Minimum Wage Compromise Gives Merkel a Domestic Boost | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 19.06.2007

Having proven herself on the international stage, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also strengthened her domestic profile Tuesday with a compromise on extending minimum wage coverage and a nursing care insurance reform.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly shown her ability to unite world leaders, most recently by reaching an agreement on fighting climate change at this month's G8 summit, but squabbling among members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their coalition partner, the Social Democrats, has hobbled the chancellor's domestic image. 

 

After taking over as the head of the grand coalition government in 2005, Merkel has had to work hard to find common ground between two parties that have been at loggerheads for the better part of 60 years.

 

But early on Tuesday, Merkel struck a deal on the minimum wage, an issue that has strained relations between the two parties in recent weeks. The deal will see minimum wage protections extended beyond construction workers and building cleaners to another 10 to 12 industrial sectors. Merkel also brokered an agreement on raising mandatory contributions to statutory nursing care, costs which are shared by workers and employers, by 0.25 percent as of July 2008 while lowering unemployment insurance payments by 0.3 percent to 3.9 percent beginning in January.

Barroso warns new EU states on dangers of summit failure -EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has called on new member states to play ball at the upcoming summit on a new treaty for the bloc or risk the likely political fallout - less money from the EU coffers.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon (19 June), Mr Barroso, who has been banging the drum in favour keeping most of the rejected EU constitution but in a different form, said it was in central and eastern European member states' interests to show that the EU had not been weakened since they joined in 2004 and 2007.

"I believe...it would be in their interest for them to show that their membership of the EU is not making the union's life more difficult," said the commission chief.

He indicated that if the summit, which is "of special significance," were to fail "the mechanisms of coherence in the European Union...the mechanisms of solidarity will naturally be weakened," and there will be a "shadow of mistrust" cast on the

Brits, Danes and Swedes largely against EU constitution - EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Support for the EU among the bloc's citizens has risen to the highest level since early 1990s with two thirds favouring the concept of a European constitution, but a state-like EU charter is opposed most strongly in Britain, Denmark and Sweden.

According to a fresh Eurobarometer survey, to be published on Wednesday (20 June), a feeling of optimism about Europe has spread across the member states.

Fifty nine percent of respondents said they consider EU membership as beneficial for their country - the highest percentage since 1991, while overall support for the union stands at 57 percent, at its highest since 1994.

The Dutch (77%), Irish (76%) and Luxembourgers (74%) are the staunchest supporters of the EU, while the biggest drop of positive sentiment was recorded in the Czech Republic (from 51 percent in autumn 2006 to 46%) and in Latvia (from 43% to 37%).

Dissatisfaction Grows with Italy's Political Caste: How Long Can Prodi Hang On? - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Rumors of the political death of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi appear to be greatly exaggerated -- "Il Professore" is hanging on in office despite a razor-thin majority and a lack of vision. But are Italians tiring of their pampered political caste?

DPA

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, shown here in a May 2006 file photo, hangs on in power despite continually being written off. Gravity appears to function in a similar way in Italian politics as it does in animated cartoons. In a cartoon, when the hero runs off a cliff he keeps on going as if nothing has happened, only crashing to the ground when he notices the abyss below. Romano Prodi seems to have decided not to look down.

Week after week, the newspapers declare the 67-year-old Italian prime minister to be finished politically -- deceived by his allies, duped by his own intelligence services and considered completely incompetent by his fellow business professors.

Last week Prodi announced, once again, that he has the government's firm support. And to those in his coalition government who were urging him to take action, he said: "Here is the push forward you are demanding." Then he announced his plan to increase the pensions of some retirees by €50-70. These are the visions of Romano Prodi.

William Pfaff: Europe's new leaders - International Herald Tribune

PARIS: Many in Washington are now under the impression that with Nicholas Sarkozy as president of France, Angela Merkel as Germany's chancellor, a presumably Atlantist Gordon Brown succeeding Tony Blair in Britain, the Kaczynski brothers in Warsaw, weakened left-wing governments in Spain and Italy, and a strengthened conservative government in Belgium, happy days are here again. This rests to a considerable extent upon the false assumption that personalities and sentiment, not interests (as they are perceived by governments and public), govern foreign policies.

A certain confusion over Sarkozy's rallying to Washington was caused by Sarkozy himself, who last year performed a small grovel in Washington to get a campaign picture taken of himself with George W. Bush (a maneuver which actually damaged him at home).

Confusion is also due to the defective knowledge of the United States possessed by many of those in France who deplored France and Germany's break with the United States over the Iraq invasion. Recently the French celebrity-philosopher Bernard Henri Lévy published an article that prompted a number of American, and other, conservatives to think that a neoconservative has been named to lead France's foreign policy.

