The resolution also sets "benchmarks" for Mali, including political reconciliation and improved training for the military.The council unanimously voted to give the force an initial one-year mandate.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
BBC criticised for Newsnight axed Jimmy Savile report
The report dismissed claims the Newsnight probe was dropped to protect tribute shows to the late TV presenter.
Newsnight's editor and deputy are being replaced after another inquiry criticised a report which led to Lord McAlpine facing false claims of abuse.
Q&A: Are concerns about the French economy overblown?
It is the second largest economy in the eurozone and has Fortune 500 companies ranging from cosmetics leader L'Oreal, energy group Total and luxury giant PPR, which boasts UK brands Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen.
France is in the spotlight amid fears it could become the next focus of the crisis in the eurozone following Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
UK to withdraw 3,800 troops from Afghanistan during 2013
Troop numbers are already being reduced from 9,500 to 9,000 before Christmas.
And numbers would fall to about 5,200 by the end of 2013, Mr Cameron told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions.
All Nato operations are due to finish by the end of 2014, with responsibility being transferred to Afghan forces.
Spain: Separatist Catalan Parties Announce Alliance
Spain: Separatist Catalan Parties Announce Alliance
By REUTERS
Two of the largest parties in Catalonia agreed on Tuesday to an alliance day that aims to clear the way for a referendum in 2014 on secession, a vote that the central government in Madrid has said is illegal. A prolonged recession and record unemployment have fueled separatist sentiment in a region that is among Spain’s wealthiest, adding to uncertainty for investors concerned over Spain’s finances. The pact was formed between the center-right Convergence and Union party and Republican Left, which are usually at loggerheads, after each failed to win decisively in last month’s election. Poland Finds It’s Not Immune to Euro Crisis
Poland Finds It’s Not Immune to Euro Crisis
By JACK EWING
WARSAW — The Fiat factory in Tychy, Poland, has long been considered one of the most productive auto plants in Europe, often singled out for praise by the Italian company’s demanding chief executive, Sergio Marchionne.
Polish workers “always responded whenever I asked,” Mr. Marchionne said at the Paris Motor Show in October. “I feel an exceptional responsibility to the people there.”
So when Fiat said recently that it would lay off a third of the work force in Tychy, or about 1,500 people, it was a harsh reminder: Even with the healthiest big economy in Europe, Poland cannot escape the Continent’s economic downturn.
Polish growth is expected to slow to as little as 1.5 percent next year, according to World Bank estimates, from 2.1 percent this year. That still compares favorably with the neighboring euro zone, where most countries are either in recession or just barely growing. With a gross domestic product of €369.7 billion in 2011, according to the European data agency Eurostat, Poland ranked ninth among the 27 E.U. countries, just below Belgium and a rung above Austria.
U.N. Presents Grim Prognosis on the World Economy
U.N. Presents Grim Prognosis on the World Economy
By RICK GLADSTONE
World economic growth has weakened substantially this year and faces the confluence of a triple threat — the so-called fiscal cliff in the United States, the European debt crisis and a sharp slowdown in China, the United Nations said in a report released on Tuesday. The worst case, the report said, could be a new global recession that mires many countries in a cycle of austerity and unemployment for years.
The report’s main author, Robert Vos, director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said it could take until at least 2017 just to recoup the jobs lost in the United States and Europe since the 2008-9 recession.
He forecast world growth for 2013 at 2.4 percent, “a significant downgrade” from the United Nations’ midyear forecast of 3.1 percent. He said the 2012 growth rate was 2.2 percent, versus the midyear forecast of 2.5 percent.
“I’m afraid this time around we’re not very optimistic about how things are moving,” Mr. Vos said at a news conference at United Nations headquarters.
“A worsening of the euro area crisis, the ‘fiscal cliff’ in the United States and a hard landing in China could cause a new global recession,” Mr. Vos said in the report, “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2013.” He said the forecast growth was “far from sufficient to overcome the continued jobs crisis that many countries are still facing.”
BBC Abuse Scandal Report Finds ‘Chaos’ but No Cover-Up
BBC Abuse Scandal Report Finds ‘Chaos’ but No Cover-Up
By JOHN F. BURNS and STEPHEN CASTLE
LONDON — A report into the sexual abuse crisis that has shaken the British Broadcasting Corporation was strongly critical on Wednesday of the editorial and management decisions that led to the cancellation of a broadcast last year that would have exposed decades of sexual abuse, some of it on BBC premises, by Jimmy Savile, who had been one of Britain’s best-known television personalities.
