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Libyan cabinet minister shot dead
Libya's deputy industry minister has been shot dead by gunmen during a visit to his hometown of Sirte, east of the capital Tripoli, reports say.
sábado, 11 de janeiro de 2014
For Financier, a Final Try to Avoid U.S. Charges
NYT > World
For Financier, a Final Try to Avoid U.S. Charges
Florian Homm, a German arrested after five years in hiding, will make a final appeal against extradition to the Italian justice ministry, citing ill health.
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Black rhino hunt permit brings $350,000 at controversial auction
World news and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com
Black rhino hunt permit brings $350,000 at controversial auction
Protests greet sale by Dallas hunting club of papers allowing holder to kill rare specimen in Namibia
Libyan minister 'shot dead'
CNN.com - World
Libyan minister 'shot dead'
Gunmen driving in a car opened fire Saturday night on a Libyan government minister, killing him instantly, a Libyan defense official said.
Brussels rejects UK threats to rewrite immigration rules
World news and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com
Brussels rejects UK threats to rewrite immigration rules
President of European parliament says UK has 'no chance of curbing basic principle of free movement'
Brussels has stepped up its fightback against UK attempts to curb EU immigration as leaders of the European parliament declared that rules on freedom of movement were completely non-negotiable, and made clear that attempts to change them would be blocked.
In the latest response to calls from UK politicians to unpick the EU treaties and rewrite one of its founding principles, European parliament president Martin Schulz said that while he took UK demands for reform of the EU "very seriously" there was no question of the parliament agreeing to reopen the rule-book on free movement.
Schulz, a German Social Democrat, said he would like to see David Cameron's plans for EU reform, and wanted the UK to remain inside the EU to shape policy on everything from climate change to the single market and development policy. But he added: "Where we differ is that I would rather see the UK making its case for reform from within the EU rather than with one hand on the escape hatch.
"As to the debate on free movement, this is happening not only in the UK but across many member states. The principle of free movement of people has been one of the greatest successes the EU has, it is a fundamental principle and it's not up for negotiation any more than renegotiating the principle of the free movement of goods, services or capital."
He stressed that such treaty change "needs unanimous support and ratification of all member states".
It would also need to pass through the European parliament, where it would almost certainly be blocked.
One of the parliament's vice-presidents, the Liberal Democrat MEP Edward McMillan-Scott, told the Observer changing the principles of freedom of movement would never pass through the Council of Ministers nor the parliament. "In a globalising world, for the EU to revisit its own fundamental principles of open markets and open frontiers would amount to self-harm. I do not think that the European parliament now or in the future would accept such a major upheaval."
The remarks reflect an increasing determination within the EU to respond robustly to the UK's demands for a new deal on immigration, and a growing sense that British politicians must not be allowed to hold the rest of the union to ransom over the issue by bringing up the possibility of a UK exit. While other EU leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, are keen to help Cameron devise a new deal that he can sell back home, Berlin insists she will not want to tamper with EU founding principles.
With Cameron wanting to reopen the debate on free movement, and home secretary Theresa May floating the idea of capping the annual number of entrants to the UK at 75,000, Schulz's comments make it clear that a renegotiation on that scale may be all but impossible.
Alarmingly for Cameron, several of those now jockeying to be the next president of the European commission later this year are among the strongest believers in holding the line against a special deal for the UK. Last week one of those in the frame to take over from José Manuel Barroso, Viviane Reding, who is a current vice-president, tore into Cameron for failing to counter a "myth" that immigration from the EU was harming the UK economy.
She urged politicians in the UK to explain calmly what the EU is about, rather than give in to populists on the right.
Others in the running for the presidency include former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt.
Cameron, under pressure from Ukip and Tory Eurosceptics, has promised that if the Tories win the next election he will hold a referendum by the end of 2017 after having renegotiated the terms of UK membership, including rules on freedom of movement. Already the government has announced tougher rules for EU citizens claiming benefits in this country.
