EUobserver: Moldova accuses Romania of staging riots

Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin has blamed EU neighbour Romania for staging post-election riots and announced he would expel Bucharest's ambassador and reintroduce visas for Romanians.

Some 2,000 protesters were gathering for the third day on Wednesday (8 April) in Chisinau, after police took over the control of the parliament and presidential palace a night before.

Interior ministry spokeswoman Ala Meleca said 193 people, including eight minors, had been detained overnight on charges of looting, robbery, hooliganism and affray. One woman died and some 100 people were injured in the clashes.

EUobserver: Ireland unveils tough budget as nation faces 'challenge of its life'

The Irish government on Tuesday (7 April) unveiled a tough new budget including a series of tax hikes and spending cuts in a bid to get the country's public finances, the worst in Europe, back under control by 2013.

Income levies were the main point of the budget, unveiled by finance minister Brian Lenihan, with a doubling of the rates introduced in autumn last year and a lowering of the thresholds of when they apply.

The country's low corporate tax (12.5%) - one of the main reasons for Ireland's phenomenal economic growth in recent years - will remain the same but capital gains and capital acquisitions tax have been raised to 25 percent.

Reuters: UK's Brown says budget will promote green recovery

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday the upcoming budget will contain environmental measures to aid recovery from recession, including creating thousands of "green" jobs.

He told the Independent newspaper that finance minister Alistair Darling would unveil the plans in the budget on April 22. Part of the budget will involve boosting the use of electric cars in a network of charging points in pilot cities.

He also indicated there would be little room for a further economic stimulus from tax breaks.

Financial Times: Gul lashes out at European critics

European criticism of Turkey's increasingly assertive foreign policy is dangerous and could hamper co-operation on some of the biggest threats to western security, Abdullah Gul, Turkey's president, has warned.

Mr Gul said he was disturbed by criticism of Turkey's strong objections to the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, to lead Nato. Ankara only dropped its opposition after Barack Obama, US president intervened.

"It's very dangerous and it's making us disturbed," Mr Gul said in an interview with the Financial Times, showing his evidently strong feelings by interrupting his translator to speak in English.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: 'We Need Help from Abroad'

Hers is not an enviable position to be in. Stefania Pezzopane is the provincial president of L'Aquila, the central Italian region struck hard by a Monday morning earthquake. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with her about the damage, her hopes for reconstruction and shortcomings in the emergency response.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ms. Pezzopane, what was your personal experience of the earthquake here in Abruzzo?

Pezzopane: I had been worried for months because we had already experienced a serious tremor last year on Nov. 30. In the early hours of Monday morning, I was at home in L'Aquila. At 11 p.m., there was an initial quake. Then there was another one at 2 a.m. Then came the big one, like a gigantic monster that shook our home in a rage. I still get goose bumps when I think about it.

Guardian (Comment is Free): A new path for Europe

This is an initiative by UK Labourite Jon Cruddas and German SPD vice-chair Andrea Nahles (leader of the left flank in her party, I think you could say). I'll jump to the part where they start getting concrete:

A co-ordinated, European fiscal stimulus will create a multiplier effect that will far outweigh national efforts. Alongside it we must introduce fair policies on taxation. The European Monetary Union needs reform and the mandate of the European Central Bank must be broadened to include social objectives and the prevention of unemployment. A more social Europe will improve the prospects of Britain joining the euro.

A new industrial policy will map out Europe's priorities and needs. When public services and utilities are failing, we should consider the option of public ownership or placing them under public control. A secure Europe means a European minimum wage, corresponding to the national average income. It means restoring collective bargaining and workers' rights to strike, and we must establish equality for migrant workers. Transnational corporations must be made subject to democratic oversight. We need to aid the economic development of the global south, which will mean using capital controls, closing down tax havens, taxing global financial transactions, and creating fair-trade policies.

There's a website to go along with that, designed by Jon Worth: Building the good society - Die gute Gesellschaft

EDRI: EP needs to protect users' rights in the Telecom Package!

The new developments on the Telecom Package over the last two weeks, with the approval of a new text in the IMCO (Internal Market Committee) of the European Parliament (EP) and the initiation of the trialogue between EU Council, the European Commission and the Parliament in order to reach an agreement on the final text, shows the worst situation for Internet users.

