Sunday Times Rich List 2010: Britain's Richest See Wealth Rise by One Third
THE TELEGRAPH: The collective wealth of Britain’s 1,000 richest people has increased by almost a third in the past year despite the uncertain economy, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2010.

The multimillionaires are worth £335.5 billion, up £77.265 billion (29.9 per cent) on last year, according to the latest edition of The Sunday Times’ Rich List 2010.

The rise is easily the largest annual increase in the 22 years that the survey has been carried out.

In 1997, when Labour came to power, the collective wealth of the then richest 1,000, was just £98.99 billion. In total, the number of billionaires in this year’s list has risen from 43 to 53.

The findings are likely to prove controversial, coming just ahead of the general election and with spending cuts and tax rises expected from whichever party wins.

Top of the Sunday Times Rich List 2010 again is Lakshmi Mittal, the steel tycoon, whose fortune has more than doubled from £10.8 billion last year to £22.45 billion.

He is followed by: Roman Abramovich, the oil and industry magnate and owner of Chelsea FC, worth £7.4bn - up six per cent on last year; the Duke of Westminster, the property owner, now worth £6.75bn, an increase of four per cent; and Ernesto and Kirsty Bertarelli, whose £5,950 million wealth, based on pharmaceuticals, has increased by 20 per cent. Kirsty Bertarelli is also considered the richest woman in the list. >>> Jasper Copping | Saturday, April 24, 2010

Dorfers Donnerstalk - Rosenkranz' Kinder

Barbara Rosenkranz zum Verbotsgesetz und was die Medien daraus machen




YOUTUBE: Barbara Rosenkranz >>>

Rosenkranz Rallies Far Right On Eve of Austria Poll
TIMES ONLINE: ‘We want to preach of the Holy German Reich,’ sings candidate who swears she’s no Nazi

Barbara Rosenkranz. Photograph: Times Online
The voice of Barbara Rosenkranz rises above the small crowd in the Ballhausplatz as she makes the case for the far Right in Austria’s presidential elections tomorrow.

Her chin is square, her hair forms a tight grey helmet. Ms Rosenkranz, mother of ten children, is, for another 24 hours at least, the great white hope of the radical nationalists in Europe.

She is destined to lose against the incumbent President, Heinz Fischer, but if she nets more than 20 per cent of the vote it will be seen as the most significant comeback in Austria since the death of the far-right idol Jörg Haider 18 months ago.

“The family is at the heart of our society and it has been betrayed,” she says, raising her voice to drown out the hoots of left-wing demonstrators. The crowd, mainly Freedom Party supporters still mourning Haider, applaud. The word verrat — betrayal — always goes down well in Vienna. They are craggy men in green jackets, a woman shivering in a low-cut dirndl folk dress and a surprising number of young fans — there largely to see Heinz-Christian Strache, 40-year-old leader of the far Right. He and Ms Rosenkranz are the faces of the radical Right revival. He talks of a modern patriotism and the threat of Islam; she thinks that women should stay at home and breed, and that national socialists should not be muzzled.

In Western Europe Islamophobia has replaced Holocaust denial as a rallying call for rightwingers such as Geert Wilders. Austria, though, is still very much a part of Central Europe — and here the Rosenkranz message, coded though it may be, is well understood. After all, in neighbouring Hungary, once part of the great Austro-Hungarian empire, the extremist Jobbik grouping — anti-Semitic, anti-Gypsy, anti-modernism — has recently won seats in Parliament and is on the way up. >>> Roger Boyes in Vienna | Saturday, April 24, 2010

Izvestia: 'Russian Aristocrat Wants to Be British Premier'
MAIL ONLINE: Yesterday he was at it again.

Touring Newcastle, Nick Clegg - who, as we now know, was a keen childhood actor - told students he was: 'the only one of the three leaders who actually comes from one of our great cities in the North.'

