Central Europe's leaders ask Barack Obama to take strong line with Russia - Telegraph

A group of Central and Eastern Europe's most influential political figures have written an open letter to US President Barack Obama warning him of 'Russia's increasing intimidation' in their region and calling for the US to take a strong line.

The letter, signed by 22 former leaders, including Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel, expressed deep concern over what it alleged as America's declining interest in a part of the world exhibiting "growing signs of nervousness" owing to Russian foreign policy.

"Russia uses overt and covert means of economic warfare, ranging from energy blockades and politically motivated investments to bribery and media manipulation in order to advance its interests and to challenge the trans-Atlantic orientation of Central and Eastern Europe," the letter claimed.

Iceland's parliament approves EU membership bid | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 16.07.2009

After a lengthy debate parliamentarians in Iceland have paved the way for accession talks with the European Union. Iceland's government plans to launch its EU membership bid in Brussels before the end of this month.  

The Icelandic parliament, the Althingi, gave the green light for the government to bid for membership in the European Union, with 33 of the nation's 63 parliamentarians voting in favor of the proposal. 

A total of 32 votes were required to pass the proposal, but opposition to the move was limited to 28 lawmakers, while another two abstained.

Thursday's narrow victory came as a relief to crisis-stricken Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, who hopes to stabilize Iceland's economy by joining the 27-member bloc.

In the end, however, it will be the citizens of Iceland who will have the final word on whether the government pursues membership. If and when Iceland completes successful accession negotiations with the European Union, the question will then be put to the people in a referendum.

EUobserver / New committee chairs set to create bruising encounters

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - The election of two sectoral champions to the European parliament's industry and environment committees on Thursday (16 July) has set the stage for five years or bruising encounters between the two bodies.

Controversial German MEP Herbert Reul from the centre-right European Peoples Party was elected chairman of the powerful industry, research and energy committee while former environmentalist Jo Leinen, an MEP from the Socialists and Democrats group, takes over the helm of the legislature's environment committee.

Over half of the committee chairpersons were decided on Thursday, with the rest to follow on Monday

Before the vote, a number of industry committee members expressed concern that the proposed chairman held overly close links with the business world, with the Liberal delegation saying "transparency must be the watchword."

In previous parliament negotiations on the car emissions law and on opening up the energy market in the EU, Mr Reul was accused of handing in amendments that came directly from industry.

France 24 | France to spend 1 billion Euros on A H1N1 vaccine | France 24

France's health minister Roselyne Bachelot has anounced that the Government will spend one billion euros on ninety-four million doses of the vaccine to combat the influenza A H1N1 virus.

The H1N1 virus has caused the deaths of more than 400 people worldwide and the number of cases is nearing one hundred thousand.

In France, the government has announced a mass programme of vaccinations - 94 million doses of the vaccine to the tune of one billion euros. It also has an option on 44 million doses more.

France's Health Minister, Roselyne Bachelot, says it is money well spent: "You've got to look at the loss to the economy in terms of time off work and sick leave. There are statistics showing that a flu epidemic could cost billions in lost earnnig.
Investing in health is always a good investment."

Opinion: Europe Has No Exit Strategy in the Balkans - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The Balkan states of Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina are artificial constructs that are dependent on international organizations to function. Unlike in Iraq, there is no end in sight for this foreign rule and Europe seems to have little in the way of an exit strategy.

There is probably no one who knows his way around the Balkans , that unloved stepchild of Europe, better than Valentin Inzko. He has family roots in Slovenia, and he speaks Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Czech. Even for an Austrian career diplomat, this is unusual. Inzko, 60, is a walking encyclopedia on the history and contemporary affairs of these countries, all of which are now clamoring to be accepted into the European Union.

 Spanish soldiers, members of the EU peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The international community has sent Inzko to Bosnia-Herzegovina, armed with two grand titles: High Representative of the United Nations and EU Special Envoy. This sounds impressive and, in fact, Inzko has considerable standing in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, where he is a proconsul of sorts, with the power to unseat ministers and other members of the local elite.

FROM THE MAGAZINE Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication. Today, Bosnia-Herzegovina is a country that resembles what Iraq was until recently. A horrible war claimed about 100,000 lives and left behind deep wounds, in a country that is now occupied and that is weighed down by deep ethnic and religious conflicts. While regulating Bosnia-Herzegovina's affairs, Inzko and his six predecessors have dismissed an astonishing 600 officials, including two presidents -- presumably a world record.

Interview with Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh: 'We Won't Beg for Diplomatic Recognition' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Once a popular holiday getaway for the communist elite, tiny Abkhazia is now a de-facto republic at odds with most of the world. President Sergei Bagapsh spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about his nation's plans, friends and foes -- and prime real estate.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Other than Russia, your neighboring Black Sea states do not recognize Abkhazia as a nation. Are you isolated?

