EU to Ban Cars from Cities by 2050
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years.

The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.

The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.

Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of "zero" for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.

Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto "alternative" means of transport.

"That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres," he said. "Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour." » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Monday, March 28, 2011

Some Sugar from Obama before Tea Parties
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: AS US taxpayers rush to meet the April 15 deadline to lodge their tax returns, and President Barack Obama talks up the economy, thousands of citizens will hold tea parties throughout the nation to protest the Administration's big-spending economic policies.

Organisers expect there will be at least 600 such events in towns and cities throughout the nation and are forecasting tens of thousands will attend some of the larger ones in major cities such as Chicago.

The tea party theme is a nod to the Boston Tea Party of 1773 when outraged colonists threw tea into the harbour to protest the tax on it imposed by their English overlords. It is regarded as the spark that ignited the American Revolutionary War. >>> Anne Davies Herald Correspondent in Washington | Thursday, April 16, 2009