Negotiating stances on the EU's proposed banking union were nailed into the ground on the fringes of an informal European finance ministers meeting in Nicosia today (14 September), following a Eurogroup meeting which left hanging the issue of an aid package for Spain.

Banking union proposals tabled by the Commission on Wednesday (12 September) are top of the agenda at the informal meeting in the Cypriot capital, as countries adopt preliminary stances on the controversial paper.

The Commission wants the European Central Bank (ECB) installed as a new super-regulator by January next year.

But the European Council must agree unanimously on the proposal, and a regulation transferring powers from the European Banking Authority (EBA) must also be agreed with the European Parliament.

Eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus has flatly rejected a proposal by EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso for a major transformation of the European Union into a "federation of nation states", according to Czech press reports.

It is the first time that the leader of an EU country has publicly opposed Barroso's suggestion, made in a State of the Union address to the European Parliament Wednesday (12 September).

Klaus was invited by the website Novinky to comment on Barroso's speech in Strasbourg. He said: "I firmly reject the idea presented by José Barroso," adding: "The only thing I appreciate in his proposal is that the current advocates of deeper European integration have for the first time openly admitted their real goals".

One of Vladimir Putin's former political allies says that Russia has embarked on the "worst-case scenario" since Mr Putin returned to the presidency in May.

Alexei Kudrin, who until late last year was Russia's finance minister, said that the government appeared determined to crack down on opposition leaders and "keep them inside strict boundaries".

The remarks come ahead of a major street protest planned against Mr Putin's rule, and on the day that the Russian parliament expelled Gennady Gudkov, an MP who has become a vocal critic of Mr Putin.

Mr Kudrin, who spent 11 years as finance minister and was widely respected in Russia and internationally, was regarded as one of the few people in the Russian elite who spoke to Mr Putin as an equal, but left the government late last year after an argument with Dmitry Medvedev, then the President and now Prime Minister.

Unemployment in Greece is going from bad to worse, as official figures released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) on Thursday showed a 44 percent increase in the number of jobless in this year's second quarter compared to the same period in 2011.

The April-June rate stood at 23.6 percent, against 22.6 percent in the year's first quarter and 16.3 percent in the second quarter of 2011.

What is even more worrying is the increase in the rate of the long-term unemployed (those who have been out of work for over a year) among the total jobless, which has jumped to 59 percent.

Today in Madrid.

I distribute. You re-distribute. He gives your hard-earned money to lazy scroungers. -- JakeS

The European Commission has withdrawn proposed legislation limiting workers' right to strike, amid a furore from trade unions and EU lawmakers in Parliament who waived a "yellow card" to Brussels for stepping over national sovereignty.

László Andor, EU Employment Commissioner, announced the decision to abandon the proposal to the members of the European Parliament's Employment Committee on Wednesday (12 September).

Critics had condemned the so-called Monti II regulation over its implications for European social rights and for interfering with national sovereignty.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) rejected the proposal as it "restricts the right to take collective action."

BRUSSELS - Denmark is fronting an EU initiative to help consumers boycott Israeli settlement products.

Its foreign ministry is funding an event in Brussels on 23 October to get EU diplomats and NGOs, such as Oxfam and Crisis Action, talking about EU-level guidelines for consumer labels on settlement goods.

The move comes after EU foreign ministers in May said they will "fully and effectively implement existing EU legislation" on the subject.

Euphoria about the US Federal Reserve Bank's new stimulus plan has prompted a global equities rally, sending gold and commodities prices to new highs. The euro also surged, as the US dollar slumped.

... The move added to positive market sentiment prompted by the European Central Bank, which announced last week it would buy the bonds of struggling eurozone members in efforts to bring down their borrowing costs.

... Neal Gilbert, currency strategist at GFT Forex, told the news agency Reuters that decisions made in Europe and the US - coupled with an expected stimulus package in China - could be creating "a bull market for at least the near term."

