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Blairovision in tatters as govts look to Danish PM for EU President
Tony Blair's candidacy for the Presidency of the European Union seems dead before it got off the ground. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, who stunned fellow leaders last year by nominating his good friend Tony to be the first EU President, now seems set to throw his weight behind Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker or current Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso, reports from Paris say.
While both men have their supporters, neither holds much appeal for other EU nations, which is why speculation is coalescing around Denmark's charismatic centre-right leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen as a "compromise candidate."
The Bear Necessities
As President Dmitry Medvedev is inaugurated, Russia is shaping up to be one of the major foreign policy issues facing Europe this decade.
Following on from yesterday's review of an investigation into the Litvinenko killing which took a more-or-less pro-Moscow line, we provide some balance in the shape of a much more critical overview of Vladimir Putin's legacy, this time from the Guardian.
Lady Non-Drivers
In Saudi Arabia, a woman can buy a car but she is not allowed to drive it. It's true, some Saudi ladies can't help themselves getting behind the wheel. And there have been a few (unreported) accidents. (Driving lessons in Riyadh are more of of an imaginary concept).
Murphy's Law Explained
Human errors are often attributed to a momentary lack of concentration. But now a combined team of researchers in America, Britain, Germany and Norway have used an 'imaging machine' to test a group of volunteers as to why the most simple activities go wrong.
Europe's Middle Classes Feel The Squeeze
Misery in France, declining expectations in Germany, anger in Britain
Soaring costs and stagnant wages have persuaded a generation of middle-class Europeans that they're unlikely to share the good life their parents enjoyed.
Newspapers across the continent have reported how spending power has declined across the social scale; however, they've concentrated on middle class thirtysomethings, who are feeling the pinch in a way their upbringing never led them to believe they would.
Big Mac
In the 1950s, a certain businessman by the name of Ray Kroc founded what has become a multi-billion-dollar, world-wide institution. It's name is McDonald's.
Creeping Sharia
A must-read article by Bruce Bawer in this season's City Journal shows how European nations are giving ground to the demands of far-right Islamists. The US experience isn't much better, as the mainstream media takes a softly-softly approach to extremists and academics who welcome a "separate but equal" version of sharia are praised.
Depressing but essential reading. Bawer is the author of While Europe Slept - How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, a book some US readers have recommended to us; he reportedly moved to Europe having published an attack on fundamentalist Christianity in the US, only to discover that he and his partner had leapt out of the frying pan into the inferno. Melanie Philips has also recommended his work.
Disappearing Act
On a considerable corner of northeast Norfolk, floods caused by fierce seawater forced their way through dunes and spilled across miles of low-lying land, spoiling farmland and destroying homes.
Over 108 people were reported dead.
Is this 2008? No - 1287. Turning the pages of history, much the same catastrophe occured in 1622. At that time over 2,000 men were pressed into repairing the dunes and repelling what 17th century chroniclers called "the extraordinary force and rage of the sea."
Homeward Bound?
Stay a little longer
Poland's government is so worried about a national labour shortage that it is planning a tax amnesty for the estimated two million Poles working elsewhere in the EU.
Tories Out Of Ideas
A new poll for the Guardian shows that the government has narrowed the lead of the opposition Conservative party.
Two weeks ago David Cameron's Conservatives were on 42 percent, with Labour trailing on just 29 percent, their lowest rating for years. Since then - and despite internal rows and the plummeting popularity of PM Gordon Brown - Labour has managed to scrape back five points, and the Tories have lost three.
Mecca Time
Hammer Time! Mecca Time!
"Time's Up" for Greenwich Mean Time, according to a group of Islamic scientists.
A gathering of Muslim clerics and scientists in Qatar has called for GMT to be replaced by "Mecca Time", having "proved" that the holy Saudi city is the "centre of the world."
Muddy Waters?
Remember those British sailors seized by the Iranian navy last year? At the time, the Ministry of Defence claimed that they were safely in Iraqi waters when they were captured. Now, a new report says the fifteen sailors and marines were actually in disputed waters claimed by Iran. The coalition had actually defined the waters as Iraqi, but hadn't bothered to alert Tehran as to the new status.
Pirates Of The Home Counties
At the weekend, when it was revealed that French commando forces paid a ransom for a group of sailors held by Somali pirates, then stormed the ship to arrest the bad guys and recapture the ransom, your correspondent sent a weary message to his colleague about Britain's likely behaviour in similar circumstances.
"Good for the French - it's a pity they didn't blow the pirates out of the water", he wrote, "In Britain, we'd offer the Somalis asylum instead."
Ambassadors To Nowhere
At the historic French foreign office known as the 'Quai d' Orsay' insiders say ageing ambassadors spend their final years at the ministry in what is known as 'the corridor of death'. The semi-secret news comes from middle-rank civil servants who do not wish attribution for fear of losing their jobs.
High Euro Brings Problems
The daily diet of misery that is the Independent is wetting its organic cotton knickers today at news of pound sterling's plunge in value against the euro. The euro, the newspaper gushes, "has powered ahead on the strength of its member economies", and its surge "may spur new theories from economists that the currency of the eurozone will become the main international unit of currency as early as 2015, upsetting almost the best part of a century of dominance of the dollar."
This being the Independent, delight in the euro's muscle is tempered with grim reading for British holidaymakers, who will feel particularly impoverished should they visit the eurozone over the next few months (Americans are already staying away).
Hooray for the euro, then, much-derided by overseas commentators when it plummeted just days after its launch, it's now approaching parity with the pound and making the dollar look like funny money. It cannot have escaped the europhile Indie's notice that, as Guido remarks, eurosceptics have long feared parity with the pound, as it would make Britain joining the single currency much easier. Why stick with the creaky pound when the sunny soaraway euro is reaching new heights of glory?
Bin Laden's "Right Hand Man" To Remain In UK
Breaking News: Terror suspect Abu Qatada cannot be deported to Jordan because he risks not getting a fair trial, judges ruled today.
