Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's tax cuts are being criticized by her political rivals as unrealistic. Germany's political parties are trying to win voters' favor ahead of national elections in September. 

In the election program that Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) presented in Berlin on Monday, one particular issue has caused heated discussion: tax cuts. 

Merkel's current coalition partners, the Social Democrats SPD, have sharply criticized the program. The SPD's secretary general Hubertus Heil said the agenda "was not credible."

He warned that "Merkel is either trying to pull the wool over the voter's eyes, or there really is no sound concept behind the whole thing."

He said that the CDU's election program did not contain ideas on how to shape the country's future. With the country's budget set for a record deficit, any promise to lower taxes was simply "unrealistic."

While the central election commission in Albania has not made any announcements, exit polls conducted by three firms appear to indicate a win for Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democratic Party. 

Hours after the polls closed, there is still no official announcement from election officials, but independent exit polls by US based Zogby, Italy's IPR Marketing and Kosovo based Gani Bobi all seemed to indicate that Prime Minister Sali Berisha was headed for another term.

 

The projections from the three polls only differed slightly on the margin of Berisha's win.

 

"I can't say that these elections were perfect, because no election process is perfect, but these elections were far better than any before." said Berisha once voting had concluded.

 

Though the campaign had been marred by violence, including two deaths, the day passed without any of the problems that many had feared.

 

Some voters also complained of pressure to sway their votes. Additionally, more than 200,000 of the 3 million voters had problems casting ballots because they did not have new identity cards.

International lenders have met in Brussels in an attempt to come up with a rescue plan to help Ukraine to pay its upcoming gas bill, avoiding a gas cut off such as the one that left millions in the cold last winter. 

Representatives from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are meeting in Brussels with the vice presidents of Russian gas giant Gazprom and Ukraine's gas monopoly Naftogaz to discuss how to best come up with enough money for Ukraine to pay its upcoming gas bill.

The talks, hosted by the European Commission, are taking place less than a week before Kiev will be expected to hand over three billion euros ($4.2 billion) to Russia for gas that it has started to store for the coming winter.

A dispute over payment earlier this year led to Russia shutting off gas supplies to Ukraine, which affected not only citizens there, but also those living in parts of the European Union which depend on gas coming from pipelines running through Ukraine.

France's far-right National Front party, led by the controversial Jean-Marie le Pen and seconded by his daughter Marine (pictured), took 39% of the town council vote Sunday in the town of Henin-Beaumont.

AFP - France's far-right National Front party was Monday in pole position to take its first town council in more than a decade after winning the first round of voting in Henin-Beaumont.
  
Jean-Marie Le Pen's party list took 39 percent of the vote Sunday in the northern town, far ahead of a left-wing list on 20 percent. The second round of the by-election takes place next Sunday.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Searching for a phone charger that works with your phone will soon be a thing of the past, as the world's ten major mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to produce a harmonised charger for users across Europe, with the first such chargers expected to be introduced on the EU market next year.

A universal charger should be introduced on the EU market next year

"Major producers of mobile phones have agreed to harmonise chargers in the EU," the European Commission announced on Monday (29 June).

The companies in question - which include Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson - represent 90 percent of Europe's mobile phone market.

The phone manufacturers submitted a memorandum of understanding to the commission after Brussels had called on them to come forward with a voluntary proposal in order to avoid legislation.

The agreement is not legally binding, however.

Even as Silvio Berlusconi prepared yesterday to relaunch himself as a world statesman before the G8 summit, Italian prosecutors were suggesting that the Prime Minister could be questioned in a drugs and prostitution inquiry.

Mr Berlusconi will try to put two months of scandals behind him with a press conference today on a cruise ship off Naples to outline his agenda for the summit on July 8-10.

On Wednesday he is due to travel to Libya to meet Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who made a controversial trip to Rome less than three weeks ago to seal accords on trade and illegal immigration.

However, prosecutors in Bari, in southern Italy, were reported as saying that he could be summoned as a witness as their inquiry continued into Giampaolo Tarantini, a local businessman at the centre of a scandal involving women sent to parties hosted by the Prime Minister.

