Chancellor to repay expenses - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

Alistair Darling pledged today to repay some of his expenses following allegations that he claimed on two homes at once.

The Daily Telegraph reported that in July 2007, 10 days after becoming Chancellor, Mr Darling submitted a £1,004 claim for service charges on his south London flat up to December of that year.

The paper said that during that period he moved into Downing Street and began renting out the flat.

Mr Darling insisted today he had not claimed for two homes at the same time, but said he would be repaying some of the cash.

In a statement, he said: "The allegation I claimed for two houses at the same time is untrue.

"I became Chancellor in June 2007. In September I moved from my London flat to live in Downing Street. I made no further claims on that flat.

"In October 2007 the flat was let and the tenant moved in. The service charge was paid in advance in six-monthly intervals. When I reclaimed the cost of the service charge in July 1, I was living in the flat.

Al Jazeera English - Europe - Belarus shuns Moscow amid loan row

Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, has said the future of his country can no longer depend on Russia, a day after talks between the once close ex-Soviet allies ended in acrimony.

Lukashenko said the days of Minsk "bowing down" to Moscow were over, in an address to cabinet colleagues after Russia refused to hand over a final $500m instalment of a $2bn loan.

Lukashenko, said: "It's not working with Russia. There's no need to bow down, to whine and cry.

"We have to find our own happiness in another part of the planet."

Alexei Kudrin, Russia's foreign minister, on Thursday described Belarus' planned economy and stiff control of its currency as a "meaningless policy" and said the country was taking a "parasitic" attitude towards Russia.

South Ossetians Elect Parliament - NYTimes.com

MOSCOW -- Voters in the breakaway territory of South Ossetia on Sunday elected a Parliament loyal to the Moscow-backed president, Eduard Kokoity, consolidating his control in the region that precipitated the war last August between Russia and Georgia.

South Ossetia's new Parliament will be dominated by the Edinstvo, or Unity, Party, which won about 60 percent of the votes, based on an early count.

Critics complained that election officials had shut out Mr. Kokoity's rivals, who blame him for the slow pace of reconstruction in the separatist capital.

France 24 | French NGO aiding illegal immigrants wins court case | France 24

The French government suffered a setback on Saturday in a battle with Cimade, an NGO that offers legal advice to immigrants faced with deportation.

In France, foreigners held in detention centres have the right to legal advice and assistance as they face deportation to their home country. For the past 25 years, the Paris-based non-governmental organisation Cimade has been in charge of assisting foreigners in French detention centres.

Last month, the French government criticized what it called the "monopoly" of the group and established a contract with six associations, including Cimade, to provide advice.

But a French court ruled on Saturday in favour of the NGO after it contested the contracts.

Berlusconi promises cruise and beach holidays for earthquake victims - Telegraph

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, has promised "cruises and seaside holidays" for those made homeless in the Italian earthquake.

Mr Berlusconi, 72, made the pledge as he toured the makeshift campsites which are home to more than 40,000 people after homes were destroyed or damaged.

He said:"We are looking at arranging day trips to the seaside for those families in tents as well as Mediterranean cruises, especially for the children."

Media Cache - The Scoop That Changed Parliament, and News - NYTimes.com

PARIS -- British newspapers sometimes give away CDs or DVDs in the hope that readers enticed by free copies of "Batman 26" might cast a passing glance at the headlines, too.

One newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, has reversed that approach, to spectacular effect. Instead of giving away a disk, it acquired one (or more) of them containing the expense records of members of Parliament.

As The Telegraph splashes tales of taxpayer-financed duck islands and moat-cleaning across its front pages, there is talk of a political revolution along the Thames. Some of the conventional wisdom of the news business has gone belly up, too.

One of the most interesting aspects of the scandal is the revelation that old-fashioned scoops can still sell papers. Many publishers have assumed that in the Internet era, "exclusives" stay that way for about three seconds, so they are not worth pursuing. Instead, they have shifted the emphasis of their papers toward analysis or opinion.

France 24 | Missing Air France plane may have been hit by lightning, says airline | France 24

An Air France passenger jet bound from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, with 228 people on board - including 12 crew members and eight children - has gone missing over the Atlantic. A massive search operation is currently underway.