Last year a special panel ruled that the extremist cleric should be booted out of Britain; today's Court of Appeal ruling overturned this and means that he and two Libyan terror suspects cannot be returned to the Middle East, despite the government having gained signed assurances from Jordan and Libya that the men would not be tortured.
The Rain In Spain Does Not Fall On The Plain
Catalonia, a principal province on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, is running out of water. The situation in Barcelona, Catalonia's capital, is critical. Water reserves are down to 19 per cent of capacity. This will certainly affect the city's main business, which is tourism.
France Left Attacks NATO
The government of Nicolas Sarkozy, led by Prime Minister François Fillon, brushed aside a Socialist-Green-Far Left attempt to pass a vote of censure in protest against plans to deploy 700 French troops to Afghanistan and potentially rejoin NATO next year.
That the vote was defeated was inevitable; what is interesting, however, is the stance taken on the issue by France's supposedly moderate "opposition", François Hollande and Ségolène Royal's Socialist Party.
News Round-Up
Punch & Stabby
Two senior journalists on Germany's Berliner Zeitung newspaper admit they spied for the Stasi secret police.
Britain's theatreland is up in arms as a new government grants form demands companies reveal the sexual orientation of their staff.
Happy Birthday RAF
The renowned British Royal Air Force has celebrated its 90th birthday with a fly-past over the Houses of Parliament and above the centre of the capital and high over Buckingham Palace.
Terminal Case
No one ever thought it could get as bad as this. The disaster-zone known as London Heathrow airport's Terminal 5 (T5) is estimated to have cost British Airways (BA) £50m at this point in time.
Terminal Disease - Part Five
The crisis at the world's largest international airport continues to increase.
Sarko Day
Prince Charles greets the First Lady in the traditional French manner
An hour from now, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy will land at London's Heathrow Airport, to be greeted by Prince Charles and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall. It's the beginning of a short state visit which sees both the President and Britain's Gordon Brown hope to renew their flagging political fortunes.
Unlike Brown, however, Sarkozy is travelling with not-so-secret weapons: His new wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and her mother, Marisa Bruni-Tedeschi (Sarkozy's mother, who was expected to travel with him, has cancelled).
From the airport, the British and French parties will ride to be joined by the Queen, who they will accompany to Windsor Castle in a state carriage procession.
Hillary's Desperation
As late as autumn 2007, Hillary Clinton was tipped as favourite for the White House. Now the former First Lady's campaign is floundering. Chris Timmers reports.
“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of greeting ceremony at the airport but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
Hillary Clinton in a speech at George Washington University, 17 Mar 08
A New Entente Cordiale
Nicolas Sarkozy makes his first state visit to Britain tomorrow: His wife, Carla Bruni, and his mother are in tow
Throughout history, relations between France and England have been turbulent. There was a bad start when William the Conqueror invaded the British island in 1066. The English got their revenge at the battle of Agincourt in October 1415 when the soldiers from Blighty decimated an army of France.
Ryanair Takes On TGV
The Independent reports on Ryanair's plans to "take on the TGV" by launching a series of internal flights in France, including one between Paris (well, nearly) and Marseilles (or thereabouts).
Bin Laden Threatens, EU, Pope
In his latest broadcast, terror leader Osama bin Laden turned his attentions to the European Union, threatening "grave punishment" because of the images of Mohammed published in some newspapers. He said that Europe was involved in a "new crusade", in which the Pope and the Vatican "have a significant role."
His message, the first from the al-Qaeda leader since November, is timed to coincide with Mohammed's birthday, but it also marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Will EU Boycott China Olympic Ceremony?
France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has raised the possibility of the European Union boycotting the opening ceremony of this summer's Olympic Games in response to the continuing violence in Tibet.
The Odd Couple
The famous American film 'The Odd Couple' was a 1960s hit. It starred Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. It was about two people who did not get along very well. It could be a metaphor for the couple who now control France and Germany.
Living In Fear
A London clergyman was beaten by Muslim youths in a "faith hate" attack two weeks ago.
Canon Michael Ainsworth suffered cuts and bruising, including two black eyes. One of his injuries developed complications and he was readmitted to hospital last week, but was released again today.
The 57 year old was reportedly wearing his clerical collar when he was attacked by three youths in the grounds of St George’s-in-the-East Church on March 5. While two of the attackers beat him, a third shouted what the Daily Mail describes as "anti-Christian abuse". The Canon asked the youths to quieten down as they loitered in the grounds of the 18th century church before the attack.
Sarko Spanked
France's centre-right UMP, led by President Nicolas Sarkozy, lost several large cities in the second round of the municipal and regional elections yesterday. The victorious Socialist Party is calling for a re-think, but Sarkozy's supporters claim that the defeat was a shot across the bows rather than a hole below the waterline.
Running Mates
US correspondent Chris Timmers has the latest on the Presidential race.
Just when you thought the US Presidential competition for the dominant Democratic nominee couldn't get any more ludicrous, Hillary Clinton's campaign comes out with a proposal that, once she wins the nomination, she would seriously consider Barak Obama as being her first choice as the number two, or Vice Presidential partner.
The Resources War
Now for a little geopolitics laced with climate change.
A report by Europe's top diplomats claims that European governments should prepare for an era of tension over energy resources, while global warming is likely to increase friction in the Arctic region between the EU and Russia.
A Jump To The Left
Wins for the left in Spain and France
The left in two of the Eurozone's largest nations celebrated election victories last night. In Spain, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero won re-election following a fraught campaign, while in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy's party faced the music in municipal and departmental elections
Finally! Hillary Wins Something
EURSOC's Washington correspondent Chris Timmers reports on a turnaround for Hillary Clinton.
On Tuesday, March 4th, voters in four US states went to the polls to choose the nominee from the Democratic party for President. Senator Hillary Clinton prevailed in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island. Her opponent, Senator Barak Obama, won in Vermont. Do these wins signal a momentum change for Hillary? Is she "back?" Too soon to tell.
The Global Hub
What is it with Foreign Secretary David Miliband and hubs? At the beginning of the year, he wrote in the Sunday Times on how he wanted Britain to become a "hub of ideas" in the same way London was a "hub" for global finance. He's at it again.
