have decided to strengthen the main culprit, the IMF, while this fund should be eliminated," he was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster.

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives approved a fiscal 2010 budget plan that embraces the initiatives in President Barack Obama's $3.55 trillion proposal, but trims it to avoid exploding the federal deficit.

...Obama has disputed a grim Congressional Budget Office warning that the federal budget deficit could hit 1.845 trillion dollars this year under the Obama proposal, quadrupling the 2008 record shortfall and reaching to 13.1 percent of the total US economic output.

The House resolution would trim the deficit to 1.2 trillion dollars in 2010, compared to the president's figure of 1.4 trillion.

The FBI has seized a multi-million dollar Palm Beach house and luxury goods belonging to disgraced US financier Bernard Madoff. Madoff, 70, is in a New York jail awaiting sentencing for running a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

"President Hans-Rudolf Merz regrets this procedure. The list does not specify the criteria on the basis of which it was drawn up. Switzerland is not a tax haven," the finance ministry said in a statement late Thursday.
   
The three-tier list categorising tax havens and financial centres by their degree of cooperation was endorsed by the G20 leaders meeting in London Thursday.
   
Switzerland was placed in the middle tier of countries, which have adopted the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development's standards on exchanging tax information but not yet "substantially" implemented them.
   
The government formally decided on March 13 to ease the country's banking secrecy and fully adopt OECD tax standards.

The nation's unemployment rate shot up from 8.1 to 8.5 percent last month, new figures out today show, as employers continued to slash jobs in the face of slumping demand.

The economy shed 663,000 jobs in March, the fourth straight month in which job losses have topped 600,000, according to Labor Department data.

A total of 5.1 million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007, and more than 13 million people are unemployed.

The labor market is actually weaker than the official unemployment rate indicates. Groups excluded from the official count include people who are working part time but would rather be working full time, people who want to work but haven't looked for a job in the past month, and people who have become discouraged and given up looking. If those groups are included, the unemployment rate is 16.2 percent, up slightly from February.

Timothy Geithner and his predecessor Henry Paulson have been the public faces of the U.S. government's battle against the global economic crisis. But even as the secretaries of the Treasury have garnered the headlines -- as well as popular anger surrounding bank bailouts and corporate bonuses -- another official has quickly amassed great influence by committing trillions of dollars to keep markets afloat, radically redefining his institution and taking on serious risks as he seeks to rescue the American economy. Without a doubt, this crisis is now Ben Bernanke's war.

Although the ECB Council disappointed markets by cutting rates by a less-than-expected quarter percentage point, to 1.25 per cent, focus centred on M. Trichet's remarks on the possibility of "unconventional measures" when rates eventually do find a floor, which he suggested would be relatively soon.

M. Trichet said during the regular press conference that follows every ECB decision that "I would say very candidly as regarding the main policy rate it is not the lowest limit. I do not exclude that we could in a very measured way go down from the present level". He said the ECB's Governing Council would decide whether to take further "non-standard" steps in its monetary policy at its next policy meeting in May.

"It's an important message that I tell you that the next decision-making rendezvous, we will tell you what has been decided for the non-standard measures."

What could it mean?

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

I.B.M. appears on the verge of acquiring Sun Microsystems, a longtime rival in the computer server and software markets, for nearly $7 billion.

The two companies have been negotiating for weeks, ironing out terms of an agreement that would turn I.B.M. into the dominant supplier of high-profit Unix servers and related technology.

I.B.M. is offering $9.50 a share, down from a bid of $10 a share, said people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly. The new agreement would restrict I.B.M.'s ability to walk away from the deal, these people said.

Even at $9.50 a share, the deal would value Sun, based in Santa Clara, Calif., at close to $7 billion. It is close to a 100 percent premium based on Sun's value before rumors of an acquisition spread last month...

Although in a slump of nearly a decade, Sun is one of the largest sellers of server computers and is known for systems based on its Sparc chips. It has a vast software portfolio, including the Solaris operating system , the open-source MySQL database and the Java programming language.

BILL MOYERS: So you're suggesting, saying that CEOs of some of these banks and mortgage firms in order to increase their own personal income, deliberately set out to make bad loans?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Yes.