 Dreams of Independence: Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh. Sergei Bagapsch: We are a small country with around 242,000 inhabitants. At the moment, our connections with Russia suffice to allow us to develop our economy. Of course, we would be happy if Europe was more open toward us. But I think that's just a question of time. At the moment, we are trying to develop economic relationships with Iran, Jordan, Turkey and Belarus. We won't beg for diplomatic recognition.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Up until now, only Russia and Nicaragua have recognized your republic. Did that change anything for the Abkhazian people?

Bagapsch: The most important thing is that our people now know they can have normal lives. We know that it takes time to build an independent state. And we want a state based on a constitution and founded on the norms of international law. That requires new laws and a new way of thinking.

France 24 | Chechen president behind activist's murder, rights group claims | France 24

Russian human rights watchdog Memorial has accused Chechnya's Moscow-backed President Ramzam Kadyrov of being responsible for the death of a leading human rights activist investigating abuses in the former Soviet republic.

A leading Russian human rights group has accused Chechnya's strongman president of being responsible for the killing of a prominent human rights activist.  

Memorial's Natalia Estemirova was abducted in Chechnya's capital Grozny on Wednesday. Her bullet-riddled body was found in neighbouring Ingushetia hours later.
 

Estemirova had been gathering evidence of an alleged campaign of house burnings as collective punishment by government-backed Chechen militias.

Italy - The wrong way round

The sale of pardons is a fine old tradition in Italy, but Finance Minister Tremonti is on record as having said he will not countenance any further condoni, as they are known, since they undermine respect for the law. This is a worthy stand to take, and it is a pity that he has been over-ruled. The government is now proposing a pardon on a larger scale than anything yet. Hidden inside a draft law whose ostensible purpose is to raise money to help earthquake victims is a proposal that essentially puts the Italian state into the money-laundering business, and at a very competitive price. It allows any business or individual to bring into Italy funds previously held outside, with no questions asked and guaranteed impunity, whatever the crime - drug-smuggling, arms-dealing, people-trafficking, whatever - that may have given rise to those hidden funds. What is more, although the law specifies funds brought in from outside, there can be no proof that the money being declared is not simply funds that accrued within Italy, but was never declared to the tax authorities. So it is in effect a pardon for all tax avoiders, and at a cut-price rate. Normally one would expect to pay a money-launderer something like 40% for the service of exchanging "dirty" money for "clean" money. But the proposed law seems likely to charge a much smaller percentage - a previous such law passed by Mr Tremonti in 2002 charged only 2.5% of the funds declared. Coming so soon after the disclosure of the negotiations between the Mafia and Berlusconi in 1994, in which they pledged their support and asked for his (see post on July 10th), it seems a little rash to bring in a law that so clearly serves the interests of the less law-abiding sections of Italian society.

If'Madness is the absence of work'(Foucault), then Sanity is the presence of play..

European Tribune - Keep On Stopping Blair!

The "Blair for EU President" drum is being banged again. Whether this is part of some jockeying strategy designed to increase the UK's bargaining power on other matters or not, it seems that it's time to speak out again:

EUobserver / London publicly supports Blair for EU president post

Tony Blair would have London's full backing for the new post of EU president, UK's Europe minister confirmed, suggesting the well-known British ex-leader would be respected and "generally welcomed."

The British Labour leader has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the title since it first appeared in the European Constitution, which was later transformed into the Lisbon treaty.

Is he heading back from the Middle East to Europe?

But this is the first time that London's position has been publicly announced by a government minister.

"The UK government is supporting Tony Blair's candidature for president of the Council [of EU governments]," Lady Kinnock, Britain's Europe minister, told journalists in Strasbourg on Wednesday (15 July).

She argued that Mr Blair had the "strength of character" and "status" to take on the job, adding: "People know who he is, and he could step into this new role with a lot of respect and he would be generally welcomed."

Blair Faces a Battle for the E.U. Presidency - NYTimes.com

STRASBOURG -- His interest in the job was one of the worst-kept secrets in British politics. But on Wednesday Britain's former prime minister, Tony Blair, was finally named as a candidate for a new presidential post in the European Union.

In apparently unscripted comments, the European Minister for Britain, Glenys Kinnock, made it clear that Mr. Blair wanted the position and had the blessing of the British government.

"The U.K. government is supporting Tony Blair's candidature," Ms. Kinnock said. "I am sure they would not do it without asking him."

Designed to raise the E.U.'s profile globally, the presidential post is seen by some as the answer the Henry Kissinger's question: "Who do I call if I want to talk to Europe?"