Although much of the MEPs seem happy with the new text that allows "simplifying life for telecom users", they seem to forget that other articles are raising much bigger problems for Internet users, especially related to the 3 strikes proposal or to privacy on the Internet. And facing the June 2009 Euro-elections, MEPs need to support the users' rights also for the second reading of the text, which will probably take place during the first week of May.

Germany Bids for Rest of Hypo Real Estate, Moves Closer to Nationalization - Bloomberg.com

The German state offered to buy property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, moving closer to the country's first bank nationalization since the 1930s.
...
J.C. Flowers Co., which leads a group of investors holding 24 percent of the bank, said last week it may take legal action to block nationalization.

The state acquired an 8.7 percent stake in Hypo Real Estate last month as a first step toward taking control. By gaining a majority stake with today's offer, the government would clear the way for approval of a capital increase at an extraordinary general meeting. That would enable the state to squeeze out remaining shareholders.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

FT.com / Europe - French `bossnappers' release hostages

French workers on Wednesday released four managers of a British manufacturer held hostage for more than 18 hours, in a direct challenge to President Nicolas Sarkozy's assurances that he would end "bossnapping".

Managers at four factories - subsidiaries of foreign companies - have been taken hostage in disputes about job cuts and severance pay in the past month.

Bossnapping is not new in France but the growing number of corporate restructurings and rising unemployment have fuelled growing militancy in labour protests. A poll this week showed almost half of those interviewed believed that actions such as bossnapping were acceptable.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

This was so patently ridiculous that I just had to post it (quick and dirty translation):

ДНИ.РУ ИНТЕРНЕТ-ГАЗЕТА ВЕРСИЯ 5.0 / Саакашвили планировал убийство своей жены		Saakashvili planned the murder of his wife
Президент Грузии Михаил Саакашвили готовил теракт, жертвой которого должна была стать его жена Сандра Руловс. Таким образом Саакашвили намеревался обеспечить себе победу на выборах главы государства 5 января прошлого года.		Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili planned an attack, in which the intended victim was supposed to be his wife, Sandra Rulovs. It was in this manner that Saakashvili intented to secure victory in the presidential election last year on January 5th.
"Он был готов принести в жертву супругу, только бы гарантировать себе победу на выборах", - заявил бывший руководитель Палаты контроля Грузии Сулхан Молашвили, в настоящее время проживающий в Германии. "Саакашвили - авантюрист, готовый на все для сохранения власти", - добавил он, уточнив, что "сценарий теракта", во время которого погибла бы Руловс, будущий грузинский президент разрабатывал перед выборами со своими пиар-специалист& #1072;ми.		"He was prepared to sacrifice his spouse, only to guarantee himself a victory in the election", said former chairman of the Chamber of Control of Georgia, Sylkhan Molashvili, who's currently residing in Germany. "Saakashvili is an opportunist, prepared to maintain power at all costs", he added, having pointed out that the future Georgian president worked with his PR specialists on the "script" for the attack, during which Rulovs was supposed to die, before the elections.

Granted that Dni.ru is a very tabloidy site, but this was pretty hysterical, even for them!

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde

Czech Republic: New Prime minister appointed

Jan Fischer, the former head of the Czech Statistical Office, will formally take over next month and lead the country until elections due in October.
For the next four weeks, Mr Fischer will be charged with putting together a non-partisan cabinet of technocrats, who will be appointed on 9 May.

So Czech republic has sort of two prime ministers now, and constitutional experts are not exactly happy about it.

EurActiv: No clear majority predicted in new Parliament

Two months ahead of the European elections, leading researchers are predicting that the next European Parliament will strike an equilibrium between centre-right and centre-left, but the growing influence of Central and Eastern European MEPs will shift the power balance within the political groups.

"We are predicting overall stability for the next Parliament," said Simon Hix, a professor at the London School of Economics, who together with Trinity College Professor Michael Marsh devised a methodology which predicted the outcome of the last European elections fairly accurately in 2004.

European Voice: Canada to challenge the EU over trade in seal products

Canada has said it will challenge the EU in the World Trade Organization (WTO) if it goes ahead with ban on trade in seal-skin products.