France gets 1st woman finance boss - CNN.com

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy reshuffled his cabinet on Tuesday after losing a key minister in a parliamentary election and made former international lawyer Christine Lagarde France's first female economy minister.

Just a month after naming his team, Sarkozy switched the previous economy chief Jean-Louis Borloo to run a new energy and environment mega-ministry in place of Alain Juppe who quit the government after losing his constituency in Sunday's poll.

"You can't refuse an offer like that," Borloo was quoted as saying by the daily Le Parisien ahead of the announcement.

Borloo becomes de facto deputy to Prime Minister Francois Fillon, even though some on the center-right blame his unguarded comments on a possible value-added tax hike for their smaller-than-expected majority in the weekend election.

Lagarde entered politics in 2005 as trade minister in the previous conservative administration and her assured handling of the brief meant she was given the tricky farms portfolio last month when Sarkozy unveiled his administration.

Her promotion to economy minister was something of a surprise, and she must now sell economic reforms to the sceptical unions and convince EU partners that tax cuts will not stop Paris respecting the bloc's rules on fiscal discipline.

Germany snubs new French president's Airbus 'summit' | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has turned down an invitation from the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to discuss the future of Airbus and ownership of its parent company, EADS, at a "summit" in Toulouse next month, the Guardian has learned.

Senior industry sources said Ms Merkel saw no reason to attend such a meeting when the German state had no stake in Airbus. German interests are represented by a private sector company, DaimlerChrysler, which controls 22.5% of EADS voting stock.

The sources said: "No announcement has been made but Berlin feels it is inappropriate for the chancellor to attend what amounts to a shop-floor meeting in a French factory ... Why not Hamburg for that matter?"

Toulouse and Hamburg are the main Airbus manufacturing sites.

Tax and the city: Four private equity chiefs appear before angry MPs - Independent Online Edition > Tax

t is a long time since Gordon Brown pledged to end "the tax abuses which reach to the heart of our public finances by indulging the super-rich at the expense of the rest of us". More than a decade later, there is a growing sense that the Brown promise has not been kept. Today will see the latest phase in a ferocious row breaking out over the privileges of a select group of multi-millionaires who dominate the financial affairs of London.

Damon Buffini, 44, head of the private equity group Permira, is to appear before the Treasury Select Committee to defend his industry from allegations of excessive profiteering. Three other senior members of the industry will also be required to testify before MPs. The interrogation comes as the Liberal Democrats call for the abolition of a series of tax concessions currently exploited by some of the wealthiest businessmen in Britain.

Mr Buffini is thought to be worth about £150m, while Permira has bought businesses ranging from New Look to Little Chef and Holmes Place and made a 600 per cent return from its £900m sale of a revamped Homebase group.

Brown promises cultural war on terrorism | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Gordon Brown has pledged to wage a cultural war on terrorism similar to that used against communism during the cold war.

Speaking to the Association of Chief Police Officers, Mr Brown said it was vital to win hearts and minds, and today's generation had to address the threat. "We must work across society to isolate the extremists from society to protect and advance the British way of life," he told the Acpo conference in Manchester.

Article continues Mr Brown, who becomes prime minister next week, praised the police for the work they had done in tackling Islamist extremists and bringing them to justice.

In a speech covering many aspects of law and order, Mr Brown also proposed earlier involvement with families deemed to be troublesome.

"We need to intervene earlier when children show the first signs of behavioural problems," he said.

BlackBerry ban for French cabinet
By Mark Solomons in Paris

Members of the new French cabinet have been told to stop using their BlackBerries because of fears that the US could intercept state secrets.

The SGDN, which is responsible for national security, has banned the use of the personal data assistants by anyone in the president's or prime minister's offices on the basis of "a very real risk of interception" by third parties.

The ban has been prompted by SGDN concerns that the BlackBerry system is based on servers located in the US and the UK, and that highly sensitive strategic information being passed between French ministers could fall into foreign hands.

(...)

The BlackBerry has become the favoured communications accessory of bankers, journalists and others, but the government is following an example set by the French private sector. Total, the oil company, has never allowed its staff to use the BlackBerry, also for "security reasons" according to the company. "There are plenty of other perfectly good PDAs," Total said.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

China passes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

China has overtaken the US as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, a development that will increase anxiety about its role in driving man-made global warming and will add to pressure on the world's politicians to reach an agreement on climate change that includes the Chinese economy.

China's emissions had not been expected to overtake those from the US, formerly the biggest polluter, for several years, although some reports predicted it could happen next year.

Article continues But according to figures released yesterday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which advises the Dutch government, soaring demand for coal to generate electricity and a surge in cement production have helped to push China's recorded emissions for 2006 beyond those of the US.

