French socialists eye unity after election - Europe - World - The Independent

Allies of French President Francois Hollande mobilised today in hopes of securing a crushing parliamentary majority for the Socialists that could bolster him in talks on how to save the embattled euro currency and revive Europe's economic fortunes.

Leftists dominated the first round of legislative elections, and Socialist leaders are calling for a final push of party unity ahead of Sunday's decisive second round of voting for seats in the National Assembly.

Hollande, who was elected last month, wants his political kin to control the powerful lower house of Parliament for the next five years so he can move forward with plans to strengthen the state's role in the economy, create thousands of teaching jobs and tackle high youth joblessness.

Final results released today from nationwide balloting yesterday showed the Socialists and their allies on the left winning at least 46% of the vote.

The main conservative bloc, led by former President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, had at least 34%.

Moscow Lifts Pressure on Opposition - WSJ.com

Russian police searched the homes of several prominent opposition leaders Monday, ratcheting up the pressure on critics just a day before a major anti-government rally in Moscow.

The searches, which lasted more than 10 hours and ended with the confiscation of computers, documents and large sums of cash, marked a new escalation in the Kremlin's crackdown on opponents. They came after Mr. Putin signed into law a controversial bill on Friday that sharply increases fines for violations at protests.

Investigators also summoned protest leaders for questioning Tuesday in what activists said seemed to be an attempt to prevent them from attending the demonstration.

Authorities said their actions were entirely in line with procedure and part of a probe into violence that broke out between police and demonstrators at the last protest, on May 6. No opposition leaders have yet been charged in that case, which could see substantially longer jail terms than the 15 days protestors often get for minor violations.

A spokesman for the Investigative Committee, which handled the actions Monday, said in a statement that investigators confiscated "large amounts of agitation materials and literature with anti-state slogans," as well as computers and other materials.

The searches Monday elicited angry responses even from figures relatively loyal to the Kremlin. Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the presidential human rights commission, told the Interfax news agency he was "shocked" and said he canceled a trip to be able to attend Tuesday's demonstration as an observer.

EP hits out over tactic to exclude MEPs from Schengen decision

The EP has summoned the Danish Presidency to an emergency debate in plenary next week to explain why member states resorted to judicial sleight of hand to sideline MEPs from an initiative affecting the Schengen area of visa-free travel within the EU. The Council decision means there will be no independent scrutiny of border controls by EU institutions. The EP is currently considering all legal options.

EP president Martin Schulz said: "In a Union of states and citizens, it is disturbing to see that national governments seek to exclude the citizens' representatives on matters relating to individual rights. Free movement within an area without internal borders is a pillar of the European Union - one of its most tangible benefits - and the European Parliament will fight to strengthen it."

What happened

EU justice and home affairs  ministers decided on 7 June to change the legal base for the rules governing the evaluation of Schengen from article 77 from the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU to article 70. This changes the Parliament's role from co-decision to information. Instead of the Parliament and the Commission being able to exercise their supervisory role on behalf of citizens on something that will affect everyone, member states will now be able to ignore the concerns and improvements they brings up.  The decision was taken while negotiations with the other institutions were still ongoing.

Federalist warms up to Europe at two speeds | EurActiv

Liberal MEP Andrew Duff, a leading federalist, is urging EU leaders at their 28-29 June summit to consider building a political union with, "at least initially", a core group of countries forming a vanguard under a new treaty.

In his blueprint, sent to selected Brussels journalists, Duff surprisingly starts by quoting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said on 7 June that the 17-member eurozone should move toward a political union.

Federalists have strongly opposed a two-speed or multi-speed Europe. Duff himself has until recently sought to impose the will of the majority of member states to a reluctant minority, including to his eurosceptic home country Britain.

But this time Duff appears to indicate that he is for once in harmony with the German conservative chancellor, who has been spearheading the effort for a deeper reform of the Union toward common economic governance. In contrast, France, led by Socialist President François Hollande, appears in the forefront of those seeking to preserve national sovereignty.

A new treaty

"Europe needs a blueprint, roadmap and schedule for political union," Duff writes. "All the EU institutions must be involved in the preparation of this process according to their own mandates but, at least initially, a core group of states must come together to form a determined vanguard under a new European Fiscal Solidarity Treaty."

The fear factor | Presseurop (English)

On June 17 Greece is heading for a crucial vote in a climate of national economic, social and political collapse. The acts of violence in society and in politics are stoking the tension, and the statistics on the country's economy leave no wriggle room to whatever government emerges from the polling booths. The country is essentially becoming internationally isolated, since large credit insurance companies (Coface, Euler-Hermes) have stopped insuring imports to Greece, and Greek companies, which have to pay cash for their imports, are struggling to stay alive.

The danger of raw material, medicine and food shortages is palpable and calls for immediate responses; representatives of the business community are already talking about "a nightmare reminiscent of Hoxha's Albania" if no solution is found.

Greek companies lack raw materials, so their production depends on imports. On the energy front, the country is teetering on the brink of disaster: credit has run out, and Greece may soon lose access to the Iranian market because of the international embargo imposed on Tehran. Pro-system vs anti-system

Meanwhile, economists and international political circles feel the possibilities of leaving the country in the euro area are increasing, now that the country's isolation is reflected in the freezing of commercial exchanges and agreements in tourism, trade, and transport. Multinational corporations still active in Greece are meanwhile taking precautions and keeping very little cash in-country.

The Guardian: French elections: UMP refuses to unite with Socialists against Front National (11 June 2012)

The left, on track to win a majority of seats in the second-round vote on Sunday, had called for a "republican front" against the FN, which scored highly in about 60 constituencies.