Brown formally backs Blair as candidate for 'President of Europe' - Europe, World - The Independent

Post will be created as early as January once the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified

Tony Blair won the formal backing of Gordon Brown yesterday as Britain's candidate to become the first "President of Europe".

Downing Street endorsed Baroness (Glenys) Kinnock, the Europe minister, who said in Strasbourg: "The UK Government is supporting Tony Blair's candidature for President of the [European] Council." Asked if the prospect had been discussed with Mr Blair, she said: "It is the Government's position. I am sure they would not do that without asking him." Mr Brown's spokesman said: "What the Prime Minister supports is Tony Blair's candidature for the President of the European Council if Tony Blair decides that that is what he would like to do and as and when such a position exists."

The post would be created, possibly as early as next January, if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified. The biggest remaining hurdle is a second referendum in Ireland in October, but opinion polls suggest people will vote Yes this time.

Allies of Mr Blair said he was not campaigning actively for the job but would be interested if it involved being a figurehead representing the European Union on the world stage. "He doesn't want to spend his time chairing meetings of EU leaders," one said.

Why President Blair is perfect for the EU | Mail Online

Now we've heard it all. The lying warmonger who has done more than anyone to corrupt our public life is the Government's official choice to be the first president of the European Union.

Never mind that the post won't exist unless all 27 member states ratify the Lisbon treaty - and that remains in doubt while the Czech president hesitates and Ireland awaits its second referendum.

Such procedural and democratic niceties don't matter to the panjandrums of New Labour, to whom looking after a crony has always come first.

No. First they deny us our own referendum on Lisbon's EU constitution, in flagrant breach of an unequivocal election pledge. Now they decide in their bunker, consulting only each other, that the nation's official candidate is to be none other than Tony Blair.

Curious, I left a comment this afternoon with a link to the Petition, but so far there is not one comment.

EUobserver / EIB loans flow through tax havens, say NGOs

Despite harsh words and threats of tough sanctions against tax dodgers, EU-funded development projects in the third world are run by companies registered in tax havens. This costs developing countries millions in much needed tax revenues and leads to capital flight and lack of transparency, a study by bank-monitoring NGOs says.

The EU wants to clamp down on tax dodgers, but the union's development monies end up in the pockets of dodgiest ones, say NGOs

The study, "Flying in the face of development- How European Investment Bank loans enable tax havens", released on Wednesday (15 July), says projects and beneficiaries funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's house bank, involve tax havens, and multinational companies that use them for tax purposes.

According to the group "Counter Balance", composed of seven European NGOs that track the EIB's activities, the bank is particularly unconvincing when handing out so-called global loans - loans provided on trust to Europe's biggest banks, the largest users of tax havens.

"The EIB does not have much overview of what they [the banks] then do with the money, and several of the banks have earlier been in the spotlight for conducting business through tax havens," Marta Ruiz, a policy officer from the European Network for Debt and Development (EURODAD) and author of the study, told this website.

Bank should publish pay and bonuses of all top earners, Walker Report recommends - Telegraph

Sir David Walker's recommendations that British banks should publish the pay and bonuses of all their top earners, not just board members, has been welcomed by the Gordon Brown.

His far-reaching review on corporate governance in the British financial sector, which was commissioned by the Prime Minister in February, recommends a public and regulatory scrutiny of pay practices across financial institutions in order to curb the excesses that brought the financial system to close to collapse.

The Prime Minister told MPs on the House of Commons Liaison Committe that he welcomed Sir David's call for tougher non-executive directors to crack down on boardroom excesses.

France 24 | Official data shows French consumer prices fell in June | France 24

French consumer prices fell by 0.5 percent in June, according to official data released Thursday. This marks a deflationary step for the second month running, but shows a monthly rise of 0.1 percent for the past year.

AFP - French consumer prices over 12 months fell by 0.5 percent in June, official data showed on Thursday, marking a deflationary step for the second month running but showing a monthly rise of 0.1 percent.
  
In May, prices over 12 months had shown a fall, of 0.3 percent, for the first time since 1957, owing mainy to a fall in the price of oil from a high point in the middle of 2008.
  
An extended period of falling prices amounts to deflation, a serious threat to an economy since it can set in hand a vicious spiral of falling demand, falling investment and employment, and a further fall in prices.

The Wall Street Journal Goes After Goldman and the Bank Bailout

Arianna is happy to pound her favorite "beyond left and right" drum here, somewhat unconvincingly contrasting the GS coverage of Murdoch's WSJ with that of AP's business writer Stephen Bernard, who gushed about GS's "stunning" profit report and called the company "the king of post-meltdown Wall Street."  Kinda hard to see AP as out of the MSM consensus, but it is good to see the WSJ lambasting GS, though I doubt they would be taking so critical a line were Paulson now doing the same under a McCain administration.