The agency said China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 last year, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US. Britain produced about 600m tonnes. But per head of population, China's pollution remains relatively low, about a quarter of that in the US and half that of the UK.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Leaves GOP - The Huffington Post

NEW YORK -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday switched his party status from Republican to unaffiliated, a stunning move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race.

The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the GOP for his first mayoral run, said the change in voter registration does not mean he is running for president.

"Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city," he said in a statement.

Despite his coyness about his aspirations, the mayor's decision to switch stokes speculation that he will pursue the White House, challenging the Democratic and Republican nominees with a legitimate and well-financed third-party bid.

The Blotter

Pregnant Iraqi women who have been forced from their homes by worsening violence are obtaining illegal abortions because they are unable to get medical care for themselves and their unborn, according to a new report by a national humanitarian group.

A record number of Iraqis -- most of them women and children -- are fleeing their homes to escape the bloodshed of sectarian violence and anti-U.S. attacks, according to a new report by the Iraqi Red Crescent organization, the largest aid group operating in Iraq.

Health care is inadequate and difficult to access for those people, according to the IRC report. 

"Pregnant women, infants and children are unable to get...required medical care," states the report, which was translated from Arabic, "and criminal abortion became [sic] the norms."

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - The death of the two-state solution

Last week's developments in Gaza culminating in Fatah's defeat by Hamas resulted in the formation of two Palestinian governments, one led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza and the other by Fatah's Salaam Fayad in the West Bank. Call it a nightmare, a fiasco, fragmentation, but not temporary, as all the vital signs indicate that the political partition of the West Bank and Gaza is a fait accompli, unlikely to reverse short of an all-out Israeli military invasion and reoccupation of Gaza.

According to the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, that is precisely what Israel's new Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is also the new chairman of the Labor Party, is planning, a "military operation in Gaza within weeks". According to the report, Barak's aim is to destroy Hamas militarily. Then what? Keep Gaza indefinitely occupied, or hand over the authority to the much-discredited Fatah operatives from the West Bank?

If Hamas plays its cards right, such as by refraining from any attacks on Israel, then it will be difficult for Barak and other Israeli leaders to justify a unilateral reinvasion of Gaza. Already, in his first interview with the European press since trouncing Fatah, Haniyeh has taken credit for bringing "stability" to Gaza after many months of growing chaos.

In the Amazon, giving blood but getting nothing - International Herald Tribune

KYOWÃ, Brazil: As the Karitiana Indians remember it, the first researchers to draw their blood came here in the late 1970s, shortly after the Amazon tribe began sustained contact with the outside world. In 1996, another team visited, promising medicine if the Karitiana would just give more blood, so they dutifully lined up again.

But that promise was never fulfilled, and since then the world has expanded again for the Karitiana through the arrival of the Internet. Now they have been enraged by a simple discovery: their blood and DNA collected during that first visit are being sold by an American concern to scientists around the world for $85 a sample.

They want the practice stopped, and are demanding compensation for what they describe as the violation of their personal integrity.

"We were duped, lied to and exploited," Renato Karitiana, the leader of the tribal association, said in an interview here on the tribe's reservation in the western Amazon, where 313 Karitiana eke out a living by farming, fishing and hunting. "Those contacts have been very injurious to us, and have spoiled our attitude toward medicine and science."

At last, an informative article on some Hugo Chavez policies not working:

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3222,36-925451@51-923279,0.html

[...] Le ministre a récusé les chiffres avancés rappelant que, depuis 2003, vols et cambriolages diminuent. Mais il n'a pu nier que les homicides ont atteint en 2006 le record de 12 257 - trois fois plus qu'en 1998. La situation est très grave à Caracas, où, selon le Centre pour la paix de l'Université centrale du Venezuela, le nombre d'homicides pour 100 000 habitants atteint le chiffre de 105, le plus élevé d'Amérique latine.

L'opposition estime que les données officielles sont sous-estimées. "L'impunité décourage les gens d'aller porter plainte", note Carlos Ocariz, de Primero Justicia. 90 % des crimes commis restent impunis.

"Chavez est un bon président, mais manque d'autorité, et les flics sont toujours aussi corrompus", soupire Pedro Reyes, un épicier qui s'étonne de la réputation d'autoritarisme faite à M. Chavez sur la scène internationale.

A Caracas, l'alcool, la drogue et les armes alimentent la violence faite de conflits familiaux et de rixes entre voisins. "Alors que des voix s'élèvent pour demander l'instauration de la peine de mort et que les militaires voudraient durcir la politique répressive, Hugo Chavez reste rétif au discours sécuritaire et aux mesures autoritaires", note Ana Maria Sanjuan, du Centre pour la paix. "Il croit, contre toute évidence, poursuit-elle, que l'amélioration des conditions de vie finira par résoudre le problème de la criminalité."
[...]