The Tories And Security
A couple of security policies
Following the RUSI bombshell on the strategic challenges facing Britain in the forthcoming decades, David Cameron's security spokeswoman Baroness Neville-Jones told press that the Conservative leader was due to make a speech calling for the creation of a US-style "National Security Council."
Lady Neville-Jones gave one of the most robust responses to the security report, which damned the ideological policies Britain had followed for more than a decade which had put the country under risk. While Labour MPs dismissed the authors' findings and their attack dogs in the press dismissed the compilers of the report as colonialists, she echoed the report's attack on multiculturalism and its calls for a unified response to threats from both within and without the UK.
A speech the following week (18-24 February) by her boss would crystallise these plans, she added.
News Round-Up
A Beer for Barack: Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has a beer named in his honour in Kenya, reports the BBC. It's called Senator Keg Lager and was launched in 2004 when Obama, whose father is from Kenya, was elected to the US Senate in 2004.
Government school inspection body Ofsted announced that languages such as Bengali, Mandarin and Arabic should have the same priority in schools as traditionally taught languages such as French, German and Spanish. "Languages spoken by minority communities in Britain must be given more prominence on school timetables, bringing them into line with the major European languages," the Telegraph reports.
Mandarin, yes, we can see. Arabic... well, there'll always be a job in the intelligence services. Other "community languages" are more difficult to justify as high priorities for British schoolchildren. It is not as if these languages need the state's support to prosper, or if they are required to ensure a rounded understanding of British and European culture.
Crazy Britain continued: A shopkeeper who killed a robber with the thief's knife during a struggle could face murder charges, police said yesterday. He should be given a medal, not a murder rap.
Crazy Britain again: Camilla Cavendish has a harrowing story about how the state can forcibly seize children on dodgy evidence and take them into care.
Meanwhile, Germany is clashing with tiny Liechtenstein following reports that 1000 Germans have squirreled €4 billion in accounts in the neighbouring principality for the purposes of avoiding taxation.
Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel warned Liechtenstein to "quickly clear up" its attractiveness to outsiders. Liechtenstein's Crown Prince Alois retorted that this was "an unprovoked German attack" and said ""-Germany would do better to use it to sort out its tax system" which he said was "even worse than Haiti's".
Death In Venice
The Foreign Office has confirmed that Richard John Raynor, 23, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, has been discovered, dead, beneath a bridge near the Venice lagoon towards the Lido.
The Public-Private Divide
So the government has "nationalised" troubled lender Northern Rock. Simon Jenkins has the best analysis, while Guido asks, "Whose home will Brown and Darling repossess first?".
Dependence Day
John Rosenthal has a report on Kosovo's new-found "independence" which isn't really that independent at all, really.
Sarkozy On Side
Nicolas Sarkozy poll ratings have plummeted by more than 20 points since the autumn. Commentators have placed the blame variously on his divorce and subsequent marriage to model Carla Bruni, the meagre growth in French spending power and a failure to progress as quickly with his reform program as his supporters hoped.
Is Sarkozy's program - and thus possibly the final chance to reform France - lost for good? EURSOC doesn't think so; nor it seems does the IHT's John Vinocur, who looks at Sarko's chances of effecting a turnaround today.
Finally, despite their evident distaste for Sarkozy's public personal life, the French themselves remain convinced that he is the man for the job.
Castro Retires
Fidel Castro, the 81-year old Cuban leader, has announced he will not return to the presidency.
He handed power to his brother Raul two years ago, following an illness; he told Cuba's Communist Party mouthpiece Granma that the temporary handover was now permanent.
Kosovo Storm Warning?
Kosovo declared independence yesterday. Despite support from the EU and US, the move was fiercely opposed by Russia and Serbia.
Some commentators have raised fears about the unseemly haste with which independence was declared; true, Moscow, having dug its feet in over independence, was unlikely to give the EU/US/Kosovans the UN Security Council resolution they would have liked, but perhaps more could have been done to soften the blow for Serbia, which after all is losing what many in the country see as its spiritual centre. Thousands of Serbs still live in the north of the new state.
Moscow is keen to undermine EU unity on the issue.
Sitting Ducks
A very British coup from the UK's top military and diplomatic figures
Britain's leading defence institute has warned that the nation has become a "soft touch for home-grown terrorists" thanks to the government's failure to confront immigrant communities who refuse to integrate.
The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies urged the government to restore security as an absolute priority. Failure to "lay down the line" to immigrant communities, it claimed, had left "confused and vulnerable" Britain in a poor position to tackle extremism.
News Round-Up
Carla Speaks! - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (as she's now known) gave an interview to France magazine L'Express on her marriage to Nicolas Sarkozy. She's ready to be First Lady, she says: "I’m 40, normal, serious, conscientious, simple, even if I’m privileged". She found herself in accused of anti-Semitism after comparing attacks on the couple in the trashy French press with denunciations of Jews during WW2. She swiftly apologised.
Meanwhile, CB-S's husband is taking this Kennedy thing rather literally. 47 years after JFK pledged to put men on the Moon, Sarkozy called for an international effort to put a man (or a woman - possibly Cécilia? - on Mars.
Inner London tops the EU's list of most affluent regions. Is this the golden goose the British government is trying to kill off by introducing tax and surveillance for non-doms? It's probably due to some sort of EU pressure: The French in particular loathe the idea of citizens slipping their jurisdiction. A few decades ago, de Gaulle threatened to cut off Monaco's electricity if its authorities didn't force the French hiding out there to pay tax. Are they now leaning on London?
But do Paris and Brussels really believe that if London's wings are clipped, non-doms are going to high tail it back to Paris, Frankfurt and Milan? No chance. London (and Europe's loss) will be Asia or the Middle East's gain.
No wonder this embarrassing government is backpedalling.
More after the cut:
Danish Cartoon Plotters Arrested
Danish police have arrested three people they suspect of planning an attack on one of the cartoonists behind the 2005 caricatures of Mohammed.