----

Brazilian air force launches search operation

The Brazilian Air Force has launched a search operation for the missing Flight AF 447.

Speaking to Reuters, a Brazilian Air Force spokesman said search planes had taken off from the island of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil's north-east coast to look for the missing plane. The Brazilian navy announced that it had sent three ships to help in the search operation.
 
From Senegal, Jean-Christophe Rufin, France's ambassador to Senegal, told a French TV station that aircraft had also set off from the West African nation to aid in the search.
 
France's airports authority has set up two crisis lines for the loved ones of people on board AF 447. The domestic line for calls from France is 0.800.800.812. The international line for calls outside France is + 33.1.57.02.10.55

Campaigners warn of threat to one of Spain's last pristine beaches
^{Change of heart by Spanish politicians raises fears of a rash of development}
By Giles Tremlett, The Guardian

It is the eyesore of one of Spain's last ­pristine Mediterranean coastlines, a 20-storey hotel built on supposedly protected parkland next to a virgin flower-fringed beach, despite local orders for construction to stop.

Politicians have long promised to bulldoze the Algarrobico hotel, but the 411-room glass and concrete structure still towers over the El Algarrobico beach in Almería, south-east Spain.

Now campaigners say the authorities have changed their tune and are opening the way to more building on this stretch of protected Mediterranean coast.

Campaigners warn that a recent decision to downgrade the degree of environmental protection enjoyed by this beach and other parts of the Cabo de Gata natural park threaten the future of Spain's last key stretch of protected Mediterranean coastline.

Why you must vote in the European elections - Times Online

There are just a few days to go until the European elections -- but who cares? Most of the polling cards coming through people's letter boxes will end up in the bin. More people will have voted in last night's Britain's Got Talent final than for any one of the political parties putting up candidates in Britain on Thursday.

Anyway, why should people vote? All we seem to have as candidates are the usual nonentities, many of whom are hoping to get rich by claiming a seat on the Brussels gravy train.

In Britain we have been scandalised by the avarice, dishonesty and greed of our MPs. But they are mere amateurs compared with those we have elected to the European parliament.

Every year MEPs get more than £400,000 in salary, pension benefits and expenses without having to do anything so boring as produce a single receipt. Moreover, MEPs have continually blocked attempts to publish how much they are claiming in expenses.

[Murdoch Alert]

One man, one vote - not in Europe - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - English

Dutchmen living abroad are allowed to cast just one vote in next week's European elections, even if they receive two voter cards, Deputy Interior Minister Ank Bijleveld reaffirmed to reporters. Her remarks come after many Dutch expats received two voter cards: one from their country of residence, and one from the Netherlands.

Ms Bijleveld emphasised that she favours a Europe-wide situation where citizens vote in the country where they live, whatever their nationality. But many other EU member states are of a different opinion and are holding on to the current system. As a result, Dutch expat voters who receive two calls have to choose: either cast a postal vote in the Netherlands, or vote at a polling station nearby.

"It's illegal to vote twice," Ms Bijleveld is reminding voters. There is a 3,700 euro fine on it.

European elections: Poland's controversial Law and Justice Party - Telegraph

A decision by David Cameron, the Conservative party leader, to join a new bloc in the European parliament means that it will find itself allied to a Polish party that critics have branded as homophobic, eccentric and nationalistic.

While sitting down with MEPs from Poland's Law and Justice party should put Conservatives in touch with like-minded Euro-sceptics, determined to stand up for national rights they also run the risk of associating with a party that is no stranger to controversy

Founded by identical twins Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski in 2001, Law and Justice, with its conservative moral stance and colourful policies, has divided Poland between those who feel it stands for traditional Polish values and those who consider it at odds with a modern Poland, thriving in the European Union.

Michael Moore:

Daily Kos: Goodbye, GM

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

SPIEGEL Interview with Chancellor Angela Merkel: 'No Script for the Crisis' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, 54, discusses government bailouts for companies, her achievements during her term in office and the legacy of the East German secret police, the Stasi.

