Monday, January 09, 2012
An apparition is stalking the United States. That, at least, is what the Republicans seem to believe in this election season. And the apparition has a name: Europe.
US President Baracka Obama, said leading Republican candidate Mitt Romney during the Republican debate on Saturday, wants to turn the US into a "European welfare state." At a weekend appearance in New Hampshire, site of a crucial primary vote on Tuesday, Romney said "I don't believe in Europe. I believe in America."
In an election year overshadowed by the threats posed by the European economy and concerns about the break-up of the European common currency, it is a message that Romney has been delivering every chance he gets. And he's not alone. Europe bashing has become an important stump-speech cornerstone for the entire Republican field. The message, as Romney never tires of delivering it, is clear: "I don't think Europe is working in Europe. I know it won't work here." » | Sebastian Fischer in Manchester, New Hampshire | Monday, January 09, 2012
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WELT ONLINE: US-Verteidigungsminister Panetta hat dem Iran mit einer militärischen Reaktion im Falle der Sperrung der Seestraße von Hormus gedroht. Iran plant weitere Manöver.
Der Atomstreit zwischen dem Westen und dem Iran spitzt sich von Tag zu Tag weiter zu. Die USA schickten am Sonntag eine ungewöhnlich deutliche Warnung an die Adresse der Führung in Teheran. Der Iran überschreite eine „rote Linie“, wenn er Atomwaffen entwickeln oder wichtige Schifffahrtswege blockieren sollte, sagte Verteidigungsminister Leon Panetta. » | dpa/AFP/sara/fbr | Sonntag 08. Januar 2012
Depp greeted guests in the costume he had worn in a film version of the Lewis Carroll story released around the same time by Burton, who was given carte blanche to transform the state dining room into a Mad Hatter's tea party in "his signature creepy-comic style".
A long table was "set with antique-looking linens, enormous stuffed animals in chairs, and tiered serving plates with treats like bone-shaped meringue cookies", writes New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor in The Obamas, which is released on Tuesday. Fruit punch was served in blood vials at the bar, she adds.
George Lucas sent Chewbacca from Star Wars to mingle with invited guests, who included the Obamas' two daughters Malia and Sasha and friends, the children of White House staff members and military families.
The White House press corps was allowed to report on more modest festivities earlier that day for Washington-area school children, but did not release details of the more glamorous festivities that occurred later for what was the Obamas' first Halloween in office in 2009.
The only images released showed the first couple greeting children outside the dining room, with Michelle Obama in a leopard fancy dress costume. Read on and comment » | Alex Spillius | Sunday, January 08, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The passing of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il has been marked by plunging temperatures, mourning bears and now, according to North Korean state media, by flocks of magpies.
Kim, who died in December aged 69 years after 17 years running the world's most reclusive state, was reputed to be able to control the weather, as well as to have scored a miraculous 38 under par round of golf.
"At around 17:30 on December 19, 2011, hundreds of magpies appeared from nowhere and hovered over a statue of President Kim Il Sung on Changdok School campus in Mangyongdae District, clattering as if they were telling him the sad news," state news agency KCNA reported on Monday. » | Monday, January 09, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: An American ex-Marine, who also holds Iranian citizenship, has been sentenced to death by an Iran judge for spying for the CIA, the Fars news agency reported on Monday.
Amir Mirzai Hekmati, 28, was "sentenced to death for co-operating with a hostile nation, membership of the CIA and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism," the verdict said, according to Fars.
Hekmati, who was born in the United States to an Iranian immigrant family, was shown on Iranian state television in mid-December saying in fluent Farsi and English that he was a Central Intelligence Agency operative sent to infiltrate the Iranian intelligence ministry.
He had been arrested months earlier. » | Monday, January 09, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Iranian court sentences 'CIA agent' to death: • Father of Amir Hekmati says he was just visiting family • Iranian media says country has started enriching uranium ¶ Iran has sentenced an American citizen to death and reports have emerged that the country has started enriching uranium underground in a show of defiance of western sanctions. ¶ The man, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an Iranian-American born in Arizona in 1983, was shown on Iranian television in December confessing to being a CIA agent, sent to gain the trust of the Iranian government by pretending to offer US state secrets. Hekmati's father said he had gone to Iran to visit his grandmother. » | Julian Borger, diplomatic editor | Monday, January 09, 2012
The unexpected verdict, which hinged on the judge's decision that DNA evidence presented by the prosecution was unreliable, sparked scenes of wild jubilation from his supporters in the Kuala Lumpur court and tears of joy from his wife and children.