More Dishonour In The Community
From the Independent: Police say 17,000 women are victims of "honour crimes" - including murder - every year.
If the notoriously PC UK police come up with this figure, it's a fair bet that the true number of honour crimes which go unreported, ignored or even covered up by police and social workers is much, much higher.
Talking Taliban
Britain has been flying Nimrod surveillance planes over the troublesome Helmand province of Afghanistan for some months, listening in to conversations between Taliban fighters.
The Taliban usually converse in Afghan Persian or Pashto, the two local languages. The Sun reports, however, that spies were startled to hear some enemy warriors speaking with broad English accents.
McCain Rolls: Romney Goes
Well, it's all over, for practical purposes, for the Republicans. They have their Presidential nominee. This past Tuesday, the 5th, America was treated to the spectacle / carnival / trainwreck of 20 states holding caucuses and primaries to determine to which candidate for President their delegates would be pledged. While Hillary Clinton edged Barak Obama for the Democrats, John McCain won in a walk. His lead was so commanding, that Romney would have had to win almost all of the remaining 20+ state primaries prior to the party convention this summer. These were odds Romney recognized he could not possibly overcome, and yesterday afternoon in a brief speech to a group of prominent conservatives, he bowed out. He did not, however, endorse any other candidate.
Life On Mars
Pity the poor British newspaper reader munching his cornflakes with his morning rag. The front page has Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams calling for sharia law to be introduced into Britain.
Meanwhile, in the sports section on the back page, comes news that some games in England's Premiership football league are going to be played abroad.
They could be forgiven for thinking they'd woken up in an alternative universe.
Pensioner Cuffed For "Theft"
Insanity Britain continues: A 72 year old man was marched out of a hardware shop in handcuffs after being falsely accused of stealing a sink plug.
Thomas Radcliffe had taken the plug with him to check its size against the B&Q store's stock. Staff accused him of shoplifting and held him while the police were called.
Sarkozy, Bruni Wed
The French press has reported that President Nicolas Sarkozy married Carla Bruni this morning in the Elysée Palace.
François Lebel, the Mayor of the arrondisement where the Presidential Palace is based, told French radio that he had married the pair.
Madrassas In Milton Keynes
There have been widespread worries about Muslim schools failing to prepare children for life in Britain. Rather than bring activities in the schools under closer scrutiny, it has been revealed that the government's standards watchdog is going to allow private faith schools to appoint their own inspectors "more sensitive" to Islamic education.
"Religious leaders defended the move, saying the curriculum and religious traditions in faith schools demand specialist knowledge", the Telegraph reports.
No More Predictions
As John McCain emerges victorious from the Florida primary, EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers despairs of the crystal ball game.
Dear Readers,
Remember last summer how I predicted that the presidential campaign of John McCain was out of gas, and money, and that he was going nowhere? Remember how I said Barak Obama of the Democrats wasn't to be taken seriously?
Crazy Season
EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers reports from a topsy-turvy Primary session in the US elections.
Well, this is another fine mess I've gotten myself into. Just when I thought I had a handle on the Republican and Democratic primaries, the voters go and make me look like the rank amateur that I am.
France Braces For Al-Qaeda
France has stepped up its Vigipirate anti-terror surveillance and alert plan following a series of threats and reports relating to attacks on French citizens and territory.
Ten days ago, a Salafist website Al-Ekhlass called for attacks on French interests. A report gathered from a terrorist "chat room" claims that up to ten targets in France - including the Eiffel Tower and Disneyland Paris - could be targeted by al-Qaeda sympathisers. According to reports in the British Press, the two major airports of Paris and the Champs-Elysees are also on the hitlist. On Thursday, Portuguese air traffic controllers picked up a short wave radio which spoke of an imminent attack on the Eiffel Tower. This year's Paris-Dakar rally was cancelled because of concerns about al-Qaeda activity in North Africa.
Real threats, or just another fantasy hit list, dreamed up by terrorist wannabes who are simply scribbling the first French attractions which enter their tiny minds?
Well, one threat that was tragically real was the December murder of four French tourists in Mauritania. Originally reported as an armed robbery, some in the French press are now saying that two of the accused are "suspected of being close to al-Qaeda in North Africa."
Terrorists Rewriting History?
An official body charged with coming up with schemes to reconcile Ulster with the legacy of its recent past has proposed that the three-decade terrorist conflict be retrospectively declared a war.
The Challenge Of Islam
"How does a civilised person respond to the rise of Islam in Britain?" asks Peter Hitchens in The Daily Mail. In a long article, covering the failure of Islam to take root in western Europe and the different strands of Islamic thought and culture vying for supremacy, he examines claims made by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali about how extreme Islamism was claiming territory in some British cities.
A Job For Life?
Pity Kenichi Uchino of Nagoya, Japan. He is now dead. Age of demise; 30. Cause of death: too much work.
In Iowa
Brown's Army Blues
Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD) has a wish list.
The Sea Lords at the Admiralty want two new XXL-size aircraft carriers complete with American F-18s. Admiralty House also wants to maintain or expand other elements of the Royal Navy's surface fleet. And add new advanced nuclear-powered submarines. (Seven is the preference).
The Iowa Caucuses
EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers has the latest from the US Presidential Election build-up.
Well, well. Isn't it amazing that the more things change the more they...well, change.
Former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee is surging to the top in Republican polls in the Iowa caucuses. His new found support is laid to his connection to religious Americans, especially conservative Christians. In the Iowa Caucus, scheduled for early Jan 08, Mike Huckabee has leapt ahead of Mitt Romney by a greater than 2 to 1 margin of 39 to 17 percent approval rating. Simultaneously, Barak Obama has moved ahead of Hillary Clinton by a 35 to 29 voter approval in the same caucus. What's going on here?
One Dead In Explosion In Central Paris
One person has been killed and five others wounded following an explosion at a law office on Paris's boulevard Malesherbes. It is believed the explosion was caused by a parcel bomb. An advocate and his secretary are among the most seriously injured.