The 200-page report by Nick Pollard, a former head of the Sky News channel who began his broadcast career as a BBC reporter, traced in detail what it described as “a chain of events that was to prove disastrous for the BBC.” Among other things, he blamed a “rigid management system” that had “proved completely incapable of dealing with” with the crisis that followed the program’s cancellation.
While much of the report centered on the interplay between journalists and their superiors as the allegations against Mr. Savile were investigated, its central conclusion appeared to be that confusion and mismanagement, not a cover-up, lay at the heart of the decision to drop the Savile program. Mr. Savile died at 84 in October 2011, weeks before the “Newsnight” program was scheduled to be aired.
“The efforts to get to the truth behind the Savile story proved beyond the combined efforts of the senior management, legal department, corporate communications team and anyone else for well over a month” after the crisis broke, precipitated by a program earlier this year on ITV, Britain’s leading commercial broadcaster, the report said. “Leadership and organization seemed to be in short supply.”
Mr. Pollard dismissed one theory that was widely circulated in recent months, that BBC News executives or their superiors, reluctant to have the BBC reveal a dark passage in its past, pressured the “Newsnight” team to cancel the Savile segment. Critics who took this views have downplayed the reason Peter Rippon, the program’s editor, cited to his staff. Mr. Rippon said he considered the team’s conclusions about Mr. Savile had not been adequately substantiated.
Hearing Reveals Details of Spy’s Life, but Motive for Death Is Still a Mystery
Hearing Reveals Details of Spy’s Life, but Motive for Death Is Still a Mystery
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON — It is now more than six years since Alexander V. Litvinenko, whistle-blower and former K.G.B. officer, died a slow, agonizing and much-chronicled death, reflecting the shadowy world in which he maneuvered to tilt against the Kremlin — the font, as he depicted it, of Russian organized crime.
But, after potentially explosive disclosures at a preinquest hearing last week, a more fundamental question seems to arise: Are the mysteries of his poisoning by the rare and highly toxic isotope polonium 210 approaching something akin to resolution, or are they simply condemned to deepen?
“The Alexander Litvinenko affair has been an unbelievably murky business,” The Times of London observed in an editorial. The more details become known, it said, “the murkier and muddier it seems to become.”
The hearing last week produced two major assertions that seemed to bear out that assessment.
One, by Hugh Davies, a lawyer acting for the inquest, seemed to substantiate the Litvinenko camp’s insistence that British government evidence not yet made public in detail “does establish a prima facie case as to the culpability of the Russian state in the death of Alexander Litvinenko,” who had become a British citizen weeks before his death.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Spain Seizes $36.5m Worth of Mubarak Assets
Millions of assets of ex-Egyptian president and associates located, including Marbella beach properties and luxury cars.
Straight Thuggin
Mubarak has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the deaths of protesters during Egypt's uprising [Reuters]
Spanish police have seized $36.5m in assets owned by Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, and people close to him.
Egypt had made an international request to block the assets, including Marbella beach properties and luxury cars, of 130 people associated with Mubarak's rule.
Spain's interior ministry said on Thursday it had frozen $24m worth of the assets.
The properties include two houses in La Moraleja, a wealthy neighbourhood of Madrid, seven properties in the Mediterranean beach resort of Marbella, financial products in three banks and several expensive vehicles.
Egypt had made an international request to block the assets, including Marbella beach properties and luxury cars, of 130 people associated with Mubarak's rule.
Spain's interior ministry said on Thursday it had frozen $24m worth of the assets.
The properties include two houses in La Moraleja, a wealthy neighbourhood of Madrid, seven properties in the Mediterranean beach resort of Marbella, financial products in three banks and several expensive vehicles.