Workers at South Africa's Lonmin platinum mine have rejected a wage offer from the company to end strikes that have spread across the industry.

Workers dismissed Lonmin's offer as "an insult" after it was made to them at the Marikana plant in the Rusten platinum belt.

The Fed's announcement of QE Unlimited was a clear departure from past strategy: Rather than seeing asset purchases as an amount of money injected into the financial system, the Fed is now aggressively using the power of future guidance.

It's a step in the direction of Nominal GDP targeting, the hot idea endorsed recently by Michael Woodford at the Jackson Hole conference.

But while Woodford is one of the most respected monetary academics in the world, the economist who deserves the most credit for taking a wonky idea and making it mainstream is Bentley economics Professor Scott Sumner who writes the blog The Money Illusion. ...

That really is the key here: Not only has he been incredibly influential, but he really has done it almost entirely through his blog. Also, the bi-partisan swath of his adherents is remarkably rare for an economic pundit. ...

The British, German and US embassies in Khartoum have been besieged by rioters as the wave of anger over an amateur film denigrating the prophet Muhammad spread around the Islamic world and beyond.

Protesters in the Sudanese capital were reported to have targeted the German embassy first, storming through the outer wall and setting fire to a car near the gates before being pushed back by police firing teargas. The crowd then moved on to the British embassy nearby.

Six Chinese ships sailed into waters around a disputed archipelago on Friday, with Beijing saying they were there for "law enforcement" around islands Japan nationalised earlier this week.

The move -- dubbed "unprecedented" by Tokyo -- marked the latest stage in a deteriorating row between Asia's two biggest economies and came as reports emerged of Japanese nationals being physically attacked in China.

Tokyo summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest what it insists is an incursion into territorial waters around islands it controls, called Senkaku, but claimed by Beijing as Diaoyu.

Australia has begun deporting undocumented migrants to camps on Pacific islands, reviving its so-called 'Pacific Solution.' Human rights groups have criticized the policy - and even its effectiveness is in doubt.

Thirty Sri Lankan asylum seekers will be become the first to have refugee claims processed offshore since 2007 after being flown to the Pacific island nation of Nauru from the Australian territory of Christmas Island on Friday.

...

Julia Gillard marches on towards becoming Labour's John Howard...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Fifty five percent of Americans believe Europe is more important to their national interests than China or the rest of Asia, according to the latest German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) transatlantic trends survey, released yesterday (13 September).

It's a striking change of perception from a year ago - when Europe was considered 17% less important - said Ian Lesser, GMF's executive director in Brussels.

The shift represents a return to US attitudes registered in 2004, when a majority of Americans (54%) viewed the countries of Europe as more important to their vital interests than the Asian countries (29%). On the European side, those polled said that the US is more important than Asia, up 9% from last year.

Although the eurozone crisis might have played a role in boosting American perceptions and underlining the strong interdependence of the transatlantic economy, European and Americans also synch in their negative view of China (52% in the U.S. and 50% in Europe).

"The killing of Sheikh Abu Yahya only increased the enthusiasm and determination of the sons of (Libyan independence hero) Omar al-Mokhtar to take revenge upon those who attack our Prophet," Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement, quoted by the US-based monitoring group.

...

But it stressed that "the uprising of our people in Libya, Egypt and Yemen against America and its embassies is a sign to notify the United States that its war is not directed against groups and organisations ... but against the Islamic nation that has rebelled against injustice."

...

Mohammed al-Megaryef, the head of Libya's national assembly, said on Saturday that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was planned and "meticulously executed."

(Reuters) - The Spanish government proposed new taxes on power generation on Friday to help plug a 24 billion euro ($31 billion) funding gap in the power industry, resulting from years of selling energy below cost price, ending months of uncertainty and controversy.

The long-awaited bill, which must be approved by parliament, includes a flat 6 percent tax on power generation revenues and other levies to raise 2.7 billion euros annually and by next year stop the so-called power deficit from expanding.

