The left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit (Community of the People, IA) party has won Greenland's parliamentary elections, official results show.

The party ousted the Social Democratic Suimut Party, which has governed the territory for 30 years.

With all districts counted, the IA had nearly 44% of the vote and Suimut just over 26%, the election commission said.

IA will be the first party to govern the semi-autonomous Danish territory under an expanded home rule agreement.

With just one day to go until European and local elections, a string of cabinet resignations have led to mounting calls for British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to stand down.  

The latest to announce her planned departure from office is Community Secretary Hazel Blears, who says she wants to focus her political efforts on her constituency in Manchester in northern England.

 

"Today I have told the prime minister that I am resigning from the government," Blears said, adding that what she most wanted was to "help Labour reconnect with the British people."

 

Blears' resignation comes hot on the heals of the leaked revelation that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, one of the first senior politicians to become embroiled in the expenses scandal dogging Britain's Labour party, is to leave Brown's cabinet as early as Friday. 

In seeking to repeal a law against incitement to hatred and discrimination in the Netherlands, Dutch liberals have triggered a widespread debate in the national press, which wonders what attitude to take towards Holocaust denial.

With the European Elections only a few days away, Mark Rutte's announcement that everyone should be allowed to voice whatever opinion they choose was doubtless intended as a strategic initiative to undermine extreme right leader, Geert Wilders. Rutte has now adopted the view that people should be allowed to say what they please. Even denial of the Holocaust should no longer be punished. Only incitement to commit violent acts should continue to be forbidden by law. Unfortunately for him, it is an opinion not shared by other members of his party, who believe that he has gone too far.

The leader of the VVD seems to be unaware of the fact that even his own party has defined limits for freedom of speech, and the Holocaust is one of these. As Hans van Baalen, who tops the VVD list for the European elections, pointed out, "We are liberal, but that is overdoing it."

Freedom of speech has been in the spotlight, ever since the Amsterdam court decided to prosecute Geert Wilders. The VVD responded by putting itself forward as a defender of fundamental rights. Liberals are right to distance themselves from the double standard implicit in the position adopted by Wilders, who wants to ban the Koran, but at the same time believes that he should have the right to say whatever he wants in the most insolent manner possible. In contrast, the liberals are advocating the classic position attributed to Voltaire: everyone can say what he wants, regardless of the horror that his opinion may inspire. In short, Wilders should have the right to self-expression, but it should also apply to radical imams and neo-Nazis.

In the latest fallout from the scandal, Berlusconi has come under attack over his explanations for using a government airplane to fly friends, entertainers and starlets for parties at his vacation villa in Sardinia. The opposition charged today that Berlusconi has nearly tripled the use of government flights from the previous leftist administration.

The premier's office felt obliged this week to deny any misuse of a state airplane to fly friends to Sardinia after a consumer group complained -- it said the added passengers did not increase costs.

But Berlusconi appears to be losing his teflon touch amid the growing public relations disaster: newspapers published photos this week of people disembarking from the government plane, identifying one young woman as a flamenco dancer and a man as a Neapolitan crooner.

The scandal is clearly getting to the usually ebullient premier.

Barack Obama is only passing through Germany on his trip to Europe later this week and does not plan to hold substantial talks with Angela Merkel. The White House views the chancellor as difficult and Germany is increasingly being left out of the loop.

The most meaningful gifts given between world leaders aren't bouquets or porcelain tea services, but rather the flattery they extend to each other. And the American president has showered the German chancellor with a number of highly valued niceties.

 US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a NATO meeting in April. Indeed, when the president described her approach to political problems as being not only "smart," but also "one of a kind," the chancellor beamed like it was Christmas morning.

There's just one problem with the flattery: The man doing the talking was George W. Bush. But these days, in the Washington of Barack Obama, an entirely different tone is adopted when talking about German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

They consider the German chancellor to be difficult in her personal manner. Her policies they see as hesitant. And when it comes to economic matters -- particularly after the experience in battling the financial crisis -- they don't feel she has much expertise.

Four years ago, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder staged a dramatic comeback on election night. He ultimately fell short, but his Social Democrats are hoping his campaign could provide a recipe for success this year. The European elections on Sunday could be telling.