Editor's note: The following interview was conducted with Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to the government's announcement Saturday that it had reached a deal to rescue the German automaker Opel.

SPIEGEL: Chancellor Merkel, you have shaped an astonishing career for yourself since you took office three-and-a-half years ago. In addition to being head of government, you are now Germany's chief executive, as your government intervenes in the economy to an unprecedented extent. Did you ever dream this would happen?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "The crisis is an extraordinary situation for which there is no script."

Angela Merkel: I have little interest in such word games. My daily work consists of coping with the worldwide financial crisis and doing everything possible to ensure that it doesn't happen again. In recent months, we have had to devote more of our attention to government bailout programs than anyone could ever have imagined. Nevertheless, it isn't anything new for the government to be issuing loan guarantees for businesses. For example, my election district is a center for shipbuilding. Loan guarantees have played an important role in this industry for decades.

Across Europe, Ripples From the Opel Deal - NYTimes.com

BERLIN -- The ink is hardly dry on the deal to salvage the German automaker Opel, but already the political recriminations are echoing across Europe.

In Berlin, the government was in turmoil Sunday after Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the conservative economics minister, broke ranks with Chancellor Angela Merkel by criticizing the deal to hand Opel, the European unit of General Motors, to a Russian bank and a Canadian-Austrian auto parts maker.

In Rome, it was Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government that was under fire, accused of having not sufficiently aided Fiat in its rival bid.

G.M. is expected to file for bankruptcy protection Monday in New York after bondholders accounting for more than $27.2 billion of the company's debt voted Saturday to exchange their debt for an ownership stake as high as 25 percent.

BBC: Geithner assures China investors

In a speech at Beijing University at the start of his two-day visit, Mr Geithner reassured his Chinese hosts that they need not worry about the estimated $770bn (£475bn) they have invested in US treasuries, a class of US government debt.

"Chinese financial assets are very safe," he said, drawing laughter from the audience.

NYT: In China, Geithner Backs Cooperation

Following Mr. Geithner's speech Monday, a student asked the Treasury secretary whether China's investments in the United States were safe.

He responded without hesitation. "Chinese financial assets are very safe," Mr. Geithner said, eliciting some laughter. He then quickly said that the United States still had deep and liquid financial markets, and that the administration of President Barack Obama was committed to tackling the deficit and maintaining a strong dollar.

China Pushes Hard

On his China visit, Secretary Geithner is immediately on the defensive.  The language he is using on the Chinese policy of exchange rate undervaluation-through-intervention is the mildest available.  And the commitment he is making, in terms of bringing down the US deficit - which we all favor - is an extraordinary thing to put numbers on in a foreign capital.  Such commitments are of course unenforceable, but still the wording indicates - and is understood by China - great US weakness.

Not surprisingly, China seems likely to push for more.  Their main idea is that some part of their US dollar holdings be transfered to a claim on the International Monetary Fund, which would shift it from being in dollars to being in Special Drawing Rights - and therefore a claim against (a) the IMF's whole membership, and (b) presumably, the IMF's gold reserves. (My bold)

This is a bad idea.

No one asked China to build up a huge level of reserves.  If one country wants to run a current account surplus that is big relative to the international economy, then someone else has to run a deficit - it's a zero sum game because "reserves" are a claim on another country (preferably a strong one, with a convertible currency).  No one has ever offered a guarantee on the real value of reserves, i.e., what China now wants.

People in Hell want ice water.  But we are about to see if the reserve banks of the other countries comprising the IMF are as easily duped as the average US citizen.  I have my doubts, but why should Giethner care if other peoples currencies are put at risk to guarantee the value of US financial instruments.  Gresham's Law would tend to indicate that the totality of the IMF holdings would quickly become US dollars or currencies equally weak, should the Chinese get their wish.


As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Paul Krugman Blog: Changing recessions (NYTimes.com)

What seems clear is that the nature of monetary policy leading up to recessions has changed dramatically. Pre-Great Moderation, recessions were preceded by tightening policy, presumably to control inflation; the combination of policy tightening and a high underlying inflation rate meant high rates going in, giving lots of room for policy loosening. Increasingly, however, recessions have been the result of bursting bubbles, with monetary policy getting looser even before the recession begins.