"There is no justification for any ban on trade in seal products," said Stockwell Day, Canada's minister of international trade, in a statement issued on Friday (3 April). Day said that if the EU did not include an exemption for "humanely harvested seal products", Canada would challenge the bloc at the WTO. "We are confident that the WTO will find that such a measure violates the obligations of the EU under the WTO," he said.

Bloomberg: Roubini Says Bank Takeovers Deepened Financial Market Crisis

Bank takeovers worsened the financial crisis by making firms that were already too big even bigger, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted the financial crisis.

"The institutions are insolvent," Roubini said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. "You have to take them over and you have to split them up into three or four national banks, rather than having a humongous monster that is too big to fail."

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to buy Bear Stearns Cos. in March 2008, with help from the Federal Reserve, while Bank of America Corp. purchased Merrill Lynch & Co. Wells Fargo & Co. took control of Wachovia Corp. and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. got National City Corp.

Financial Times: Karmann Ghia maker files for insolvency

Karmann on Wednesday became the most prominent German victim of the rapid economic downturn as the company famous for the legendary Karmann Ghia sports car filed for insolvency.

The car parts maker and contract manufacturer said a sharp drop in revenue had "blown up all plans".

The family-owned company, employing around 8,000 employees worldwide and about 3,400 in Germany, adds to a slew of failures among medium-sized automobile suppliers in recent months amid the sharp drop in the industry.

Men's Underwear Sales, Greenspan's Economic Metric, Reveal Crisis

As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan was known for using quirky, proletariat metrics to judge the temperature of the economy. The most famous of these, as recounted by NPR's Robert Krulwich in January 2008, were the sales of men's underwear. If the economic scales dipped even the slightest, Greenspan reasoned, it was as sure a sign as any that people were truly feeling the pinch.

"If you look at sales of male underpants it's just pretty much a flat line, it hardly ever changes," Krulwich recounted after the publishing of Greenspan's book, "The Age Of Turbulence." "But on those few occasions where it dips that means that men are so pinched that they are deciding not to replace underpants. And [Greenspan] said 'that is almost always a prescient, forward impression that here comes trouble.'"

Well, here comes trouble.

A revised survey by the leading global research company, Mintel, shows relatively large drops in the sales of men's underwear in the United States. The study, to be released April 9, projects a 2.3 percent drop in sales of all men's underwear products in 2009. Underscoring just how quickly the market has gone south, in November 2008, Mintel had forecast sales to grow by 2.6 percent in 2009. A serious downturn led to a serious revision.

The Great Contraction will last a while longer

This financial crisis will end.  The Great Contraction of the Noughties also will come to an end. But neither the financial crisis nor the contraction of the global real economy are over yet.  As regards the financial sector, we are not too far - probably less than a year - from the beginning of the end.  The impact of the collapse of real economic activity and of the associated dramatic increase in defaults and insolvencies by non-financial enterprises and households on the loan book of what is left of the banking sector will begin to show up in the banks' financial reports at the end of the summer and in the autumn.  By the end of the year - early 2010 at the latest - we will know which banks will survive and which ones are headed for the scrap heap.  With the resolution of the current pervasive uncertainty about the true state of the banks' balance sheets and about their off-balance-sheet exposures, normal financial intermediation will be able to resume later in 2010.

Governments everywhere are doing the best they can to delay or prevent the lifting of the veil of uncertainty and disinformation that most banks have cast over their battered balance sheets. The  banking establishment and the financial establishment representing the beneficial owners of the institutions exposed to the banks as unsecured creditors - pension funds, insurance companies, other banks, foreign investors including sovereign wealth funds - have captured the key governments, their central banks, their regulators, supervisors and accounting standard setters to a degree never seen before.

I used to believe this state capture took the form of cognitive capture, rather than financial capture.  I still believe this to be the case for many, perhaps even most of the policy makers and officials involved, but it is becoming increasingly hard to deny the possibility that the extraordinary reluctance of our governments to force the unsecured creditors (and any remaining non-government shareholders) of the zombie banks to absorb the losses made by these banks, may be due to rather more primal forms of state capture.

The only meaning I can see for Buiter's "more primal forms of state capture" is that he is obliquely saying that those who own the banks own the politicians body and soul and have little to worry about from loss of "cognitive capture."  This would imply that prior to even considering breaking the spell that Neo-Classical Economics has over the Anglo world, we have to free our supposed representatives from their present servitude, whether they desire to be free or not.  The only other choice is to replace them.  Daunting either way.

