The Agonist - Europe Minus UK

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.

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.

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.

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

Russian hits at EU fear of Gazprom

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:16:49 -0700

Neil Buckley | Moscow | June 25

FT - One of Russia’s leading liberal reformers has accused the European Union of trying to limit access to its natural gas market for Gazprom for political reasons, motivated by misguided fears about the Russian gas giant.

Anatoly Chubais, architect of Russia’s 1990s privatisation programme, told the Financial Times the EU often used discussions about the need to “unbundle” or separate ownership of production and distribution assets as “cover for its concerns about Gazprom”.

After months of wrangling, EU countries recently agreed a compromise on energy market reform that would not compel companies to be unbundled. However, a suggested curb on ownership of networks by non-EU groups such as Gazprom remains, an EU official said.

He warned Europe’s actions were part of a broader international tendency in oil and gas towards increasing state intervention and closing domestic markets – which he warned were a “dead end” and posed big risks “for the world and for Russia”. A return to protectionism was “madness”.

“When the EU tries to limit access for Gazprom … it is squeezing supply. What’s the result? Growth in prices … It means you’re forcing your population and your economy to pay for your political fears.”

Sazkozy's strange trip to Israel comes to an end

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:45:28 -0700

June 24

1. Sarkozy: Divide Jerusalem, remove Jews from Judea-Samaria

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Israel on Monday for a three-day visit that he kicked off with a historic address before Israel's Knesset. The last time a French president addressed the Knesset was in 1982.

"A nuclear Iran is intolerable," said Sarkozy. "Israel must know it is not alone in the battle against Iran's nuclear ambitions."

Sarkozy then took a turn that made many in the Knesset uncomfortable as he suggested Israel meet the demands of the Palestinians for the sake of peace in the region. Sarkozy said that Jerusalem must be divided between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and that Israel should work to remove all Jews from Judea and Samaria, the so-called "West Bank."

2. Gunshot starts panic as Sarkozy leaves Israel

Bodyguards rushed Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the visiting French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to safety yesterday after an Israeli police officer shot himself in the head during a departure ceremony at Tel Aviv airport.

Sworn to virginity and living as men in Albania

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:32:05 -0700

Dan Bilefsky | Kruje, Albania | June 24

IHT - Pashe Keqi recalls the day nearly sixty years ago when she decided to become a man. She chopped off her long black curls, traded in her dress for her father's baggy trousers, armed herself with a hunting rifle and vowed to forsake marriage, children and sex.

Had she been born in Albania today, says the 78-year-old sworn virgin, who made an oath of celibacy in return for the right to live and rule her family as a man, she would choose womanhood.

"Back then, it was better to be a man because, before, a woman and an animal were considered the same thing," says Keqi, who has a bellowing baritone voice, sits with her legs open wide like a man and relishes downing shots of Raki and smoking cigarettes. "Now, Albanian women have equal rights with men and are even more powerful, and I think today it would be fun to be a woman."

Sworn virgins became the patriarchs of their families, with all the trappings of male authority, by swearing to remain virgins for the rest of their lives.

Earth 'not at risk' from collider

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:01:36 -0700

Paul Rincon | June 24

BBC - Atlas is the biggest experiment housed at the LHC
Our planet is not at risk from the world's most powerful particle physics experiment, a report has concluded.

The document addresses fears that the Large Hadron Collider is so energetic, it could have unforeseen consequences.

Critics are worried that mini-black holes made at the soon-to-open facility on the French-Swiss border might threaten the Earth's very existence.

But the report, issued the European Organization for Nuclear Research, says there is "no conceivable danger".

Robert Fisk: Today's despot is tomorrow's statesman

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:32:43 -0700

June 21

How are the mighty fallen, we used to say. Now we turn it round. How did the fallen become mighty again? Remember the "mad dog of the Middle East" – Reagan's stupid cliché – the "terrorist" sponsor who even sent a shipload of guns to the IRA? A certain Moammar Ghazzafi – there are 17 different ways of spelling his name in Latin script – was the crazed leader of Libya who wrote a mind-numbingly boring volume of pseudo philosophy called The Green Book and who wanted to mock the White House by calling his own palace the Green House until someone tipped him off that this would mean he would look even more of a cabbage than he already was.

Then suddenly, he gave up some imaginary weapons of mass destruction and Anthony Blair, now the commercial director of World Faith, went out to fawn over him in Tripoli and he was called "statesmanlike" by the absurd Jack Straw and then he was invited to Paris by the even more absurd Nicolas Sarkozy where he right royally made the French president look like a twat by behaving in an extremely unstatesmanlike way.

And now – bingo – Sarkozy has done it again. This time it's Bashar al-Assad, another presumed "sponsor of world terror" – this twaddle comes from Washington, of course – who will (if he accepts the invitation française) be in Paris on Bastille Day to take his place in the reviewing stand at the end of the Champs Elysées. The man whom millions of Lebanese believe plotted the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut on 14 February 2005 will thus be receiving one of France's highest honours: to stand beside the French president as he reviews his military forces. MORE

Poison umbrella murder case is reopened

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:35:02 -0700

Jonathan Brown | June 20

Independent - Scotland Yard detectives have flown to Bulgaria in a fresh attempt to shed light on one of the murkiest and most controversial episodes in the secret history of the Cold War. A team of senior police officers travelled to Sofia last month, it emerged yesterday, as part of the investigation into the unsolved murder of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who was stabbed with a poisoned umbrella while walking across London's Waterloo Bridge in 1978.

The author and playwright, who defected to the West in 1969, was an outspoken critic of the communist regime in his home country and worked as a journalist for the BBC World Service in London. It is believed he had survived two previous assassination attempts. He died in hospital four days after the third attempt. A post-mortem examination revealed traces of ricin in a pin-sized metal pellet imbedded in the writer's calf.

Return of Dante: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:21:06 -0700

Peter Popham | June 19

The Independent -

Dante Alighieri portrayed by Domenico Michelino holding The Divine Comedy against a backdrop of hell, purgatory and paradise

The city of Florence has issued a pardon for the poet, 700 years after it sentenced him to death for his political beliefs. Peter Popham reports on the man who turned Italian into a literary language

Dante Alighieri led two separate lives. As the author of The Divine Comedy he was the genius whose evocations of hell, purgatory and heaven have held readers in thrall ever since, who created literary models for the rest of Europe to follow and brought Italian into being as a great literary language.

But Dante was also a politician, and if, as Enoch Powell once said, "all political careers end in failure", Dante's came crashing down when he was still remarkably young. Checkmated by the cunning Pope Boniface VIII, he was put on trial in Florence for taking bribes, and when he failed to show up to answer the charges he was condemned to be burnt at the stake. He went into exile and never saw his native city again.

All that happened 706 years ago, so it may seem a little late to do anything about it. But this week Florence's cultural committee decided by 19 votes to five publicly to revoke the poet's exile and confer the city's highest honour, Il Fiorino D'oro (the Golden Florin) on his heirs by way of compensation.