Newspapers : 23rd February

Vatican buries the hatchet with Charles Darwin. Richard Owen, The Times (en)
" ... The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes. A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” ..."

European MPs earning £1 million profits in a term. Andrew Porter, The Telegraph (en)
" ... But a leaked copy of the 92-page document details the full extent of "corruption, dodgy dealing and poor financial controls" in the European Parliament, according to the Taxpayers' Alliance. It revealed that some MEPs claimed money for assistants that were neither accredited nor registered with the parliament ...
... Over five years, each MEP can claim this includes a subsistence allowance of 117,000 Euros, staff allowance of 489,840 Euros, office expenses of 243,120 Euros, travel expenses of 60,000 Euros and an accrued pension of £350,000. This does not include the MEP salary of £63,291, which is set to increase to £73,584 after the European Parliament elections in June 2009 ..."

UK Poles finding greener grass in Poland. David Harrison, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Thousands like Mr Wozniak sense that, after five years in the European Union, Poland now offers better opportunities than the UK where unemployment is rising, wages are falling and there is growing resentment against foreign workers ..."

Czech leader attacks EU. The Independent (en)
" ... The Czech Republic President said the EU was undemocratic, elitist and reminiscent of Soviet-era Communist dictatorships in an attack which provoked an angry response from EU legislators. Vaclav Klaus, who holds the rotating EU presidency, also won applause from nationalists and other anti-EU legislators during his first address to the EU chamber ...
... "Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives and therefore also no parliamentary opposition," he said. "We learned the bitter lesson that with no opposition, there is no freedom" ..."

Newspapers : 19th February (Fr)

Le sous-marin "Le Triomphant" serait plus endommagé qu'annoncé. Le Monde (fr)
"... Ouest-France relève que cette immobilisation sans doute longue du Triomphant fragilise le dispositif de dissuasion nucléaire de la France, qui ne dispose plus que de deux SNLE utilisables pour assurer ses patrouilles dans l'attente de la livraison fin 2010 du Terrible, quatrième bâtiment de nouvelle génération qui doit compléter l'arsenal nucléaire français ..."

Révisons notre modèle de croissance. Henri Lachmann, Le Monde (fr)
" ... principales caractéristiques : recours excessif à l'effet de levier ; endettement non soutenable des ménages qui seul a permis le maintien de la consommation ; croissance fondée essentiellement sur la valorisation des actifs, en particulier immobiliers, par essence inégalement répartie entre les générations. Au total, une accumulation de mécanismes d'enrichissement artificiel dont la crise a mis à nu tous les risques qu'ils comportent... Ce mode de croissance n'a pu servir de modèle que parce qu'il se fondait sur l'oubli de lois économiques élémentaires, dont la situation actuelle montre toute la pertinence a contrario.
Les rendements exigés par les investisseurs, tout d'abord. Alors que ces derniers devraient être en ligne avec la croissance à long terme de l'économie, le diktat du Return on Equity ou ROE (retour sur fonds propres) de 15 % a agi comme un pousse-au-crime, et ne pouvait être atteint que par une politique malthusienne de réduction des fonds propres et un recours excessif à l'endettement ..."

Newspapers : 19th February

Britain has most expensive train fares in Europe. Nick Allen, The Telegraph (en)
" Average season tickets and day returns in the UK cost almost twice as much as the next most expensive country, according to a comprehensive study by the rail watchdog Passenger Focus ...
... A commuter travelling between 10.6 miles (17km) and 25 miles (41km) each morning to London spent an average £1,859.96 on an annual season ticket, compared with £990 in the next most expensive country, France, and £443,69 in the cheapest country, Italy ... "

Blueprint for EU army. Bruno Waterfield, The Telegraph (en)
" ... The plan, which has influential support in Germany and France, proposes to set up a "Synchronised Armed Forces Europe", or Safe, as a first step towards a true European military force. The move comes as France, a supporter of an EU army, prepares to rejoin Nato and to take over one of the Alliance's top military posts. General Charles de Gaulle withdrew French forces in 1966 ...
... The EU proposals, drafted by Karl von Wogau, a German MEP, envisage a "dynamic to further development of co-operation between national armed forces so that they become increasingly synchronised - this process [should] be given the name Safe" ... "

Rama Yade had to 'prove love' to Nicolas Sarkozy. Peter Allen, The Telegraph (en)

" Rama Yade's extraordinary choice of words sheds new light on the bizarre relationship the unconventional head of state has with his women colleagues. They follow revelations that Mrs Yade, 33, sent the president heart-shaped chocolates in a bid to keep her job as human rights minister ... "

Hollywood learns a history lesson at last. Andrew Roberts, The Telegraph (en)

" ... Hollywood is finally releasing a movie about a British historical subject that is truthful, intelligent, nuanced and pro-British. Here, at last, is a film in which a cut-glass English accent does not denote colonialist evil, sexual perversion or serial killing.
For decades Hollywood has treated its audiences like morons, straitjacketing complex historical issues into goodies versus baddies. A classic example is the recent release Valkyrie, in which the German generals' assassination plot against Hitler is presented as having been launched in order to promote human rights and the decent treatment of minorities. The fact that Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the undeniably brave would-be assassin described Poles as "an unbelievable rabble" of "Jews and mongrels" is conveniently forgotten ..."

Challenge grows to Sarkozy’s Nato ambitions. Ben Hall, The FT (en)

" ... Mr Sarkozy believes that rejoining the command structure – giving France many senior Nato positions and influence over military planning – would hand Paris and Europe more influence in the alliance, remove a source of distrust between France and its US and European allies and add impetus to efforts to develop a strong European Union defence ­policy Opponents say it would curtail French autonomy and, as Mr Bayrou put it, end “an element of our ­identity in the concert of nations”. Ironically, whereas de Gaulle’s decision to withdraw France in 1966 was ­criticised at the time by ­centrists and the moderate left, it is they who have become the standard-bearers of Gaullism ... "

With Swipe at U.S., Iraq Builds Ties to French. Marc Santora and Allan Cowell, The NYT (en)

" ... Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq signaled a desire to gradually diminish American power over Iraqi politics and increase ties to other Western powers, during a visit ... resident Nicolas Sarkozy of France ... According to political advisers, Mr. Maliki is intent on changing the nature of Baghdad’s relationship with Washington, shifting Iraq’s role from a client state to a more equal partner ...

... The French overture came at a time of intense jockeying among the world’s leading oil companies for contracts in Iraq, with France’s Total among the major competitors ..."

