The Agonist - Europe

Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:52:04 -0700

Cahal Milmo | July 4

Independent -

Britain's first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe".

Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid) by Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority.

Mr Malik made clear that he was not equating the situation with the Holocaust but warned that many British Muslims now felt like "aliens in their own country". He said he himself had been the target of a string of racist incidents, including the firebombing of his family car and an attempt to run him down at a petrol station.

"I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he said. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost – and still is in some parts – to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.

Concorde crash judge puts Continental Airlines on trial for manslaughter

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:04:39 -0700

James Orr | July 3

The Guardian -

Continental Airlines and five individuals are to stand trial for manslaughter over the Concorde crash eight years ago that killed 113 people.

The Air France jet came down soon after take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris.

In 2004, French investigators blamed the incident on a strip of metal that fell on to the runway from a Continental Airlines DC-10. This was found to have burst the Concorde's tyres, which ruptured the plane's fuel tanks as they broke up.

The five men charged include Continental mechanic John Taylor and Stanley Ford, the chief of maintenance. Both are being held responsible for the fitting of the non-standard metal strip to the DC-10.

The three others are Henri Perrier, the director of the first Concorde programme at Aerospatiale, Concorde's former chief engineer Jacques Herubel and Claude Frantzen, former director of technical services at the French civil aviation authority.

Signs of the times: hard facts from two business giants

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:53:18 -0700

Russell Lynch & Matt Dickinson, PA | July 2

The Independent - Two major announcements - from retail giant Marks & Spencer and Britian's biggest house builder Taylor Wimpey - raised fears today that the UK is heading for full-blown recession.

M&S has been bucking the downward trend, but warned today that consumer confidence "deteriorated markedly" in the first three months of its financial year.

And embattled housebuilder Taylor Wimpey today confirmed it was axing 900 jobs to help cope with a "significant downturn" in business.

Both saw their share prices fall, with M&S seeing an early 17pc drop and Taylor Wimpey plummeting about 50 per cent.

Miracle diet from the Med

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:48:24 -0700

Steve Connor | July 2

The Independent - How adding six types of food can cut the risk of cancer by 22 per cent

Adopting elements of a Mediterranean-style diet, which is high in fruit and vegetables and low on red meat and dairy produce, can reduce the risk of cancer by almost a quarter, according to a major study of people's eating habits.

It has been thought for some time that making dietary changes such as eating more olive oil and less butter could lead to a significantly lower incidence of heart disease, and now comes detailed evidence of how it can dramatically cut the chances of all types of cancer developing.

Warning as France takes EU helm

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:07:43 -0700

July 1

BBC - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said "something isn't right" with the European Union, as France took over the rotating presidency of the bloc.

Speaking on national French TV, Mr Sarkozy warned that Europe's citizens were losing faith in the project.

France set out plans on immigration, the environment, agriculture and defence for its six months at the helm.

But correspondents say that grandiose agenda is in doubt because of Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon reform treaty.

Taking over the presidency from Slovenia, Mr Sarkozy said his priority would be to get all the other EU states to approve the treaty and then see what could be done.

Swedes protest sweeping e-mail eavesdropping law

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:16:23 -0700

Malin Rising | Stockholm | June 30

AP - A public outcry against Sweden's eavesdropping law reached new heights Monday with protesters sending more than 1 million e-mails to lawmakers, parliamentary officials said. The law, narrowly passed by legislators two weeks ago, will let officials eavesdrop on all cross-border e-mail and telephone traffic, in what technology companies have called the most far-reaching communications monitoring plan in Europe. Sweden's government plans to implement it in January.

17 injured as French troops use live ammo in visitors' day display

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:19:42 -0700

Carcassonne, France | June 30

AFP - Seventeen people, including a child left in a critical condition, were injured on Sunday when French soldiers fired live bullets instead of blanks during a visitors' day display, regional officials told AFP.

Fifteen civilians and two soldiers were injured in the incident, of which the details remained unclear late Sunday, involving a demonstration by members of a marines parachute regiment of a hostage liberation exercise, the regional authority said.

According to local authorities, five children were among the injured.

U.S. and Europe Near Agreement on Private Data

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:10:56 -0700

Charlie Savage | Washington | June 28

NYT - The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Russian Shift: a European Charm Campaign

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:52:20 -0700

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia | June 28

NYT - The food was nouvelle cuisine, the wine was French and the coffee was served on a terrace with a spectacular view of the Siberian countryside. At his first summit meeting with the European Union, the new Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, dispensed with the aggressive rhetoric of his predecessor, Vladimir V. Putin, and tried a new tactic on the Europeans: being nice to them.

Apes get legal rights in Spain, to surprise of bullfight critics

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:57:06 -0700

Thomas Catan | Madrid | June 28

Times Online - Spain is to become the first country to extend legal rights to apes, wrongfooting animal rights activists who have long campaigned against bullfighting in the country.

