http://freeinternetpress.com Free Internet Press :: Uncensored News For Real People Newspaper en-us Copyright (c)2012, FreeInternetPress.com editor@freeinternetpress.com 60 http://freeinternetpress.com/freeinternetpress_sm.gif http://freeinternetpress.com 140 20 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:17:25 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Chinese-Newspaper-Accuses-West-Of-Provoking-Civil-War-In-Syria-33986.html After almost a year of protests against Assad's 11-year rule, the uprising has moved to his center of power in Damascus, where the security police surrounded a funeral of a young protester on Sunday to ensure there was no repeat of some of biggest demonstrations in the capital.China's Communist party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said in a front page commentary that the west's support of the opposition and its demands for Assad to step down could provoke a "large-scale civil war" that might demand foreign intervention. China and Russia angered the west and Arab states this month by blocking a draft United Nations security council resolution that backed an Arab plan demanding Assad step aside. If the security council had passed the resolution backing the Arab League, that would only have led to more violence, Qu King, whom the newspaper identified as a foreign affairs expert, wrote in the article. "If western countries continue to fully support Syria's opposition, then in the end a large-scale civil war will erupt and there will be no way to thus avoid the possibility of foreign armed intervention," Qu wrote. China has sent envoys to the region, stung by western criticism that by vetoing the resolutions at the U.N. it was allowing the violence to increase. China and Russia also voted against a non-binding U.N. General Assembly resolution to back the Arab plan last week. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Chinese-Newspaper-Accuses-West-Of-Provoking-Civil-War-In-Syria-33986.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:17:04 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Iran-Threatens-To-Extend-Oil-Embargo-To-Europe-33985.html Iran has warned it may extend an oil embargo imposed on Britain and France to other European countries, and launched a military exercise to strengthen key nuclear sites against air strikes as a team of U.N. inspectors arrived in the country.Herman Nackaerts, the leader of the five-member U.N. team, said he wanted concrete results from the two-day visit, the second within a month. But, amid skepticism that inspectors would be permitted access to nuclear facilities, Nackaerts added that progress "may take a while". The team is hoping to question Iranian nuclear scientists and visit the Parchin military base, where high-explosive tests are thought to have been conducted. But Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's foreign minister, told a student news agency that the officials would not be inspecting any sites. In a sign of mounting tensions in the region, Iran began a four-day military exercise in the south of the country to "practice co-ordination between the Revolutionary Guards and regular army and air defense units in establishing a defense umbrella over our vital centers, particularly nuclear facilities", according to a military statement quoted by an Iranian news agency. Missiles, anti-aircraft artillery, radars and warplanes were being deployed, it said. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Iran-Threatens-To-Extend-Oil-Embargo-To-Europe-33985.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:16:46 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Interview-With-US-Economist-Kenneth-Rogoff-Germany-Has-Been-The-Winner-In-The-Globalization-Process-33984.html In an interview with Spiegel, Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, 58, says it was a mistake to bring all the southern European countries into the common currency. He also argues that Greece should be granted a "sabbatical" from the euro and that a United States of Europe may take shape far sooner than many believe. SPIEGEL: Mr. Rogoff, the euro-zone finance ministers are likely to soon provide Greece with new loans totaling €130 billion ($171 billion), with the aim of stabilizing the country for the next few years. Will that save the euro? Rogoff: It is hardly the final word, even for Greece. The mountain of debt in Greece is simply too big and the country is not competitive. Indeed, it's going to be very difficult to keep Greece in the euro zone. SPIEGEL: But the government has announced tough austerity measures. Pensions are being cut, wages frozen. Those kinds of measures are almost unheard of in Europe. Rogoff: But they're still not enough. To make Greece competitive, wages would have to be halved. That is impossible to implement politically, but without a steep wage cut, the economy will continue to stagnate. Greece urgently needs the prospect of growth. It is currently experiencing its fifth consecutive year of recession. This is a failure of historic dimensions. SPIEGEL: But surely it can't get any worse? Many economists are saying that the crisis in Greece has bottomed out and the worst is over. Rogoff: I would be more cautious. The problem in Greece is not an ordinary recession but a full-blown financial crisis, something which countries usually take a lot longer to recover from. This kind of economic collapse goes much deeper than a normal slowdown. The longer the economy continues to shrink, the more restless the trade unions get, and the more pressure builds up on politicians to put an end to the misery. SPIEGEL: What cure would you prescribe? http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Interview-With-US-Economist-Kenneth-Rogoff-Germany-Has-Been-The-Winner-In-The-Globalization-Process-33984.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:16:28 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Campaign-Finance-Reports-Detail-Super-Pac-Donations-Fundrasing-In-January-33983.html Presidential campaigns and outside political groups were filing detailed financial reports Monday, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the identities of wealthy supporters who will help elect the next U.S. president and details on how tens of millions of campaign dollars have been spent. Reports released Monday show a Super Pac backing Republican Mitt Romney raised more than $6 million last month.The Restore Our Future Super Pac pulled in much of its fundraising money from donors who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece. They included Marriott chairman J.W. Marriott and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman. Restore Our Future has raised more than $36 million this election cycle and had more than $16 million in the bank at the end of January. It has spent millions of dollars on television ads in key primary election states supporting Romney and hammering his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in November. Fellow Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum each briefly surged ahead of Romney last month but remained far behind the former Massachusetts governor in fundraising. Since then, former senator Santorum has climbed into a virtual tie in polls while support has eroded for former House of Representatives speaker Gingrich. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Campaign-Finance-Reports-Detail-Super-Pac-Donations-Fundrasing-In-January-33983.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:16:01 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Canada-Threatens-Trade-War-With-EU-Over-Tar-Sands-33982.html Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc's plan to label oil from Alberta's vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on February 23."Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organization," state letters sent to European commissioners by Canada's ambassador to the E.U. and its oil minister, released under freedom of information laws. The move is a significant escalation of the row over the E.U.'s plans, which Canada fears would set a global precedent and derail its ability to exploit its tar sands, which are the biggest fossil fuel reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia. Environmental groups argue that exploitation of the tar sands, also called oil sands, is catastrophic for the global climate, as well as causing serious air and water pollution in Alberta. Darek Urbaniak, at Friends of the Earth Europe, which obtained the new documents, said: "These letters are further evidence of Canadian government and industry lobbying, which continuously undermines efforts to combat climate change. We find it unacceptable that the Canadian government now openly uses direct threats at the highest political levels to derail crucial E.U. climate legislation." The unveiling of Canada's threats is the latest in a series of recent embarrassing revelations. On February 12, the occurrence of a secret strategy "retreat" in London in 2011 was discovered. High-level officials discussed the "critical" issue of winning the tar sands argument in the E.U., to "mitigate the impact on the Canadian brand" and to protect the "huge investments from the likes of Shell, BP, Total and Statoil". Representatives of Shell, Total and Statoil attended the meeting alongside the U.K.'s state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Canada-Threatens-Trade-War-With-EU-Over-Tar-Sands-33982.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:15:43 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Interview-With-Top-German-Economist-HansWerner-Sinn-Restructuring-Greece-Within-The-Euro-Is-Illusory-33981.html Background: President of Munich's prestigious Institute for Economic Research (ifo) since 1999, Hans-Werner Sinn, 63, is also the author of a controversial book on German budget reform, "Can Germany Be Saved?"   Europe's finance ministers plan to approve a second bailout for Greece on Monday but Hans-Werner Sinn, the head of Ifo, a top German economic think tank, warns that the money will only help international banks -- not the Greeks. He argues that Greece can only solve its crisis if it quits the euro. SPIEGEL ONLINE: The finance ministers of the euro zone want to approve a new bailout for Greece this Monday. Can the additional €130 billion ($172 billion) save Greece? Sinn: No, and the politicians know it can't. They want to gain time until the next election. I think we're wasting time by doing this. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why? Sinn: Because Greece's external debt is rising with every year that passes until it leaves the currency union. We're getting ever further away from solving the problem. The basic problem is that Greece isn't competitive. The cheap loans that the euro brought the country artificially raised prices and wages -- and the country has to come back down from this high level. SPIEGEL ONLINE: So the euro countries shouldn't approve the aid? Sinn: They should give them the money to ease their exit from the currency union. The Greek government could use the money to nationalize the country's banks and prevent the state from collapsing. The state and the banks must continue to function through all the turmoil that an exit will entail. SPIEGEL ONLINE: This turmoil would hit the population hard. Sinn: Yes, undeniably. But the turmoil would only be temporary, it would last one to two years perhaps. This time would have to be bridged with the financial aid from the international community. But the drachma will immediately depreciate and the situation will stabilize very quickly. After a short thunderstorm, the sun will shine again. SPIEGEL ONLINE: How would a euro exit help Greece in concrete terms? http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Interview-With-Top-German-Economist-HansWerner-Sinn-Restructuring-Greece-Within-The-Euro-Is-Illusory-33981.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:15:17 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Assad-Sends-Tanks-Toward-Homs-As-Red-Cross-Seeks-Ceasefire-Talks-33980.html Syria's military sent tanks and other reinforcements toward Homs on Monday for a possible offensive to break the opposition's grip of the city as the Red Cross tried to broker a ceasefire to send emergency aid to areas affected by fighting.The mobilization around the resistance stronghold in central Syria was an ominous sign that President Bashar al-Assad's regime was preparing a ground assault after weeks of shelling the district of Baba Amr, which the opposition has dubbed "Syria's Misrata" after the Libyan city where rebels fought off a government siege. Syrian-based activist Mustafa Osso said Assad's military should be ready to face stiff battles as residents planned to fight until "the last person". He said Homs was facing "savage shelling that does not differentiate between military or civilians targets". "The human loss is going to be huge if they retake Baba Amr," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the British-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group said at least eight people were killed by shelling in parts of Homs on Monday. Amateur videos posted online showed what activists said were shells falling on Baba Amr with black smoke billowing from residential areas. Phone lines and internet connections have been cut to the city, making it difficult to get firsthand accounts from residents. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Assad-Sends-Tanks-Toward-Homs-As-Red-Cross-Seeks-Ceasefire-Talks-33980.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:15:01 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Commentary-Stop-The-Second-Bailout-Package-EU-Should-Admit-Greece-Is-Bankrupt-33979.html Intellpuke: The following commentary was written for Spiegel Online by Christian Rickens and was posted on the German's magazine's edition for Monday, February 20, 2012.    Greece is bankrupt and will need a 100 percent debt cut to get back on its feet. The bailout package about to be agreed by the euro finance ministers will help Greece's creditors more than the country itself. E.U. leaders should channel the aid into rebuilding the economy rather than rewarding financial speculators for their high-risk deals.First things first: this commentary isn't directed against Greece. It's got nothing to do with all the talk in Germany about Greek citizens not paying their taxes, Greek civil servants who don't work or Greek politicians who break their promises. This commentary has a clear and simple message: The second Greek bailout of €130 billion ($172 billion) that euro zone finance ministers are expected to agree on Monday afternoon should not be paid out. Sure, Greece will need help from the other European Union member states for years, possibly even decades, and Germany shouldn't refuse that help. Europe will likely end up pumping far more money into Greece in the coming years than the fresh aid now being discussed in Brussels. The mistake isn't the size, but the construction of the bailout package. It isn't geared to the requirements of the people of Greece but to the needs of the international financial markets, meaning the banks. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Commentary-Stop-The-Second-Bailout-Package-EU-Should-Admit-Greece-Is-Bankrupt-33979.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:14:31 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Commentary-Outfoxed-By-The-Opposition-Defeat-In-Presidential-Battle-Leaves-Merkel-Isolated-33978.html Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Spiegel journalist Christoph Schwennicke and was posted on Spiegel Online's edition for Monday, February 20, 2012.   In accepting the opposition's candidate for the next German president, Angela Merkel has suffered the bitterest defeat of her chancellorship. Her junior coalition partner, the FDP, teamed up with the two main opposition parties to push through their choice. The ignominious defeat could mark a turning point for the German chancellor.German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a particular trait that is both very human and very likeable: She is unable to keep her facial expression under control. Her features always betray her mood and what she is thinking. At the press conference on Sunday evening where Germany's five main political parties presented Joachim Gauck as their consensus candidate for the office of German president, Merkel tried to smile bravely. But she was unable to stop herself from sporting a sour expression as she forced herself to praise the man who, less than two years ago, she had tried to prevent from becoming president with all the means at her disposal. Back then, Merkel's hand-picked candidate, Christian Wulff, succeeded in becoming president -- only to resign under a cloud last Friday following a series of scandals. There is a good reason for Merkel's feelings of bitterness. In the search for a new German president, she has suffered a complete and utter failure. She has been forced to accept the bitterest defeat of her time in office. Gauck's candidacy was forced upon her by an alliance of three parties: the opposition center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens, together with her junior coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP). It could mark a turning point in her chancellorship. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Commentary-Outfoxed-By-The-Opposition-Defeat-In-Presidential-Battle-Leaves-Merkel-Isolated-33978.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:14:04 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Germanys-Next-President-Im-No-Superman-33977.html Joachim Gauck could help repair the damage that Christian Wulff did to the German presidency. The country's next head of state is a modest man, but also a fearless democrat, and is unlikely to shy away from controversy. The former East German civil rights activist is known to speak his mind. And he fights for what he believes in.Joachim Gauck, 72, already came close to becoming Germany's president once before. Back then, in the early summer of 2010, a veritable Gauck hysteria broke out in the country after the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party presented him as their candidate for the country's highest office. Some even called him a German Obama. The more desperately Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and her coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democratic Party, clung to their candidate Christian Wulff, the greater the sympathy grew among the public for Gauck, a Protestant pastor from the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In the end, it took a full three rounds of voting in the Federal Assembly before Wulff was elected as president. Between votes two and three, Gauck started to think for the first time that he might actually succeed in becoming president. When he ultimately lost, the pain was apparently far greater than he was ready to admit. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Germanys-Next-President-Im-No-Superman-33977.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:13:44 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Commentary-Gauck-Will-Be-An-Unpredictable-President-Who-Will-Irritate-33976.html Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Spiegel Online journalist Jess Smee, writing under the German news magazine's column "The World From Berlin", including editorial comments by various German news organizations. Jess Smee's column was posted on Spiegel Online's edition for Monday, February 20, 2012.   Chancellor Angela Merkel nominated Joachim Gauck for the role of German president on Sunday, backing a candidate she had previously rejected for the post. German commentators on Monday say the popular pro-democracy activist is a good choice, but warn that his tendency to speak his mind could irritate politicians from all parties.Germany's President is meant to serve as a moral compass for the nation but after two presidents resigned ahead of term, a gaping hole emerged at the top. On Sunday evening, Chancellor Angela Merkel named Joachim Gauck, a pro-democracy activist from the former East Germany, as the unity candidate for the job. The 72-year-old Protestant pastor and man who oversaw the opening up of the extensive Stasi files after the fall of the Berlin Wall, will now face a vote by Germany's Federal Assembly on March 18, which is seen as a mere formality. The long-forecast departure of Christian Wulff came last Friday, when the former president resigned following a series of corruption allegations. His exit cleared the way for Gauck to become Germany's first president to hail from the formerly communist east. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Commentary-Gauck-Will-Be-An-Unpredictable-President-Who-Will-Irritate-33976.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:13:21 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Joachim-Gauck-To-Be-Next-German-President-German-Parties-Choose-Christian-Wulffs-Successor-33975.html Germany's political establishment has agreed on a successor to Christian Wulff, who resigned as president on Friday. Joachim Gauck, a respected former East German civil-rights activist, is set to be Germany's next head of state. But his nomination came only after a fierce conflict within Merkel's coalition government.Less than 72 hours after Christian Wulff announced his resignation as German president, Germany has found a successor. On Sunday evening, Germany's main political parties announced that they had agreed on a common candidate, Joachim Gauck. The former East German civil rights activist is now expected to be elected in a vote that is likely to be a mere formality. Gauck's nomination came after a dramatic conflict between Merkel's conservatives and their junior coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP). Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) had originally opposed Gauck's candidacy, favoring former German Environment Minister Klaus Topfer or the former head of the Protestant Church in Germany, Wolfgang Huber, instead. The FDP leadership, however, announced on Sunday afternoon that it supported Gauck, the preferred candidate of the two main opposition parties, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. The split between the two partners threatened to turn into a serious crisis within the coalition. Merkel, however, prevented further escalation by giving in to the FDP. The choice of Gauck represents something of a humiliating defeat for Merkel. Gauck was the opposition's candidate for president at the last election in 2010, which followed the unexpected resignation of then-president Horst Kohler. The Federal Assembly, the specially convened body which chooses the German president, only elected Merkel's hand-picked candidate, Christian Wulff, after three rounds of voting. At the time, observers saw the protracted vote as a slap in the face for Merkel. By supporting Gauck now, Merkel is arguably admitting that she made a mistake by backing Wulff in 2010. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Joachim-Gauck-To-Be-Next-German-President-German-Parties-Choose-Christian-Wulffs-Successor-33975.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:12:45 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Russias-It-Girl-Becomes-HighProfile-Campaigner-Against-Vladimir-Putin-33974.html She is an unlikely figurehead for the political protests that have rocked Russia over the last few months. Ksenia Sobchak, 30, is a family friend of Vladimir Putin and the host of a reality TV program known for its scandalous scenes. But it is her new political talkshow that has caused a real stir âЂ“ and that has just been ordered off Russian television.Sobchak was once dubbed the Paris Hilton of Russia because of her similarity to the American hotel heiress. She used to be just a rich society girl: thin, blonde, with a sharp tongue and a reputation for being spoilt. She has written books on how to be a success and hosts Dom-2, the longest-running reality show in the world, which has been memorably described as the worst thing to hit Russian culture since the Mongols. The daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s when Putin was his deputy, she is close to the prime minister âЂ“ Putin is said to have cried when he attended her father's funeral in 2000 âЂ“ while her mother is a loyal senator. "[Putin] is not a bad person," she said recently on Russian TV. Nevertheless, on Christmas Eve she walked on stage in front of 100,000 protesters in Moscow and said: "My name is Ksenia Sobchak and I have something to lose, but nevertheless I am here." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Russias-It-Girl-Becomes-HighProfile-Campaigner-Against-Vladimir-Putin-33974.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:12:29 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Call-To-Disobedience-A-Rift-In-The-GermanSpeaking-Catholic-Church-33973.html A call by reform-minded Catholics in the German-speaking world for the church to soften its stances on homosexuality, divorce and celibacy among priests and to end its ban on women in the clergy is drawing loud criticism from conservatives. They argue the group is threatening to create a schism within the Catholic Church.With its often more progressive stances on some controversial issues, the arm of the Catholic Church in the German-speaking world has long posed problems for Rome. Now a modern day schism is threatening the area's priestly establishment. The brewing split exposes a rift in the German speaking world between more liberal reform minded and conservative Catholics regarding the future of the church. The stakes are high, with the number of men applying for the priesthood in decline as the church loses appeal among younger generations. The liberal Pastors' Initiative wants to reverse that trend, which has forced parishes to close, by making priesthood more accessible. Last June it put out a "Call for Disobedience," calling for a rewrite of the church's long standing views against homosexuality, divorce and celibacy. The group wants the priesthood to be opened up to women and to allow priests to marry. It says that communion should be more accessible, including to members of other churches and to those who have divorced. They want qualified laity to be able to give sermons and believe that churches should have a stronger local presence, rather than relying on sermons from traveling "celebrity" priests. The movement has its roots in Austria, where it counts more than 400 priests and deacons as members. But it is gaining ground across Europe with sympathetic clergy in France, Ireland and other countries expressing support. The Austrian group even has its own German Facebook page, with more than 900 likes. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Call-To-Disobedience-A-Rift-In-The-GermanSpeaking-Catholic-Church-33973.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:11:33 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Mass-Protests-In-Spain-Against-Spending-Cuts-Changes-To-Labor-Rights-33972.html Spain's conservative government faced its first mass protests on Sunday as hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against austerity, spending cuts and radical changes to labor rights.Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square filled for the first time since the "indignant" protesters camped there last May, as people gathered to protest against reforms introduced by prime minister Mariano Rajoy's government. Protesters also marched through Valencia, capital of a heavily indebted and corruption-plagued region run by Rajoy's People's party, and Barcelona. Unions claimed more than half a million people demonstrated across the country. The protests came two weeks after Rajoy, who became prime minister in December, introduced a labor decree making it easier for employers to fire workers and opening the door to wage cuts. Rajoy's reforms are part of a program designed to create jobs. Spain has the developed world's highest unemployment rate. But with the economy set to shrink this year by 1.7%, even the government admits the shocking 23% unemployment rate will rise in the short term. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Mass-Protests-In-Spain-Against-Spending-Cuts-Changes-To-Labor-Rights-33972.