Update : 17th February

During my absence on the European Web front, I focused my time on my research proposal for my application for a PhD that should be starting in September 2009 if it is successful.
I am particularly interested in the European integration process, the future of Nationalism and the emergence of a European political identity among the EU citizens. Thus, my thesis proposal roots from the idea that the current financial crisis seems to have some impacts on the support of the European integration in countries such as Iceland, Ireland and Denmark. Its main model will have to do with the impact of external armed conflicts and economics crises on levels of national and European identities of citizens, both at the individual level and at the aggregate level. It will, therefore, advance the current understanding by examining the link between external shocks, its consequences on political identities formation and the support of public opinion for the European Union political integration. My major preoccupation, in undertaking this piece of research, is to establish whether crises have "integrative or disintegrative consequences" (Inglehart 1970) for Europe and its current process of integration.

Now with this projet well advanced, I will have more time to restart my Blog on European news. I would like to thank all the regular reader of this blog and to apologize for the 2 months break from the Web.

Newspapers : 18th December

Even Sarko has started talking like a lefty. Charles Bremner, The Times (en)
" ... The European Parliament voted yesterday to end Britain's exemption from the maximum 48-hour working week. A bit of Euro-fudge with the member states should water this down, but across the Channel they are wondering why Britain bothers.
Since the early 1980s, les Anglais have been lecturing Europe on the virtues of long hours as the path to prosperity. While the grasshopper French were awarding themselves a 35-hour week in the 1990s, the British fought for the right to sweat away 24/7 in the name of competing with the emerging ants of Asia. Now the boot is on the other foot ...
... France has been profligate. It has piled up national debt and keeps a heavy trade deficit. Labour taxes are extraordinarily high, even by European standards, and red tape stifles entrepreneurs. But it has been helped by the conservative institutions and attitudes that looked so old-fashioned to the outside world. It has especially been protected by the strong euro -- albeit kept that way with the help of German austerity.
Against all the prevailing doctrines, France resisted investment-funded pensions, kept its big car industry, its generous welfare state, its 80 percent nuclear-generated electricity and expensive high-speed trains. And it has managed this while working the world's shortest week. Writing as a new-poor Brit in Paris, there may be a lesson here, or perhaps this is just another exception française ..."

Newpapers : 15th December

France hails Sarkozy, European saviour -- Germany doesn't . Chearles Bremner, The Times (en)
" ... The hyper-active President is convinced that he has galvanised Europe and given it new power in the world with deft management of the financial crash and the other emergencies, such as the Russia-Georgia war in August. Close partnership with Britain's Gordon Brown is part of the new European power balance, says Sarkozy ...
... The satisfaction in Paris is not dimmed by the glaring failure of the French Euro-presidency: Sarkozy's cold war with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor ...
... She calls him the Energizer Bunny (Lapin Duracell in French) and she has watched the films of Louis de Funès for clues to understanding the ever-agitated French president. (De Funès, a brilliant and much-loved comic actor, played the manic, excitable vain Frenchman in many hit films ...
... Spiegel magazine has just explained that the Chancellor sees Sarkozy as "an unfeasibly vain Jack-in-the-box...She has so far failed to find a way to handle him....She has watched de Funès' films... but she has nothing to counter him apart from her eternal impassiveness. Her fist may be clenched but she keeps it in her pocket." ...

Sarkozy praised for Brussels agreement. Tony Barber, The FT (en)
" ... Meanwhile, in Brussels and in EU national capitals from Dublin to Vilnius, officials say that memories of France under Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy’s occasionally cantankerous predecessor, are fading fast ..."

Newpaper : 10th December Tribune on Le Monde

Un besoin d'Union face à la crise. Tribune, Le Monde (fr) by :
Jean Luc Dehaene, ancien premier ministre belge ;Jacques Delors, président fondateur de Notre Europe, ancien président de la Commission européenne ;Joschka Fischer, ancien ministre allemand des affaires étrangères ;Felipe González, ancien premier ministre espagnol ;Pascal Lamy, directeur général de l'OMC ;Paavo Lipponen, ancien premier ministre finlandais ;Denis Macshane, membre du Parlement britannique ;Péter Medgyessy, ancien premier ministre hongrois ;John Monks, secrétaire général de la Confédération européenne des syndicats ;Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, président de Notre Europe, ancien ministre italien de l'économie et des finances ;Romano Prodi, ancien premier ministre italien, ancien président de la Commission européenne.

Newspaper : 9th December (fr)

L'essoufflement d'Erasmus, Brigitte Perucca, Le Monde (fr)
" ... Paradoxe ? Au moment où la ministre de l'enseignement supérieur, Valérie Pécresse assure urbi et orbi son désir que "la mobilité des étudiants européens devienne la règle et non plus l'exception", le plus populaire des programmes européens ne fait plus recette. Erasmus, qui a entraîné, en un peu plus de vingt ans quelque 1,7 million d'étudiants hors de leurs campus nationaux, ne séduit plus. Ou plutôt il séduit moins. Quand les jeunes des nouveaux pays membres sont encore en appétit, la Vieille Europe fait la fine bouche ...
.... Chacun sait qu'il est impossible ou presque de ne pas valider son semestre ou son année Erasmus ! Les universitaires commencent à se plaindre ouvertement de ces séjours à vocation plus touristique qu'universitaire. L'Auberge espagnole, le film de Cédric Klapisch, qui a fait un malheur auprès des jeunes, fait désormais l'effet d'une mauvaise pub. Ce qui était considéré comme positif - peu importe le contenu académique, un séjour dans un autre pays ouvre l'esprit - commence à être remis en question ..."

UK Prebudget : Answer to the Crisis ? 25th November

Osborne: Cut interest rates instead of taxes. James Kirkup, The Telegraph (en)
" ... He said: "Interest rates are 3 per cent here, they are 1 per cent in the US. It is clear they can come down."
Mr Osborne pointed out that the US Federal Reserve is now lending direct to businesses, something that could happen in the UK. "That might be the ultimate place you end up," he said. ... He said: "They are going to wake up, they are going to look at those headlines, listen to programmes like this and then realise the entire country now is very, very heavily in debt, and for the first time really since the 1970s, we have this enormous bill ..."

Barack Obama's in a different boat from Gordon Brown. John O'Sullivan, The Telegraph (en)
" ... However often Darling or Gordon Brown insists that the crisis began in the US sub-prime mortgage market, neither can escape the bulk of the blame for a crisis that dates entirely from their time in office. It was the banks supervised by New Labour's regulatory system that bought the dodgy loans, and the Brown Treasury that oversaw a spiralling credit boom that financed such purchases. Such a boom had to go bust eventually ..."