...

However, Jean-François Copé, head of the UMP, which was thrown out of government after Nicolas Sarkozy lost the presidential election to the Socialist's François Hollande in May, said his party was not interested in making deals. He said the party preferred to appeal to FN voters to support the mainstream right in the run-off vote to defeat the left.

...

The FN hopes to win its first parliamentary seats for nearly 26 years, but is expected to win fewer than three constituencies. Marine Le Pen succeeded in defeating the Front de Gauche candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in the industrial heartland of northern France. Her niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, 22, also won the first round in her Provence constituency. In past elections, however, FN expectations have been dashed by other parties uniting against them.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

Eurointelligence Daily Briefing: The markets smell a rat

After an initial rally, the markets turned, pushing Spanish yields and CDS to near record levels; the market reaction increases the probability that the Spanish state may soon also require a bailout; Xavier-Vidal Folch says the deal will cost Spain a lot of money, and its benefits may well be outweighed by its costs; Ramon Munoz says Spanish politicians have made it a habit to deny crisis, and postpone the rescue; Maria Fekter, helpful as ever, says that Italy might be next; so does Reuters Breakingviews; Jose Manuel Barroso proposes a banking union for as early as next year; but warns that this is part of a long-term infrastructure, not for immediate crisis resolution; the Irish are wondering whether they got a better than a better deal than the Spanish; the Greeks were asking the same question, as political parties are now holding out the hope for a better deal; the Portuguese prime minister said that any special concessions for Spain should be granted to the other programme countries as well; the euro working group has been discussing Drakonian contingency plans to prepare for a Greek exit, including withdrawal limits on ATM machines (in other words the official message is: better take your money out right now.); Christine Lagarde says the eurozone has about three months to save the euro; Germany's business leaders are rallying behind Angela Merkel in support of her euro policies; Otmar Issing warns against a further mutualisation of debt, and says this would constitute a fundamental breach of European and German law; Antonio Padoa-Schioppa, meanwhile, asks Germany to spell out the terms under which it is ready to engage in a political union.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

Michel Vauzelle, PS, president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, is facing a FN candidate for the second round of the legislative elections. It should have been a triangular (first-round results here) but the UMP candidate, Chassain, third placed, has withdrawn, calling on his electors to beat Vauzelle, i.e. vote FN, in contradiction with official UMP policy (which is to maintain its candidates wherever possible, and support neither PS nor FN).

Aix-Marseille - Toute l'actualité de la région avec Libération: Michel Vauzelle : "La frontière ne passe plus entre le FN et l'UMP mais dans l'UMP"		Aix-Marseille - Michel Vauzelle: "The frontier is not between the FN and the UMP, but within the UMP"
Sur quel terreau la porosité avec le FN s'installe-t-il en Paca ?		What are the origins of the porosity between UMP and FN in the region?
D'après moi, on a dépassé le stade de la porosité. Il y a plusieurs éléments d'une culture commune, raciste, sécuritaire. C'est une culture assez ancrée tout autour de la Méditerranée.  J'ai toujours craint cette part de notre culture dans laquelle il y a à la fois de la chaleur, une facilité à parler à l'autre, et un repli sur soi, un rejet de l'autre lorsque les choses se compliquent. Je suis toujours frappé par ces petits patrons qui viennent me voir à ma permanence pour que je les aide à régler un problème de papier pour leurs travailleurs immigrés, alors que les mêmes vont ensuite aller tenir des discours racistes sur les marchés.		To me, it has passed the stage of porosity. There are several elements of a common culture: racism, security. It's quite a culture anchored around the Mediterranean. I always feared this part of our culture where there is both warmth, willingness to talk to the other, and a withdrawal , a rejection of the other when things get complicated. I am always struck by the small businessmen who come to me in my office for me to help resolve a paperwork issue for their immigrant workers, while the same will then go and make racist comments in the markets.
Aux dernières législatives cette culture existait déjà et le FN n'avait pas pesé...		At the last legislative this culture already existed and the FN didn't make a breakthrough ...
Il y a cinq ans, Nicolas Sarkozy avait tenu des discours sur les étrangers, la racaille, la sécurité, qui avaient fait que les électeurs du FN s'étaient dits : pourquoi voter pour quelqu'un qui n'arrivera jamais au pouvoir. On l'a félicité d'avoir siphonné le FN, puis cela a débouché sur de la déception. Il n'a rien résolu et les électeurs sont retournés au FN, suivis par une partie de l'électorat le plus à droite à l'UMP. Et cela travaille certains élus de la droite républicaine. Monsieur Chassain n'est pas très... Enfin il est ce qu'il est mais je crois qu'il dit tout haut ce que beaucoup pensent tout bas. Ici, la frontière ne passe plus entre le FN et l'UMP mais dans l'UMP. Avec à mon avis, plutôt un quart d'entre eux prêts à refuser de se compromettre que l'inverse.		Five years ago, Nicolas Sarkozy made speeches on foreigners, the scum, security, which made the FN voters think: why vote for someone who will never come to power. He was congratulated for siphoning votes from the FN and this has led to disappointment. It solved nothing and voters returned to the FN, followed by the rightmost section of the electorate of the UMP. The same thing is happening to some elected officials of the Republican right. Mr. Chassain is not very ... I mean, he is what he is, but I think he said aloud what many are thinking. Here, the border does not pass between the FN and the UMP but within the UMP. In my opinion, it's mre like one quarter of them are prepared to refuse to [work with the FN] than the reverse.