Yesterday's opinion section of the Wall Street Journal offered convincing proof that those who want a progressive financial policy and those who simply want to save capitalism are in agreement about the madness of the administration's Wall Street policies.

There, on the editorial page of the capitalist Bible, was a piece taking repeated shots at Wall Street darling Goldman Sachs. And, over on the opposite page, a two-fisted op-ed by former hedge-fund manager Andy Kessler in which he labels the government bailout of Wall Street "a dumb move" and "a bust."

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Let's start with the editorial, "A Tale of Two Bailouts," which decries the fact that, thanks to the policies of Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, Goldman "enjoys the best of both worlds: outsize profits for its traders and shareholders and a taxpayer backstop should anything go wrong."

The piece is spiked with disdainful references to "the Goldmans of the world" and "the likes of Goldman, which apparently needs no help printing money," and takes issue with the way "we changed when we stepped in to save certain banks in the name of saving the system." It also dubs Goldman "Goldie Mac," saying: "Goldman will surely deny that its risk taking is subsidized by the taxpayer -- but then so did Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, right up to the bitter end."

But then an effective response would take a lot more than "agreement" between "those who want a progressive financial policy and those who simply want to save capitalism."  It would take more like a broad but resolute coalition of everyone but GS to break the grip GS seems to have on US regulatory policy towards Wall Street, and even that would be a very long shot, absent dramatic new developments.  

Arianna may be grasping at straws, but then, at this point, aren't all who want to see real change?

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

San Francisco Bay Area home sales up 20% in June

Median sales price is down year-over-year but has more than doubled since bottoming out in March.

San Francisco Bay Area home sales were up 20% in June over the same month last year, while the median sales price was down 27%, MDA DataQuick reported Thursday.

The median price for the Bay Area was $352,000, down from $485,000 in June 2008 and 47% below the peak median of $665,000, reached in June 2007. Last month's median was up 3% from May's, however. The Bay Area's median appears to have hit its floor in March at $290,000.

As in Southern California, the rising Bay Area median reflects the changing mix of homes sold. The market is being driven less by low-priced foreclosures, and higher-end sellers are coming down in price, which is attracting buyers. So the median rises due to sales of more expensive homes, but those homes are moving because they are dropping in price.

Foreclosed homes accounted for 37% of Bay Area sales, down from a peak of 52% in February.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Washington's Dilemma: This Isn't a Recession, It's a Collapse   Gregor Macdonald,  Seeking Alpha

Washington is bluffing that it will not bail out California, and every other state suffering from collapsed revenues and massive job losses. If cuts in police and schools don't force DC off from its current position, then the math will. Because in many states the aggregate revenue losses and looming cuts to state payrolls will largely render the intended effects of federal stimulus as moot. Frankly, unless Washington prints money and bails out every state that needs capital, including California, federal power will decline amidst this severe economic recession, and the process of a soft American devolution will begin. If you think this idea is outrageous, then you've still not come to terms with a core reality of our current situation: the structure of this financial crisis is wholly different than any in our post-war era. This isn't a recession. This is collapse.

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The internal composition of the US economic and financial system when it hit 2007/8 was very different than in previous recessions, even the severe recession of 1980/82. It's this internal composition that's now determinative, to the outcome. The sawdust of debt, and the monetization of assets rather than the production of goods, continually came to define the internal composition of the system. The economy cannot, therefore, express the same kind of resilience it has done so often, since WW2.

This is the core problem of this collapse and why the prospect for recovery is dim. Americans can't actually rebuild the savings that the banking system needs to escape from the current mess. Individually, Americans are trapped by debt and cannot spend. In The Seigniorage Curse, I explain that one of the primary mechanisms for the hollowing out of the American economy over many years was the dollar advantage, which at first was earned. And then, came to be un-earned. By the time the US reached the 21st century, our primary manufactured product was debt, and dollars. Is it any wonder that once that system collapsed, that we quickly gave up 100% of the phantom job growth that had been sitting on top of the debt bubble? The current level of employment in the United States has now returned to the levels of June 2000. Enough said.

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In Washington today the annual budget deficit crossed the one trillion mark. In Sacramento, there is a 26 billion dollar shotgun hole in their budget. (One hopes that CALPERS is marking to market, because if they're not, that would be a new liability for Sacramento to deal with). Meanwhile, Autumn approaches and whole range of rather nasty choices looms over the school system. Imagine living in a prime area of California and watching your house decline by 40%, your household income knocked for an initial 30%, and the after-school programs and town services get cut. Now throw some fees and tax hikes on top of that mess. For the coup de grace, imagine California voters sitting down each night to another wave of bailouts from Washington to financial corporations. Under those circumstances it seems quite unlikely Washington can say no, to the States.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Are GLD and SLV Legitimate Investment Vehicles?

