GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Mitt Romney is the winner, but by a skinny margin of eight votes in the Iowa Republican caucus Tuesday 3 January. The five candidates proved mainly that the Republicans do not yet have a candidate that can safely be called their leader, with Romney and Rick Santorum each getting 25 percent, Ron Paul 21 percent, Newt Gingrich 13 percent and the two other candidates, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann getting 10 and 5 percent respectively.
The second state to select a candidate is New Hampshire, next Tuesday.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Iowa’s voters, in the heart of the US, are making a number of political decisions today in caucuses held by Democrats and Republicans. The most significant votes, for the rest of the world, are the stated preferences for US presidential candidates. The caucuses are basically meetings held in precincts throughout the state, where issues and candidates are discussed. Its significance lies in the fact that this is the first official indication by party members in any of the states of the people they will back for the November 2012 presidential race.
Links to other sites: CNN, Des Moines Register on how the caucuses work, Minnpost
Two die as high winds sweep the region
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Winds of up to 100mph in Scotland and other parts of Britain 3 January are causing considerable damage, with some areas suffering power cuts and transport disrupted, including the London-Edinburgh trains. A man died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in southern England when a tree fell on his van and a sailor, one of three injured on a boat in the Channel, died after they were rescued.
Weather alerts remain in place, with strong winds expected throughout the night.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Tuesday 27 December was the last day that descendents of those who fled Franco’s Spain and the 1936-39 civil war could claim Spanish passports, and in Latin America in particular, the lines were long. Some 66,000 Cubans have already received Spanish passports and another 180,000 may have qualified.
Links to other sites: BBC, Latin America Herald Tribune
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The “Great Successor”, Kim Jong-un, has officially been named the successor to his father, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 69, who died Monday 19 December of a heart attack while traveling, according to media reports coming out of the country. The son, who is reportedly in his late 20s, surfaced as part of N Korea’s political picture in 2010, when he was appointed to several senior posts, including military ones.
He spent some of his time in early adolescence at a state school in Bern.
South Korea has put its military forces on high alert; the two countries have officially been at war for more than 60 years and N Korea in recent months has been the target of much criticism from the West for its nuclear programme.
Links to other sites: CNN, Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters,
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Illegal and poisonous alcohol has killed 126 people in West Bengal in India and 100 are hospitalized. Seventy of those are in critical condition, and there are fears the death toll could jump. Seven people have been arrested.
The deaths have occurred in Sangrampur, Magrahat, Usthi and Mandirbazar areas, according to the BBC, which notes that “Toxic alcohol deaths are a regular occurrence in India.” The state government said Thursday it would help vendors who want to switch to other businesses, such as selling tea and fruit, to reduce the number of deaths from illegal liquor and what it calls a “hooch tragedy”.
Links to other sites: BBC, Times of India
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Financial Times wondered Sunday if the UK will drop out of the European Union, but most media weren’t willing to take it quite that far. Europe was nevertheless adjusting this weekend to a new set of relations after Britain vetoed a new EU treaty that would bind the members more closely financially. The UK was the only one of the 27 member countries to do so. UK Prime Minister David Cameron goes before parliament Monday 12 December to explain why he vetoed the treaty. He said after last week’s vote that it left the financial services industry unprotected.
Ireland has said it will start bilateral talks with London soon, with the Irish Times reporting that “The Government intends to launch an intensive diplomatic engagement with Britain to ensure London is not left isolated as a result of its refusal to agree strict new fiscal rules in the European Union.”
Links to other sites: Guardian, Irish Times, Le Monde interview with Nicolas Sarkozy (Fr), Telegraph
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The continuing debate over whether Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, was guilty or not of raping a maid in a hotel room in New York has heated up again with the release of the security camera film footage from the hotel. Both sides claim the films back up their earlier arguments, and media, partcularly the tabloids are reading numerous interpretations into the footage.