There is a new category of politician in Germany. It's called "the Kirchhof," named after Paul Kirchhof, a former judge on the country's federal constitutional court who Chancellor Angela Merkel brought onto her campaign team in 2005.

Brazilian authorities have confirmed that debris spotted in the Atlantic belonged to the Air France jet which vanished on Monday. A memorial service was held at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris to remember the 228 people on board.

An aerial and naval operation involving Brazilian, French, and US aircraft was underway Wednesday to recover debris -- and maybe bodies -- from the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean overnight on Sunday.

Three cargo ships -- one French and two Dutch -- are already at the crash site, having been rerouted there on Tuesday.

 
They will be joined from Wednesday by five Brazilian navy vessels able to recover debris and bodies. France also sent a ship carrying two mini-submarines capable of operating at depths of 6,000 metres.

German speakers (readers) can subscribe here, ganz kostenlos.

My German is kinda rusty, so this is only a loose translation.

Now, why would DB be astroturfing in favour of privatising the rail net?

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Parliament returns to business in July with a flat wage rate for all 736 MEPs and an overhauled expenses system, after years of winning a reputation for being little more than a gravy train for out-of-touch deputies.

In the next legislature, all new MEPs from across Europe will earn a gross salary of around €7,000 a month, ending the current system whereby the euro deputy earns the same as the MPs of their home country.

The newly elected parliament will have its inaugural session in July

The new rules put an end to an uncomfortable situation where there were wide discrepancies between how much MEPs from different countries pocketed at the end of each month.

The situation became ridiculously acute in recent years when poorer eastern countries joined the European Union, meaning that Italian MEPs earned almost 15 times more a year than their Bulgarian counterparts. A German MEP earned around €7000 a month, while a Hungarian earned less than €1000.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Despite EU officials' best efforts to maintain suspense about who has won the European elections until all European polling stations close on Sunday (7 June) evening, results will begin dribbling out as early as 4 June.

Under EU law it is illegal to announce official results until all EU voting ends at 10 p.m. Brussels time on Sunday, but the Netherlands - which together with the UK is the first EU member state to vote - intends to release preliminary results as soon as its polls close at 9 p.m. Brussels time on 4 June.

Exit polls will begin to give some idea of the make-up of the parliament as early as the evening of 4 June

"There are different views on this matter," Ruben Brandveldt of the Dutch mission to the EU told EUobserver. "The European Commission is not happy because we will be releasing the results."

"But the article in question says that member states are not allowed to publish official results. In our view, this doesn't prevent the publication of preliminary results."

Most governments in EU member states are from the right, but implement Keynesian inspired economic policies. Political forces in the EU must transcend differences and agree on a means to face up to the crisis.

Most of the governments of the European Union's 27 member countries are conservative, as are the bulk of the European Council and the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso. The current European Parliament, which is to be reshuffled within a matter of days, is for the most part centre-right.

Some of the older generation in Spain, who have always associated Europe with the freedoms we lost under Franco and with the creation of the welfare state and who have always equated Europe with a progressive project, seem to forget this ideological reality. The European elections are an opportunity to curb that ideological drift, since more than half the legislative initiatives that affect the day-to-day lives of Europeans hinge on the outcome.

Furthermore, the shared public realm of the EU is afflicted with a severe economic crisis involving a drastic decline in economic activity, soaring unemployment (over 20 million jobless), and zero price growth, which some analysts see as a portent of imminent deflation. Compounding this situation is an adverse structural misfortune factor - the failure of the Lisbon Agenda, which sought to make the EU the most advanced region on the planet - as well as a curious paradox: although most of the governments in the region are conservative, the economic policy they are implementing is Keynesian, designed to increase demand, and in no way resembles the neoliberal model they had been flirting with prior to 2007.

Former models and anti-Islamic firebrands are among some 9,000 candidates in the European election this week. But can they quicken the pulse of Europe's apathetic voters?

Rachida Dati is no longer the rising star of the Sarkozy administration

The election is a time for shock tactics and charm offensives, anything to get out the vote for an assembly that few people understand - perhaps not even the candidates.

Take Rachida Dati, the glamorous French justice minister and the first Muslim woman to get such a powerful post. Once a protegee of President Nicolas Sarkozy, she has become so unpopular that he wants her out, so he made her run in the European election.

