Week # 119 – Dated May 07-14, 2010WESTERN EUROPE
Britain's humbled Labour Party has begun a potentially bitter race for Gordon Brown's successor following its ouster after 13 years in office. Ex-foreig
n secretary David Miliband leads the field to become the opposition leader who'll take on Britain's new coalition chiefs David Cameron and Nick Clegg —meanwhile his younger sibling Ed Miliband has emerge as his closest challenger.
Meanwhile Britain's new Prime Minister David Cameron has banned the use of mobile phones at cabinet meetings in a bid to ensure his top team stay focused on the challenges facing them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has abandoned hopes of pushing through tax cuts for Europe's biggest economy after what she called a "bitter defeat" in an election overshadowed by the Greek debt crisis. Merkel's center-right coalition lost control of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, in an election last week that also erased its majority in the upper house of parliament — making the country harder to run.
Spain's leading labor union has called a civil servants strike next month to protest government plans to cut salaries as part of a plan to reduce the deficit. Meanwhile Portugal ordered deep wage and spending cuts along with higher taxes to slash the public deficit by more than half. As governments stepped up their war on debt, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the whole European Union would be under threat if the euro was allowed to fail in the debt crisis. The European single currency slumped to a new 14-month low at 1.2517 dollars on Thursday amid persistent concerns over the debt crisis.
Pope Benedict has said that the greatest threat to Catholicism came from "sin within the Church," one of his most forthright comments so far on a sexual abuse scandal that has created turmoil in the church. Meanwhile an Austrian bishop who has pushed the Vatican for reforms said in an interview last week that the Catholic Church should drop its celibacy requirement for priests.
Iran is willing to hold talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief over its disputed nuclear activities, a senior official said last week, after the bloc's top diplomat spoke of new sanctions against Tehran.
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
President Bamir Topi began talks with Albanian leaders and international representatives on (May 7th), in another bid to end the political stalemate that is threatening the EU integration process. Meanwhile local media reported that Albania may be included in a list of countries where NATO's missile defence shield will be deployed.
The European Commission (EC) is pressing Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to approve a law on holding a population census across both entities.
Hundreds of students and professors in Bulgaria staged a protest last week (May 11th) outside the country's biggest university over cuts in education subsidies.
Bulgarian Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova announced last week that companies are being denied the right to participate in revenue-raising carbon emissions trading, while blaming a lack of appropriate action by the previous government and its disregard for specific recommendations made to Bulgaria regarding the issue.
Political and economic criteria that Kosovo is required to meet are the main priorities of the integrations ministry, Minister Besim Beqaj said last week on May 9th, Europe Day, a state holiday in Kosovo.
European Parliament (EP) official Hannes Swoboda said on Thursday (May 13th) that one solution for Serbs in northern Kosovo would be broad autonomy, similar to that offered Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), based on the Dayton Peace Accord.
Meanwhile Kosovo’s Opposition parties say that early elections would be a better option than maintaining the current government coalition. They blame strained relations between the government and international personnel, such as EULEX and the International Civilian Office. EULEX personnel recently raided Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications offices as part of an anti-corruption investigation.
Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni has asked Belgrade to provide facts about mass graves dating from the 1998-1999 conflict. Meanwhile Serb Authorities have found a new mass grave believed to contain the remains of about 250 ethnic Albanians killed during the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict.
Djibouti has formally recognized the Republic of Kosovo, the 68th country to do so since Pristina declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
The second world conference on inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue closed in the town of Ohrid Macedonia last week The two-day forum brought together 500 representatives of religious communities, experts and politicians from 30 countries. Meanwhile several thousand Albanians rallied in downtown Skopje on May 10th to protest what they describe as discriminatory policies against them. They called for halting legal proceedings against ethnic Albanians involved in the 2001 conflict and insisted Albanian be recognized as an official language. The peaceful march ended without incident amid heavy police presence.
Macedonia has also takes over the six-month chairmanship of the Council of Europe's (CoE) Committee of Ministers from Switzerland earlier this month.
Thousands of farmers blocked the area around the government building in Bucharest Romania earlier this month, demanding the resignation of all officials at the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, due to alleged incompetence. The protestors demanded government subsidies for fuel and irrigation water that they say are late.
According to local media Serbia will have to pay 36m euros in damages to an Israeli company for violating a contract to rent a spy satellite. Belgrade also reportedly must pay about 13,800 euros in legal fees.
Speaking at a conference on Polish EU presidency organized by Warsaw University, Deputy Polish Prime Minister said last week that Eastern Partnership, energy security, commerce and competitiveness will be among priorities of the0020Polish Presidency of the EU due to start on July 1, 2011. Meanwhile while affirming that there is no reason to believe that Poland is threatened in connection with the Greek crisis. PM Tusk admitted that the nation’s zloty has come under pressure against major currencies that has delayed entry to the ERM-2 mechanism, a pre-requisite for adopting the European single currency.