FN + UMP = 51.5%. If Vauzelle is right, and one quarter of UMP electors refuse to vote FN, then he should be OK.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Cohn-Bendit veut la proportionnelle - Libération		Cohn-Bendit wants proportional representation - Liberation
«Il faut imposer la proportionnelle, et plus que les 100 (ndlr : députés élus ainsi) que proposent les socialistes. C'est le seul moyen d'avoir une Assemblée nationale à l'image du pays», a déclaré l'eurodéputé sur France Inter.		" We must impose the proportional, and more that the 100 (editor's note: deputies elected) that the Socialists propose. It is the only way to have a National Assembly in the country's image », has said the MEP on France Inter [national radio] .
«Je sais qu'il y aura le FN à l'Assemblée. C'est le prix de la démocratie. Mieux vaut un FN à l'Assemblée avec la proportionnelle que des accords exécrables entre l'UMP et le FN», a-t-il ajouté.		" I know there will be the FN in the Assembly. This is the price of democracy. Better to have the FN in the Assembly with proportional representation, than the execrable agreements between the UMP and FN , "he added.
Sur la capacité d'Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) à obtenir un groupe à l'Assemblée nationale, Daniel Cohn-Bendit a dit que ça «va être juste mais c'est possible», «grâce à un accord (ndlr : avec le PS) qu'il fallait faire et qui est juste». Il a toutefois ajouté que le score d'EELV au premier tour des législatives «n'est pas un bon score», et notamment dans les circonscriptions autonomes où les écologistes se présentaient sans l'appui des socialistes.		The ability of Europe Ecology-Greens (EELV) to get a group in the National Assembly, Daniel Cohn-Bendit said it "will be tough but possible ", " through an agreement (note: with the PS) that was necessary and that is just ". But he added that the EELV score in the first round of legislative " is not a good score ," and particularly in the autonomous districts where environmentalists presented themselves without the support of the Socialists.
Rappelant le souhait qui était le sien que le PS fasse un geste pour François Bayrou, en difficulté dans sa circonscription des Pyrénées-Orientales, il a aussi dit que les socialistes auraient dû faire de même pour Jean-Luc Mélenchon: «Pas à Hénin-Beaumont, là je crois que Jean-Luc a complètement déraillé, mais donner une circonscription à Jean-Luc et dire : Oui, tu as ta place à l'Assemblée, parce que de toute façon, au Parlement européen, ça ne t'intéresse pas. Il n'y est jamais, et ça ne l'intéresse pas.»		Recalling that he had called on the PS to make a gesture for François Bayrou, in trouble in his district of the Eastern Pyrenees, he also said that the Socialists should have done the same for Jean-Luc Melenchon: "Not to Henin -Beaumont, then I think Jean-Luc blew it completely, but give a district to Jean-Luc and say: Yes, you have your place in the Assembly, because anyway, the European Parliament does not not interest him. He is never there, and it does not interest him. "

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

En direct - Cohn-Bendit: «Valls ressemble comme un siamois à Guéant» - Libération		Live - Cohn-Bendit: 'Valls looks like Guéant's Siamese twin"- Liberation
Daniel Cohn-Bendit attaque le ministre de l'Intérieur Manuel Valls concernant la réforme de Schengen. «Bizarrement je crois que M. Valls a trouvé les pantoufles de M. Guéant au ministère de l'Intérieur, et qu'il n'a pas fait autre chose que d'adapter ces pantoufles à ses pieds et de continuer la politique de M. Guéant, ce qui est quand même bizarre», a déclaré l'eurodéputé, élu sur une liste Europe Ecologie en France. Valls a endossé la semaine dernière avec ses homologues européens une réforme permettant de rétablir de façon temporaire les contrôles aux frontières nationales en cas de pression migratoire incontrôlable à une des frontières extérieures de l'espace Schengen. Alors que la question de Schengen «faisait partie du débat présidentiel», Cohn-Bendit juge «surprenant qu'une semaine après, M. Valls ressemble comme un frère siamois à M. Guéant».		Daniel Cohn-Bendit attacks Interior Minister Manuel Valls on the reform of Schengen. " Strangely I think Mr. Valls found Mr Gueant's slippers in the Interior Ministry, and he simply adapted these slippers to his feet and continued the policy of Mr. Gueant, which is pretty weird , "said the MEP, elected on a Europe Ecology list in France. Valls endorsed last week with his European counterparts a reform to restore temporarily the national border controls in the event of an uncontrollable migration pressure of the external borders of the Schengen area. While the issue of Schengen " was part of the presidential debate ," Cohn-Bendit finds it " surprising that a week later, Mr. Valls looks like a Siamese twin to Mr. Guéant ".

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

EU-IMF 'troika' to monitor Spanish bank rescue - EUROZONE - FRANCE 24

Germany's finance minister on Monday stressed that billions of euros in aid to Spanish banks requested by Madrid would be overseen by European officials and the International Monetary Fund.

Asked whether Spain would avoid monitoring in the bailout, unlike previous deals with Portugal, Ireland and Greece, Wolfgang Schaeuble said: "No, there will be a troika in exactly the same way, that will of course monitor that the programme is being kept to."

"But this is only about a restructuring of the banking sector. That is the difference," added Schaeuble in an interview with German radio.

"While Portugal, Ireland and Greece are under macroeconomic adjustment programmes, it is important they are monitored ... Spain does not need that," he said.

"It's about Spanish banks, not about Spanish fiscal policy ... because on this point, Spain is on the right path," concluded Schaeuble.

"But the restructuring of the Spanish banking sector must be negotiated separately and it must be monitored to ensure that it is being kept to," he said.

