supplies
opponents to nuclear power would have to obtain signatures on petition
to stage new referendum at time when public opinion has shifted considerably
from just few years ago
the berlusconi goverment has set the goal of meeting percent of its
electricity needs through nuclear power by
it wants to build between eight and plants with the first reactors set to be
operational by
saglia said nuclear power would lower the price of electricity in italy to
euros per megawatt hour from the current euros dollars
alert
iran nuclear fuel deal still on table iaea
european stocks plunge london down percent
london jan afp
european stocks plunged on wednesday as jitters spread through the markets after
some disappointing company results credit tightening in china and fears over
the fledgling economic recovery
london benchmark ftse index finished percent down at points
the paris cac fell percent to points and the frankfurt dax
dropped percent to points
obama slams business tax dodgers
washington jan afp
us president barack obama wednesday hit out at companies that dodge taxes while
americans battle economic misery striking populist note after his democrats
suffered stinging rebuke from voters
obama signed directive blocking contractors who are delinquent on their taxes
from winning lucrative government contracts move he said was aimed at
recouping some of the five billion dollars in unpaid taxes from such firms
now in washington five billion dollars might not seem like lot of money
obama said
but in time of great need when our families and our nation are finding it
necessary to tighten our belts and be more responsible with how we spend our
money we can afford to waste taxpayer dollars obama said
we especially can afford to let companies game the system we need to make
sure every tax dollar we spend is going to address our nation urgent needs
and to make difference in the lives of our people
obama was making his first public appearance since voters in liberal
massachusetts sensationally chose republican scott brown in senate seat once
held by democratic icon the late edward kennedy
the result stripped the democrats of their vote supermajority in the senate
which is needed to forestall republican delaying tactics and could hamper
obama bid to pass his ambitious agenda including health care reform
the president ignored question from reporters about the lessons of the
massachusetts special election
experts expect obama to make more populist gestures in the coming weeks as he
attempts to prove to americans suffering from tight paychecks and percent
unemployment that he shares their anxiety over the sluggish economic rebound
as he signed the presidential memorandum which changes government rules and
procedures obama stressed that the president had some executive power to act
that could not be constrained by congress
but on big ticket items like health care cap and trade climate legislation and
immigration reform obama has no choice but to go through congress where
democrats are increasingly nervous with mid term elections looming in november
corrected france to send police force to haiti
paris jan afp
france is planning to send about police as part of new un mission to
bolster security in quake hit haiti defence minister herve morin said
wednesday
we are planning to send additional means in particular gendarmes about one
hundred to complete our effort morin told joint news conference with his
spanish counterpart carme chacon
the french police will be part of european union contingent sent to haiti
the un security council voted tuesday to send extra troops and police to
haiti to help maintain order and protect aid convoys
tens of thousands of homeless haitians are prey to bands of looters swarming
through the ruins of port au prince where there is only sporadic presence of
police and military to protect them
spain is sending an amphibious vessel with troops onboard along with
doctors hospital beds mobile surgery units and reconstruction engineers to
haiti on friday said chacon
security scare at munich airport man flees police
munich germany jan afp
parts of munich airport were sealed on wednesday after laptop tested positive
for explosives and its owner fled into secured area police said
authorities seized the computer as the man passed through security at the german
airport at around pm gmt police spokesman said the man was still
at large
haiti relief puts strain on afghan deployments us military
washington jan afp
the mobilization of us troops to assist relief efforts after haiti killer
earthquake has put strain on the surge of forces in afghanistan senior us
military official said wednesday
the us military contribution to haiti in the aftermath of quake that has
killed at least people has not right now had an effect on afghanistan or
iraq the official told reporters
but clearly it puts strain there said the official who briefed reporters
on condition of anonymity
some us military personnel are currently supporting operations in haiti
and from us navy and coast guard vessels offshore as part of president barack
obama pledge to use every element of us power to help the devastated
caribbean neighbor
yet the relief effort is adding new pressure to military already stretched
thin with some troops deployed in iraq and afghanistan and another
expected in afghanistan by the end of the summer as part of obama
decision to ramp up the fight against an emboldened taliban insurgency
we continue to take very careful and conscious look to see what the impact of
our deployment of forces would be on other operations around the world the
official assured
the us military commitment is only part of the massive international effort
underway to ferry aid and relief supplies to one of the world poorest nations
the united nations security council voted tuesday to add military and
police forces to the un mission in haiti minustah