At the moment, I can see not a single country where business fixed investment is likely to rise anytime soon.  When the inventory investment accelerator goes into reverse and starts contributing to demand growth, and when the fiscal stimuli kick in, businesses wanting to invest will need access to external financing, since retained profits are, after a couple of years of declining output, likely to be few and far between.  But with the banking system on its uppers and many key financial markets still disfunctional and out of commission, external financing will be scarce and costly.  This is why sorting out the banks, or rather sorting out the substantive economic activities of new bank lending and funding, that is, sorting out banking , must be a top priority and a top claimant on scarce public resources.

Until the authorities are ready to draw a clear line between the existing banks in western Europe and the USA, - many or even most of which are surplus to requirements and have become parasitic entities feeding off the tax payer - and the substantive economic activity of bank lending to non-financial enterprises and households, there will not be a robust, sustained recovery.

I note that his analysis does not consider substantial change to the international system undertaken by others than the Anglo financial establishment, such as has been discussed on ET, involving creditor nations.  Should that happen and should the Anglo financial establishment retain its physical and cognitive capture of the Anglo political world this could lead not to a "U" shaped recovery but rather to an "L" shaped event of several years duration in the Anglo world.  I have no idea if or how this will play out.  (Hat tip to Melanchthon for the link to the Wm. Buiter article.)

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Landmark Equitable building in foreclosure

Downtown Atlanta's Equitable building, an iconic 33-story office tower that once dominated the city's skyline, has fallen into foreclosure.

A foreclosure notice published Wednesday said the 40-year-old skyscraper is scheduled to be auctioned on the Fulton County courthouse steps on May 5.

The building's owner, Equastone 100 Peachtree LLC, owes $52 million on the mortgage to Capmark Bank, a division of Horsham, Pa.-based Capmark Financial Group.

San Diego-based Equastone paid $56.8 million for the building in May 2007 at the height of the commercial real estate boom. According to Fulton County property tax records, the building has fallen in value and is now worth about $44.8 million, including the land.

FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - Downbeat outlook prevails inside Fed

The Federal Reserve sharply downgraded its economic outlook at its latest meeting only three weeks ago, minutes released on Wednesday revealed, challenging the view that green shoots of recovery are now plain to see.

"The staff's projections for real GDP in the second half of 2009 and 2010 were revised down," the minutes say. Fed staff no longer expected growth would recover this year, and instead forecast that output would "flatten out gradually" in the second half and then "expand slowly next year".

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Calculated Risk: The TARP COP: Elizabeth Warren on April Report

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Banks Are Said to Hold Up to Stress Tests - NYTimes.com

For the last eight weeks, nearly 200 federal examiners have labored inside some of the nation's biggest banks to determine how those institutions would hold up if the recession deepened.

What they are discovering may come as a relief to both the financial industry and the public: the banking industry, broadly speaking, seems to be in better shape than many people think, officials involved in the examinations say.

That is the good news. The bad news is that many of the largest American lenders, despite all those bailouts, probably need to be bailed out again, either by private investors or, more likely, the federal government. After receiving many millions, and in some cases, many billions of taxpayer dollars, banks still need more capital, these officials say.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Excellent Open Letter to Obama by Ellen Brown.

In fact, the UK Treasury is already close to going down this road in its proposed development funding of PFI through a new subsidiary.

 Open Letter to President Obama: The Fate of the Republic May Rest in Your Reviving Lincoln's Monetary Policy

Lincoln's Monetary Breakthrough
The bankers had Lincoln's government over a barrel, just as Wall Street has Congress in its vice-like grip today. The North needed money to fund a war, and the bankers were willing to lend it only under circumstances that amounted to extortion, involving staggering interest rates of 24 to 36 percent. Lincoln saw that this would bankrupt the North and asked a trusted colleague to research the matter and find a solution. In what may be the best piece of advice ever given to a sitting President, Colonel Dick Taylor of Illinois reported back that the Union had the power under the Constitution to solve its financing problem by printing its money as a sovereign government. Taylor said:

"Just get Congress to pass a bill authorizing the printing of full legal tender treasury notes ... and pay your soldiers with them and go ahead and win your war with them also. If you make them full legal tender ... they will have the full sanction of the government and be just as good as any money; as Congress is given that express right by the Constitution."