On Saturday, Spain clinched a lifeline loan of up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) for its crisis-wracked banks, sending stocks and the euro soaring at the open of trade on Monday before trader enthusiasm cooled as the day went on.

How to save Spain's banks - and the eurozone - FT.com

If you want to know whether any set of proposals for a European banking union is sensible, you should ask the following simple question: will it render Spain's position in the eurozone sustainable?

The Spanish government has confirmed that it is now ready to seek EU aid. But the idea for the European Financial Stability Facility to lend money to the Spanish bank recapitalisation fund, known by its Spanish initials Frob, does not meet this test. It reshuffles debt from one end of the Spanish economy to another. Spain's total debt was 363 per cent of gross domestic product in mid-2011, according to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, and with the prospect of a severe economic depression ahead, its crisis cannot be solved through a combination of austerity and liquidity support. The eurozone must recognise that some form of debt relief, or default, will be inevitable.

This could come through various channels. One way would be for a eurozone agency to inject direct equity into the Spanish banking system, and then break it up. Such a system does not yet exist. It requires a new inter-governmental treaty that would sit alongside the existing eurozone crises treaties - the fiscal pact, and the treaties of the EFSF and the European Stability Mechanism. So what elements should a treaty on a banking union contain for it to meet our test?

First, a deposit insurance corporation that insures the euro value of each bank deposit up to an agreed ceiling, say €50,000. The European Council should give an immediate political commitment that it would make good such losses even in the most extreme circumstances. The political commitment should be followed up with the creation of a formal deposit insurance company, perhaps implicitly backed by the European Central Bank.

Italy Moves Into Debt-Crisis Crosshairs After Spain - Bloomberg

The 100 billion-euro ($126 billion) rescue for Spain's banks moved Italy to the front line of Europe's debt crisis, as the country's bonds and equities slumped on concern it may be the next to succumb.

Italy's 10-year bonds reversed early gains today in the first trading after the Spanish bailout. Their yield rose by the most in a day since Dec. 8, adding 27 basis points to 6.04 percent. Shares of UniCredit SpA (UCG), the country's largest bank, had their steepest decline in five months.

"The scrutiny of Italy is high and certainly will not dissipate after the deal with Spain," Nicola Marinelli, who oversees $153 million at Glendevon King Asset Management in London, said in an interview. "This bailout does not mean that Italy will be under attack, but it means that investors will pay attention to every bit of information before deciding to buy or to sell Italian bonds."

Italy has 2 trillion euros of debt, more as a share of its economy than any developed nation other than Greece and Japan. The Treasury has to sell more than 35 billion euros of bonds and bills per month -- more than the annual output of each of the three smallest euro members, Cyprus, Estonia and Malta.

Cyprus's Finance Minister Sees 'Urgent' Need for Bailout - WSJ.com

Cyprus said Monday that it urgently needed European financial aid to boost its banks' capital, a step that would make it the fifth euro-zone economy to seek help from the region's bailout funds.

Cyprus Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly said the country's need for an international bailout was "exceptionally urgent" in order for it to recapitalize its banks, and that the issue would need to be resolved by the end of the month.

According to several European officials, the size of any bailout would be unlikely to exceed €3 billion to €4 billion ($3.8 billion to $5 billion), a sum that wouldn't strain the resources of the euro zone's bailout funds. The economy of Cyprus--an island of 800,000 people--is one-sixtieth the size of the economy of Spain, which said over the weekend that it would seek European funds to recapitalize its own banks.

However, some European officials said the main impact of Cyprus's request might be to send a further signal that contagion is spreading in the euro zone. Greece, Ireland and Portugal are all in bailout programs.

Officials said Cyprus's government would probably seek funds along the model for loans to Spain, under which conditions will be placed on the country's banking sector but no new impositions will be placed on the way it manages its economy.

Cypriot banks--particularly the nation's second-largest lender, Cyprus Popular Bank--need to rebuild capital after suffering losses in the Greek government-debt restructuring earlier this year.

Bank warning for Europe and Japan - FT.com

Global regulators fired a shot across the bow of European and Japanese regulators on Monday, warning that their local bank safety rules appear "weaker" in key areas than the worldwide Basel III agreement they signed up to in 2010.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision report also warned that it could be a "significant challenge" for several countries, including the US, to meet the January 2013 implementation deadline. The Federal Reserve issued draft Basel III rules for big US banks last week, too late for the report.

"This report highlights key areas where domestic implementation may be weaker than the globally-agreed standards," said Stefan Ingves, the current Basel chairman and the head of the Swedish Riksbank.

The implementation report is part of an ongoing effort to hold the Basel countries to their promises to make global banks safer and add resiliency to the broader financial system. Historically, some Basel committee members countries have agreed to tough rules and then allowed their local banks additional leeway.

The Basel committee was particularly concerned about local rules that it said appeared to undercut efforts to tighten the definition of core tier one capital. Loose capital standards have been blamed for the weakness of many banks leading up to the recent financial crisis.

BBC News - Airbus A380 wing repairs could take up to eight weeks

Airbus has confirmed its flagship A380 planes could be grounded for up to eight weeks if work to repair cracks in their wings is done in one go.

"This is from start to finish," Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon told the BBC.

However, he added that Airbus expected most customers to do the repairs step by step, as part of regular required maintenance checks.

"In this case, it would only add a few days to the overall procedure," Mr Dubon said.

Airbus has been dogged by the problem with its superjumbo A380s, which have seen hairline cracks appear on some of the brackets used to link the wing to the plane. Each A380 has 4,000 such brackets.

The problem has cost Airbus more than 250m euros (£201.9m) in repair and service costs. Airbus has said it will not pay any compensation for revenue lost during repair work.