Ever since the launch of the US gold ETF, GLD, in November, 2004 and the launch of the US silver ETF, SLV, April 2006, a debate has raged in analyst circles regarding the legitimacy of these two investment vehicles as a proxy for physical gold and physical silver. Though all evidence against investing in these two trusts has been entirely circumstantial, plenty of red flags exist in both the GLD and SLV prospectuses that should steer any logical, rational human being that wishes to own gold and silver away from these two investment vehicles.

Conflicts of Interest

Let's begin with the obvious. Is it not a huge conflict of interest that JP Morgan (JPM), a bank that perpetually ranks among the largest short positions against silver on the COMEX, is the custodian for the iShares Silver Trust (SLV)? According to silver analyst Ted Butler, JP Morgan is consistently among the one or two U.S. banks that hold more than 80% to 90% of the entire commercial net short position in COMEX silver futures. If you have positioned yourself to make huge profits from drops in the price of silver, is it reasonable for you to simultaneously desire investors to buy more physical silver (if indeed the SLV holds the amount of physical silver it claims)?

Is it also not a conflict of interest that HSBC (HBC) bank, a bank that allegedly holds some of the largest short positions against gold on the COMEX, is the custodian for the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD)? If these banks profit when gold and silver drop, and they manage the largest ETFs in the US regarding these respective metals, is it unreasonable to state that these two banks should be barred from acting as custodians of the GLD and SLV? In fact, how is this situation any different than Goldman Sachs's (GS) actions in the past when they originated CDOs and then made a fortune by shorting them, actions that back then, were apparently unknown even to the firm's own traders? On the surface, it certainly appears to be another classic case of the fox guarding the hen house.

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Multiple Claims on the Physical Gold and Physical Silver Held on Behalf of GLD and SLV Shareholders?

The appointed custodians of the SLV and the GLD, responsible for safekeeping the silver and gold bars owned by the trusts, respectively are JP Morgan and HSBC Bank USA. The GLD prospectus states, "Gold held in the Trust's unallocated gold account and any Authorized Participant's unallocated gold account will not be segregated from the Custodian's assets." Only Authorized Participants, and no shareholders, have the right to redeem shares for actual gold.

In my opinion, there are several potential huge problems with this arrangement. Physical gold held by the GLD should be held in allocated accounts specifically for the trust. The fact that physical gold held for the GLD may be held in unallocated gold accounts where gold is not segregated from the Custodian's assets may mean that multiple entities have claims on the same gold bars. In theory, the gold held in the Custodian's vaults may be used for delivery against shorts they hold in the futures markets if necessary even though GLD shareholders have a claim on this gold.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Italy - The wrong way round

A persistent message from the government has been the need to promote optimism about the economy, and to persuade people to start consuming once more in the way they did before the economic crisis. Berlusconi has frequently suggested that businesses should not advertise in journals or TV channels that disseminate economic gloom. Yet one could hardly get gloomier than the figures in the government's own recent economic forecasts, which envisage the economy contracting by 5.2% in the course of this year, and essentially stagnating next year (with 2010 growth forecast at just 0.5%, well within the margin of error of economic statistics). Although asserting that "the Italian economy is one of the least exposed to the factors that are specific to the current financial crisis" its own figures make clear that the Italian economy will in fact suffer about the worst of any in Western Europe. With Italian government debt accounting for over a quarter of total Euroland government debt (while Italy accounts for only 17% of Euroland GDP), there is little scope for stimulus. Yields on Italian government bonds indicate the extent to which the Italian government's creditworthiness is at risk: 30-year Italian bonds yield 5 1/4%, while German 30-year bonds yield only just over 4%. Finance Minister Tremonti has said that there are some "non-negative signals" about the economic future - a cautious term, which falls short of claiming that there are any positive ones. Behind the smile on the government's face there is clearly a very worried frown. That is supposed to be the way with clowns.

As anticipated, the "fiscal shield", discussed immediately below, forms part of the government's economic package. The money-laundering fee will be a very modest 5%. The government has put only a nominal amount in as its estimate of the revenue yield from providing these services to organised crime and to white-collar criminals (among whom, of course, the prime minister must be numbered). As Di Pietro says, the government is offering to "restore the virginity, and fatten the wallets" of rich criminals.

If'Madness is the absence of work'(Foucault), then Sanity is the presence of play..

FT.com / Columnists / GillianTett - How Markit turned from a camera into an engine

But the days of innocent obscurity are over. The Department of Justice this week confirmed that it had started an investigation into pricing practices in the credit derivatives markets. It has demanded extensive data from Markit and the dozen-odd banks that own it, a request with which Markit is complying - out of swanky offices in London and New York.