In a further sign of how Cameron is being pressured by the right of his party, the Sunday Telegraph said 95 Tory MPs have written to the prime minister demanding parliament must be given the power to veto every aspect of EU law. Backbenchers led by Bernard Jenkin want the government to reverse the spread of human rights law, relieve businesses of red tape from Brussels and regain control over immigration.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, said EU immigrants should wait for up to two years before being able to claim benefits rather than the current period of three months. He said he had been speaking to other member states such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands who were supportive of the idea.
Britain should ask migrants to "demonstrate that you are committed to the country, that you are a resident and that you are here for a period of time and you are generally taking work and that you are contributing", he said. "At that particular point … it could be a year, it could be two years, after that then we will consider you a resident of the UK and be happy to pay you benefits."
Michael Ashcroft, former deputy chairman of the Conservatives, said a Ukip victory in the Wythenshawe and Sale East byelection, for the vacant seat following the death of Labour MP Paul Goggins, would be "a game changer". Bookies have slashed Ukip's odds from 12/1 to 4/1 as Labour remains odds-on to retain the seat having won with a majority of 7,575 in 2010.
A poll by the thinktank British Future finds strong public support for a change in the UK's relationship with the EU. More than one in four (28%) of UK voters want to leave, while 38% wish to stay in and try to reduce EU powers. Even senior Labour figures are now talking of the need to change freedom of movement rules in terms that will cause further alarm in Brussels.
Last week shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said he had been discussing with European counterparts how to limit immigration from EU countries to people with good skills and firm job offers. "The founders of the EU had in mind free movement of workers, not free movement of jobs," he said.
Labour sources later said he had "made a mistake" but party strategists are aware that in the current anti-EU climate they have to be responsive to prevailing scepticism.
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Britons 'more optimistic' on economy
BBC News - Home
Britons 'more optimistic' on economy
The number of British people who are optimistic about the economy has trebled since 2012, a survey suggests.
In Scandal, Turkey’s Leaders May Be Losing Their Tight Grip on News Media
NYT > World
In Scandal, Turkey’s Leaders May Be Losing Their Tight Grip on News Media
The Turkish government, which has frequently had journalists fired and even jailed, may be losing its grip on the news media, as a former ally turns and Internet influence abounds.
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VIDEO: Paper helmet created for cyclists
BBC News - Home
VIDEO: Paper helmet created for cyclists
Crashing his bike motivated Anirudha Surabhi to design a radically different kind of helmet - made out of paper.
Australian environment minister is totally, shamefully negligent with "direct action" policy | Alexander White
World news and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com
Australian environment minister is totally, shamefully negligent with "direct action" policy | Alexander White
The Australian government's "direct action" policy is like giving money to an illegal drug dealer to stop dealing drugs, then having no penalty if he keeps selling them.
Moderate conservative that he is, Australian environment minister Greg Hunt ran on a platform of "lean" government, where private businesses "are the true creators of wealth", individuals need to take personal responsibility for their actions, and the former Labor government's carbon price was a "non-delivery of an invisible substance".
It was a surprise then, to learn last week, that Greg Hunt wants to give $3 billion to big polluting companies to reduce their emissions, but have no sanctions for those businesses if they fail to meet the reduction targets.
This is like giving money to an illegal drug dealer to develop innovative ways for him to stop dealing drugs, then having no penalty if he keeps selling them. Worse, the drug dealer could claim government funding for drugs that he supposedly didn't sell over his "baseline" of sales, but carry on pushing drugs regardless.
You'd expect that a believer in lean government wouldn't use billions in tax-payer's money to create an expensive, totally ineffectual regulatory bureaucracy to auction permits to not emit carbon pollution.
The Australian government's "direct action" policy will allow companies to bid for grants to implement the most efficient carbon reduction programs. Companies will have a "business as usual" baseline from which they agree to reduce their pollution. Several options are canvassed by Greg Hunt, including having multi-year compliance periods, or the ability for companies to "make good" by buying reduction credits from elsewhere.
In reality, the Emissions Reduction Fund is little more than a slush-fund for the big polluters.
What is surprising is that Greg Hunt seems unaffected by the cognitive dissonance of paying someone to not do something — to not emit a tonne of carbon dioxide — when his principle criticism of the carbon price was that it was a "non-delivery of an invisible substance".
This policy is shamefully negligent.