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:11:06 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Yemenis-Prepare-To-Vote-Saleh-Out-As-President-33971.html For 33 years a portrait of Yemen's president hung above the gate of al-Nahrayn, a crowded secondary school in the capital, Sana'a. Every morning, students would assemble in the school's leafy courtyard to salute the image of their leader and sing the national anthem. On Saturday, students arrived to find the picture had disappeared. In its place is a glossy print of a young woman in a pink headscarf, smiling as she places a vote in a ballot box. "February 21 is the beginning of a new era in the life of Yemen," reads the poster.After a year of mass protests, bloodshed and political wrangling, Yemenis go to the polls on Tuesday to vote their embattled ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh, out of office, a position he has clung to for more than three decades. By the end of February, the 67-year-old autocrat is to hand over authority to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the sole candidate in the upcoming presidential vote. If all goes according to plan, Saleh will be the fourth Arab leader to be ousted by the mass uprisings of last year. Tuesday's vote is the fruit of a transfer deal, backed by the U.S., that eased Saleh âЂ“ who is in New York undergoing medical treatment for injuries suffered in a bomb attack last June âЂ“ from power in November in exchange for immunity from prosecution over the alleged killing of hundreds of protesters. The deal was hammered out by Yemen's Gulf neighbors. It avoids both genuine elections and accountability for the regime's brutal crackdowns on protesters, but has been touted by regional and western powers as a triumph of diplomacy. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Yemenis-Prepare-To-Vote-Saleh-Out-As-President-33971.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:10:40 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Drought-Declared-In-Southeast-England-33970.html Householders across the southeast of England should try to cut their use of water, the British government has urged, as months of unseasonally dry weather mean the region is now in a state of drought. Hosepipe bans could be introduced in large parts of southern England this spring, if dry weather continues. Only prolonged rainfall, and soon, could prevent a drought. Forecasters say that is unlikely.Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary Caroline Spelman said: "We are asking for the help of everyone by urging them to use less water and to start now." The forced appeal by the government reflects fears that there could be serious water shortages in some densely populated parts of the country this summer. In normal years, reservoirs would recharge during winter when vegetation is sparse and rain is quickly absorbed, but unusually dry soils have meant the little rain that has fallen has not been enough to reverse the effects of last year's drought. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Drought-Declared-In-Southeast-England-33970.html Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:10:20 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Carnival-Parades-Germany-Shuts-Down-For-Mass-Party-33969.html German carnival culminated on Rose Monday with huge parades in the cities of Cologne, Dusseldorf and Mainz. Hundreds of thousands lined the streets to catch sweets and watch the marching bands and satirical floats, one of which illustrated the close relationship between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Hundreds of thousands of carnival revelers took to the streets of Cologne, Dusseldorf and Mainz on Monday for the traditional Rose Monday parades famed for their satirical procession floats. This year, the resignation of Christian Wulff as Germany's president on Friday featured prominently in the three-dimensional papier-mache cartoons rolling through the streets, but the show was stolen by a float design in Dusseldorf illustrating the close Franco-German relationship, with a deliriously amorous Nicolas Sarkozy nestling in the ample cleavage of the noticeably larger German chancellor. The euro crisis was a further theme, with Merkel being portrayed as Europe's savior. The big processions were broadcast live on television. German carnival started in earnest last Thursday, Old Wives' Day, when women went around storming town halls and committing symbolic mass castration by cutting off the ties of all the men they come across in their rampage. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Carnival-Parades-Germany-Shuts-Down-For-Mass-Party-33969.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:11:01 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Notice-FIP-Problems-and-Coming-Changes-33968.html    First off, I'd like to apologize to all of our readers for recent difficulties that we have been having.  This message will get a bit technical, for those who care.  Our primary cause of this is the fact that our server is ancient.  It's a dual 1.4Ghz AMD Opteron 240 server with 1GB RAM.   When we upgraded to it in 2004, it was a bleeding edge state of the art machine.  Now, it will make a lovely and large paperweight.  It's faults are probably due to age, and likely a failing motherboard.  Everything tests fine, except when it crashes with no logged entries.  As any NOC technician knows, those are the worst, as there are no indicators of what is wrong.   We are trying to move our servers to a new location.  This was suppose to happen on Feb 10th, but someone in the Verizon Business FiOS department has dropped the ball.   For the last 8 days, we have been waiting to receive the email and phone call "within 24 hours" telling us our assigned IP block, so we can use our new line.  Right now, it's a lovely decoration to our server room.   If anyone has any pull with Verizon, the tech support ticket number is "FLCP08TQ5E".   While I have enjoyed the the hour long calls every day this week, we're not getting anywhere fast.  Today, we were hopeful, but again we have not received our email with our new IP information, nor the promised follow up call.   The reason for the move is not any sort of negative reflection on the very kind company who has donated connectivity and server space to us for the last few years.  They have gone above and beyond for us quite a few times, and we thank them.   Unfortunately, to get to our servers, it's a 3 hour round trip, and besides replacing our primary server, we need to upgrade to several more machines.  We don't want to become a burden.  As most of you know, some of you are gracious enough to make donations to us, and we do appreciate that.  We also make a few dollars from the Google ads on the page.  Unfortunately, what we bring in over the course of a year does not represent even one month's cost for our new connection, and would barely make a dent in the cost of the new equipment.   Our 9th anniversary will be on April 7th of this year.  Over that span, almost all of our costs have been out of pocket.    We honestly appreciate every donation that we receive, and every time you click on the ads.  Every little bit helps.  We would like to encourage you, not only to make donations, but help us spread the word about Free Internet Press.   Tell your friends and family about us.  Feel free to talk about us on message boards, forums, and even your Facebook page.  Our feed shows up on our Facebook page.   If you find a story informative, click "Like" on our posts there, or click the "Recommend" link as shown on every story on  our site.   Until we get our FiOS line working properly, and our new servers online, we have disabled the daily newsletter, as well as the News Aggregator feeds.  You can still view our page normally, and our RSS feed, Facebook page, and Twitter feeds will continue to work normally.   We hope to add many new features in the coming weeks, once we are up and operational in our own facility.   As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.  Please feel free to send those to editor@freeinternetpress.com.   We are driven by your comments, and we always appreciate your news submissions.    And of course, we appreciate your continued support, through donations, kind emails (thanks everyone), and sharing us with your friends and family.   JWSmythe  Owner/Editor  Free Internet Press http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Notice-FIP-Problems-and-Coming-Changes-33968.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:10:36 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/President-Obama-Always-Something-We-Can-Do-To-Create-Jobs-33967.html In his weekly address, taped inside the worldâЂ™s largest building at the Boeing Plant here, in Everett, Washington, President Obama reprised a call for Congressional action aimed at boosting productivity and employment at U.S. manufacturers. âЂњIn America, thereâЂ™s always something we can do to create new jobs and new manufacturing and new security for the middle class,âЂќ said Obama. âЂњIn America, we donâЂ™t give up, we get up.âЂќ President Obama heralded the resurgence of the U.S. manufacturing sector, led by companies like Boeing, the nationâЂ™s largest exporter, and projected a sense of economic optimism that he channeled all week on a West Coast swing. âЂњAmerica is more productive than ever,âЂќ said the President. âЂњAnd companies like Boeing are realizing that even when we canâЂ™t make things cheaper than China, we can make things better.  ThatâЂ™s how weâЂ™re going to compete globally.âЂќ Underscoring a theme from his State of the Union address thatâЂ™s also become part of his pitch for a second term, President Obama said companies need new tax incentives to keep the momentum going. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/President-Obama-Always-Something-We-Can-Do-To-Create-Jobs-33967.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:10:00 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/FBI-Moroccan-Plotted-Suicide-Attack-On-US-Capitol-33966.html A would-be suicide bomber was arrested Friday, allegedly en route to attack the United States Capitol. The man, identified as Amine El Khalifi, allegedly wanted to target the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, sources told ABC News. This artist rendering shows Amine El Khalifi before U.S. District Judge T. Rawles Jones Jr. in federal court in Alexandria, Va., Feb. 17, 2012. (Dana Verkouteren/AP Photo) The suspect was arrested by the FBI and members of the U.S. Capitol Police after a lengthy sting operation. Undercover FBI agents had posed as al-Qaeda associates and provided the would-be bomber with the vest and MAC-10 machine gun. The suspect had allegedly been watched for more than a year and had indicated that he wanted to launch an attack. The criminal complaint alleged that El Khalifi was angry because he thought the U.S. was conducting a "war on Muslims." The government alleged that El Khalifi, a Moroccan citizen, entered the U.S. in June 1999 and stayed in the country illegally after his B2 visa expired later that year. The FBI has been monitoring the man since January 2011. An FBI affidavit filed in court noted the case picked up intensity in December 2011, when El Khalifi allegedly met with an individual he knew as Hussein and another man who identified himself as Yusuf. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/FBI-Moroccan-Plotted-Suicide-Attack-On-US-Capitol-33966.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:09:15 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Containing-SuperFlus-Controversy-Brews-Over-Scientists-Creation-Of-Killer-Viruses-33965.html Should scientists be allowed to create extremely aggressive and highly infectious influenza viruses? Dutch virologists have done it and, in the process, triggered a fierce debate over the risks of bio-terrorism and the potential release of deadly viruses. Photo: CDC/dapd The 17th floor of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Dutch city of Rotterdam certainly doesn't look like the kind of place that could pose a threat to global security. A disco ball hangs from the ceiling in the hallway in front of the elevators, and a bar with a golden beer tap stands in the corner of the conference room. Everything in this 1960s high-rise building evokes the charm of student life, including the door to Room 17.73, which is covered with colorful stickers. But some view the scientist who sits behind that door as a threat to mankind. Ron Fouchier, a giant of a man at more than two meters tall (6'6"), has dark circles under his eyes. His life has been stressful lately. "They want to paint me as a homicidal idiot," he says heatedly. He is referring, most of all, to a powerful institution from the United States, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB). In his work Fouchier, a virologist, uses the methods of a branch of research that is as booming as it is controversial. Synthetic biology employs targeted manipulation through genetic engineering to construct new organisms. The 45-year-old's research has even set off alarm bells at the World Health Organization (WHO). This week, Fouchier will appear before an international panel of experts at the WHO to explain his experiments. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Containing-SuperFlus-Controversy-Brews-Over-Scientists-Creation-Of-Killer-Viruses-33965.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:08:00 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/The-FarRights-Respectable-Facade-How-Germanys-NPD-Targets-The-Mainstream-33964.html In the past, Germany's far-right NPD party was associated with skinheads and violent thugs. In recent years, however, the party has been trying to appeal to mainstream voters by cultivating a respectable image and campaigning on populist issues. But the party needs its links to the neo-Nazi scene to maintain its political power. This article was written by Spiegel journalists; their names are listed at the end of this article.   Photo: DPA. The NPD, anxious to ensure that no one says the wrong things, is putting a great deal of emphasis on self-control at the moment. Because of the NSU's alleged killing spree uncovered in November and the public debate over what should be done about the NPD, the party is faced, once again, with the prospect of a possible ban. This makes it all the more important for the NPD to project an image of itself as a well-behaved and rational mainstream conservative party. Hence its self-portrayal as a "party that cares" about people in Germany -- provided they are ethnic Germans, of course. In the past, the NPD used the term "National Socialism" as a provocation. But Apfel doesn't like the term anymore, characterizing it as being "burned by history." Instead, the party now prefers the slogan "respectable radicalism." It describes the attempt to camouflage (but not necessarily dispense with) the party's unpleasant associations, so that ordinary citizens can identify with it more closely. The party is putting on its mainstream facade for ordinary people by engaging in social grassroots activities, but always in the hope that the national awakening of its fellow Germans will eventually follow. "Tutoring, children's sports, providing advice on Hartz IV (welfare benefits) -- wherever we see an area where the government isn't doing enough, we move in," says Peter Marx. He speaks with the soft, singsong-like inflection of people native to the western state of Rhineland-Palatine, an accent he took with him when he moved to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania a few years ago. Marx, the manager of the NPD's parliamentary group in the state, exploits the fact that the famous "blooming landscapes" that former Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised for eastern Germany never materialized in many places. If there were functioning civil-society structures in Western Pomeranian towns like Anklam or Ueckermünde, the right-wing extremists would be little more than an annoyance in the region. The fact that these structures are absent is what makes the party so dangerous. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/The-FarRights-Respectable-Facade-How-Germanys-NPD-Targets-The-Mainstream-33964.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:07:03 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Controlling-The-Press-Echo-Of-Moscow-Under-Pressure-In-Russia-33963.html An anti-Putin demonstration in Moscow in early February. Photo: AFP. The independent radio station Echo of Moscow has long been seen as a paragon of quality journalism in Russia. Now, however, Gazprom is moving to take control of the station's supervisory board. Many fear tough times ahead for press freedoms in the country. In Soviet times, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once said, a visit to Moscow had to include three stops: the Kremlin, the Bolshoi Theater and Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square. She went on to say that, once the Soviets fell, the first two remained requirements. But the third item on the itinerary had changed. Instead of viewing the dead revolutionary's wax mummy, American delegations preferred to stop by the decidedly lively offices of the radio station Echo of Moscow. The news broadcaster was founded in 1990 and has since made a name for itself with its independent news and analysis as well as for its pointed critique of the Kremlin. In the morning, star columnist Anton Orech takes aim at the Russian leadership, while in the evening, sharp-tongued journalist Julia Latynina resumes her broadsides against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. And hundreds of thousands of people listen attentively. Echo of Moscow's offices are located inside a dismal, concrete hulk of a building not far from the Kremlin. In the two decades of its existence, it has become the most important voice of new Russia and reaches some 3 million listeners across the country. Historian Nikolai Svanidze, author of a biography of President Dmitry Medvedev, calls the station a "flagship of quality journalism." The question is how long it will stay that way. The Kremlin has upped the pressure on Echo of Moscow, with a subsidiary of the partly state-owned natural gas company Gazprom seeking to take over a majority of the station's supervisory board. Echo of Moscow Editor-in-Chief Alexei Venediktov is calling the move "an attempt to correct editorial policy." The move, he says, is not an initiative of Gazprom itself, rather it comes from the "highest echelons of the political establishment." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Controlling-The-Press-Echo-Of-Moscow-Under-Pressure-In-Russia-33963.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:06:14 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Cleaning-Up-The-Cosmos-Swiss-Develop-Satellite-To-Dispose-Of-Space-Junk-33962.html Scientists warn that the amount of space debris orbiting the planet has reached a dangerously high level. But a new miniature satellite has been designed to clean up this cosmic clutter -- by the paragons of tidiness themselves, the Swiss. Photo: SSC Donald Kessler's vision was a rather ominous one. Twenty years ago, the NASA consultant envisioned a scenario in which space junk blocked humans from traveling in space. The risk of colliding with such heavenly detritus, he argued, would one day make it too dangerous for astronauts. He warned that the number of hazardous objects could multiply by breaking apart, hopelessly trapping mankind on Earth. Tens of thousands of little pieces of space junk are already orbiting the planet. But now a project from a nation known for orderliness and cleanliness aims to prevent Kessler's nightmare scenario from becoming reality. On Wednesday, researchers at the Swiss Space Center, based at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), presented their plans for "CleanSpace One." They envisage a launch of their clean-up mission within the next three to five years, with the aim of taking out a recently-discarded satellite. If it proves successful, further space cleanup jobs could follow. The Deadly Dance of Satellites   The EPFL researchers intend to test their technology on one of the country's flagship projects in space. "We have our eyes set on a clear target," Swiss Space Center head Volker Gass told Spiegel Online. "We initially want to start with one of the two satellites that Swiss universities launched in 2009 and 2010." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Cleaning-Up-The-Cosmos-Swiss-Develop-Satellite-To-Dispose-Of-Space-Junk-33962.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:05:23 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/German-President-Resigns-Search-For-Wulffs-Successor-Begins-33961.html Following the announcement by prosecutors that they would seek to lift his immunity, German President Christian Wulff announced Friday morning he would resign as the country's head of state. Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her deep regret and said she would seek out a joint candidate supported by the major parties. Photo: DPA. The resignation of Wulff, Merkel's handpicked president, is likely to come as a blow to the chancellor and her party in the run-up to state elections in Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland. Wulff resigned from office on Friday less than 24 hours after prosecutors said they would seek to have parliament lift his immunity so they could formally investigate allegations he accepted favors during his tenure as governor of the state of Lower Saxony. At the center of the probe are allegations that a film producer had paid for a vacation in a luxury hotel for Wulff during his time as head of a state government. Wulff has denied the allegation, saying he repaid the filmmaker in cash. Wulff appeared shortly after 11 a.m. at his official residence, Berlin's Bellevue Palace, to announce his resignation. "I have enjoyed exercising this office," Wulff said during his five-minute resignation speech. "Our country needs a president who can address the massive national and international challenges unhindered." "The developments of the last days and weeks," he said, "have shown that this confidence, and with that my effectiveness, has continued to be affected. For this reason it is no longer possible any more for me to perform the office of the federal presidency either domestically or abroad, as it is necessary." "I have made mistakes," he said, before adding that he had always acted in a legally correct way in his offices. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/German-President-Resigns-Search-For-Wulffs-Successor-Begins-33961.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:04:43 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Reactions-To-Wulffs-Resignation-Germany-Breathes-A-Sigh-Of-Relief-33960.html Leading politicians in Germany reacted with relief to the news of German President Christian Wulff's resignation. Many spoke of an overdue move that had only come after the politician had already damaged the nation's highest office. But many also expressed their "respect" for Wulff's work. Protesters hold shoes in protest against Christian Wulff at a recent demonstration pressing for his resignation. Photo: dapd. The resignation of Germany's youngest-ever president, who at the same time had the shortest term in office, was received with relief throughout much of the country on Friday. While opposition politicians spoke almost in the same tone about an overdue step and said the Office of the President has been damaged, coalition partners from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) expressed their respect for Christian Wulff. Following a scandal over allegations he had accepted favors as a former state governor, Wulff resigned from his office as federal president shortly after 11 a.m. Many commentators looked to the future and spoke about a new presidential candidate who can be supported by all parties. The FDP, above all, is sticking to its position that the ruling coalition should put forth its own candidate. Spiegel Online has collected reactions to Wulff's resignation from politicians and social leaders across Germany. Sigmar Gabriel, head of the opposition, center-left Social Democratic Party, labels the step as overdue: "He prevented the office from being subjected to even more damage than it already has." The Social Democrat called for a "new beginning for Germany." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Reactions-To-Wulffs-Resignation-Germany-Breathes-A-Sigh-Of-Relief-33960.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:03:58 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Commentary-A-Man-Too-Small-For-The-Presidency-33959.html Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Roland Nelles, Spiegel Online's Berlin bureau Chief and heads the German news magazine's Politic's Desk. The commentary was posted on Spiegel Online's edition for Saturday, February 18, 2012.   Germany's president has resigned. It was the correct decision, because he failed as a role model. Instead of answering honestly the allegations against him, he used every trick in the book to hide things. The next president will have to be far better, and Chancellor Merkel will have no choice but to find a joint candidate with the opposition. German President Christian Wulff's resignation is "good for the political culture and for democracy". Photo: dapd. The most dim-witted political idea to come about in recent years was to make Christian Wulff Germany's president. The conservative Christian Democrats, the business-friendly Free Democratic Party and Chancellor Angela Merkel sought out this candidate -- and now they are jointly responsible for his failure. There could have been a better candidate, everyone knew that. But Merkel, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and their party strategists had considered just about everything when making this choice -- everything, that is, with the exception of what was good for the country. Now Wulff is gone, and all sides have been damaged: the office of the president, Merkel and her coalition government, not to mention the overall image of politics. And that's a shame. Compassion isn't really a category that goes along with politics, but Christian Wulff deserves it nonetheless. His fall is unprecedented in the history of the postwar Federal Republic of Germany. Just hours ago, he was the head of state, and red carpets were rolled out for him. Now he is facing the abyss, even having to fear he might have to forfeit the annual remuneration of €199,000 ($262,000) paid to former German presidents after they leave office. When he says that he is "wounded," he's surely being honest. Of course, it was Wulff himself who made a mess of things. The image will remain of a man who wanted to be great but was ultimately too small for the office he was elected to. In the end, it was his mediocrity that proved fatal. It is irrelevant whether he always acted in a legally correct way in his offices, as he stated in his resignation speech on Friday. His failure came in the way in which he dealt with the endless stream of small and serious allegations against him. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Commentary-A-Man-Too-Small-For-The-Presidency-33959.html Sun, 19 Feb 2012 1:03:05 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Reporting-On-Revolution-Movie-Examines-Journalists-Battle-To-Report-Egypts-Uprising-33958.html The documentary "Reporting... A Revolution" tells the story of six intrepid Egyptian journalists who watched in horror from their Cairo hotel as security forces attacked protesters near Tahrir Square during last year's revolution. The film, which screened at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, delves into how reporters react when their home city turns into a war zone. In January 2011, Nora Younis, a young Egyptian journalist had just arrived home after reporting on the Tunisian revolution. Instead of spending time with her family, fast-moving events on the streets pulled her back into the newsroom: The uprising had spread to Cairo. Before she knew it, Younis was covering another historic protest. Foto: Al Masry Media Corporation "I just got back from Tunisia and rather than being with my baby son, I had to go to Tahrir Square. The revolution was happening here," she told Spiegel Online. "It feels very different when it happens in your own country: When the outcome of the battle will influence your own and your son's future, it is no longer about journalism. It becomes a personally decisive moment." That fine line between the personal and the professional forms the crux of the documentary "ReportingâЂ¦ A Revolution," part of the Berlin International Film Festival's spotlight on the Arab Spring. Directed by Bassam Mortada, the film follows Younis, a journalist, blogger and human rights activist, and five of her colleagues as they report on the 18-day revolt which kicked off on Jan. 25, 2011. The film swings between shaky handheld video camera footage of the violent clashes, and the journalists' candid reflections on what happened. Many of them are still trying to come to terms with the horrors they witnessed. The film shows Younis, website editor of the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt's leading independent publications, working from a temporary newsroom in a business hotel with an intact Internet connection. Under instruction from former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the hotel did not let the journalists rent a suite overlooking Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests, but instead gave them a room with a view of the Nile. As it happened, it turned out to be an ideal vantage point, overlooking the Qasr al-Nil bridge where protesters were teeming toward downtown Cairo. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Reporting-On-Revolution-Movie-Examines-Journalists-Battle-To-Report-Egypts-Uprising-33958.