the united states and its international partners are still in the assessment
phase of last week massive magnitude quake which struck miles
kilometers west southwest of port au prince the official said
there are areas that neither the government of haiti nor minustah nor the us
has actually had eyes on yet
troops from the nd marine expeditionary unit which arrived in haiti monday
and canadian forces were being tasked to get better look at some of those
areas where an estimated to people remain the official said
around canadian troops are currently on the ground and light infantry
battalion stands ready to deploy
no guarantee of warming treaty this year un climate chief
paris jan afp
world talks on climate change may not yield legally binding pact by year
end un pointman yvo de boer said on wednesday in his first public assessment
after last month turbulent copenhagen summit
de boer executive secretary of the un framework convention on climate change
unfccc said he had taken stock among number of countries after the
copenhagen meeting
the mood among them was to forge an agreement this december on how to tackle
climate change and then discuss further how to package that outcome as
treaty he said in webcast press conference from bonn
last month marathon talks yielded the copenhagen accord non binding
document crafted by small group of countries that account for around
percent of world carbon emissions
the accord was written by couple of dozen leaders on the final day of the
talks as the two week meeting hamstrung by textual wrangles and finger
pointing faced collapse
it disappointed many people who had expected copenhagen to crown an arduous two
year process with treaty to roll back the threat posed by greenhouse gases and
provide funds for poor vulnerable countries
mauled by the experience the un forum is due to resume in the coming months
culminating this year with ministerial level meeting in mexico in december
my sense having spoken to about or countries so far is that generally
people want to reach conclusion on the twin negotiating texts in mexico and
then they will be in position to decide on how they want to package that
outcome in legal terms de boer said
he also made clear that the copenhagen accord was not substitute for the
unfccc negotiation template
it political tool that has broad support at the highest possible level and
that we can very usefully deploy to resolve the remaining issues that we have in
the negotiating process he said
the copenhagen accord set broad goal of limiting global warming to two degrees
celsius fahrenheit but did not specify the staging points for achieving
this goal or year by which greenhouse gas emissions should peak
instead countries are being urged to identify what actions they intend to take
either as binding curbs on emissions or voluntary action twenty eight billion
dollars in aid have been pledged by rich countries for
de boer said he had asked countries to spell out by january whether they
intended to be associated with the copenhagen accord or what sort of measures
they envisaged
this was not coercive deadline but simply to help him write report on the
outcome of copenhagen he said
you can describe it as soft deadline there nothing deadly about it he
said
if you fail to meet it then you can still associate with the accord
afterwards in that sense countries are not being asked to sign the accord
they are not being asked to take on legally binding target they will not be
bound to the action which they submit to the unfccc secretariat
it will be an indication of their intent and an important tool to advance
the negotiations
us intel chiefs admit failure in christmas attack
washington jan afp
top us intelligence chiefs took full blame wednesday for failing to stop
botched christmas day plane bombing admitting that they missed slew of
warning signs
national intelligence director dennis blair and michael leiter head of the
national counter terrorism center made the joint admission during grilling
from the senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs
conceding that the system collectively failed the two officials said the
young nigerian charged in the attack umar farouk abdulmutallab should not
have stepped on that plane
the admission detailed how the united states vast intelligence apparatus missed
glaring warnings before abdulmutallab allegedly tried and failed to set off
explosives on northwest airlines jet from amsterdam to detroit
in their statement blair and leiter said the security services had received
strategic intelligence that the militant group al qaeda in the arabian
peninsula was planning an attack
however no one ruled that the watchlisting criteria be adjusted
in addition the intelligence community analysts did not understand the
fragments of intelligence on what turned out later to be mr abdulmutallab so
they did not push him onto the terrorist watchlist they said
other red flags that were missed included testimony from abdulmutallab own
father who was worried his son was becoming an islamist militant intelligence
even included partial name an indication of nigerian the security chiefs
said in their joint statement
but there was nothing that brought it all together nor did we do so in our
analysis
blair and leiter promised fresh and penetrating look at strengthening both
human and technical performance
concrete change made in the wake of the near bombing came tuesday when
washington officially designated al qaeda in the arabian peninsula terrorist
organization
the designation opens the way for the united states to try and cut financial
support for the group and its leaders nasir al wahishi and said al shihri
speaking in their defense blair and leiter pointed out that the national
counter terrorism center receives literally thousands of pieces of intelligence
information from around the world reviews literally thousands of names and