Not just because it won't actually reduce Australia's carbon emissions and will fall vastly short of the inadequate 5% reduction target.
But because you can't measure what you don't emit. Instead, you just assume how much you would have emitted and compare it to what you did emit. This is, needless to say, utterly subjective, and open to manipulation. Private companies will be given public funds to magically reduce their carbon pollution emissions, with no consequences if they fail to deliver.
As is so often the case with this government, Greg Hunt and prime minister Tony Abbott have a very flimsy moral case to implement their direct action policy, and the federal election does not qualify as a mandate to abolish the carbon price. Abbott may claim that the 2013 election was a "referendum" on the carbon price, but if so, only around 45.5% of voters supported the abolition by voting for the LNP. This falls to a miserable 37.7% in the Senate.
Implicit in their "direct action" policy is that it is a more effective way to reduce carbon emissions than the carbon price. This is a view that could only be held by someone if they didn't accept the scientific basis for climate change.
Considering Tony Abbott's past statements that climate change is "crap" and that the carbon price was "socialism masquerading as environmentalism", a common sense reading of the policy is that exists solely because of the climate change denialists in the ranks of the Liberal-National party.
In fact, according to an August 2013 report by Reputex, the cost per tonne of emissions reduced under Hunt and Abbott's "direct action" policy, if it were to achieve the 5% reduction, would be $58 per tonne. Labor's carbon price by contrast was just $23 per tonne (and would have gone to a floating market-set price next year).
Simply put, the "direct action" policy of Greg Hunt and Tony Abbott betrays either a shameful ignorance of the national perils inherent in climate change, or malicious intent to line the pockets of big polluters at the expense of everyone else.
What's more, the "direct action" policy is utterly at odds with the pro-market, "lean" government, responsibility ideology of the Liberal-National party.
It abolishes the carbon permit market in favour of a heavily regulated grants/auction system. It creates more bureaucracy to replace the public servants who were administering the carbon price. It creates a consequence-free money tree for big polluters who won't need to take responsibility for their pollution.
This Liberal-National government is shamefully attempting to fleece everyday Australians out of $3 billion, handed out in grants to big polluters for magical, unmeasurable carbon emission reductions.
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Una deuda con Oradour-sur-Glane
Portada de Internacional | EL PAÍS
Una deuda con Oradour-sur-Glane
En junio se cumplirán 70 años desde que la división blindada Das Reich de la Waffen-SS perpetró, en la localidad francesa de Oradour-sur-Glane, uno de los peores crímenes en la sangrienta hoja de servicios del brazo militar de la SS nazi. Werner C. tenía entonces 19 años y hoy es un carpintero jubilado que ha vivido tranquilamente hasta que, esta misma semana, la Fiscalía de Dortmund presentó cargos penales contra él por su presunta participación en aquella masacre de 642 civiles franceses. El octogenario veterano ha admitido que estuvo en el pueblo, pero dice que aquel día le tocó montar guardia junto a los vehículos de los verdugos. Los fiscales creen, en cambio, que participó directamente en el ametrallamiento de 25 hombres y que colaboró en la matanza de cientos de mujeres y niños. Las autoridades judiciales alemanas investigan, además, a otros cinco camaradas suyos alemanes y a un sexto que vive en Austria. Todos rondan los 90 años de edad.
Los aliados habían desembarcado en la Normandía ocupada por Hitler apenas cuatro días antes de que la II División blindada de la Waffen-SS se pusiera en marcha hacia el noroeste de Francia. Por el camino tenían orden de tomar represalias contra la población civil. La resistencia francesa, alentada por las noticias del lento avance hacia el interior de las fuerzas estadounidenses e inglesas, intensificaba su hostigamiento a los alemanes desde la retaguardia. Con la excusa del supuesto secuestro de uno se sus soldados, las tropas mandadas por el general Heinz Lammerding colgaron a 99 rehenes civiles en la localidad de Tulle el 9 de junio de 1944.
Al mediodía siguiente, 120 hombres del regimiento conocido como Der Führer —en alusión a Adolf Hitler— rodearon el pueblo de Oradour, a unos 30 kilómetros al noroeste de la ciudad de Limoges. No se sabe a ciencia cierta por qué eligieron ese pueblo para la masacre ejemplarizante. La urbe se conserva hoy tal y como quedó tras la destrucción, como símbolo de la barbarie nazi.