What triggered the DoJ probe is - like the credit markets - a touch murky. Some bankers think the DoJ is flexing its muscles in the new political landscape by demonstrating a tough interpretation of the so-called "Sherman" anti-competitive doctrine. Others fear that the exchanges and some hedge funds are leaning on the DoJ as part of a campaign to move credit default swap activity on to exchanges.

There may be a simpler explanation. In recent months the DoJ has had reason to look at the credit derivatives world because of a flurry of corporate activity. Most notably, efforts are under way to create clearing platforms and Markit is creating a joint venture. As the DoJ peers into this once-geeky world, it is not surprising if it thinks some of those practices look a touch odd - at least given the mood of the times.

The peak-to-trough part of the business cycle is an outlier. Carnot would have died laughing.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Islamists 'share French hostages'

Two French security advisers seized in Somalia this week have been split up and are now being held by two different hardline groups, reports say.

The pair were snatched by gunmen from a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and were being held by the Hizbul-Islam group.

But officials say the al-Shabab group wanted them and after a row, Hizbul-Islam handed one of the men over.

Al-Shabab has recently carried out several beheadings, amputations and stonings in areas it controls.

Administration Objects to Bar on Using Contractors to Conduct Interrogations - washingtonpost.com

The Obama administration has objected to a provision in the 2010 defense funding bill currently before the Senate that would bar the military's use of contractors to interrogate detainees.

The provision, strongly backed by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), describes interrogations as an "inherently governmental function" that "cannot be transferred to contractor personnel." It would give the Defense Department one year from the bill's enactment to ensure that the military had the resources to comply with it.

A White House policy statement yesterday signaled "many areas of agreement" with the bill that emerged from Levin's committee late last month but said the administration has "serious concerns" about some provisions. The statement repeated Obama's threat to veto the $680 billion bill unless $1.75 billion to fund an additional seven F-22 fighter aircraft is removed.

Obama and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates "are as serious as a heart attack on this," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

Things seem to be heating up rapidly. After the riots over the opening of a parking lot on Satuday have become routine, the Orthodox now have something else to riot about.

Riots in Jerusalem over the recent arrest of an ultra-Orthodox woman suspected of starving her 3-year-old son escalated as demonstrators concluded their third consecutive day of violent protests with no indication that they were planning to ease up.

The riots erupted Tuesday when the news of the arrest became public. The ultra-Orthodox community was outraged that the woman, who belongs to one of the most extreme ultra-Orthodox sects, was in custody, rejecting suspicions that she had systematically starved her son over the course of the last two years. The boy is currently hospitalized in serious condition and weighing only 7 kilograms. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters hurled rocks at police late Thursday night on Highway 1 near the Haredi neighborhood of Beit Yisrael. Police arrested dozens of people and used water cannons to disperse the crowds. Seven police officers were lightly wounded by rock thrower.

Customers choosing green energy after nuclear reactor shutdown | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 15.07.2009

The recent troubles at the Vattenfall Kruemmel nuclear plant near Hamburg may prove a boon to green energy companies. One such company, Lichtblick, has seen 200 new customers per day since the power outage. 

The Kruemmel nuclear plant near Hamburg had been back up and running for less than two weeks after a two year shutdown when one of its transformers short circuited on July 4. There was a sudden drop in voltage then shopping centers and traffic lights in Germany's second largest city went dark.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Failed transformers led to an automatic shutdown at the Kruemmel nuclear plant

Vattenfall, the Swedish company running the Kreemmel plant said the short circuit and the hour-long blackout were simply an isolated incident. But energy users may see it otherwise, much to the delight of green energy companies, who say they've seen a dramatic jump in customers.

Obama Administration Approves First Roadless Logging Contract In Alaska's Tongass National Forest

This week, the Obama administration approved the sale of timber in a roadless national forest in Alaska. The Tongass National Forest is a 17 million acre temperate rain forest in southeast Alaska, which is home to both endangered species and native Alaskan tribes. It is the largest temperate rain forest in the United States.

People in the countryside told to accept 'many thousands' of new wind turbines - Telegraph

Country residents have been told that they must accept the building of "many thousands" of wind turbines as part of a new green energy strategy.

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, announced yesterday that planning rules would be changed to make it easier for 6,000 onshore wind turbines to be built. Britain's "default position" would be to accept new onshore turbines, he said.

The expansion in wind farms was included in the Government's Renewable Energy Strategy, which aims to cut energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, and reduce Britain's dependence on fossil fuels.

Of course the release of Miliband's energy vision is causing quite a ruckus in Britain, which deserves it. Why don't we take a gander at how it's played in The "Economist" to see how it works.