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:26:34 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/UN-General-Assembly-Backs-Call-For-Assad-To-Quit-As-Syrian-President-33957.html The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls on the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down and strongly condemns human rights violations in Syria by his regime.The vote in the 193-member body was 137-12 with 17 abstentions.Russia and China, who vetoed a similar resolution in the security council, voted against the resolution. Bashar Ja'afari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, calls a point of order before the General Assembly voted to condemn the violence in Syria. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA There are no vetoes in the general assembly and its resolutions are not legally binding, but they do reflect world opinion on major issues.Western diplomats were hoping for a high yes vote to deliver a strong message to Assad to immediately end all human rights violations and attacks on civilians and hand power to his vice-president."Today the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria - the world is with you," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said in a statement. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/UN-General-Assembly-Backs-Call-For-Assad-To-Quit-As-Syrian-President-33957.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:25:50 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/General-Motors-Shrugs-Off-European-Woes-To-Post-Record-76-Billion-Profit-33956.html General Motors headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. Photograph: Rob Widdis/EPA In its first full year since emerging from bankruptcy, General Motors has posted a record profit of $7.6 billion, although European woes weighed on the car firms results in the last months of 2011.GM's 2011 profit, up from $4.7 billion last year, was boosted by recovery in North America, where sales rose and buyers paid higher prices for vehicles, and steady growth in China.The profit was 62% higher than last year's and beat GM's previous record of $6.7 billion in 1997. GM's 47,500 eligible hourly workers will receive profit-sharing checks of up to $7,000, an all-time high.Europe remained a black spot for the world's largest car firm. GM lost $747 million for the year in Europe, $562 million in the fourth quarter alone. Last year GM lost $2 billion in Europe. The losses have led to speculation about the closure of major European plants including Ellesmere Port in England and Bochum in Germany.In the last quarter of 2011 GM made a profit of $472 million, or 28 cents a share, down from $510 million, or 31 cents a share, a year ago. It was the car firm's eighth-consecutive quarterly profit.The company is also struggling to revamp its business in South America. GM lost $122 million for the year in South America, compared with a profit of $818 million in 2010. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/General-Motors-Shrugs-Off-European-Woes-To-Post-Record-76-Billion-Profit-33956.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:25:17 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Commentary-The-Iran-Conflict-Is-Intensifying-StepbyStep-33955.html Intellpuke: The following column was written by Spiegel Online journalist and author Charles Hawley, writing under the German news magazine's column "The World From Berlin", which includes editorial comments by various German news organizations. Mr. Hawley's column was posted on Spiegel Online's edition for Thursday, February 16, 2012.   Taken together, the myriad developments are baffling. Iran says it has made advances in nuclear research, but wants to resume talks with the West. It is threatening to cut off oil supplies to Europe while allegedly sponsoring attacks against Israeli diplomats. German editorialists attempt to make sense of the confusion. Is anyone at the controls in Iran? It is a question that many in the West are asking following this week's flurry of announcements, denials and conciliatory advances centering on the country's nuclear program. Perhaps even more vexing, however, is the fact that Tehran is also thought to be behind a series of decidedly amateurish attacks targeting Israeli diplomatic personnel in Georgia, India and Thailand. "What we see is provocative acts âЂ¦ designed to distract attention from the demonstrated impact that (international) sanctions are having," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Wednesday. "It is not unusual for Iran to try to distract attention âЂ¦ by some burst of rhetoric or some announcement." Carney was specifically referring to Iranian claims on Wednesday that it had made significant advances in its mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle. In a live television broadcast, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was shown observing what was described as the insertion of the first Iranian-made nuclear fuel rod into a reactor. In a separate announcement, the Fars news agency reported that a "new generation" of centrifuges, a key part of the process to enrich nuclear fuel, had gone into operation at the Natanz nuclear facility. On the same day, Iranian state media reported that Iran was preempting approaching European sanctions by cutting off oil deliveries to six E.U. countries -- a report that was quickly denied by Tehran and then amended to reflect that fuel supplies had only been cut to France and the Netherlands. Tehran then confirmed merely that it had informed European diplomats that it would be able to quickly find new buyers, should Europe impose planned sanctions. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Commentary-The-Iran-Conflict-Is-Intensifying-StepbyStep-33955.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:24:50 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Prohibition-Debate-The-FarRight-Threat-To-Germanys-Democracy-33954.html The leaders of Germany's far-right NPD seek to project the party as mainstream and reasonable. In truth, however, the party is a melting pot for racists, Hitler worshippers and enemies of democracy. There are plenty of reasons to ban the party. But would it make the NPD more dangerous than ever? This article was written by SPIEGEL journalists whose names are provided at the end of this article. Holger Apfel meets with Spiegel in his office in the eastern German city of Dresden, with a view of the Semper Opera House. For this meeting to discuss his right-wing extremist views, he is wearing a gray, mid-range suit by Mishumo and socks by Tommy Hilfiger. He appears to have a comfortable body mass index in the region of 30, and his stomach is pressing against the buttons of his blue business shirt. He is soft-spoken and has a slight lisp. Apfel, who has been the new chairman of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) since November, says that his party finally wants to appeal to ordinary citizens and to address their concerns, fears and hardships. The NPD, he says, is a party that comes from the center of the population and is for the center of the population. But, in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a very different face of the party is on display -- one that reveals Apfel's rhetoric for the charade it is. The NPD's office there is on an arterial road in the town of Grevesmuhlen. The local branch of the party has its headquarters on a commercial strip occupied by the likes of the local construction yard, a carpet store and a Mercedes dealership. The black, white and red flag of the German Reich flying above the property identifies the NPD office, which is surrounded by a 2-meter (6.5-foot) fence topped with barbed wire. Behind the fence is a watchtower, complete with floodlights, next to a building with bars on the windows. The Germanic Elhaz rune, the symbol of the Third Reich's "Lebensborn" program, which supported the production of racially pure Aryan children, hangs above the entrance. Welcome to a building called the "Thinghaus" in Grevesmuhlen, the local headquarters of the NPD. (The name is inspired by the old Germanic word for a governing assembly, "thing.") Instead of being located in the midst of the populace, the building is in fact where the National Democrats are still to be found today: on the periphery -- on the periphery of the town, the periphery of society and the periphery of public beliefs. Most of all, the NPD is also on the periphery of legality. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Prohibition-Debate-The-FarRight-Threat-To-Germanys-Democracy-33954.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:24:06 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Irritation-In-Athens-I-Dont-Accept-Insults-To-My-Country-By-Mr-Schauble-33953.html Europe may be losing patience with Greece, but politicians in Athens are also growing increasingly sensitive to criticism from abroad. Greek President Karolos Papoulias has now gone public with his frustration over pressure from Germany. On Wednesday night, he gave the German finance minister a tongue-lashing.As the wrangling over a second aid package for Greece goes down to the wire, the tone between Berlin and Athens is growing ever-shriller. Responding to Germany's firm position on Greece's debt crisis, President Karolos Papoulias verbally attacked German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble on Wednesday night. "I don't accept insults to my country by Mr. Schauble," a visibly angry Papoulias said. "I don't accept it as a Greek. Who is Mr. Schauble to ridicule Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finns?" The 82-year-old head of state was speaking on Wednesday during a meal with the country's defense minister and leading military representatives. "We always had the pride to defend not just our own freedom, not just our own country, but the freedom of all of Europe," said Papoulias, who as a young man fought against the Nazi occupiers in Greece. Later, he studied law in Munich and Cologne, and he speaks fluent German. Resentment over the demands being made by Germany is also growing within the Greek population. German flags have been burned at recent protests, and newspapers have published photo montages depicting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform. And now politicians have gone public with their frustration. On Wednesday night, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos also accused vaguely defined "forces in Europe" of trying to drive Greece out of the euro zone. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Irritation-In-Athens-I-Dont-Accept-Insults-To-My-Country-By-Mr-Schauble-33953.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:23:33 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Aid-From-Turkey-Syrian-Refugees-Get-Help-Across-The-Border-33952.html Thousands of Syrians are fleeing across the border into Turkey from the intensifying violence in their own country. There, they fill refugee camps and hospitals while worrying about those left behind -- and wondering if leaders in Ankara will take their support to the next level. Kadir took a bullet himself not five months ago, and his leg still drags a bit. Now his nephew Hasim has been shot, as well: three bullets to his shoulder and upper body a little less than 20 hours ago. Kadir carried his nephew on his back, a 41-year-old man with a limp lugging a 20-year-old man through the evening and half the night, as he describes it. Going to a Syrian hospital was out of the question. "They would have instantly shot us dead," he says. Kadir was determined to reach the border with Turkey, where doctors had already helped him with his leg. Syria's northern neighbor has become a refuge for thousands of people fleeing Bashar Assad, the dictator who has been having his own people shot down for months in a bid to cling to power. Those who have fled live in tents in refugee camps along the border, and doctors in the southern Turkish province of Hatay treat the gunshot wounds of people who have demonstrated or fought against Assad's troops -- or were simply gunned down indiscriminately on the street, as Kadir says happened to his nephew. The flood of refugees shows no sign of abating since the situation in Syria is growing worse by the day. Activists in Homs, a stronghold for the protest movement, reported on Tuesday experiencing the heaviest shelling there in days. The establishment of a U.N. peacekeeping mission, as the Arab League has proposed, is unlikely. Such a mission is impossible without a cease-fire, said one U.S. government spokesman. In other words, the murdering in Syria will continue. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Aid-From-Turkey-Syrian-Refugees-Get-Help-Across-The-Border-33952.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:22:44 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Tilting-At-Windmills-Palestinian-Villages-May-Soon-Go-Dark-Once-Again-33951.html Several small Palestinian villages in the West Bank had been without electricity for decades -- before an Israeli foundation with funding from Europe recently installed solar panels and wind turbines. Now, though, Israel wants to remove the facilities because they are on land under its administration. The best part is when the lights in the tents go on, one by one, says Elad Orian. Electricity here, in the hills south of Hebron, was long unreliable. Either it was not available or it was too expensive, produced for just a few hours each day by a noisy, diesel-guzzling generator. That changed when Elad Orian and Noam Dotan, two Israeli physicians who had tired of conflict, came along three years ago and installed solar panels and erected wind turbines. Since then, such facilities have been installed in 16 communities, providing 1,500 Palestinians with electricity. The women here no longer have to make their butter by hand; they can refrigerate the sheep's cheese, which is their livelihood; and their children can do their homework at night. Now they can sit together and watch TV -- and connect to a world that seems far removed from their lives on the edge of the Judaean Desert. It is but a small revolution, achieved at little cost. But it is a good example of successful development aid. The success, though, could soon be a thing of the past. Israel has threatened to tear them down with five municipalities in recent weeks having received "stop work" orders -- the first step on the road to demolition. The problem is that the facilities are in the so-called Area C, which covers 60 percent of the West Bank and is administered by Israel. Permission from the Israelis is a requirement before construction projects can move ahead -- and permits are almost never given to Palestinians. 