..."This proposal is much better than the one leaked in July, which would have taxed wind energy at 11 percent and the firms will be able to pass much of the tax burden onto consumers," Alvaro Navarro, an energy analyst at Intermoney in Madrid said.

France's government begins a review of the world's most nuclear-dependent country's energy policy on Friday (14 September), strongly in support of its small and ailing renewables sector in an effort to boost local jobs and growth.

Ministers, NGOs, unions, industries, parliamentarians and consumers will converge for a two-day conference to agree on how to conduct a six-month national debate that will seek to reshape the way energy is produced, consumed and taxed in France.

Its new Socialist government is expected to announce immediate measures to help the crisis-hit renewable energy sector - which employs 100,000 people - as part of its battle to tackle soaring unemployment.

Japan announced in a non-binding policy proposal Friday that it would aim to phase out nuclear power by 2040 in the wake of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster, which renewed concerns over the safety of nuclear energy.

...Ahead of a general election expected this autumn, nuclear energy has become a hot issue in Japan with regular protests that sometimes attract tens of thousands of people calling for it to be ditched.

The issuing of a policy goal Friday is not binding on any future government, and a new administration could reverse the plan.

Last week, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) recommended the country make greater use of renewable energy, and take further energy saving measures, including the use of smart metering.

..."There is no way we can accept this -- I cannot think this is technologically possible," Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of the Keidanren, or Japan Business Federation, said of the new policy.

Satellite images show that the rapid summer melt has reduced the area of frozen sea to less than 3.5 million square kilometres this week - less than half the area typically occupied four decades ago.

Arctic sea ice cover has been shrinking since the 1970s when it averaged around 8m sq km a year, but such a dramatic collapse in ice cover in one year is highly unusual.

A record low in 2007 of 4.17m sq km was broken on 27 August 2012; further melting has since amounted to more than 500,000 sq km.

crew members who lost a radioactive rod used in drilling wells in West Texas weren't guilty of criminal conduct, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said as a hunt for the tool entered a fourth day.

FBI officials working with the Texas Department of Transportation questioned three employees who were unable to locate the device this week after it went missing on a 130-mile (209-kilometer) route from Pecos to Odessa, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission incident report today.

serious paper on avoiding dangerous climate chg, shorter: almost physically impossible. Abandon hope all ye who live. http://bit.ly/RXfcdN

Berlin's top security official says he has a "responsibility to the victims" of a murderous band of neo-Nazis to find out whether it is true that information on them was not passed along by city police.

Berlin interior minister Frank Henkel said today media reports that a city police informant provided tips about the group's whereabouts that were not shared with agencies actively seeking them "does not shine a favorable light on our security agencies."

Der Spiegel reports the informant gave details on the so-called NSU from 2000 to 2005 primarily "based on hearsay" and it was not clear how good the information was.

Several filmmakers have tackled the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But few have approached the thorny subject quite like French Jewish filmmaker Yolande Zauberman and her Lebanese writing partner Sélim Nassib: through the prism of sex.

In their new documentary "Would You Have Sex With an Arab?", Zauberman and Nassib take to the streets of Tel Aviv at night, prowling bars and clubs, cafés and underground soirées, in search of Israeli Jews and Arabs willing to answer a startling question: Would you have sex with a member of the other community?

The responses, ranging from militant refusal to candid confessions of illicit one-night stands and longterm love affairs ending in heartbreak, are funny, surprising, confusing, and sometimes quite moving.

The Balkan country of Albania has hundreds of thousands of disused communist-era bunkers and a booming tourist industry. Now a joint German-Albanian project has put the two things together -- and is converting a bunker into a backpacker hostel.