BILL MOYERS: How do they get away with it? I mean, what about their own checks and balances in the company? What about their accounting divisions?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: All of those checks and balances report to the CEO, so if the CEO goes bad, all of the checks and balances are easily overcome. And the art form is not simply to defeat those internal controls, but to suborn them, to turn them into your greatest allies. And the bonus programs are exactly how you do that.
...
BILL MOYERS: To hear you say this is unusual because you supported Barack Obama, during the campaign. But you're seeming disillusioned now.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, certainly in the financial sphere, I am. I think, first, the policies are substantively bad. Second, I think they completely lack integrity. Third, they violate the rule of law. This is being done just like Secretary Paulson did it. In violation of the law. We adopted a law after the Savings and Loan crisis, called the Prompt Corrective Action Law. And it requires them to close these institutions. And they're refusing to obey the law.

BILL MOYERS: In other words, they could have closed these banks without nationalizing them?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, you do a receivership. No one -- Ronald Reagan did receiverships. Nobody called it nationalization.

BILL MOYERS: And that's a law?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: That's the law.

BILL MOYERS: So, Paulson could have done this? Geithner could do this?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Not could. Was mandated--

BILL MOYERS: By the law.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: By the law.
...
BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: You are.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely, because they are scared to death. All right? They're scared to death of a collapse. They're afraid that if they admit the truth, that many of the large banks are insolvent. They think Americans are a bunch of cowards, and that we'll run screaming to the exits. And we won't rely on deposit insurance. And, by the way, you can rely on deposit insurance. And it's foolishness. All right? Now, it may be worse than that. You can impute more cynical motives. But I think they are sincerely just panicked about, "We just can't let the big banks fail." That's wrong.
...

Hat tip NBBooks

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

The lawnmower powered by the Wii

The southern university of Denmark has helped invent the Casmobot, a lawn mower that is controlled using a Nintendo Wii Remote. Robotics Scientist Kjeld Jensen helps explain.

Academics at the University of Toronto studied a selection of Christie's novels written between the ages of 28 and 82, counting the numbers of different words, indefinite nouns and phrases used in each.

They found that the vocabulary size of the creator of Poirot and Miss Marple decreased sharply as she neared the end of her life, by 15 to 30%, while repetition of phrases and indefinite word usage (something, thing, anything) in her novels increased significantly.

The Canadian study supports a 2004 comparison of two early works by Iris Murdoch with her last novel, Jackson's Dilemma, which concluded that textual analysis could be used to detect the onset of dementia before anyone [has] the remotest suspicion of any untoward intellectual decline".

^{The Interior Department report, which looks at the potential of wind turbines off the U.S. coast, is part of the government's process to chart a course for offshore energy development.}

By Jim Tankersley, LA Times

Wind turbines off U.S. coastlines could potentially supply more than enough electricity to meet the nation's current demand, the Interior Department reported Thursday.

Simply harnessing the wind in relatively shallow waters -- the most accessible and technically feasible sites for offshore turbines -- could produce at least 20% of the power demand for most coastal states, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, unveiling a report by the Minerals Management Service that details the potential for oil, gas and renewable development on the outer continental shelf.

The biggest wind potential lies off the nation's Atlantic coast, which the Interior report estimates could produce 1,000 gigawatts of electricity -- enough to meet a quarter of the national demand.

The report also notes large potential in the Pacific, including off the California coast, but said the area presented technical challenges.

The Interior Department released an executive summary of the report on Thursday.

A gunman opened fire on a room where immigrants were taking a citizenship exam in the upstate New York city of Binghamton on Friday, killing as many as 13 people before committing suicide, officials said.

The Queen obviously thought the Italian Prime Minister's behaviour was far from statesmanlike - and has become a TouTube hit after, just for once, letting her feelings show.

The footage shows a Buckingham Palace photocall for the G20 leaders. Immediately the photographer finishes, Silvio Berlusconi, obviously very keen to attract the attention of the US President, shouts "Mr Obama" loudly - just behind the Queen.

Mr Obama replied more quietly. But the Queen's restraint had obviously been tested.

"What is it?" she asked turning, one hand spread wide: "Why does he have to shout?"

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees -- and, by extension, to themselves.

"These are complicated companies," one CEO said. Offered another: "We're competing for talent on an international market."

But President Barack Obama wasn't in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public's reaction to such explanations. "Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn't buying that."

"My administration," the president added, "is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

Hat tip naked capitalism

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char