President Nicolas Sarkozy had a practice in the building in the 1980s. It is also the headquarters of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
Chinese Takeaway
George Smiley would not be pleased. The renowned British fictional spymaster would have been appalled at the recent success of spies from China.
US Intelligence Delivers Iran Shock
A breathing space, not a holiday from history
Feel any safer this morning? According to the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), you should do. The report, compiled from work by sixteen intelligence agencies, concludes that Iran had a nuclear weapons programme up until 2003, when it was halted "primarily in response to international pressure."
"Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons programme suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005," the report said.
Iran, which has insisted it has been working on civilian power all along, has welcomed the report.
Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's plans to "rule until 2050" were came unstuck yesterday as his country voted to reject his proposed new constitution.
Chavez loyalists were celebrating victory in the streets before polls closed, but as the results came in, it became clear that the leader of the oil-rich nation, who hoped the referendum would install a "permanent Socialist revolution" in the country, faced his first defeat. Voters rejected the treaty 51-49: Disappointed Chavistas left the streets of the nation's capital Caracas as the opposition - a coalition of student groups and small opposition parties - took over the party.
Belgium: Coalition Talks Collapse
It's not looking good for Belgium. Six months without a government, and on Saturday talks to form a coalition government collapsed
Yves Leterme, the Dutch-speaking Christian Democrat gave up his mandate to lead a government.
No Wheels Good
Two quotes of the day for the price of one this Friday:
First up, here's Jeff Randall on Britain's Donorgate scandal:
"Gordon Brown's premiership has become the Trabant of British politics: we had to wait 10 years for delivery, then it fell apart after less than six months."
Jeff himself says he rips the arse out of the analogy before too long, but as a one-liner, it's great.
And, in the same paper, we find an interesting discussion on what happens to artists when they age and drift to the right.
Her Rejected Majesty?
Australia's new prime minister Kevin Rudd has announced that he will initiate a referendum on removing the Queen as head of state of his country.
iPhone Arrives In France
Apple's long-awaited iPhone is launched in France tonight, with a fanfare usually reserved for big movie premieres.
The €399 portable phone, internet browser and media player goes on sale in selected shops in 12 big cities, launching country wide the next day. It isn't clear whether recent launches of the product in Britain and Germany, alongside the (hacked) iPhone's wide availability in independent mobile phone shops, have dimmed anticipation of the official launch.
Sensitive Souls
Just don't call him Mohammed
Let's get this straight... a British schoolteacher in Sudan is facing forty lashes because her class of seven year olds voted to name a Teddy Bear Mohammed?
Mystery Surrounds New French Riot
Sunday night saw France's worst riots since Autumn 2005. 21 police officers were injured in six hours of rioting in the banlieu town of Villiers-le-Bel following the deaths of two youths whose motorcycle collided with a police car.
Freedom Of Movement? Freedom Of Speech?
As France's transport strike finally begins to peter out after nine days, No Pasaran has a look at how well strikers take to good-natured criticism from the friendly Blue Helmets of BAF.
Thin skins, these CGT guys.
Sarkozy Vows To Punish Rail Saboteurs
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy says that those responsible for the sabotage of the nation's high speed rail network would be "severely punished."
Last night, what authorities are calling "a concerted campaign of sabotage" brought the famous TGV railway to a halt. A series of deliberately-started fires damaged power supplies to signals: The most damaging attack was on the TGV-Atlantique branch, where 30km of track were damaged.
France's national railway company, the SNCF, blames the sabotage on union hardliners who are seeking to halt talks aimed at ending the current transport strike.
Frattini Under Fire
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has come under fire from the European Parliament over his support for Italy's new policy of immediate deportation of undesirable immigrants.
Frattini, who is Italian, was accused of making comments contrary to the spirit and letter of EU Directive 2004/38/EC, which allows for the free movement and settlement of citizens of EU member nations within the EU. Frattini is reported to have said,
"What has to be done is simple. Go into a nomad camp in Rome for example, and ask them: 'Can you tell me where you live?' If they say they do not know, take them and send them home to Romania. That is how the European directive works." EU news site EU Activ says that the Commissioner also "urged Italy to pull down the camps to prevent the Roma from returning."
The Toxic Subject
"Immigration is toxic now in most of the developed world", writes Gerard Baker in The Times. It's identified as the number one issue in many European countries, while the statements of US presidential candidates are scanned for evidence of their thoughts on the 12 million plus illegal immigrants in the country.
In Europe, anti-immigrant parties are on the rise at the national level (even if alliances of nationalist parties crumble in the European Parliament). Even mainstream parties, like Britain's New Labour and Conservatives, are pledging new approaches to mass immigration, even if, Baker continues, "Our political, intellectual and media elites ponder this turn of events with a disdainful eye."
Quote Of The Day
""Hearts and minds" cuts two ways. It is not just up to us to avoid giving egregious offence to Muslims.
"There was nothing in (Gordon) Brown's speech about the plans to build a 25,000-capacity mega-mosque near the 2012 Olympic stadium in West Ham, which is intended to serve as a Muslim quarter for athletes and spectators during the Games, in flagrant violation of everything the Olympic Games represent.
"And no categorical rebuttal of insidious attempts by Islamists to introduce Sharia courts, thereby sanctioning what would amount to exclaves outside the law.
"Emollient vapidities do not conceal the fact that there are people in this country, with patrons and sponsors overseas, who despise our way of life and seek to change it for all time."
- Micahel Burleigh on the Prime Minister's anti-terror measures, in the Telegraph.
National Hymen Service
The Daily Mail and its readers are upset by the news that Britain's hard-up National Health Service is performing "virginity repair" operations on Muslim women who want to convince their husbands they are "pure" on their wedding day.
The operation, which replaces the torn hymen with an artificial membrane (which can contain a fake blood capsule for added authenticity) is illegal in some nations. Private patients pay £4,000 (over $8000) for the surgery, which is reported to be increasingly popular.