Links to other sites: Daily Mirror, UK, NY Post, Washington Post
AP video, DSK leaving hotel, maid, staff
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – At least 73 people have died in a hospital fire in south Kolcata (Calcutta), India, according to initial reports from India’s media, and 75 people were rescued. The fire at Amri Hospital broke out in the early hours of the morning Friday 9 December. The fire department says, according to the Times of India, that it will sue the hospital for not having adequate equipment or a rapid evacuation plan. The seven-storey building was thick with smoke hours after the fire started.
Links to other sites: Reuters, Times of India
GENEVA, SWITZERLEAND -Western leaders’ promises of help to the Afghan government when their troops leave, made Monday at an international conference in Germany, appeared to offer smaller hopes of peace following deadly attacks in Kabul and a city in the north Tuesday 6 December.
Close to 60 people died and 160 were injured when a suicide bomber attacked Shi’ite Muslims at a Kabul shrine crowded with religious observers.The blast was the worst in three years. Several of the wounded are reportedly in critical condition
The Irish Times reports that “a Pakistani militant group with close ties to al-Qaeda said it carried out the attack, although security sources could not confirm the group’s involvement.” Aljazeera says attention is focusing on Sunni groups based in Pakistan, but it is unclear as yet who is to blame.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Guardian (photo gallery), Irish Times, Reuters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is being treated in a hospital in Dubai for a heart condition, but his condition is not serious. The BBC reports that “his departure has fuelled speculation in the Pakistani media that he may be on the verge of resigning”, reports that the government denies.
Reuters credits a source as saying he has had a minor heart attack, not his first.
Zardari, the husband of murdered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has been in office since 2008. He has recently been linked to leaked memos that led to the resignation of Pakistan’s envoy to the US.
Cartoon by Chappatte, Globe Cartoons ©2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Monday night Moscow protest of 5-8,000 people, followed by thousands taking to the streets Tuesday, has led to 600 people being arrested, according to Russian state media.
Those pulled in by police include opposition leaders, liberal Boris Nemtsov and liberal party Yabloko head Sergei Mitrokhin among them, as well as well-known political and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny.
The rally, which was licensed to go ahead, was organized to demonstrate against alleged ballot-rigging in last weekend’s Puma (parliament) elections, with claims that ballots were rigged in favour of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Unted Russia party. It won 238 of the 450 seats, a sharp drop from its previous majority of 315 seats.
Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the presidential council for human rights and civil society and advisor to President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday morning criticized the police. “If a person commits an administrative offence, namely, takes part in an unauthorized rally, the maximum penalty they may get is a fine. They do not face administrative arrest,” Ria Novosti quotes Fedorov as saying.
Reuters reports that pro-Putin youths tried to crash the rally and there were some scuffles. “After permitting the biggest opposition rally in Moscow for years on Monday evening, the police were out in large numbers. The Interior ministry said about 2,000 special troops were supporting almost 50,000 police, and some moved through the city centre in armored vehicles in a show of force.”
Links to other sites: CBC, Moscow Times, NDTV, Ria Novosti
AFP video
GENEVALUNCH – The most comprehensive study ever of the source of cancers in Britain according to its authors shows that smoking, drinking, poor eating habits and excess weight trigger 43 percent of cancers in the country and are responsible for half of all cancer-related deaths.
The study is published today in the British Journal of Cancer and is receiving considerable media attention in the UK.
The biggest lifestyle changes men should make, the report suggests, is to eat more fruits and vegetables and to smoke less. Women should keep their weight down.
The authors, in their introduction to the special supplement to the regular journal say the results show “a limited number of important factors that can, at least to some extent, be affected by personal or political choices. The most important among these is continuation of the significant reduction in tobacco exposure. Next in importance are reductions in obesity and in heavy alcohol consumption, and certain other dietary changes. Each of these four main strategies for cancer control would also substantially reduce the burden of other non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular, diabetic, renal and hepatic disease.”