An election by late spring 2010. Simon Heffer, The Telegraph (en)
" ... the Prime Minister may well want to go to the country much sooner than that, before the full damage becomes apparent. That was what the pre-Budget report was largely about.
It was an aggressively sectarian set of measures. Labour has identified its "people" - the client state of public sector bureaucrats, operatives and claimants sedulously created by Mr Brown since 1997 - and Monday's main purpose was to protect them ... "

Is Britain Going Bankrupt? Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Yes, credit default swaps (CDS) are dodgy instruments, but they are the best stress barometer that we have.
Today they reached 86 basis points, near Portuguese debt in the league table. For good reason. Alistair Darling has had to admit that the British economy faces the most sudden economic collapse since World War Two, and the worst budget deficit of any major country in the world.
Ok, this is a lot lower than Iceland, Ukraine, Hungary, and other clients of the IMF, but is significantly higher than Germany (35), USA (43), and France (49) ...
... But this is not to excuse the Brown Government for the total hash it has made of the British economy. It presided over a rise in household debt to 165pc of personal income. How could the regulators possibly think this was in the interests of British society? What economic doctrine justifies such stupidity? Why were 120pc mortgages ever allowed? Indeed, why were 100pc mortgages ever allowed? Debt is as dangerous as heroine ..."

Newspapers : 24th November

France stuck in the past . The Telegraph (en)
" ... The chaos is a disaster for a party whose decline has been easy to measure at the ballot box. Since the socialist president François Mitterrand left office in 1995, the PS has never regained the keys to the Élysée Palace ...
...After all, the Socialist Party is all about ideas, not implementation; dogma, not pragmatism. Mr Sarkozy promised to do, not to ponder, and so was richly rewarded by voters. Meanwhile, the elephants risk taking their party down the path of the dinosaurs ..."

Why the French maid is about to clean up – and save her nation from economic ruin. Adam Sage, The Independent (en)
" ... Mrs Gomes Ricardo, 38, costs €25 a hour, but 50 per cent of that can be deducted from income tax under the government policy of promoting domestic services. She is paid about €12 an hour by her agnecy.
“Frankly, with people working longer and longer hours and more and more women working, I can only see this service growing,” she said.
Julien Moineau, the chief executive of Axeo, agreed. “The English understood a long time ago that we had to move to a service society. We’ve only just realised that in France and that’s why the Government is trying to accelerate the change.
“In the 19th century, the French were reputed for these sorts of services, but today we’ve got a lot to learn from the Anglo-Saxons.” ..."

Avant-garde – at last. Laura Henderson, The FT (en)
" ... Nowhere does nostalgia quite like Paris. The gothic buildings, the ornamental fountains, the gilded walkways across the river Seine – all are intricate reminders of a city inextricably linked with its past. But take a closer look at the French capital today ...
... “The capital is literally running out of space, particularly in the inner districts, [and] pressure has been mounting on the government for ages,” says Brendan Macfarlane of Paris-based architects Jakob & Macfarlane. “The one-size-fits-all approach – uniform buildings and tree-lined boulevards of the Haussmann era – has all but paralysed the urban grid, with limited scope for developers to design something visionary ...
... But others see the audacious new projects as linchpins of the capital’s future. “Key-note projects of this stature give Paris creative scope, a means of escape from the quixotic vision the rest of the world has of it,” says architectural consultant Nicolas Libert of estate agency Ateliers, Lofts et Associés. “For the first time utilitarian use of space is creeping in among the formalist beige and stone as a 21st-century solution to the city’s housing shortage. Add to this a new generation of investors demanding arty, designer real estate stock and it’s not too hard to predict where the metropolitan landscape is heading.” ..."

Germany’s president lashes out at bankers. James Wilson and Ralph Atkins , The FT (en)
" ... Investors had chased profits while the US Federal Reserve had kept money artificially cheap, Mr Kohler said in comments that seemed aimed at German and other European banks. “But too many of you ... ignored the multiple warnings and preferred to play along, rather than going against mistaken developments.”
Mr Kohler warned banks not to let down “our Mittelstand” – the country’s strong sector of mainly family-owned industrial companies. “They deserve trust. Even in the crisis. A panicked slashing of bank balance sheets does not help anyone. Bank supervisors should also be aware of that.” ...
... On Friday he called for bankers to return to simpler banking practices. “Do not only rely on computer models, and test what sort of investment banking really creates value,” ...
... he said the benefits of a European economic model, emphasising social equality, were proved and should be more widely adopted. “We in Germany do not need to reinvent the wheel,” said Mr Kohler. “The social market economy can now break through internationally. We have the chance of globalisation that is to everyone’s benefit.” ..."

Iceland thaws over clash with UK . David Ibison, The FT (en)
" ... Secret talks between the UK and Iceland governments may strengthen London’s case in the dispute over its use of anti-terror legislation to freeze Icelandic assets, according to the chairman of the board of governors of the central bank in Reykjavik.
“Not all conversations concerning this matter have been made public . . . When the matter is investigated, other conversations will have to be made public. I am aware of what they are about and I am aware of what in fact determined the position of the UK authorities,” said David Oddsson, former prime minister and one of Iceland’s most influential power brokers ..."

Newspapers : 20th November

First carbon auction raises £54 million. Louise Gray, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Under the European emissions trading scheme (EU ETS), energy intensive industries - that are responsible for half the region's emissions - are given an allowance for the amount of carbon dioxide they produce ...
... In order to claw back some of the money and to better control the price of carbon so that industry is forced to cut emissions, the UK Government has put seven per cent – or four million of these allowances – in an open auction. The hour-long auction sold the allowances to traders and companies at £13.60 each for £54 million ... "

Scottish Parliament must do the math before its next ID cards crisis. Alan Cochrane, The Telegraph (en)

Recovery cannot begin until house prices bottom out. Adrian Hamilton, The Independent (en)
" ... How can he get away with it? While David Cameron laboriously carries out a U-turn on taxes, the Prime Minister positively somersaults over every position he has ever held and yet seems to get only stronger in the opinion polls. He has abandoned all his golden rules, embraced unfunded tax cuts as the panacea for our recessionary woes and declared the whole thing a global problem in which we are but guiltless victims. Meanwhile, poor old Cameron has to do his manoeuvres in full public glare before an audience who never saw the point of his much-vaunted commitment to keeping Labour's spending plans in the first place, and are just as unmoved by his reversal of it now ...
... But Brown's greatest deception has been to claim this is all a world problem, not a British one – and worse, to keep claiming we are in a better position to manage it than anyone else. This is simply not true ...
... Just as in the US, but unlike most other countries, it will not really be until the fall in house prices reaches bottom that you can hope to start proper recovery ..."

Genetic code of woolly mammoth mapped-out . Mark Henderson, The Times (en)
" ... “By deciphering this genome we could, in theory, generate data that one day may help other researchers to bring the woolly mammoth back to life by inserting the uniquely mammoth DNA sequences into the genome of the modern-day elephant,” said Stephan Schuster ...
... The results have shown that the mammoth differs from the African elephant by as little as 0.6 per cent, making the two species more closely related than are humans and chimpanzees. The Indian elephant is an even closer cousin of the mammoth, but the precise comparison cannot yet be done as its genome remains unmapped ...
... The research also suggests that woolly mammoths had very little genetic diversity, which would have made them vulnerable to extinction.
Professor Schuster said: “We discovered that individual woolly mammoths were so genetically similar to one another that they may have been especially susceptible to being wiped out by a disease, by a change in the climate, or by humans.” ..."