places more than people day on the watchlist
although we must and will do better we must also recognize that not all of the
pieces rise above the noise level
senate security committee chairman joseph lieberman said clearly there are
some things about our homeland defenses that are not working as we need them
to
however he said that domestic defenses had improved hugely since the september
attacks that killed nearly people
he pointed out that reforms in brought about integration of the country
intelligence agencies as well as creating the national counter terrorism
center
cuba us experts try to save hemingway home
havana jan afp
us and cuban experts are teaming up to try to save the cuba home where ernest
hemingway lived for more than two decades and penned his classic the old man
and the sea official media said wednesday
cuba national patrimony office chief margarita ruiz inked an agreement with
the private us finca vigia foundation to step up efforts to preserve and restore
finca vigia villa
the colonial home outside havana is now crumbling in some places the cuban
communist party newspaper granma reported
it did not put figure on the cost of saving the whitewashed home the us
foundation says is filled with original furniture books artwork and
several thousand irreplaceable letters photographs documents and manuscripts
the preservation of the documents and repair of the villa must occur
immediately before all is lost forever the boston based us foundation says on
its website
the nobel prize winner home here officially has been cuban museum since
though cuba and the united states do not have full diplomatic ties they have
seen cultural exchanges increase somewhat since us president barack obama took
office year ago
spanish photographer stripped of wildlife prize
london jan afp
spanish photographer was stripped of major wildlife prize wednesday after
the british organisers said it was likely that the apparently wild wolf featured
in his entry picture was tame
jose luis rodriguez won the highly prestigious wildlife photographer of the year
competition in october with stunning picture of wolf leaping over gate
entitled the storybook wolf
however doubts were raised about the wolf provenance and following an
investigation the national history museum in london and bbc worldwide who
jointly run the prize said the entry had been disqualified
it saddens us to confirm that after careful and thorough investigation into
the image the storybook wolf the co owners of the wildlife photographer of
the year competition have disqualified the winning entry of the photographer
jose luis rodriguez they said in statement
the judging panel was reconvened and concluded that it was likely that the wolf
featured in the image was an animal model that can be hired for photographic
purposes
rodriguez strongly denies that the wolf in the image is tame it said
the competition rules clearly state that photographs of tame animals may not be
entered and any transgression is taken very seriously it added
the pound dollar euro prize was never awarded to the
photographer although he did receive pounds for winning his category which
organisers said they had agreed he could keep in lieu of royalty payments
as result of his disqualification there will be no winner
france to send police force to haiti
paris jan afp
france is planning to send about police as part of new un mission to
bolster security in quake hit haiti defence minister herve morin said tuesday
we are planning to send additional means in particular gendarmes about one
hundred to complete our effort morin told joint news conference with his
spanish counterpart carme chacon
the french police will be part of european union contingent sent to haiti
the un security council voted tuesday to send extra troops and police to
haiti to help maintain order and protect aid convoys
tens of thousands of homeless haitians are prey to bands of looters swarming
through the ruins of port au prince where there is only sporadic presence of
police and military to protect them
spain is sending an amphibious vessel with troops onboard along with
doctors hospital beds mobile surgery units and reconstruction engineers to
haiti on friday said chacon
aid workers launch search after strong haiti aftershock un
geneva jan afp
aid workers were searching haiti capital port au prince for any damage or
potential new victims after fresh strong aftershock in the south of the
country the united nations said wednesday
helicopter was also sent to survey the town of petit goave further west close
to the epicentre of the new quake estimated at magnitude by the us
geological survey the un office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs
said
rescue teams immediately fanned out around port au prince to see if buildings
had collapsed and check that people were not under the rubble said ocha
spokeswoman elisabeth byrs
un helicopter also took off immediately to fly over petit goave and evaluate
the extent of the damage she told afp
the town two kilometres about one mile from the epicentre of the latest tremor
was amongst the areas hardest hit by the magnitude earthquake on january
that levelled parts of port au prince and surrounding areas according to the
un
urgent security scare at munich airport man flees police
berlin jan afp
parts of munich airport were sealed on wednesday after laptop tested positive
for explosives and its owner fled into secured area police said
mother jailed for killing brain damaged son with heroin jab
london jan afp
british mother who gave her brain damaged son lethal injection of heroin to
end his suffering was jailed for life for his murder on wednesday
frances inglis admitted killing her year old son tom in november
because she did not want to see him suffer but denied murder
she told the court he was in living hell after suffering severe head