The UK had 134,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2010. Tobacco alone is responsible for about 20 percent of all cancers and 25 percent of cancer-related deaths.
“Over the past 40 years in the UK, the probability of death before the age of 70 years has been halved, and over the next few decades it could be halved again by continued improvements in the treatment of disease and by paying appropriate attention to the few major avoidable causes of disease.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Belgium has a new prime minister, Elio Di Rupo, a francophone socialist, after 540 days of dispute over the country’s leadership. Di Rupo was appointed by King Albert II Monday and his new government was sworn in Tuesday 6 December. EurActiv reports that “the new team retains many of the ministers from the caretaker government of acting Prime Minister Yves Leterme, albeit in different roles.”
Later this week he will attend his first European Summit.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Chinese real estate investor’s plans to build a luxury golf club in Iceland were turned down recently by the government there, which said Huang Nubo would own too large a percentage of the country’s land if he bought the Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum stretch in the northeast of the country.
Now the minister of the Industry, Energy and Tourism says she is in favour of leasing the land to him, since this would not fly in the face of ownership issues, and Huang Nubo says he is interested.
But the plans are causing concern over the water in Canada, where suspicions are being voiced that China is interested in the land because of the possibility of a polar water route some day.
Links to other sites: The Globe & Mail, Ice News
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Global Witness, an NGO (non-governmental organization) that was a key founding member of the Kimberly Process to end violence linked to the diamond trade, says it is pulling out.
“‘Nearly nine years after the Kimberley Process was launched, the sad truth is that most consumers still cannot be sure where their diamonds come from, nor whether they are financing armed violence or abusive regimes’”, said Charmian Gooch, a founding director of Global Witness. ‘The scheme has failed three tests: it failed to deal with the trade in conflict diamonds from Côte d’Ivoire, was unwilling to take serious action in the face of blatant breaches of the rules over a number of years by Venezuela and has proved unwilling to stop diamonds fuelling corruption and violence in Zimbabwe. It has become an accomplice to diamond laundering – whereby dirty diamonds are mixed in with clean gems.’”
Growing disillusion reached the breaking point over approval in November by the Kimberly Process of diamond exports from the Marange mines in Zimbabwe, where Global Witness and Human Rights Watch say the army continues to use violence to exploit workers. Robert Mugabe’s government denies the reports.
High turnout in Egypt, with new Islamist group taking 24%
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Russians appear to be falling out of love with former leader Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and turnout has been high, 62 percent, in Egyptian voting as parts of the country move into runoffs in a complex voting system.
Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has enjoyed almost unrivaled popularity for the past 10 years, but early election results appear to show a change of heart by voters, with the party’s majority in parliament disappearing.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party, described by Business Week as “broad-based”, is expected to win the largest number of seats in the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s long reign of power ended early in 2011. But the conservative, Islamist Salafi Nour party, a newcomer, secured 24 percent of early results, surprising observers with its strong showing. The country now faces runoffs in several voting areas; results from the country’s complex voting system will not be known until January 2012.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Business Week, Guardian, Reuters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A grand jury in the US has not indicted a McDonald’s cook who was famously accused of assaulting two customers, with the incident caught on a surveillance camera inside the restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York.
He had been indicted on assault charges for swinging a metal object at them several times after the women appeared to attack him by slapping him, with one of the women climbing over the counter and the other joining her when he tried to retreat into the kitchen.
The incident was sparked when a cashier questioned a $50 bill offered by the women. The cook, who gave one of the women a fractured skull and neurological damage, according to her lawyer, had a history of violence.
The two 24-year-old women now face several charges, including disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, according to CNN.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Hong Kong couple’s split after eight years of marriage has resulted in ex-wife Florence Tsang Chiu-wing being awarded US$154 million (HK$1.2 billion) as part of the divorce settlement, after eight years of marriage. Her former husband, real estate tycoon Samathur Li Kin-kan, is the son of billionaire Samuel Tak Lee.