Her heart clearly isn't in it. At a recent campaign meeting, asked if Europe meddled too much in national affairs, Ms Dati gave this answer, amid giggles: "It (Europe) looks after those things that we ask it to look after, with the people who are asked to look after them. In other words, us... I did well, didn't I?"

The Moldovan Prime Minister, Zinaida Greceanii, has failed for a second time to secure enough votes to become president of the tiny ex-Soviet republic, paving the way for new elections.  

Greceanii, the preferred presidential candidate of Moldova's outgoing leader Vladimir Voronin, received 60 votes, one short of the 61 she would have needed to assume the presidency.

 

Three opposition parties, which together hold 41 seats in Moldova's 101-seat parliament, ignored Communist Party calls to cross party lines and endorse Greceanii's candidature.

 

Voronin, who cannot run for a third term as president himself, had hoped the election of fellow Communist Greceanii would enable him to hold on to power.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The rest of Europe has been watching agog at the buildup of an almost insurrectionary feeling in the UK following revelations of MPs' abuses of the expenses system. The outpouring of anger could have significant implications for EU politics, as Britons unleash their fury via the ballot box and opposition parties call for an early general election.

The UK, along with the Netherlands, will kick off voting in the European elections and local elections on Thursday (4 June), with the governing Labour party facing the prospect of its worst electoral defeat in history.

The beleaguered Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown, charged with reacting too slowly and then inadequately to the unfolding scandal, has been buffeted further in recent days by announcements that four members of his government, including two ministers, are leaving.

The weakened government has emboldened the opposition Conservatives, who feel 10 Downing Street is within their grasp sooner rather than later.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The French politician who created the stereotype of the "Polish plumber" has coined a new "Bulgarian truck driver" cliché for his EU election campaign. But voters are finding the event a turn-off despite scandals involving topless girls, hunger strikes and the Taliban.

Far-right French politician Pilippe de Villiers, who launched the catchy plumber idea during his fight against the EU constitution in a referendum in 2005, is now promoting the notion that cheap Bulgarian truckers are coming to steal French jobs.

The Bulgarian trucker - coming to a stereotype near you

A Bulgarian driver costs €700 a month instead of €3,700, survives on just four hours of sleep a night and eats just twice a week, the myth-making politician is saying. Poland joined the EU in 2004 and Bulgaria in 2007, with their workers still legally barred from some EU states.

As many as 63 percent of French people do not plan to vote on Sunday (7 June). But the ruling centre-right UMP is in any case set to scoop 27 percent of ballots cast, ahead of the Socialists on 21 points and with Mr de Villiers' Mouvement Pour La France way behind on less than six percent.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The civil libertarian swashbucklers of the Swedish Pirate Party are to join either the Green or the Liberal groupings in the European Parliament, the leading candidate for the party has said.

"We will probably joint either the Greens or the Liberals," Christian Engstroem, a computer programmer and the candidate heading the party's list, told EUobserver.

The Swedish Pirates say they are beyond the port-starboard divide

"There have been no formal discussions, but we have been invited by a few groups for informal talks," he added.

As the party is a single-issue formation dedicated solely to online civil liberties, Mr Engstroem said the Pirates would join the grouping in the parliament that is closest to its positions on internet freedoms.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission published new proposals to tackle rising unemployment on Wednesday (3 June) and urged members states to redouble their efforts to deal with the growing jobs crisis.

"In this week of elections, it would be a big mistake for Europe to turn its back on this problem," said commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels, adding that few things concerned EU citizens more at present.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso urged member states to increase efforts to reduce unemployment

The new measures that will be debated by EU leaders at a European summit later this month include a proposal to allow 100 percent EU funding for member state projects in 2009-10 that promote greater employment.

Projects currently funded by the European social fund require "match-funding" from member states of between 15-50 percent, but the new rules would provide a temporary derogation from this requirement, prompted by fears that national governments could struggle to come up with the money.

Few European statesmen from the left front announced themselves with a common declaration against a possible second mandate of the chairman of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso. The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the former Prime Ministers of France and Greece Lionel Jospin and Costas Simitis, the former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, Paavo Liponen from Finland, Franz Branitzki from Austria and the former Polish Prime Minister Alexander Kvashniewski summoned the Party of the European Socialists to present an alternative nomination to Barroso for the chairman's position. The initiative is of the former Portuguese Prime Minister and president Mário Soares. In their declaration the eight former statesmen point out that the European national party has already nominated someone for Barroso's position, who is believed to be a front-runner for a second mandate and call for PES to do the same.