Mr Anwar, 64, said he was "pleasantly shocked" by the verdict, which he has long alleged would be fixed by Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak on the trumped up charges to smear him and keep him out of politics.
But the government said the verdict in the case clearly underscored the judiciary's independence and illustrated it was listening to demands for reform among an electorate, which has an eye on the Arab Spring protests. » | Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok | Monday, January 09, 2012
The decision will open the way for Mr Breivik to give his first interviews with the media since he killed 77 people last July, and potentially to receive visits from those sharing his extreme anti-Islamic ideology.
Odd Gron, a lawyer at Lippestad, the firm representing Mr Breivik, said his client had received several letters from supporters requesting a visit.
"There have been requests from fans," he confirmed. "There are letters from people giving him support, there are people who want to tell him that they don't want to give him support, and also letters from journalists requesting arrangements." » | Richard Orange, Malmö | Monday, January 09, 2012
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Das Winterwetter hat Österreich sowie Teile der Schweiz und Bayerns im Griff. Vor allem der Westen Österreichs ist unter einer immer weiter wachsenden Schneedecke begraben. In den Bundesländern Vorarlberg, Tirol und Salzburg besteht die höchste Lawinen-Warnstufe. Mehrere Lawinenabgänge haben bereits Dörfer von der Außenwelt abgeschnitten. Der Zugverkehr über die Arlbergstrecke ist gesperrt, weil viele Bäume von den orkanartigen Stürmen umgerissen wurden und weil weiter Lawinengefahr herrscht. Zwischen dem Tiroler Ötztal und Bludenz in Vorarlberg musste ein Ersatzverkehr auf der Straße eingerichtet werden. Eine weitere Streckenunterbrechung gibt es zwischen Wörgl und Saalfelden. » | Von REINHARD OLT, WIEN | Sonntag 08. Januar 2012
NZZ ONLINE: Tausende von Skitouristen sitzen fest: Zahlreiche Wintertourismusorte wegen Lawinengefahr von Aussenwelt abgeschnitten » | Sonntag 08. Januar 2012
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Spring arrives early in Britain following mild winter weather: The first signs of spring are emerging weeks early in the countryside and in gardens as a result of the mild winter, experts said today. » | Sunday, January 08, 2012
SUNDAY EXPRESS: DAVID Cameron has three weeks to decide whether to bless a new eurozone treaty or use Britain’s veto and place the country in a “very grave position”, a senior observer warned last night.
Peter Ludlow, president of the ¬European Strategy Forum think tank, said Germany and France are confident they will secure a deal to save the long term future of the euro by the end of this month.
That would mean tougher financial rules for members of the eurozone and the use of existing EU institutions to enforce them, a move Mr Cameron has indicated is a step too far.
However, veteran EU analyst Mr Ludlow said one “very senior member” of the European Council had told him that if Britain were to try to block the deal it would be “tantamount to a declaration of war”.
He said: “If Cameron is stupid enough to try and block the use of the institutions it would be a very, very dramatic development which could only have grave consequences in terms of ¬Britain’s own interests. It would be his nuclear weapon and that’s why all the messages I get from various people give the impression he will not do that.” » | Ted Jeory | Sunday, January 08, 2012
A novel by an anonymous Chinese author living in America, which started life as a blog, has become a worldwide publishing sensation. It has been snapped up by publishers in 15 countries who have been impressed by the fact that it has sold more than a million copies in Chinaand inspired a film by an Oscar-winning Chinese director. Some publishers even bought it before reading a translation. Yet none of the publishers, translators or editors knows the author's identity.
Under the Hawthorn Tree, a tragic love story set during the Cultural Revolution, is written under the pen name of Ai Mi. All that is known about the author is that she leads a reclusive life in Florida, having gone there to study. She is thought to be in her fifties or sixties, if only because her insight into the Cultural Revolution suggests someone who experienced first hand the political and social persecution of Mao Zedong's last decade. She tells her readers that it was inspired by a true story. Her central character – a young woman from a "politically questionable family" who falls in love with the son of a general – is based on a real person with names and places disguised. » | Dalya Alberge | Saturday, January 07, 2012
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Bahrain is under pressure to launch an investigation into the alleged police beating of a prominent Shia Muslim activist after the United States joined opposition groups in urging a full inquiry.
Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said he was kicked and beaten with clubs by members of the security forces who broke up a pro-democracy demonstration on Friday.