The judge ordered that an offer from the ex-husband and his father, of HK26m, be paid immediately, with the rest subject to interest that goes to Tsang if it is not paid within 90 days.
Their three-year-old daughter will have a fund of HK$26m, according to local paper The Standard.
The judge’s ruling may make Tsang the recipient of Asia’s largest ever divorce settlement, and it is well above such famous celebrity divorces as Donald and Ivana Trump or Paul McCartney and Heather Mills; Mills received $48 million from the former Beatle. Ed. note: McCartney says in a Times interview 3 December that he has been told his phone was hacked at the time he and Mills were getting a divorce.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch famously paid his ex-wife of 32 years $1.7 billion in 1998.
Tsang is a 38-year-old lawyer and the court ruled that the pair had contributed equally to the marriage. But with substantial gifts from his father, including one of US$50 million, Li’s estimated worth in March 2011 was HK$6.42 billion, while his wife’s was HK$79 million.
Hong Kong in recent legal cases has ruled in favour of women receiving larger shares of a couple’s joint fortune.
Tsang had asked for more than HK$6b, reportedly more than half of their shared assets, but she said after the ruling she was “delighted” with what is widely reported to be about 20 percent of the shared assets.
The settlement includes a $32 million home in Hong Kong, a $4 million town house in London, club memberships and HK$2.5 million to cover the cost of new cars and maintenance for a yacht, according to various media reports that cite the court document. The judge, John Saunders said she is entitled to maintain the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed.
Links to other sites: BBC, CNN, The Standard
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two men face fines of nearly $72,000 after they got drunk on a 28 November flight from Ontario Canada to Beijing, China. The plane had to land in Vancouver, where Royal Canadian Mounted Police escorted them off the plane. The two, George Campbell, 45, and Paul Alexander, 38, pleaded “guilty to mischief for consuming too much alcohol and disobeying the directions of the flight crew aboard an Air Canada flight”, according to the Globe & Mail. In a court appearance 29 November the pair received suspended sentences and probation for a year.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A man has been told he cannot do two hours of breathing exercises in a square in the Belarus city of Baranovichi, the Moscow Times reports, citing human rights agency Vesna. “But the Baranovichi administration rejected the tongue-in-cheek request, saying it violated several clauses of the law on rallies, Vesna reported, without elaborating.”
The government of Alexander Lukashenko who has been president for 17 years, has been the target of critics from inside and outside the country for attempting to stop dissent, an argument that was given force earlier this month when a new law went into effect that tightens restrictions on public rallies.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Some 2 million public sector workers are slated to walk out Wednesday 30 November in the UK, affecting schools, hospitals, government offices and public transport, among other services. The strike is over changes to government pension plans, with workers being asked to work longer hours to earn their pensions. The government announced Tuesday it wants to bring forward to 2026 a plan to move the pension age to 67.
Early reports indicate that 75 percent of schools in Britain are affected by the strike.
Prime Minister David Cameron lashed out early Wednesday at the union, holding them responsible for taking labour action while negotiations are going on. The BBC cites General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers Russell Hobby, that “blame for any rise in union militancy – particularly among moderate unions – belongs fairly and squarely at the government’s door: A failure to negotiate in any meaningful sense until the last minute”.
The 24-hour strike is widely expected to involve up to two million workers, with the BBC labeling it “what is set to be the biggest walkout for a generation”.
Links to other sites: Daily Mail, Guardian, the Scotsman, Telegraph
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A fire that Hong Kong officials say broke out at a hawker’s stall at the Ladies’ Market in the city’s Mong Kok district in Kowloon killed 9 people and left 30 injured, 4 of them critically. The market, in an area of narrow lanes and colourful buildings and vendors, is popular with tourists. The blaze caught a highrise residential building and filled the area with thick smoke.