Global warming is a lie, homosexuality is a "pathology" and Europe is becoming a "neo-totalitarian" regime, according to one of David Cameron's new European allies.

Tory headquarters may never have heard of Urszula Krupa, a militant Roman Catholic and strong Polish nationalist, but at the weekend in Warsaw, Cameron sealed his new alliance in Europe with Krupa's rightwing party in Poland, the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) run by twin brothers Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczy´nski.

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - Europeans distrust the private sector and perceive the anti-corruption drive by government to be inefficient, while in the new member states bribery is particularly hitting the poor, a corruption survey released by Transparency International shows.

"These results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a lack of corporate accountability," said Huguette Labelle, head of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, when releasing the 'Global Corruption Barometer' on Wednesday (3 June).

The barometer found that the poorest families continue to be punished by petty bribe demands

Half of the 73,000 respondents said they saw the private sector as corrupt, an increase of 8 percentage points over five years ago. The survey was carried out in 69 countries and territories around the world between October 2008 and February 2009.

People in Iceland, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland perceive the private sector as the most corrupt.

After missing out on GM's European units, Fiat CEO Marchionne faces a choice of less appealing mergers and acquisitions targets to help the Italian automaker bulk up.

What's the next move for Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, now that General Motors' European operations have slipped through his fingers? Marchionne himself probably doesn't know the answer to that question yet. But it's clear that his quest to secure Fiat's future has gotten a lot more complicated.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. Marchionne could seek a tieup with another automaker-France's PSA Peugeot Citroën, for example, or Germany's BMW, or the remaining pieces of GM's overseas empire, including its Latin American operations and Sweden's Saab.

But none of these options looks nearly as appealing as GM Europe, which would have boosted Fiat's annual production to 5.5 million vehicles, the minimum Marchionne has said is necessary to ensure its survival in the fast-consolidating auto industry. And, if he hadn't been outfoxed by Canadian auto parts maker Magna and its Russian partners, Marchionne might have gotten GM's Opel and Vauxhall operations without putting up any cash, as he did when he grabbed control of crippled U.S. automaker Chrysler.

The European Union has offered its member states €19bn (£16.5bn) to combat a surge in unemployment amid the ongoing credit crisis on the eve of the European elections.

The Commission said that the European Social Fund expenditure will "support people hit by the economic crisis".

Usually, the EU requires member countries getting social funds to match these with money from their own funds. However José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, said that the recession was so severe that the EU would forgo the rule.

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether some of the nation's largest technology companies violated antitrust laws by negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another's employees, according to two sources with knowledge of the review.

"If there is a naked agreement by companies in an industry not to hire each others' employees or an agreement to fix wages, that would be an antitrust violation," said Herbert Hovenkamp, an antitrust expert at the University of Iowa College of Law.

Corporate `I don't know' factor rises

Business leaders have lost their sense of direction in the face of the global economic crisis and 40 per cent are unable to pick growth opportunities for their companies, according to a survey of the world's top corporate decision-makers.

"We have never experienced such a big `I don't know' before," said Marc Lhermitte, Ernst & Young partner.

"These are people who like to have opinions."

Bankruptcy Filings Climb to Over 6,000 Per Day in May

Meanwhile, in the state race to fail (?!),
Latvia auction flop sparks fears of struggle to find debt buyers, and
China is getting restless over the US debt

US President Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at increasing US engagement with the Islamic world.

Mr Obama will spend a few hours in Riyadh before heading for Egypt, where he will make a keynote speech in Cairo.

He says he wants to revive Mid-East talks and overcome misapprehensions.

Meanwhile, a message said to be from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden accused Mr Obama of ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in the Swat valley.

The recording said Mr Obama and his administration had "sown new seeds to increase hatred and revenge on America".

The election of four women, despite attacks on their wardrobe, suggests that Kuwaitis were voting for change this year

Four years to the day after the election law was changed to give Kuwaiti women full political rights it looked as though the battle had been won as four outstanding women were elected to the national parliament.