In the period from 1900 to 2007, when Republicans were in power, violent death rates rose to "epidemic levels" (defined as an average violent death rate of between 19.4 and 26.5 per 100,000). When Democrats were in power, however, the rates dropped to "normal" levels, which were below 19.4. Only under Republican presidents did the violent death rates rise to epidemic levels, and only under Democratic presidents did they fall from epidemic levels to normal levels. Dwight D Eisenhower was the only Republican president under whom the violent death rate did not become an epidemic, and Jimmy Carter was the only Democrat who failed to normalise the violent death rate.

The results were statistically significant: the magnitude and consistency of the correlation were such that it could not be attributed to chance alone. Correlation, however, does not prove causation, as Dr Gilligan - being a highly experienced scientist - is quick to point out. And yet, the initial findings themselves are startling:

During the entire 107-year period, there was a net cumulative increase of 19.9 violent deaths per 100,000 population during the 59 years Republicans were in power, and an almost exactly equal net decrease of 18.3 during the 48 years of Democratic administrations.

If that sounds confusing, then bear in mind that, at the current US population level, an increase of a single digit in the violent death rate signifies 3,000 additional violent deaths per year - roughly the same number that died in the terrorist attacks of September 11^th 2001.

surely a coincidence...

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

On Saturday, he said Romney "understands" and "shares" the values of religious conservatives and encouraged them to help elect the former Massachusetts governor to the White House.

Santorum said that while voters were primarily focused on the state of the nation's economy, there was "more at stake in this country than just economics," and he cautioned conservatives that they would never have the support of the media or "elite, smart people" on their side.

"They believe they should have the power to tell you what to do. So our colleges and universities, they're not going to be on our side," he said.

Privacy laws in France are considered to be among the most robust in the world, with leading politicians regularly using courts to prevent the publication of embarrassing photos that would be innocuous by the standards of British tabloids.

Thomas Roussineau, who specialises in privacy law, said the French magazine Closer had undoubtedly broken the country's privacy laws by publishing photos of the duchess on holiday in Provence.

"It is totally forbidden," he said. "The castle is not the street, it is in a private place, and they are intimate pictures."

But he said it was likely the magazine had weighed up the potential cost of a fine against the revenue the photos would bring.

A drunk, middle-aged man falls off a subway platform and is knocked unconscious as his head hits the tracks.

A bystander who witnessed the accident jumps down after him -- but not for a daring rescue before the train arrives.

Instead, the witness steals the man's valuables, climbs back on the platform and leaves his victim to be hit by a train.

The man -- who was on his way home from a party -- survived, but was seriously injured and doctors had to amputate half his left foot, Sweden's TV3 channel reported.

A new hero for Randians?...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

The image of the Hebrew prophet Moses high-fiving Jesus Christ as both are having their erect penises vigorously masturbated by Ganesha, all while the Hindu deity anally penetrates Buddha with his fist, reportedly went online at 6:45 p.m. EDT, after which not a single bomb threat was made against the organization responsible, nor did the person who created the cartoon go home fearing for his life in any way.

This is probably not illegal (although I do wonder), but certainly on the wrong side of ethical...

Wind power

It's safe to say that with more than 167 million views on YouTube, Psy's"Gangnam Style" is making an impact on American pop culture.

Following his appearance at the Video Music Awards, Psy has taught Britney Spears and Ellen DeGeneres his signature dance moves and had the crowd screaming "Hey, sexy lady" during his performance on the "Today" show.

With his overnight success and newfound U.S. fanbase, many admirers have taken it upon themselves to create parody videos of the viral hit. Yet, there is one "Gangnam Style" video that may have backfired. Last month, 13 El Monte, California, lifeguards and their supervisor lost their jobs after posting their video spoof, "Lifeguard Style," while using the city's pool facilities without permission.

On Friday (September 14) Psy, who just signed with Scooter Braun's Schoolboy Records, stopped by MTV News and admitted he is willing to help out the group of lifeguards.

Scold them, fine them, would be OK – but fire them for such misdemeanor!?...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}