El comandante Adolf Diekmann organizó los siguientes pasos: todos los habitantes tuvieron que concentrarse en la plaza del mercado, donde los alemanes segregarían a los hombres de las mujeres y los niños. A los primeros se los llevaron a cuatro graneros locales, donde los ametrallaron en grupo y los fueron rematando a punta de pistola. A las mujeres y a los niños los llevaron a la iglesia del pueblo, donde los encerraron para poner en práctica el método de exterminio con el que los alemanes asesinaron a millones de personas, sobre todo judíos, en los territorios ocupados de Europa. Cuando vieron que no bastaba con la bomba de humo tóxico que detonaron ante el altar para gasear a bebés, niños y mujeres, los nazis abrieron fuego de fusil y arrojaron granadas de mano por las ventanas antes de incendiar el edificio. La campesina Marguerite Rouffanche, única superviviente de las 240 mujeres y 213 niños encerrados en la iglesia de Oradour, saltó por una ventana. Contó cómo una vecina apellidada Joyeux trató de pasarle a su bebé de siete meses. No pudo llevárselo en su huida a una huerta próxima, donde cayó ametrallada por un alemán que la dio por muerta. Sobrevivió con los cinco balazos.
El diario Bild fotografió el jueves a un anciano con mostacho, gafas y gorro que iba a hacer la compra apoyado en un andador de cuatro ruedas. Los reporteros dieron con Werner C. cuando salía del súper en un barrio del oeste de Colonia y le preguntaron por sus recuerdos de guerra: “Sí, estuve allí, pero no disparé un solo tiro”.
El fiscal de Dortmund Andreas Brendel está convencido de que Werner C. apretó el gatillo de su subfusil junto a otros 14 soldados en una bodega donde murieron 25 hombres indefensos. Sobre los desmentidos del anciano, el fiscal Brendel recuerda que ningún veterano de la II Guerra Mundial “ha reconocido nunca” que cometiera crímenes, “todos dicen que no dispararon un solo tiro”. El premio Nobel Günter Grass, por ejemplo, usó esa misma frase cuando admitió, en 2006, que él también había militado en la Waffen-SS al final de la guerra.
En el caso de Werner C. se sabe al menos contra quién dice no haber disparado ese tiro: los civiles de Oradour, entre los que asegura haber “salvado la vida de dos mujeres” que regresaban del bosque justo antes de que sus camaradas masacraran al pueblo entero y se dieran al pillaje de las casas vacías. Cuenta Werner C. a Bild: “Cuando se acercaban les grité que escaparan de nuevo al bosque, cosa que hicieron”.
Además de los 25 asesinatos directos, los fiscales acusan al anciano de haber colaborado en el gaseamiento y matanza de los civiles en la iglesia, bien como vigilante apostado en las inmediaciones para ejecutar a los posibles fugitivos, bien transportando material inflamable para quemar el edificio.
Esta ofensiva judicial será el último intento de que los participantes en la masacre de Oradour respondan por el crimen. En 1953, un tribunal de Burdeos condenó a 21 hombres por la masacre, entre ellos a 14 franceses de la Alsacia anexionada por Hitler. También se dictaron 44 condenas en rebeldía. Dos fueron sentenciados a muerte, pero solo pasaron por la cárcel. Uno de ellos, el oficial Heinz Barth, volvería a ser condenado en la república Democrática Alemana en 1983. Salió de la cárcel en 1997, por “mala salud”. Murió una década más tarde a los 87 años.
Manchester United 2-0 Swansea City
BBC News - Home
Manchester United 2-0 Swansea City
Manchester United's poor run of form is brought to a convincing end as Adnan Januzaj inspired a victory over Swansea.
The Lede: Syria’s Conflict Told Through a Caustic Wit
NYT > World
The Lede: Syria’s Conflict Told Through a Caustic Wit
“You know, when you live with shelling all the time, you just let everything go,” said the Syrian activist Razan Ghazzawi. “You have to laugh.”
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