The Greenbacks actually were just as good as the bankers' banknotes. Both were created on a printing press, but the banknotes had the veneer of legitimacy because they were "backed" by gold. The catch was that this backing was based on "fractional reserves," meaning the bankers held only a small fraction of the gold necessary to support all the loans represented by their banknotes. The "fractional reserve" ruse is still used today to create the impression that bankers are lending something other than mere debt created with accounting entries on their books. 1

Lincoln took Col. Taylor's advice and funded the war by printing paper notes backed by the credit of the government. These legal-tender U.S. Notes or "Greenbacks" represented receipts for labor and goods delivered to the United States. They were paid to soldiers and suppliers and were tradeable for goods and services of a value equivalent to their service to the community. The Greenbacks aided the Union not only in winning the war but in funding a period of unprecedented economic expansion.

Here in the United States, the state of North Dakota has a wholly state-owned bank that creates credit on its books just as private banks do. This credit is used to serve the needs of the community, and the interest on loans is returned to the government. Not coincidentally, North Dakota has a $1.2 billion budget surplus at a time when 46 of 50 states are insolvent, an impressive achievement for a state of isolated farmers battling challenging weather. 3 The North Dakota prototype could be copied not only in every U.S. state but at the federal level.

Today, with trillions of dollars being committed for bailouts and stimulus plans, another objection to Lincoln's solution is likely to be, "The U.S. government is already printing its own money - and lots of it." This, however, is a misconception. What the government prints are bonds - its I.O.U.s or debt. If the government did print dollars, instead of borrowing them from a privately-owned central bank that prints them, Uncle Sam would not have an eleven trillion dollar millstone hanging around his neck. As Thomas Edison astutely observed:

"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good, also. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way. It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million in bonds and not $30 million in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people."

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

Dani Rodrik's weblog - What would it take to make international finance safe?

Lots of things, but one thing for sure is a true international lender-of-last-resort (ILLR). When domestic financial markets are gripped by panic, domestic central banks play a critical role in restoring stability because they stand ready to extend liquidity to banks.  Just think how much worse the current crisis would have been in the U.S. if the Fed had not been there to enlarge its balance sheet by leaps and bounds. 

In the international sphere, there is no equivalent. So when countries suffer what Guillermo Calvo has called a "sudden stop" in capital flows, often through no fault of their own, they have to take it on the chin and bear it. There is the IMF of course, but it has traditionally operated in a way that is very different from a lender-of-last-resort.  The amount it lends is limited, it takes a while to get the money, and the money comes with lots of strings attached.
...
While I think these changes are all in the right direction, I worry that they will fall far short of converting the IMF into a true lender of last resort. I just cannot imagine that the Americans and the Europeans will allow the Fund to lend at will--even for countries that are taken to be "behaving well." And I also worry about so called ex-ante conditionality--the stamp of approval that countries will need to qualify for these fast-disbursing lines of credit.  The IMF has a patchy record with respect to being able to evaluate risks ex ante. It also has too rigid views on what counts as "sound policies."

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

France 24: Mauritania junta leader says he'll resign before April 22

The leader of the junta ruling the west African state of Mauritania told FRANCE 24 he would resign before April 22 and confirmed that a presidential election will take place as planned on June 6, contradicting rumours of a postponement.

"I will resign, if God wills, before April 22. Elections set for June 6 will not be postponed. 90% of Mauritanians want these elections, it is the choice of the people," General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said during an interview on Wednesday.

Mauritania's government had earlier announced the creation of the commission to organise and monitor a presidential election after the military coup.

France 24: Three French weeklies featuring Bouteflika are banned

The latest issues of the French weeklies, L'Express, Marianne, and Journal du Dimanche, are not being distributed in Algeria. The three magazines each feature stories on Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is seeking a third term in office Thursday.

"The latest issues of L'Express were seized Saturday under Article 26 of the July 1990 Information Code," an Algerian official told the AFP without specifying the articles in the weekly magazines in question.

L'Express, which examined the issue of Algeria's power structure, was denounced for "attacking national values" according to an Algerian official. One of the articles, titled, "Abdelaziz and his networks," is an investigation into the Algerian president's cronies and connections.