UK Unemployment Falls Dramatically
| Britain's unemployment rate has shrunk by the biggest quarterly amount in more than a decade, with a record number of people working, official data showed. The number of unemployed people fell by 82,000 to 2.51 million in three months through to October - the lowest since March to May 2011 - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The jobless rate stayed at 7.8 per cent, in line with forecasts. The ONS also revealed that the number of people in work has struck a new record high, jumping by 40,000 to 29.6 million people over the same period. Despite the upbeat figures, British Prime Minister David Cameron cautioned that long-term unemployment remained "stubbornly high". "Obviously, there is no room for complacency - there are still far too many people who are long-term unemployed," Cameron told parliament in his weekly question-and-answer session. "But in these figures we can see 40,000 more people in work, vacancies are up, unemployment is down by 82,000 and the claimant count is down." The numbers claiming jobless benefits slid 3,000 in November to 1.58 million people, compared with October. ING economist James Knightley said: "The UK jobs report shows some reasonably encouraging newsflow on the labour market. "The fact that UK unemployment is rising, consumer confidence is up and anecdotal evidence of retail sales have not been too bad, offers some hope that the domestic situation in the UK is stabilising." Continued austerity The latest ONS data also showed that many Britons still faced a squeeze on their finances. Average weekly earnings including bonuses grew by 1.8 per cent in the three months through to October. Analysts had forecast a rise of 1.9 per cent. Excluding bonuses, pay increased by 1.7 per cent. Both figures were below inflation, which jumped to 2.7 per cent in October. "Such a picture is not supportive for the spending profile int he coming months as households remain under pressure in the current uncertain environment, even if labour markets remain resilient," said Annalisa Piazza at Newedge Strategy. Presenting a half-yearly budget statement to parliament last week, Finance Minister George Osborne said Britain will endure more austerity and miss a key debt-cutting goal as the economy looks set to grow far more slowly than previously thought. |
Source:
Al Jazeera
Opposition leaders detained at Moscow protest
Russian opposition leaders were detained on Saturday as thousands rallied in Moscow, braving subfreezing temperatures to mark a year since widespread protests against President Vladimir Putin erupted following parliamentary elections last December.
Cool pragmatism
“ASSAD is a butcher, Putin a devil, Erdogan a saint,” rasps Mohammed Mustafa, a bony Muslim cleric, who endured 13 years of torture in a Syrian jail. He is among the 20,000-plus Syrian refugees sheltering at a camp near the town of Ceylanpinar on the Turkish-Syrian border. “If Russia withdraws its support, Assad will fall in minutes,” claims Ibrahim Jabbali, a Free Syrian Army rebel.Confounding expectations
SERBIA’S leaders are not behaving as everyone expected they would. When Tomislav Nikolic, until 2008 a member of a hate-spewing extreme nationalist party, became president in May, and Ivica Dacic became prime minister in July, nationalists were ecstatic, liberals dismayed and Russia’s establishment smug. After the Serbian government had worked hard for years to join the European Union and get closer to NATO, everyone assumed this effort would go into reverse.
But the men in power are confounding expectations. On December 9th Mr Nikolic lit a candle in Belgrade’s synagogue for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. In front of guests, including a leader of Serbia’s Muslims, the president gave a little homily about tolerance. A new political persona seems to be emerging. Unlike Boris Tadic, his predecessor, Mr Nikolic appears to be settling into the role of grandfather of the country: a man who sometimes makes embarrassing remarks, but not a threat.
Will Monti run for prime minister?
The early vote became inevitable on December 8th when Mr Monti told Giorgio Napolitano, the president, that he intended to resign. By then, he had lost the support of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) movement. The 76-year-old Mr Berlusconi then said he would be his party’s candidate for prime minister. He later cast doubt on this, even making a bizarre offer to stand down if Mr Monti wanted to take over his party—a sign perhaps that the former prime minister senses that his candidacy risks becoming an embarrassing catastrophe. It has run into a barrage of international condemnation and even Mr Berlusconi’s old chums in the Northern League are hesitating about whether to renew their electoral alliance with the PdL.
WITH his restrained smile, laconic manner and dry humour, Mario Monti, Italy’s prime minister, makes a good sphinx. And that is the role he will have to play until the budget for 2013 is approved by parliament, probably on December 21st. Only then will he be able to cast aside the neutrality he must maintain as head of a technocratic government and announce whether he plans to stand in the general election now expected in February.
David Cameron: withdrawal from EU is imaginable
David Cameron has broken new ground on Europe by suggesting British withdrawal from the EU is "imaginable", aligning himself with the fiercely Eurosceptic Boris Johnson.