The party of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared that its countrymen expelled by Poland after the Second World War have a `right to a homeland' and said the deportations should be condemned under international law.

Wartime animosity between Poland and Germany could resurface after a new election manifesto published by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) pledged to promote the cause of those expelled.

In 1945 millions of ethnic Germans were forced from their homes after a redrawing of the border resulted in their lands becoming part of Poland.

Two rail wagons filled with gas exploded at the station in the Tuscan seaside city of Viareggio, killing 13 people and wounding dozens, local officials say.

AFP - Two rail tankers filled with gas exploded in a fireball after a derailment in the northern Italian city of Viareggio, engulfing nearby homes and killing at least 13 people, firefighters said Tuesday.
  
Fifty people were also injured in the accident, 35 of them described as serious or critical, many with burns to much of their bodies, according to the firefighters' coordination centre in Rome.
  
The explosion happened just before midnight when one wagon in a 14-wagon train transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) came off the rails in the coastal city of 50,000 residents 20 kilometres (12 miles) northwest of Pisa.
  

The Pirate Bay also confirmed the buyout this morning in a blog post on its website.

"We've been working on this project for many years. It's time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody. We need that, or the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen!", it said.

The co-founders of The Pirate Bay were fined $3.6m in the recent court case. Meaning, on the face of it, they stand to make a profit. Not that they were ever in it for the money.

Germany's highest court ruled today that the Lisbon Treaty was compatible with German law, but demanded changes to domestic legislation before the treaty can be formally ratified.

The decision by the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe removes a hurdle for the treaty, which aims to give the bloc stronger leadership, a more effective foreign policy and a fairer decision-making system.

"To sum up, the Basic Law says 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty but demands a strengthening of parliamentary responsibilities at the national level," presiding judge Andreas Vosskuhle said. The German legal challenge came from more than 50 deputies in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, among them members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc and the far-left "Linke", or Left party.

Italian ministers approved a new stimulus package on Friday (26 June) - reported to be in the region of €4.5 billion - as the government attempts to stave off a further slide in economic activity this year.

Measures under the new plan - whose total size has yet to be finalised - include tax incentives for businesses that re-invest profits in new machinery and refrain from cutting workers.

The size of Italian stimulus plans has been constrained by high public debt levels and rising budget deficits

The government also intends to reduce costs for gas utilities in order that savings can be passed onto consumers.

The new stimulus comes as forecasters predict the Italian economy will contract by a greater margin than initially anticipated this year.

Earlier this month, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development cut its growth forecast for Italy for 2009 to a contraction of 5.3 percent, a significant deterioration from a March forecast of a 4.3 percent contraction.

MOSCOW -- One of the largest mass layoffs in recent Russian history is to occur on Wednesday, and the Kremlin itself is decreeing it, economic crisis or not.

The government is shutting down every last legal casino and slot-machine parlor across the land, under an antivice plan promoted by Vladimir V. Putin that just a few months ago was widely perceived as far-fetched. But the result will be hundreds of thousands of people thrown out of work.

And in a move that at times seems to have taken on almost farcical overtones, the Kremlin has offered the gambling industry only one option for survival: relocate to four regions in remote areas of Russia, as many as 4,000 miles from the capital. The potential marketing slogans -- Come to the Las Vegas of Siberia! Have a Ball near the North Korean Border! -- may not sound inviting, but that is in part what the government envisions.

All the same, none of the four regions are prepared for the transfer, and no casino is expected to reopen for several years. As of July 1, not even two decades after casinos began proliferating here in the free-for-all post-Soviet era, the industry's workers will be out on the street.

TOKYO -- A group of young people recently gathered in a darkened park here. Holding placards and megaphones, they chanted slogans condemning the Japanese government and a lack of jobs and opportunity.

The scene, which is repeated often in the gritty Tokyo neighborhood of Koenji, is nothing close to the protests that have recently shaken Iran. Indeed, the protests would hardly raise an eyebrow in most parts of the world, but in this country, which values conformity, they represent a stark departure from the norm. Since the 1960s, when youth protests turned violent, even the mildest form of protests by young people has been viewed as taboo.