So just how true is that statement? In fact, the Lib Dem leader was brought up in affluent comfort in the Home Counties.

But to understand just how wealthy his background is, we need to cut to South-West France, and a hill overlooking the hamlet of Curac where an imposing ten-bedroom chateau stands.

The house is approached by a long, straight drive bordered by poplar trees which lead up to two sets of iron gates. Inside is an outdoor swimming pool, four-car garage and spacious outbuildings.

By any reckoning it is an impressive pile and one that, were it in England, would undoubtedly fall foul of the Lib Dem's proposed mansion tax on properties worth more than £2million.

It is possible that Clegg actually dreamt up the tax while in Curac, maybe while splashing about in the pool or strolling through its gardens.

After all, it is his parents' house and one that he and his family often visit.

'It's an idyllic spot, and the Cleggs have made it their home from home,' said a near neighbour, who often bumps into the politician and his Spanish wife Miriam, a successful London lawyer whose annual earnings run into the high six figures, when they are there.

'They come down with their children and always look very relaxed and happy.'

Not a bad place for a summer break. And come the winter there is another alternative. Clegg's parents also own a 20-room skiing chalet in the Swiss Alps. Some ordinary northerner! How Nick Clegg is really a man of extraordinary privilege whose family own a chateau >>> Tom Rawstorne | Saturday, April 24, 2010

Nick Clegg Hailed as 'Russian Aristocrat'
Nick Clegg: 'Winston Churchill-like popularity ratings'. Photograph: The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: Izvestiya newspaper talks of Liberal Democrat leader's Russian heritage and 'Winston Churchill-like popularity ratings'

Is there no limit to Cleggmania? It seems that not only Britain, but now also Russia has fallen under the Liberal Democrat leader's mesmerising spell, with today's Izvestiya newspaper hailing him as a genuine "Russian aristocrat" (article in Russian).

Under the headline "Russian aristocrat wants to be British premier", the paper picks up on Clegg's emphatic victory in the first leaders' TV debate and notes his "Winston Churchill-like popularity ratings".

But a blue-blooded Russian toff? In fact, Izvestiya is not far off the mark: Clegg's father (also Nick) is half-Russian. Nick Clegg senior's parents, who married in 1932, were Hugh Anthony Clegg, a subeditor on the British Medical Journal, and Kira Engelhardt.

Engelhardt was actually a Russian baroness. Her mother, Alexandra Moullen, was the daughter of Ignaty Zakrevsky, a former attorney general in the imperial Russian senate.

In common with other dispossessed Russian aristocrats, Clegg can even lay claim to a ruined manor house.

Zakrevsky, his great great-grandfather, lived on a large estate in modern-day Ukraine, not far from Kiev. The crumbling estate is currently occupied by an agricultural college, but still boasts a two-storey classical mansion, annexes, and a large park. It also has a pyramid. >>> Luke Harding in Moscow | Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Nick Clegg On Immigration

‘The Firing Squad, Please,’ Says Prisoner
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Ronnie Lee Gardner had a quarter-century to ponder his choice, whether to die by lethal injection or take four bullets in the heart.

In a Utah courtroom Friday, 25 years after he was sentenced to death for killing a man during an escape attempt, he declared his preference to the judge: “I would like the firing squad, please.”

With Mr. Gardner’s appeals apparently exhausted, Judge Robin W. Reese of Third District Court in Salt Lake City signed a warrant of execution and scheduled it for June 18. >>> Erik Eckholm | Friday, April 23, 2010

Autriche: L’idéologie pangermaniste de Barbara Rosenkranz
LE TEMPS: La candidate du FPÖ se présente à la présidentielle dimanche en Autriche

La voix est posée, presque fluette. Chevelure d’argent, regard clair, Barbara Rosenkranz parcourt les campagnes et les villes d’Autriche depuis deux mois, vêtue d’une Trachten (robe traditionnelle), martelant son credo d’une «politique familiale» refondée. Sous des abords de femme au foyer sans histoires, Barbara Rosenkranz, candidate à l’élection présidentielle ce ­dimanche, paraîtrait presque inoffensive. Depuis deux mois, pourtant, toute l’Autriche tremble devant cette élue du Parti de la liberté (FPÖ, extrême droite), apôtre d’une idéologie pangermaniste de sombre mémoire.