EU in major free trade deal with Singapore
The EU and Singapore have clinched a free-trade agreement (FTA) - the second such deal between the 27-nation bloc and a major Asian trading partner.
Last year EU-Singapore trade was worth about 74bn euros (£60bn; $97bn).Singapore is the second largest Asian investor in the EU after Japan. The EU Commission says the deal - not yet signed by politicians - will help EU exports of cars and financial services.
An EU-South Korea FTA has been in operation since July 2011.
The EU is Singapore's second biggest trade partner after neighbouring Malaysia, Reuters news agency reports. The plan is to initial the FTA in early 2013.
European Court fines Russia over Chechnya abductions
The European Court of Human Rights has told Russia to pay more than 500,000 euros (£406,000) to the relatives of eight men apparently abducted by security forces in Chechnya.
The men disappeared in 2002-2004 and are presumed dead. The judges said Russia had violated four human rights articles and they highlighted many shortcomings in the authorities' investigations.
Chechnya was devastated by war between Russia and rebels from 1994 onwards.
Many similar cases have come before the court, which speaks of "a systemic problem of non-investigation of such crimes", in a press release on Tuesday's judgment.
S&P raises Greece's credit rating
Ratings agency Standard and Poor's has raised the credit rating of Greece's sovereign debt by six levels, praising the "strong determination" of fellow eurozone countries to help it stay as a member state.
S&P has increased Greece's rating from "selective default" to "B-minus".The agency also praised the continuing efforts by Greece's government to cut its spending.
Greece is currently receiving the second of two bailouts.
They agreed to release 49.1bn euros ($57bn; £37bn) after continuing austerity work by Greece, and a buyback of some of its debt.
A total of 240bn euros has been earmarked for Greece from the two bailout loans.
So far, Greece has received nearly 149bn euros (£119bn; $191bn) from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund, out of that 240bn euros.
S&P Lifts Rating on Greece
A strong and clear commitment from members of the euro zone to keep Greece in the common-currency bloc helped lead Standard & Poor's to raise its rating on Greece to B-minus from selective default Tuesday.
Russia prepares to evacuate citizens from Syria
The Syrian military has purportedly launched fresh air strikes in eastern Ghouta near Damascus, according to a video uploaded by activists.
Signs continue to build that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime could be close to falling.
While Iran has denied rumours emanating from the West, another key ally – Russia – has sent warships to the Mediterranean to prepare for a potential evacuation of its citizens.
Just three kilometres from the centre of Damascus, clashes continue at the Yarmouk refugee camp which was stormed by Syrian rebels.
The densely-populated districts of the city have become home to thousands of Palestinians over the years.
Rebels have been battling an armed Palestinian group loyal to the regime.
When the uprising began 21 months ago, the estimated 500,000 Palestinians living in Syria mostly stayed on the sidelines. Observers say, as the conflict escalates, most are now backing the rebels.
The battle at Yarmouk is one of a series of conflicts on the southern fringes of the capital, Assad’s traditional heartland.
At the border with Turkey, a journalist with American TV network NBC has spoken for the first time about his kidnap ordeal.
Richard Engel described how he and his crew were seized on Thursday after crossing into Syria. They were kept bound and blindfolded and were repeatedly threatened.
Signs continue to build that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime could be close to falling.
While Iran has denied rumours emanating from the West, another key ally – Russia – has sent warships to the Mediterranean to prepare for a potential evacuation of its citizens.
Just three kilometres from the centre of Damascus, clashes continue at the Yarmouk refugee camp which was stormed by Syrian rebels.
The densely-populated districts of the city have become home to thousands of Palestinians over the years.
Rebels have been battling an armed Palestinian group loyal to the regime.
When the uprising began 21 months ago, the estimated 500,000 Palestinians living in Syria mostly stayed on the sidelines. Observers say, as the conflict escalates, most are now backing the rebels.
The battle at Yarmouk is one of a series of conflicts on the southern fringes of the capital, Assad’s traditional heartland.
At the border with Turkey, a journalist with American TV network NBC has spoken for the first time about his kidnap ordeal.
Richard Engel described how he and his crew were seized on Thursday after crossing into Syria. They were kept bound and blindfolded and were repeatedly threatened.