injuries when he fell out of moving ambulance in july and insisted she
had acted with love in my heart
however judge brian barker told the old bailey court in london we can all
understand the emotion and the unhappiness that you were experiencing
the fact is that you knew that you intended to do terrible thing you knew
you were breaking society conventions you knew you were breaking the law and
you knew the consequences
the jury found inglis of dagenham east london guilty of murder and attempted
murder she had first tried to end her son life in september
she was sentenced to life imprisonment with minimum of nine years in jail
during the trial inglis wept as she described her despair at the horror pain
and tragedy of her son helpless condition telling the court for tom to
live that living hell couldn leave my child like that
she admitted ending his life but said did it with love in my heart for tom
so don see it as murder
however prosecuting lawyer miranda moore said in her closing statement it is
tragic case but it is not defence to murder to end someone life to put
them out of their misery
vanquished ukraine president concedes defeat
kiev jan afp
president viktor yushchenko on wednesday said he accepted defeat in ukraine
presidential elections but defiantly vowed to remain in politics as the next
stage of the campaign heated up
yushchenko the figurehead of the orange revolution won just percent
of the vote in the first round elections on sunday amid widespread
disappointment with his presidency
but in characteristically defiant statement yushchenko said that the holding
of free elections warmly praised by international observers was in itself
proof of the victory of the orange revolution
as head of state accept the will of the people in the january elections
the main thing is the elections were free democratic and legal he told
reporters in his first public comment after the vote
but national and state circumstances do not give me the moral right to leave
political life he added
yushchenko had vowed to turn ukraine into prosperous nation anchored in the
european union and nato but his ambitions were undermined by political
infighting and dire economic crisis
analysts also critisised the president passionate defender of ukraine
cultural heritage for focusing on grandiose historical projects at the
expense of concrete reform
yushchenko result left him in lowly fifth place behind frontrunners viktor
yanukovich and yulia tymoshenko who will now contest the run off vote on
february both are seen as more pro moscow than the incumbent president
but after observers led by the osce praised the elections as of high quality
yushchenko said the vote had set an example for the entire former soviet
union
the apparent success of the elections contrasted with the last polls in
where mass rigging blamed on yanukovich supporters prompted the peaceful
protests of the orange revolution that swept the old order from power
the fact that the elections were free means that the orange revolution actually
won and did not only win in word but also in deed yushchenko said
the pro western president however expressed serious doubt about the capabilities
of the two remaining candidates who he said were both far from national
european and democratic values
he declined to support either one of them
expressing my opinion as citizen of ukraine do not see fundamental
differences between the two candidates he added
as the next stage of the campaign gained momentum tymoshenko revealed she had
offered the third place candidate sergiy tigipko the post of prime minister in
clear encouragement for his electorate to back her in round two
but tigipko has so far made clear he has no intention of backing either
candidate
yanukovich led tymoshenko by percentage points in the first round and most
analysts are forecasting tight and bitterly contested run off election that is
still wide open
in sign of the bitter sniping to come yanukovich at rally in the city of
kharkiv took aim at tymoshenko for her personal attacks she has made against him
over the last days
think that as prime minister she must carry responsibility for her every
word and if she simply woman then she must go to the kitchen and show off
her caprices there he said according to the website of his party
the dour yanukovich not known for his rhetorical skills has repeatedly refused
the more glamorous and articulate tymoshenko demands to take part in
televised debate
she sees that she has already lost the election and proposes that compete
with her in lies and muck he added
three week old baby found alive in haiti rubble ngo
paris jan afp
rescuers pulled three week old baby girl alive from the rubble of house more
than week after it was destroyed in haiti devastating earthquake the head
of firefighters association said wednesday
french rescuers found tiny elisabeth on tuesday in hollow beneath the ruins of
the house in jacmel town in the south of the island after spending five
hours trying to get through to her
the mother had told rescuers that she had been unable to save her daughter when
the quake hit said philippe besson head of the organisation emergency
firefighters international
besson told afp that the girl who was just days old appeared healthy when
she was pulled from the ruins even though she had nothing to eat and drink for
nearly week
we handed her to her mother who put her to the breast it was real joy said
besson who spoke from limoges where the non governmental organisation is based
elizabeth was taken to field hospital run by local ngo and was said to be in
satisfactory condition
the united nations said wednesday that people had been rescued by
international teams from the debris of collapsed buildings in haiti since the
january earthquake
alert
laptop tests positive for explosives at munich airport man flees police
italian police arrest in anti camorra sting
