S&D conference on the financial crisis
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On 28 March the S&D Group in the European Parliament will host a conference on ‘The responses to the European crisis, proposals from the Appeal for a European Socialist Alternative’. More details and a registration form are available...
The Closer
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Round-upThe US equity market rally took a day off as the S&P 500 closed slightly down on the day.BHP Billiton warned that demand for iron ore from China would level off,...
Post-Carbon Institute’s (En)Rich List:: do we really need sustainability stars?
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“The (En)Rich List celebrates a wealth of inspirational individuals whose contributions enrich paths to sustainable futures.” I have ambiguous feelings about this list published by the Post-Carbon Institute. Although some of these men and women a...
Faith in Funding
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As politicians debate public spending cuts, the matter of whether the State should continue to fund the Church in Poland has been raised.This issue is an extremely controversial one and brings in a number of wider issues, not least the fundamental qu...
Stocks Trade Lower As Growth And China Shares Fall Lower … World Enters Strongly Into Second Great Depression
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Financial Market Report for March 20, 2012 Bonds, BND, traded unchanged, Copper Miners, COPX, and China Shares, YAO, CHXX, CHIX, CHIM, CHII, HAO, CAF traded lower on fears of diminished world growth. Now the growth trade is over as Growth Stocks, R...
Memo to the Duke of Gloucester: royals are supposed to cherish their country, not destroy it
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The other day I had lunch with one of those rare MPs who believes in old-fashioned nonsense like duty, integrity and public service. No, it wasn't Tim Yeo: try again…. Anyway, this politician's analysis of what's wrong with contemporary British...
Nadine Dorries blocked from Queen’s diamond jubilee Speech
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Nadine Dorries was blocked from entering Westminster Hall for the Queen’s 60th anniversary speech, Scrapbook can reveal. The Mid-Bedfordshire MP rocked up in all her finery, only to be turned away by security. Looks like she forgot her ticket...
Sarkozy grabs Libyan intel chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, in bid to keep donations secret?
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It appears that France is to be the beneficiary of the extradition of Abdullah al-Senussi http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/20/mauritania-likely-extradite-libyan-france not the international Human Rights Court at the Hauge nor the divided, c...
The Jewish blood that has flowed since WWII has not been due to the extreme right but more to the New-Age anti-Semitism linked to Islam
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Regarding the killing of Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse, Michel Garroté wonders whether Iran isn't involved and whether the Mullahs régime isn't targeting France for being in the forefront of the EU's SWIFT sanctions against Tehran. Like the Uni...
Politics Without Proper Politicians
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Don’t look now – but Italy is no longer at the center of Eurozone fears. Indeed, the interest rates the government there pays on its debt are now back down closer to the “normal” rates of old. And this all has to do with Mario...
Political versus administrative communications on Twitter: the Boris Johnson case
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Yesterday current Mayor of London Boris Johnson renamed the Twitter account from @MayorofLondon to @BorisJohnson and kept more than 200000 followers. The URL listed with Twitter is now the website of Boris’s re-election site and not the GLA sit...
An open letter from the editors of two online magazines for young Europeans to the European Commission
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Open letter from the editors of 2 European youth magazines to the European Commission Last week, Stefano Sannino, the European Director General for Enlargement, hurriedly withdrew a promotional video which was supposed to encourage young Europeans to...
Boris U-turn over taxpayer-funded election campaigning
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After hijacking the mayor of London’s official twitter account for his own campaign earlier today, Boris Johnson has made a U-turn over fears he has breached the strict election rules around use of taxpayer-funded resources while campaigning.
[Greece CDS] Just to be pedantic: $3.1bn net
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The maximum amount that could have potentially settled in the Greece CDS credit event auction on Monday, as DTCC repository data that has just been released shows, was $3.1bn —...
Syria Uprising: Asma al-Assad, For Whom Power Doth Crush #3
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Re-framing reality is a game most dictators and their wives indulge in. It offers solace, a justification for passing their guilt to others. This is usually towards people they are supposed to serve and protect. There is never any doubt in the mind s...
Obama Fights China on Rare Earths – But Dependence on the Resource Giant will Remain
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The U.S., EU and Japan have requested consultations with China at the WTO on the country’s tariffs and export quotas on rare earths elements critical to the defense industry. But the dispute will change little with regard to the dependence on Chin...