Western Balkans at Risk of Social Upheaval on Extended Austerity
Western Balkan nations are facing a “higher risk” of social unrest as the region’s six economies, faced with some of Europe’s highest jobless rates amid a double- dip recession, battle to revive growth.
EU Ministers Clinch Deal On Bank Supervision
European Central Bank granted authority to police euro zone's major banks and intervene when small lenders have trouble.
German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the new system on bank supervision begins in March 2014 [EPA]
European Union (EU) finance ministers have agreed a deal granting the European Central Bank (ECB) new powers to supervise euro zone banks.
The deal, clinched on Thursday, is the first step in a new phase of closer integration to help underpin the euro, the currency used in 17 EU member states.
The ministers from the 27-member bloc held talks for more than 14 hours, ending months of tortuous negotiations and paving the way for the ECB to directly police the euro zone's biggest banks and intervene in smaller banks at the first sign of trouble.
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"We have a deal," said an EU official, sending the euro to a session high in Tokyo of 1.3080 against the US dollar.
The plan sets in motion one of the biggest overhauls of any European banking system since the financial crisis began in mid-2007 with the near collapse of German lender IKB.
The onus is now on EU leaders, who meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, to give their full political backing.
Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's finance minister, said the new system to supervise banks in the euro zone would be up and running from March 1, 2014.
"We have reached the main points to establish a European banking supervisor that should take on its work in 2014," Schaeuble told reporters in Brussels after talks with his counterparts.
The Hanoverian connection
STARTING with the Angles and Saxons and continuing with the Hanoverian kings, people from Lower Saxony, one of Germany’s 16 states, have played a big role in British history. And vice versa. After the second world war, Lower Saxony was part of the British zone and Gordon Macready, a Scot, ran it. In 1946 he came close to achieving something unheard-of in Lower Saxony: a balanced budget. Clearly, only another Scot could balance it again, if given a chance after the next state election on January 20th.
Or so implies, tongue in cheek, David McAllister, the premier of Lower Saxony. He is fighting to keep his job in a vote that is widely seen as a test run for Germany’s federal election next September. Mr McAllister is indeed a dual citizen, with a Glaswegian father and German mother. In some countries that might be a problem in politics. Not in Germany, where Mr McAllister, aged 41, is seen as a possible heir-apparent in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the centre-right party of Angela Merkel, the chancellor.
His fans brandish signs reading “I’m a Mac”. One of his television ads has a narrator singing “Our chieftain is a Scot and we are a strong clan” over the sound of bagpipes. When Mr McAllister drew the rhetorical arc to Sir Gordon Macready at a recent CDU convention, it brought the house down. “Scots have a great brand in Germany” for their thriftiness, says Mr McAllister. In any case, he adds, “better Scot than Greek” on a German campaign trail.
Such frivolity is allowed, indeed encouraged, in Lower Saxony because without it an election there would be intolerably dull. As in most of the rest of Germany, the state has barely felt the euro crisis so far. The largest employer, Volkswagen (a carmaker part-owned by the state government), is doing well. So is agriculture, the economy’s other mainstay. An old controversy about making a temporary storage site for nuclear waste permanent is bubbling under quietly.
Nonetheless, Lower Saxony gets attention because it is in almost exactly the same political situation as the whole country. Both are run by coalitions led by the CDU and the smaller Free Democratic Party (FDP). Like Mrs Merkel and the CDU in Berlin, Mr McAllister and the CDU in Hanover lead the polls, with roughly 40%. But in country and state alike, the FDP is polling below the 5% threshold required to enter parliament, which threatens to deprive the CDU of its long-time partner.
Mr McAllister could thus lose his job even if he wins the most votes, if the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens, both on the centre-left, get more than 50%. Unless, that is, he can form a coalition with one of them. The scenario in fashion among the pundits is an alliance between the CDU and the Greens.
Such talk only “helps the Greens, not the CDU”, retorts Mr McAllister. “Why should we as the big, proud CDU run after the Greens?” Yet if, on the evening of January 20th, his alternatives are leaving government or sharing it with Greens or SPD “reds”, Mr McAllister, whose clan tartan contains both those colours, may discover a sudden flexibility. Then all Germany could spend the next eight months speculating about whether Mrs Merkel might have to do the same if, come September, the FDP is thrown out of the federal parliament as well.