rome jan afp
police on wednesday arrested dozens of people and seized kilos
pounds of cocaine and million euros worth of property in an operation
against the camorra mafia in southern italy officials said
at least people were arrested in the joint operation by financial and
military police they told afp
interior minister roberto maroni praised the operation saying it hurts the
camorra but also demonstrates the pervasiveness of organised crime in the
business world
the probe uncovered money laundering operations and threw suspicion on two
employees of court in the impoverished region as well as well known
psychiatrist the ansa news agency reported
in the sting police also uncovered kilos pounds of hashish and kilos
of marijuana police told afp
in another operation neapolitan police seized euros million
dollars in goods belonging to franco mazzarella and antonio muscerino
ansa said
mazzarella son of camorra clan leader arrested in is in jail for mafia
association smuggling drug trafficking and extortion
six arrests in bulgarian paedophile ring
sofia jan afp
bulgarian police have arrested six men involved in paedophile gang that used
fake girls names to arrange meetings with teenage boys via online dating
websites the interior ministry said wednesday
the men aged between and are accused of drugging and intoxicating boys
aged between and and sexually abusing them at parties in luxury apartments
and houses in sofia the ministry said in statement
the men allegedly recorded the abuses and used the tapes to blackmail the boys
into bringing their friends and classmates to subsequent parties
some of the teenagers were allegedly paid euros dollars for every
newcomer they brought along the ministry said
it did not say how many boys were victims of the abuse but said police had
already questioned teenagers
white house launches iphone application
washington jan afp
there new application for apple iphone and it comes from the white house
of president barack obama
the white house app delivers dynamic content from whitehouse gov to the palm of
your hand white house blogger dave cole said
the free application which is available through apple app store features
live video streaming cole said in blog post on whitehouse gov late tuesday
now anyone with this app can watch the president public events at the white
house frequent web chats with administration officials and other events like
key speeches and press briefings in real time he said
for example cole said obama january state of the union speech will be
available to iphone users
the white house app also lets users stay up to date with the white house blog
cole said and will provide on demand video of white house events
in the coming weeks we also launch mobile whitehouse gov mobile ready
version of whitehouse gov that is optimized for any internet enabled mobile
device including many other phones he added
obama relied heavily on the internet during his presidential campaign for
organizing fundraising and communicating and has created myspace and facebook
pages and twitter feed since entering the white house
obama new media team has also launched channel on youtube and the white
house is present on photo sharing site flickr
earlier this year the white house launched several websites data gov and
recovery gov in bid to provide more information to the public and to provide
unfiltered access to government data
extra jail time for british facebook fugitive after breakout
london jan afp
an on the run british convict who tormented police on facebook for four months
before being recaptured was sentenced to extra time behind bars wednesday for
escaping from custody
craig lazie lynch accumulated tens of thousands of facebook friends and posted
string of defiant status updates and pictures on the internet social
networking site
dubbed the facebook fugitive by media lynch whose profile picture showed him
raising his middle finger to the camera was serving seven years for aggravated
burglary when he broke out of jail in suffolk east england in september
but after being recaptured earlier this month he must serve an extra six months
in prison judge ruled at high security woolwich crown court in southeast
london
police said they could not give details of whether information posted by lynch
on facebook had helped officers locate him
lashkar taiba could become global threat like al qaeda us
washington jan afp
the banned pakistani islamist group lashkar taiba let blamed for the mumbai
attacks could become threat to the west like al qaeda us counter terrorism
official warned wednesday
should it decide that it wants to either compete with al qaeda or supplant al
qaeda it would present itself as an extremely formidable terrorist
opponent the official daniel benjamin told reporters
benjamin the state department coordinator for counter terrorism said the let
is all the more worrisome because it has the size and global reach of hezbollah
an anti israeli guerrilla army that can strike worldwide
the only group that you could really compare it to globally in terms of
capability is lebanon based hezbollah in terms of its size and ambition he
said
let choice of targets in the attacks on mumbai in november which left
six americans among the dead as well as recent anti us plot in
bangladesh suggests let views us as target as well he said
bangladeshi police told afp in november they arrested three pakistani men
believed to be let members who were suspected of plotting to attack us and
indian targets in the capital dhaka
benjamin said the plot targeted the us embassy in the bangladeshi capital
it has target set that al qaeda would find perfectly fitting it has an
enormous number of men under arms running into the thousands benjamin added
even if let keeps its sights on india and carries out another mumbai style
attack or bigger benjamin said it could drag india and pakistan into new