Sarkozy’s Fiscal Meeting Raises Diplomatic Hackles. Mark Landler, The NYT (en)
" ... President Nicolas Sarkozy of France left the summit meeting on the financial crisis here last weekend in a triumphal mood, declaring that it had tamed the animal spirits of American capitalism. Then he went home and announced that he would hold his own summit meeting in a few weeks in Paris — on the same topic ...Presidents Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy last week at a meeting on the economic crisis. That has raised hackles in diplomatic circles, not just because the meeting appears to compete with a planned gathering of 20 world leaders next April. Mr. Sarkozy’s aggressive statements have put American officials on edge, with some saying that he seemed determined to turn the global crisis into a referendum on the ills of untrammeled capitalism ...
... The common ground between Europe and the United States is greater than these public statements suggest. The United States has shown a willingness to accept regulation of a wide variety of institutions and markets, including credit default swaps — a form of bond insurance — and possibly private equity firms and hedge funds, that are not now regulated.
“People may have been surprised by the U.S. willingness to cooperate on issues,” said David H. McCormick, under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.
Although the French favor a strong state role in the economy and are partial to regulatory agencies with cross-border authority, they did not propose such measures at the talks here. That was mainly because Britain and Germany had earlier resisted a supranational regulator ..."

France Dominates Europe’s Digital Library. Stephen Castle, The NYT (en)
" ... France has never been shy about promoting its culture, so few were surprised when it took a close interest in a new digital library intended to showcase Europe’s history, literature, arts and science ...
But when the new site, called Europeana, begins life on Thursday, more than half of its two million items will come from just one of the 27 countries in the European Union: France.
So comprehensive is France’s cultural dominance over this cyberspace outpost that other countries are having their own history written for them — in French, of course.
“I find the figures extraordinary,” said Viviane Reding, the European commissioner responsible for the project. “France has half the content — the collapse of the Berlin Wall is illustrated with a French TV documentary.” ...
... Europeana combines the digital resources of museums and libraries, and the information provided includes paintings, maps, videos and newspapers.
Material is free of copyright so it can be downloaded for blogs, research or schoolwork by anyone with an Internet connection ..."

USA : 19th November

California Port Overrun by Unsold Foreign Cars. Matt Richtell, The NYT (en)
" ... For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers and buyers, thousands of cars worth tens of millions of dollars are being warehoused on increasingly crowded port property ...
... But the inventory glut in Long Beach is not limited to imported cars. There has also been a sharp drop in demand for the port’s single largest export: recycled cardboard and paper products. This material typically goes to China, where it is used to make boxes for new electronics and other products that are sent back to the United States. But Chinese factories reacting to sharply falling demand are slowing production, so they need less cardboard. Tons of paper are piling up recycling businesses around the port, the detritus of economies on hold ...
... Roughly 20 percent of the nation’s container imports last year came through Long Beach, putting it close behind the largest container port, Los Angeles. This year, shipping volume at Long Beach is down 10 percent from 2007, and nearly all major ports around the country have seen similar declines ...

Newspapers : 19th November

Blair and Sarkozy to host summit. Henry Samuel and Robert Winnett, The Telegraph (en)
" ... The Jan 8-9 meeting, "New world: values, development and regulation", would include "international political leaders" as well as economists such as Nobel Prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, according to the Elysée Palace.
French officials say it is too soon to list which heads of state will attend. "It's a kind of brainstorming on the future of our societies in the light of the financial crisis involving academics, economists and politicians," said an Elysée source. "Tony Blair wishes to be in the preparation of this event." ..."

Silvio Berlusconi plays impromptu game of hide and seek with Angela Merkel. Nick Squires, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Mr Berlusconi, 72, ducked behind a lamp post and then jumped out with a cheery "boo" when she approached during a summit between the two countries in Trieste, in Italy's north-east. The Chancellor evidently found the surprise amusing because she spread her arms and gave Mr Berlusconi a hug, addressing him as "Silvio" ..."

Hamish McRae: Recessions serve a useful purpose.
" ... So there will be tax cuts here and elsewhere, and there will be further cuts in interest rates around the world too. There is no dispute about any of that. There is however a serious debate about the scale of what should be done. You can always puff up economies for a few months with such policies, but the more you artificially boost them in the short term, the greater the problems a few years down the line. You can buy growth now but have to pay for it later ...
... It sounds harsh to say it and I don't mean it to be so, but recessions, slowdowns, squeezes, however you describe them, do serve a purpose.
They force efficiency. They force our whole society to figure out simpler and more effective ways of doing things. Increasing efficiency is the only way our whole society – not just a few talented or cunning individuals – gets richer. Why is Germany the world's largest goods exporter? Because its companies have lived through the fire, first of a high deutschemark and then joining the euro at too high a rate. Again and again the pressure on them has forced them to lift their game ..."

Poles offered break on carbon emissions. Joshua Chaffin, The FT (en)
" ... The French proposal, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, is intended to address Poland’s concerns about the expansion of Europe’s emissions trading system, a central pillar of the EU’s ambitious plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 ...
... The French proposal, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, is intended to address Poland’s concerns about the expansion of Europe’s emissions trading system, a central pillar of the EU’s ambitious plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 ...

Labour shortage dims Denmark’s vision. The FT (en)
" ... The apartment complexes that have sprouted round Copenhagen over the past few years say a lot about Denmark. The designers have, as usual, combined practicality and beauty to produce some of the world’s most stunning homes. Unfortunately, many of them are empty and those that are occupied are often let out by developers because they have been unable to sell them ...
... In theory Denmark’s “flexicurity”, a combination of flexible labour market rules and a generous welfare system, should allow companies to hire and fire more easily than some of their international. But Denmark faces a skills shortage because of the combination of full employment, an ageing population, tight restrictions on immigration and a tendency for the unemployed to prefer living on benefit rather than move or retrain to find work ..."

Bulgaria brushes aside warning signs. Kerin Hope and Theodor Troev, The FT (en)

Iceland braced for big bond sell-off. David Ibison, The FT (en)
" ...Iceland is braced for the second wave of a financial crisis that has already destroyed its banks, as foreign owners of billions of dollars of Icelandic bonds dump them as soon as the country refloats its currency ...
... The central bank is prepared to intervene in the currency market to offset the impact of the overseas selling by using its existing reserves of IKr409bn and $5bn in loans from the IMF and other governments ... “Using the foreign currency loans to stabilise the currency would mean subsidising the carry traders’ exit at the expense of future taxpayers who will have to pay back the loan,” said Jon Danielsson, reader in finance at the London School of Economics ..."

Newspapers : 18th November

French 'Barack Obama' still a dream. Henry Samuel, The Telegraph (en)
" ... If anything, age was an even bigger handicap than colour in France, said Miss Yade. "Obama's speechwriter is 25 years old: but in France at 30 you're not credible. The 68' generation are monopolising power. It's a shame, because a country that deprives itself of energy and youth is threatened with dying out." ..."