A 51 ans, «Frau Rosenkranz» règne sur une impressionnante tribu de dix enfants, tous affublés d’un prénom issu de la mythologie germanique: Hedda, Horst, Arne, Mechthild, Hildrun, Volker, Sonnhild, Alwine, Ute et Wolf. Avec son mari Horst, elle met un point d’honneur à organiser tous les ans la «fête du solstice d’été», vieille tradition païenne héritée du national-socialisme et célébrant les «familles saines, fortes et nombreuses». Son époux dirige une revue, Fakten, qui fait la part belle aux négationnistes et dénonce pêle-mêle «les Turcs, les Tchétchènes, les Asiatiques, les Tziganes et les nègres». >>> Maurin Picard | Samedi 24 Avril 2010

General Election 2010: Rise of the English Democrats

BNP Launches Election Manifesto

British Lapdog Gets Ready to Be Set Loose

John Paulson's Donations to Carla Bruni Could Embarrass Nicolas Sarkozy
THE TELEGRAPH: French president Nicolas Sarkozy faced potential embarrassment on Friday after it emerged that the most generous donor to his wife's charitable foundation was John Paulson – the man whose hedge fund is at the heart of the US government's case against Goldman Sachs.

Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni. Photo: The Telegraph
The US investment bank is accused of defrauding investors by failing to say that Mr Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager, bet against a Goldman sub-prime debt product that he helped design.

Mr Paulson correctly bet that the US housing bubble would burst, reaping a £10bn profit for his Paulson & Co hedge fund in 2007. The speculator banked a £2.4bn bonus that year in one of the largest payouts in the history of corporate America.

It transpires that Mr Paulson and his wife, Jenny, pledged to donate €500,000 (£435,000) to Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy's foundation "every year for three years". >>> Henry Samuel, in Paris | Friday, April 23, 2010

Austria's 'Reich Mother' Poised to Return Far-Right to Prominence
THE TELEGRAPH: A far-Right politician whose support for Holocaust deniers and 10 children have earned her the nickname “Reich Mother” is poised to take her Freedom Party to second place in Austria’s presidential race on Sunday.

Campaigning on an anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, anti-feminist ticket, Barbara Rosenkranz, 51, is poised to pave the way for her party to return to its glory days a decade ago under Jörg Haider, the popular and charismatic leader who died in a car crash in 2008.

Mrs Rosenkranz has shocked Austria by calling for the country’s Holocaust denial laws to be repealed. She later signed a statement distancing herself from Nazism.

Germany’s Central Council of Jews has described Mrs Rosenkranz’s position as the main electoral challenger to Heinz Fischer, 71, the Austrian president, as part of a “terrifying shift to the Right” across Europe, following recent gains for far-Right parties in Hungary and France over the last two months.

Earlier this month, the far-Right took more parliamentary seats in neighbouring Hungary’s national elections than at any time since the Second World War and French regional elections last month saw an electoral revival for the National Front. In June, Dutch elections could propel Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islamic, hard-Right Freedom Party leads the polls, into power.

While the role of president in Austria is largely symbolic, it still has significant moral influence, and Mrs Rosenkranz’s personal background and political views have polarised the campaign.