Masouma al-Mubarak, a political scientist and former professor who served as Kuwait's first female minister, came in first among the 10 candidates winning seats in the first district. Salwa al-Jasser, a professor of education at Kuwait University and head of a local NGO, took 10th place in the second district. Rola Dashti, an economist, head of a family business, and the first woman to be elected chair of a mixed-sex professional association, was seventh in the third district. Aseel al-Awadi, professor of philosophy and the woman whose 11th-place standing in 2008 convinced many Kuwaitis that a vote for a woman would not be wasted, proved her point by coming second a year later, also in the third district.

All four winners came from the three (of five) primarily urban districts but a fifth woman, lawyer Thekra al-Rashidi, got 6,635 votes in a tribal constituency. In 15th place, she drew predictions that she would follow in Aseel's footsteps next time.

Great tits are tweaking their tweets to be heard in noisy urban areas, but for their country cousins it is like they are speaking a different language.

Scientists at Aberystwyth University found male great tits in 20 UK towns and cities sang at a higher pitch to be heard above the man-made noise.

Rural birds were confused by urban bird song while city birds "didn't understand the lower rural pitch".

Green energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, according to figures released today by the United Nations.

Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted $140bn (£85bn) compared with $110bn for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Britain and the rest of Europe.

The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to improve energy security and tackle climate change.

A U.S. document containing sensitive details about hundreds of civilian nuclear sites across the country was posted online Monday, an apparently inadvertent security breach that had federal officials scrambling yesterday to remedy the mistake.

The document, a draft declaration of U.S. nuclear facilities to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, contained descriptions of sensitive civilian sites, including the locations of facilities that store enriched uranium and other materials used in nuclear weapons. It was available for about a day on a Government Printing Office Web site before inquiries by news organizations prompted its hasty removal.

Two Orthodox rabbis have been ordained in Munich in a ceremony that hasn't taken place in Germany since World War II. The event marks a milestone for Jewish life in Germany.

Marking a historic moment for Judaism in Germany, two Orthodox rabbis were ordained at Munich's Ohel Jakob Synagogue on Tuesday -- the first such ceremony in over 70 years.

The two new rabbis -- Hungarian Zsolt Balla and Ukrainian Avraham Radbil -- are the first to complete studies at the new Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin.

Present at the ordination ceremony were Charlotte Knobloch, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, and Joseph Sitruk, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, as well as German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The real estate market's troubles are hitting close to home for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

After reducing the price on his house in a tony New York City suburb to less than he paid for it, Geithner still couldn't sell and recently rented it out instead, according to real estate agents familiar with the deal.

Geithner put his five-bedroom Tudor near leafy Larchmont on the market for $1.635 million in February, after heading to Washington for his job as the nation's top economic official.

A few weeks after the asking price was dropped to $1.575 million, the home was rented for $7,500 a month on May 21, said the agents, Scott Stiefvater of Stiefvater Real Estate and Debbie Meiliken of Keller Williams Realty New York.

Neither was directly involved in the rental; the name of the broker and agency that arranged it were not immediately available.

Mr Boswell, a banker in the City of London, said: "I noticed three lights floating past our house, probably a couple of kilometres away, and thought nothing of it.
"But then I noticed a big long string of lights coming from the direction of Brampton and heading over the Stukeley Meadows direction. This was about 11.30pm and I got a couple of blurred shots. I'm pretty sure these weren't aircraft.

One in seven scientists says that they are aware of colleagues having seriously breached acceptable conduct by inventing results. And around 46 per cent say that they have observed fellow scientists engage in "questionable practices", such as presenting data selectively or changing the conclusions of a study in response to pressure from a funding source.

However, when scientists were asked about their own behaviour only 2 per cent admitted to having faked results.

The disparity is not contradictory at all, IF the scientists have the same bad colleagues in mind ;-)

Other breaking science news, important for breaking down civilization: A Billion-Year Hard Drive

The British Chiropractic Association has sued Simon Singh for libel. The scientific community would have preferred that it had defended its position about chiropractic for various children's ailments through an open discussion of the peer reviewed medical literature or through debate in the mainstream media.

Singh holds that chiropractic treatments for asthma, ear infections and other infant conditions are not evidence-based. Where medical claims to cure or treat do not appear to be supported by evidence, we should be able to criticise assertions robustly and the public should have access to these views.

Please go there and sign. I take it everyones aware of this legal case?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.