James Lind, still a pioneer of health science after 260 years
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Twitter may be regarded by some as frivolous but, on some occasions, it can be the door which opens between two people interested in the same subject – and, recently, that happened to me. I tweet rarely but check my dateline every day, which...
Baroness Ashton didn't say what her critics claim she said about the Toulouse killings and Gaza
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When Baroness Ashton was made EU Foreign Minister it seemed a bizarre move even by the standards of late-period Gordon Brown. The French were very amused. In Brussels Britain got the largely pointless Foreign Affairs Commissioner post whilst France s...
EU telecoms eurocrats get the management consultants in
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€2 million euro contract available - but only if you can understand itThe European Commission's department for telecoms policies ('DG Infso') is having an internal shake-up, to try and find a bit of political direction and profile.In its ranks, the...
Anyone? Anyone? Bernanke?
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Caption competition There’s even a reading list to the Fed chairman’s GWU lecture on Tuesday, which covers the basics of the central bank’s history. (Header...
Digital PA does work but you need to tick all the boxes
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Heard in the trenches in Public Affairs land in Brussels: “I’m on Twitter, but no one is following me”. “I have a site (or blog) but I don’t get any traffic”. “I spend loads on advertising but people leave my...
Spanish NCA issues report on draft Audiovisual services Law
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CNC has issued its report concerning the impact of the draft Audiovisual services Law, on competition within the respective market (see related page, in spanish).
Commission refers to Polish NCA concentration of ITI and Canal+ media groups
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The referral "regards the concentration covering two transactions (first consisting in taking a joint control by two media groups, Canal+ and ITI over TVN; the other – taking a joint control by Canal+ and TVN over the pay television – Cyfra+ and...
Finnish Government considers merging Competition and Consumer Authorities
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"The Ministry of Employment and the Economy has announced that it will set up a steering group to investigate the possibility of merging the Finnish Competition Authority and the Finnish Consumer Agency, and at the same time also assess whether the N...
Modern Imperialism and the Secularisation of International Law
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This piece was originally posted on Verfassungsblog and reposted here with thanks. On Monday, 19 March, historian, philosopher and lawyer Mark Somos (2011-2012 Rechtskulturen Fellow at Humboldt University Law School) spoke in Recht im Kontext‘s Re...
Commission's Art. 7 Comments to ComReg on the latter's modification of WBA price control and transparency remedies
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The European Commission had no comments to make, in its decision, to the Irish NRA on the latter's modification of the wolesale broadband access price control and transparency remedies.
The EESC President’s ‘new ideas lab’
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At lunchtime to an informal meeting, organised by the EESC’s President, Staffan Nilsson, in order to explore new ways of opening up the EESC in areas such as consultation, working methods and content delivery. The guest speaker today was Hannes...
OPTA communicates to the Commission its re-evaluated review of the fixed retail telephony market
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"In its verdict dated 30 September 2011 on OPTA’s market analysis decision fixed telephony of 19 December 2008 (OPTA/AM/2008/202721) the court ruled that OPTA should not have applied the three crite-ria test as a basis for the withdrawal of remedie...
Everyone wants a bite of Apple
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Yesterday the European Consumer Organisation BEUC published a press release concerning unfair commercial practices conducted by Apple as far as the product guarantees that they issue are concerned. BEUC calls for an immediate stop to these misleading...
ANACOM's final decision on the pricing of the (terrestrial) television signal distribution and (analogue) broadcasting service, as charged by PTC
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"By determination of 9 March 2012, ANACOM approved the final decision on the pricing of the (terrestrial) television signal distribution and (analogue) broadcasting service, as charged by PT Comunicações (PTC).This decision orders PTC to lower the...
Cooperation Protocol between ANACOM and Vodafone Portugal in the field of electromagnetic conformity of base stations
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"ANACOM and Vodafone Portugal have concluded a protocol laying down principles of mutual cooperation for the development of joint action in the field of electromagnetic conformity of base stations, principles which involve knowledge exchange and inte...
Rare Earth Politics, Cooperation, and the WTO
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While the U.S., Japan, and the EU have long histories of WTO disputes between them, they share an interest in sound global rules and in making sure China plays by the rules.