SO MUCH for Labour's fearsome media machine. On the morning of July 15th Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, was giving press interviews in London trumpeting his government's plans to cut Britain's greenhouse-gas emissions and rebuild its economy around clean energy. The very next day the Vestas wind-turbine plant on the Isle of Wight, the biggest in Britain, completed its final batch of turbine blades and shut up shop, with the loss of over 600 jobs.

The fact that this blade shop's inferior blades caused no end of warranty costs for Vestas seems to have escaped the Economist's normally top shelf auditors. I won't go into the details, suffice to say that one of Vestas' turbine models which they acquired by buying Micon is now being phased out. hence, inferior factory closes.  Would that England realized that onshore windpower is task no. 1 could have changed the situation.

Mr Miliband had the guts to admit that building nuclear reactors and wind turbines would mean energy bills rising, an unpopular consequence that other politicians have avoided mentioning. Officials guess that Britain will have to spend £324 billion-404 billion ($532 billion-663 billion) by 2050 to scrub out carbon.

I haven't been able yet to identify who or what "officials" make the estimate, but i have been able to identify that Thee Economyst's normally excellent auditors have once again neglected to mention the entire range of externalites not accounted for in the UK system. Despite these externalities being what's known as "hard costs."

and then Thee Eek onomist turns about face and says the support isn't enough.

Yet the money looks inadequate to the ambition. The biggest new dollop of cash is £405m for developing eco-industries, including £120m for offshore wind turbines, £60m for wave and tidal energy, and £15m for nuclear research. That pales next to the hundreds of billions the government mustered to bail out the finance industry it now hopes to trim. Gordon Edge, chief economist at the British Wind Energy Association, argues that raw financial firepower is less important than directing it wisely, but he concedes that Britain's government has been less pushy than some. In fact, say analysts at HSBC, a bank, its Keynesian splurge is one of the world's least green. Britain has allocated 7% of total spending to environmental causes, compared with 12% in America and 83% in South Korea.

I can assure you, i'm not schizophrenic, and neither am i. Both of us are wondering however, how every nation, country, city-state, principality, city and village is going to be No.1 in renewables, as they are all claiming.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just get on with the work of building renewables into a transparent part of our civilization?

Skennah Kowa

Daily Kos: The Black Swan Myth

what's been happening is people proudly proclaiming that they won't "kick the can down the road" for someone else to deal with, and then doing exactly that. when we hear about 'green jobs that can't be outsourced', what images come to mind? people across the country building, installing, maintaining windmills. whole new industries. industrial parks being built or re-tooled to support all of this manufacturing and maintenance. retro-fitting for environmental soundness, and the like.

this is what people thought they were voting to achieve. instead what we've been given is a silly line that feeding astronomical sums of $$ directly to corrupt banks will 'fix everything eventually', and a bald-faced lie that 'no one could have seen this coming'.

where are our windmills? where are the new factories? where is there even any kind of talk about creating these things within our government? why are 500,000 people losing their jobs per month, and people are trying to sit around and talk about what god-damn good news it is??? this is nuts! why isn't the government hiring people in large numbers to put into practice this new, more sustainable lifestyle?

why indeed...

If'Madness is the absence of work'(Foucault), then Sanity is the presence of play..

Exchange students live American nightmare - CNN.com

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- They came from around the world hoping to spend a high school year immersed in the culture and joys of America.

Exchange student Carlos Villareal of Colombia says he was underfed and kept in "an unsafe environment."

Instead, five young foreign exchange students found themselves caught in a nightmare of neglect, malnourishment and abandonment by those supposed to protect them.

Now those five -- natives of countries stretching from Norway to Tanzania to Colombia -- are back home telling friends of a different America than they expected. And their brief visit reverberates in America as a United States senator demands accountability and reform, a Pennsylvania district attorney seeks criminal charges and the U.S. State Department concedes it failed to protect kids coming to America.

"We at the Department of State recognize [because we] are responsible for this program we have to make sure we are aggressively overseeing this program and make sure children are well-suited," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

"This is a program that is very important to the Department of State," Crowley said. "We are talking 15- to 18-year-old children. We are introducing them to the United States. We are trying to put our best foot forward. We recognize in this incident in Scranton and also elsewhere around the country we have failed to do so."

What happened in Scranton, according to Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Andrew Jarbola, is a crime. He has convened a grand jury to look into the families where some of the 12 students who came to Scranton were placed, as well as the company who placed them there and its officials.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Fiji freemasons held for sorcery

A group of freemasons have had to spend a night in jail in Fiji, after local villagers complained they were practising witchcraft.

The 14 men, including eight Australians and a New Zealander, had been holding a night-time meeting on Denerau island.

The New Zealand man told reporters he had spent a "wretched" time in jail, and blamed the mix-up on the actions of "dopey village people".