The cause of the mid-afternoon fire is not yet known, but CNN reports that “last year, 50 stalls burned to the ground in the same street, injuring six people.” RTHK local radio cites firemen as saying it may have been caused by arson.
Links to other sites: Herald Sun/AFP, New Zealand, AP video (raw footage)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - American Airlines Tuesday 29 November filed for Chapter 11, the start of “reorganization” proceedings in the US, a legal maneuver that allows companies to declare bankruptcy but continue operating while they attempt to restructure their finances.
The company hastened to assure its passengers that its flight schedule will be respected. The airline is the world’s fourth largest. Observers say the company was simply no longer able to compete in an over-crowded market where its competitors have slashed costs: it has some of the highest costs in the industry, including pension plans that few other airlines have maintained. AA itself says it took the action to start competitive cost restructuring.
It remains a member of the OneWorld Alliance, it notes.
Links to other sites: ABC, Australia, Economist Cassandra blog, Statesman
Slate video
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Britain has reacted sharply to the attack on its embassy in the Iranian capital of Iran Tuesday 29 November, by an angry crowd that police were unable to control. The embassy compound was over-run, including diplomats homes and offices. An emergency meeting of the UK government was called to deal with one of the worst diplomatic crises in recent years between Iran and Britain. The Guardian describes the scene: “The crowd ripped the gilded UK crest off the embassy, pulled down the union flag and replaced it with the Iranian one, and threw satellite dishes off the roofs of embassy buildings. They also smashed windows and scattered thousands of papers in the street in front of the embassy, where British, US and Israeli flags were set alight.”
Aljazeera reports that the crowd was mainly students who called the British Embassy a spy hideout for the US.
The Ottawa Citizen, with reports from the Telegraph and Reuters, writes “Chanting “death to England”, the protesters – many of them organized by a student branch of the pro-regime Basiji militia – burned the British flag and set a car on fire in protest at sanctions imposed last week on Iran’s banking system.”
The situation was under control by 18:00 Tuesday and the UK government says all staff have been accounted for; there were no injuries.
Video, Aljazeera
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A “desperate search” is being carried out in the Irish sea, says the BBC, for five Russian crew members of a ship that ran into trouble off the coast of Wales in the Irish Sea Saturday. One man was rescued but is reported by Irish media to have died and two others were taken to safety after they were picked up by a British RAF helicopter whose co-pilot was Britain’s Prince William.
Five remain missing in the gale-force stormy sea after their ship, the “81-metre carrier MV Swanland, issued a Mayday at about 2am Greenwich mean time – which is 3am local time”, according to the Irish Times. “They reported the hull was cracking and the ship was taking in water about 30 miles north west of the Welsh Lleyn peninsula. It is believed the vessel may have sunk in 15 minutes in a heavy gale. The RNLI lifeboats reported no sign of the hull, with two liferafts and some floating debris on the sea surface.”
The ship was reportedly carrying limestone to the Isle of Wight.
The two who were saved were clinging to a life raft when they were spotted by the helicopter.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Pakistan’s foreign minister reportedly had harsh words for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a phone call early Sunday 27 November, in the wake of a Nato airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The soldiers were buried Sunday.
The deaths were the result of a “tragic unintended incident” Saturday, said Nato leader Fogh Rasmussen, but thousands of people protested in the streets of Karachi Sunday after the Pakistan government labeled the incident an “unprovoked assault”, according to Reuters.
The airstrike hit two border posts on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border and Pakistan has now closed Nato’s supply routes into Afghanistan, which Reuters says the alliance uses to send nearly half of its land shipments there.
Links to other sites: Associated Press of Pakistan, Dawn, Pakistan, Times of India, Washington Post
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nineteen of the 22 members of the Arab League voted Sunday 27 November for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, effective immediately. The sanctions include travel bans, freezing government assets and end to Arab investments and dealings with Syria’s central bank.
The sanctions come as the number of deaths in Syria is widely reported to have topped 3,500 during more than eight months of fighting. The US and the European Union (and Switzerland) already have sanctions in place.