The Bahraini government, struggling to restore order after nearly a year of sectarian tensions on the island, denied the allegations, claiming that the police had come to Mr Rajab's aid by assisting him into an ambulance after he suffered tear gas inhalation. » | Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent | Sunday, January 08, 2012
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THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As frontrunner in the Republican White House race, Mitt Romney is seen by many as out of touch. Now his wife Ann's Welsh relatives have come to the rescue.
It is a long way from a small two-bedroom terraced brick home on King's Terrace in the mining village of Nantyffyllon to the colonnaded splendour of the White House. And it is a far cry from a 1920s open-sided charabanc in Porthcawl to Air Force One.
But Ann Romney is drawing on the working-class British roots of her Welsh-born father and her coalminer grandfather to bolster her husband Mitt's bid for the Republican presidential nomination, as was reported last week.
Now the full story of her family's journey from the mines of Glamorgan to the highest echelons of US society can be told for the first time after Mrs Romney's relatives in South Wales talked to The Sunday Telegraph.
For Roddy Evans, watching the election drama unfold from Porthcawl, the prospect of Mrs Romney as America's First Lady is sometimes difficult to imagine.
The former Wales and British Lions rugby union player, 77, is her second cousin and the Romneys and their five sons have been regular visitors over their years.
"I'm very proud of what they've achieved," he said last week at his home, where he received his annual Christmas card from his cousins last month. "It would be wonderful if the first lady had such humble roots in a little mining village in south Wales." » | Philip Sherwell, Manchester, New Hampshire and Ben Leach | Sunday, January 08, 2012
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THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Kim Jong-un celebrates birthday by driving a tank » | Malcolm Moore, Shanghai | Sunday, January 08, 2012
Like many other Christian outposts in the spiritual homeland of Nigeria's "Taliban", the Victory Baptist Church in the northern desert city of Maiduguri no longer just relies on God for protection.
A modest whitewashed spire in a skyline dominated by mosques, for the last month it has had a military guard to defend it from Boko Haram, the militant local Islamist sect blamed for a string of terror attacks nationwide in recent weeks.
The soldiers in the sandbagged machinegun nest outside the church, though, were unable save three members of the flock last week.
On Wednesday evening, three days after Boko Haram ordered all Christians to leave Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria for good, Ousman Adurkwa, a 65-year-old local trader, answered the door of his home near the church to what he thought was an after-hours customer. Instead it was two masked gunmen.
"They shot my father dead, and then came for the rest of the family," Mr Adurkwa's other son Hyeladi, 25, told The Sunday Telegraph the following day. "One chased my brother Moussa and killed him, and the other shot at me, but my mother took the bullet in the stomach instead." » | Colin Freeman, Maiduguri | Sunday, January 08, 2012
Unemployment is rising and companies are going to the wall as the economic turmoil continues to inflict damage across the globe. But one organisation is thriving. Records recently filed at Companies House show Tony Blair Inc is going from strength to strength. They reveal that income channelled through a complex network of firms and partnerships controlled by Blair rose more than 40% last year to more than £12m. Of this, almost £10m was paid for "management services". The money was transferred via a network of firms and financial vehicles.
Accountancy experts are questioning the arcane nature of the network's finances, which makes it difficult to trace where its money is coming from, or where it is being spent.
Accounts for Windrush Ventures, an obscure company that operates under the trading name "the Office of Tony Blair", suggest 2011 has been a successful year for the former prime minister. Windrush saw its turnover rise to just over £12m, up from £8.5m in 2010. Pre-tax profits rose from £729,000 to £1.1m.
The accounts reveal that the company received "remuneration of £9,837,000 in connection with management services" from a limited liability partnership ultimately controlled by Blair. In the previous year Windrush Ventures Limited received £5.2m in remuneration for providing management services. Exactly what sort of management services are provided, and how the company derives its income, are impossible to determine as the accounts do not go into detail. Blair is legitimately taking advantage of laws allowing him to limit what his companies and partnerships must disclose. "It is baffling; these accounts make remarkably little sense," said accountancy expert Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK, a firm that scrutinises company finances. "This limited disclosure is not within the spirit of the law. " » | Jamie Doward | Saturday, January 07, 2012
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair and the £8million tax 'mystery': Former Prime Minister Tony Blair channelled millions of pounds through a complicated web of companies and paid just a fraction in tax, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. ¶ Official accounts show a company set up by Mr Blair to manage his business affairs paid just £315,000 in tax last year on an income of more than £12 million. In that time, he employed 26 staff and paid them total wages of almost £2.3 million. ¶ The accounts provide the strongest evidence yet of the huge sums generated by Mr Blair through his various activities since quitting Downing Street in June 2007. ¶ He runs a business consultancy – Tony Blair Associates – which has deals with the governments of Kuwait and Kazakhstan among others and is a paid adviser to JP Morgan, an American investment bank, and to Zurich International, a global insurance company based in Switzerland. Mr Blair makes a further £100,000 a time from speeches and lectures while also presiding over a number of charities including a faith foundation. » | Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter | Saturday, January 07, 2012
Greedy bankers such as Sir Fred Goodwin could be jailed under tough new laws being drawn up by George Osborne.