Police also seized wands, compasses and a skull from the freemasons' lodge.

Freemasonry is a centuries-old club that practises secret rituals and has more than five million members worldwide.

Financial Times editor says most news websites will charge within a year | Media | guardian.co.uk

The Financial Times editor, Lionel Barber, has predicted that "almost all" news organisations will be charging for online content within a year.

Barber said building online platforms that could charge readers on an article-by-article or subscription basis was one of the key challenges facing news organisations.

"How these online payment models work and how much revenue they can generate is still up in the air," Barber said in a speech at at a Media Standards Trust event at the British Academy last night.

"But I confidently predict that within the next 12 months, almost all news organisations will be charging for content."

I'm tired of this backslapping, aint humanity great BS, we're a virus with shoes Bill Hicks

Why We Must Ration Health Care - NYTimes.com

You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?

If you can afford it, you probably would pay that much, or more, to live longer, even if your quality of life wasn't going to be good. But suppose it's not you with the cancer but a stranger covered by your health-insurance fund. If the insurer provides this man -- and everyone else like him -- with Sutent, your premiums will increase. Do you still think the drug is a good value? Suppose the treatment cost a million dollars. Would it be worth it then? Ten million? Is there any limit to how much you would want your insurer to pay for a drug that adds six months to someone's life? If there is any point at which you say, "No, an extra six months isn't worth that much," then you think that health care should be rationed. <...>

Remember the joke about the man who asks a woman if she would have sex with him for a million dollars? She reflects for a few moments and then answers that she would. "So," he says, "would you have sex with me for $50?" Indignantly, she exclaims, "What kind of a woman do you think I am?" He replies: "We've already established that. Now we're just haggling about the price." The man's response implies that if a woman will sell herself at any price, she is a prostitute. The way we regard rationing in health care seems to rest on a similar assumption, that it's immoral to apply monetary considerations to saving lives -- but is that stance tenable? <...>

Rationing health care means getting value for the billions we are spending by setting limits on which treatments should be paid for from the public purse. If we ration we won't be writing blank checks to pharmaceutical companies for their patented drugs, nor paying for whatever procedures doctors choose to recommend. When public funds subsidize health care or provide it directly, it is crazy not to try to get value for money. The debate over health care reform in the United States should start from the premise that some form of health care rationing is both inescapable and desirable. Then we can ask, What is the best way to do it?  ...

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

Operation Sarah: How the Prime Minister's wife is rebranding herself - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

Editing the News of the World's magazine, marching at Gay Pride, tweeting at G8 - Sarah Brown is running a public relations campaign. So who is she targeting? And what is she hoping to achieve? Ian Burrell studies her strategy

When Gordon Brown sat down at a press conference at the G8 summit in Italy last week and solemnly pronounced that allegations of phone-hacking by The News of the World constituted a "very serious" matter, he may not have given much thought as to who exactly will be editing that newspaper's magazine, Fabulous, this weekend.

But as his cabinet colleagues still seek to make political capital out of the row, and as angry MPs summon executives from the paper's parent company to come before them and answer questions, Mr Brown's wife, Sarah, is eagerly anticipating the publication of her own journalistic efforts in that very same title.

Last Sunday, with Labour hoping that the claims could yet undermine David Cameron by shaming his Tory communications chief Andy Coulson, The News of the World did not pass up the opportunity to celebrate its connections with Number 10. The paper's editor, Colin Myler, said he felt "proud and privileged" to have Brown edit the newpsaper's magazine. "She devoted a great deal of time to editing this unique issue, interviewing cover star Jools Oliver, wife of TV chef Jamie, about her fertility experiences," he said. "She came into the office and co-ordinated features, including one about five inspiring women who had babies... as well as Dr Hilary Jones's guide to tackling a host of women's health problems."

Sussex teacher 'abducted by aliens in UFO' (From The Argus)

Pupils were terrified after a school staged an alien crash landing which ended with a teacher being 'abducted'.

Children aged between seven and 11 at Southway Junior School in Southway, Burgess Hill, watched in horror as a 'spaceship' crashed near their school and aliens grabbed a member of staff.

The 'alien invasion' show, which was supported by Sussex police, took place without parents being informed, leaving some angry that they had to comfort their children.

The event, held on Friday, was designed to 'develop youngsters' writing skills' and fire their imagination - but some children were left traumatised by the show.

Southway School has admitted that a number of parents complained after their children returned home in a 'state of shock'.

Youngsters had to be reassured that the abducted member of staff was safe and well after he was carted off by the 'aliens'.

Police contributed to the invasion by providing sirens and flashing blue lights to signify the landing of the craft just before morning classes.

An interesting collection of stories about novel-naming by Gary Dexter.

You can't be me, I'm taken