'A Clear Signal'   The result is that Area C residents face poor roads and a lack of electricity and water. Farming is impossible, and the construction of factories forbidden. As a result, only 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C -- and 310,000 well-supplied Israeli settlers. The solar project helps make life a bit more bearable for Palestinians in Area C. That, though, would appear to be something that Israel does not want. "The demolition orders are meant to send a clear signal to all European Union countries: Do not interfere, do not invest in Area C," says project founder Noam Dotan. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Tilting-At-Windmills-Palestinian-Villages-May-Soon-Go-Dark-Once-Again-33951.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:21:46 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Flight-Disruptions-Workers-Launch-Mass-Strike-At-Frankfurt-Airport-33950.html A major strike by ground workers at Germany's most important airport is expected to disrupt or lead to the cancellation of hundreds of flights on Thursday. However, officials at the Frankfurt Airport say they are taking steps to ensure that intercontinental flights to North America and other destinations are not affected by the work stoppage. Roughly 200 ground workers at Germany's largest international hub, the Frankfurt Airport, are expected to go on strike Thursday afternoon, and at least 100 flights have already been cancelled. However, airport operator Fraport and Lufthansa, the airline with the most flights to and from Frankfurt, said intercontinental flights are not expected to be as affected by the strike as those to destinations in other parts of Germany and Europe. None of Lufthansa's intercontinental flights have been cancelled Thursday, a company spokesperson said. The airport is making efforts to shield international passengers from the labor action. "We will try to keep the intercontinental connections going," Fraport spokesman Mike Schweitzer told Spiegel Online. Historically when there are labor disputes, planes with overseas destinations have been given priority, he said. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Flight-Disruptions-Workers-Launch-Mass-Strike-At-Frankfurt-Airport-33950.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:20:41 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Honduras-Prison-Fire-Victims-Burned-Up-Against-The-Bars-Stuck-To-Them-33949.html Forensic teams in Honduras have begun trying to identify remains of the estimated 358 prisoners who died in a prison fire earlier this week, as harrowing new details about the inferno emerged.A team of 14 experts from Chile âЂ“ including an anthropologist, archaeologist, biochemists, forensic odontologists and other medical specialists âЂ“ will help their Honduran colleagues examine the charred bodies and ruins of the Penitenciaria Nacional de Comayagua. Women wait to recover the remains of their relatives, killed in the Comayagua prison fire. Photograph: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images Workers in white suits and masks were on Thursday stacking black body bags at morgues in the capital, Tegucigalpa, amid sobs and shouts from relatives assembled outside, clamoring for news of what is thought to have been the world's worst prison fire in a century.Flames swept through the jail, which housed some 850 inmates, on Tuesday night shortly after an unnamed inmate phoned the state governor and screamed he was going to burn the place down. He reportedly lit a mattress a few minutes later. The motive remained unclear but there was speculation his girlfriend had finished with him âЂ“ Tuesday was Valentine's day.Within minutes, cells were filled with screaming, suffocating, burning men. Guards feared a riot and escape attempt and so fired in the air, kept doors padlocked and barred the fire brigade for at least half an hour. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Honduras-Prison-Fire-Victims-Burned-Up-Against-The-Bars-Stuck-To-Them-33949.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:19:53 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Underwear-Bomber-Umar-Farouk-Abdulmutallab-Gets-Life-Sentence-33948.html A U.S. federal judge has ordered life in prison for a Nigerian man who turned away from a privileged life and tried to blow up an international airplane with nearly 300 people during a suicide mission for al-Qaeda. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was the same defiant man who four months ago pleaded guilty to all charges related to the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear on Christmas 2009. He seemed to relish his mandatory sentence and defended his actions as rooted in the Qu'ran.Earlier, four passengers and a crew member aboard Flight 253 told U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds that the event forever changed their lives.Abdulmutallab looked uninterested during their remarks he rarely looked up while seated just a few feet away, wearing a white skull cap and an over-sized prison T-shirt.Abdulmutallab "has never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission," said Judge Edmunds. "In contrast, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Underwear-Bomber-Umar-Farouk-Abdulmutallab-Gets-Life-Sentence-33948.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:19:31 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Anthony-Shadid-New-York-Times-Reporter-Dies-In-Syria-33947.html The New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, who won the Pulitzer prize for his coverage of Iraq and was detained in Libya for almost a week last year, has died in eastern Syria while on a reporting assignment. Anthony Shadid, the Pulitzer prize winning New York Times journalist, has died aged 43 in Syria of an apparent asthma attack. Photograph: Steven Senne/AP The cause of his death apparently was an asthma attack, his newspaper said, adding that New York Times photographer Tyler Hicks was with him and carried his body to Turkey.Shadid, a 43-year-old American of Lebanese descent, had a wife and two daughters. He had worked previously for the Associated Press, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He won the Pulitzer prize for international reporting in 2004 and 2010 for his Iraq coverage.In 2004 the Pulitzer board praised "his extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril, the voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, their leader toppled and their way of life upended".Shadid had been reporting in Syria for a week, gathering information on the resistance to the Syrian government, the New York Times said, adding that the exact circumstances and location of his death were unclear. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Anthony-Shadid-New-York-Times-Reporter-Dies-In-Syria-33947.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:18:51 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Air-Australia-Downunder-Goes-Under-4000-Passengers-Stranded-33946.html Thousands of travelers from Hawaii to Thailand were stranded Friday after budget airline Air Australia ran out of money and went into voluntary administration, immediately grounding its five-jet fleet. The Brisbane-based international and domestic airline, formerly known as Strategic Airlines, said all flights had been canceled and the airline would not be accepting new bookings because it could no longer pay its bills. Voluntary administration in Australia is similar to bankruptcy protection in the U.S., and can buy a company time to trade out of its financial problems. "It currently appears that there are no funds available to meet operational expenses so flights will be suspended immediately," the airline said in a statement. Passengers who bought tickets with credit cards or had travel insurance may be given a refund, the airline said. Around 4,000 passengers were overseas with Air Australia round-trip tickets, voluntary administrator Mark Korda said. Some of those affected were stranded in Honolulu and Phuket, Thailand. "Overnight, the company was unable to refuel its planes in Phuket," Korda told Australia's Fairfax Radio. "The directors appointed us at 1:30 this morning and the boys have been working throughout the night to deal with what's a very difficult situation." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Air-Australia-Downunder-Goes-Under-4000-Passengers-Stranded-33946.html Fri, 17 Feb 2012 3:18:32 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/1-Dead-1-Hurt-In-US-Federal-Building-Shooting-33945.html An immigration agent shot and injured another agent Thursday and was then killed by a third colleague in a federal building, the FBI said. The shooting occurred at about 5:30 p.m. local time, said FBI Special Agent Steven Martinez. There were conflicting early reports about the number of people shot, with local authorities saying two were dead and one wounded, while ICE said one was dead and one wounded. Martinez characterized the incident as a case of workplace violence involving two federal agents. He says one agent fired several rounds at another agent, wounding him. At that point, another agent intervened and additional rounds were fired, resulting in the death of the shooter. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/1-Dead-1-Hurt-In-US-Federal-Building-Shooting-33945.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:40:35 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Fears-Over-Iranian-Oil-Exports-Send-Crude-Prices-Soaring-33944.html Iran has warned that it could cut off oil exports to six European countries in retaliation for the latest sanctions imposed on the regime, causing turmoil in the world's crude market. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Photograph: Hasan Sarbakhshian/AP Iran's state-run English language television, Press TV, initially reported on Wednesday that Tehran had stopped exporting oil to the Netherlands, Greece, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy, which resulted in oil prices jumping up as much as $1 a barrel. But officials from the country's foreign and oil ministry scrambled to correct earlier accounts, saying Iran had merely invited ambassadors of the six countries to a meeting to warn them of the possible consequences of their latest decision to put an embargo on the imports of oil from the Islamic republic. "We deny this report âЂ¦ If such a decision is made, it will be announced by Iran's supreme national security council," said a spokesman for the country's oil ministry. Hasan Tajik, a senior official at Iran's foreign ministry in charge of its European affairs, appeared to clarify the situation later, telling the Irna state news agency that Iran had warned Europe that it would find other customers for its oil should the west insist on the sanctions. "European people should know that if Iran changes destinations of the oil it gives to them, the responsibility will rest with the European governments themselves," he said in quotes carried by Irna. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Fears-Over-Iranian-Oil-Exports-Send-Crude-Prices-Soaring-33944.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:39:47 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Islamists-Against-Assad-Foreign-Extremists-A-Danger-To-Syrias-Revolution-33943.html Al-Qaeda's leader is calling on Muslims to join in Syria's revolution and to fight the Assad regime. But jihadists from neighboring countries may already have joined the ranks of the opposition Free Syrian Army. Their presence could be the death blow to the revolution. Syrian rebels train outside of Idlib. How significant is the danger of infiltration? Photo: AP. The message was clear: Every Muslim must aid the uprising against the Syrian government "with everything that he has -- his life, money, views and information." The current leader of the terror network al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called on believers to bear arms and go to Syria in an eight-minute video that was posted over the weekend on extremist websites. Rebellion against the "anti-Islamic regime" in Damascus is a religious obligation, he declared. For their campaign against Bashar Assad's "pernicious, cancerous regime," the brothers in God should build on their willingness to make sacrifices and on their steadfastness. The al-Qaeda leader especially called on Sunni Muslims in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq to rush to the aid of the opposition in their neighboring country. The fiery call to action from Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden at the top of al-Qaeda, has fueled the ongoing speculation over the presence of foreign, or even al-Qaeda fighters in Syria. The regime in Damascus has long maintained that the 11-month-old uprising in the country was being waged by "foreigners," "terrorists" and "armed bands." The Syrian National Council, an opposition coalition, and the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the umbrella organization of the armed resistance, spurn that notion, and argue that the rebellion in Syria is a popular uprising of Syrian citizens who are fighting for their freedom and for democracy. 'Hundreds of Foreign Fighters'   But, despite the protestations from the Syrian opposition, rumors are growing over the deployment of foreign jihadists in Syria. One source in Beirut, who was outside of Homs in recent weeks with the opposition FSA, reported seeing "hundreds of foreign fighters," who have attached themselves to the FSA, which is made up largely of deserters from the Syrian military. The Sunni volunteers came primarily from Iraq and Lebanon, with a few from Saudi Arabia, the source said. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Islamists-Against-Assad-Foreign-Extremists-A-Danger-To-Syrias-Revolution-33943.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:39:10 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Calls-To-Break-US-Monopoly-On-World-Bank-Start-As-Zoellick-Steps-Down-33942.html The old alliance of Europe and America faces a huge row with the rest of the world over the identity of the next head of the World Bank, after president Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday he is to leave his post in June. World Bank president Zoellick is to leave in June 2012 - but should the next leader be an American too? Photograph: Christophe Karaba/EPA While his departure had been widely expected, the news kicks off the process of finding a new leader, who has traditionally been an American under an informal agreement dating to the founding of the bank 68 years ago. Speculation has focused on either U.S.