Not sure how many, if any, will google it, but I managed to get the words "European Tribune" heard there (at 83:40). But the question wasn't ideally phrased -and mostly because of words added because of a prior discussion with an LSE student, who didn't see how there could be a difference between pursuing growth and pursuing jobs.

The point was that I could see success being declared with a 1% growth in GDP, and millions of unemployed being officially forgotten. I'm afraid that we are preparing 1937 without even having had 1934.

Anyway, it was a nice conference, well worth showing to anyone who does not spend enough time on ET.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

BBC News - Syrian forces attack Homs amid fears of new massacre

Syrian government forces have renewed their attack on the city of Homs, one of the focal points of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Video published on the internet purportedly from Homs showed intermittent shelling and black smoke.

UN mediator Kofi Annan is concerned civilians have been trapped in Homs and al-Haffa, a town in Latakia province also said to be under attack.

The US says it fears the government may be planning "another massacre".

Mr Annan's spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said civilians had been trapped in both Homs and al-Haffa.

Mr Annan was demanding immediate entry to al-Haffa for UN military observers be allowed, he added.

As joint envoy for the UN and the Arab League, Mr Annan brokered a six-point peace plan, including a ceasefire which came into nominal effect two months ago but has now been virtually abandoned.

US withdraws supply negotiators from Pakistan - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English

The United States is withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan without securing a long-sought deal with Islamabad to allow trucks to again supply NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, the Pentagon has said.

"The decision was reached to bring the team home for a short period of time," George Little, Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Monday.

The team of negotiators had been in Pakistan for about six weeks, he said, as US officials had believed they were close to a deal with Islamabad to lift the blockade on NATO convoys.

But no breakthrough was imminent and there was no scheduled date for a resumption of the negotiations, Little said.

The comments came after Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, refused last week to meet US assistant defence secretary Peter Lavoy, who traveled to Pakistan to try to resolve the dispute, officials said.

Lavoy "was hoping to meet with General Kayani to work through this issue," Little said.

'US decision'

The decision is the latest sign of troubled ties with Islamabad and was announced just days after Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States was reaching the limits of its patience because of the safe havens Pakistan offered to armed groups.

Yemen army attacks Islamist stronghold, dozens dead | Reuters

Yemeni warplanes and troops bombarded the Islamist militant stronghold of Jaar on Monday, officials and witnesses said, part of a U.S.-backed offensive in a country Washington sees as a front line in its war against al Qaeda.

At least 44 soldiers and militants were killed as the army launched its most serious assault on Jaar to date and also attacked positions near Shaqra, a coastal town on a major shipping route, and other areas, a Yemeni military official told Reuters.

Yemen is battling to retake towns and territory in the southern province of Abyan that were seized by militants linked to al Qaeda last year during a popular uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Washington, which helped engineer Saleh's replacement by his deputy, is supporting the campaign and has increased drone strikes on suspected al Qaeda members it believes may be plotting attacks from Yemen.

It has also sent dozens of military trainers and increased aid to Yemen where it wants President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to reunify the military and focus it against al Qaeda.

Tensions at Manouba University Mirror Turbulence in Tunisia - NYTimes.com

The ultraconservative Islamist student announced his arrival by kicking over a large metal ashtray in the lobby.

"You want to make life hard for me," he shouted, as he climbed the stairs toward the university dean's office. "Well, I can make it hard for you."

Without any security guards to call and knowing that the police would not come soon, if at all, the white-haired dean, Habib Kazdaghli, could only sigh, retreat behind a flimsy locked door, and try to reassure his visitors that everything would be all right.

So began a recent confrontation at Manouba University on the outskirts of Tunis, Tunisia's capital, where tensions have been running high for nearly a year. Here a handful of ultraconservative Salafist students and their busloads of supporters, many from the poor interior of the country, are pitted against an urban faculty with a strong sense that this bare-bones campus with its overgrown paths is no place for prayer rooms or women who veil their faces.

The turmoil at Manouba has kept Dean Kazdaghli, who is elected by faculty representatives, at the top of the news and editorial pages, sometimes admired for his embrace of a secular campus, sometimes derided for letting things get out of control or for failing to acknowledge the needs of the Salafist students.

In many ways, his troubles offer a window into the forces at work in Tunisia today as the country tries to build a new order, balancing the freedoms of democracy and religion and the complex yearnings of people who, after living under repressive rulers for nearly 60 years, have little experience in accommodating their diversity.

Recommended.

Cote d'Ivoire recruits child soldiers from Liberia - Mail & Guardian Online

Militias loyal to Gbagbo are recruiting child soldiers in Liberia to launch attacks similar to that which caused the death last week of 15 people, including seven UN peacekeepers.   Child soldiers as young as 14 are being groomed in training camps and used as scouts in increasingly deadly attacks in the volatile west of Côte d'Ivoire, witnesses said. Human Rights Watch said that youths aged between 14 to 17 were being trained.

"They call us `small boys unit', and we are always safe when we go to the war zones in Côte d'Ivoire. I don't know the total that we have killed," a child soldier told the campaigning group.

Côte d'Ivoire's rugged western region is a stronghold of Gbagbo, whose refusal to leave power landed him in the international criminal court last May after five months of post-electoral conflict dislodged him.

But neighbouring Liberia has been reluctant to clamp down on mercenaries notorious for recruiting child soldiers, while high-profile members of the regime's inner circle live unhindered in upmarket villas in Ghana despite international arrest warrants.