But the pain of recession is changing that, giving rise to a new activism among Japan's youth, who have long been considered apathetic.

"I'm here because I want to change society," one leader, Yoshihiro Sato, 28, recently shouted to a crowd of about 50. "Will you join me?"

Unlike the '60s generation, which agitated to change the bourgeois basis of Japanese society, Mr. Sato and other young people are today fighting to join it. They are demanding greater professional opportunities, more job security and a stronger social safety net. After so many decades without a grass-roots movement, protests are so rare here that many who wish to take part require basic training.

The Tokyo-based Pacific Asia Research Center, an institute that typically runs seminars on social issues like poverty, organized the recent march. After a surge of interest from young people who said they wanted to get more involved in social issues but did not know how, the center started offering what it says is Japan's first activist training program. The sessions include poster-making and campaigning on the Web.

The UK economy contracted 2.4% in the first quarter of 2009, its biggest decline in more than 50 years, according to the latest official data.

The decline was more severe that the earlier estimate of a 1.9% fall, and worse than analyst expectations.

Um, economists have known for 45 years -- ever since Kenneth Arrow's seminal paper -- that the standard competitive market model just doesn't work for health care: adverse selection and moral hazard are so central to the enterprise that nobody, nobody expects free-market principles to be enough. To act all wide-eyed and innocent about these problems at this late date is either remarkably ignorant or simply disingenuous.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Shots were fired near the presidential palace in Honduras where protests erupted after the army ousted and exiled leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War.

Hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters, some masked and wielding sticks, set up barricades of chain link fences and downed billboards in the center of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and blocked roads to the presidential palace.

Reuters witnesses heard shots outside the presidential palace that apparently came after a truck arrived at the protest, and an ambulance also appeared. It was not clear who fired the shots. One witness said shots were fired only in the air and there were no initial reports of injuries.

In neighboring Nicaragua, leftist leaders from the region led by Zelaya's ally Venezuelan Hugo Chavez gathered in the capital Managua for late night talks on the crisis.

Result leaves government of Argentinian president Cristina Fernández facing legislative paralysis

Argentina's first couple have suffered a stunning setback in an election seen as a referendum on their political dynasty, losing control of both houses of Congress.

The loss will considerably weaken the government of President Cristina Fernández by diminishing her ability to push legislation through Congress and damaging the reputation of her Peronist party as it seeks direction ahead of 2011's presidential race. She has two years left in office.

Fernández's husband, former President Néstor Kirchner, lost a bid for a seat in Buenos Aires province. He conceded defeat early today after trailing Francisco De Narváez 32.2% to 34.5% with 91% of the ballots counted.

Iran's Guardian Council has confirmed the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country's president, following a partial recount of votes from the country's disputed election of June 12. 

State television said that Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the council's secretary, had presented Sadegh Mahsouli, the minister of the interior, with a letter saying it had approved the election after a recount of 10 per cent of the ballots.

"The secretary of the Guardian Council in a letter to the interior minister announced the final decision of the Council ... and declares the approval of the accuracy of the results of ... the presidential election," IRIB, the Iranian broadcaster, said.

Mehdi Karoubi, a defeated reformist candidate, called for an annulment of the poll, saying it was "the only way to regain people's trust".

NATO and Russia resume ties after war in Georgia | World | Deutsche Welle | 28.06.2009

... after having read this:

NATO's War Plans For The High North

Since the beginning of the year the United States and NATO have repeatedly indicated in both word and deed their intention to lay claim to and extend their military presence in what they refer to as the High North: The Arctic Circle and the waters connecting with it, the Barents and the Norwegian Seas, as well as the Baltic.

Washington issued National Security Presidential Directive 66 on January 12, 2009 which includes the bellicose claim that "The United States has broad and fundamental national security interests in the Arctic region [which] include such matters as missile defense and early warning; deployment of sea and air systems for strategic sealift, strategic deterrence, maritime presence, and maritime security operations." [1] Later in the same month the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] held a two-day Seminar on Security Prospects in the High North in the capital of Iceland attended by the bloc's secretary general and its top military commanders.