Lots of implications, which I'll draw out on later occasions.

(with charts)

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buitler

FT.com: The browning of America (Willem Buiter's Maverecon | May 30, 2009)

Since the crisis hit, it has been clear that the only pro-environment policies that have a chance, in the US and possibly elsewhere too, are those that involve increased public spending.  In this case environmental and Keynesian demand-boosting imperatives point in the same direction.  Examples are grants for home insulation, support for R&D and environmentally friendly infrastructure expenditure such as public transport improvements.  When environmental logic demands policy measures that increase costs to the private sector, however, the fact that such measures impose a financial burden on an already groaning private sector means that such measures will at best be watered down, at worst not implemented at all.

We have just seen two examples of this - the strange and deeply uninformed debate about a cap & trade scheme for CO2E emissions recently introduced in the House of Representatives, and the admission by the US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu that bringing US fuel taxes (especially taxes on gasoline/petrol) is politically out of the question for the time being.

...

What this discussion shows is how much superior a straightforward uniform tax on CO2E emissions would be to a cap & trade scheme.  It avoids the non-transparent initial allocation of the permits, and it does not require an efficient secondary market for permits trading.  Efficient financial markets have not exactly been prominent since August 2007.  Trusting the efficient allocation of permits to the same people and institutions that brought us the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 would not, in my view, be wise.  Taxing emissions makes exactly the same informational demands on the authorities as the cap & trade scheme - they must be able to monitor the actual volume of emissions.  Taxing emissions avoids the potential problems of speculative bubbles and market manipulation in the markets for permits.

The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buitler

Mysterious 'chip' is CIA's latest weapon against al-Qaida targets hiding in Pakistan's tribal belt | World news | The Guardian

* Tribesmen plant devices to guide drone attacks

* Locals shun fighters for fear of becoming targets

The CIA is equipping Pakistani tribesmen with secret electronic transmitters to help target and kill al-Qaida leaders in the north-western tribal belt, in a tactic that could aid Pakistan's army as it takes the battle against extremism to the Taliban heartland.

As the army mops up Taliban resistance in the Swat valley, where a defence official predicted fighting would be over within days, the focus is shifting to Waziristan and the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud.

Robert Fisk: The mysterious case of the Israeli spy ring, Hizbollah and the Lebanese ballot - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent

Spying is as familiar in Beirut as it was in post-war Vienna - there's even a giant "Third Man"-type ferris wheel here - but the events of the last few days are growing more mysterious by the hour. Over the past two weeks, a special unit of Lebanon's Internal Security Force (ISF) has been arresting a clutch of Lebanese allegedly working as spies for Israel.

There are least 21 men and one woman under interrogation and the ISF has been regaling us all with the highly sophisticated Israeli communications equipment found hidden at their homes.

Those detained include a local journalist in the Bekaa Valley and a senior officer in the Lebanese army, a man who was wounded by Islamist gunmen at the battle of Nahr el-Bared in 2007. They've even picked up a retired general and his wife. Colonel Maurice Diab is a much respected soldier, although military officers say that questions were first raised some time ago when he was sent for training to the United States on a government grant but in a photograph taken on the course could be seen standing next to uniformed Israeli officers. He lives in the north Beirut coastal suburb of Antelias, although other arrests are spread across eastern Lebanon and the border village of Rmeish.

Cyberwar - Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for the United States - Series - NYTimes.com

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- The government's urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts.

The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is enabling the companies to attract top young talent that once would have gone to Silicon Valley. And the race to develop weapons that defend against, or initiate, computer attacks has given rise to thousands of "hacker soldiers" within the Pentagon who can blend the new capabilities into the nation's war planning.
Nearly all of the largest military companies -- including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon -- have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.
The companies have been moving quickly to lock up the relatively small number of experts with the training and creativity to block the attacks and design countermeasures. They have been buying smaller firms, financing academic research and running advertisements for "cyberninjas" at a time when other industries are shedding workers.