Study The Problem
Several dozen French universities are being blockaded by students protesting against minor reforms on university autonomy. Some protestors are far-left agitators acting in solidarity with the trade unions who are striking against pension reform; others are fantasists, calling on the French for another "May 1968" and "an end to capitalism." But some fear that President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to improve France's higher education system will mean the appearance of "US-style" universities.
What do the French have to fear from this?
Pick And Mix
The European Union is an attractive place to reside. Especially if your place of birth was in Africa.
Almost every night on television channels in Italy, Spain, France and Malta, there are reports of desperate souls attempting to cross the Mediterranean with the hope of finding a low-skilled job somewhere in Europe.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
This character claims he was assaulted by cops while he took part in a blockade of Nanterre University students' protest against Nicolas Sarkozy's reforms.
He's a second year sociology student and union activist. Hang on - he's a student? He looks about forty. Either French universities serve to prolong adolescence into middle age, or life in France is a lot harder than we've been led to believe. Story from No Pasaran, which also has a video showing how monsieur and his thuggish friends, egged on by Communist party members, tried to prevent other students from accessing their university.
French Strike Frenzy
Tonight sees the beginning of what could be weeks of misery and confusion for commuters as French transport workers strike in protest against plans to reform their pensions.
Union leaders have pledged that their action will last "as long as it takes" to force the government to retreat on its proposals to end "special regimes" in pensions, which allow some workers to retire as early as fifty. Other public sector workers begin strikes linked to other reform plans over the following days; students and left-wing "activists" plan a campaign of solidarity with strikers: As well as blockades of university buildings, students are reported to have staged sit-down protests on railway lines.
The government, led by President Nicolas Sarkozy, is equally determined to face down the strike. Sarkozy was elected on a promise to reform some of France's archaic business practices, which have become increasingly expensive to manage. The reforms are part of a broader package which the public voted for this Spring, designed to bring France in line with more competitive European nations.
Is Hillary Imploding?
EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers on a rocky week for the Democrats' frontrunner.
With a poor showing in the Democratic candidate debate in Philadelphia two weeks ago, charges of planting questions among "disinterested voters", in audiences, and a very slow, but noticeable slide in the polls, Hillary Clinton's campaign for US President may be showing signs of fatigue or even collapse.
Iranian Officials On Interpol List
Interpol has added five Iranian officials to its "most wanted list" because of their suspected links to the 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people died.
Faith And Violence
Former Europe Minister Denis MacShane has an interesting column in the Observer on how violent Islamism has been around a lot longer than Tony Blair.
A fairly obvious point, perhaps, but unusual to find it in the left-leaning Observer. A glance at the comment's following MacShane's post suggests that he isn't exactly preaching to the converted.
Inside An Honour Killing
The Sunday Times has a chilling report on how 20 year old Banaz Mahmod was beaten, raped and murdered by the men of her family for the "crime" of having an affair.
Banaz and her sisters had already been subjected to the brutality of circumcision, carried out at home by the girl's half-blind grandmother.
France Braced For More Strikes
What is it about French strikers and the English? Not content with having made getting to the Rugby World Cup final a misery for English fans, striking transport workers look set to disrupt the first Eurostar arrivals to Paris from London's beautifully renovated St Pancras station.
A series of open-ended strikes by French civil servants and transport workers is set to make November the cruellest month for commuters and President Nicolas Sarkozy alike.
British Church Under Siege
Belfast's Public Prosecution Service has refused to press charges against youths for vandalising a church and terrorising its congregation, despite the local minister offering police photos of the hooligans in action.
Indeed, the police said that the minister "should not have been taking photographs of the children" - even though the minister had pleaded in vain with officers to come to the church to put an end to the harassment.
Open Race For Republicans
EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers studies the form of Republican candidates.
Well, it looks like Hillary Clinton is still the front runner for the Democratic party nomination for President, but the Republicans haven't really settled down yet. It appears as though their final selection is anything but decided.
Blue Card Blues
More on the European Commission's plans to introduce a "Blue Card" system for skilled immigrants, to rival the US's famed Green Cards.
EURSOC discussed this story in depth September 13, when the proposals were first touted by EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini. We noted that the Commission was planning to replace talk of "immigration" with the more positive phrase, "mobility."
Low Level War With Iran
SAS forces storm the Iranian embassy in London in 1980
Britain and the US are fighting a low-level "bush war" with Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Will it heat up?
According to "defence sources" quoted in The Times, men from Britain's elite SAS unit have made several sorties into Iran, ostensibly to take out arms smuggling operations.
Europe Round-Up
French strikes, Spanish-US clash on seas, Italians bemoan US justice system, Conservative Muslims tell Tories "Iran needs nukes." And more...
As EURSOC predicted yesterday, the Sarkozy divorce beat yesterday's massive transport strike to the front pages of all the papers... with the exception of the left-wing Libération, which couldn't resist referring to both events with its cover "Divorce Social." Note how Libé reports that the trade unions responsible for yesterday's misery are demanding the "opening of negotiations on the reform of the special regimes." In France, bringing the country grinding to a halt is something the unions do as a statement of intent, rather than as an act of last resort.
Even the Guardian, Britain's closest equivalent of Libération, acknowledges that France is f*cked if Sarkozy can't introduce reform: "He cannot cave in the first time the unions flex their muscles. He was elected to reform labour laws, after a decade of failed attempts to do so."
While warning that Thatcherite strong-arm tactics won't keep public opinion on his side, the Guardian concludes, "France's action man has got to stop talking about reform and start delivering it."
Poodle Or Pit Bull?
Transport strikes first big test for President Sarkozy
At this moment, members of France's Communist-linked CGT trade union are marching on one of Paris' main boulevards in one of the biggest protests in five years. Public transport in the capital and throughout the country is at a standstill as the first major strike of Nicolas Sarkozy's Presidency takes grip.
The strikers are protesting against proposed reforms to their retirement benefits, which allow some transport workers to retire at fifty. Sarkozy's government wants to raise the retirement age in line with the private sector and public sector in other European nations. With a hefty parliamentary majority and a stunning personal success in the Presidential elections, he believes he has the mandate to reform France. The unions - increasingly anachronistic, with dwindling membership, but eager to stamp their authority on the new era - claim Sarkozy has misread France's mood.