WikiLeaks reveals US concerns over Televisa-Peña Nieto links in 2009 | World news | guardian.co.uk

US diplomats raised concerns that the frontrunner in Mexico's presidential election, Enrique Peña Nieto, was paying for favourable TV coverage as far back as 2009, according to state department cables released by WikiLeaks.

Allegations that coverage by the country's main television network was biased in favour of Peña Nieto have triggered a wave of student demonstrations in the runup to the election on 1 July. The claims are supported by documents seen by the Guardian, which also implicate other politicians in buying news and entertainment coverage.

One cable, written shortly after US embassy officials were taken on a tour of Mexico State when Peña Nieto was governor, says: "It is widely accepted, for example, that the television monopoly Televisa backs the governor and provides him with an extraordinary amount of airtime and other kinds of coverage." The document, which dates from September 2009, was titled: "A look at Mexico State, Potemkin village style".

Another cable from the start of the same year emphasises the importance the then governor Peña Nieto was giving to securing convincing electoral victories for the Institutional Revolutionary party in his state in the upcoming midterm congressional elections that summer.

Earth could be approaching an ecological 'tipping point' (Wired UK)

ould human activity push Earth's biological systems to a planet-wide tipping point, causing changes as radical as the Ice Age's end -- but with less pleasant results, and with billions of people along for a bumpy ride?

It's by no means a settled scientific proposition, but many researchers say it's worth considering -- and not just as an apocalyptic warning or far-fetched speculation, but as a legitimate question raised by emerging science.

"There are some biological realities we can't ignore," said paleoecologist Anthony Barnosky of the University of California, Berkeley. "What I'd like to avoid is getting caught by surprise."

In " Approaching a state shift in Earth's biosphere," published 6 June in Nature, Barnosky and 21 co-authors cite 100 papers in summarising what's known about environmental tipping points.

While the concept was popularised by Malcolm Gladwell's accounts of sudden, widespread changes in society, the underlying mathematics -- which won physicist Kenneth Wilson a Nobel Prize in 1982 -- have far-reaching implications.

In the last few decades, scientists have found tipping behaviors in various natural environments, from locale-scale ponds and coral reefs to regional systems like the Sahara desert, which until 5,500 years ago was a fertile grassland, and perhaps even the Amazon basin.

Water shortage 'to hinder world's economic growth' - Business News - Business - The Independent

Seven of the world's 10 most populated regions face such severe water shortages over the next three decades that they threaten to derail the growth which hundreds of millions of people in the developing world are banking on to lift them out of poverty.

The value of goods and services produced in these regions - which include large parts of India, Bangladesh and North-eastern Africa and are all in the developing world - is forecast to increase more than sevenfold to $15.6 trillion (£10.1 trillion) by 2050. This would increase their share of the growing global economy from 3 per cent now to 12 per cent, and bring prosperity to hundreds of millions of people.

However, water use in these regions is growing so fast that unless action is taken to safeguard its supply they will "face unsustainable water consumption, with significant water scarcity," warns a report by Frontier Economics.

Failure to improve the efficiency with which the water is collected and used, for example by improving pipelines and other infrastructure, could mean that the economic growth expected in these regions "would not materialise," the report adds.

The report has divided and analysed the world in terms of its "river basins" - areas of land, sometimes vast, drained by a river and its tributaries - the most populated of which is the Ganges, which straddles parts of India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

David Tickner, head of freshwater at WWF-UK, said: "This is an extremely serious issue for economies around the world. Improving the way we manage and allocate water is among the great challenges facing the world in the 21st century."

No consensus on EU proposal to ban practice of discarding unwanted fish | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Whether or not fishermen should be permitted to throw away healthy fish at sea instead of selling them to consumers will come to a head at a crunch meeting of Europe's fisheries ministers on Tuesday.

But the UK has still not fully worked out its position ahead of the crunch meeting in Luxembourg, because the Scottish government is not convinced that bringing in a ban on "discards" by 2014 or 2015 will be good for its fishing industry.

The meeting is finely balanced - France, Portugal and Poland are among the countries that may object to a discards ban, while Spain is understood to be wavering. It is impossible to predict whether a ban, along with other key reforms, will be passed.

If the wasteful practice of discarding edible fish at sea is not banned, according to experts, the result will be the destruction of what remains of Europe's dwindling fish stocks.

People are being urged to put pressure on governments across the EU by signalling their support for a ban on the wasteful practice of discarding edible fish at sea, which currently results in the waste of more than 1m tonnes of fish a year as they are thrown back dead.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef and Guardian food writer, who has led the high-profile FishFight campaign to end the practice, called on people to contact politicians and to show their feelings via social networking.

Q&A: "Today's Food System Is Failing Small Farmers" - IPS ipsnews.net

With heads of state from more than 120 nations and tens of thousands of civil society and international development experts gathering for the U.N. Summit on Sustainable Development next week, it is accepted wisdom that rethinking agriculture is one of most critical issues facing this and future generations.

TerraViva spoke with Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a U.N. agency that focuses on eradicating rural poverty in developing countries through hands-on interventions like financial services, markets, technology, land and other natural resources.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: IFAD, and in general experts on agrarian matters, see the fight against poverty as inextricable from the preservation of the environment. In this context, what do you expect from Rio+20?

A: As it stands, today's food and agriculture systems are failing smallholders in developing countries. This is because two key points are not understood well enough by policymakers and the general public. First, of the 1.4 billion people living on under 1.25 dollars per day, one billion of them are in rural areas in developing countries, and the vast majority of those depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. So poverty remains a rural phenomenon and small farms play a central role in providing food and employment.

Second, while it is known that agriculture has huge impacts on the environment, it is not fully recognised that small farms in developing countries are managing vast areas of natural resources. For example, 80 percent of farmland in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is made up of small farms.