Are religious sects/cults invading the United Nations? | The Smirking Chimp

A French government agency called MIVILUDES (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaries -- Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviancy) recently issued a 199-page report charging religious cults with having a growing influence in international bodies such as the United Nations.

According to a report at Digital Journal, "A sect is defined here as being any religious organization which can be characterized as employing any of the following methods; Mental destabilization, exorbitant financial demands, a rupture with members' original environment, power in the hands of one person, the invasion of a person's physical integrity, the recruitment of children, antisocial preaching and troubling public order, activities which lead it to be tried in a court of law, using parallel economic structures, attempts to infiltrate the workplace, schools, and public powers."

Among the 50 or so religious groups that MIVILUDES tracks in its report (La justice face aux derives sectaries -- Justice with Regard to Sect or Cult abuse) are: Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, Mormons, The Universal Church, Raelians, and The Unification Church (the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.).

Israeli diplomats told to take offensive in PR war against Iran - Haaretz - Israel News

Organizing demonstrations in front of Iranian consulates worldwide, staging mock stonings and hangings in public, and launching a massive media campaign against Iran - these are just some of the steps Israeli diplomats have been told to take in the coming weeks. The goal, according to a senior Foreign Ministry official, is "to show the world that Iran is not a Western democracy" in the run-up to the country's presidential election on June 12.

About a week ago, the head of the ministry's Task Force on Isolating Iran sent a classified telegram to all Israeli embassies and consulates, titled "Activities in the Run-up to Iran's Presidential Election." It detailed things Israeli representatives should do before, during and after the election.

relatives in Cuba!

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the United States on migration and direct mail, a US official said here Sunday, as a US-Cuban thaw gathers pace under President Barack Obama's administration. Cuba has a longstanding interest in seeing migration dialogue progress.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

We were talking about location blogging taking over from foreign correspondent journalism:

Daily Kos: Report II from Kabul: There is no Taliban, more pics

It's an extraordinary statement, but people here believe it's true.  That's not to say men aren't fighting for the Taliban, they are.  But it's not because they are Taliban.

An illustration is best.  Take Dani, not his real name, a man of about 40, with a wide smile and an engaging manner full of warmth and kindness.  Before the Taliban, he was with the Mujihadeen, as a young commander fighting against the Soviets.  When the Taliban came in, he was a top Taliban commander.  Now that the the Taliban has fallen, he is with the Afghan National Army.  Afghan Army pay is $150 per month, or about $7 a day.  Where the job is, that's where he'll go.  He doesn't care much about politics.  But he's the only breadwinner for his family in a place where family, extended family, is everything.  Your cousin is like your brother.  If he dies, you can no longer watch his children starve than you can your own.

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Ranchers driving wind revolution

Texan cattle rancher Mike Baca seems an unlikely evangelist for the American green revolution.

When he voices a visceral dislike of the "Washington liberals" there seems to be little hint of the environmentalist beneath the cowboy hat and saucer-sized belt-buckle.

But Mike is proof that renewable energy now unites the partisan debate on climate change.

Many Republicans sceptical of climate science support a major expansion of renewables to ease their nation's dependence on foreign oil.

Bird uses body as dam to stop drainpipe soaking chicks - Telegraph

A bird used her body as a dam to stop overflowing drainpipe water from soaking her chicks.

The Mistle Thrush had built her nest on top of a downpipe, blocking the water's passage and causing the gutter to flood.

But desperate to protect her young, she puffed herself up to twice her size and sat in the drainpipe to stop the tide of rain water swamping the nest.

GreenEnergyTV - Wind Turbine - Rooftop

Wind Turbine - Rooftop

Press Association: Bumblebee extinct in Britain to be reintroduced from New Zealand
^{Short-haired bumblebee first transported on lamb boats makes return trip to Britain to stem decline in species vital for pollination}

A bumblebee which died out in the UK, but survived in New Zealand after being shipped there more than 100 years ago, is to be reintroduced here under plans announced today.

Small populations of the short-haired bumblebee were established on the South Island of New Zealand after being transported there on the first refrigerated lamb boats in the late 19th century to pollinate crops of red clover.