In what is thought to be the first time a national legislature has granted such rights to animals, the Spanish parliament’s environmental committee voted to approve resolutions committing the country to the Great Apes Project, designed by scientists and philosophers who say that humans’ closest biological relatives also deserve rights.

The resolution, adopted with crossparty support, calls on the Government to promote the Great Apes Project internationally and ensure the protection of apes from “abuse, torture and death”. “This is a historic moment in the struggle for animal rights,” Pedro Pozas, the Spanish director of the Great Apes Project, told The Times. “It will doubtless be remembered as a key moment in the defence of our evolutionary comrades.”

Plight of the Roma: echoes of Mussolini

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:54:28 -0700

Peter Popham | June 27

Independent -

The compulsory fingerprinting of Italy's Gypsy population is the latest example of the country's increasingly repressive attitude towards minorities – and an ominous reminder of the policies of the former Fascist dictator.

Fingerprint the lot of them: the idea had the satisfying smack of firm government. Now the Italian government was doing something tough; something long overdue.

The Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, a leader of the rabble-rousing Northern League – close allies of Silvio Berlusconi on the government benches – has explained his next step in his assault on the "emergenza di sicurezza", the "security emergency": fingerprinting all Gypsies.

It was the only way, he told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, for Italy to guarantee "to those who have the right to remain here, the possibility of living in decent conditions." For this purpose the Roma – those with Italian nationality and those without, EU citizens and those from outside the Community – will all have their fingerprints taken. And the rule will even apply to Gypsy children – for reasons that to many of Mr Maroni's supporters must have sounded obvious: "to avoid phenomena," as he put it, "such as begging". The new measures, he said, were indispensable "in order to expel those who do not have the right to stay in Italy".

For anybody not swept up in the wave of anti-Roma fury, the campaign has a strong whiff of Mussolini and Hitler about it.

Greece to ban indoor smoking in public from 2010

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:37:21 -0700

Athens | June 26

Reuters - Greece, Europe's heaviest smoking nation, plans to ban tobacco from all indoor public places from 2010 and prohibit under-18s from purchasing it, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Greece has already banned smoking in hospitals, offices and taxis and requires restaurant and bar owners to designate smoking and non-smoking areas to protect public health, but the measures have been widely ignored.

A Health Ministry official said the new law, to be brought before parliament in the coming days, was aimed at saving the lives of an estimated 600 people who die every year from passive smoking in Greece.

Under the proposed legislation, individuals would be fined up to 300 euros ($470) for smoking in public places.

Windmills of La Mancha turn back time

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:32:57 -0700

Elizabeth Nash | Madrid | June 26

Independent -

Three windmills in La Mancha, central Spain, that inspired one of the most famous passages in Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote have been restored to working order, 500 years after they first ground wheat.

Originally, as Cervantes noted in his 1605 masterpiece, more than 30 windmills marched across the windy plain at the spot scholars have identified as Campo de Criptana. Ten remain, but only three retain their original system of levers and pulleys. Following restoration, these three turned once again this week, bringing to life one of the most evocative and durable images of old Spain.

"These are the only three originals of the 34 that once stood here, and now they're in working order this makes them unique in Spain," Santiago Lucas-Torres, Campo de Criptana's Mayor, said yesterday. "They grind flour just as well now as they did in the 16th century. We've not only recovered a tradition, but revived one of the great international symbols of Spain." photo from National Geographic

US removes its nuclear arms from Britain

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:00:48 -0700

Julian Borger | June 26

The Guardian - The US has removed its nuclear weapons from Britain, ending a contentious presence spanning more than half a century, a report will say today. According to the study by the Federation of American Scientists, the last 110 American nuclear weapons on UK soil were withdrawn from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk on the orders of President George Bush.

The report's author, Hans Kristensen, one of the leading experts on Washington's nuclear arsenal, said the move had happened in the past few years, but had only come to light yesterday.

He described the withdrawal of the B-61 "freefall", or "gravity", bombs as part of a general strategic shift since the end of the cold war.

"The northern front is not very relevant any more for these deployments. The US nuclear posture is almost entirely focused on the southern region, in Incirlik [in Turkey] and Aviano [in Italy]."

Kristensen's report is posted today here.

From arms deals in Africa to oil speculation in China - the mercenary world of Mark Thatcher

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:49:18 -0700

Kim Sengupta | June 26

Independent - Mark Thatcher, say those who know him, has always liked two things: the limelight and wealth. But in the recent past the former prime minister's son has been remarkably elusive, hiding his money-making activities from the public eye, keeping away from the minor celebrity events which were once his regular haunts.

Perhaps it is not surprising. He is on the run from Equatorial Guinea and the safest place for him at the moment is Spain's Costa del Sol – the infamous bolthole of Englishmen who have issues with the law.

But The Independent has established that his new-found reticence has not stopped Sir Mark from staying in the oil business, a venture, he declares, he finds hugely lucrative. Like most enterprises he has taken part in the exact details of what he does are rather hazy: "Oil futures", he would say airily when someone asks. "..