Sarkozy Announces Split
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cécilia are to separate after eleven years of marriage, the Elysée Palace announced at noon today.
The 15-word declaration ends a week of fevered speculation in the French press that the Sarkozy's turbulent marriage had ended. Yesterday, we reported on a story in a French newspaper which confirmed that the Sarkozys had visited a divorce judge on Monday: An "official" announcement was expected at any day.
French Paper "Announces" Sarkozy Split
The web edition of a French newspaper claims that Nicolas and Cécilia Sarkozy appeared before a judge on Monday afternoon to put into motion their separation and eventual divorce.
A Sporting Chance
Ensure your team reflects the official version of your country's image
What could be more depressing than a Guardian investigation into why the teams in Saturday's Rugby World Cup Final are "so white"?
For a change, though, the article is good. The half dedicated to the England side in particular overturns a number of stereotypes about the Hooray Henry rugger bugger nature of the England side and its support.
A Blair For Italy?
PM and PM-to-be? Prodi (left) and Veltroni
Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni is voted to head a new centrist "Democratic Party", which supporters hope will offer an alternative to both the unreformed left and Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia.
Sarko & Cécilia: Le Split?
President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife expected to announce separation this week.
It has been a roller-coaster week for the French. On Saturday, their rugby team crashed to defeat against the ancient enemy, the English. Head of the Communist-linked CGT union Bernard Thibault, who has seen off more reforms in his 48 years than Rev Ian Paisley, has threatened to throw the country back to the dark ages with a transport strike. And on Friday through the weekend, the country's press buzzed with the gossip that France's First Couple, Nicolas and Cécilia Sarkozy, were set to declare an end to their turbulent 11-year marriage.
It isn't exactly the "rupture" Super Sarko planned when he swept to power in May.
France To Rejoin NATO Military Command?
Some thoughts on the latest hints from Nicolas Sarkozy that France may be prepared to rejoin the NATO command in the Independent, which cautions that it is unlikely Sarko is considering this for the good of George Bush or even the Atlantic Alliance.
The Indie argues that the move is better viewed as a way of boosting the case for a "European Defence Force."
Edwards Shrugs Off Clinton Lead
Courtesy of ABC News we learned that John Edwards, formerly a US Senator from North Carolina and Democratic presidential primary candidate, has dismissed his rival Hillary Clinton's lead in the Iowa Caucuses (to be held in January 2008).
"I've lived through the inevitability of Howard Dean," said the so far third place candidate, referring to the then believed "insurmountable" lead of Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic primary. He might have something there. A loss for Hillary would certainly throw the Dems into a tizzy. At present a Des Moines (Iowa) Register poll has Clinton at 29% with Edwards trailing at 22%, and Barak Obama at 21%. These differences are still close enough that it is a tough call to say who will win. But one thing is certain: the winner of this initial polling will carry a great deal of momentum, not to mention fund raising ability, into the continued fight for the Democratic selection process, which, after a number of key state primaries, should designate the putative nominee by March or April 2008.
The Brown Bottle
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has declared that there will be no General Election this autumn, prompting cries from the opposition that he has lost his nerve.
Previously, the Prime Minister's office was feeding speculation that a November election was a certainty, as polls suggested Labour held an 11-point lead over the Conservatives. However, a better-than-expected Conservative Party conference, coupled with a later poll which showed that the Labour lead in marginal constituencies was shakier than Downing Street had been led to believe, caused Brown to pull the plug on the election.
Following Opposition leader David Cameron's defiance of last week's negative polls - he called Brown's bluff by demanding the PM call the election - Brown's apparent climbdown is surely damaging for the government and the PM in particular.
Muslim Medical Students Shun Classes
A group of Muslim medical students in Britain is refusing to attend lectures or answer exam questions on illnesses related to alcohol or sexually-transmitted diseases.
They claim that learning to treat these diseases conflicts with their faith: Some in the group have also refused to treat members of the opposite sex, according to report by the British Medical Association. One trainee doctor said he would rather fail his exams than examine a female patient.
Tories: A Tactical Victory
Conservative Party leader rallied his troops for a General Election at yesterday's party conference in Blackpool.
In what most centre-right commentators are praising as an effective and wide-ranging speech, Cameron attacked the government's policies as out of date and argued that "only the modern approach of the Conservatives could inspire the British people."
What impressed EURSOC the most, however, was how the Tory leader appeared to succeed in seizing the election initiative from PM Gordon Brown.
A Bonfire Of Blairism
EURSOC has a cunning plan that might be the last chance to save the Tories - and the country
The Tories, Britain’s main opposition party, is on the brink of collapse. After ten years out of power, having been beaten in three successive national elections and in spite of two years preparation they now find themselves a massive ten points behind Gordon Brown’s ‘New New-Labour’ in the polls. In view of the fact that the electoral system is also scandalously stacked against them, it means they hardly stand a chance.
The Tories' demise would be a national tragedy. New Labour’s ideologically motivated agenda has seeped into every aspect of the British state and that state has expanded its role to Kafkaesque proportions. The collapse of effective opposition would leave Britons at the mercy of a one party state, a party hell bent on frog-marching the whole nation to ‘politically correct’ serfdom.
Gordon Brown has been highly successful in making the change and coming across as serious and competent, but strangely the rapid, almost weird, disappearance of Blair has taken the shine off the last ten years. It is as if someone just turned on the lights in a seedy nightclub and you can suddenly see the filth of the place you’ve spent the evening.
No Newt For 2008
Well, well. What was in my email box this evening (October 1st) as I sat down for a final review of my mail? Direct from Newt Gingrich's American Solutions website (www.americansolutions.com) was the announcement: Why I Decided Not To Run for President of the United States.
Newt Tests Waters
Another Republican in the Presidential primary race?
Good grief, this is getting ridiculous. On Friday, September 28th former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, announced he will embark on a fund-raising campaign to gauge interest in his candidacy for the Presidency. If he achieves his goal of raising $30 million dollars by October 21st, he's in the race. If this target funding isn't realized, he'll stay on the sidelines.