The euro is too dear . The Telegraph (en)
" ... It is doubtful that the euro can retain its value against the pound, even if the Bank of England continues to ease monetary policy here (something it would not be in a position to do had Britain joined the euro). The pound has come under pressure because the markets are not altogether happy with the fundamentals of the British economy, notably the public finances.
Yet it also offers the way out for the economy, which will push the pound up again.
In the current parlous circumstances, the value of the euro is too high, causing alarm among EU policy-makers. Further interest rate cuts by the ECB cannot be far away ..."

Editorial Comment: Bye-bye exports. The FT (en)
" ... But avoiding the sort of profligate spending of the US and UK has not saved Japan, Germany and China from credit bust fallout. Finding buyers for their exports is proving hard in a global economic downturn. To strengthen their economies, policymakers have to encourage their people to go shopping ...
...The German government has more room to manoeuvre, with a projected budget surplus for this year. It has to seize the opportunity and cut taxes so that consumers, after years of stagnating wages and rising taxes, have more left to spend. The European Central Bank should also cut interest rates further. This would offer additional short-term relief, but would not help wean the economy off exports ..."

Russia to raise import duties. Alan Beattie, The FT (en)
" ... Dmitry Pankin, deputy finance minister, said Moscow would increase tariffs on imported cars, a move that had already been planned to protect Russian car producers. Russia has also announced a general review of trade agreements, including commitments made as part of its application to join the World Trade Organisation. The review may result in duties being increased and import quotas for sensitive products being cut ...
... The European Commission said the news was not particularly troubling, as the duties would cover only a small part of trade ...
... Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, a free-trade Brussels think-tank, said: “I am not surprised at all. I don’t think the G20 was a meaningful exercise in trying to tie down its governments’ trade policies.”..."

Credit bottlenecks threaten businesses. Richard Milne , The FT (en)
" ... Banks withdrawing finance from small companies is the biggest problem facing the European economy, according to a group of 47 of the continent’s largest industrial groups ...
... “That is perhaps the single most important issue: the availability of credit to SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises]. It is a very severe situation,” he said. “It needs a lot of discussion with the banks. There are a lot of bottlenecks.”...

Queen Sofia Unamused by a Book Quoting Her . Victoria Burnett, The NYT (en)
In a statement read to the press late last month, a spokesman for the royal family said the queen “deeply regrets that the inaccuracy of the comments attributed to her may have caused discomfort or offense.”
The statement said the queen had been quoted “inexactly” and suggested that Ms. Urbano had published comments intended to be private.
Ms. Urbano denied this and said galleys of the book had been reviewed by the queen’s office, which had approved them for publication.
Journalists who closely follow the royal family said that the king was incensed by the book and that those responsible for giving it the green light may yet be fired.

Les pays pauvres éternelles victimes de la crise. Jean Merckaert, Le Monde (fr)

" ... Depuis trente ans, les pays pauvres subissent de plein fouet les conséquences d'une course au profit effrénée qui a fait perdre la tête à la finance mondiale. A l'heure de refonder le système financier international, ils ne sont même pas conviés à la table des négociations.
La chronique du drame est éclairante. Acte I, l'endettement. Dans les années 1970, à la recherche de débouchés pour leurs liquidités, les banquiers occidentaux endettent massivement les pays du Sud à des taux (flottants) défiant toute concurrence. Les Etats leur emboîtent le pas, en faisant crédit à des dictatures féroces comme aux Philippines, au Congo (ex-Zaïre) ou en Argentine, en échange de leur allégeance au bloc de l'Ouest. Acte II, crise de la dette. En cause, au-delà des motifs géopolitiques : la remontée en flèche des taux d'intérêt, suite à une décision du Trésor américain, et la dégringolade des revenus d'exportation avec la chute des prix agricoles. Acte III, l'ajustement structurel. A partir des années 1980, les grands argentiers du G7 exigent des pays pauvres qu'ils sacrifient les dépenses de santé, d'éducation ou d'emploi pour rembourser la dette ..."

La concurrence déloyale est à nouveau la règle. Annie Kahn, Le Monde (fr)

" ... tous ces plans ont été décidés dans l'urgence, mais "ces mesures sont-elles provisoires et seront-elles supprimées ensuite ? Ou sont-elles faites pour durer ?", s'inquiète M. Cohen.
A Bercy, on se semble loin de se poser la question. "La Commission a donné son aval aux plans nationaux, car ils sont compatibles et homogènes, veut-on croire dans l'entourage du secrétaire d'Etat à l'industrie. Et la disparition d'une entreprise réduit la concurrence. Donc le droit prévoit qu'un Etat peut aider une firme dans ce cadre."
"La Commission n'osera pas s'opposer aux actions des Etats membres", note M. Seabright. Et "l'Organisation mondiale du commerce préférera empêcher le protectionnisme et l'instauration de barrières tarifaires. Elle va fermer les yeux sur le droit de la concurrence", ajoute-t-il. Les contribuables et consommateurs en seront pour leurs frais ..."

Newspapers : 17th November

Silvio Berlusconi denies reports of ill health. The Telegraph (en)
" ... Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 72, denied reports that he had taken ill on a flight back from Washington and insisted that he had the health of a 20-year-old man ..."

German troops in Afghanistan drunk more than 1.8m pints last year. The Telegraph (en)
" ... Almost 70,000 litres of wine and seat, a German sparkling wine, was also shipped to the soldiers, the defence ministry figures showed. The figures imply that the 3,600 German troops in Afghanistan as part of Nato's ISA operation are each drinking around 490 pints or beer as well as 128 normal measures of wine ..."

What makes a Londoner a Londoner? Leo Hollis, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Dr Johnson was a Londoner amongst Londoners - which is to say that like most Londoners he was born outside the city. He is famous for his judgment that 'when a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford' ..."

Suspected ETA military chief arrested in France. The Independent (en)
" ... The suspected military leader of Basque separatist rebel group ETA has been arrested in south western France, the French interior ministry said today, the biggest blow to the organisation in months. Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by his alias "Txeroki" or "Cherokee", was arrested in France's mountainous Pyrenean region, near the Spanish border, said the interior ministry statement, which misspelled his surname as Asiazu ..."