That's the true failure of Hugo Chavez government up to now. What are the real causes and possible solutions looks like hard questions and neither government nor opposition seem to propose workable solutions:

http://oilwars.blogspot.com/2007/06/again-open-microphone-but-nothing-to.html

The Economist just woke up to renewal of border dispute between India and China.

However I would say this article has too many wrong assumptions to characterize relations between Asian giants. Just take a look at this:

Just a few days ago one Punjabi told me that Russia is so poor country that sells only weapons and that Putin likes Sonia Gandhi too much (he was probably BJP supporter). I replied - He likes anybody in power in New Delhi to sell weapons but I would prefer Russia would export into India something else. If Americans will replace Russia as the main Indian arms supplier I would be only happy but unfortunately Indians are wary of the unpredictable behaviour of Americans because they imposed sanctions on this country, and withdrew economic aid, not once and know very well how Americans (don't) supply spare parts when relations between countries are not in best shape. Still I believe Indians will insist from Americans on import of technologies first in the way they ask for technologies from Russians. Will Americans agree on that, without receiving any firm guarantees of Indian support in future conflicts? I doubt it. For Indians the independent course is paramount.

Europe opens the door to in-flight phoning - International Herald Tribune

PARIS: European regulators have cleared use of mobile phones and BlackBerry devices for passengers while flying, Airbus announced Tuesday.

Approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency means that, from September, passengers aboard Airbus aircraft outfitted with the OnAir system will be able to send and receive phone calls, SMS messages and e-mail messages while flying at altitudes above 3,000 meters, or 9,840 feet.

Cabin staff members will be able to turn off the system or restrict usage to text services like SMS, as they see fit.

The first aircraft to go into operation with the system will probably be a short-haul Airbus A318 operated by Air France. The British airline BMI, the Portuguese airline TAP and the budget airline Ryanair have also signed up to offer the services, said Graham Lake, chief commercial officer of OnAir, a joint venture between Airbus and SITA, a communications services company.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Vatican's 'driving commandments'

The Vatican has issued a set of "10 commandments" for motorists to promote safer driving.

The "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road" call on drivers to respect speed limits, refrain from drinking before driving and avoid cursing.

Roman Catholics are also urged to make the sign of the cross before setting off on a journey.

This is said to be the first time the Vatican has specifically dealt with the growing worldwide problem of road rage.

DutchNews.nl - Heroin addicts 'a dying breed'

Heroin addicts 'a dying breed'

Wednesday 20 June 2007

Heroin addicts in the Netherlands are a dying breed, according to drugs monitoring institute Trimbos in today's AD.

The organisation says heroin junkies are becoming older. Of the 14,000 heroin addicts in the country just 6% are 'youngish', Henk Maurits told the AD. 'If we carry on like this, there will not be any junkies left.'

The use of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy were all stable, Maurits said, although people were asking for help more often.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I completely missed this! I knew it was in the pipeline, but this is fast!!!!

DutchNews.nl - Cabinet backs smoking ban in bars

Cabinet backs smoking ban in bars

Friday 08 June 2007

Smoking is to be partially banned in Dutch cafés, bars, restaurants and discotheques from July next year, the cabinet agreed on Friday. Smoking will still be permitted in separate, closed-off rooms without waitress service, health minister Ab Klink said after Friday's cabinet meeting.

The hospitality industry had called for a phased ban, which had been agreed with the previous government. It said the current government was untrustworthy for going back on old agreements.

In so-called coffee shops where people can buy small quantities of cannabis, smoking will be banned in the area where soft drugs are sold.

The phased ban was, as I have reported before, completely useless in achieving set goals.

Good morning all, we had a tremendous thunderstorm here this morning. Everything was vibrating from the thunder and there was amazing lightening.

BBC NEWS | Business | Airbus superjumbo for private use

An unnamed buyer at the Paris air show has placed an order for an Airbus A380 superjumbo to use as a private jet.

Airbus said the individual, "not from Europe or the US", would use the plane for "personal use for him and his entourage", AFP news agency reported.

The double-decker, which is thought to have cost $300m (£150m), has 900 sq m (10,000 sq ft) in cabin space and has room for up to 840 passengers.

It is expected to take more than a year to convert the jet for private use.

Thanks again for your help, it was much more fun again this morning to copy the links. :-)

ScienceNow

You don't need to donate to charity to feel all warm inside. Researchers have found that even when money is taken from some people involuntarily, they feel good about the transaction, as long as the funds go to a good cause. The findings may force economists to rethink just what guides our response to taxes and other financial decisions.

Does half a dozen oysters, bread and a bottle of rosé taken by the quayside count as breakfast or not?

We're enjoying Séte ...