Prepare For A Euro-Fudge?
How will the Prime Minister wriggle his obligation to call a referendum on the EU Constitution?
Yesterday, conservative newspapers were fishing around desperately for stories likely to boost the sinking morale of Tories and their supporters. Things looked slightly better today, though, as a series of council election votes showed Tories doing better than expected. Indeed, the results led some reporters to speculate that plans for a snap election in November could be shelved.
Tories should take heart that for all his strategic triumph over the opposition, Brown's self-confidence must be a fragile thing if it surges and collapses so easily in the face of opinion poll fluctuations. Labour insiders say that the famously cautious PM is agonising over whether to leap for an election now, with his ratings high but nervy, or wait, when he may have more solid support, but could face an economic downturn.
There's also the issue of Europe.
Tories Set For Defeat
Return to your constituencies and prepare for oblivion
With a General Election possibly weeks away, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has outmanoeuvred the opposition Conservative Party on every front. On crime, immigration and the economy - areas one would imagine the Tories would be able to seize the initiative - the new PM has left his opponents floundering.
It's not all down to Brown's strategic brilliance, however. The Tories themselves are as much to blame.
Sarkozy On Appeasement
France's Nicolas Sarkozy: "There will be no peace in the world if the international community falters in the face of nuclear arms proliferation."
"Iran is entitled to nuclear power for civilian purposes", he said, "but if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, we would incur an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world".
"Weakness and renunciation do not lead to peace. They lead to war."
Via Yahoo
Iran New York Fallout Continues
Ahmadinejad: Mad, wicked or misunderstood?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York continues to dominate the European and US papers. After his controversial turn at the Columbia University, the Iranian President gave a much more fiery speechat the United Nations, where he declared the issue of Iran's nuclear enrichment program "closed."
Magna Carta For Sale
The only copy of the Magna Carta in private hands goes on sale in Sotheby's, New York in mid-December. A foundation owned by billionaire and former US Presidential candidate Ross Perot is selling his copy of the 13th century document, described as "the most important document of all". Perot bought his, one of seventeen said to survive, in 1984 for $1.5 million. The sale is expected to raise $20-$30 million.
Around Europe
EU Star Wars: France wants to raid the EU's Agricultural Fund for a €2.1 billion bailout for the troubled Galileo satellite navigation project. Eight private investors who had pledged cash to what the Times calls "Europe's biggest white elephant" have pulled out: Paris has won European Commission approval to lift the funds from other sources. Germany and Britain are reported to be outraged. Germany has previously backed cash injections for the project. Britain, however, wanted to stick to the original funding plans, but thanks to Qualified Majority Voting, has found itself dragged along as costs have spiralled.
France and NATO: Should France rejoin the military structure of NATO? The possibility has been touted since Nicolas Sarkozy came to power in May. General de Gaulle huffed out of the western military alliance in 1966 (though France remained in the political structure). Since then France's military has remained independent, but ineffective, argues UK former Europe minister Denis MacShane.
Euro-Wine: Here's one to throw a spanner in the works of France's fiendishly complex Appellation Controllée system of wine labelling. Two winemakers - one French, one German - are joining forces to blend a "cross border cuvée". François Meyer of Alsace and Wolfgang Zähringer, across the Rhine in Heitersheim will cultivate 500kg of Alsace Riesling and Pinot Gris. The resulting bottles will be sold to help the construction of wells in Africa.
Swiss Cheese: Environmentalists are up in arms at plans to add a steel and glass pyramid at the peak of the Klein Matterhorn (which neighbours its more famous namesake). The €100million project has come under fire along with other schemes which critics say will turn Switzerland's mountain landscape into a gimmicky theme park. Interestingly, the architect behind what is touted as "Switzerland's Eiffel Tower" had previously proposed blowing up the Matterhorn to bathe the inhabitants of villages in its shadow in sunlight. Jokingly, we imagine.
Bertrand Cantat to be freed:Noir Desir singer Bertrand Cantant could be freed on parole as early as next month. Cantat, who battered his lover Marie Trintignant to death in a fit of drunken rage, in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2003, was sentenced to eight years for manslaughter in 2004. He was quickly moved to a French prison. The left-wing activist is described by his lawyer as a "model prisoner" - though the family of Mme Trintignant has protested strongly against his release. Marie Trintignant was one of France's best-known actresses.
Turkey's PM Wants To Lift Headscarf Ban
Only weeks after the election of moderate Islamist Abdullah Gul as President, his party colleague Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for the removal of a controversiala piece of secular legislation: The ban on female students wearing headscarves in universities.
Turkey's secularists worried that Gul's election would remove the country's last democratic obstacle to Islam-inspired legislative change: Gul responded that he would rule for all Turks. However minor the proposed change appears to westerners, the PM and President are sure to be condemned for pushing forward an agenda of "creeping Islamification" in public life.
PM: It's Mugabe Or Me
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed that he will not attend December's Europe-Africa Summit in Portugal if Zimbabwe's Premier Robert Mugabe is there.
Writing in the Independent, Brown said "I believe that President Mugabe's presence would undermine the summit, diverting attention from the important issues that need to be resolved. In those circumstances, my attendance would not be appropriate."
France Seeks New Moscow Relationship
France's diplomatic chief Bernard Kouchner is in Moscow today visiting his Russian counterpart. Kouchner, who has startled observers with his tough line on Iran's nuclear weapons program, plans an equally confrontational approach with the Russians, who he has criticised for human rights abuses.
Bush's Pit Bull
An international leader can only truly feel he has arrived when the Guardian's scatologically-minded cartoonist Steve Bell has depicted him (or her) as a vicious warmonger.
Following his hard line remarks on Iran's nuclear weapons program, Nicolas Sarkozy is the latest victim of Bell's acid ink. Because of Tony Blair's loyalty to George W Bush, Bell drew him as a psychotic poodle. Sarkozy, however, gets the pit bull treatment.