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - who is also rumored to have an eye on a run for the White House - or former Treasury secretary Larry Summers as Zoellick's likely successor. When Dominique Strauss-Kahn was succeeded by his countrywoman Christine Lagarde at the International Monetary Fund last year, it was widely rumored that America had agreed to let Europe keep its traditional grip on the IMF âЂ“ in the face of calls for a candidate from an emerging country âЂ“ as long as France and other European governments backed Clinton as the new boss of the World Bank when the job came up.However, calls to widen the search to include candidates from outside the U.S. began immediately. Campaigners including Oxfam, Eurodad and the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (Afrodad), issued a joint statement appealing to America not to continue its monopoly of the role.Elizabeth Stuart of Oxfam said: "The way the World Bank picks its president needs to change. The bank only operates in developing countries, so any candidate not supported by a majority of these countries would plainly lack legitimacy."In an open letter to governors of the World Bank, which provides loans to developing countries for capital programs, the campaigners demanded that: the new president is selected by a majority of World Bank member countries; that the selection process is open to anyone to apply; and that a clear job description and required qualifications is set out, including "a strong understanding and experience of the particular problems facing developing countries". http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Calls-To-Break-US-Monopoly-On-World-Bank-Start-As-Zoellick-Steps-Down-33942.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:38:43 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Indiana-Measles-Outbreak-Illustrates-Disease-Risk-33941.html Indiana is battling its second measles outbreak in two years, even though its vaccination rate exceeds the national average. Health officials say the cases, traced to a Super Bowl event, illustrate just how vulnerable the public is to exposure from sources at home and abroad. The 13 cases confirmed this month by state health officials have been confined to two counties, Boone and Hamilton. But all cases are linked to two infected people who visited the Super Bowl Village together on Feb. 3, prompting Indiana officials to reach out to health departments in New York and Massachusetts - home of the participating New England Patriots and New York Giants - for fear that the outbreak could spread across state lines. Concerns about a widespread outbreak are well-founded, said University of Minnesota professor Kristen Ehresmann, who was part of a research team that studied the disease's spread across a large sporting event. In 1991, a track and field runner from Argentina participating in the Special Olympics in Minneapolis unknowingly started an outbreak of measles, infecting spectators, athletes and event organizers. "This was kind of Murphy's Law of disease transmission, with a highly infectious disease in a very, very crowded place so as to spread the disease as much as possible," said Ehresmann. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Indiana-Measles-Outbreak-Illustrates-Disease-Risk-33941.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:38:26 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/US-House-Panel-Wants-Session-With-ExCountrywide-CEO-33940.html House investigators want to interview Angelo Mozilo, the former Countrywide Financial Corp. chief executive whose VIP program gave discounted mortgages to member of Congress, other government officials and influential people who could help the company. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been investigating the VIP operation to learn who received special deals from the program known internally as "Friends of Angelo." Issa's letter, dated Tuesday and obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, was sent to Mozilo's attorney, David Siegel, in Los Angeles. Siegel commented, "We received the request today and will respond to the committee's staff as appropriate." Issa's investigation so far has identified four current House members whose loans went through the VIP program: Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee; Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-California, who has major influence over defense matters as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-California; and Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-New York - Issa's predecessor as House Oversight chairman. In addition, it previously was revealed that former Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota had VIP loans. The Senate's ethics committee cleared them in 2009 of any rules violations but said they should have exercised better judgment. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/US-House-Panel-Wants-Session-With-ExCountrywide-CEO-33940.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:38:08 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Leak-Exposes-How-Heartland-Institute-Works-To-Undermine-Climate-Science-33939.html The inner workings of a libertarian thinktank working to discredit the established science on climate change have been exposed by a leak of confidential documents detailing its strategy and fundraising networks. DeSmogBlog, which broke the story, said it had received the confidential documents from an "insider" at the Heartland Institute, which is based in Chicago. The blog monitors industry efforts to discredit climate science. The scheme includes spending $100,000 for spreading the message in K-12 schools that "the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain - two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science", said the documents. It was not possible to immediately verify the authenticity of the documents, although Heartland issued a statement on Wednesday claiming at least one document was fake, and that it was the victim of theft and forgery. However, Anthony Watts, a weather-caster who runs one of the most prominent anti-science blogs, Watts Up With That?,  acknowledged Heartland was helping him with $90,000 for a new project. He added: "They do not regularly fund me nor (sic) my WUWT website, I take no salary from them of any kind." Watts, in an email, did not mention the entire cost of his temperature station initiative but said: "Heartland simply helped me find a donor for funding a special project." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Leak-Exposes-How-Heartland-Institute-Works-To-Undermine-Climate-Science-33939.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:37:54 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Heartland-Institute-Claims-Fraud-After-Leak-Of-Climate-Change-Documents-33938.html The free-market Heartland Institute has moved to contain the damage from explosive revelations about its efforts to discredit climate change and alter the teaching of science in schools, claiming on Wednesday it was the victim of theft and forgery.In its first detailed response to Tuesday's leak of documents purporting to show a well-organized campaign to cast doubt on climate change, the institute warned in a statement posted on its website: "Some of these documents were stolen from Heartland, at least one is a fake, and some may have been altered."However, the statement from Heartland communications director, Jim Lakely, identifies only one of the eight documents posted online on Tuesday night by the DeSmogBlog website as a "total fake". That document, two pages headlined "Confidential Memo: Heartland Climate Strategy", largely duplicates information contained in the other documents.Those documents âЂ“ containing details on future projects such as a $100,000 campaign to "dissuade teachers from teaching science", as well as fundraising efforts âЂ“ have been confirmed, in part, by Heartland itself, corporate donors such as Microsoft, and climate skeptic blogger Anthony Watts, who hoped to benefit from Heartland fundraising this year.DeSmog, in its response to Heartland's charges, stood by its initial report."DeSmogBlog has received no direct communications from the Heartland Institute identifying any misstatement of fact in the "Climate Strategy" document," it said. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Heartland-Institute-Claims-Fraud-After-Leak-Of-Climate-Change-Documents-33938.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:37:32 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Hot-Air-The-EUs-Emissions-Trading-System-Isnt-Working-33937.html Emissions trading, the European Union hoped, would limit the release of harmful greenhouse gases. But it isn't working. The price for emissions certificates has plunged, a development that is actually making coal more attractive than renewable energy. Photo by DPA. In the perfect world of economic liberals, every commodity has its price. Limited supply makes goods more expensive and vice versa. That's how markets work -- at least in theory. In practice, things often look different, and this is especially true when it comes to emissions trading, a business subject to a very different mechanism: laws dictated by the European Union. Economists have generally praised the trading scheme as a nearly ideal instrument for reducing harmful carbon dioxide emissions. In this system, businesses purchase pollution permits, with prices determined according to supply and demand, in an efficient and self-regulating process. Companies that invest in environmentally friendly technology need to buy fewer certificates, or may even have some left over to sell. But for the last half year, prices for CO2 certificates have dropped almost continuously, decreasing by about half, to around €8 ($10.60) per metric ton. Not even the closure of eight German nuclear power plants in 2011, and the resulting increase in demand for coal power, has done much to lastingly reverse the trend. Michael Kröhnert, an emissions trader in Berlin, refers to the plunging prices as a slaughter. And he fully expects it to continue. "The spiral is spinning downward," he says. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Hot-Air-The-EUs-Emissions-Trading-System-Isnt-Working-33937.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:36:40 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Greeces-Model-Mayor-Reform-Hero-Takes-On-Corruption-In-Thessaloniki-33936.html European Union officials have nothing but praise for the mayor of the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Yiannis Boutaris has been pushing ahead with far-reaching reforms to undo the abuses of his predecessors and has already slashed the city's spending by 30 percent. He's even asking the Germans for advice. Photo: Pilos Nikos / DER SPIEGEL On a recent Thursday, the mayor of the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki was sitting in an enormous office in Berlin's Tempelhof district. He didn't mince his words. "Your city is clean, while ours is dirty," said Yiannis Boutaris, speaking in a deep and gravelly voice. "What works in your city doesn't work in ours." He had come to Berlin to learn how to change this deplorable state of affairs. And he wants to do it as quickly as possible. Boutaris, 69, is a slim, wiry man with gold-colored, metal-rimmed glasses, a gold stud in his ear and spiky gray hair. He and his delegation are visiting the headquarters of the Berlin waste utility BSR. A projector hangs on the wall above him. Boutaris has just watched a PowerPoint presentation about Berlin's approach to the "recycling of biogenic waste to use organic residual material from residential waste." He now knows that the German capital generates 1.3 million tons of garbage a year, and that the city's 200,000 dogs present one of the biggest obstacles to keeping streets clean. Dogs are the least of his problems in Thessaloniki, where the entire waste disposal system doesn't work. Boutaris raises his hands and says: "We need your help." The fact that the mayor of Greece's second-largest city is making this request is a minor sensation in itself. Not a day passes on which one Greek paper or another doesn't discuss the supposed parallels between present-day conditions in the country and the Nazi occupation. And now a Greek politician is asking the Germans for advice on how to clean up his city? http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Greeces-Model-Mayor-Reform-Hero-Takes-On-Corruption-In-Thessaloniki-33936.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:35:59 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Apple-Twitter-Face-US-Inquiry-Over-iPhone-Address-Book-Privacy-33935.html Apple has pledged to block apps from accessing user contact lists after accusations that several were copying address book details âЂ“ including phone numbers and other details âЂ“ without requesting permission. Twitter has said it will also update its apps for iPhone and the Google Android operating system to make it clear that emails and phone numbers are uploaded to its servers, where they may be kept for 18 months. Contacts unlocked? It has emerged that some iPhone apps take copies of the user's address book. Photograph: Carolyn Jenkins/Alamy The software overhauls were announced after two members of U.S. Congress wrote to Apple chief executive Tim Cook demanding answers to "claims that the practice of collecting consumers' address book contacts without their permission is common and accepted among [third-party] app developers." In response, Apple said any apps accessing address books without prior permission were in breach of guidelines and would be stopped in their tracks by forthcoming software upgrades. "We're working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release," it said in a statement. Last week, it emerged that Path, a social networking app, uploaded and kept a copy of new users' address books without consent. One developer, Dustin Curtis, wrote: "I did a quick survey of 15 developers of popular iOS apps, and 13 of them told me they have a contacts database with millions of records. One company's database has Mark Zuckerberg's cell phone number, Larry Ellison's home phone number and Bill Gates' cell phone number. This data is not meant to be public, and people have an expectation of privacy with respect to their contacts." http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Apple-Twitter-Face-US-Inquiry-Over-iPhone-Address-Book-Privacy-33935.