Hungary's new parliament plans to take up the bill, under which the nation would offer citizenship to Hungarian minorities living abroad. Responding to this proposal Slovakia has recalled its ambassador to Hungary.
Meanwhile a Hungarian government spokesperson has said that the incoming government's plans to annul retroactively the outgoing government's Jan. 1 personal income tax measures would widen the 2010 budget deficit to a level the IMF and EU would disprove of. The center-right opposition Fidesz party recorded a landslide victory at April's parliamentary elections and is in the process of forming the next government.
Regarding the Greek aid package hammered out in crisis this past weekend, while Slovakia has not formally rejected the package, the Slovak Prime Minister has said he cannot grant Greece a loan before it fulfils its commitments. The Austrians have also chimed in with words of doubt.
Belarus has recalled its ambassador from Kyrgyzstan for consultations. The Foreign Office said that it has taken this step for security reasons because extremists have threatened its personnel.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko said last week that the country is unlikely to join a customs union involving Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan because it is already a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Meanwhile the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had accepted Israel, Slovenia and Estonia as members, bringing the organization's membership total to 34.
Latvia's prime minister said last week that the fragile economy was recovering faster than expected leading to a quicker exit from price deflation. Latvia has promised gradually to reduce its budget deficit as one of the conditions of winning funding from a 7.5 billion euro bailout agreed at the end of 2008 with IMF and the EU.
At the economic front the Polish government asked the reluctant central bank to support its request to extend the $20.5 billion (13.8 billion pound) credit line, which expired last week. Poland and several other countries received it to help weather the financial crisis a year ago.
The Czech government needs to find about 40 billion to 45 billion crowns ($2.12 billion to $2.39 billion) in tax hikes and savings to achieve next year's deficit target of 4.8 % of gross domestic product. Meanwhile the country's caretaker cabinet is set to quit after the May 28-29 election.
The European Commission has recommended that Estonia be allowed to adopt the common euro currency next year, as it meets all the economic criteria.
Most Hungarian workers with children will pay less tax under a family tax system to be launched next January. The measure is part of the incoming centre-right Fidesz government's efforts to stimulate Hungary's economy, which suffered its worst downturn in nearly two decades last year, and is expected to lag its European peers on the path to recovery.
The Latvian hacker, a "virtual Robin Hood", who stole millions of classified tax documents from government computers and leaked the information via Twitter, has been caught by police. Meanwhile economic data released in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia last week suggested the worst of the Baltic States' deep recessions may be over.
The Lithuanian president during a visit to Dublin last week talked about ‘Brain Drain’ suffered by the nation. The impact of the global economic crisis on Lithuania has made the flow of migration from the country “more aggressive” and almost 90,000 Lithuanians currently live in Ireland.
Poland’s Catholic Bishops Conference announced that Papal diplomat Jozef Kowalczyk has been appointed new Catholic Chief Clergy of the nation.
Last week marked the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Most countries from the former communist bloc mark the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9th every year.
RUSSIA
Somalia’s transitional government has called on Russia to explain about why Russian forces after arresting pirates set them free aboard their small vessel. A military official admitted that they were stripped of their weapons and navigation equipment. A Russian media later quoted a military source saying the pirates were now likely dead.
The Moscow department of the Russian Prosecutor’s Investigative Committee (SKP) has opened a criminal case against vice mayor of Moscow Alexander Ryabinin accused taking commercial property from a company as a bribe for agreeing in December to a development project in a Moscow district.
Regarding the recent visit of the Russian Premier to Syria, Syrian media has welcomed the visit, with government newspaper Tishrin hailing Russia's "growing role" in the Middle East, especially in the context of Washington's "failure to protect stability and world peace, because of its flagrant bias" towards Israel.
Turkey agreed last week to let Russia build and own a $20 billion nuclear power plant in a deal that opens a new page in Russia's global expansion in the industry. Rosatom, the state nuclear corporation, signed the agreement to build four reactors on Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast during a visit by President Dmitry Medvedev to the country.
Meanwhile a Moscow court sentenced a map enthusiast to four years in prison last week for passing classified information to the United States that one report said could help the U.S. military in a missile strike against Russia.
A Major agricultural group Rusagro became the latest Russian company to postpone plans for initial public offering amid uncertainty on international markets. Meanwhile Swedish retailer IKEA, the biggest owner of commercial real estate in Russia, has been beset by accusations of corruption.
An explosion in the Raspadskaya coal mine of the West Siberian town of Mezhudechensk has left at least 12 dead, 59 injured and over 80 trapped. Also reports from southern Russia say a car bomb exploded near a military base in the Daghestan region today, killing at least one person.