The problem is that these farmers, both women and men, are often not empowered to manage their natural resources. They do not have secure access to their land. They are reliant on the weather and do not have access to institutions and markets.

On top of this, smallholder farmers are facing growing threats and risks of volatile food prices and increasing scarcity of natural resources, such as land and water. Changes in climate patterns and expected increases in extreme weather conditions are making life even more difficult for rural communities.

While the Rio+20 negotiations are on-going, IFAD is continuing to work with farmers' organisations, the Rome-based agencies and other partners, to raise awareness about the challenges facing the world's smallholders and to promote an action-oriented agenda with agriculture at the centre. We expect the negotiators will take into account the case of smallholder farmers and give them a level playing field.

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog

The IEA has released a new analysis that helps to demonstrate the systemic failure of policy analyses focused on carbon dioxide emissions reductions.

In the new report the IEA projects that by 2030 the world will be emitting about 45 Gt (gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide. Yet, in 2008, just 4 years ago the IEA was projecting 40 Gt CO2 for 2030 (see it at p. 11 at this PDF).

Where did the extra projected 5 Gt CO2 for 2030 (just about equal to an extra United States) come from over the past 4 years?

It came from a systemic underestimate for future emissions that is built in to almost all such exercises. The IEA assumed in 2008 that future emissions would grow from 2005 to 2030 at 1.5% per year. Actually, from 2005-2010 emissions increased by 2.4% per year (data from PBL in this PDF). The 1990 to 2010 average was a 1.9% increase per year, and 2009 to 2010 was a whopping 5.8% increase.

Thus, in 2008 the IEA used a low-balled 1.5% annual rate of increase in projected emissions to 2030. In the years since, actual emissions have increased by much higher than this rate, which means that the new 2012 projection for 2030 needs to start at a higher starting point than was projected just several years ago. Hence, in the new 2012 report the IEA has quietly increased the 2030 level of emissions o 45 Gt from 40 Gt. I actually anticipated this revision almost exactly when the 2008 IEA report came out.

So, based on this experience, what rate is the IEA now using to project emissions from 2015 to 2030 under a business as usual scenario?

1.3% (45 Gt CO2 in 2030, 37 in 2015)

So much for learning from experience.

Germany's Energy Revolution Hits Potholes - IPS ipsnews.net

When the German government decided last year to phase out nuclear energy by 2022, following the catastrophe at the Fukushima power plant in Japan, it was clear that the process would require extraordinary effort, not only in further developing alternative energy sources, especially renewables, but also in upgrading the country-wide electricity grid.

Germany's nuclear power plants generated a steady 20 percent of the total electricity consumed in the country last year. But renewable energy sources such as wind and sun are mainly generated in the north of the country, are prone to fluctuations, and need to be transported and managed by a new smart grid.

Consequently, the German government was set to install some 1,800 kilometres of new, high voltage power lines across the country by 2012, to improve the storage capacity of the present grid.

Despite the urgency, only 214 kilometres of new power lines have been installed as of Jun. 7.

Germany is one of the largest industrialised countries in the world to have officially renounced nuclear power. Other smaller European states, such as Italy, Belgium and Austria, have also pledged to phase out nuclear power or refrain from building new nuclear plants.

However, in order to truly move towards dependence on renewables, official figures estimate that Germany would need at least 3,800 kilometres of new power lines by 2022. This new grid is necessary to transport the wind energy generated in off-shore farms installed in the North Atlantic Ocean to the highly industrialised southern regions of the country, especially Bavaria and Baden Wuerttemberg.

In addition, at least 4,400 kilometres of the existing grid must be upgraded in that same period. In all, the new grid should cost some 32 billion euros, roughly 40 billion U.S. dollars.

Given the extraordinary boom renewable energy sources have experienced in the country over the past decade, the present inefficient grid constitutes the bottleneck of Germany's energy revolution.

Some Flame code found in Stuxnet virus: expert | Reuters

A leading computer security firm has linked some of the software code in the powerful Flame virus to the Stuxnet cyber weapon, which reportedly was used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear program.

Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive of Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, which uncovered Flame last month, said at the Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit on Monday his researchers have since found that part of the Flame program code is nearly identical to code found in a 2009 version of Stuxnet.

The new research could bolster the belief of many security experts that Stuxnet was part of a massive U.S.-led cyber program still active in the Middle East and perhaps other parts of the world.

Although Kaspersky did not say who he thought built Flame, news organizations, including Reuters and The New York Times, have reported the U.S. and Israel were behind Stuxnet -- which was uncovered in 2010 after it damaged centrifuges used to enrich uranium at a facility in Natanz, Iran.

Instead of issuing denials, authorities in Washington recently launched investigations into leaks about the highly classified project. The White House had no immediate response to Kaspersky's comments.

Google Settles French Lawsuits - WSJ.com

Google's effort to digitize the world's books inched forward Monday, as the search giant said it had struck deals with French authors and publishers that end six years of litigation and open the way to sell out-of-print French books online.

As part of the deal, a French author association that had been suing Google for copyright infringement said it had agreed to withdraw its lawsuit, the last such pending suit in France after other publishers withdrew theirs last year.

Google and France's national publishers association have also hammered out a framework agreement that will allow French publishers and authors to sell digital copies of books Google has scanned, with Google taking a cut of the revenue, the groups and Google said. Individual publishers will have to sign their own deals with Google to start selling books.

Google also coughed up an undisclosed amount of cash to sweeten the deal. As part of the agreements, Google will financially support the creation of a database of works for authors and rights owners, as well as a youth-reading program.