No More Charges for Pentagon Hacker
British prosecutor says charging UK man who hacked Pentagon and NASA computers would pose "considerable difficulties".
McKinnon's mother, right, said she hopes US authorities would now drop their extradition warrant [Reuters]
A senior British prosecutor has said Gary McKinnon, a hacker wanted in the United States for breaking into military computer systems, will face no further criminal charges in Britain.
"The prospects of a conviction against Mr McKinnon which reflects the full extent of his alleged criminality are not high," Keir Starmer, director of public prosecutions, said.
Starmer said there would have been considerable difficulties in bringing a case against the 46-year-old McKinnon in Britain.
Starmer said there would have been considerable difficulties in bringing a case against the 46-year-old McKinnon in Britain.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Anti-Austerity Coalition Wins Romania Polls
PM Victor Ponta's ruling centre-left alliance wins up to 60 per cent of votes in Sunday's parliamentary polls.
The party of Prime Minister Victor Ponta [L] won comfortably over parties associated with President Basescu [R] [AFP]
Romania's centre-left governing coalition has comfortably won a weekend parliamentary poll with nearly 60 per cent of the vote, partial results have showed.
With 80 per cent of the polling stations reporting, the results confirmed exit polls that declared the Social-Liberal Union (USL) headed by Prime Minister Victor Ponta as winner in Sunday's poll.
Despite the fact that it (USL) has only held power since May, many voters saw it as the party of change because it has promised to roll back austerity cuts undertaken by prevous government.
Parties close to President Traian Basescu came in a distant second with nearly 17 per cent of the vote.
Turnout was low at 41.6 per cent as disenchantment with politics remains high in the newest European Union member.
Simmering tension
The win deals a blow to President Basescu who is due to officially appoint the new prime minister.
There has been no reaction yet on the outcome of the poll from Basescu, who will be travelling to Oslo on Monday together with other heads of state to collect the Nobel peace prize awarded to the EU earlier this year.
Ponta was appointed prime minister in May, the third prime minister this year, but he had a bitter battle with Basescu, whose mandate expires in 2014.
Basescu's allies, who were in government from 2008, grew unpopular due to harsh austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund and European Union in exchange for a $26bn (20 billion euro) bailout loan in 2009, and allegations of cronyism.
Ponta restored most pensions and salaries that were slashed as part of the loan agreement, but has largely continued the policies as previous Basescu-allied governments including a 24 percent sales tax, one of the highest in the EU.
Basescu, who is due to officially name the new prime minister after the poll, has already repeatedly hinted that he could refuse to re-appoint Ponta as premier, describing his nemesis as a "mythomaniac".
Call for calm
But Ponta himself appeared to extend an olive branch, saying that after months of bitter feuding, "Romania now needs a period of calm".
"We need to overcome political fights, hatred and revenge," he said, adding "he was ready to lead the next government".
The president has accused USL leaders of driving the country away from the EU, which it joined in 2007.
Analysts and investors have called for political stability as Romania, the 27-member bloc's second-poorest member after Bulgaria, is struggling to recover from one of Europe's most painful austerity drives.
The average monthly wage currently stands at 350 euros ($450) and about three million Romanians have emigrated looking for jobs and better living conditions elsewhere.
The 2012 growth forecast was revised down to 0.7 per cent from 1.7 per cent.
Source: AlJazeera
Thursday, December 6, 2012
'Chancellor's Majority' Eludes Merkel in Greek Vote
'Chancellor's Majority' Eludes Merkel in Greek Vote
By MELISSA EDDY
BERLIN — By the time German lawmakers convened to vote on a fresh bundle of bailout money for Greece on Friday, it was widely expected that the measure would pass easily — as it did.
But in the numbers game that is parliamentary politics, the important figure was not the 473 votes in favor of the next installment of loans and aid for Greece, totaling €43.7 billion, or $56.7 billion.
The focus instead was on the 23 lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own center-right coalition who voted against the measure, robbing her, for the third consecutive vote on Greece, of the so-called chancellor’s majority, or absolute majority among her government’s own deputies.
While not relevant for Friday’s vote, the chancellor’s majority is widely seen as an indicator of the strength of the incumbent’s power base, because most legislation put before the lower house of Parliament requires only a simple majority of those voting. Missing it on three votes in a row on one policy matter, in this case, Greece, is unusual.