Voice of America News: Iranian President Welcomes 'Honest' Talks With US

Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said his country would welcome talks with the United States if President Barack Obama proves to be "honest" in extending a hand towards Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, speaking to several hundred-thousand people in the city of Isfahan, responded to recent U.S. overtures for dialogue by indicating his country would welcome such a dialogue if it was "honest."

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Islamist Groups Form Unholy Alliance in Pakistan

The United States is paying increasing attention to Pakistan in its bid to bring stability to Afghanistan, amid fears that the nuclear state could collapse. Rival Islamic militant groups are joining forces to make their country into a stronghold -- and are receiving support from Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency.

Last Thursday, at 7 a.m., Baitullah Mehsud dialed the telephone number of Alamgir Bhittani, a radio correspondent in the Tank region of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. The voice of "Bait," as the Pashtuns call the feared leader of the Pakistani Taliban, was soft and flattering.

He had called the journalist to boast about his exploits, telling him that his fighters were the ones who had created a bloodbath the previous day at a police academy near the northeastern Pakistani city of Lahore. He told Bhittani that he had ordered his men to "eliminate" as many supporters of what he called the traitorous Pakistani regime as possible.

SPIEGEL alert

Biden warns Israel off any attack on Iran
By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

Vice President Joe Biden issued a high-level admonishment to Israel's new government Tuesday that it would be "ill advised" to launch a military strike against Iran.

Biden said in a CNN interview that he does not believe newly installed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would take such a step. Even so, his comment underscored a gap between the conservative new Israeli government and the Obama White House on a series of questions, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Iran...

Netanyahu signaled several times during his election campaign that he would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. "I promise that if I am elected, Iran will not acquire nuclear arms," he said in one appearance, "and this implies everything necessary to carry this out."

With his brief comment Tuesday, Biden became the highest-ranking administration official to caution the Jewish state against a military strike. In the interview, Biden was asked whether he was concerned that Netanyahu might strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

"I don't believe Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would be ill advised to do that," Biden said.

"And so my level of concern is no different than it was a year ago."

McClatchy: Do U.S. drones kill Pakistani extremists or recruit them?

Even as the Obama administration launches new drone attacks into Pakistan's remote tribal areas, concerns are growing among U.S. intelligence and military officials that the strikes are bolstering the Islamic insurgency by prompting Islamist radicals to disperse into the country's heartland.

Al Qaida, Taliban and other militants who've been relocating to Pakistan's overcrowded and impoverished cities may be harder to find and stop from staging terrorist attacks, the officials said.

Moreover, they said, the strikes by the missile-firing drones are a recruiting boon for extremists because of the unintended civilian casualties that have prompted widespread anger against the U.S.

CNET: Report: Spies hacked into U.S. electricity grid

Spies from other countries have hacked into the United States' electricity grid, leaving traces of their activity and raising concerns over the security of the U.S. energy infrastructure to cyberattacks.

 The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a report saying that spies sought ways to navigate and control the power grid as well as the water and sewage infrastructure. It's part of a rising number of intrusions, the article said, quoting former and current national security officials.

The intruders don't appear to have done any damage to date but did leave behind software that could disrupt the system.

"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," a senior intelligence official told the Journal. "So have the Russians."

Spies!


"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms." -Dostoevsky

Chi Trib: US crewman says a fellow crew member is held being hostage by Somali pirates; crew has ship

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- The American crew of a hijacked U.S.-flagged ship retook control of the vessel from Somali pirates Wednesday but a crew member was still being held hostage, according to the ship's operator and another member of the crew.

U.S. officials said American warships were heading to the hijack scene.

A crew member aboard the vessel told The Associated Press that his shipmates were trying to rescue a crew member who was still being held.

Colin Wright, who identified himself as a third mate aboard the ship, said, "Somalian pirates have one of our crew members in our lifeboat and we are trying to recover that crew member."

Asked whether that crew member was the ship's captain, Collin told the AP he couldn't say anything else. Earlier, a person aboard the ship told the AP by phone that it was the captain who was being held by the pirates.

At one point, the pirates had held the boat and the entire crew of Americans. Wright said: "We're really busy right now, but you can call back in an hour or two."

Pirates!


"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms." -Dostoevsky

Vermont becomes 4th state to allow gay marriage

BOSTON (Reuters) - Vermont legalized gay marriage on Tuesday after lawmakers overrode a veto from the governor by a wafer-thin margin, making the New England state the fourth in the United States where gays can wed.