Poles savour British flavours. Martin Hickman, The Independent (en)
" ... Polish nationals working in Britain in the past few years have picked up more than their wages – with many developing a taste for British brands of food and drink. Poles and other eastern Europeans returning home have increasingly been ordering premium British products such as dark chocolate, tins of shortbread, specialist teas, and even bottles of honey-infused bitter. Sales of British chocolate in Poland, for example, increased 185 per cent in the first six months of the year ... "

The summit which marks the changing of the old order. Leading article, The Independent (en)
" ... Nothing emerged from the G20 meeting in Washington at the weekend that gives the financial markets great cause for bullishness today. There were no promises of co-ordinated interest rate reductions, or global tax cuts. There was support from the leaders present for "fiscal measures to stimulate domestic demand", which is likely to give Gordon Brown the cover he needs to cut taxes in a week's time, but nothing more definite. There were also some warm words on reinvigorating global trade talks, but nothing earth-shattering ...
... One of the most significant consequences of the credit meltdown since last year is that the old "West" has shed a considerable degree of economic authority. Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle and Far East have taken a sizeable share of some of the top banks in Britain and America. Those same players have been asked to fill the coffers of the International Monetary Fund to bail out emerging economies stricken by sudden capital withdrawals. The communiqué made clear that this new economic reality will be reflected in the governing arrangements of the IMF and the World Bank ..."

Andreas Whittam Smith: Putin's energy threat should be risible. Andreas Whittam Smith, The Indepedent (en)
" ... though, to compare the natural gas market with the oil market. Why does the former give rise to political considerations whereas the latter does not? Think of the world's large oil suppliers, from Venezuela to the countries of the Middle East to Indonesia. Not one of them issues threats based on denying supply. Russia is also a significant exporter of oil to western Europe, but it never uses that as an instrument of its foreign policy. Yet it does so with gas ...
... This international oil market is now 140 years old, but natural gas only got going in the 1970s. In western Europe, trading began in a monolithic way appropriate to the period. State owned, monopoly gas undertakings in France, Germany and Italy, signed separate supply agreements with the Soviet Ministry of Gas. They secured large volumes for 20 to 30 years ahead under rigid contracts designed to support massive investment in infrastructure, especially the 5,000km pipelines from west Siberia to Europe. These contracts were government-to-government agreements, whatever the names on the documents ..."

Spy in Nato sparks alarm over secrets . Roger Boyes, The Times (en)
" ... A spy at the heart of Nato may have passed secrets on the US missile shield and cyber-defence to Russian Intelligence, it has emerged. Herman Simm, 61, an Estonian defence ministry official who was arrested in September, was responsible for handling all of his country's classified information at Nato, giving him access to every top-secret graded document from other alliance countries ...
... The longer they work on the case, the more obvious it becomes how big the impact of the suspected treachery really is,” according to Der Spiegel magazine. A German official described the Russian penetration of Nato as a "catastrophe" ... "

UN spends aid money on £12m office ceiling . John Follain , The Times (en)
" ... £12m decorative ceiling for a United Nations building in Geneva has come under fire after it was disclosed that it was partly paid for by Spain’s overseas aid budget. The decision to hire Miquel Barcelo, 51, one of the world’s most highly paid abstract artists, to redesign a 14,000 sq ft dome has prompted furious protests from campaigners who believe it is an extravagant misuse of development funds ...
... The work, at the headquarters of the UN Human Rights Council, will be unveiled this week by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain and Jose Luis Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister ..."

Sarkozy calls for rethink over US defence system. David Charter, The Times (en)
" ... Mr Sarkozy, speaking at a joint press conference with Mr Medvedev, said: “I have suggested that in mid2009 we could meet within a framework to lay the foundations of what could possibly be a future pan-European security system. This would bring together the Russians, the Americans and the Europeans ..."

Identity : 12th November

Sarkozy: emotion not commemoration. Henri Samuel, The Telegraph (en)
... In Douaumont, the French choir sung the European anthem - Beethoven's Ode to Joy – but there was no hand-holding: Germany was represented by the president of the German senate, not by chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr Sarkozy's "decentralisation" of the commemoration from neutral Paris to the killing fields of Verdun was apparently not to her liking. The Franco-German motor is in serious need of anti-freeze ...
... "The time has come to honour all the dead, without exception," Mr Sarkozy went on. This phrase did not go unnoticed in France, as it signalled Sarkozy's wish to rehabilitate the 675 Frenchmen shot for deserting or cowardice even though many were too exhausted, injured or traumatised to advance ...
... He has always been fervent about revisiting the past to boost a sense of national purpose. But as so often with this president, his way of doing things irks many French. "Choosing Douaumont over the Arc de triomphe is siding with the victims rather than the victors," historian Antoine Prost told Le Monde. Mr Prost and others accuse the president of inappropriately trying to extract "emotion" from war rather than plain commemoration ..."

Newspapers 12th November

EU to allow 'wonky' fruit. Bruno Waterfield , The Telegraph (en)
" ... The European Commission will on Wednesday tear up bureaucratic "marketing standards" that set precise measurements for the appearance, weight and size of 26 types of fruit and vegetables – including the Brussels sprout ...
... An estimated 20 per cent of the British harvest is thrown away to comply with the EU regulations, rules which have been calculated to add as much as 40 per cent to the price of some vegetables, such as carrots.
"Nature does not always comply with a perfectly rounded apple and poker straight carrot. People should be given the chance to buy odd shaped fruit and veg as they taste just as good," said NFU Horticulture board chairman Richard Hirst ...
... The rule changes will be implemented from July 1 next year ..."

Why did the West ignore the truth about the war in Georgia? Mary Dejevsky, The Independent (en)
" ... The journalists travelled to the region separately and by different routes. They spoke to different people. But their findings are consistent: Georgia launched an indiscriminate military assault on South Ossetia's main town, Tskhinvali. The hospital was among the buildings attacked; doctors were injured even as they operated.
The timing of the Georgian attack, as of the arrival of the first Russian reinforcements two days later, coincides for the most part with the original Russian version. It was only then that the Russians crossed into Georgia proper in the invasion of sovereign territory that has been universally decried. For the record, it should be added that Russia has now withdrawn from uncontested Georgian territory, in accordance with the agreement mediated by President Sarkozy ...
... What has now transpired, however, is that the US and Britain had no excuse for not knowing how the war began. They were briefed by the OSCE monitors at a very early stage, and those monitors included two highly experienced former British Army officers ..."

Moscow signals depreciation of rouble. Charles Clover, The FT (en)
" ... Russia’s central bank signalled on Tuesday it was prepared to allow a sharp depreciation of the rouble as it lowered the floor at which it would defend the struggling currency, while capital outflows from the country took their toll on foreign exchange reserves ...
... A large depreciation could expose the government to serious political consequences ... But holding the rouble stable may ultimately be futile as the price of oil, Russia’s main export, falls and international credit markets dry up, analysts said ..."

Danes ‘bearing the cost’ of being outside euro. Robert Anderson, The FT (en)
" ... Denmark is paying the price for not adopting the euro, Nils Bernstein, governor of the country’s central bank, said on Tuesday, even though last month’s rise in interest rates has been successful in stopping pressure on the krone. “It is first and foremost a political question whether to join [the euro],” the Nationalbank chief said in an interview, “but as we now see there is an economic cost to being outside the eurozone.”