“The missed chancellor’s majority is a clear sign that even if one wants to be a good colleague, even her party colleagues do not agree with her government’s policy of pushing these packages through Parliament,” said Manuel Becker, a political scientist at the University of Bonn.
With federal elections set for next Sept. 22, Ms. Merkel remains personally popular with voters but faces rising discontent from within her own Christian Democratic Union, or C.D.U. While she does not appear to face any clear threat before next week’s party congress, where she is virtually certain to emerge as the party’s nominee in the election, disgruntled members have become more willing to voice unhappiness at her perceived shortcomings.
British Business Leaders Stay Silent on E.U. Exit
British Business Leaders Stay Silent on E.U. Exit
By STEPHEN CASTLE
LONDON — The chairman of the London Stock Exchange, Chris Gibson-Smith, simply does not have the time to speak. Christopher North, the boss of Amazon in Britain, is too busy as well. And Charles Dunstone, the founder of the mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, also has an exceptionally full agenda.
All three are among a dozen or so top business and financial leaders concerned enough about Britain’s future in the European Union to join the advisory council of a group campaigning to keep the country in the bloc.
But not many of them seem ready to explain why in public.
Bringing access to an economic area of about 500 million people, membership in the European Union is vital to many British businesses. Yet with the public divided over Britain’s ties to the bloc, most business leaders prefer a discreet silence to risking criticism.
Recently the stakes have increased, with Prime Minister David Cameron promising to loosen British ties to the bloc and possibly hold a referendum after negotiating a more arm’s-length relationship. After almost three years of crisis in the euro zone, there is more speculation than ever about a possible British withdrawal.
Britons have never been enthusiastic about the idea of European integration. So pro-Europeans are frustrated by the reluctance of business to stress the commercial benefits, particularly since, in private, company bosses can be outspoken about the risks of withdrawal.
“What they say to me when I meet them is this would be disastrous for British business,” said Glenis Willmott, leader of the British Labour Party’s members of the European Parliament.
Last month, Roger Carr, chairman of the main business lobbying organization, the Confederation of British Industry, appealed to his colleagues to break their silence or risk a possibility that now goes by the shorthand “Brixit”: British exit.
In Turkey, Forging a New Identity
In Turkey, Forging a New Identity
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
ISTANBUL — “There are liquids that are not mixable — it’s like that.” But Bedri Baykam — a prominent Turkish painter, activist, politician and author — was not talking chemistry. He was speaking of the hardening self-segregation between Westernized, secular Turks like him and the conservative Muslims who now run Turkey, but whom he’d be unlikely ever to dine with.
“We don’t eat the same way,” he said, picking at eggs and olives in his vast gallery-cum-studio space in the Pera neighborhood. “We eat at tables with ladies and men sitting together — and enjoying and drinking wine and making jokes and listening to either Turkish music or Beethoven or Rolling Stones or Beatles or Edith Piaf. They sit separately with men and women. They don’t drink alcohol.”
Or, he said, snack on the same biscuits: “They eat the biscuits of Ulker; we eat the biscuits of Eti. We don’t even buy those biscuits, and they don’t buy our biscuits, so that the money doesn’t go to each other.” The two camps also have their own favored chambers of commerce (Tusiad versus Musiad), their own watering holes (bars versus teahouses) — and, this year, even their own Republic Day celebrations, which erupted in chaos when the police reportedly unleashed water cannons and tear gas on the secularist one.
Istanbul now ranks with the world’s most modish cities, a river megalopolis of shimmering vistas and skyscraping minarets and winding, cobbled lanes where nostalgic music groans and the bars offer group discounts on 25 shots of vodka to roving bands of saucily dressed people. The surrounding country is praised overseas for its dynamic economy, its increasing pluck in world affairs, and its ability to combine democracy, strong women and Islam. But the country, and this city, is meanwhile the site of a bitter, fratricidal battle for its soul — an extraordinary culture war over what it means to be a Turk.