The bees will not suffer from jet lag as they will be in hibernation when they are transported on planes in cool boxes, according to Natural England.The short-haired bumblebee became extinct in this country in 2000, but the populations on the other side of the world have clung on -- although conservationists say they are unprotected and under threat...

Poul Christensen, Natural England's acting chairman, said: "Bumblebees are suffering unprecedented international declines and drastic action is required to aid their recovery.

"Bumblebees play a key role in maintaining food supplies -- we rely on their ability to pollinate crops and we have to do all we can to provide suitable habitat and to sustain the diversity of bee species.

Amazon rainforests pay the price as demand for beef soars
^{Inquiry highlights concerns over ranching in heartland of Brazil}
By David Adam, guardian.co.uk

...

Espirito Santo and thousands of farms like it raise cattle on Amazonian pasture that was once rainforest. The farms are huge, and so is their impact. The cattle business is expanding rapidly in the Amazon, and now poses the biggest threat to the 80% of the original forest that still stands. Where loggers have made inroads to the edge of the forest in the states of Para and Mato Grosso, farmers have followed.

A report today from Greenpeace details a three-year investigation into these cattle farms and the global trade in their products, many of which end up on sale in Britain and Europe. Meat from the cattle is canned, packaged and processed into convenience foods. Hides become leather for shoes and trainers. Fat stripped from the carcasses is rendered and used to make toothpaste, face creams and soap. Gelatin squeezed from bones, intestines and ligaments thickens yoghurt and makes chewy sweets.

Greenpeace says it has lifted the lid on this trade to expose the "laundering" of cattle raised on illegally deforested land.

Blondes march in Latvia 'to cheer-up nation' - Telegraph

Several hundred blonde women marched through the Latvian capital Riga yesterday in a bid to cheer up the crisis-hit Baltic nation, suffering the worst recession of all 27 EU member states.

Led by an orchestra, the first-ever blonde parade featured women dressed in pink and white, some accompanied by lapdogs, in a charity fund-raising event that organisers hope will become an annual event.

"I'm not stupid. I'm beautiful and I'll prove it," Ilona Zigure, a participant, said.

Photographic Treasure Trove: What East Germany Was Really Like - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

They wanted to clean up the basement but found a treasure trove of photos instead. After Berlin teacher Manfred Beier died, his sons stumbled across 60,000 pictures. Their father, it turns out, created one of the best documentations of life in East Germany, and the first days of the West.

It's amazing how little you can know about your own father: After the death of Berlin resident Manfred Beier in 2002, his sons Wolf and Nils began to sort out their inheritance and came across a treasure. They found dozens of wooden boxes stacked on shelves as well as numerous chests of drawers -- similar to pharmacist cabinets and apparently custom-made. The drawers contained removable inserts, each of which had staggered rows of small drilled holes about three centimeters in diameter. Each of these holes held a roll of miniature film.

800 Britons on waiting list for Swiss suicide clinic | Society | The Observer

Record numbers of Britons who are suffering from terminal illnesses are queueing up for assisted suicide at the controversial Swiss clinic Dignitas, the Observer can reveal.

Almost 800 have taken the first step to taking their lives by becoming members of Dignitas, and 34 men and women, who feel their suffering has become unbearable, are ready to travel to Zurich and take a lethal drug overdose.

The tenfold increase in the number of Britons who have joined Dignitas since 2002 will raise questions about the law that bans assisted suicide in Britain.

Cheap and cheerful culture | Presseurop

Ideas Czech Republic Cheap and cheerful culture Published on May 29 2009  |   România libera

On the set of "Empties" ( Vratné lahve ) a film by Jan Svěrák. Czech Republic, 2007. Print Send React Taille police +   |  Taille police -   

The Czech Republic has one of Europe's lowest culture budgets. Despite this, a new generation of artists that has risen to prominence since the collapse of Communism means that Czech culture continues to be influential at a global level.