French agency to make debut in bail-out funding. Anousha Sakoui , The FT (en)
" ... A new French agency will make its debut in the international bond markets this week to raise bail-out funding for the country’s banks, marking the latest entrant to a growing investment class.
Banks running the bond sale for the Société de Financement de l’Economie Française (SFEF) are hoping to sell between €3bn and €5bn in three-year bonds this week.
The bonds are of the kind with which investors in Europe and beyond are going to become increasingly familiar – government sponsored debt issued either directly by or on behalf of the battered banking industry ...
... SFEF will provide up to €265bn in new loans to France’s banks, to ease lending conditions. The SFEF will use an explicit state guarantee to raise debt of up to five years maturity on the markets and pass it on to banks at a commercial rate plus a 20-basis-point fee for the government backing ..."

After U.S. Breakthrough, Europe Looks in Mirror. Steven Eslanger, The NYT (en)
" ... Mr. Obama is the only black in the current Senate, and unless he is replaced by an African-American, the new Senate will have none. The new House has 39 black representatives, about 9 percent. Blacks make up about 13 percent of the country’s population.
But Rama Yade, the Senegal-born state secretary for human rights, called herself “a painful exception” in the French government, despite President Nicolas Sarkozy’s appointment of three prominent black or Muslim women to his government. As for the political elite’s embrace of Mr. Obama, she said, “The enthusiasm they express toward this far-away American, they don’t have it for the minorities in France.”
It is not only immigrants who are pondering what Mr. Obama’s victory says about Europe. France’s defense minister, Hervé Morin, called the Obama victory “a lesson” for a French democracy late to adopt integration ...
... But the conservative Le Figaro blamed French minorities themselves for part of their exclusion. The paper noted that Mr. Obama’s success was based on his upbringing, education and success at integrating into the larger society and articulating its values, including patriotism.
“From this point of view, Obama should be the model to follow for young immigrants who have come to doubt their feeling of belonging to the nation,” the paper said. “Minorities, who have chosen their exile, in contrast to black Americans, still have a lot to prove.” ..."

Newspapers : 11th November

Merkel snubs WWI ceremony. Peter Allen, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Mrs Merkel is said to be furious with the choice of Tuesday's venue by Mr Sarkozy, with Verdun the site of arguably the most controversial battles in military history, with the Germans in particular portrayed as acting like industrialised killers ...
... But rather than being held in Paris - as is traditional - the 90th anniversary events have been switched by President Nicolas Sarkozy to Fort Douaumont, on the Verdun battlefield in the north east of the country. Arthur Titherington, a British veteran who was a prisoner of war during the 1939-45 conflict, said: "I would certainly have expected Prince Charles to be at a British battlefield on November 11th." ...
... Despite a number of recent meetings, there have been numerous reports of frosty relations between Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy, with her even complaining about his Gallic kisses and hugs ...

Fischer urges Merkel to be ‘more decisive’. Bertrand Benoit, The FT (en)
" ... In an interview, Mr Fischer told the FT the government of Angela Merkel, chancellor, had played too passive a role in the debate over Europe’s response to the financial storm and was underestimating the severity of the coming economic crisis, “the like of which none of us has seen in our lifetimes” ...
... “Both Nicolas Sarkozy [the French president] and Gordon Brown [British prime minister] have made more decisive contributions,” said Mr Fischer. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the French proposals are the right ones. We don’t need a new protectionism, but only to say ‘no’ is not enough (...) Through its crisis management, Germany has given the impression that Europe’s largest economy is now acting purely nationally. This is a big concern because the economic crisis will put the European project, including the euro, at risk.” ...

European nations join forces on defence jets. Sylvia Pfeifer and Peggy Hollinger, The FT (en)
" ... the European Defence Agency said the European Air Transport Fleet initiative, which should be operational in the next decade, would pool aircraft such as the A400m being built by EADS, the European defence group, and Lockheed Martin’s Hercules C-130 transporters ...

European Union to Resume Russian Partnership Talks. Stephen Castle, The NYT (en)
" ... Monday’s decision to resume talks was a clear acknowledgment of how much Europe and Russia need each other economically, especially as the global financial crisis reorders priorities, foreign ministers and analysts said. Among the issues expected to be discussed when talks resume are energy, trade, and cooperation on security and combating terrorism.
Russia supplies a considerable portion of Europe’s energy needs, and many Europeans fear that makes them vulnerable to Kremlin pressure. Russia, meanwhile, needs the earnings from energy exports ...
... Britain and Poland, which initially took a tough line on relations with Russia, also supported new talks. The Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said the move put Poland in the “mainstream of the E.U.”
Nicu Popescu, a research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said it was “clear that the financial crisis is more important for everyone — the E.U. and Russia — than the crisis in Georgia.” Alexander Stubb, Finland’s foreign minister, agreed. “Realpolitik has influenced this,” he said. “It is in Europe’s interests to restart talks.” ..."

La revanche de "Super-Trichet". Frédéric Lemaître, Le Monde (fr)
" ... N'en déplaise au président français, qui se verrait bien jouer les prolongations, l'homme qui incarne l'euro à l'étranger, c'est le président de la BCE. "C'est ma signature qui figure sur les billets", aime-t-il rappeler. Il y a trois ans, un Silvio Berlusconi pouvait encore critiquer la monnaie unique et évoquer le retour de la lire italienne. Aujourd'hui, les pays périphériques de la zone euro, comme la Hongrie, le Danemark ou l'Islande, n'ont qu'un rêve : se mettre à l'abri des dévaluations en intégrant le giron de la monnaie européenne ...
... Le président de la BCE a deux types d'interlocuteurs privilégiés : les autres banquiers centraux et les dirigeants de la zone euro. Impossible d'analyser sa stratégie sans étudier leurs jeux de rôle respectifs ...
... M. Trichet tient son pouvoir, moins de son indépendance formelle que de son soutien dans l'opinion. "La confiance en la monnaie est la source véritable du pouvoir des banques centrales. C'est sur elle que les banques centrales prennent appui pour contraindre le pouvoir politique, et non sur leur indépendance statutaire", résume André Orléan (CNRS) dans l'ouvrage collectif ..."

La langue de la liberté. Editorial, Le Monde (fr)
" ... Comment résister à la tentation de parodier le discours de Barack Obama, le soir de son élection, il y a une semaine, à la présidence des Etats-Unis ? Si quelqu'un pense encore que la France est rétive à la diversité, si quelqu'un doute de la capacité de ce pays à assumer son métissage, si qui que ce soit s'interroge sur le rayonnement de la francophonie, l'élection de l'Afghan Atiq Rahimi par le jury du prix Goncourt et celle du Guinéen Tierno Monénembo par le jury du prix Renaudot viennent d'apporter une réponse éloquente ..."