The vote, nine years after Vermont was first in the United States to adopt a same-sex civil-union law, also makes the tiny state of 624,000 people the first in the nation to introduce gay marriage through legislative action instead of the courts.

"We've shown that truth and fairness and justice and love are more powerful than one man's veto pen," same-sex marriage advocate Beth Robinson said to cheers from supporters in the state capital of Montpelier after Vermont's House of Representatives passed the bill by a 100-49 vote.

Known for picturesque foliage, quaint dairy farms and a counter-culture spirit, Vermont joins New England neighbors Connecticut and Massachusetts in allowing gay marriage. Iowa legalized gay marriage last week.

Gay marriages!

"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms." -Dostoevsky

Economist: Biofools

Farming biofuels produces nitrous oxide. This is bad for climate change

MANY people consider the wider use of biofuels a promising way of reducing the amount of surplus carbon dioxide (CO2) being pumped into the air by the world's mechanised transport. The theory is that plants such as sugar cane, maize (corn, to Americans), oilseed rape and wheat take up CO2 during their growth, so burning fuels made from them should have no net effect on the amount of that gas in the atmosphere. Biofuels, therefore, should not contribute to global warming.

Theory, though, does not always translate into practice, and just as governments have committed themselves to the greater use of biofuels (see table), questions are being raised about how green this form of energy really is. The latest come from a report produced by a team of scientists working on behalf of the International Council for Science (ICSU), a Paris-based federation of scientific associations from around the world.

Environmental Research Web: Collapse of the ice bridge supporting Wilkins Ice Shelf appears imminent

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is at risk of partly breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula as the ice bridge that connects it to Charcot and Latady Islands looks set to collapse. The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts forming along its centre axis resulted in a large block of ice breaking away.

The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images acquired on 2 April by ESA's Envisat satellite confirm that the rifts are quickly expanding along the ice bridge.

Dr Angelika Humbert from the Institute of Geophysics, Münster University, and Dr Matthias Braun from the Center for Remote Sensing, University of Bonn, witnessed the recent development during their daily monitoring activities of the ice sheet using data from Envisat and the German Aerospace Center's TerraSAR-X satellite.

Environmental Research Web: Monitoring Greenland's melting

The ten warmest years since 1880 have all taken place within the 12-year period of 1997-2008, according to the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) surface temperature analysis. The Arctic has been subject to exceptionally warm conditions and is showing an extraordinary response to increasing temperatures. The changes in polar ice have the potential to profoundly affect Earth's climate; in 2007, sea-ice extent reached a historical minimum, as a consequence of warm and clear sky conditions. And during the 2007 and 2008 melting seasons new records for melt extent and duration since 1979 were recorded on the Greenland ice sheet.

Diseases 'hurting chocolate crop' - Telegraph

Scientists are warning of a possible chocolate shortage as disease ravages cocoa crops across the world.

Some of the world's largest chocolate-producing countries, such as the Ivory Coast, could lose a third of their crop this year, because of the problem.

Researchers are trying to map the DNA of the cacao tree to find genes which could be resistant to the two diseases, reports New Scientist magazine.

One, the cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV), which can kill the trees, is affecting crops in west Africa.

In Brazil, another major producer of chocolate, crops are being affected by a fungus called witches' broom.

U.S. Acts to Alter New England Fisheries - NYTimes.com

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that regulates ocean fishing, is taking preliminary steps toward privatizing fisheries in New England, the agency's administrator said Wednesday.

The official, Jane Lubchenco, said the agency would finance surveys and other research needed to establish a system in which fishermen, grouped by "sectors" defined by the type of gear they use or other factors, could work together to decide who will fish, and where. As is now the case, the New England Fishery Management Council would set overall catch limits, with the approval of NOAA.

Dr. Lubchenco, who spoke in a telephone interview after a meeting of the council in Mystic, Conn., said she hoped the effort would eventually lead to a system in which people would have an ownership interest in ocean fish. Though it goes against the grain among people who believe that anyone should be allowed to go to sea and catch fish, the idea is gaining ground as a remedy for what some experts call "the race to catch the last fish," in which fishermen spend more time, money and fuel to catch fewer and fewer fish per voyage.