Her husband, Horst, with whom she has had six daughters and four sons, publishes an extremist magazine, raises funds for imprisoned neo-Nazis, and was a member of a neo-Nazi party banned under the Holocaust denial legislation. >>> Phil Cain in Graz | Friday, April 23, 2010

Dramatische Austrittswelle: Missbrauchsskandal treibt Katholiken aus Kirche
WELT ONLINE: Deutsche Katholiken reagieren mit einer dramatischen Austrittswelle auf den Missbrauchsskandal in ihrer Kirche. In Bistümern sowie bei Standesämtern haben sich die Austrittszahlen vielerorts stark erhöht. Die Fluchtbewegung ist dort am stärksten, wo der Katholizismus besonders tief verwurzelt ist. >>> dpa/omi | Samstag, 24. April 2010

ZEIT ONLINE: Missbrauchsskandale – Katholiken treten in Scharen aus der Kirche aus: Die Katholische Kirche erlebt eine Austrittswelle: Wegen der Skandale haben sich die Zahlen in vielen Gemeinden vervielfacht. >>> Zeit Online, dpa | Samstag, 24. April 2010

Europe : L’extrême droite s’enracine
Manifestation de partisans du Front national à Paris. Photo : Le Temps
LE TEMPS: A la présidentielle en Autriche et aux législatives hongroises ce dimanche, des candidats ostensiblement racistes sont en lice. Crise économique, globalisation effrénée, tour d’ivoire bruxelloise… Les électeurs européens sont-ils de plus en plus réceptifs aux plaidoyers de la droite de la droite?

On a parlé d’une vague verte déferlant sur l’Italie. Pour la première fois en mars, la Ligue du Nord a enlevé deux régions. Peu avant en France, le Front national (FN) est sorti de son purgatoire en frôlant 12% des voix au premier tour des régionales. En Hongrie, grâce à sa percée spectaculaire au premier tour des législatives (16,7%), le Jobbik, un parti raciste, entrera au parlement. Le second tour se joue ce dimanche, comme la présidentielle en Autriche, qui oppose le grand favori, le sortant Heinz Fischer, à Rudolf Gehring, un contempteur de minarets, et à Barbara Rosenkranz, candidate du FPÖ ostensiblement antisémite (lire ci-dessous).

On pourrait multiplier les exemples. Ainsi, le British National Party (BNP) de Nick Griffin rêve de décrocher un ou deux strapontins à la Chambre des communes le 6 mai. Au Pays-Bas, le populiste Geert Wilders est assuré de connaître un moment de gloire aux législatives de juin. Crise économique, globalisation effrénée, tour d’ivoire bruxelloise… Les électeurs européens sont-ils de plus en plus réceptifs aux plaidoyers de la droite de la droite? «Les idées du FN progressent partout en Europe et même hors d’Europe», assure Bruno Gollnish, candidat à la succession de Jean-Marie Le Pen à la tête du FN. Selon lui, «un nombre croissant d’Européens réalisent que leurs pays sont privés de la souveraineté, qui est à la Nation ce que la liberté est à la personne. Ils constatent aussi qu’avec la libre circulation, l’immigration devient de plus en plus incontrôlable et substitue des populations à d’autres dans une espèce de brassage universel.» >>> Angélique Mounier-Kuhn | Vendredi 23 Avril 2010

Financial Crisis Has Created Fertile Ground for the Far Right in Europe
TIMES ONLINE: The far Right is notching up astonishing ballot box victories across Europe. The financial crisis has created a sense of victimhood and a need, it seems, for parties that use nationalist rhetoric to criticise globalisation — and which are prepared to offer up scapegoats.

From Geert Wilders in the Netherlands to Umberto Bossi in northern Italy; from Hungary’s Viktor Orban to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front in France, strong personalities are coming foward to exploit the mood. They use terms that were once monopolised by the Left — community, social cohesion, solidarity — but, overwhelmingly, they are concerned with the politics of fear; fear of the outsider.