The reception at the Russian Victory Day parade on Red Square, that marked the final defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union in World War II., was attended by 21 foreign leaders, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of state of almost all the ex-Soviet nations.
Russia and Ukraine are release unified history textbook by end of 2010. The two nations differ in their interpretation of the 1930s famine in Ukraine. Ukrainian nationalists say Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, should bear responsibility for the famine in which more than 3 million people perished.
A Russian helicopter company is planning to develop the world's first fifth-generation combat helicopter, which according to experts would be able to attack fighter jets and be invisible for radars.
According to reports Imams in Russia will be able to access the country's prison system and work with Muslim prisoners according to a new agreement signed between the federal prison authority (FSIN) and the Russian Council of Muftis.
Everyone entering Russia from Tajikistan is to be vaccinated against polio, the Foreign Ministry said last week after two babies became ill with the disease after arriving from the Central Asian state. Some 300 cases of polio were registered in Tajikistan recently with 13 deaths. Around 90% of those infected are children under five years old.
US/CANADA
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke described the Greek debt crisis as a European problem but one that could affect U.S. banks if not dealt with.
Several lawmakers are urging the Obama administration to put the Pakistani Taliban on a State Department terrorism blacklist that would impose sanctions on the group, which officials say is linked to the failed Times Square car bombing. The move would freeze the group's U.S. assets and make it a crime for Americans to offer it material support.
According to a new Associated Press-GfK Poll the Gulf of Mexico oil spill hasn't stained President Barack Obama nor dimmed the public's desire for offshore energy drilling.
With public anxiety over the fragile economy threatening Obama's Democrats in November's congressional elections, he tried last week to turn the tables on Republican critics, accusing them of sitting on the sidelines last year when he was tackling the financial crisis. Meanwhile President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court seat is elevating touchy social issues in an election year.
President Obama sent a landmark arms-reduction treaty with Russia to the Senate last week for ratification and called for $80 billion in nuclear funding, which could help win opposition support.
Meanwhile Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched fence-mending talks with Afghan government leaders last week by assuring President Hamid Karzai that the U.S. will help rebuild and defend Afghanistan long after the last U.S. combat troops have left.
Six U.N. human rights experts said last week that Arizona's new law on illegal immigration could violate international standards that are binding in the United States.
Canadian legislators grilled the head of BP Plc Canadian unit last week, concerned about the risks of the company's plans to drill in Arctic waters after the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
LATIN AMERICA
According to an Argentine court official, former economy minister Jose Martinez de Hoz, the economic brains behind the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, was arrested last week following the lifting of an amnesty law.
According to reports Brazil is to build a US$483 million (S$671 million) nuclear reactor to produce radioactive material for medical use as well as industrial-grade enriched uranium. Meanwhile Brazil's government is starting a program to replant deforested areas of the Amazon with palm trees and harvest their oil for bio-diesel.
Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced last week that his country will lend 286 million U.S. dollars to Greece through the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The money will come from the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which currently amount to 245 billion dollars.
According to the Brazilian Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao a total of 50 Brazilians have died and 361 others have been hospitalized due to the A/H1N1 flu in the country since April 3.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera met last week with 53 provincial governors to unveil his work plan highlighting goals and commitments of the government. He specifically stressed the challenges in reconstructing the earthquake-devastated areas and the need to create a new financial plan that underlines the reallocation of resources.
A Pakistani man has been charged with violating gun control laws in Chile after traces of explosives were detected on his body and belongings during a visit to the US embassy in Chile.
Mexico's President Felipe Calderon last week defended the army's record in fighting organized crime, saying that the soldiers and sailors are fighting for freedom and justice in the country. Meanwhile Mexico has extradited a former state governor to the United States to face charges of helping smuggle cocaine through Cancun to the U.S., in a high-profile demonstration of the nation's increased willingness to extradite suspects as it battles surging drug violence.
Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, has called for the institutionalization of the Latin American Common Market, UNASUR and has warned that its twelve member states should remember the commitments they made to Haiti. Meanwhile a former Venezuelan defense minister and critic of President Hugo Chavez was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison last week after being convicted of embezzlement and abuse of power.
Chavez, who only recently signed up to Twitter, has rapidly risen up the ranks to become the top tweeter in the country despite having previously described the service as a “tool of terror.” The leader has also hired hundreds of staffers to reply to tweets.
Meanwhile Business leaders have accused President Hugo Chavez of attempting to strangle Venezuelan businesses that rely on imports by making them pay more for foreign-made products. They said Chavez is irresponsibly allowing the black-market rate for U.S. dollars to spiral upward, which increases costs for close to half of the country's importers. §
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