Growing public outrage over the severe damage caused by the banking crisis has prompted the Chancellor to prepare a new criminal offence of ‘corporate negligence’ to punish reckless financiers.
The move comes just days before the annual City bonus season, which is expected to bring another round of bumper payouts despite the sluggish UK economy and families suffering a historic squeeze on household finances.
All three main parties are now competing to offer the most hardline policies on tackling ‘fat cats’, after their internal polling revealed the scale of voters’ fury at the level of executive pay.
Under the plan, being worked on behind the scenes at the Treasury, legislation would be introduced to prosecute any boss of a ‘systemically important financial institution’ whose actions had a significantly damaging effect on the wider economy.
The plan would mean that the chief executives of the big five banks: Bob Diamond at Barclays, Antonio Horta-Osorio at Lloyds TSB, Stuart Gulliver at HSBC, Ana Botin at Santander and Sir Fred’s successor at RBS, Stephen Hester – would all be at risk of imprisonment if they ‘crashed’ the banks and damaged the economy through their actions. » | Glen Owen | Saturday, January 07, 2012
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a réfuté sa mise en cause par l’hebdomadaire Marianne, en affirmant, vendredi sur son site internet, que sa fondation philanthropique n’avait «jamais reçu d’argent public».
«Aucun argent public n’a jamais été reçu par la Fondation», écrit l’épouse du président Nicolas Sarkozy, dans un message posté à la une de son site, sous le titre «droit de réponse de Carla Bruni-Sarkozy».
Selon elle, «l’insinuation selon laquelle des fonds auraient été levés auprès de partenaires publics est entièrement infondée».
Dans un article intitulé «Enquête sur la philanthrope Carla Bruni-Sarkozy»,l’hebdomadaire daté du 7 au 13 janvier affirme notamment que, «au mépris des procédures normales», le Fonds mondial contre le Sida a versé 3,5 millions de dollars (2,7 millions d’euros) «en faveur des activités philanthropiques de Carla Bruni-Sarkozy et de plusieurs agences appartenant à l’un de ses amis proches».
«Contrairement aux affirmations avancées par le journaliste» auteur de l’article, «la Fondation a bel et bien une comptabilité propre, consolidée in fine à la Fondation de France, comme près de 700 fondations en France dont la probité et la légitimité ne sont pas remises en question». » | AFP | vendredi 06 janvier 2012
MARIANNE: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy et le Fonds mondial de lutte contre le sida réagissent à l'enquête de Marianne » | Marianne | samedi 07 janvier 2012
Saturday, January 07, 2012
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Suite à une étude finale, les médecins ont «écarté la présence de cellules cancérigènes» dans la glande thyroïde de la présidente de l'Argentine.
La présidente argentine Cristina Kirchner n’avait pas de cancer. Une étude finale ayant «écarté la présence de cellules cancérigènes» dans la glande thyroïde après son opération de mercredi, a annoncé samedi le porte-parole de la présidence, Alfredo Scoccimarro.
«L'étude histopathologique finale a constaté la présence de nodules dans les deux lobes de la glande thyroïde de la présidente, mais elle a écarté la présence de cellules cancérigènes, modifiant ainsi le diagnostic initial», a dit M. Scoccimarro à la presse, lisant une déclaration. » | ats/ afp/Newsnet | samedi 07 janvier 2012
Liens en relation avec l’artcle ici et ici
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Argentine President Cristina Kirchner wrongly diagnosed with cancer: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner never had cancer despite having been diagnosed with the disease, her spokesman said. » | Saturday, January 07, 2012
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Argentiniens Präsidentin nicht an Krebs erkrankt: Die argentinische Staatschefin Kirchner hat offenbar doch keinen Krebs. Die erste Diagnose habe sich als falsch erwiesen, teilte ein Sprecher am Samstag mit: Kirchner befinde sich nach einer Operation an der Schilddrüse "in einem optimalen Zustand". » | usp/AFP/Reuters | Samstag 07. Januar 2012
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