Reuters notes that “the Arab League has for decades avoided imposing sanctions its members but has been spurred into action by the scale of bloodshed during Syria’s crackdown and by the failure by Damascus to implement an Arab peace plan. The Arab peace plan called for sending in Arab monitors, withdrawing Syrian troops from residential areas and starting talks between the government and opposition. Damascus ignored several Arab League deadlines.”
The League is calling on the United Nations to adopt similar sanctions.
But the New York Times reported Sunday that the impact of the sanctions could be limited: ”
“Analysts said they expected the impact of the sanctions to be limited, in large part because Syria’s largest trading partners will not participate. Economists estimate that about 50 percent of Syrian trade is with the Arab world, but the largest chunk of that is with its immediate neighbors, including Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.
“Iraq abstained and Lebanon ‘disassociated’ itself from the vote, Mr. Jassem said. Both countries said they would not enforce the sanctions, and Jordan has issued mixed signals.”
China’s Xinhua news agency cites Syrian state news reports that Syrians took to the streets in protest after the news of the sanctions was announced.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Americans who live overseas tend to remember Thanksgiving with enormous nostalgia, and part of that is the cost of putting a turkey with all the trimmings on the table. To duplicate the American feast at the end of November in another country is not easy and it’s not cheap. But Americans abroad, beware: according to Business News Network‘s Linda Nazareth, the real cost isn’t quite what you remember, or at least the impact of it on the average American wallet isn’t what it once was.
The American Farm Bureau does an annual tally of the cost of that famous dinner. Most of us will recognize the main elements, the turkey, the stuffing, right down to the green peas. One blast from the past could be the carrot and celery relish tray, but if enough people have been watching Mad Men, this could be having a comeback.
This year it cost $49.20 to put the dinner for 10 on the table. If you’re sitting in Switzerland, you might think that’s about the cost of the bird alone. It gets better: this is a 16 pound turkey. Try to find that in Switzerland.
That cost is rising. Business Week blames the corn. “The average cost of corn, the primary feed ingredient, jumped 58 percent this year from 2010 and is headed for an all- time high, erasing the benefit of retail turkeys that the government says averaged $1.59 a pound this year, up 6.4 percent from last year. About 70 percent of the cost of raising each bird is feed, farmers say.”
The CS Monitor points out that a turkey costs $3.91 more than a year ago. But it’s still a better deal in every way than a fast food dinner, it says, quoting an American Farm Bureau senior economist. “Although we’ll pay a bit more this year, on a per-person basis, our traditional Thanksgiving feast remains a better value than most fast-food value meals, plus it’s a wholesome, home-cooked meal,” [John] Anderson said.
But get this, from Business News Network: “Thing is, though, it is $5.73 cents more than it was last year (a rise of 13 percent) and that money has to come from somewhere.”
The answer, dear reader, is savings. Americans are dipping into the piggy bank to slaughter the turkey.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The 89 passengers of a Boeing 737 flying from Vladivostok to Krasnodar are safe after their pilots landed the plane without incident after being temporarily blinded by a laser, reports the Moscow Times. The number of lasers beamed at pilots has jumped from five in 2010 to 50 this year. Legislation is under review to create penalties of up to 10 years in laser injury cases, says the newspaper.
Scores of ravers were injured after lasers at a giant outdoor party near Moscow burned their eyes in 2008.
Switzerland recently tightened its laws after a number of incidents, most involving helicopter pilots. The federal government announced in May that high-level lasers will be banned after government statistics published in March showed 80 laser attacks on pilots in 2010. Penalties for causing damage were increased in October 2011 about the time that a man in Vevey, near Lausanne, was fined CHF2,750 and given a three-year suspended fine sentence of CHF5,000 for his laser attack, while he was drunk, on two military helicopters.
Links to other sites: New Scientist, Rega magazine (Fr)