Newspapers : 10th November

Silvio Berlusconi's top 10 gaffes. Nick Squires , The Telegraph (en)
" ... On business: "Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries – superb girls." ... On plans to base an EU food standards agency in Finland instead of Parma: "Parma is synonymous with good cuisine. The Finns don't even know what prosciutto is." ... On his career: "I don't need to go into office for the power. I have houses all over the world, stupendous boats, beautiful aeroplanes, a beautiful wife, a beautiful family. I am making a sacrifice." ..."

Carla Bruni angry at Berlusconi's 'suntanned' Obama jibe. Peter Allen, The Telegraph (en)
"My husband is not Obama. But the French voted for the son of a Hungarian immigrant, whose father had an accent, whose mother was of Jewish origin, and his stance has always been to say that he's French although he comes from somewhere else.
"He doesn't look like the traditional French elite but that didn't stop him. And, personally, I don't correspond to the profile of a first lady! I'm an artist, born Italian ..."

Ségolène Royal in shock political comeback. Henry Samuel, The Telegraph (en)
" ... Miss Royal was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy in presidential polls last year and faded from the frontline of politics in France. But at a meeting of her Socialist party on Thursday night, her "motion" - a list of priorities for the Socialist party and seen as a gauge of her popularity - won the greatest support of a shortlist of six candidates to lead the Left in a poll of party members ..."

Tests for priests to screen out homosexuals. Andy McSmith, The Independent (en)
" ... After being hit by a series of sex scandals, the Vatican has given the seal of approval to the psychological screening to test for evidence of personality disorders or serious doubts about aptitude for the priesthood.
Controversially, the head of the Vatican committee that made the recommendations has made it clear they should be used to screen out homosexuals, even if they are celibate, because homosexuality is "a type of deviation" that disqualifies a priest from exercising "spiritual paternity" ...
... "The candidate does not necessarily have to practise homosexuality. He can even be without sin," the Cardinal said. "But if he has this deep-seated tendency, he cannot be admitted to priestly ministry precisely because of the nature of the priesthood, in which a spiritual paternity is carried out. Here we are not talking about whether he commits sins, but whether this deeply rooted tendency remains." ..."

Georgia fired first shot, say UK monitors . Jon Swain, The Times (en)
" ... On the night war broke out, Grist was the senior OSCE official in Georgia. He was in charge of unarmed monitors who became trapped by the fighting. Based on their observations, Grist briefed European Union diplomats in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, with his assessment of the conflict. Grist, who resigned from the OSCE shortly afterwards, has told The New York Times it was Georgia that launched the first military strikes against Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. “It was clear to me that the [Georgian] attack was completely indiscriminate and disproportionate to any, if indeed there had been any, provocation,” he said. “The attack was clearly, in my mind, an indiscriminate attack on the town, as a town.” ...

Newpapers : Views From Europe on Obama's Victory 5th November

America speaks; now for the real test. The Telegraph (en)
" ... For several weeks now, opinion pollsters have predicted this outcome; but it is no less extraordinary for all that. The lengthy queues of voters - the biggest turnout in an American election in 100 years - were testament to the galvanising effect of an exceptional campaign. By any standards, Mr Obama's victory is a historic moment for America. Within his 47-year lifetime, people of his skin colour were not allowed in bars or on buses in some states. To elect him head of state marks a rite of passage for his country, though it will truly come of age when the colour of the candidate no longer matters, only what he believes ..."

Obama culmina el sueño de cambio. El Pais (es)
" ... Obama has done it. Amid global expectation, Americans have accepted the challenge of change proposed by the Democratic candidate for the White House to give a clear victory in elections held this historic Tuesday, November 4, making him the first black president in the history of the country. There was little his Republican rival, John McCain, could do faced with the enthusiasm generated by the message of hope launched by the Democratic candidate during his campaign, one of the brightest in living memory ..."

EU hopes for more Europe-friendly US under Obama. Bruno Waterfield, The Telegraph (en)
" ... José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, said he hoped the Democrat President-elect would herald a new world order of international cooperation between the EU and US.
"This is a time for a renewed commitment between Europe and the United States of America," he said. "We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world." ..."

The upstart with a dream. Leonard Dole, The Independent (en)
" ... A little more than a year ago, he recalled, he was far behind in the polls, unable even to secure the endorsement of many black politicians who figured he could never beat Hillary Clinton. Many in the US political and media establishment had also concluded that his campaign was a flash in the pan. He was all but written off as a talented but fundamentally inexperienced upstart ...
... But the story of Barack Obama is one of being constantly underestimated by his opponents. From his earliest days as a community organiser on the south side of Chicago he revealed a talent for motivating people who thought they were powerless. As a young politician, hungry with thwarted ambition, his intellect, self-confidence, astonishing networking skills and a capacity to charm people into supporting him, turned him from a lowly Illinois state senator into a political superstar ...
... His election remains nevertheless a story of extraordinary talent and self-discipline, along with some fortunate timing. With a first name that rhymes with Iraq, a middle name of the former dictator of that country and a surname that even American television anchors confuse with Osama Bin Laden, the 47-year-old Chicago politician was always going to be a hard sell with America's so-called "low information" voters ...
... While she was flying an expensive "Hillacopter" around the state, Senator Obama and his team logged tens of thousands of miles persuading rural white Iowans to back him. Through word of mouth and the efforts of his devoted followers, he won a state that is 95 per cent white ...
... Condescending remarks he made about working class white voters "clinging to guns and religion" were a gift to his opponents, and even though he secured the Democratic nomination, he was polling 20 and 30 percentage points behind John McCain in must-win states like Ohio ...
... he said, "It shows you what one voice can do. One voice can change a room, and if a voice can change a room it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it can change a state it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world." ..."

Veterans fall by wayside as Republicans suffer huge US election losses. Tim Reid and Jenny Booth, The Times (en)
" ... An unpopular war in Iraq, a stricken economy — and various sexual and corruption scandals within Republican ranks — have dealt them the harshest of verdicts from voters across the country. Republicans in once reliably Republican suburban districts suffered particularly badly.
One of the Republican winners of the night — away from Capitol Hill — is perhaps Sarah Palin, the running-mate of John McCain. Despite her controversial role in the campaign and fears that she was viewed as a drag on the Republican ticket among independents, she has emerged as a popular figure among the culturally conservative base of the party. Many believe that she harbours plans to run for president in 2012 ..."

Analysis: Barack Obama's victory is head-spinning stuff. Gerard Baker, The Times (en)
" ... The American people yesterday demonstrated once again their unique capacity for self-renewal by electing the first black man as head of state, not much more than a generation after the country’s African-Americans were accorded full civil rights ...
... The country regarded loftily by many Europeans as hopelessly racist and irredeemably right wing has voted to be ruled by a black man, at the head of a party committed to economic redistribution and a foreign policy rooted in peaceful diplomatic engagement ...
... The country faces challenges on a scale no incoming president has had to tackle since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. The economy is in a recession likely to be as deep as the deepest in the last 50 years ..."