Long but informative article, worth reading in full.

Norway, Sweden, Finland [the latter two likely soon to integrate Nato], with major, recent Nato war exercises in Northern Scandinavia, the Baltic Sea and the Barents ...

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer claims that "Russia needs NATO and NATO needs Russia". Sounds to me as though Russia needs Nato like it needs a hole in its head.
.

Sarkozy then advised Netanyahu to fire Lieberman and bring former foreign minister Tzipi Livni back into the coalition, according to the report. Netanyahu reportedly told Sarkozy that Lieberman came across differently in private than his public appearances would suggest.

French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen also comes across as a nice person in private, Sarkozy reportedly responded, to which Netanyahu replied that Lieberman was not Le Pen and that there was no basis for comparison. Sarkozy then responded that he did not intend to compare.

The Spanish film star Antonio Banderas and his wife Melanie Griffith have been ordered by planning chiefs to hand over part of their beachfront property on the Costa del Sol as part of a draconian campaign against 'illegally' built properties.

According to reports in Spain, the 48-year-old actor and his American wife, the Hollywood star Melanie Griffith, 51, have been told part of the gardens at their £5 million mansion near Marbella is to be made public land.

Over 14,000 square feet of land belonging to the couple will be seized to allow public access to the beach. The confiscated strip lies adjacent to the 40 ft swimming pool at the villa, named La Gaviota, which the Hollywood pair have used as their summer home for more than a decade.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Portugal announced a plan Monday to install about 1,300 recharging sites for electric vehicles over the next two years, part of an effort to create a mass market for environmentally friendly electric cars expected to go on sale next year.

The center-left Socialist government is aiming to reduce energy imports and emissions.

Having no oil or coal, Portugal has long imported most of its energy. However, in recent years it has become a European pioneer in the development of clean energy. The government claims renewable sources can already meet 43 percent of the country's electricity needs.

The first phase of deployment will include recharging sites in 21 cities and rural districts chosen for their high population density and traffic volume, the Economy and Innovation Ministry said in a statement.

The German city of Bonn lost out to Abu Dhabi in a bid to host the International Renewable Energy Agency. But the former German capital was given a consolation prize: an innovation and technology center. 

The capital of the United Arab Emirates beat Bonn and Vienna when representatives from 129 countries met in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday to decide where the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) would be based.

 

Despite hoping the agency would have its headquarters in the former German capital, Germany's Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel welcomed what he called a "fair and appropriate compromise."

 

Members of the agency decided to place an innovation and technology center in Bonn, the Austrian city of Vienna will be home to an office dedicated to liaising with the United Nations and other international institutions.

Former pro basketball player Will Allen, who is considered to be one of the nation's leading urban farmers and founder of Growing Power Inc., estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of urban gardens in inner cities across America.  Urban farms help feed people, sustain neighorhoods »

"It's beyond a movement at this point. Its more like a revolution," says Allen.

Both Allen and Myers agree that the boom in urban farming for African-Americans is born out of necessity and not just echoing traditions.

"Minority people are affected by poor food, more than any other groups," and many inner cities lack access to quality fruits and vegetables, Allen says. "Our food system is broken."

"When you're poor, when you don't have access to resources, you have to create your own," says Myers. "So this is a way for people of African descent to use their creativity to grow their own food."

Heartwarming...

You can't be me, I'm taken

Women in the EU enjoy cheaper car insurance than men. Apparently because they take less risks. So what are we supposed to make of clichés about how women drive? Café Babel trawls expressions ranging from the Urals all the way to Spain.

German women make better drivers (Frauen fahren besser). Is there any other country, after all, which has special Frauenparkplätze (parking places for women)? For security reasons they are close to underground car park exits, which has become a sort of national in-joke. In Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland, women supposedly drive slower than men - there is less traffic on the day that God made Sunday drivers (Söndagsbilist, Søndagsbilist, Sonntagsfahrer, niedzielny kierowca).