The battle — waged in national politics but also in life’s daily minutiae — has become, literally, black and white. In one corner are “white Turks,” who revere the republic’s founder, Kemal Ataturk, and his mission to remake Turkey in Europe’s image — secular, republican, purged of its Ottoman legacies. In the other corner are “black Turks,” conservative Muslims who, in a mostly Muslim nation, were marginalized for decades, excluded from the Turkish elite — until, in 2003, one of their own became a populist prime minister and began what many black Turks consider a healthy rebalancing and many white Turks, the politics of resentment or, worse, revenge.
Obama Calls on Russia to Renew Weapons Pact
Obama Calls on Russia to Renew Weapons Pact
By PETER BAKER
WASHINGTON — President Obama called on Russia on Monday to renew a two-decade-old nuclear disarmament program that Moscow has threatened to cancel as the two sides try to figure out the future of a rocky relationship now that elections in both countries are behind them.
Russia declared this fall that it would not renew the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which has helped rid the former Soviet Union of thousands of nuclear weapons since the end of the cold war. But in a speech, Mr. Obama chose to interpret the Russian statements as a negotiating position to change the program rather than halt it altogether.
“Russia has said that our current agreement hasn’t kept pace with the changing relationship between our countries,” Mr. Obama said at the National Defense University, where he praised the program’s accomplishments. “To which we say, let’s update it. Let’s work with Russia as an equal partner. Let’s continue the work that’s so important to the security of both our countries. And I’m optimistic that we can.”
Whether Russia is willing to do that remains unclear. Even if it is, Moscow has suggested that it would link the renewal of the program to concessions by the United States on its plans to deploy a missile defense system in Europe intended to defend against Iranian aggression. Mr. Obama was overheard telling his Russian counterpart this year that “after my election I have more flexibility” on missile defense, prompting Republicans to accuse him of plotting to sell out the system.
British Editors Urged to Set Up Regulator
British Editors Urged to Set Up Regulator
By JOHN F. BURNS
LONDON — Under heavy pressure from the victims of Britain’s phone hacking scandal, Prime Minister David Cameron met with the country’s top newspaper editors on Tuesday and told them “the clock is ticking” on their pledge to adopt a tough new system of press regulation of their own devising if they are to avoid demands by the hacking victims and many lawmakers for a new regulatory system backed by parliamentary statute.
After the meeting at 10 Downing Street, a Twitter post in Mr. Cameron’s name said he had told the editors, representing most of Britain’s main national newspapers, that “they need to set up an independent regulator urgently,” with the implication that the government might otherwise have to bow to demands for a law to put teeth into a new system of accountability.
The meeting between the prime minister and the editors came five days after a long-running inquiry into phone hacking and other potentially criminal activities by British newspapers published a 2,000-page report that gave as its principal recommendation the creation of an independent, self-regulatory body backed by law to replace the largely discredited Press Complaints Commission.
The report, by Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson, set off an acrimonious dispute between those who are deeply wary of the implications for press freedom in Britain if Parliament passes a new law, and others who argue that the newspapers — particularly the country’s rambunctious mass-circulation tabloids — have demonstrated that parliamentary action is the only way to ensure compliance with the new, independent regulatory measure that both sides in the dispute say is needed.
For Greece, Oligarchs Are Obstacle to Recovery
For Greece, Oligarchs Are Obstacle to Recovery
By RACHEL DONADIO and LIZ ALDERMAN
ATHENS — A dynamic entrepreneur, Lavrentis Lavrentiadis seemed to represent a promising new era for Greece. He dazzled the country’s traditionally insular business world by spinning together a multibillion-dollar empire just a few years after inheriting a small family firm at 18. Seeking acceptance in elite circles, he gave lavishly to charities and cultivated ties to the leading political parties.
But as Greece’s economy soured in recent years, his fortunes sagged and he began embezzling money from a bank he controlled, prosecutors say. With charges looming, it looked as if his rapid rise would be followed by an equally precipitous fall. Thanks to a law passed quietly by the Greek Parliament, however, he avoided prosecution, at least for a time, simply by paying the money back.
Now 40, Mr. Lavrentiadis is back in the spotlight as one of the names on the so-called Lagarde list of more than 2,000 Greeks said to have accounts in a Geneva branch of the bank HSBC and who are suspected of tax evasion. Given to Greek officials two years ago by Christine Lagarde, then the French finance minister and now head of the International Monetary Fund, the list was expected to cast a damning light on the shady practices of the rich.
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