The far-Right grouping Jobbik did well in the Hungarian elections because it appealled to an almost tribal reflex. Hungarians were worried that funds were running out, that the welfare system was beginning to crack, that there was not enough to go round. Jobbik blamed the Gypsies and won seats in parliament. And its rhetorical drum beat, drawn from centuries of central European anti-Semitism, suggested that a cosmopolitan global plot was making nonsense of the toil of honest Hungarians. >>> Roger Boyes: Commentary | Saturday, April 24, 2010

U.S.’s Toughest Immigration Bill Is Signed in Arizona
Protesters recited the Pledge of Allegiance as groups rallied against the immigration bill in front of the Arizona State Capitol Building on Friday. Photograph: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country on Friday, aimed at identifying, prosecuting and deporting illegal immigrants. The governor’s move unleashed immediate protests and reignited the divisive battle over immigration reform nationally.

Even before Governor Brewer signed the law at a 4:30 p.m. news conference here, President Obama strongly criticized it.

Speaking at a naturalization ceremony for 24 active-duty service members in the Rose Garden, Mr. Obama called for a federal overhaul of immigration laws — an overhaul that Congressional leaders signaled they were preparing to take up soon.

He said the failure of officials in Washington to act on immigration would open the door to “irresponsibility by others.” He said the Arizona bill threatened “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”

The law, which opponents and critics alike said was the broadest and strictest immigration measure in the country in generations, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime. It would also give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Opponents have decried it as an open invitation for harassment and discrimination against Hispanics regardless of their citizenship status. >>> Randal C. Archibold | Friday, April 23, 2010

Welcome to Smokebook: Big Tobacco Subverts Ban
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: TOBACCO giants are using Facebook to subvert bans and international conventions against cigarette advertising, a study by University of Sydney researchers published in the British Medical Journal has found.

''We have gathered here to pay homage to Lucky Strike, the bestest cigarette in the whole widest world,'' says one Facebook page administered by an employee of the tobacco company RJ Reynolds highlighted by the study.

Other Lucky Strike pages, one with tens of thousands of members, had images of old and new tobacco ads and various Lucky Strike tobacco products and merchandise. The report also found employees of British American Tobacco Australia had established similar pages.

In a statement BAT Australia's managing director, David Crow, said: ''It's absolutely not our policy to use social networking sites such as Facebook to promote our tobacco product brands. To do so could breach local advertising laws.

''Our rules mean that employees should not post branded material on social networking sites, blog sites, chat forums or other 'user-generated content' sites such as YouTube - whatever the intention in posting the material may be.''

The statement said ''if we find group employees have posted material that they shouldn't, perhaps out of naivety, we will be telling them to remove it''. >>> Nick O’Malley Investigations | Saturday, April 24, 2010

Dozens Killed in Baghdad in 'Revenge al-Qaeda Attacks'
BBC: A wave of bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 58 people and wounded more than 100.

Most of the attacks occurred near Shia mosques during Friday prayers. At least two went off near the offices of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

A top official blamed al-Qaeda, which in the past has targeted Shia areas.

He said the bombing had been carried out in revenge for the recent killing of three senior al-Qaeda leaders by security forces.

There were at least six bombings in Baghdad on Friday, with some reports putting the total at 13.

The targets included mosques and a market, as well as Mr Sadr's offices in the mainly Shia area of Sadr City. Read on (with video) >>> | Friday, April 23, 2010

Roger Vangheluwe, Bishop of Bruges, Resigns Over Child Sex Abuse
TIMES ONLINE: A senior Catholic bishop has resigned after admitting to sexually abusing a child. He is the latest and most senior cleric to stand down in the crisis engulfing the church.

Roger Vangheluwe, Belgium’s longest-serving bishop, said that he was “enormously sorry” for the “wound” he had inflicted on a young boy about 25 years ago.

“When I was not a bishop, and some time later, I abused a boy,” he said in a statement. “This has marked the victim forever. The wound does not heal. Neither in me nor the victim,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the bishop’s resignation, which is the first among senior clerics since the crisis over paedophile priests began. >>> Joanna Sugden | Friday, April 23, 2010