The latest decision is a bit of good news for Google's library-digitization program, which began in 2004 and has scanned tens of millions of books, but has also been saddled with legal challenges.

Most recently, a U.S. federal judge granted class-action certification to a seven-year-old lawsuit that targets its efforts to scan books in universities and libraries. U.S. authors claim that Google cannot legally scan entire books under the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. copyright law.

Japan's 17-year manhunt for Sarin gas suspects draws closer to completion | World news | guardian.co.uk

For nearly two decades, their faces have stared from wanted posters outside the thousands of police boxes that dot every Japanese town and city: a chubby, smiling woman, and a man in his late 30s with dense black eyebrows, both sought in connection with the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

The arrest last weekend of Naoko Kikuchi brought the 17-year manhunt one step closer to completion, leaving at large just one member of Aum Supreme Truth, the doomsday cult behind Japan's worst terrorist incident.

Police say Kikuchi helped make the sarin nerve gas that killed 13 people and injured 6,000 others. She has admitted involvement in sarin production, but claims she did not know it was a lethal nerve agent.

Another cult member, Makoto Hirata, was arrested on New Year's Eve, and about 200 others have been convicted in the gas attack and dozens of other crimes. The group's founder, Shoko Asahara, and 12 others are awaiting execution.

Emboldened by two high-profile arrests in six months, police say they believe they are closing in on the final suspect: Katsuya Takahashi, 54, who allegedly drove five cult members to the locations from which they launched co-ordinated attacks, using umbrellas with sharpened tips to puncture bags filled with liquid sarin and send the gas coursing through carriages packed with commuters.

Dieting craze blamed for cholesterol surge in Sweden - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

A dieting craze in Sweden has been blamed for a surprise surge in
cholesterol levels that may be putting people at increased risk of
heart disease.

The link was uncovered by a 25-year study looking at diet and heart disease risk factors in the north of the country.

An unexpected rise in population cholesterol followed an increase in fat consumption in 2004, reversing earlier trends.

At the same time there was an explosion in the popularity of low carbohydrate/high fat (LCHF) diets in Sweden. The diets focus on cutting out sugar and starch while upping intake of fats, including saturated fat.

Its proponents, such as Dr Annika Dahlqvist, who is credited with starting the Swedish craze, argue that it helps maintain normal weight and blood sugar while freeing people to eat their favourite foods.

A poll last year suggested that a quarter of Swedes had at least partly adopted an LCHF diet. Around 5% had taken it up seriously, leading the DietDoctor website to hail a "Swedish low carb revolution". There were even reports of stores running out of butter due to increasing demand.

The new study was launched in 1986 after concerns about the high incidence of heart disease in northern Sweden.

Scientists analysed data on food and nutrient intake, body weight, height and cholesterol levels compiled from more than 140,000 measurements and questionnaires between 1986 and 2010.

The results showed an initial reduction in fat consumption and cholesterol levels throughout the 1990s. This coincided with the nationwide introduction of an education and food labelling programme aimed at improving diet and health. The Vasterbotten Intervention Programme (VIP) continues to this day.

Rome's Trevi fountain crumbling 'for lack of maintenance' | World news | The Guardian

Ornate stucco reliefs have crumbled from the Trevi fountain, Rome's baroque masterpiece, making it the latest in a series of Italian monuments to suffer damage and reigniting a row over Italy's commitment to protect its heritage.

As hundreds of tourists lobbed pennies into the fountain's pool on Monday, workmen were erecting scaffolding around a section of the facade where fragments of a gargoyle's head and foliage crashed to the ground on Saturday night.

City officials played down the damage, blaming it on Rome's freak snowfall this winter, which caused water infiltration. But as the rest of the fountain was checked for crumbling stucco, Italy's Green party launched a campaign against what it described as dangerous cuts to the funding to maintain Rome's monuments.

"We are asking Romans to tip us off to sites which are not being taken care of," said the Green party president, Angelo Bonelli.

Bonelli cited the Colosseum, where stone fragments fell from a wall last year, and Nero's palace, the Domus Aurea, which has been closed to visitors since a roof collapsed. Archaeologists have also blamed the collapse of a number of walls at Italy's best known dig, Pompeii, on a lack of day-to-day maintenance.

The Trevi fountain, which centres on a statue of Neptune on a chariot and features a cascade of rocky waterfalls, last underwent major works in 1990.

BBC News - Father of Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah sues for murder

The father of Mohamed Merah, the Islamist gunman killed by French police after shooting seven people, has formally sued over his son's "murder".

A lawyer for Mohamed Benalel Merah, who lives in Algeria, said the suit was against those "who gave the orders at the top of the police".

The gunman was shot dead at his flat in Toulouse after a 32-hour siege.

He had confessed to killing seven people, including Jewish children, in a rampage which shocked France.

Mohamed Benalel Merah said soon after his son's death on 22 March he intended to sue the French government.

If I remember correctly ET is turning 7 years old today. Hope there will be many more years to come.

Elinor Ostrom (née Awan; August 7, 1933 - June 12, 2012) [wa]s an American political economist. She was awarded the 2009 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson, for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons." She was the first, and to date, the only woman to win the prize in this category. Her work is associated with the new institutional economics and the resurgence of political economy.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

Valérie Trieweiler, France's First Significant Other, made the TV news today by sending a Twitter message of support to Olivier Falorni, a dissident Socialist candidate standing against segolène Royal... While the rest of the socialist ewtablishment, including Hollande, has been expressing support for Royal.

Big shitstorm about the end of the "normal presidency"... On the contrary, I suspect Hollande engineered it himself... Sympathy ploy.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}