In an ownership, or "catch share," system, individuals, companies, cooperatives, communities or other entities receive the right to take a set percentage of the annual catch of particular fish in particular areas. The system gives fishermen a powerful motive to fish sustainably, because the value of their share rises as fish stocks increase. Fisheries scientists say the systems can produce significant improvements in the health of fish stocks, many of which are seriously depleted in the United States.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

Aerosols May Drive A Significant Portion Of Arctic Warming

ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2009) -- Though greenhouse gases are invariably at the center of discussions about global climate change, new NASA research suggests that much of the atmospheric warming observed in the Arctic since 1976 may be due to changes in tiny airborne particles called aerosols.

Emitted by natural and human sources, aerosols can directly influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the sun's radiation. The small particles also affect climate indirectly by seeding clouds and changing cloud properties, such as reflectivity.

A new study, led by climate scientist Drew Shindell of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, used a coupled ocean-atmosphere model to investigate how sensitive different regional climates are to changes in levels of carbon dioxide, ozone, and aerosols.

The researchers found that the mid and high latitudes are especially responsive to changes in the level of aerosols. Indeed, the model suggests aerosols likely account for 45 percent or more of the warming that has occurred in the Arctic during the last three decades. The results were published in the April issue of Nature Geoscience.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

Burning our bridges to the XXI century | Energy Bulletin

The future does not resemble the past - or does it? When the lights go out, people burn candles and oil lamps, just like they used to before the electric grid came into existence. No longer accustomed to working with open flame, they tend to set things on fire, and for a while, until they regain this experience or until natural selection whittles away the truly incompetent, the neighborhood is a constant blaze.

When we find out that the supermarket is out of food and that the cupboard is bare, we hunt, fish, forage, plant kitchen gardens, and start experimenting with raising poultry and rabbits. Those who are incapable of doing so, or who feel that such lowly pursuits are beneath their dignity, become dependent on the charity of those who are more adaptable, or starve.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

Ship of fools: Johann Hari sets sail with America's swashbuckling neocons - Americas, World - The Independent

I am back in the docks of San Diego watching these tireless champions of the overdog filter past and say their starchy, formal goodbyes. As Bernard Lewis disappears onto the horizon, I wonder about the connections between this cruise and the cruise missiles fired half a world away.

I spot the old lady from the sea looking for her suitcase, and stop to tell her I may have found a solution to her political worries about both Muslims and stem-cells.

"Couldn't they just do experiments on Muslim stem-cells?" I ask. "Hey - that's a great idea!" she laughs, and vanishes. Hillary-Ann stops to say she is definitely going on the next National Review cruise, to Alaska. "Perfect!" I yell, finally losing my mind.

"You can drill it as you go!" She puts her arms around me and says very sweetly, "We need you on every cruise."

As I turn my back on the ship for the last time, the Judge I met on my first night places his arm affectionately on my shoulder. "We have written off Britain to the Muslims," he says. "Come to America."

A version of this article has appeared in 'The New Republic' (www.tnr.org)

johann can really write... our answer to matt taibbi!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

YESSSSS !!!

BBC News: Potter actor 'found with drugs'

Actor Jamie Waylett, who plays bully Vincent Crabbe in the Harry Potter films, has been arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the 19-year-old actor and a friend were arrested on Thursday after police in London stopped the car they were in.

"The car was searched and officers found eight bags of a substance believed to be cannabis," he said.

A raid on Waylett's home uncovered 10 plants, also thought to be cannabis.

Thanks nanne, you deserve your new responsibilities.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli
In the distant future the story of Barack Obama has become a little... distorted. According to THE MADDOWIAN CHRONICLES he was the one destined to save the great republic of America and dethrone the overpaid despots of the time. Join Barack, Sorceress Hilaria, her demi-god trickster husband Biil, Overlord Boosh and Chainknee of the Elephant Kingdom. Who can the lone barbarian trust, if anyone?

Fear not, good folk: this is about a comics book coming out later this year. The Chicago Tribune has written about it:

"Barack the Barbarian" also includes a sword-carrying vixen with a striking resemblance to a certain former Republican vice presidential candidate. The apparent faux Sarah Palin is drawn wearing a chain-mail bikini, complete with bookish glasses and a dead-wolf drape.

You're clearly a dangerous pinko commie pragmatist.