When the Czech Republic took over the EU presidency at the beginning of the year, the country's impressive cultural scene, past and present, was vaunted as a major asset - and rightly so. But in the eyes of Czech artists, the reality isn't all that rosy. Not only did the arts go virtually unmentioned in the official speeches given by then-Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's cabinet members, but as several of the nation's cultural luminaries pointed out, the Czech Republic ranks among the EU countries that spend the least on the arts. Its culture budget, less than 1% of GDP, is below the European average. The Czech Republic has no legislation in place concerning the arts, moreover, and unlike other countries such as France in particular, awards no tax breaks for donations by individuals or private-sector institutions.

Back in the days of Communism, the Czechoslovakian cultural model was the one in which artists had the best chances of surviving censorship. Milan Kundera, one of the most engaging and influential European writers of the past few decades, originally hails from Czechoslovakia. Even among those who stayed put, a number of writers and essayists attained renown, like Vaclav Havel, Ludvík Vaculík and Bohumil Hrabal. Much to Westerners' surprise, though, Milan Kundera is not terribly popular in his native land; and the playwright (and ex-president) Vaclav Havel is not widely read - or performed - any more either.

Abroad - In Quiet Switzerland, Politically Outspoken Rapper Takes On the Far Right - NYTimes.com

ZURICH -- A version of the culture wars, albeit a Swiss version, has been unfolding here beyond the boxes of geraniums and shops hawking $10,000 watches.

Switzerland's leading rapper, Stress, has come out with a new album, "Kings, Pawns and Bishops." After provoking a minor scandal a few years ago with a song whose title had an expletive before the name of Christoph Blocher, the leader of the ultranationalist Swiss People's Party, the country's most popular party, Stress dishes out some more of the same this time.

In person a cordial 30-year-old immigrant from Estonia (born Andres Andrekson), Stress was raised by his mother in Lausanne and is married to a former Miss Switzerland. After college, he worked at Procter & Gamble on the Swiss Mr. Clean account. His last album went double platinum here, which for a nation of 7.6 million, culturally split among German, French and Italian speakers, meant sales topped 85,000.

Carla's ex-lover joins president's kitchen cabinet - Times Online

A FORMER lover of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, France's first lady, has joined an informal "kitchen cabinet" of left-wing advisers around Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.

Raphaël Enthoven, a philosophy professor and father of Aurélien, Bruni's seven-year-old son, has become a regular visitor to the Elysée Palace and likes setting the world to rights in intimate gatherings with "Sarko" around the dinner table.

Sources close to the presidential couple say that Bruni, 41, talks almost daily on the telephone to Enthoven, 34, whom she met and fell in love with while dating Jean-Paul, his father.

Enthoven, who now lives with Chloé Lambert, the actress with whom he had a son last year, is one of several left-leaning intellectuals and friends of Carla to have fallen under the spell of a president once dismissed by the left as a dangerous rightwinger.

[Murdoch Alert]

Italy PM did not have sex with girl says ex-boyfriend | World | Reuters

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did not have sex with a teenage girl at the centre of a scandal that has wrecked the conservative leader's marriage, the girl's ex-boyfriend said. In a letter to Italy's best-selling Corriere della Sera newspaper, Luigi Flaminio apologised for having talked publicly about Berlusconi's relationship with aspiring model Noemi Letizia.

"I only told the truth," Flaminio said in the handwritten letter printed by Corriere on Sunday.

"Now they are insinuating that he (Berlusconi) had sexual relations, something which I rule out a priori and is impossible knowing Noemi and her values."

Guardian: Susan Boyle admitted to Priory after losing Britain's Got Talent final

The amateur singer Susan Boyle was last night admitted to the Priory clinic following her surprise defeat in the final of Britain's Got Talent.

Boyle, who became a YouTube sensation after her first appearance on the ITV talent show, was taken to the Priory after staff from the show contacted police to say she was acting strangely at her London hotel, the Sun reported.

Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan said today that Boyle was "emotionally drained and exhausted" after being put under more pressure than any other contestant in the show.

"Nobody has had to put up with the kind of attention Susan has had," he told GMTV. "Nobody could have predicted it.

"It has been crazy, she has gone from anonymity to being the most downloaded woman in history."

However, Morgan insisted that she was "essentially fine".

BBC sources are saying the Home Secretary Jaqui Smith will step down from the cabinet in the next couple of weeks in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.