Sunday is an opportunity to "drive like a granny" (jeździć jak baba) in Poland. Whilst for Germans a woman at the wheel is an ogre (Frau am Steuer - ungeheuer!), Spain and Italy see danger : Mujer al volante, peligro constant and donne al volante, pericolo costante (Woman driving, peril thriving). For the French it's fatal - femmes aux volants, morts au tournant (women steering, death appearing).

Not Iran this time!

I've been in Senegal the last couple of weeks. And, you know? Senegal is (1) 90% Muslim, and (2) a vibrant democracy.

The opposition won the last couple of elections. The press is free -- sometimes obnoxiously so. Human rights violations are relatively rare. (Nonexistent, really, by African standards.) Senegal has never had a military dictatorship, a civil war, or a coup. Okay, the first couple of Presidents ruled for twenty years each, but they seem to be past that -- the current President won a free and fair election. He's also term limited, and everyone is already looking forward to a gloriously democratic free-for-all in a couple of years when he steps down.

I don't want to overstate here. Senegal has all the usual African problems. It's desperately poor. About a third of the population is still illiterate. There's spectacular corruption. The President is clearly grooming his son for the succession; this involves putting Junior in the path of some rather large business opportunities. And while Senegal is a democracy, I might hesitate to call it a fully functional liberal democracy. Media that criticize the President too sharply may get hassled or shut down, government money is poured out like water to win elections, and many Ministers and members of Parliament are pretty openly for sale.

Bernard Madoff has been given the maximum prison sentence of 150 years for masterminding a massive fraud that robbed investors of $65bn (£40bn).

The sentence, which means Madoff will spend the rest of his life in jail, was greeted with cheers and applause in the packed courtroom.

US District Judge Denny Chin said he wanted to send a message that Madoff's crimes were "extraordinarily evil".

Madoff's lawyer had sought a more lenient sentence of 12 years.

Judge Chin gave Madoff the maximum sentence on all 11 charges, which included securities fraud and money laundering.

A £1bn cost over-run is threatening the future of the publicly-funded project to build Britain's biggest aircraft carriers, the BBC has learnt.

A memorandum from the lead contractors seen by the BBC suggests there will "be a fight for the programme's survival".

The memo also discusses ways to cut costs, including the possibility of 400 to 500 redundancies.

The Ministry of Defence said it was currently re-costing the programme and accounts would be published in July.

Now, in an unexpected move, Obama has told White House aides that instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.

A home away from home, what the priesthole is to the priory, during times of religious turmoil: secluded.

Obama was reportedly taken aback by the circus stirred up by his visit to 19th Street Baptist in January. Lines started forming three hours before the morning service, and many longtime members were literally left out in the cold as the church filled with outsiders eager to see the new President.....

The First Family won't have that problem at Camp David, where the 150-seat Evergreen Chapel attracts a congregation of between 50 and 70 people most Sundays. The rustic stone-and-glass octagonal structure was built nearly two decades ago through private funds; President George H.W. Bush dedicated it in 1991....

Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the President of the United States and his guests.

Each week, regardless of whether the President is on-site, Evergreen Chapel holds nondenominational Christian services open to the nearly 400 military personnel and staff at Camp David, as well as their families. A music director from nearby Hood College coordinates adult and children's choirs (Clinton sang occasionally with the choir when he visited). In December, the kids in the congregation put on a Christmas pageant and the chapel holds a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. The Bush family enjoyed Christmas at Evergreen Chapel so much that they celebrated the holiday there for all eight years of Bush's Administration.

Camp David's current chaplain, Lieut. Carey Cash, leads the services at Evergreen. If the White House had custom-ordered a pastor to be the polar opposite of Jeremiah Wright, they could not have come as close as Cash.

oops.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

I am a Viking in going out to war
And I've got death upon my mind
As I was leavin' oh yesterday
I've got no fear in my heart

alright, I know the Immigrant Song ain't exactly Dylanesque, but it does have a tune.

keep to the Fen Causeway