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:35:23 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/OneInch-Lizards-Researchers-Find-New-Species-of-MiniChameleon-33934.html Photo: Frank Glaw. German researchers have discovered a previously unknown species of chameleon on Madagascar that is just one inch long from tip to tail. The tiny lizards are some of the smallest reptiles on Earth, but their future is uncertain. The coral reefs and beach-lined inlets look right out of a tourism brochure. Beyond that, however, the tiny island of Nosy Hara just off the northern tip of Madagascar is rather desolate. Only a few patches of forest cover the rocky bit of land, not the kind of place that looks particularly hospitable to wildlife. Yet it is here that biologists have discovered a fascinating new species: the tiny chameleon Brookesia micra. From tip to tail, the mini-lizards measure less than three centimeters (1.2 inches), making them some of the smallest reptiles on Earth. Mostly brown with a touch of green, the coloring of the diminutive creatures is far from spectacular. And they are unable to change their appearance like their larger cousins. Nonetheless, researchers are fascinated. "It's not the kind of thing where you have to perform extensive genetic analysis to realize that this is something new," Miguel Vences, a biologist with the Technical University of Braunschweig and the co-author of an article on the new species in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, told Spiegel Online. Still, Vences and his colleagues, including Frank Glaw from the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology and Jorn Kohler of the Hesse State Museum in Darmstadt, have taken a closer look at the lizard's genetic makeup -- and that of other tiny chameleons they found in neighboring regions of Madagascar. In total, the researchers discovered four new species of miniature saurians. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/OneInch-Lizards-Researchers-Find-New-Species-of-MiniChameleon-33934.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:34:50 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Josh-Powells-Dad-Takes-The-Fifth-On-Susan-Powells-Disappearance-33933.html Josh PowellâЂ™s father has filed paperwork stating that he will not answer any questions from law enforcement authorities about the disappearance of his daughter-in-law, Susan Cox Powell. Steven Powell, the father-in-law of missing Utah woman Susan Powell, appears in Pierce County courtroom, Sept. 23, 2011, in Tacoma, Wash. (Ted S. Warren/AP Photo) Steven Powell submitted a notice to law enforcement in Pierce County Superior Court invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not answer questions posed to him by authorities about the case. The filing comes two weeks after his son, Josh, blew up himself and his two children, Charlie and Braden, in a rental home. In the wake of the deaths, police said they would ask Steven about SusanâЂ™s disappearance in 2009. Steven had previously been outspoken about his daughter-in-lawâЂ™s disappearance, making statements to the media about how Susan likely ran away from her family to be with another man. But now he will not answer questions by any police, including the West Valley City, Utah, police department, which investigated the disappearance, and the Pierce County SheriffâЂ™s department, which arrested Steven in September on child porn and voyeurism charges. He was arrested following a search of the home he shared with Josh and the children in September, which was conducted as part of the investigation into SusanâЂ™s disappearance. His trial on child pornography charges is set to start March 20. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Josh-Powells-Dad-Takes-The-Fifth-On-Susan-Powells-Disappearance-33933.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:33:00 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Greeces-Finance-Minister-Greece-Is-Being-Forced-Out-Of-Euro-Zone-33932.html Greece rounded bitterly on its E.U. paymasters when the finance minister and socialist leader, Evangelos Venizelos, accused the euro zone of deliberately changing the terms of a proposed €130 billion (£110 billion) bailout because key players wanted to kick the country out of the single currency. Greece's finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said: 'There are many in the euro zone who don't want us anymore.' Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images The charge that some euro-zone countries were seeking to engineer a Greek sovereign default and exit from the euro deepened the rancor between debtor and creditors in the dangerous standoff."There are many in the euro zone who don't want us any more," Venizelos declared at a meeting with President Karolos Papoulias. "We are constantly being given new terms and conditions." Papoulias went even further, denouncing Germany and Greece's north European creditors after Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, said that Greece must not turn into a "bottomless pit" for euro-zone bailout funds and that Europe was better prepared than when the crisis erupted two years ago to cope with a Greek sovereign default. "Who is Mr. Schauble to ridicule Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finns?" declared the Greek head of state. "I don't accept insults to my country by Mr. Schauble." The bad-tempered rhetoric came as Greece's political leaders sought to assuage Berlin and Brussels by delivering on key conditions for release of the €130 billion bailout, the second in two years, which takes Greece's rescue fund to €240 billion. Venizelos claimed the crucial debt swap with the banks âЂ“ which technically requires three weeks to organize âЂ“ will be announced on Monday provided the euro group signs off on the bailout. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Greeces-Finance-Minister-Greece-Is-Being-Forced-Out-Of-Euro-Zone-33932.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:32:23 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Euro-Group-Delays-Meeting-Berlin-Grows-Impatient-Over-Greece-33931.html Greece has still not met European Union demands for details about an additional 325 million euros in spending cuts, leading to the cancellation of the planned Euro Group meeting on Wednesday. Political leaders in Germany are getting nervous -- and increasingly impatient. Greek flags for sale in a kiosk in Athens. Photo: dapd. Let's hope Europe is prepared for a Greek bankruptcy. That was the message delivered by former German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck during a Tuesday evening appearance at the Woman's National Democratic Club in Washington. Were he still in charge of German finances, he says, he would have ordered his experts "half a year ago" to come up with a plan B. "I would have liked to have been prepared for a Greek insolvency," he said. Steinbruck's comments came immediately following an announcement by the Euro Group head, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, that he had cancelled a Wednesday meeting of euro-zone finance ministers because Greece had yet to meet conditions demanded by Brussels. Steinbruck called the cancellation an "escalation." The comments by Steinbruck, a senior member of Germany's opposition Social Democrats and a possible candidate for chancellor in next year's general elections, are just the latest sign that leading politicians in Europe are beginning to think seriously about a Greek insolvency. On Monday evening, current German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble indicated that Europe was much better prepared for such an eventuality than it was two years ago. Angel Gurria, the head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), agreed with Schauble on Tuesday, though he warned that a Greek bankruptcy could be messy. "Although we are better off today than we were two years ago for that kind of a scenario, we really don't know which unexpected consequences may happen," he said, according to the Associated Press. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Euro-Group-Delays-Meeting-Berlin-Grows-Impatient-Over-Greece-33931.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:31:30 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Explosives-Removed-From-Vehicle-Near-Kansas-State-Buildings-33930.html Police detained an individual after officials said they removed explosives from his pickup truck, parked at the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka, Kansas. The Topeka Police and Kansas Highway Patrol removed the devices from the vehicle, which was parked without a permit in the complexâЂ™s west parking lot, according to ABC News affiliate KTKA. âЂњWith the use of their police robot, they were able to remove several improvised explosive devices from the vehicle,âЂќ said Kansas Capitol Police spokesman Patrick Saleh, according to ABC News Radio. A local police official later told ABC News the items removed were âЂњseveral small improvised devices.âЂќ However, federal official described the devices as looking like large fireworks - M100s. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Explosives-Removed-From-Vehicle-Near-Kansas-State-Buildings-33930.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:30:52 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Economy-Shrinks-In-Fourth-Quarter-Germany-Is-Confident-Downturn-Will-Be-Brief-33929.html The German economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, as the euro crisis began to bite. But the contraction was less than expected, and economists expect Germany to avoid the recession plaguing many countries in the euro crisis. Leading indicators point to a resumption of growth by mid-2012. The German economy, Europe's largest, shrank by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, slightly less than the 0.3 percent drop expected, official figures released on Wednesday showed. Shoppers in Cologne. Weakening consumer spending and exports caused the German economy to contract at the end of 2011. Photo: dpa. The contraction was the first decline in GDP since early 2009, the height of the financial crisis. The Federal Statistics Office blamed the drop on weakening exports and consumer spending. However, analysts remain upbeat that Germany's downturn will be brief and that the economy will resume growing in mid-2012. Leading indicators such as the Ifo business climate index and the ZEW institute's poll of economic sentiment remain strong. The figures, together with stronger-than-expected GDP growth of 0.2 percent in France in the final quarter, indicated that Europe's two biggest economies may be able to avoid the recession ravaging many countries as a result of the debt crisis.  http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Economy-Shrinks-In-Fourth-Quarter-Germany-Is-Confident-Downturn-Will-Be-Brief-33929.html Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:30:05 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Honduras-Prison-Fire-Kills-350-People-33928.html Skirmishes have broken out between security forces and relatives seeking news of inmates after more than 350 people reportedly died during a prison fire described as the worst disaster of its kind in Latin America in at least 25 years. The fire broke out at the Penitenciaria Nacional de Comayagua in Honduras at about 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday, destroying half of the 400-capacity prison that had been housing some 850 prisoners. In a televised address the Honduran president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, expressed "his deepest sympathies for the families that today cry." "My heart is with you," he said after an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning. Authorities urged calm as clashes broke out between prison guards and family members trying to gain access to the prison, in the town of Comayagua, about 50 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa. http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Honduras-Prison-Fire-Kills-350-People-33928.html Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:57:21 America/New_York http://freeinternetpress.com/story/Xi-Jinpings-US-Visit-Chinas-Next-Leader-Takes-Center-Stage-33927.html Xi Jinping, the future leader of China, will be in the international spotlight for the first time when he visits the White House on Tuesday. The West currently knows little about the man set to be the next president of the rising Asian superpower. But one thing is clear: Any hopes of a new, more conciliatory China are likely to be dashed. Photo: Reuters. His Washington hosts knew little about Beijing's future strong man, other than he liked to dance and play table tennis. But the visitor himself was also insecure. For him, the event could already be considered a success if he managed to avoid making any diplomatic gaffes at the White House. That was about 10 years ago, and the man China was presenting to the world as its future president and party leader was Hu Jintao. "Who is Hu?" the U.S. magazine Newsweek asked, with a mixture of cluelessness and condescension, prior to the visit by the stiff Chinese official. Hu was familiar with Stalinist North Korea, but he had never visited capitalist America. The introductory ritual will repeat itself at the White House on Tuesday, but this time with different players and in the face of a dramatically different geopolitical balance of power. This time Beijing's future leader is named Xi Jinping. Like Hu before him, Xi also currently holds the position of vice president. But there is a big difference with Hu's visit. Xi now represents a rising superpower that is preparing to challenge the world's current hegemon. Xi was selected by a regime that looked on as ailing Western industrialized nations, which had behaved as proud enemies and occupiers in the past, sought Beijing's assistance during the financial and euro crisis. This helps to explain the self-confidence of today's Chinese visitor to Washington. The 58-year-old Xi's visit gives the international media an opportunity to take a new look at the balance of power in global politics. For months, the Western media seem to have had nothing more exciting to focus on than the Republican primaries leading up to the American presidential race. Publications are even devoting plenty of attention to the candidates who are trailing behind. But many don't even know how to pronounce the family name of the future ruler of a country of 1.3 billion people, a man who could eventually become the most powerful man in the world. (It's pronounced "She.") http://freeinternetpress.com//story/Xi-Jinpings-US-Visit-Chinas-Next-Leader-Takes-Center-Stage-33927.html